In a year as crazy as 2020, with its never-ending string of depressing news, we turned to entertainment, new hobbies, and loved ones to escape the world at large and find our happy place. Typically around this time of year, I look back at my music listening habits to decide on my favorite album of the past year.
But with such an atypical year, I decided to pick two of my favorite albums of 2020 – Phoebe Bridgers’ Punisher and Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia. While vastly different in style and tone, both albums turned out to be the perfect response to a global pandemic and also held plenty of sentimental value to yours truly. Punisher and Future Nostalgia soothed and encouraged me at the start of the COVID lockdowns, got me through a season of major changes in my life, and accompanied me whether I was alone or briefly together with loved ones.
Punisher
Phoebe Bridgers’ Punisher is a somber indie rock masterpiece, only the second album from the talented 26-year-old LA native. Taking cues from many alt rock influences of yesteryear, Bridgers creates a dreamy soundscape that’s melancholic yet hopeful. While Punisher is very mellow, Bridgers dazzles with excellent songwriting and elaborate instrumentation. The lyrics capture her life, observations, and feelings with some black humor and wit thrown into the mix. Brass instruments readily mingle with guitar, keyboard, and strings. I’d describe the overall vibe as peacefully walking into the unknown. It feels like a warm blanket in the cold of winter, something familiar during uncertain times.
Punisher was just the consoling I needed during what I call the “summer of discontent,” when COVID case numbers saw a respite but wildfire smoke, eerily orange skies, and police brutality protests dominated the headlines. I remember listening to the lyrics from my favorite track “I Know The End” and really appreciating the lyrical imagery of what I pictured to be a road trip through America’s heartland. Imagine my surprise when I learned that Bridgers had written those lyrics based on her drives from LA to the Bay Area. Suddenly, all the landmarks and descriptions clicked, since I’d done that drive probably a hundred times. There were so many other lyrical examples throughout the album where I felt the same level of familiarity, even if I hadn’t experienced those specific events myself.
Future Nostalgia
If Punisher was the somber yet warmly mellow response to 2020, Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia is stylistically its opposite – a celebration of life despite overwhelming challenges. The 25-year-old Londoner has been on a tear this year, making the late night music rounds and scoring some big performances at the AMAs and on SNL. Future Nostalgia is exactly its name – a modern take on classic disco, funk, electropop, and dance tunes. One of the first things I noticed was the sheer variety of production styles. While it’s heavy on synths, there are upbeat disco numbers, slower ballads, and everything in between. Lipa’s voice is another standout feature, strong and low with a hint of huskiness. It perfectly complements all the tunes in Future Nostalgia and provides a familiar anchor for the listener.
I remember discovering Future Nostalgia at the start of the COVID lockdowns after coming across a late-night performance where Lipa and her band, backup singers, and dancers performed via video chat (shown above). Impressed by how tight the group sounded, I checked out the album shortly after. I was delighted by what I heard, and Future Nostalgia became my soundtrack during the move to my current apartment in the city. I’d blast the album during my motorcycle rides ferrying some of my smaller belongings from the old apartment to the new one, and the celebratory mood perfectly matched my own, after many weeks of searching and finally figuring out my pandemic living situation.
Music For The Times
So with that, Punisher and Future Nostalgia perfectly encapsulate the trials, heartbreak, and little victories I experienced in 2020. Whether I needed some warm consolation or just wanted to dance my worries away, both albums spoke to the times, and I couldn’t be happier to be stuck with two favorites.
As always, there were so many other great new albums this past year, despite the setbacks to the live music and recording industry. I wanted to list out some additional stellar 2020 albums, because these artists and their work also defined 2020 for me. In no particular order, they include the following:
- Fetch the Bolt Cutters – Fiona Apple
- Sixteen Oceans – Four Tet
- The New Abnormal – The Strokes
- color theory – Soccer Mommy
- Women In Music Pt. III – HAIM
- BRONSON – BRONSON
- ENERGY – Disclosure
- Forgotten Days – Pallbearer
- RTJ4 – Run The Jewels
