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The Allmusic 2020

Year In Review

Ambitious new records from the Strokes, the Rentals, Low Cut Connie, and Protomartyr earned spots on our list of the year's best rock albums, alongside standout comeback releases from Hum, X, and Ultimate Fakebook.

...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead

X: The Godless Void and Other Stories

The band mark their 25th anniversary with passionate, poignant reflections on life's inevitable changes and endings.

AC/DC

Power Up

AC/DC reconvened to pay tribute to their late founding member Malcolm Young, winding up with deeply felt good-time rock & roll.

Acceptance

Wild, Free

On their vulnerable third LP, the emotive rock quintet deliver a polished but devastating breakup album.

Black Stone Cherry

The Human Condition

Kentucky's Southern swamp metal brotherhood realize the fullness of their greasy, swaggering creative potential.

Bob Mould

Blue Hearts

A world in flames drives the punk/indie legend to create one of his toughest and most passionate works since his days in Hüsker Dü.

Bruce Springsteen

Letter to You

Recorded live in the studio with the E Street Band, this is a celebration of life and a meditation on mortality.

Creeper

Sex, Death & the Infinite Void

A master class in goth-punk camp directed by a clutch of vampires masquerading as musical theater majors.

Datura4

West Coast Highway Cosmic

With keyboardist Bob Patient fully integrated into the lineup, this crew serves up a wooly collection drenched in psych-blues rock.

Dawes

Good Luck with Whatever

The Los Angeles group balance existential dread and classic rock influences on their engagingly literate seventh album.

Deep Purple

Whoosh!

The iconic hard rockers team with Bob Ezrin for the third time and "...put the 'Deep' back in 'Deep Purple'."

Drive-By Truckers

The New Ok

A fierce and edgy eyewitness report of the zeitgeist of America in the year 2020 that's urgent and devastatingly relatable.

Elvis Costello

Hey Clockface

A restless, adventurous album where Elvis Costello puts a new spin on old tricks.

Fuzz

III

Pummeling, riff-heavy proto-metal spiked with biker rock and psych delivered with unvarnished power.

Grey Daze

Amends

Featuring original vocals by the late Chester Bennington, this compilation showcases the music of his post-grunge '90s band.

Hum

Inlet

The Illinois space rock outfit's first album since 1998's Downward Is Heavenward is a blisteringly hypnotic comeback.

James Dean Bradfield

Even in Exile

A passionate, cinematic song cycle inspired by the life of Chilean dissident Victor Jara.

Jason Isbell / Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit

Reunions

A brilliant album about the search for strength and direction that emerged in a most chaotic and uncertain time.

Joey Molland

Be True to Yourself

Collaborating with producer Mark Hudson, the Badfinger guitarist makes a warm, welcoming coda to his power pop career.

Low Cut Connie

Private Lives

Low Cut Connie expand their musical and emotional horizons without forgetting to rock.

METZ

Atlas Vending

Album four from this Canadian math rock assault team is intelligent and well detailed while still brutally hard.

Needtobreathe

Out of Body

A joyous burst of positivity and optimism from the South Carolina faith-influenced rock trio.

Pearl Jam

Gigaton

Pearl Jam grapple with climate change and the Trump era on this charged, adventurous album.

Pretenders

Hate for Sale

A vigorous back-to-basics move by the Pretenders.

Protomartyr

Ultimate Success Today

The Detroit post-punk heroes add flashes of free jazz and experimentalism to their formula and reach a new high in artful bad karma.

Sam Morrow

Gettin' by on Gettin' Down

On his fourth album, Sam Morrow creates a groovy, funky hybrid of ZZ Top and Little Feat.

Secret Machines

Awake in the Brain Chamber

The space rock band return with their deeply textured fourth album and first since the death of founding guitarist Ben Curtis.

Sports Team

Deep Down Happy

An attention-grabbing debut of hooky, exasperated indie rock from a U.K. band that blends classic punk and Brit-pop.

The Claudettes

High Times in the Dark

A vibrant, rollicking showcase for the group's "garage cabaret."

The Cribs

Night Network

The trio's first album after an extended legal battle is a set of joyous, cathartic guitar pop that makes peace with the complexities of the past.

The Dream Syndicate

The Universe Inside

Steve Wynn and friends take a long, strange trip on an album that's an unexpected (and successful) voyage into psychedelic sounds.

The Flaming Lips

American Head

Gorgeous melodies and songs drawn from childhood memories make this album equally magical and down to earth.

The Killers

Imploding the Mirage

Las Vegas' finest strike gold by finding the sweet spot between Sam's Town and Brandon Flowers' solo work.

The Nude Party

Midnight Manor

A filler-free second album of glam-, honky tonk-, and psych-rock-infused rock & roll from the one-time college-party band.

The Rentals

Q36

Science fiction-themed double album from this sporadic pop project is their most ambitious work and also some of their best.

The Strokes

The New Abnormal

Complicated, ambitious, and emotionally raw, the band's sixth album is a surprising and rewarding triumph.

The Struts

Strange Days

As per usual, the Struts pair huge commercial pop aspirations with the swagger of Faces, but this time around it sounds like it was their idea.

Ultimate Fakebook

The Preserving Machine

After a 15-year gap, the emo-pop trio return with a witty, zippy, and occasionally mature blast of amped-up rock & roll.

X

Alphabetland

The band's classic lineup makes their first studio LP in 35 years and miraculously lives up to the standards of their '80s masterpieces.

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Hum