Before QRO lists our own top albums of the second-most awful year ever, we give our contributors a chance to cast their votes:
Jon Bauer
Ólafur Arnalds, Some Kind of Peace
Black Pumas, Black Pumas
CHVRCHES, Screen Violence
Danny Elfman, Big Mess
Parcels, Day/Night
Ry X, Live From The Royal Albert Hall
Sault, Nine
serpentwithfeet, DEACON
Son Lux, Tomorrows III
Sufjan Stevens & Angelo de Augustine, A Beginner’s Mind
The The, The Comeback Special
Amghy Chacon
1 The Weather Station, Ignorance
2 Molly Burch, Romantic Images
3 Goat Girl, On All Fours
4 Helado Negro, Far In
5 Rodrigo Amarante, Drama
Ted Chase
1 Dinosaur Jr, Sweep It Into Space
2 Lucy Dacus, Home Video
3 St. Vincent, Daddy’s Home
4 Sleater-Kinney, Path of Wellness
5 Julien Baker, Little Oblivions
6 Nick Cave & Warren Ellis, Carnage
7 Wolf Alice, Blue Weekend
8 Maxïmo Park, Nature Always Wins
9 Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Fragility
10 The Felice Brothers, From Dreams To Dust
11 Ghost of Vroom, Ghost of Vroom 1
12 We Were Promised Jetpacks, Enjoy the View
13 The Natvral, Tethers
14 Modest Mouse, The Golden Casket
15 Jade Bird, Different Kinds of Light
16 Big Red Machine, How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last?
17 The Vaccines, Back In Love City
18 Split Single, Amplificado
19 Texas, Hi
20 David Duchovny, Gestureland
Abel Cruz
Circuit des Yeux, -io
Divide and Dissolve, Gas Lit
Mogwai, As The Love Continues
Sarah Neufeld, Detritus
A Place To Bury Strangers, Hologram EP
Geoffrey Clowes
Gojira, Fortitude
Pink Siifu, GUMBO’!
Pom Pom Squad, Death of a Cheerleader
Remi Wolf, Juno
Porter Robinson, Nurture
serpentwithfeet, DEACON
Jazmine Sullivan, Heaux Tales
The War On Drugs, I Don’t Live Here Anymore
Faye Webster, I Know I’m Funny haha
Wiki, Half God
Marjorie Hallé
1 Clairo, Sling
2 Arlo Parks, Collapsed In Sunbeams
beabadoobee, Our Extended Play
The Bleachers, Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night
Gus Dapperton, Orca
Del Water Gap, Del Water Gap
Deb Never, When Have All the Flowers Gone?
Dijon, Absolutely
Finneas, Optimist
girl in red, If I Could Make It Go Quiet
Ivytide, Softy
Maggie Lindemann, Paranoia
Men I Trust, Untourable Album
Michelle, After Dinner We Talk Dreams
JP Saxe, Dangerous Levels of Introspection
Darren Hodgkinson
1 Ist Ist, The Art of Lying
2 Squid, Bright Green Fields
3 Shame, Drunk Tank Pink
4 Black Country New Road, For the First Time
5 The War On Drugs, I Don’t Live Here Anymore
Dana Miller
1 Inhaler, It Won’t Always Be Like This
2 IDLES, Crawler
3 SG Lewis, Times
4 Wolfmother, Rock Out
5 AHI, Prospect
6 Babehoven, Yellow Has a Pretty Good Reputation EP
7 Black Pistol Fire, Look Alive
8 Mogwai, As The Love Continues
9 Julia Stone, Sixty Summers
10 Deap Vally, Marriage
11 Blake Rose, A World Gone By EP
12 Skeggs, Rehearsal
13 Billy Gibbons, Hardware
14 Greta Van Fleet, The Battle At Garden’s Gate
15 London Grammar, Californian Soil
16 Manchester Orchestra, The Million Masks of God
17 Pete Yorn, The Rooftop EP
18 Wolf Alice, Blue Weekend
19 Sam Fender, Seventeen Going Under
20 Banoffee, Teartracks
Peter Noble
1 The Stranglers, Dark Matters
2 The Coral, Coral Island
3 Night Beats, Outlaw R&B
4 The The, The Comeback Special
5 Neighbourhood Brats, Confines of Life
6 Meta & The Cornerstones, Dia
7 Amyl & The Sniffers, Comfort to Me
8 Nick Cave & Warren Ellis, Carnage
9 Maxïmo Park, Nature Always Wins
10 Dry Cleaning, New Long Leg
11 The Courettes, Back in Mono
12 Marissa Nadler, The Path of the Clouds
13 The Specials, Protest Songs 1924 – 2012
14 Arab Strap, As Days Get Dark
15 Cold Water Swimmers, Holiday at the Secret Lake
16 Chubby & The Gang, The Mutt’s Nuts
17 Lost Horizons, In Quiet Moments
18 Mogwai, As The Love Continues
19 Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, SHYGA! The Sunlight Mound
20 Turnstile, Glow
Howard Shiau
1 Wolf Alice, Blue Weekend
2 Evanescence, The Bitter Truth
3 Finneas, Optimist
4 Duran Duran, Future Past
5 girl in red, If I Could Make It Go Quiet
6 The Pretty Reckless, Death by Rock and Roll
7 Japanese Breakfast, Jubilee
8 Billie Eilish, Happier Than Ever
9 Snail Mail, Valentine
10 Gojira, Fortitude
11 Haerts, Dream Nation
