Top Electronic Albums of 2020

Shoutout to electronic music for keeping us moving and grooving through the year. As the music industry continues to trend toward genre fusions, several of our top electronic albums found success in incorporating a variety of new influences into their sound.

All this exciting new music brings the thought - “imagine how great this would have been on tour!” While we’re bummed about the concert hiatus, we’re hopeful that this off-year will be an energizer for more great music in 2021 and a new era of some of the most intricate, well-thought out live shows we’ve ever seen.

We teamed up with our good friend Vinay Swamy to help us compile a list of our top electronic albums of 2020. Vinay has been one of our most trusted ears in the electronic scene and we’re always eager to hear his recommendations and reviews.

(Vinay at Lightning in a Bottle 2018 minutes before our giant mingo popped on the car door 🤧)

So thanks for tuning in and let’s get into it!

Honorable Mention: OTHERLiiNE - OTHERLiiNE

Honorable Mention: Unreality - Daktyl

Honorable Mention: BRONSON - BRONSON

Honorable Mention: The Grand Mirage - Robotaki

Honorable Mention: Juvenile - CRi

Special Inclusion: BUBBA - Kaytranada

Although released at the end of 2019 we wanted to include Kaytranada’s most recent masterpiece after leaving it off last year’s list. Wether looking at 2019 or 2020 we feel this compilation of perfectly flowing jams deserves to be at the top of either list.

10. First Contact - Lastlings

A great project of downtempo house focusing on minimalist production to let their feelings breathe. Each song succeeds in bringing you into their world of deep thought for a series of thought provoking moments.

9. Energy - Disclosure

Disclosure continues their run of putting out consistently fun dance music. Dance is in the rhythm, and their mastery of drums and worldly awareness gives them the ingredients to successfully keep us moving for years to come.

8. Golden Ticket - Brasstracks

From the jump Brasstracks unapologetically sets the precedent for horns, horns, and more horns. With funky song after funky song they certainly justify their choice of mastery in one craft over jack of all trades.

7. Here for Now - Louis the Child

For their first official debut album Louis the Child have entered a new era with their electro-pop sound. They incorporate a solid list of features for this albums consistent output of fun jams.

6. Ugly is Beautiful - Oliver Tree

Oddball for some, renaissance man for others - Oliver Tree comes through with his highly anticipated album after a series of successful singles. Every song has tremendous energy and he proves his prolific music skills across several genre bending bangers. Multi-talented in and out of music.

5. ((( 2 ))) - ((( 0 )))

(((0))) has significantly upped her game for her second album. She adds a lot more variation to her production and time and time again finds a way to create soothing music over her amazing voice.

4. Oddyssey - Amtrac

Amtrac provides some of the deepest grooves in the game, and if you let him he will take you into his world of focused rhythm. A true master of deep house, knowing exactly how to slow burn the feels into you over extended tracks.

3. We Will Always Love You - The Avalanches

Thankfully The Avalanches reduced the gap between releases from 16 years down to 4 - although the emotional intelligence of this release felt more like 20 years in the making. They keep it thoroughly interesting throughout with so many electronic sub-genres and excellent songwriting making this 1:15 album fly by.

2. Dreamland - Glass Animals

Glass Animals refine their psych-pop hit making into a thematic album with equal parts energy and nostalgia. They’re one of the latest to succeed in adding Hip-Hop and R&B influences to their sound.

1. Suddenly - Caribou

Dan Snaith’s long awaited album delivers as expected. Caribou maintains one of the freshest, unique, and ever-evolving approaches to electronic music. The creativity of influences is on full display.

Thank you for reading and we hope you found some new music because of it! Let us know your thoughts on our list and if there are any albums you think we should’ve included.