For many people, music is the perfect form of escape, even at the best of times. But as the world faces up to the challenges of coronavirus — including staying indoors for the benefit of others — curating a playlist to help navigate isolation is becoming essential. Good albums can transport you to places you’d rather be, welcome you into worlds that offer respite, or make you lose yourself for a glorious hour. They can also soundtrack indoor gym sessions, bed-based love-ins, or act as morning motivation. And, perhaps most importantly, they can carve out a bit of space in the minds of those who are permanently glued to news feeds.
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To help you escape — if only for a little while — here are six albums from 2020 that you might have missed.
‘After Hours’ by The Weeknd
If you’re after more of a ‘wallowing in’, rather than an ‘escape from’, then you could venture into the mind of Canadian singer The Weeknd — real name Abel Tesfaye — for 50 minutes. On his fourth studio album After Hours, the 30-year-old prowls around a suite of songs that flits between pleas for forgiveness (“Alone Again”) and his more typical focus on drugs, sex and having a bit of a moan about drugs and sex (“Heartless”, “Escape From LA”). Musically, alongside Tesfaye’s usual desolate R&B, he draws on UK garage (“Too Late”), delirious ’80s pop (“Blinding Lights”, the sax-assisted “In Your Eyes”) and, on “Save Your Tears”, the sort of synth experimentation last heard in 1984 on The NeverEnding Story soundtrack.
‘Suga’ by Megan Thee Stallion
Summer 2019 belonged to 25-year-old Texan rapper, Megan Thee Stallion. Her single “Hot Girl Summer”, featuring Ty Dolla $ign and Nicki Minaj, was everywhere; she appeared on Time’s inaugural Time 100 Next list; and signed a management deal with Roc Nation. For 2020, there’s been minimal let-up, including collaborating with singer Normani, appearing on the cover of Rolling Stone and dropping the head-knocking mini-album, Suga. Featuring production from legends including Timbaland and The Neptunes, it might also be the best soundtrack for those keen to explore the benefits of being in bed (“Captain Hook”, for example). There are softer moments too, as the rapper reflects on the 2019 deaths of her mother and great-grandmother in the same month.
‘Cape God’ by Allie X
Canadian alt-pop singer-songwriter Allie X (34-year-old Alexandra Hughes) constructs the kind of musical worlds you can get stuck into for hours. On her second studio album Cape God, it’s a slightly strange place full of lost souls (“Sarah Come Home”, “June Gloom”) and, on the opening track “Fresh Laundry”, people just trying their best to fit in. The Goldfrapp-esque electropop “Super Duper Party People” and the strutting melancholia of “Life Of The Party” could be the perfect soundtrack to all our future self-distancing, FaceTime-only hangouts — weirdly decadent, but tinged with an unnerving sadness.
‘Colores’ by J Balvin
If you’re looking to bring a bit of sunshine into your home, you could do a lot worse than tuning into Colombian singer J Balvin's bass-rattling Colores, where each of the 10 tracks is named after a different shade from grey to rose pink. It’s the sixth solo album release from the 34-year-old, who was one of the most Shazamed artists of 2019 and the fifth most popular male artist on Spotify – with 54 million monthly followers. Its play-time is just under 30 minutes, making it the perfect soundtrack for workouts — Spandex optional but encouraged.
‘Miss Anthropocene’ by Grimes
Dive headlong into Grimes’s strange simulacrum of the ‘real’ world via her February release, Miss Anthropocene, an album that sees the Canadian 32-year-old anthropomorphise the living nightmare of climate change. Now you’ll possibly have time to probe its full meaning. Even stripped of meta layers, it's an intoxicating journey around the parameters of pop, from the throb of “Darkseid” and “Delete Forever” (about those lost to the opioid crisis) to the Bollywood-referencing, OTT cyberpunk of “4ÆM”.
‘Eternal Atake’ by Lil Uzi Vert
After years of teasing and inexplicable delays (the latter leading to the Philadelphia rapper announcing his retirement multiple times), Lil Uzi Vert’s head-spinning, second album Eternal Atake somehow manages to meet expectations. Split into three sections to reflect his three personas (Lil Uzi Vert, Baby Pluto and Renji), it's a showcase for the 25-year-old’s rapid-fire flow (especially on the all-caps “POP”) and the limitless possibilities of hip-hop itself.
Each of its 18 tracks — the perfect album length to zone out to — comes with some sort of attention-grabbing sonic frippery, from the cascading piano figure that haunts “Silly Watch” to the computer game effects that pepper “You Better Move”. If it leaves you thirsty for more, you’re in luck because a week after the album’s release in early March, he followed it up with a new version featuring 14 extra songs.
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