It wasn't until I took the time to think about it that I realized how much of the music I loved in 2020 was by artists who I already knew, most making calming sounds.

Let's start with the list itself. At the bottom of this post you can find streams of each album.

1. Olafur Arnalds, Some Kind of Peace
2. Adrianne Lenker, songs
3. Sylvan Esso, Free Love
4. Phoebe Bridgers, Punisher
5. Agnes Obel, Myopia
6. Bright Eyes, Down In The Weeds, Where The World Once Was
7. Gia Margaret, Mia Gargaret
8. Sault, Untitled (Black Is)
9. Roger Eno & Brian Eno, Mixing Colours
10. Nils Frahm, Empty

My listening habits changed drastically in 2020. Most years, I see about 500 bands live. Of those 500 bands at least 150 are usually artists that are new to me. I love feeling my body washed by volume. It's tragic what's happened this year. I miss live music and the feelings of joy, community and discovery that come with it.

In isolation, I did come to love my creative time at home. I made five albums this year — two of them, Hidden Smiles and Further Under Covers, were ambient albums; the three I made with my band Danger Painters, guitar and drum-based, were rock without the roll. They were all done sitting at my desk, no one in the room but me. And so I made more music than ever, and as a consequence listened to less music by others than in any year I can remember.

When I did listen to music, it was usually while cooking or reading or out for a walk. What I loved were records that felt like embraces, not howls. Ólafur Arnalds, the Icelandic composer, was most inspiring. Some Kind of Peace is centered around Ólafur's melodic piano, and it's packed with passion but has an aura of calm. His songs work for me as background music, but the intricate textures also make the perfect headphone album. (In fact, I used some of his music software, called Stratus, to make my music.) I feel similarly about Agnes Obel's Myopia,Roger & Brian Eno's Mixing Coloursand Nils Frahm's Empty.