EXPLORE the full Best Albums of 2020 index here

#3 | SAULT | Untitled (Black Is)
Forever Living Originals | Bandcamp

According to Patrick Corcoran: “A glance at the titles on SAULT’s Untitled (Black Is) reveals the narrative at play and the scope of its ambitions. Ambitions that are fully realized through a dazzling distillation of the constituent elements of soul and hip-hop music. From the mesmerizing, stripped-back call and response chanting of opener “Out The Lies,” through the spoken word, Malcolm invoking “X,” to the closing “Pray Up, Stay Up” that is steeped in gospel-soul stylings and an irrepressible positivity, it navigates from righteous ire, through love for God to a point somewhere unspecified in the future when Black people are freed from subjugation and equality is a living, breathing being to be cherished and nourished. The sequencing alone is genius….Just as D’Angelo’s Black Messiah (2014) landed at the perfect time, so this monumental piece of work arrives with a bible in one hand and balled fist in the other to demand equality and freedom for all at exactly the right moment.”

NEXT ALBUM >

LISTEN:

Jamiroquai’s ‘Travelling Without Moving’ Turns 30 | Album Anniversary

Three decades on and despite loads of unwarranted criticism, Jamiroquai’s terrific third studio album still sounds as fresh and invigorating as ever.

Bob Dylan’s ‘Modern Times’ Turns 20 | Album Anniversary

‘Modern Times’ mourns a musical idiom by giving it another good try, because if it’s in your bones, that’s how you grieve stuff anyway.

The Roots’ ‘Game Theory’ Turns 20 | Album Anniversary

The Roots’ seventh studio affair is the disquieted soundtrack to learning you’re in a game engineered for you to lose—a first-person shooter with your weapons removed.