A Listen Down Memory Lane: Underappreciated Albums Of The 2020s
The past five years have been chock-full of national historical events, economic stressors, and suffocating streams of content. For many, diving into new music is a form of solace. But with culturally dominant phenomena like Beyoncé’s Renaissance, Charli XCX’s BRAT Summer, and Geese’s Getting Killed Winter flooding our timelines, naturally, some releases may have slipped through the cracks. You know what they say: With each passing day comes so much good music that it’s hard to keep track. So, let’s retrace our steps!
2020: Who Are The Girls? by Nova Twins
After living through a global pandemic, it’s easy to say, “What happened in 2020 stays in 2020.” Unless you want to talk about new music at the turn of the decade. Then we have to talk about Nova Twins’ debut album. Nova Twins launched themselves to the forefront of the UK metal scene starting in 2016 with an EP, a string of singles, and an unmatched ferocity. The London-based duo, consisting of Amy Love (vocals and guitar) and Georgia South (vocals and bass), released their debut LP, Who Are The Girls?, in February 2020. The project is a lesson on how to tap into one’s feminine rage and stand firm in it. The Nova Twins emit a divine feminine energy that is infectious and inspiring. Tracks like “Taxi,” “Lose Your Head,” and “Bullet” are head-banging anthems of unapologetic confidence that every girl who loves rock music must hear.
Most recently, Nova Twins released their third album, Parasites and Butterflies, last August, and appeared on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series in November. Now, they’re gearing up to embark on a spring UK/EU tour starting in March.
2021: Bright Green Field by Squid
Bright Green Field is a post-punk experience like no other, brought to you by Squid. A five-person band based in Brighton, England, Squid are popularizing a subgenre of experimental rock called krautrock. The album contains long, grandiose tracks with story-like production that makes each song feel like a movie. The first listen of “Narrator” is best experienced through your preferred method of loud listening. The eight-minute song consists of lead vocalist Ollie Judge embodying an unreliable narrator who is losing his grip on reality. Featured artist Martha Skye Murphy takes on the role of a woman who wants to free herself from his warped perspective. Tensions, both auditory and lyrical, casually build up to an insane climax with an eruption of screams and sickening full-out drums by Judge. Throughout the project, this uneasy feeling is wrapped up in powerful, synergetic performances from Judge, Louis Borlase (guitar and vocals), Arthur Leadbetter (keyboard, strings, percussion), Laurie Nankivell (bass and brass), and Anton Pearson (guitar and vocals). If your New Year’s resolution is to step out of your musical comfort zone, go all in with Squid.
Since 2021, the band has appeared at music festivals like Green Man Festival in Wales, Leeds Festival, Glastonbury, and Primavera Sound and toured around the world. More recently, they released their third studio album, Cowards, last February.
2022: Raging Bull by Romeo + Juliet
No one knows about yearning more than Romeo + Juliet. No, not the star-crossed lovers, but the pseudonym for a New Jersey-based indie artist who is perhaps the byproduct of the Shakespeare characters’ blinding love. His debut album, Raging Bull, navigates the twists and turns and ups and downs of young love and budding life.
The project was entirely written and produced by R+J over the course of a decade. Standout hits like “Gem,” “NYC,” and “Hooptie” expel a shared desire for a particular love interest that alternates between funk, lo-fi indie, and R&B sounds. Ironically, for an album that encapsulates themes of believing in love and in oneself despite the heartache that comes with life, Raging Bull was originally intended to be his final project. Now, three years, one album, three EPs, and a recent string of singles later, his eager audience awaits another banger-filled album (hopefully) in the new year.
Romeo + Juliet could write Shakespeare’s tragedy, but Shakespeare could never write Raging Bull.
2023: Merry Go Round by Eamon Moore
If you’re anything like me, you cannot get enough of rising indie band Dogpark. But before the five-piece’s creation, many were introduced to the frontman, Eamon Moore, through his cover videos on TikTok. Aside from his widely adored rendition of Jeff Buckley’s “Lover, You Should Come Over,” Moore has a small solo catalog, including a 2023 EP titled Merry Go Round.
The project takes listeners through a short-lived summer fling in just four tracks. The opening song, “Merry Go Round,” details the complexities of starting a new relationship where Moore also feels his investment in his partner outweighs theirs. “Where You’ll Go” affirms that his feelings are only growing along with his nerves, speculating how she feels, as he sings, “My brain tells me to let it go / My heart tells me to see it through / Right now all I can see is you.” The third track, “Wrong Place/Wrong Time,” is the painful moment when his partner ends things, and Moore realizes that he built the relationship up to more than it was. “Gotten Ahead of Myself” brings closure to the relationship, Moore’s emotions, and the EP.
Merry Go Round is a perfect, bite-sized piece of indie-pop, a subgenre that Moore and Dogpark have been dominating over the past couple of years.
2024: Afraid of Tomorrows by The Mysterines
Afraid of Tomorrows shows that The Mysterines wear thick skin: an epidermis of intensity and stamina, with an underlying muscle of psychological torment ready to be flexed. The release acts as the British alt-rock band’s sophomore album, following their critically acclaimed debut LP, Reeling, from 2022.
Songs like “The Last Dance,” “Sink Ya Teeth,” and “Stray” are timeless, catchy pieces of rock music. Lead singer and songwriter, Lia Metcalfe, effortlessly captures the desperation of wanting to move on from the pain of the past, but feeling too stuck in the consequential numbness to hold onto hope. In “Hawkmoon,” Metcalfe sings, “I prayed for the pilots / To escape all this violence / Called forth the angels / Fell short of heaven’s cables,” prefacing the chorus’s painful question, “Am I the only one left alive?” Metcalfe’s vocals draw out the end of a line in a captivating cadence reminiscent of Alison Mosshart’s work with The Dead Weather. Afraid of Tomorrows is a polished, no-skips album that you’ll wish you heard sooner.
Sadly, the band appears to be on an indefinite hiatus. In August 2024, they announced the cancellation of all upcoming tour dates and festival appearances. This announcement still sits as their most recent post on all social media platforms, except for their Facebook, which has been hacked since February 2025 and plastered with professional poker memes and U.S. political content. Next to nothing is known about their impending status as a band, but I hope they’ll reunite for at least one “last dance.”
2025: Catcher by Siichaq
The existential whiplash that comes with being in your early 20s is something no parental conversation or piece of media can really prepare you for. Kennie Mason, artistically known by her native Inuit name, Siichaq (“sea-check”), articulates that effortlessly in her independent sophomore album, Catcher. The 11-track piece of grungy shoegaze is a transparent display of self-reflection that circles the perpetual, age-old question of “Who am I?”
In a little over half an hour, Mason touches on imposter syndrome (“Human Impression”), the lingering trauma of a bad relationship (“I Keep Getting Sicker”), and the fight to find peace with oneself within it all (“A Couple Bad People”). She closes the album with “22 Trips,” a droning, melancholic song about assuaging the discomfort of the present to get to the future. The final chorus rings, “I feel it now / The pain everyone talks about / The fear of getting older / And knowing it’s for the better / I’ll bear this discomfort if it means I’m happier.”
Following the album’s release, Siichaq held several intimate shows in Atlanta and went on a short tour along the East Coast in October.
