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To mark the halfway point of 2020, here are our 20 must-hear albums from the year so far. How many will make the cut for our end-of-year rundown? (See 2019's list here)

On paper, the components of ‘Myopia’ are soothing: lightly reverberating keys, ghostly atmospherics, vocals that shift gently out of place. But there is an uneasy urgency to Agnes Obel’s fourth album that soon reveals itself. Opening track ‘Camera’s Rolling’ asks: “The camera’s rolling, what will you do?”, and from there the Danish songwriter explores the side of humanity that compels us into action. Why act fast when we have years ahead of us? Why constantly seek a better existence? What makes us certain we’re doing the right thing? Set to a beautiful backdrop, ‘Myopia’ asks these pertinent questions.

Obel describes the record as exploring “trust and doubt”, adding: “Can you trust your instincts and what you are feeling? Or are your feelings skewed?” This makes ‘Myopia’ anything but a conventionally beautiful-sounding record. It is instead defined by a dark, compelling curiosity.

The Big Moon’s 2017 debut, the Mercury Prize-nominated ‘Love in the 4th Dimension’, was an exuberant breath of fresh air. But the London four-piece’s new album sees their sound grow, songwriting sharpen and the group's dynamic even tighter than before.

“Life feels very complicated these days,” singer Juliette Jackson has . “I don’t feel like I can just write love songs any more. I feel like life has got bigger and weirder. We’re living through strange times... The album is about trying to find your feet in the tornado around you.”

With ‘Walking Like We Do’, the guitars are dialled back a little, with the band instead incorporating cinematic and expansive pop production, sparse piano, synth swooshes, propelling drums, all the while still retaining their resonating emotive power on songs about growing older ('Barcelona'), moving on ('Waves') and the injustices of the world ('Dog Eat Dog').

“Music’s the way I’m able to truly express myself,” said Bombay Bicycle Club frontman Jack Steadman in a statement around the group’s fifth album, which marked a return after four years away. It neatly explains why Steadman and co. decided to ditch their self-declared hiatus for another stint in the spotlight: Creativity is their primary form of expression, and the four-piece have a special dynamic that can’t easily be replicated with solo projects or other pursuits.

‘Everything Else Has Gone Wrong’ cements what makes them tick; easy-on-the-ear hooks that often coat deceptively heavy topics. ‘I Worry Bout You’ is especially striking, centring in on a loved one’s inner struggles. On the surface, it may sound like Bombay Bicycle Club picked up the baton from their former selves, continuing down the same road as 2014’s ‘So Long, See You Tomorrow’, but there’s steep progression lyrically, and in the way they express themselves. Mission accomplished for a band who better not take any more hiatuses.

What next after you land an unexpected hit? That question lingered over Caribou’s eighth album ‘Suddenly’. While electronic producer Dan Snaith’s intricate and textured output had been beloved by critics and aficionados for close to a decade, nobody really expected the extent of the breakthrough that came with 2014 album ‘Our Love’, a Top 10 album in the UK.

As Snaith noted in a , lead single ‘Can’t Do Without You’, particularly, seemed to be everywhere: “It was in EastEnders, it was in this Seth Rogan movie. It’s one of those songs that’s permeated beyond dance music and a lot of people who aren’t into club music love it.”

Its success “felt like a vote of confidence in me”, Snaith said, and it allowed its follow-up to be “weirder and more personal”. As a result, ‘Suddenly’ stands as Snaith’s most varied and direct release to date. The club-ready tracks (‘New Jade’, ‘Never Come Back’) hit as hard as anything by his techno-leaning side project Daphni, and there are rewarding tempo drops on songs like the sparse and ambient ‘Sister’ or loungey and soulful ‘ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½’.

While Disq’s sound is indebted to 90s-era slacker-rock, pop-punk and Beach Boys-esque classic pop, their songs reconfigure relatable and universal growing pains for 2020. These are songs “about struggles that we all go through in our lives,” Isaac deBroux-Slone, singer and guitarist of the Wisconsin five-piece, recently .

On opening track ‘Daily Routine’, the frontman sings: “This is my daily routine, spend my hours on computer screen”. Elsewhere, the self-examining ‘Trash’ slows things down with a Elliott Smith-like paean, while ‘Gentle’ sounds like a more scuzzed-up brand of Weezer’s outsider pop. ‘Collector’ is ultimately a record that manages to sound urgent while giving nods to timeless songwriting of the past.

Ed O’Brien’s solo debut has been some time in the making, an itch he had to scratch. The Radiohead multi-instrumentalist recently: “If I don’t do this, a part of me will die.” ‘Earth’ was a record he needed to get out of his system, for better or worse.

This is a grand, expansive, all-consuming first work, darting between the guttural punch of ‘Shangri-La’ to the skyscraper-like musicianship of ‘Mass’. For Radiohead purists, it has the anthem-like draw of ‘The Bends’ and the absorbing wonkiness of ‘Amnesiac’. Pinning it together is a gorgeous meditative glow: Even when distorted guitars reach a climax, there’s a calming quality to it. With that in mind, 2020 was indeed the perfect time for O’Brien to share ‘Earth’ with the world.

‘Sixteen Oceans’ is a rather apt name for Kieran Hebden’s 10th album under his Four Tet banner. The follow-up to 2017’s equally impressive ‘New Energy’, these are 16 tracks of rich and immersive electronica that alternate between meditative ambient washes and vast, bass-heavy throbs.

The album was announced at the end of January, and released several weeks later in mid-March to a world that had changed more than anyone could have imagined. But in its intricate textures and gripping production, and with highlights like the Ellie Goulding-sampling, mind-bending ‘Baby’ and hypnotic ‘Teenage Birdsong’, it’s proven to be a perfect escapist soundtrack.

As Obaro Ejimiwe’s previous records age, from 2011 debut ‘Peanut Butter Blues and Melancholy Jam’ onwards, it’s become increasingly clear that Ghostpoet’s work is consistently ahead of its time. And so if latest LP ‘I Grow Tired But Dare Not Fall Asleep’ might, to a cynic, appear bogged down in darkness and caught up in a political pulse, it could still prove prophetic. “I need a break, you need a break, we need a break,” he repeats on opener ‘Breaking Cover’, while on ‘Nowhere To Hide Now’, ominous open guitar notes are set against the words: “She said, ‘Shoot for the moon, honey’, but there’s no light in sight.”

Alongside Ejimiwe’s grim cries sits a stunning backdrop of gut-wrenching guitars, shadow-casting percussion and gloomy bass – all self-produced by the man himself. It is a record that stares you right in the eyes, determined to stir a reaction. And just like every other Ghostpoet album, you can bet it will age gracefully.

Released at the start of lockdown, four months ahead of schedule, Laura Marling’s seventh album has slowly revealed itself to be one of the ever-changeable songwriter’s finest works. Written from the perspective of parents to an imaginary child, it is a reassuring gesture of wisdom, a package of life lessons wrapped up in song.

More stripped back than previous records like ‘Semper Femina’ and ‘Short Movie’, plucked guitars meet cinematic strings, and there is a comforting simplicity to it all. Marling has distilled the best of her skills as a songwriter; stark storytelling; gently strummed guitars and a voice that reasons with any chord.

Explaining the early release, Marling said on Instagram at the time: “I saw no reason to hold back on something that, at the very least, might entertain, and, at its best, provide some union.” ‘Song For Our Daughter’ has achieved exactly that and more.

On ‘Devotion’, Brooklyn-based songwriter Margaret Glaspy gives a perfect example of how to progress from a previously-established sound without betraying what came before.

Her second album is a far cry from 2016’s guitar-driven ‘Emotions and Math’, opting instead for grander, lusher, more synth-led sonics. And indeed, plenty of similar moves from peers – shifting from earthy guitars to broad electronics – result in something detached, but there’s real warmth and heart to ‘Devotion’. That’s due to heartful subject matter most of us can empathise with – falling for someone else without thinking about the consequences – and Glaspy’s raspy vocal, which could make the most alien, tech-fuelled sound seem meticulously handmade.

Moses Sumney’s ambitious double album ‘grae’ is named as such because it’s all about grey areas, something that can definitely be sensed in its fluid merging of genres. “I insist upon my right to be multiple,” .

While his previous album, 2017’s ‘Aromanticism’, was bare-bones and intimate, this two-part follow-up swaps minimalism for confident, expertly-executed maximalism, bringing together elements of jazz, R&B, soul, folk, hip-hop and bombastic pop. “I really wanted to exhaust everything, and explore all the different sides of my identities that are within me,” Sumney explained of the masterful 20-track release.

‘Come Down On Jupiter’, the opening track on The Orielles’ second album, is a musical fairground. It starts off fairly routine, with sparse, jazz-nodding percussion and trebled guitars, but midway through it nosedives like a canal boat shooting downstream in midsummer, before giving way to ghoulish whoops and frenzied climaxes.

There’s enough invention here to fill an entire record, to the point when you begin to wonder when the Halifax group might run out of steam. The truth is, they never do: Closing song ‘Spaca Samba (Disco Volador Theme)’ is equally rich in ingenuity; a cosmic clash of DFA-ready beats, gravity-defying synths and addictive grooves. Proof if it was needed that The Orielles have plenty more up their sleeves.

Perfume Genius’ career, a decade-in at this point, has been marked by endless transformation, with each album seeing the Seattle-raised musician’s sound expand and flourish as his songwriting became starker and more direct. Its predecessor, 2017’s rapturous experimental pop record ‘No Shape’, was a far cry from the hushed introspection of his early work.

But ‘Set My Heart On Fire Immediately’ brings together all that's to love about Mike Hadreas’ artistry - from the breezy and buoyant joy of ‘Without You’ and barnstorming ‘Describe’ to the delicate, celestial and transportative ‘Jason’. It's a quiet storm of an album that subtly engulfs you, and is arguably his most complete and accomplished record to date.

Good luck finding a more timely, rude awakening than the one-two punch of ‘Viscerals’’ opening tracks, ‘Reducer’ and ‘Rubbernecker’. Both songs act as nitro-fuelled, relentless distillations of what exactly makes Pigs x 7 stand out in a crowd, firmly explaining why long-term admirers of the culturally-adored Newcastle band haven’t been telling porkies.

Matt Baty and co. continue to trade in the psych-fuelled juggernauts that first took aim on 2018’s ‘King of Cowards’, but ‘Viscerals’ is a more chiselled, short-back-and-sides beast. Well, to an extent: You could still run a mile or two in the time it takes the nine-minute monster ‘Halloween Bolson’ to dish out its final blast of brash guitars, but there’s a tautness and refined edge here that spells progression in capital letters.

“I'm bored to death, let's argue,” Dana Margolin sings repeatedly at the start of opening track ‘Born Confused’ from her band’s second album, ‘Every Bad’, before adding: “What is going on with me? And maybe I was born confused.” The lyrics encapsulate the record as a whole; an album that’s simultaneously angsty and self-critical but also witty, wry and self-aware.

Initially born as a solo project for Brighton-via-London singer-songwriter Margolin, Porridge Radio subsequently grew into a fourpiece, releasing their lo-fi, bedroom-recorded debut ‘Rice, Pasta And Other Fillers’ in 2016. Follow-up, ‘Every Bad’, adds polish, but mostly to the production; Margolin’s lyrics remain as raw as her barbed vocal delivery. A sublime release from one of Britain’s most exciting guitar bands.

In solidarity with the protests against the death of George Floyd in the US, rap duo Run The Jewels decided to release their new album early and for free. The record itself feels like a very timely one, with 'Walking In The Snow' in particular addressing topics of police brutality, racial inequality and prison reform.

Since first teaming up in 2013, Killer Mike and El-P have seemed like an unstoppable force. The four years since their last record, 2016’s ‘RTJ3’, however, saw the band take some much-needed time to recoup, but on this new record Killer Mike says the pair “got deeper”. Recording their new album with Rick Rubin and ushering in big guest names including Pharrell Williams, Josh Homme, Zack de la Rocha, DJ Premier and Mavis Staples, this time round feels bigger and bolder than ever.

Insular psych hero Kevin Parker has pretty much conquered all since 2010’s debut ‘Innerspeaker’. ‘The Slow Rush’ marks his fourth triumphant Tame Impala release, and in the intervening years between records, he’s toured the world, been covered by Rihanna, and found himself in the studios of Travis Scott, Lady Gaga and Kanye West.

And yet the real joy of ‘The Slow Rush’ is its inner journey of self-doubt and eventual self-affirmation. Parker, like the rest of us, is often dogged by imposter syndrome, and he makes this clear across 12 gorgeously-produced, crystalline tracks. Not that he should be concerned: The wonky disco of ‘Breathe Deeper’ suggests he’s still making steep musical inroads, while the lush and loose ‘Lost In Yesterday’ has the palpable sound of a master at work, shaking off his demons.

Late visionary Tony Allen stayed inventive and curious right until the end, as evidenced in the free spirit and dexterous charm of ‘Rejoice’, the drummer’s final release alongside legendary trumpeter Hugh Masekela.

‘Rejoice’ is several decades in the making, an idea reportedly mooted when the Afrobeat pioneer first met the South African legend in the 70s. Masekela’s passing in 2018 meant Allen and producer Nick Gold, alongside contemporary jazz musicians, were left to complete an already vast amount of work. The dynamic between the two is unmistakably that of true greats of their field, Allen’s percussion dancing around the edges of Masekela’s smooth, ever-changing brass work.

Although it was never intended to be as such, ‘Rejoice’ is a fitting parting gift from two masters of their respective crafts.

The previous album from US jazz-funk virtuoso Thundercat, ‘Drunk’, was 6 Music’s Album of 2017, with Mary Anne Hobbs at the time describing it as a “complex modern soul record with a beautiful flow… unique in its lyrical narrative that feels like a personal conversation”.

Its follow-up, ‘It Is What It Is’, doesn’t disappoint one bit. Despite lacking the heft of its 23-track predecessor, the record continues to show the LA native (real name Stephen Lee Bruner) to be a masterful musician and slickly-crafted songwriter. One minute the album is ruminating, the next all-out freak-out; it's a roving, psychedelic and intoxicating album that refuses to sit still.

With each record, Yves Tumor has come more to the fore. 2015’s self-released debut ‘When Man Fails You’ was a whirlwind of ambient samples and field recordings, whereas follow-up ‘Serpent’ was an abrasive collage of feedback, pounding drums and distorted vocals. 2018’s ‘Safe in the Hands of Love’, meanwhile, introduced new pop sensibilities while still remaining abrasive and obtuse.

Anyone familiar with Yves Tumor’s back-catalogue, then, might be inclined to describe latest LP, ‘Heaven to a Tortured Mind’, as their most accessible release to date. But while the hooks are more defined this time round, Tumor’s experimental leanings remain, with each song challenging listeners with its own internal struggle between beauty and chaos.

Bambara – Heat Lightning

Steve Lamacq says: "I first saw them at SXSW last year, I really like how filmic it sounds, it’s like a frenzied dive bar band version of The Birthday Party, doing the soundtrack to a film adaption to a DC graphic novel, probably directed by Quentin Tarantino, if you listen to the whole album ['Stray'], it’s a record that can really kidnap you for 45 minutes."

Christine & The Queens – People I've Been Sad

Guy Garvey says: “[It] reminds me of the same feelings I had when Madonna’s first slow numbers started to come out. This has a very personal atmosphere for a pop song, I played it to my three year old son during bath time and he loved it, sincere soulful pop!”

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Jealous Of The Birds – Ode To Fire

Amy Lamé says: "I saw the band live at The Lexington in London last year and was totally overwhelmed by their energy. This track is really special because I think lead singer Naomi [Hamilton] was experiencing some burnout at the time and went on a solo trip to Lisbon, writing this song in the process, [which] seems perfect for the time!”

Melt Yourself Down – Crocodile

Shaun Keaveny says: "It's huge, it's ridiculous, it's terrifying."

lau.ra x Secaina – Sideways

Nemone says: “This is an absolute monster, from a hugely talented producer. When this track first landed, I couldn’t stop playing it. I played it practically all the way from the first three months of 2020, it had me from the go."

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