As well as our editors, we also asked a few artists to send us their favourite album, song and live show of 2020. They thought long and hard and came to the conclusion it was incredibly tough to choose, but they did it! Find their favourites below.

Chloé Auster (vocals – Dizorder)

Album: DVSR – West Technique
My favorite 2020 album is DVSR’s one, West Technique, even though I confess that I still have the same love for Hyperdaze by Void of Vision that was released in 2019. I haven’t chosen it… unwillingly

Song: Emmure – (F)inally (U)nderstanding (N)othing
I think that it perfectly matches with the feelings caused by 2020.

Concert: Void of Vision, Silent Planet, Polaris and Northlane – Gibus, Paris (November 2019)
The best concert is without hesitation the one where I could see Void of Vision, Silent Planet, Polaris and Northlane during the same show, but it was in 2019. Otherwise, no best concert for one year… that’s sad. 

FAURE (singer-songwriter)

Album: Neil Young – Homegrown
But you have to know that in a year where both Bob Dylan and Neil Young released their album it was an almost impossible decision.

Nummer: Eefje de Visser – Bitterzoet
I think that this song and the album that has the same name was thought out with a lot of taste.

Concert: Douwe Bob in de Tuin van 2020, Brielle (July)
The intimate setting suits the sensitive songs of Douwe perfectly, it was an hour of dreaming away from reality.

Thomas Haywood (vocals/guitar – The Blinders)

Album: Bob Dylan – Rough And Rowdy Ways

Song: Sault – Wildfires

Concert: Nick Cave – Alone At Alexandra Palace

James Kennedy (singer-songwriter)

Album: Justin Beynon – In Motion

Song: Bring Me The Horizon – Parasite Eve

Concert : Corey Taylor – the Forum, Los Angeles (February)

Mathijs Louwsma – (drums – The Vices) 

Album: The Strokes – The New Abnormal
Maybe it’s a bit obvious to choose this album, because we get compared to them sometimes, but if you ask me, the best album of 2020 is The New Abnormal by The Strokes. Each and every song is a real gem over which Casablancas adds his simple but insanely beautiful melody.

Nummer: Theo Katzman – 100 Years From Now
I don’t want to come across monotonous, so the best song of this year isn’t The Strokes, but 100 Years From Now by a singer named Theo Katzman, better known as a member of all star band Vulfpeck. Everything about this song just works, period.

Concert: MILO – Hedon, Zwolle (October)
I must say that , like a lot of fellow dutchmen, I haven’t been at a lot of shows this year. One of the few concerts which I was able to attend was of the band MILO in Hedon Zwolle, The Netherlands. It was a good night with beautiful songs and a nice vibe, even though we had to sit and we couldn’t drink a beer

Marine (vocals/guitar – Oakman)

Album: HONNE – No Song Without You

Song: Dua Lipa – Don’t Start Now
It’s super tough to choose a favorite song because to be honest there are a lot that could fit this answer, maybe a lot too many haha. This track could make my lockdown nights groovy, on my own or with friends in visio haha (welcome to the new world). There’s an insane, quite addictive groove in this track. The bassline is insane! 

Concert: all livestream shows
It’s hard to say, when there hasn’t been any physical show. Personally, I watched a lot of livestream concerts and there have been so many great ideas to try and keep on making it all living that pointing one is difficult. All the livestreams I saw were great and would deserve to be the favorite ones!

Mickael “Mars” Martelat (guitar – Whist)

Album: Rone – Room With a View

Song: Rone – Room With a View 
Let’s say the same song (Room With a View), which represents the album as a best song ! To be honest, I even cried during the concert, it was so incredible at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris !

Concert: Ballet de Marseille – The ballet “Room With a View” with Rone as a soundtrack, Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris (March)

Gijs Teuwsen – (vocals – PEER)

Album: Eefje de Visser – Bitterzoet
This album touched us at the first listen. The melodies, the lyrics, but mostly the sound really impressed us. With this album Eefje presented something that is so unique, that it inspired us as well to take more time and put more effort in searching for our own sound.

Nummer: Nothing But Thieves – Impossible
What can we say about this? It’s F*CKING GREAT! And beautiful! And produced amazingly well. We have been following Nothing But Thieves for quite some time now, but they keep surprising us every time they release new music. I remember very clearly that this single was released and I sent it in the band-app group with the caption “they did it again”. And everyone fully agreed with that. I personally think that the orchestral version of this song might even be more beautiful than the album version. With this song they know very well to combine the world of rock and classical music in a way I have never heard before. Magnificent.

Concert: Our ZOOM show (May)
I’m going to repeat the cliché once more: it’s a weird year. A year in which we are all forced to become a little isolated and find new ways of creativity. This is at the same time beautiful as very heavy. When we were asked to do a show on ZOOM we didn’t know very well how to do. In the end we decided that I would be playing a few songs solo and that we would mostly talk a lot about the music with our fans. It was special to be able to really see their faces during a show. That made it quite intimate, even though of course it was from a great distance.

Teun Wijtman (bass – Lucky Blue)

Album: Thundercat – It Is What It Is
This album is a good representation of how I feel about the past year. It’s chaotic, melancholic and a bit frustrating.

Song: Benny Sings – Sunny Afternoon

Concert: Coldplay at NPR Music Tiny Desk (march)