The Top 30 Albums Of 2020 (So Far): Various Artists - 'Stay Inside: Songs From The Great Indoors'

"The only common denominator is the brief: lockdown rules." - Sam Wall

I don’t think we’ve ever had a compilation album in the 'Best Of’s before, but then there have been bigger surprises in 2020. The year’s playing out like The Book of Revelation’s M Night Shyamalan adaption. Which is also why Stay Inside exists at all. 

It’s a direct response to the COVID crisis and the ever-shrinking end of the stick that the arts community has been offered throughout - a joint effort from Dinosaur City Records, Spunk!, Osbourne Again, Hotel Motel, Blossom Rot and Inertia Music, 37 tracks written in isolation by artists on their rosters and released individually each day in April. The finished collection goes for $5 on Bandcamp ($14 if you want the cassette), with any money earned divided equally between the contributing artists.

There’s no through-line in the tracks themselves. The themes, genres and quality swing from song to song, coming from a mix of established and relatively unknown acts (including some excellent debuts). The only common denominator is the brief: lockdown rules. But that concept and delivery pin it so firmly to a time and place that it’s just about a historical document, a cross-section of a scene weathering a crisis: ’2020 Pt 1, The Album'.

It’s also the only place you can get your hands on some cracker tracks, so fork over your fiver if you haven't already.

Favourite track: Lucy