As a whole, 2020 wasn’t … great. But it was a fruitful year on Bandcamp, the vibrant online music platform used largely by independent artists and record labels to stream songs and sell merchandise. Below, I’ve listed 30 of my favorite 2020 releases available on the site, loosely organized into five stylistic categories. To hear them, just go to bandcamp.com and search. And as always, if you find something you dig, please consider supporting the artist with a purchase.

FOLK / TWANG / ROOTS

Jake Blount, “Spider Tales”

On his debut album, Jake Blount — fiddler, banjo player, musical excavator and restoration artist — performs 14 songs surfaced from his studies of mountain music made by Black and Indigenous artists. But unlike many presentations of these tunes over the decades, he highlights their themes of pain, anger, grief and sorrow rather than polishing them up for mass consumption. The result is an album of authentic old-time music that feels deeply rooted rather than dug up and disconnected from its soil for someone else’s enjoyment.

Bonny Light Horseman, “Bonny Light Horseman”

Kathleen Edwards, “Total Freedom”

Honey Harper, “Starmaker”

Zephaniah OHora, “Listening to the Music”

Waxahatchee, “Saint Cloud”

POP / ROCK / INDIE

Daniel Romano, “Visions of the Higher Dream”

As much of the world went into isolation because of COVID-19, many artists on Bandcamp posted surprise albums, demos, heretofore-unheard rarities and other fun stuff to the platform. One of the best of these was this unexpected new record from Canadian country-rock chameleon Daniel Romano, wherein he explores twang-flecked crunch-pop-rock and comes out sounding like the Beatles in sparkling psychedelic chaps. It was also the first of an incredible 10 new works he’d release this year.

2nd Grade, “Hit to Hit”

The Beths, “Jump Rope Gazers”

Gum Country, “Somewhere”

Exploding Flowers, “Stumbling Blocks”

Mo Troper, “Natural Beauty”

PUNK / PSYCH / METAL

Slift, “Ummon”

Slift’s heavy, propulsive psych sounds like that moment in all the space movies where the ship is passing through the atmosphere and everything gets so hot it starts glowing and you can see the beads of sweat on Tom Hanks’ forehead and it all feels like it could explode at any second. The French power trio gets to that point quickly and then just stays there forever while guitars squiddly-diddly-diddly off into the heavens. It’s glorious.

Aktor, “Placebo”

Broadway Calls, “Sad in the City”

Erik Nervous & The Beta Blockers, “Erik Nervous & The Beta Blockers”

Sunken, “Livslede”

Thou + Emma Ruth Rundle, “May Our Chambers Be Full”

SOUL / HIP-HOP / BEATS

keiyaA, “Forever, Ya Girl”

On her debut album, Chicago-based singer, songwriter and producer keiyaA brings beat-driven R&B into the bedroom — not romantically, but aesthetically. Her homemade tracks are creative but not overwrought. Her melodies will haunt your mind without resorting to proven tropes of the genre. And she delivers lyrics about loss, longing and loneliness in a way that feels like she’s singing them just for you. KeiyaA wrote and recorded almost all of “Forever, Ya Girl” by herself, which gives the album a fresh, unfiltered feel.

Nubya Garcia, “Source”

The Koreatown Oddity, “Little Dominiques Nosebleed”

R.A.P. Ferreira, “Purple Moonlight Pages”

Cleo Sol, “Rose In The Dark”

Tengger, “Nomad”

OUTER SOUNDS

Dylan Henner, “The Invention of the Human”

On Bandcamp, Dylan Henner’s short bio section simply reads: “Music in search of meaning.” Whether meaning is found on the experimental composer’s new album is up to the listener, but the songs on “The Invention of the Human” do a breathtakingly beautiful job of exploring the intersection of mankind and technology without saying a word. The end result is a 40-minute exhale of shuddering ambient music, pixelated mini-symphonies, daybreak drones and robot voices that never stretch on too long or get bogged down in their own self-importance.

Duma, “Duma”

Horse Lords, “The Common Task”

Steve Palmer, “Useful Histories”

Sunwatchers, “Oh Yeah?”

Tuluum Shimmering, “Flowers of Daybreak”