Press Play and Forget It: 5 No-Skip Albums of the 2020s

We’re back with another no-skip album list, this time of the 2020s. Here are five albums that came out in the past four years that I never skip through; these are art pieces that deserve to be listened to in their preferred, complete form. Sit back, press play, and enjoy the best recent no-skips.

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[RELATED: 3 of the Best No-Skip Albums of the 2000s]

Skinwalker — Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard

Cardiff-based alt-rock band Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard released Skinwalker in April, and it quickly became one of my all-time favorite no-skip albums. No track is wasted space on this record, creating an often disturbing narrative under the guise of upbeat vocals and delightful noodling. Skinwalker exists in a liminal space between mentally ill and blissfully ignorant—frontman Thomas Rees is aware of the issues but is not ready to confront them yet. This is a wholly unique place for an album to live and one that transports repeated listeners to a certain uncanny valley.

Desire, I Want To Turn Into You — Caroline Polachek

Dreamlike, ethereal, and utterly individual, Caroline Polachek’s 2023 album Desire, I Want To Turn Into You was released on Valentine’s Day for all you lovers out there. It’s a gorgeous art piece made with love for Earth angels and It-girls, and it’s a great no-skip album. The Everasking Edition deluxe version features more songs and remixes that take the base album to another astral plane, such as “Spring Is Coming With a Strawberry in the Mouth.” Overall, Desire is more of an experience than an album.

Unreal Unearth — Hozier

Speaking of experiences, Hozier’s Unreal Unearth definitely took us somewhere other than church—instead, we all went to hell with Virgil and Dante. This album was partially based on Dante’s The Divine Comedy, as well as Irish fiction and folklore. As a no-skip album, it represents a cohesive project that is best experienced all the way through on repeat for about a week straight. Plus, hearing Hozier sing in Gaelic on “De Selby Pt. 1” is worth listening to over and over again. The album as a whole crafts a beautiful narrative that, I believe, should not be taken out of the context of itself.

So Much (For) Stardust — Fall Out Boy

With So Much (For) Stardust from 2023, Fall Out Boy got back to their weird roots with an added orchestral element. While this is definitely their lockdown depression album, it’s still gorgeously arranged and written, bringing longtime Fall Out Boy fans back into the fold of their best work. The writing is reminiscent of Folie a Deux from 2008 in many ways, which is another one of my no-skip albums. However, there’s a sobering element to this album that Fall Out Boy hasn’t possessed in a while. Their past three albums leaned more pop than anything, and they went a bit commercial. With So Much (For) Stardust, they brought it all back home.

The Car — Arctic Monkeys

Arctic Monkeys made a dramatic style shift with their 2018 album Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino and continued that lounge-singer trend in 2022 with The Car. While many Monkeys fans balked at the change, mostly hoping for more of 2013’s AM, there’s merit in Alex Turner’s stylistic maturity now. The Car gives us musings on the music industry, loss, love, and yearning, and Turner does it expertly as he always has. However, it comes easier on The Car. For example, in “Mr Schwartz,” he’s able to say in one song what it took the entirety of Tranquility Base to illustrate. The Car is a no-skip for the emotion, the maturity, and the potential peek behind the curtain into Alex Turner’s psyche, which we seem to get the more he writes concept albums.

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