The best Synth Pop and genre-related albums 2020

Unbelieveable! This is the best of 2020

I think we can all agree that 2020 was a f**king year in gen­er­al. But apart from the usu­al mad­ness in the world plus a pan­dem­ic, we have at least some music­al high­lights in the last year. If you haven't heard one of these albums yet, it's about time you do. The fol­low­ing Synth Pop and genre-related albums are the ones with the best rat­ing res­ults from our reviews.

Here are the best albums 2020

10. Too Dead To Die – Tropical Gothic

Release Date: February 28th 2020
Label: Out Of Line
Discogs: Too Dead To Die – Tropical Gothic
Partially sounds like: Faderhead, Yellow Lazarus, The Prodigy, Northern Lite

How does California weath­er, ice cream, palm trees and Gothic go togeth­er? This ques­tion was prob­ably also asked by 'Too Dead To Die' and his new album is accord­ingly called 'Tropical Gothic'. Almost 6 years have passed since 'Murder On The Dance Floor' and to be hon­est I didn't believe in a release any­more. Without much announce­ment or promo I was sur­prised by the unex­pec­ted release. In any case I was very happy. Now the new sound of 'Too Dead To Die' blasts around our ears like a trop­ic­al storm. Hot beats and a genre mix like a deli­cious cock­tail awaits the listen­er. We have already listened to it and tell you what the awe­some party tracks are and which songs are more likely to cause headaches.

Read the full review of ' Too Dead To Die – Tropical Gothic' 'here

9. Priest – Cyberhead

Release Date: November 13th, 2020
Label: Blue Nine Records
Discogs: Priest – Cyberhead
Partially sounds like: Erasure, Duran Duran, Depeche Mode

It feels like an etern­ity. The second album 'Cyberhead' by 'Priest' is finally released. The 2017 debut 'New Flesh' has reached pos­i­tion 2 of our best albums of 2017. But only very close to the big smash­er 'Spirit' by 'Depeche Mode'. The guys can be little bit proud about that fact. In gen­er­al it is said that the second album is always the hard­est. Whether this is also true for Priest is ques­tion­able, since the band mem­bers play in oth­er bands as well. Here one can­not really speak of a second album in principle.

Read the full review of 'Priest – Cyberhead' here

8. Assemblage 23 – Mourn

Release Date: September 11th, 2020
Label: Metropolis Records
Discogs: Assemblage 23 – Mourn
Partially sounds like: VNV Nation, De/Vision, Solitary Experiments

After 'Endure' in 2016, Assemblage 23 rings in the autumn with an excep­tion­al new album. On 'Mourn',  Tom Shear  vir­tu­ously exper­i­ments with a vari­ety of synth ele­ments, mak­ing every single song an indi­vidu­al piece of finest elec­tron­ic music.

These play­ful vari­ations blend in with very intim­ate lyr­ics and per­son­al con­tem­pla­tions on feel­ings like loneli­ness, anxi­ety and empti­ness, which are, unfor­tu­nately, ever so present in the times we live in.

Read the full review of 'Assemblage 23 – Mourn' here

7. Absurd Minds – Sapta

Release Date: April 3rd 2020
Label: Scanner / Dark Dimensions Label Group
Discogs: Absurd Minds – Sapta
Partially sounds like: Project Pitchfork, De/Vision, Sisters Of Mercy, Depeche Mode

“‘Sapta’ (Sanskrit) – stands for sev­en in Old Indian. And while this num­ber is men­tally charged with all kinds of attri­bu­tions and vari­ous con­cepts, it was the inspir­a­tion for the nam­ing of the latest strike of the elec­tro form­a­tion ‘Absurd Minds‘ and iden­ti­fies itself as their sev­enth full­time album.”, says the offi­cial intro­duc­tion to the press release. In front of us is the suc­cessor of ‘Tempus Fugit‘, which soun­ded like a gren­ade. So the expect­a­tions for the sev­enth album are high.

Read the full review of 'Absurd Minds – Sapta' here

6. Pet Shop Boys – Hotspot

Release Date: January 24th 2020
Label: x2 Records
Discogs: Pet Shop Boys – Hotspot
Partially sounds like: Erasure

‘Hotspot’ was mainly writ­ten and recor­ded in Berlin and Los Angeles. It con­tains ten brand new Tennant & Lowe tracks, includ­ing the pre­vi­ously released single ‘Dreamland’ with Years & Years and the track ‘Burning The Heather’ with Bernard Butler on gui­tar. The album was pro­duced and mixed by Stuart Price and it is the third part of the tri­logy pro­duced by Price, which star­ted in 2013 with ‘Electric‘ and the second part ‘Super‘ was released in 2016.

Read the full review of 'Pet Shop Boys – Hotspot' here

5. Beyond Obsession – Revolution From Below

Release Date: January 31th 2020
Label: Infacted Recordings
Discogs: Beyond Obsession – Revolution From Below
Partially sounds like: De/Vision, Camouflage, Pet Shop Boys

4 years after the self-release Moments Of Truth, Beyond Obsession are back with their new album 'Revolution From Below'. The white boots appear­ing on the album cov­er seem to remind us that Beyond Obsession are still the same and yet dif­fer­ent: On nine tracks, the three guys from Germany sur­prise us with a wide vari­ation of exper­i­ment­al syn­thpop and clas­sic 80’s ele­ments, mak­ing every single song an intriguing piece of work. The lead singer’s voice seems to know no bound­ar­ies in heights and puts you into a beau­ti­ful mel­an­chol­ic mood.

Read the full review of 'Beyond Obsession – Revolution From Below
' here

4. Eisfabrik – Kryothermalmusik aus der Eisfabrik

Release Date: January 24th 2020
Label: RepoRecords
Discogs: Eisfabrik – Kryothermalmusik aus der Eisfabrik
Partially sounds like: Aesthetic Perfection, Faderhead

With their EP 'Rotationsausfall in der Eisfabrik', released in November 2019, Eisfabrik already gave us a sneak peek of what fans had to expect. Now, Dr. Schnee, Der Frost and Celsius let us in on their latest cryo­therm­ic exper­i­ment and ring in the year 2020 with their new album 'Kryothermalmusik in der Eisfabrik'.

After 'Null Kelvin', this new release clearly shows that Eisfabrik have evolved over the last few years. The 12 songs on this new record offer a well-bal­anced diversity of slower and up-tempo EBM, future and synth pop tracks with a few inter­est­ing twists and turns. Still, you imme­di­ately recog­nize the typ­ic­al and sin­gu­lar Eisfabrik style with the unique voice of Dr. Schnee.

Read the full review of 'Eisfabrik – Kryothermalmusik aus der Eisfabrik' here

3. Black Nail Cabaret – Gods Verging On Sanity

Release Date: May 8th, 2020
Label: Dependent Records
Discogs: Black Nail Cabaret – Gods Verging On Sanity
Partially sounds like: Ladytron, Depeche Mode

With 'Gods Verging On Sanity', Black Nail Cabaret has taken them­selves to a whole new level in terms of qual­ity, cre­ativ­ity and vari­ety. I know, I already said that on the last album 'Pseudopop', which was released 2 years ago. However, the con­tinu­ous devel­op­ment and son­ic­ally improve­ment can­not be denied.

The new album includes only 9 new songs, but each song con­tains almost all the cri­ter­ia for a single release. After the first listen through I had my mouth open and thought only: "Wow, what a fab­ulous per­form­ance! If 'Black Nail Cabaret' con­tin­ues like this, they have a high chance to be elec­ted for the album of the year".

Read the full review of 'Black Nail Cabaret – Gods Verging On Sanity
' here

2. Erasure – The Neon

Release Date: Augusr 21st, 2020
Label: Mute Records
Discogs: Erasure – The Neon
Partially sounds like: Pet Shop Boys

After the extremely mel­an­chol­ic album 'World Be Gone' from 2017, the tracks of the latest work 'The Neon' by 'Erasure' are now in the start­ing blocks. The time we live in hasn't got­ten much bet­ter apart from the big Covid-19 pan­dem­ic and the almost world­wide polit­ic­al nar­row-minded­ness. But Andy Bell and Vince Clark have focused on the more pos­it­ive sides of life and you can hear and feel that on 'The Neon'.

Read the full review of 'Erasure – The Neon' here

The album of the year 2020

1. Age Zero – Age Zero III

Release Date: February 29th 2020
Label: Self-release
Discogs: Age Zero – Age Zero III
Partially sounds like: Depeche Mode, Marilyn Manson, IAMX

While the best album in 2019 was still an album to cel­eb­rate and have fun with, in 2020 it is rather a very very gloomy record. Jan Weisbrot aka 'Age Zero' has once again cap­tiv­ated me with his album 'Age Zero III' and put me in a thought­ful, mel­an­chol­ic mood. I'm sure that many people can't under­stand this high rat­ing, because it really takes a lot of effort to listen to this album. Right away you won't find a hit for the radio or an ear­worm with a catchy melody. No, the album is bulky and demand­ing, but when you get into it, it is all the more beautiful.

The extremely hon­est, open inter­view with Age Zero is also one of my high­lights of 2020 on Electrozombies. In our soci­ety, reveal­ing your heart makes you vul­ner­able, but I see that as a strength and makes Jan all the more sym­path­et­ic. Even though it is hin­ted at in the inter­view, I hope that this is not the last album by Age Zero, or rather Jan Weisbrot. Thank you Jan for this won­der­ful album.

Read the full review of 'Age Zero – Age Zero III' here

Do you think we missed an awesome album in 2020?

Please leave us a line in the com­ment sec­tion below. We are curi­ous about your favour­ite album(s) in 2020.

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