The Seven Best Songs of 2020
Were there other good ones? Possibly. But you won't find them on this list.
Typically, an internet-sponsored list of the “Best _____ of 20XX” provides ten of whatever thing is being counted. For this entry into the swirling maelstrom of internet pablum Dang Dude breaks the mold by only putting forward seven particular pieces of content. This maverick epistemic switcheroo should be confused as me attempting to change the world of Top Ten lists. I tried to come up with ten songs that I like that came out in 2020. Through a combination of being old, out of touch, the limits I place upon myself, and not wanting to lie to my wonderful readers, I could only come up with seven songs I liked that came out this year. I certainly discovered several lovely songs in 2020 that didn’t come out this year, but I didn’t count them because that would be cheating. I’m not particularly mad about this, they’re just songs after all, but it is a bit disappointing. I know that are multiple songs that came out this year that I would love. I just didn’t find them. Maybe I’ll come across them at some other future point. Who knows? But enough of this, let’s get to the list. The only other thing you need to know is that I didn’t allow myself to have multiple favorite songs from the same artist, in order to have a least a little variety. Let’s take a look at the jams.
Want all the songs in a playlist? Click here.
“Old Crap” – Jeff Rosenstock
I’ve written about Jeff Rosenstock on this website before. You can read my thoughts on him, and the next artist in this list, here. The short version? The dude rocks. “Old Crap,” off his NO DREAM album is no exception. A fuzzy guitar rocker custom built for concert sing-alongs this song brings hooks and sing-along choruses that get stuck in your head for days. While I don’t generally get into the nitty-gritty of lyrics in these lists, I have to point out this one: “Cause I'm still gonna do all of the things I want to do.” In the words of my betters, “sometimes it do be like that.”
“ooh la la” – Run The Jewels
I remember the first Run the Jewels concert I went to. On tour for their second album, they had to add a six pm show as their first 9 pm show sold out so quickly. Me and two friends were able to snag tickets to this first early show. I figured that Killer Mike and El-P, the duo behind RTJ, would phone it in for the six o’clock set, saving themselves for the later show. I was, and I’m happy to admit this, wrong as hell. The boys brought it and then some. I’ve been a fan ever since. “ooh la la,” one of the singles off of their fourth album RTJ4 continues the streak they started on their first album. Built around a spaced-out piano sample, the duo spit lines of ever-increasing bragadoccio over sparse drums and some nifty DJ work. A killer entry.
“My Broken Arm” – Futurebirds
I’m a sucker for a hook. Especially if that hook is built around a devastating own of a lyric. “My Broken Arm” fits the bill perfectly. Off the Futurebirds excellent album Teamwork the band builds a song around the idea that telling someone that their “money’s no good,” is the ultimate kiss-off. And folks, they’re right. The killer slide guitar doesn’t hurt either. This song is best enjoyed while sipping whiskey on Friday and thinking about all your haters. As a bonus two extra sentences about my relationship with the band. The first time I truly understood what it meant to “vibe” was at a Futurebirds concert. Me and two of my friends have the exact same Futurebirds shirt and have so far managed to wear it at the same time in public. So that’s fun.
“Up From A Dream” – HAIM
Lots of people LOVE HAIM. Like love love HAIM. Make fancams of the various members of HAIM doing something called “bass face.” I think. I don’t really know. I’m not a HAIM-head per se. I like them enough to give their new stuff a shot. A “Up From A Dream,” from their album Women in Music Pt. III does not disappoint. A low-key hitter, it functions almost like a lost Carly Rae Jepsen cut, but with more distorted guitars and a synth that someone shot with a Polaroid. This song is perfect for playing at 2:30 am during a party in an empty pool in Los Angeles.
“Lonely Beuys” – Man Man
Most bands are afraid of marimbas and xylophones. Not Man Man. A stand-out track from the wonderful album Dream Hunting in the Valley of the In-Between “Lonely Beuys,” has enough marimbas to make everyone happy. I mean that as a compliment. This song has it all, richly layered orchestration, a killer guitar solo, purposefully obtuse lyrics, and a funky interlude followed by a breakdown. What more could a single person ask for? It also follows one of my favorite song concepts of having incredibly sad lyrics but very upbeat music. Wonderful.
“everyone blooms” – The Front Bottoms
Not sure what this trend of refusing to capitalize in song titles is about, but I’ll save that for another newsletter. The message is “everyone blooms” is startingly corny, but I can forgive that for how much of a banger the rest of the song is. The lead song of The Front Bottoms newest album, In Sickness & In Flames, the correct way of listening to “everyone blooms” is to imagine yourself in a large field. As this song plays you run through the field, your fingers playing over the dandelion heads. You eventually run into a group of your friends. This then turns into a montage of you all getting older, going off to college, getting married, but then meeting up in the field ten years later, and knowing that everyone changed, but for the better. You don’t have to do imagine this to like this song, but it would certainly help. A guitar-centered song, the drums provide a rock-solid backbone for a song that keeps building and building until it seems impossible to build anymore at which point it builds again. Just fantastic.
“party 4 u” – Charli XCX
To a certain subset of people there has never been anyone cooler than Charli XCX. They’re probably right. From her 2020 release how i’m feeling now “party 4 u” finds Charli XCX channeling what feels like a missing song from the Uncut Gems soundtrack. A slightly manic song, Charli sings around a heady mélange of bass, drums, and sci-fi synths. A perfect song to listen to while lying in bed dreaming about the party from Matrix Revolutions.
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Dylan, thanks for sharing your choices; you are a discerning man to limit them to just seven! I look forward to listening to the five here I don't know--besides Haim, whom I like well enough, and Futurebirds, whose album is near the very top of my own 2020 faves. I will limit my own recommendations to you to just one more: the song "Your Ghost" by Dave Hause with Amythyst Kiah and Kam Franklin. -Brad Clough