Best Songs of 2020

Yeesh, 2020. What a year. After finishing up my Best Songs of 2019, thus putting a capper on 50 years of song lists, I honestly wasn’t sure if I was going to put together another round in 2020. It felt like such a struggle to compile last year’s that I began to wonder if I was finally aging out of the process of truly consuming new music. Then, of course, 2020 turned into the year of the pandemic.

Somewhere between needing to fill time, fill a void left by an inability to go see music in a live setting, and my endless desire for novelty, month by month I began adding more and more songs to my list of potential tracks for a Best of 2020. While I fully recognize in myself a lack of confidence in handing out 5-star ratings for songs these days, I nevertheless managed to form a bond with enough songs that, by the tail end of November, I started to believe that with a little extra effort, I could collate yet another 100-song Best of. So here we are.

Besides no access to live music in 2020 (after March 7, at least), my musical intake this year was upended by removed access, and then for awhile, unwillingness to go, to record stores. I also never really got the opportunity to build memories around new music in 2020, wether that be sharing songs and albums with others or hearing music “in the wild” at backyard parties, clothing stores, sporting events, etc. I definitely did not get the chance to travel with much of this music, at least beyond the familiar routes between my house and the grocery store, or my house and Hood Canal.

And yet, over time, with great intention to come back to these songs as often as I could, hoping some of them would stick and allow me to build a memory around them—a happy one, hopefully—I kept listening, and kept trying to make discoveries. I also found myself revisiting old favorites in the form of their new work, hoping that I might find comfort in the familiar but also revel in the novelty of a fresh sound.

Somewhere between was my taste leaning this way and artists putting more effort into responding to the times, this year’s list feels far more of the moment than others in recent history. This list, then, reflects both a feeling of loss and loneliness amid this pandemic, but also anger and frustration with racial strife. It also endeavors to rise above it all, not to ignore the suffering, but to acknowledge the ever-present need to escape, if only for a few minutes at a time.

For these year-end lists, I like to undertake the seemingly impossibly task of creating an hours-long mix. The order you see below represents that effort, which you can listen to via Spotify and Apple Music. Track notes to come eventually or maybe never.

Show Grid

Where to Start

Bully

SUGAREGG

Sub Pop

via past experience
Together

beabadoobee

Fake It Flowers

Dirty Hit

via Stereogum, probably
Sandcastles

Cable Ties

Far Enough

Merge

via KEXP
Dying to Believe

The Beths

Jump Rope Gazers

Carpark

via past experience
The Cool Change

Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever

Sideways to New Italy

Sub Pop

via past experience
Shock

Hypoluxo

Hypoluxo

Hypoluxo

via past experience
Bad Decisions

The Strokes

The New Abnormal

RCA

via past experience
Dance of the Clairvoyants

Pearl Jam

Gigaton

Monkeywrench

via past experience
War

Sudan Archives

Good Music to Avert the Collapse of American Democracy

Bandcamp

via past experience
Wildfires

SAULT

UNTITLED (Black Is)

Forever Living Originals

via past experience
Love Is All We Share

Cut Copy

Freeze, Melt

Cutters

via past experience
PDLIF

Bon Iver

PDLIF digital single

Jagjaguwar

via past experience
No Time for Love Like Now

Michael Stipe & Big Red Machine

No Time for Love Like Now digital single

37D03D

via past experience
Carousels

Doves

The Universal Want

Heavenly

via past experience
PEOPLE

Tunde Adebimpe

PEOPLE digital single

Bandcamp

via past experience (TV on the Radio)
Never Come Down

The Neverly Boys

Dark Side of Everything

Alchemy

via past experience (Dave Sitek)
chinatown

Bleachers featuring Bruce Springsteen

chinatown digital single

RCA

via past experience
There Must Be More Than Blood

Car Seat Headrest

Making a Door Less Open

Matador

via past experience
I Love You But Damn

Smokey Brights

I Love You But Damn

Freakout

via past experience
Ghosts

Bruce Springsteen

Letter to You

Columbia

via past experience
Fear of Death

Tim Heidecker

Fear of Death

Spacebomb

via past experience
False Prophet

Bob Dylan

Rough and Rowdy Ways

Columbia

via past experience
Devil Put the Coal in the Ground

Steve Earle & The Dukes

Ghosts of West Virginia

New West

via past experience
March March

The Chicks

Gaslighter

Columbia

via past experience
BLACK PARADE

Beyoncé

BLACK PARADE digital single

Parkwood

via past experience
JU$T

Run the Jewels featuring Pharrell Williams & Zack de la Rocha

RTJ4

Jewel Runners

via past experience
Let Me In

Moodymann

TAKEN AWAY | KDJ-49

Kenneth Dixon

via past experience / KEXP
amansloveislife _keepon

Knxwledge

1988

Stones Throw

via past experience
Baby

Four Tet

Sixteen Oceans

Text

via past experience
Headlights

James Vincent McMorrow

Headlights digital single

Sony

via past experience
New Jade

Caribou

Suddenly

Merge

via past experience
Rooftop Dancing

Sylvan Esso

Free Love

Loma Vista

via past experience
Do You Ever

James Blake

Before

Universal

via past experience
Are You Feeling Sad?

Little Dragon featuring Kali Uchis

New Me, Same Us

Ninja Tune

via past experience
Don’t Let Get You Down

Wajatta

Don’t Let Get You Down

Brainfeeder

via past experience
Time (You and I)

Khruangbin

Mordechai

Dead Oceans

via Song Exploder / some beer commercial
I Know It

Chicano Batman

Invisible People

ATO

via KEXP
On the Floor

Perfume Genius

Set My Heart on Fire Immediately

Matador

via past experience
Lose Your Love

Dirty Projectors

Flight Tower

Domino

via past experience
Ice Cream

BLACKPINK & Selena Gomez

Ice Cream

YG Entertainment

via Fluxblog
Stay Away

Carly Rae Jepsen

Dedicated Side B

Schoolboy/Interscope

via past experience
Escape

Desire

Escape digital single

Italians Do It Better

via past experience / KEXP
Going Home

The Aces

Under My Influence

Red Bull

via past experience
Blinding Lights

The Weeknd

After Hours

The Weeknd/Republic

via the ether / past experience
Never Let You Go

Georgia

Seeking Thrills

Domino

via Alli Adamonis
Get to Know You

Tomo Nakayama

Melonday

Ricebelly

via KEXP / past experience
Crash

Nilüfer Yanya

Feeling Lucky?

ATO

via KEXP / past experience
You’ve Got to Feel

Empress Of & Amber Mark

You’ve Got to Feel digital single

Major Arcana

via past experience / Apple Music
Pretty Please

Dua Lipa

Future Nostalgia

Dua Lipa/Warner Bros.

via Fluxblog
Remember Us

John Legend featuring Rapsody

Bigger Love

John Legend/Columbia

via past experience
Hurts to Be Alone

Norah Jones

Pick Me Up Off the Floor

Blue Note

via past experience
My Hair

Ariana Grande

Positions

Republic

via past experience / Fluxblog
Circles

Mac Miller

Circles

Warner Bros.

via past experience / Fluxblog
Look Over Your Shoulder

Busta Rhymes featuring Kendrick Lamar

Extinction Level Event 2: The Wrath of God

The Conglomerate Entertainment

via past experience
Dragonball Durag

Thundercat

It Is What It Is

Brainfeeder

via past experience
Stayback

Omar Apollo

Apolonio

Omar Apollo/Warner Bros.

via Alli Adamonis / Fluxblog
Heavy Hands

Hollis

half life

Hollis

via KEXP / past experience
Cut You Off

Selena Gomez

Rare

Interscope

via past experience / the ether
You’ve Got My Number

Margaret Glaspy

Devotion

ATO

via past experience
The River

Eleanor Friedberger

The River digital single

Bandcamp

via past experience / Said the Gramophone
Crimson Tide

Destroyer

Have We Met

Merge

via past experience
For Sure

Future Islands

As Long As You Are

4AD

via past experience
It Ain’t Water

Alison Mosshart

Rise

Domino

via past experience
Beaten Down

Sharon Van Etten

Beaten Down digital single

Jagjaguwar

via past experience
ICU

Phoebe Bridgers

Punisher

Dead Oceans

via past experience
Distant Axis

Matt Berninger

Serpentine Prison

Matt Berninger/Concord

via past experience
Like So Much Desire

Flock of Dimes

Like So Much Desire

Sub Pop

via past experience
Clay Pigeons

Shannon Lay & Steve Gunn

Clay Pigeons digital single

Sub Pop

via past experience
Some Ghost

Clem Snide

Forever Just Beyond

Ramseur

via past experience
We’ll Make It Through

Ray LaMontagne

MONOVISION

Stone Dwarf/RCA

via past experience / Freegal
Nothingness and Everything

The Dead Tongues

Transmigration Blues

Psychic Hotline

via past experience
Can I Believe You

Fleet Foxes

Shore

Fleet Foxes/Anti

via past experience
Run It

My Morning Jacket

The Waterfall II

ATO

via past experience
Better Than We Found It

Maren Morris

Better Than We Found It digital single

Sony

via past experience / Freegal
Joy of My Life

Chris Stapleton

Starting Over

Mercury Nashville

via past experience
Just Let Go

Sturgill Simpson

Cuttin’ Grass - Vol.1 (The Butcher Shoppe Sessions)

High Top Mountain

via past experience
Prisoner of the Highway

Margo Price

That’s How Rumors Get Started

Margo Price/Loma Vista

via past experience
It Gets Easier

Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit

Reunions

Southeastern

via past experience
Raleigh Days

Archers of Loaf

Raleigh Days / Street Fighting Man

Merge

via past experience
Tommy in the 80s

Beach Slang

The Deadbeat Bang of Heartbreak City

Bridge 9

via past experience
Under Glass

Wolf Parade

Thin Mind

Sub Pop

via past experience
Impossible Weight

Deep Sea Diver featuring Sharon Van Etten

Impossible Weight

High Beam/ATO

via past experience
How Could I

Thao & The Get Down Stay Down

Temple

Ribbon Music

via past experience
Shaking

Hazel English

Wake UP!

Polyvinyl

via past experience
Circle the Drain

Soccer Mommy

color theory

Loma Vista

via past experience
And Other Things

Routine

And Other Things

Friends of/Dead Oceans

via past experience (Jay Som, Chastity Belt)
AEIOU

Wye Oak

No Horizon

Merge

via past experience
Weight of That Weekend

Land of Talk

Indistinct Conversations

Saddle Creek

via past experience
Strange Girl

Laura Marling

Song for Our Daughter

Chrysalis/Partisan

via past experience
Fetch the Bolt Cutters

Fiona Apple

Fetch the Bolt Cutters

Epic

via past experience
Video Game

Sufjan Stevens

The Ascension

Asthmatic Kitty

via past experience
Infinite Scroll

Jess Williamson

Sorceress

Mexican Summer

via the ether / Waxahatchee?
My Tears Ricochet

Taylor Swift

folklore

Taylor Swift

via past experience
Natural Disaster

Jeff Tweedy

Love Is the King

DbPM

via past experience
Simple Harmony

Radnor & Lee

Golden State

Flower Moon

via past experience
How Lucky

Kurt Vile featuring John Prine

Speed, Sound, Lonely KV (ep)

Matador

via past experience
Harry Green

Tom Petty

Wildflowers & All the Rest

Warner Bros.

via past experience
Sundowner

Kevin Morby

Sundowner

Dead Oceans

via past experience
Fire

Waxahatchee

Saint Cloud

Merge

via past experience
Gasoline

HAIM

Women in Music Pt. III

Columbia

via past experience