Top 10 Songs of 2020

Alright time for this again. This year has been a really interesting year for music since most of the music I listen to is at work or while walking, and this year I didn’t really do either of those (nearly as much as I usually do). But I’ve also been able to expand my music library with the free time I’ve been given. This really has also been the year of Mac Miller for me, he truly dominated my listening time (even though somehow Kanye still ended up on top as most played for my Spotify rewind). Anyways onto the list, here are some honorable mentions.

White Lie (Loony), Tell Your Friends (The Weeknd), AUATC (Bon Iver), Surf (Mac Miller), Come Down (Anderson Paak), Renegade (Jay Z/Eminem)

10. Acquainted - The Weeknd

Not gon lie before I went through it again this year, I thought Beauty Behind the Madness was a fairly average album that I didn’t give too much thought to. I did hear it back when it first came out though and never returned to it. I’m super glad that I went through The Weeknd’s discography again cause this album had some gems on it (Tell Your Friends barely didn’t make the cut). This is just an addictive rnb song with really great bass drums. That drum pattern is something which is so memorable to me I’ve tried to recreate the same falling type of drum sound in my own music trials.

9. Dreams - The Game

I really just needed to have a hard hitting classic rap song on here, I just need one on every list. The Kanye production also pushes this one to the next level, the way he wove the sample over the chorus between vocals is second to none. Just really not much else to be said about this song, it’s the Game giving bars on bars talking about his come up in the rap game. The early 2000’s funk influence in this song is also strong as hell. Sometimes I just really want to listen to some straight up rap.

8. Diablo - Mac Miller

Here starts the Mac Miller takeover of this list. I know I didn’t include Ye songs last year but that would legit prolly take all the spots from 10-1. I’m including Mac cause he has maybe half of the spots here but whatever it’s my list. Faces is a wildly underrated Mac Miller mixtape that constitutes some of the best vocal flow production I’ve heard. The beat on Diablo is also intoxicating, and reminds me of a ticking clock for some reason. His flow is also super smooth, switching it up often and at just the right moments to keep the song cohesive.

7. Blood Bank - Bon Iver

I had a huge phase in that initial quarantine period around March - May that I could not stop listening to Bon Iver, specifically this EP. Maybe there was something too familiar about the desolate feelings of isolation that let me take comfort in this music, but I truly felt more whole listening to Blood Bank. Justin’s way of sparse storytelling is so vivid in how it paints scenes in his songs. Especially the 2 lines “you were holding both my hands / chewing on a candy bar” and “what that noise up the stairs babe / is that Christmas morning creaks” gives such structure and timeline in so little words to the type of relationship being described.

6. Perfect Places - Lorde

I always knew I liked Melodrama but I never went through the full album, but holy moly am I glad I did this summer. I cannot think of a better song to end the album on than Perfect Places, it’s just such a good culmination of the feelings of falling in and out of love as youth. It’s the realizing that the destination of love you were looking for was always more of a concept than a reality. On top of that this is truly an electrifying and super repeatable and fun song. Also that “ch ch” sound she makes right before the first chorus is one of the weirdest, most satisfying sounds I’ve heard in a song.

5. Ladders - Mac Miller

Maybe the latest addition to the list, I only really started listening to this song a few weeks ago. But boy it’s been on the top of the repeat list since then. The progression within this song is so amazing, the way it seamlessly weaves between instrumentals, singing, and rapping is intoxicating. The horns on this song are super memorable, and the verses Mac puts in are as hard as they are introspective, especially that second verse. Swimming is just gonna be one of those albums that I know I will always come back to.

4. Pure - Mac Miller

This song has gotta be one of the most personal things I have ever heard, and it came to me at an extra turbulent time in the year. It’s really been a blessing to connect so deeply with Mac Miller music. This the type of song I point to when people say music is a beautiful thing. I remember when I first heard this song, I was like prolly around 20 seconds in when I decided I needed to stop everything and just listen to this whole song straight through. There’s a few lines of the first verse that just hit so close.

3. I Can’t Go On Without You - Kaleo

Ok new genre to enter my radar this year was Icelandic folk rock, or just specifically this band. I had heard them once before and I liked the one song (way down we go from the wolverine trailer) but I had never thought to really explore their music. A/B is one of the best albums I’ve listened to this year and it’s been great to add more rock music into my rotation. This song is straight up a trip, it’s pacing is so perfect the way it fluctuates between sonic highs and lows. It drops one of the dirtiest riffs after the second chorus, that folk guitar is something else. I really really enjoyed every single time I listened to this song.

2. Gimme - Banks

Ok seems like another genre I explored this year was pop, which sounds weird because it’s just popular music. Maybe it’s because I disconnected so hard with pop now that hip hop is the predominant variant of pop music, which again sounds weird because I like hip hop but the trap sound that is dominating charts just feels so bland it’s nuts. So I guess this is why I wanted to explore the best pop has to offer. This range included Lorde, to Carly Rae Jepson, and also some alternative pop artists like Banks. I am so glad I discovered her cause she has prolly been my most played artist in the last quarter of 2020. The way she does her brand of synthy electro pop just so rarely misses. I’ve gone through all 3 of her studio albums and I truly feel that she progressed her music every release. Gimme to me is production heaven, the culmination of her repertoire of vocal distortion and synthesizers. The way the bass drum hits to control tempo is hard as fuck straight up. My only singular critique of this song is I just feel the chorus maybe coulda been executed better, maybe that woulda pushed it to number 1.

1. Desperado - Mac Miller

To be fair I think from the second I first heard this song I had a feeling that it was gonna be an all time favourite song for me. I remember I was going through Macadelic in April in quarantine and as soon as I heard the electric guitar in track 2 (slowly growing into my favourite sequential song in albums) I legit could not stop smiling. I just had a huge smile on my face the entire time I was listening to this song, man I just love it so much. I still admit that electric guitar is just straight up my favourite sound in music. The way the last bars of the second verse hit with just the guitar playing is so satisfying. Critically it may not have the best bars, it may not have the best beat, it may not have any significant context, but this song just makes me so damn happy to have felt like I knew something of Mac through his music. It makes me happy to listen to this song and feel how he must have felt at the time writing and rapping this, knowing how the rest of his story unfolded. There was no better fit for my favourite song of 2020.