The single is probably dying as an artform: that’s why it’s so hackable by, uh, hacks like Oliver Anthony and Jason Aldean and dumdums who happen to be excellent musicians like Morgan Wallen. I refuse to mention their songs, but they were also some of the biggest streamers/sellers of the year.
Otherwise, most of the top songs of this year were retreads or the songs labels wanted to promote from mostly bad albums.
So instead of that, here’s ~50 songs from a big old list I made on Spotify (see above). I’ve got (hopefully fun) explanations of a lot of them. Many of the songs on the singles list are from the ~30 albums I wrote about on a previous post, and I’m not writing about them again.
“Understudies,” The Hold Steady
I’m not sure this is the best song from the album, and listening to the whole thing again makes me wish I put this one in the albums list. It’s got to be one of the best Hold Steady albums after something of a lull in the mid-’10s. But hey, here it is: a song about an actor that’s somewhat obviously about being a working musician. All songs are songs about performance.
“Money,” Hamish Hawk
See above–why the fuck didn’t this album make the list? I might bounce something by January. I’m such a sucker for miserabilist storytellers making meta songs about how being a musician is beautiful and terrible.
“Room Comfort,” “End of the Road,” “Never Be the Same,” Rylo Rodriguez
I love this dude’s incomprehensible drawl. It’s comfy and menacing at the same time. Why aren’t there more rappers from Alabama? I guess it’s a small state compared to Georgia, and it was never a jazz and blues hub the way that other states along the Mississippi were…anyway, would read a history of Alabama music. This is definitely not an album but a collection of great singles surrounded by really forgettable songs.
“Sometimes,” “I Got Heaven,” Mannequin Pussy
The new album is going to be so good, based on these singles. “Drunk II” is probably still my favorite love song of the past decade.
“When We Were Close,” “That Ain’t It,” Jason Isbell
The best Jason Isbell did this year was having Palehound open for his band next year, because they’ve got cringe-inducing emotional honesty down in a way that he used to when he was writing songs on Decoration Day 20 years ago. His new album isn’t bad–at all–but compared to this wave of songwriters he’s pretty behind the times.
“Dumbest Girl Alive,” “Hollywood Baby,” 100 Gecs
The album has some songs that are so annoying that I can’t listen to it, but the singles, oh lord, the singles are unimpeachable.
“Padam Padam,” Kylie Minogue
I heard this in between bands at the Speedy Ortiz show I went to in November, and on good speakers it’s such an amazing song. My 2 year old is now into it. It’s that kind of song: fits in right along The Knife’s “Heartbeats” as a banger for the kids and the parents. They also played Amerie’s “1 Thing,” and I remembered that was the greatest song ever made, maybe.
“True Blue,” Boygenius
Great song. It could be a Home Video outtake, and that makes it better than everything else on this album, none of which really get at why each of these artists are good on their own. It’s weird, because I loved the EP and was very excited for this, but it just made me want to listen to Home Video, Punisher, Stranger in the Alps, and Turn Out the Lights. Seeing Lucy/Julien/Phoebe/Boygenius in a small rock club in 2019 and hearing the early Punisher and Home Video tracks will be one of the highlights of the last 10 years of seeing concerts, but I definitely resent the current hype about this supergroup since it’s probably going to distract each of them from making better solo albums going forward. The EP was lightning in a bottle, but this ain’t it.
“Illusion, Pt.2,” “Wretched Lie,” The Tubs
Yep, they sound a lot like The Smiths, but there’s still a lot of gold to mine in that vein. I was listening to “Illusion, Pt. 2” while getting on a plane without any context for the album and it was such a slap in the face moment that I played it three or four times in a row to make sure it was as good as I thought it was the first time. Yep, it’s still great.
“Turn off the House,” “Tropic Morning News,” The National
Those would be the ones you need to hear from two extremely boring albums.
“I Want to Be Your Only Pet,” Bombay Bicycle Club
There’s still juice in ‘00s freak folk/psychedelia, I guess? Not that much juice: the rest of the album is just ok, but this one needs to score the ending of an A24 movie immediately.
“FINA,” “NO ME QUIERO CASAR,” “WHERE SHE GOES,” Bad Bunny.
I want my beautiful baby Benito to chill out and ride some horses for a little while like my beautiful baby Nikola Jokic. Instead he’s releasing another 20-plus song album, which makes it…somewhere around 110 songs in 5 years? He didn’t actually need to exercise quality control in 2020, since all 40 of those songs were fire, but the well has run a little dry. I only count about ¼ of these songs as good, and he sounds utterly bored on the other half.
“Full Time Job,” “When a Plant is Dying,” Squirrel Flower
Man, Ella O'Connor Williams is by far the coolest Grinnell alum since…Kumail Nanjiani? I would not wish Kumail’s trajectory on her unless she’s looking to get extremely ripped and start making black metal, which she’d probably be extremely good at based on about half of these songs.
“Practice,” “Wolfsheep,” “Backburner,” Jamila Woods
These are some pleasant R&B songs from a very talented artist. Legacy! Legacy! was a total success from a complete genius. This one is pretty boring, kind of like Heavn, her album from 2017. I just can’t take the woo woo New Age stuff too much, unless actual Erykah Badu is doing it, and then I will take as much as I can get. I like Woods when she’s leaning into that political/personal mix much more than this one, which is almost all about relationships…and astrology…and tarot…
“Chest,” Fred Again., Brian Eno
Brian Eno is yet again invited to slow down and film soundtrackify a younger artist who usually makes faster, poppier music. Just like with David Bowie, the Talking Heads, U2, or Coldplay, he classes up the joint maybe a little too much, blurring everything together a little into mushy if tasty Soylent that often obscures why Fred Again. is a pretty cool artist.
“Weightless,” “Strong,” Romy
Speaking of being a little too classy: basically the entirety of the xx’s output, besides that one Jamie xx solo album In Colour, which was one of the best of 2015. Club Romy is close to being fun not classy, and these two songs (one in collaboration with a very fun Fred Again. beat) point to a possibly great album in the future.
“Hard to Love,” Bully
It’s not like Bully has ever not sounded like the 90’s, but for some reason the influences just seem overwhelming here. I think I preferred Sugaregg and Feels Like because the production was somewhat worse, but your milage may vary. For this kind of music, I like looking at the seems a bit, and this is pretty seamless.
“punkt,” “my kiss era,” “my little tony,” “Hi fiver,” Bar Italia
Not to return to a theme, but the erratic capitalization gives you some of the sense of what they’re all about: self-serious. There’s a great album inside of two albums of released material this year, and I wish their artistic integrity compelled them to make a 10 great songs rather than two albums of often funny and interesting indie-rock. LILY boy-girl dueling vocals, Wire, The Fall.
“Scientists and Engineers,” Killer Mike, Andre 3000, Future
The idea is somewhat irresistible: Andre raps like Andre about Duboisian double-consciousness, Future raps like Future about the same subject, then Mike raps like Andre/Future about the same subject. The rest of this album is not as good as R.A.P. Music, which was the last good Killer Mike album (not hot take: Run the Jewels are not good).
“My Friends are Having a Hard Time,” Militarie Gun
This is a hard rock song, just like the songs on The Armed album this year and on the Turnstile album last year, but all three groups are more than capable of making hardcore if they want. However, since no one else is making hard rock, it’s up to hardcore bands to make it. This is a pretty great album for the gym.
“Pretty Boy,” Noel Gallagher
I’m probably more of a Blur boy than an Oasis one, but obviously Noel Gallagher’s best songs are all far better than Damon Alburn’s. This is one of his best!
“Rain So Hard,” Stranger Ranger
If you’re going to do 80’s revival, it should song more like Peter Gabriel than than Duran Duran, because fuck, so much 80’s revival sounds like Duran Duran. The boy/girl vocals on this album are an excellent touch. It’s got a very coherent vision, but it’s just a bit slight to really qualify as a full project.
“Scapegoat, “ Anonhi and the Johnsons
The rest of this album is a great return to form for her: I think I just read somewhere that some music website said “Hope There’s Someone” was the best song of the 00’s, which I don’t quite agree with, but it’s gotta be at least top 25! I don’t hate Hopelessness, but I love the Johnsons, and the warm soul sound of the band fits her voice as well now as it did back then. This song is the best representation of the whole album, especially since it’s got a few different sections spread across its five minutes.
“Big Songbirds Don’t Cry,” “Locket,” “Infinite Spring,” Superviolet
Serious Big Star vibes here, mixed with maybe like The Shins and a little bit of pop punk. Basically, this album sounds like a very pleasant day being stoned next to a lake.
“Piggy,” MAN ON MAN
Some great songs on Provincetown! The musical palette doesn’t grab me too often, but there’s enough novel in hard-edged songs about being gay that I’m interested in it.
“Somebody’s Drinking About You,” Brennen Leigh
This album reminds me of the first Casey Musgraves album, Pageant Material. It’s got a little more swing and twang than that one—even at that point, Casey was more pop than honky-tonk. But Leigh has the same way with wordplay that Musgraves has, and her warm, wry voice carries the songs in a satisfying way.
“Elohim,” “Cash Carter Hill,” Tommy Prine
Tommy’s got the way with words that his old man did, mixed with a millennial aesthetic, that is: Elohim sounds sort of nu-metal, and Cash Carter Hill sounds sort of like Mumford/Avett Bros stomp rock. I don’t think John was going to mix up his aesthetic this much, so it’s pretty awesome to hear some new Prine songs that sound like this.
“mum is calling,” “ghost2,” Two Shell
Hyperpop lives! It’s still much more of a singles art to me than an album one, especially after the loss of Sophie, who was able to sequence together enough interesting textures to fill out an album space. These are some extremely artful singles.
“Evicted,” Wilco
They’ve made some sleepy albums, but this is probably the sleepiest. This one could have been a cut from Cruel Country, which was much better.
“Fa Fa Fa,” Yo Gotti, EST Gee
Moneybagg Yo and Glorilla are a part of this project and they’re way better rappers, but Yo Gotti has stuck around for this long because he works hard, and this is a song about working hard. The hook is irresistible.
“Overtime,” “Smaller Acts,” “Nine Ball” Zach Bryan
I don’t like the feature on this album or on the EP. Bryan can flex because of his sudden popularity, but what he does is too specific to play well with others. His maximalism thing means that he’s not going to make a great album any time soon, but his best songs sweat and bleed better than anyone elses’. See the bird chirping on “Smaller Acts” for evidence.
“77,” “Tulum,” Peso Pluma
Pluma has one of those abrasive voices that make whatever he does sound punk rock, even if it’s singing over regional Mexican music. I loved this album overall, even if I fell a little harder for Grupo Frontera. They combine forces on Tulum and while the lyrics are super cringe, their voices sound amazing together.
“¿Que Carajos…,” “Coco Chanel,” “M3,” Eladio Carrion
He’s on “77,” and that’s how I first heard about him, but of course Bad Bunny is also on his album just like he’s on the Grupo album. Again, Benito: take a break. But again: Bad Bunny is really good on this song just like he’s really good on the Grupo song. This album is more inconsistent than either the Peso or Grupo albums, but the highs are extremely high. He’s got more edge than Bunny, and maybe not quite as much range. If Bad Bunny’s the Drake of Spanish language trap, then maybe Carrio will be the…Future?
“Vin Skully,” “Sirius Blac,” Earl Sweatshirt
When I heard the first song, I thought EARL MIGHT BE BACK, but no, he’s not back, he’s still holed up in his monastery of not giving a fuck where he’s lived since Some Rap Songs. If he still creates a few good songs a year, that’s fine, I just wish so many of the songs he’s made in the last five years didn’t feel like he made them in about 2 minutes and forget about them. “Vin” has that complexity and density that sounds like it required a lot of drafts. “Sirius” does feel tossed off, but it comes together for some reason.
“Barbaric,” Blur
I count 4 good songs and 1 great one on the new Blur album, which is definitely more than on, say, the most recent Gorillaz album. If Damon can’t stop himself from making new music, he should make it here! He’s got a very boring guest feature on the Bombay Bicycle Club album that really takes the air out of the back half of it. I overall just don’t love his status as the elder statesman of British indie rock, it’s a bad look.
“Engine,” Slaughter Beach, Dog
See the Blur album above: sad boy rock, four good songs, one great. I have a little more affection for this one since the storytelling is often weirder and more fun.
“Gem & I,” Animal Collective
This one’s got Feels vibes, and I’m always down for some Feels.
“Kiss Your Face,” Lilts
I’m totally fine not getting more Wild Pink this year since the last album was confessional and intimate and perfectly constructed (would have been top-5 if I made a list) but this unexpected project is a great reminder of how great of a songwriter John Ross is.