My Top 20 Songs of 2020

It seems every 2020 recap or compilation post always follows the same formula: “2020 was a rough year, but look at us now! We pushed through, persevered, and can now celebrate with confetti showers as 2021 welcomes us!” Blah blah, you’ve heard this story before – in fact, you were forced to live it in a boring/anxious fashion, so you don’t need the reminder. Instead, it’s time to talk about the songs that made this year bearable, and perhaps introduce you to some new songs you missed along the way.

Thinking back to the pre/early quarantine albums that were released this year – such as Breaking Benjamin’s Aurora, Tame Impala’s The Slow Rush, and AWOLNATION’s Angel Miners & The Lightning Riders – feels a lot like looking into my high school yearbook. They both feel like centuries have passed since, but they still, in a bizarre way, feel close enough to grab. Personally, I was given plenty (and plenty [and plenty]) of time to discover new bands while also diving deeper into ones I was already familiar with, such as The Struts and Joywave. On top of that, I devoted all of October and November submerged in my old Van Halen records (rest easy to the late legend, EVH) that now proudly stand on my record display shelf. Here’s a picture, in case you just couldn’t put the image together.

Anyway, enough of me babbling about listening to music. Now it’s time for me to babble about ranking music, specifically my top 20 songs of 2020. I have talked to the 2020 council and they have informed me that, in fact, this list is the confirmed ranking of the year’s best songs. My apologies if your favorite didn’t appear, I’m just relaying what I was told.

Note: as this list initially seemed relatively easy to put together, many of the songs that originally made my list (STARSET’s “TRIALS”, Fozzy’s “Nowhere to Run”, Tyler Childers’s “House Fire”, just to name a few), in fact, weren’t released in 2020. Additionally, if a song was released as a single in 2020, but the album it appeared on was released in 2019, then it wasn’t eligible for this list. Kind of funny how I placed my own rules just to further annoy myself, but at least no one can claim I didn’t do my research.

20. “Bury a Lie” - Slaves

19. “It Might Be Time” – Tame Impala

18. “Me & You Together Song” – The 1975

17. “Go Crazy” – Chris Brown ft. Young Thug

16. “Let It Go” - Seether

15. “The Day I Tried To Live” - Sevendust

14. “Shh!” – Stand Atlantic

13. “Love” - Sevendust

12. “This Feels Like The End” – Nothing But Thieves

11. “Way Out” – Jack Harlow

10. “If You’re Too Shy (Let Me Know)” – The 1975

Opening with a plucking one-minute intro that includes angelic wails, “If You’re Too Shy” then rolls into the addictive catchiness that The 1975 is known for, along with some French horns and a saxophone solo thrown in. We’ll just pretend the lyrics are as thought-provoking and non-creepy as Matt Healy says it is.

9. “Teardrops” – Bring Me The Horizon

“Teardrops” appeared on Bring Me The Horizon’s October release, Post Human: Survival Horror, whose title was able to capture the essence of the spooky season. Songs like “Teardrops” and “Ludens” make BMTH grow on me like an infection. In addition, they also have songs with novel-length titles and that feature the Japanese queens of “wtf am I listening to,” BABYMETAL, which tells me that these guys love playing anywhere but in-between the lines.

8. “Melt” – TWIN XL

Last time I did my year-end “best of” list, Big Spring was the independent band that snuck their way into my Top 10 and into my heart. This year, it’s LA alt-pop band TWIN XL’s turn. Although I haven’t flipped any pages through the TWIN XL catalogue, their playfully howling guitars and infatuated vocals – all soaked in sugar and honey – make this song mesmerizing.

7. “Fly on the Wall” – The Violent

I have a huge brag that I promise nobody will care about. When listening to “Fly on the Wall” for the first time, I thought, “Gee, those vocals sure do sound familiar. This isn’t Mike Protich, former lead vocalist of the now disbanded Red Sun Rising, is it?” You bet your sweet peach-emoji it was.

After Red Sun Rising disbanded in February, Protich and a couple other RSR members formed The Violent. Initially, the band was completely incognito, not releasing its members’ identities to add ambiguity and mystery. But come on, rock fans have all heard that voice somewhere before.

6. “Can You Hear Me (Acoustic) – Korn

This entry is interesting because “Can You Hear Me” was released on Korn’s 2019 release, The Nothing. However, the acoustic version of the song wasn’t released until May of this year, therefore making it eligible by my self-imposed rules. Korn has been known throughout their nearly thirty-year career for their dense, dark, and sometimes chaotic style and sound. Which makes the acoustic version of “Can You Hear Me” such an intriguing, soothing juxtaposition when played right after its predecessor.

5. “OpenMic\\Aquarius III” – Logic

2020 was arguably Logic’s best year for music. Even though 2017 gave him two Grammy nominations, and 2018 & 2019 had him release two projects each, Logic had never rapped to his true potential until 2020’s No Pressure. The album contains Logic’s craftsmanship at combining powerful wordplay and passionately telling personal stories, and the first stage of this song, “OpenMic,” may be the best example of this on the entire album. It also leaves me with one of my favorite lines Logic’s ever written:

I’m a gladiator in a coliseum

Everybody wanna be him

Till they feel that they can’t be him

Then they wanna see him lose

Wrote this poem in navy

That’s what I call singing the blues

4. “F.E.A.R.” – Joywave

During quarantine, I was fortunate enough to unearth the chaotic beauty that is Joywave. As a brief introduction of what I mean, watch this video explaining the meaning behind “F.E.A.R.” Or watch the music video for Joywave’s song, “It’s a Trip!” Or listen to their album SWISH, which is literally the same song repeated over nine tracks, but with the first twenty seconds slightly altered each time. Or go to their concert, where there’s a chance they’ll play said song 7 times in a row.

It must’ve been lead singer Daniel Armbruster’s unapologetic Sharpie-drawn mustache that hypnotized me into listening to their March album, Possession, but I’m glad it did. With a flexatone intro and a theremin solo after the chorus, I had to take a class in Music Appreciation just to understand how unorthodox this earworm of a song is.

3. “SMELLS LIKE INCENSE” – Jack Harlow

Before the worldwide recognition and Papa John’s commercials, Jack Harlow came out with Sweet Action that brimmed with songs that the frat-guy-who-doesn’t-like-rap-but-wants-to crowd ate up. Other crowds ate it up, too, but that demographic seems to be the loudest. As for me, I almost fit that demographic but not quite, so I can say, “this tolling Grandfather clock beat laces smoothly over Harlow’s ventures into incense smelling apartments” without a touch of irony.

2. “GP4” – Logic

“GP4” was my top Spotify song of the year, as I streamed it 27 times at the time of the Spotify 2020 Wrapped. So, of course, I felt obligated to put it as my number one song this year. At the same time, I kept seesawing back and forth between which Logic song is stronger: this one, or “OpenMic\\Aquarius III””? “GP4” is the fourth and final installment of Logic’s “Growing Pains” saga that he started on his first mixtape, 2010’s Young, Broke, and Infamous, and it’s without a doubt the best of the four. With a sedative beat that caresses the lone, lengthy verse, it seems Logic learned his lesson from 2019’s Confessions of a Dangerous Mind in that the more he unleashes his flow and doesn’t restrict himself with choruses, the better.

1.5 . “Is Everybody Going Crazy?” – Nothing But Thieves

At number 1(.5) is the band that, with their October release Moral Panic, proved they are alternative rock staples for the foreseeable future. The English rockers’ 2016 song “Forever and Ever More” had been one of my all-time favorites since its release, so I found the time to dig into this band conveniently as “Is Everybody Going Crazy?” was released. For now, let’s ignore the title that painfully fits 2020 like a snug tuxedo, and instead focus on the fact that lead singer Conor Mason may be the most talented vocalist in all of rock. He showcases his incredible vocal and emotional range in “IEGC?”, and the thing is, this song isn’t even the best example of his capabilities (for that, check out #12 on this list, “This Feels Like The End”. Their 2017 single “Amsterdam” may be the most prominent illustration, though). With such severe talent rooted in the band, it’s not a surprise that “Is Everybody Going Crazy?” grasped a hold to my attention all year and defined 2020 for me.

1. "F.E.A.R" - Joywave

In a bizarre turn of events that result from Joywave quoting my tweet and having me at their mercy, "F.E.A.R" has made a second appearance, this time at #1. The band that seems to keep on giving has continued in miraculous fashion.

In all honesty, I could have easily put "Half Your Age" here based on the music video alone, but "F.E.A.R" was just that good of a song. What can I say.

Bam. There are my top 20 songs of 2020. Agree or disagree? What are your top songs? Let me know!