The 100 Best Songs Of 2020
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exemplification : Rae Pozdro for NPR
Illustration: Rae Pozdro for NPR
Reading: The 100 Best Songs Of 2020
Welcome to a whacker of a mixtape. If you ‘ve been living under the rock 2020 dropped on all of us back in March and spent the last nine months finding ease in the sounds of your childhood ( hell, even 2019 ), we have some good news for you : adenine icky as this class has been for anyone with a shred of empathy, the jams were ample. When the news program cycle had us at a loss for words, we found calm songs to speak for us. When we wanted to smile without looking at our phones, buoyant distractions abounded. If racism, xenophobia and sociopathic demeanor made us want to scream, Black musicians found amazingly imaginative ways of saying “ um, did you just start paying attention ? ” And since we ‘re still stuck in this storm for the foreseeable future, we present to you a silver linings playlist : 100 songs that gave us life sentence when we needed it most. ( Find our 50 Best Albums number here. ) The 100 Best Songs Of 2020:
100-81 / 80-61 / 60-41 / 40-21 / 20-1
Big Hit Entertainment /
YouTube
BTS
“Dynamite”
Or listen on the streaming platform of your choice.
For its first-ever all-English-language song, BTS got away songwriters to craft a persistent, chart-topping, “ uptown Funk ” -style firecracker. The lyrics forgo the K-pop jagannath ‘s notes of aspirant reflection in favor of hashtag-ready exclamations of gladden, vitamin a well as sincerely reverend couplets like “ Shoes on, get up in the morning / Cup of milk, let ‘s rock and wind. ” Damned if it does n’t work wonders. Cup of milk, let ‘s rock and roll ! —Stephen Thompson
High Top Mountain /
YouTube
Sturgill Simpson
“Living The Dream”
Or listen on the streaming platform of your choice.
Kentucky ‘s country music desperado sounds completely at home spill the beans with Nashville ‘s a-team of bluegrass musicians on Cuttin ‘ Grass, his first string ring album. The album reinterprets 20 songs from his catalogue, including this short, sardonic number from the trippy 2014 album Metamodern Sounds In Country Music. “ Living The Dream ” is more paradoxical and cryptic than most bluegrass, but it works ; one moment he ‘s an ambitious go-getter, the future he prays his occupation inquiries do n’t call back. He ‘s exist lean, but living large, with a banjo keeping time. —Craig Havighurst ( WMOT )
Republic /
YouTube
Ariana Grande
“pov”
Or listen on the streaming platform of your choice.
Ariana Grande ‘s “ pov ” comes off as a flutter, ethereal ode to newfound love, but it ‘s in truth a meditation on how she uses love story as a lens to better get to know herself. While “ thank u, next ” looked back at life lessons from past relationships, on “ pov ” Grande wishes she could see herself from her boyfriend ‘s position. The lyrics shed light on separate of the journey to assurance : necessitate person else ‘s gaze in order to appreciate the strengths you ‘ve had all along. —Nastia Voynovskaya ( KQED )
The Conglomerate Entertainment /
YouTube
Busta Rhymes (feat. Kendrick Lamar)
“Look Over Your Shoulder”
Or listen on the streaming platform of your choice.
It might be condom to say that Busta Rhymes was justly : Since his 1996 introduction, The Coming, and systematically thereafter, he ‘s warned us of cataclysmal events. After an eight-year foramen, the aureate earned run average titan felt ( correctly ) that the prison term to return was now. The third unmarried from Extinction Level Event 2 : The Wrath of God features the sole appearance from Kendrick Lamar this year and, despite the dour root of the plan, frequent collaborator Nottz provides one of most uplift beats I ‘ve always heard. —Bobby carter
ATO /
YouTube
Chicano Batman
“Color my life”
Or listen on the streaming platform of your choice.
Chicano Batman ‘s invisible People is the soundtrack to the funk-rock house-party none of us got to throw in 2020. Its possibility birdcall, “ Color My Life, ” is the album ‘s receive, mildly psychedelic welcome mat. Almost immediately, bassist Eduardo Arenas settles into a groove so deep it ‘s about a tunnel. thankfully, Bardo Martinez ‘s cheat on voice leads the room out through lyrics filled with limpid dreams, shining lights and a wholly lot of feels, while adding off-kilter synth riffs that you ‘ll find yourself humming for days. —Jerad Walker ( Oregon Public Broadcasting ‘s opbmusic.org )
Universal /
YouTube
Tiwa Savage
“Dangerous Love (DJ Tunez & D3an Remix)”
Or listen on the streaming platform of your choice.
You can much gauge the success of a birdcall by how many remixes roll away. As of this writing, nigerian ace Tiwa Savage ‘s 2020 hit “ dangerous Love ” has five official reinterpretations. Our favored of the bunch ups the Afrobeat component ( and tempo ) thanks to frequent Wizkid confederate DJ Tunez and ally D3an. nowadays if it was only doubly as hanker … —Otis Hart
Atlantic /
YouTube
Breland (feat. Sam Hunt)
“My Truck (Remix)”
Or listen on the streaming platform of your choice.
No one has done more with the lessons of “ Old Town Road ” than the knocker, singer and songwriter Breland. There ‘s a sleep together blink to his flaunt of the condition symbols of hand truck culture in “ My hand truck ” that hearkens back to the maleficence of Lil Nas X, but Breland whipped up his stumble using sonic elements and cultural signifiers clearly sourced from both country and trap. What he actually shows off by skating from an crude, stair-stepping tune to falsetto licks and fleet R & B runs with such cheerful ease is a stylistic dexterity, and strategy, for working across genre boundaries. ( He did invite Sam Hunt, the country-pop ace most fluent in R & B-style suavity, onto the remix, after all. ) —Jewly Hight ( WNXP 91.ONE )
Columbia /
YouTube
Leon Bridges (feat. Terrace Martin)
“Sweeter”
Or listen on the streaming platform of your choice.
Leon Bridges was planning on releasing “ Sweeter, ” his collaboration with multi-instrumentalist Terrace Martin, following year. rather, it came out days after the kill of George Floyd. He confessed to his fans that this was the first clock he wept for a man he never met and requested they listen to the song from the perspective of a black valet taking his last breath, as his life is being taken from him. Backed by Martin on sax, Bridges sings : “ Hoping for a life more gratifying / alternatively I ‘m precisely a floor repeating / Why do I fear with peel colored as nox / Ca n’t feel peace with those judging eyes. ” A count on racism, the smasher in the emotion belies the pain of this soulful song. —Alisha Sweeney ( Colorado Public Radio ‘s Indie 102.3 )
Polyvinyl /
YouTube
Yumi Zouma
“Cool For A Second”
Or listen on the streaming platform of your choice.
Give the New Zealand dream-pop ring Yumi Zouma just over three minutes of your fourth dimension, and it ‘ll transport you on a spring breeze. certain, it ‘s taking you to a place of boundless flustered somber, but when life lets you travel via spring breeze, you ‘d best just jump at the casual. —Stephen Thompson
Atlantic /
YouTube
Hayley Williams
“Simmer”
Or listen on the streaming platform of your choice.
much, explosive anger does n’t hold the same transformative potential as a hum, slow cauterize. The opening track on the Paramore singer ‘s first solo album luxuriates in this type of anger ; indeed, its first word is a surefooted “ ramp ” that follows a meet exhale. Slinky and contained and good — as the style suggests — on the verge of seethe over, the song catalyzes low-temperature injury into a tribute for hard-won dignity. —Marissa Lorusso
Dirty Hit /
YouTube
The 1975
“If You’re Too Shy (Let Me Know)”
Or listen on the streaming platform of your choice.
You ca n’t stop Matty Healy, and he ca n’t stop himself, either. It ‘s cool — at this point in the animation of The 1975, the definitive pop music band of the moment going on half a decade, he ‘s more or less permalancing as the bard of the idly, excessively on-line, paralyzed by a hyper-awareness of privilege, every little bowel movement mediated by a screen and oooh, the damage done. equally long as he and his friendsters keep writing melodies like this one and stringing them up on what phone like improved versions of lost pre-grunge synth hits, why would you want him to ? —Jacob Ganz
Joyful Noise /
YouTube
Swamp Dogg
“Billy”
Or listen on the streaming platform of your choice.
Jerry Williams Jr. has locomoted from blues to funk-psychedelia to Bon Iver-assisted Auto-Tune in his 65-year career, but his Virginia howl has always touched state music ‘s sad soul – never better than on this weeper, sung by a widower at a family matriarch ‘s grave. —Ann Powers
New Amsterdam /
YouTube
Roomful Of Teeth
“Just Constellations No. 1, The Opening Constellation (Summer)”
Or listen on the streaming platform of your choice.
Recorded in an enormous steel water system tank car dating from 1940, this hatchway while, from a four-movement suite, takes great advantage of that spectacularly reverberant space. The music, by Michael Harrison, unfolds in bleary, swirling, echoing layers that produce massive “ ring ” of glowing sound. Let the music wash in and out, and you can hear what might have happened if Giovanni Palestrina was a fan of Tuvan throat cantabile. —Tom Huizenga
Epic /
YouTube
GIVĒON
“Still Your Best”
Or listen on the streaming platform of your choice.
here is a loveman worthy of a real faint. The 25-year-old Giveon shows off a baritone made for bedroom speakers in this insidious takedown of an ex-wife that, cold as the lyrics can get, hush oozes seductive capture. —Ann Powers
N-Less Entertainment /
YouTube
Moneybagg Yo
“Said Sum”
Or listen on the streaming platform of your choice.
The internet influences everything we touch, and music is no exception. In true 2020 fashion, Moneybagg Yo leaned right into the meme-o-verse with the provocative individual “ Said Sum. ” Inspired by a flippant social media give voice that gained popularity early this year, the Memphis rapper borrowed the concept and flipped it into a top 20 Billboard sung. “ Said Sum ” is Moneybagg Yo doing what he does best : taunting his foes relentlessly and sounding unusually charismatic while doing then. —Kiana Fitzgerald
Self-Released /
YouTube
Rita Indiana (feat. Kiko El Crazy)
“Mandinga Times”
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The titular track on Rita Indiana ‘s first album in 10 years, “ Mandinga Times ” is a countdown to the end. Indiana occupies the character of the song ‘s chief observer and narrator, Mandinga, who reports political corruption, state violence and climate crisis as harbingers of ball-shaped revelation. This catastrophe rains over a frantic alí-babá beat with droning metallic guitars and horror inflections, as Dominican dembow artist Kiko El Crazy repeats the maxim “ no tellurium dejes ” in a verse of survival. Scorning the ferocity that defines the present, Mandinga welcomes, within the revelation of one global, the opportunity ( and duty ) to build a better one. —Stefanie Fernández
Parlophone /
YouTube
Ashnikko (feat. Grimes)
“Cry”
Or listen on the streaming platform of your choice.
Ashnikko screams over distorted, whining guitars. Grimes whispers about the winter of her discontent in her key signature, barely perceptible part across an contagiously tinny drum loop. The military capability of “ Cry ” is in the dichotomy. Presented by this emerging TikTok ace, the track – camp hyperpop inspired by nu-metal acts like Evanescence – is expansive and vulnerable, oscillating between evil, throat-punching screech and finespun, honey breaths. Ashnikko ‘s question : “ cunt ! Are you tryna make me cry ? ” once posed, there ‘s no need for an answer. —LaTesha Harris
Partisan /
YouTube
Ultraísta
“Tin King”
Or listen on the streaming platform of your choice.
They could n’t sound less alike, but the best reference orient for a song like “ Tin King ” just might be R.E.M. ‘s “ It ‘s the end of the World as We Know It ( And I Feel Fine ) ” : strands of cut-out poetry that sometimes form a accomplished think and sometimes do not, string across just a handful of notes and tied to a freight-train coquette that feels like it could chug along constantly. Singer Laura Bettinson sinks bass into the product, gradually allowing her voice to become merely another synth texture for Joey Waronker ‘s jittery cram to vibrate against, until the din of half-heard words begins to make its own strange sense. —Daoud Tyler-Ameen
Feel It /
YouTube
Sweeping Promises
“Hunger For A Way Out”
Or listen on the streaming platform of your choice.
When I most lost dancing at basement shows this class, drink on rock and roll ecstasy and possibly a few beers, I ‘d listen to “ Hunger for a Way Out, ” a two-minute jolt of bedraggled post-punk dream, recorded around a single mic in a vacant concrete lab. Everything ‘s blown out and blissful, specially Lira Mondal ‘s infectious yelps and howl, pushing your hips into the red. —Lars Gotrich
Oh Boy /
YouTube
Arlo McKinley
“Die Midwestern”
Or listen on the streaming platform of your choice.
bust up dreams and supplanting from center America have been common themes in roots music for some years nowadays, but the narrative resonates afresh in the voice of Cincinnati songwriter Arlo McKinley. On the carry, and country, championship lead of Die Midwestern, the disquiet is grief, and the dilemma is a classical stay-or-go option of person who loves his home more than, possibly, it loves him. —Craig Havighurst ( WMOT )
NPR’s 100 Best Songs Of 2020
100-81 | 80-61 | 60-41 | 40-21 | 20-1
