Top Songs of 2020

Welcome to this year's edition of my Top Songs of the Year! Now some context- I hit a point of absolute frustration with attempting to like basically any pop-music/Top 40/Top 100 stuff early this year. I'd watch the recap of the Billboard Top 100 on Youtube each week for the past couple of years and it has declined more and more each year. It is now to the point where it's just very similar sounding rap songs mixed in with very similar sounding country songs and a sprinkle of teen-pop songs. Ok, so "let's look at the Alt Rock charts as that's what you like the most"- well, it's not alternative rock that's actually on it (I think Machine Gun Kelly is the closest thing there is to it on there but that's kind of it).

So in the middle of the summer I went looking in some deeper parts of the internet to try and find some new music that might actually sounds good. A lot of this stuff you may not recognize at all- I sure didn't at first, but give it a few listens, it's pretty good in the end. My hope of people actually still playing music was restored as well- to some degree... unfortunately a chunk of these bands do not get much of any airplay so if you like what you hear, definitely support them on sites like bandcamp and such.

"Black Licorice" by Peach Pit

This was the first song that came to my mind when thinking of doing this year's list. Just kind of fits the mood of what 2020 became right?

"Polar Opposites" by Modest Mouse

Ok Ok it's not a song that came out in 2020, or even at the tail end of 2019- it's from like... 1997?!? Yes, I had never heard of it though until this year and if there is a song for 2020 how can you argue against this? "I'm trying to drink away the part of the day that I cannot sleep away"... I'm not a huge drinker anymore these days but I know we've all had quite a few of these types of days this year.

"Dream About Judy" by The Whiffs

I enjoyed the sound of this whole album actually. "Shakin' All Over" was closest in contention to making this list, I just didn't want to put two songs from the same band on here. In any case, the Whiffs have a sound that I want to call very early/mid 60's rock-ish? This song definitely plays into that. Good stuff, again, check out their whole album.

"Can't Do Much" by Waxahatchee

Really really solid album throughout and I got to actually drive through West Memphis as the song "Fire" played, so that was cool (well I thought it was). Anyways this song is a nice smooth journey in of itself and yea- good relaxing stuff.

"If You're Too Shy (Let Me Know)" by The 1975

So yea let's ge to some cheesey 80's sounding stuff! I am a sucker for 80's music (I mean it's scientifically the best decade for music, that's a fact) and this song has big time 80's pop vibes, sax and all! I was a bit bummed though when I went to listen to the rest of the band's stuff only for it to sound really nothing like this and pretty bad. But hey, they made this and what would be an 80's song without a "one-hit wonder" vibe?

"Wipeout" by Sebastian Maschat & Erlend Øye

In 2020 we had this thing called a pandemic and like people were like stuck in places as countries shut down travel. These two guys got stuck at a hotel in Mexico that had a recording studio so they took some lemons and made some... very peaceful surfing music.

"Bailey" by Suzie True

Hey it's 2020, I'm cool with enjoying a girl-to-girl love song- especially one as catchy and garage-rocky as this one. Some other good songs by this band as well- the chorus of this one (although it's just one word) gets stuck in my head the most though.

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"Tides I" by Sarchasm

Sorry there was no video available for this song so I just put in the youtube music link to it. Yes there are three songs there but I'm referring to Tides I in particular - and yes it's from 2017, however with how little exposure this band has if it takes three years to find it's way to me I'm going to treat it like it's new. It's a good looong song. I'm glad there are still kids out there actually playing instruments and rocking out. Polished, absolutely not - sound like teenagers, a bit- but I still liked it in the end.

"Oxbow" by The City Windows

Dude, a guy doing the "vomit scream" into the microphone? C'mon man, you've lost your damn mind through this pandemic... maybe, hehe- but I heard this and was yes immediately turned off by the vomit screaming, but then I decided to listen to it in it's entirity and I actually liked it quite a bit by the end.

"Cut the Bridle" by The Luxembourg Signal

A very close sound to the Dandy Warhols "Bohemian Like You", it's not the greatest song of the year by any means but a really not very well known band that makes some good music that's worthy of sharing.