The Best Songs of 2020
100-81 / 80-61 / 60-41 / 40-21 / 20-1
100.
BTS
"Dynamite"
For its first-ever all-English-language song, BTS got outside songwriters to craft a relentless, chart-topping, "Uptown Funk"-style banger. The lyrics forgo the K-pop juggernaut's notes of hopeful reflection in favor of hashtag-ready exclamations of joy, as well as truly sublime couplets like "Shoes on, get up in the morn / Cup of milk, let's rock and roll." Damned if it doesn't work wonders. Cup of milk, let's rock and roll! —Stephen Thompson
99.
Sturgill Simpson
"Living The Dream"
Kentucky's country music desperado sounds completely at home singing with Nashville's A-Team of bluegrass musicians on Cuttin' Grass, his first string band album. The album reinterprets 20 songs from his catalog, 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 minute he's an ambitious go-getter, the next he prays his job inquiries don't call back. He's living lean, but living large, with a banjo keeping time. —Craig Havighurst (WMOT)
98.
Ariana Grande
"pov"
Ariana Grande's "pov" comes off as a fluttering, ethereal ode to newfound love, but it's really a meditation on how she uses romance 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 perspective. The lyrics shed light on part of the journey to self-confidence: needing someone else's gaze in order to appreciate the strengths you've had all along. —Nastia Voynovskaya (KQED)
97.
Busta Rhymes (feat. Kendrick Lamar)
"Look Over Your Shoulder"
It might be safe to say that Busta Rhymes was right: Since his 1996 debut, The Coming, and consistently thereafter, he's warned us of cataclysmic events. After an eight-year hiatus, the golden era titan felt (correctly) that the time to return was now. The third single from Extinction Level Event 2: The Wrath of God features the sole appearance from Kendrick Lamar this year and, despite the grim theme of the project, frequent collaborator Nottz provides one of most uplifting beats I've ever heard. —Bobby Carter
96.
Chicano Batman
"Color my life"
Chicano Batman's Invisible People is the soundtrack to the funk-rock house-party none of us got to throw in 2020. Its opening song, "Color My Life," is the album's inviting, mildly psychedelic welcome mat. Almost immediately, bassist Eduardo Arenas settles into a groove so deep it's almost a tunnel. Thankfully, Bardo Martinez's wandering voice leads the way out through lyrics filled with lucid dreams, shining lights and a whole 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)
95.
Tiwa Savage
"Dangerous Love (DJ Tunez & D3an Remix)"
You can often gauge the success of a song by how many remixes roll out. As of this writing, Nigerian superstar Tiwa Savage's 2020 hit "Dangerous Love" has five official reinterpretations. Our favorite of the bunch ups the Afrobeat element (and tempo) thanks to frequent Wizkid collaborator DJ Tunez and ally D3an. Now if it was only twice as long... —Otis Hart
94.
Breland (feat. Sam Hunt)
"My Truck (Remix)"
No one has done more with the lessons of "Old Town Road" than the rapper, singer and songwriter Breland. There's a knowing wink to his flaunting of the status symbols of truck culture in "My Truck" that hearkens back to the mischief of Lil Nas X, but Breland whipped up his hit using sonic elements and cultural signifiers clearly sourced from both country and trap. What he really shows off by skating from an earthy, stair-stepping melody 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 superstar most fluent in R&B-style suaveness, onto the remix, after all.) —Jewly Hight (WNXP 91.ONE)
93.
Leon Bridges (feat. Terrace Martin)
"Sweeter"
Leon Bridges was planning on releasing "Sweeter," his collaboration with multi-instrumentalist Terrace Martin, next year. Instead, it came out days after the killing of George Floyd. He confessed to his fans that this was the first time he wept for a man he never met and requested they listen to the song from the perspective of a black man taking his last breath, as his life is being taken from him. Backed by Martin on saxophone, Bridges sings: "Hoping for a life more sweeter / Instead I'm just a story repeating / Why do I fear with skin dark as night / Can't feel peace with those judging eyes." A reckoning on racism, the beauty in the emotion belies the pain of this soulful song. —Alisha Sweeney (Colorado Public Radio's Indie 102.3)
92.
Yumi Zouma
"Cool For A Second"
Give the New Zealand dream-pop band Yumi Zouma just over three minutes of your time, and it'll transport you on a spring breeze. Sure, it's taking you to a place of boundless flustered melancholy, but when life lets you travel via spring breeze, you'd best just jump at the chance. —Stephen Thompson
91.
Hayley Williams
"Simmer"
Often, explosive anger doesn't hold the same transformative potential as a seething, slow burn. The opening track on the Paramore singer's first solo album luxuriates in this type of anger; indeed, its first word is a surefooted "rage" that follows a satisfied exhale. Slinky and contained and just — as the title suggests — on the verge of boiling over, the song catalyzes low-temperature trauma into a tribute for hard-won self-respect. —Marissa Lorusso
90.
The 1975
"If You're Too Shy (Let Me Know)"
You can't stop Matty Healy, and he can't stop himself, either. It's cool — at this point in the life of The 1975, the definitive pop band of the moment going on half a decade, he's more or less permalancing as the bard of the idly, overly online, paralyzed by a hyper-awareness of privilege, every little movement mediated by a screen and oooh, the damage done. As long as he and his friendsters keep writing melodies like this one and stringing them up on what sound like improved versions of lost pre-grunge synth hits, why would you want him to? —Jacob Ganz
89.
Swamp Dogg
"Billy"
Jerry Williams Jr. has locomoted from blues to funk-psychedelia to Bon Iver-assisted Auto-Tune in his 65-year career, but his Virginia wail has always touched country music's sad soul – never better than on this weeper, sung by a widower at a family matriarch's grave. —Ann Powers
88.
Roomful Of Teeth
"Just Constellations No. 1, The Opening Constellation (Summer)"
Recorded in an enormous steel water tank dating from 1940, this opening piece, from a four-movement suite, takes great advantage of that spectacularly reverberant space. The music, by Michael Harrison, unfolds in blurry, swirling, echoing layers that produce massive "halos" 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 singing. —Tom Huizenga
87.
Giveon
"Still Your Best"
Here is a loveman worthy of a real swoon. The 25-year-old Giveon shows off a baritone made for bedroom speakers in this subtle takedown of an ex that, cold as the lyrics can get, still oozes seductive charm. —Ann Powers
86.
Moneybagg Yo
"Said Sum"
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 single "Said Sum." Inspired by a flippant social media phrase that gained popularity early this year, the Memphis rapper borrowed the concept and flipped it into a Top 20 Billboard song. "Said Sum" is Moneybagg Yo doing what he does best: taunting his foes relentlessly and sounding remarkably charismatic while doing so. —Kiana Fitzgerald
85.
Rita Indiana (feat. Kiko El Crazy)
"Mandinga Times"
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 primary observer and storyteller, Mandinga, who reports political corruption, state violence and climate crisis as harbingers of global apocalypse. This cataclysm rains over a frenzied alí-babá beat with droning metal guitars and horror inflections, as Dominican dembow artist Kiko El Crazy repeats the axiom "no te dejes" in a verse of survival. Scorning the violence that defines the present, Mandinga welcomes, within the apocalypse of one world, the opportunity (and obligation) to build a better one. —Stefanie Fernández
84.
Ashnikko (feat. Grimes)
"Cry"
Ashnikko screams over distorted, whining guitars. Grimes whispers about the winter of her discontent in her signature, barely perceptible voice across an infectiously tinny drum loop. The strength of "Cry" is in the duality. Presented by this emerging TikTok sensation, the track – campy hyperpop inspired by nu-metal acts like Evanescence – is expansive and vulnerable, oscillating between vicious, throat-punching shrieks and delicate, honeyed breaths. Ashnikko's question: "Bitch! Are you tryna make me cry?" Once posed, there's no need for an answer. —LaTesha Harris
83.
Ultraísta
"Tin King"
They couldn't sound less alike, but the best reference point 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 complete thought and sometimes do not, strung across just a handful of notes and tied to a freight-train vamp that feels like it could chug along forever. Singer Laura Bettinson sinks deep into the production, gradually allowing her voice to become just another synth texture for Joey Waronker's jittery drumming to vibrate against, until the din of half-heard words begins to make its own strange sense. —Daoud Tyler-Ameen
82.
Sweeping Promises
"Hunger For A Way Out"
When I most missed dancing at basement shows this year, drunk on rock and roll ecstasy and maybe a few beers, I'd listen to "Hunger for a Way Out," a two-minute jolt of ramshackle post-punk dreaming, recorded around a single mic in a vacant concrete lab. Everything's blown out and blissful, especially Lira Mondal's infectious yelps and yowls, pushing your hips into the red. —Lars Gotrich
81.
Arlo McKinley
"Die Midwestern"
Wrecked dreams and displacement from middle America have been common themes in roots music for some years now, but the story resonates anew in the voice of Cincinnati songwriter Arlo McKinley. On the swaying, and country, title track of Die Midwestern, the unease is heartbreak, and the dilemma is a classic stay-or-go choice of someone who loves his home more than, perhaps, it loves him. —Craig Havighurst
100-81 / 80-61 / 60-41 / 40-21 / 20-1
80.
Popcaan (feat. Drake & PARTYNEXTDOOR)
"TWIST & TURN"
Popcaan's second project with Drake's OVO Sound includes a feature from the Champagne Papi himself in all his patois glory. The serpentine "TWIST & TURN" might have been one of the year's "song of the summer" contenders, thanks to its star power, memorable chorus and Caribbean vibe, courtesy of dvsn's Nineteen85 (who also produced "One Dance" and "Hotline Bling"). Instead, it's just another fire track by reggae's unruly god. —Otis Hart
79.
BeatKing (feat. Queendom Come)
"Then Leave"
Houston rapper-producer BeatKing has a catalogue of regional hits under his belt, but none of them have had the impact of "Then Leave." Featuring Queendom Come, who collaborated with BeatKing nearly a decade ago on the Texas club anthem "U Ain't Bout That Life," the song gained popularity largely due to TikToks by fellow Houstonian Lizzo and hip-hop power couple Cardi B and Offset. With trunk-rattling bass, humorous bars and an earworm of a chorus, the song might not be best for polite company, but it's perfectly fit for nightlife, whenever it returns. —Kiana Fitzgerald
78.
Terrace Martin, Robert Glasper, 9th Wonder & Kamasi Washington (feat. Phoelix)
"Freeze Tag"
With a smooth groove and incisive message that could only be achieved by combining Robert Glasper, Terrace Martin, Kamasi Washington and 9th Wonder, "Freeze Tag" finds humanity within the confines of a sociopolitical climate that offers little reprieve. Phoelix lends vocals to this offering from the supergroup's Dinner Party, taking on the proliferation of police brutality and systemic racism. "They told me put my hands up behind my head / I think they got the wrong one," he sings, recalling Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" with the follow-up lines, "I'm sick and tired of running / I've been searching where the love went." This is a bona fide anthem that addresses the injustices still taking place in 2020. —Desiré Moses (WNRN)
77.
Hum
"Waves"
Hum's seismic space rock is a tender beacon to gear nerds in their feelings. Post-metal and hardcore bands like Deafheaven, Deftones and Hopesfall owe a debt to a sound that's equal parts shoegaze, arena rock and heavy metal. Dropped out of nowhere in mid-summer, Hum's first album in 22 years opens with a helluva hello. Battering "Waves" sculpt eons of rock formations from gently bending guitar and one gargantuan riff as Hum's head-banging amplifier worship glides further out along the celestial curvature. —Lars Gotrich
76.
Jessie Ware
"Save A Kiss"
Listening to music in the midst of a global pandemic is an exercise in retrofitting songs with double meanings. Jessie Ware's "Save A Kiss" lends itself beautifully to the effect. The dancefloor-ready single arrived when many couldn't have been further from club lights and fellow humans, but it nevertheless felt perfectly suited to isolation. Nostalgia — for days of old, for the touches we crave but can't have — is baked in, leavened by an optimism that the reunion is worth the wait if we can just hold out a little while longer. It's a jubilant rush of animation in a time of suspension, as Ware's voice floats over a bed of pulsing, '80s-kissed electro-pop to remind us that anticipation itself can also be a form of euphoria. —Briana Younger
75.
Mireya Ramos
"Angelitos Negros"
Mireya Ramos is a founding member and one of the principal voices of Flor de Toloache, the female mariachi based in New York City. Ramos posses one of the most underrated voices in any language, one that can handle a classic song like the 1942 ballad "Angelitos Negros." Previously covered by Roberta Flack, it's a song that calls as much on old-school R&B as mariachi belting. Ramos has been hinting at releasing a full album on her own at some point and this single shows it will be worth the wait. Get to know her voice now. —Felix Contreras
74.
Xavier Omär
"SURF"
It's nearly impossible to isolate a favorite from Xavier Omär's if You Feel because each song lends itself to the others. Ultimately, "SURF" is the most fun on the album and just too strong of a bop to be denied. Omär is at his best when he stretches his vocal range and ramps up the tempo. Add Masego and a lighthearted video, and you've got a big winner for 2020. —Bobby Carter
73.
Ashley McBryde
"Hang In There Girl"
One of the most empathetic songwriters of her generation, Arkansas-born country star Ashley McBryde specializes in songs that feel utterly lived-in — they're keenly understanding about what goes on in dive bars, or what it feels like to defiantly pursue dreams long deferred. In "Hang In There Girl," McBryde crafts the song she didn't know we'd need in 2020: a simple mantra of resilience and reassurance. When she sings, "Trust me when I say, you're doin' fine," her kindness feels vital. —Stephen Thompson
72.
Zara McFarlane
"Everything Is Connected"
In a year that keeps capsizing, "Everything Is Connected" by U.K. jazz singer and songwriter Zara McFarlane rights the ship of serenity. "Born not to surrender, but to hope," she sings over a thick bass line, its sacred sound supported by acoustic and electronic drums. A testimony to being Black and British, McFarlane explores colonialism through the folk traditions and rhythms of her Jamaican ancestry. With history that informs the present, "expanding into a constant future / Into a lifelong web," her enchanting voice gives honor to a spirit that connects us all. —Suraya Mohamed
71.
Ruston Kelly
"Radio Cloud"
"Radio Cloud" begins almost in mid-thought, sneaking the melody in on an upbeat to introduce a narrator in no rush to get to whatever's next: "Who was I then? Who the hell am I now? / I'll do whatever till I figure it out." That attitude pretty well sums up the career of Ruston Kelly, a Nashville songwriter too punk to be a traditionalist and too gruff to go full pop, who seems to watch trends in Americana just closely enough to shift his weight away from them. Here, he styles himself as a young Moses parting the sea to find his lane — then spins the camera 180 degrees, inviting listeners to do the same for themselves. —Daoud Tyler-Ameen
70.
Aly & AJ
"Joan of Arc on the Dance Floor"
"Joan of Arc on the Dance Floor" starts with a slow build, invoking the glittery sensation of entering the club for a debauched evening. "We don't stop until mascara's on the dance floor," they sing in the chorus. Everlasting rebellion is the battle; anyone can take up Joan's mantle and anywhere can be your dance floor; it's just a matter of nerve and soundtrack. —LaTesha Harris
69.
Joy Oladokun
"i see america"
Joy Oladokun's "i see america" captures the distinctive spirit of this year of protest, its insistence that racist violence, and the worldviews that make it possible, not be allowed to remain buried beneath veneers of piety or politeness. Her folk-soul track, laid down in the solitude of her attic home studio, closes the distance between intimate grief, relational responsibility and national legacy. A reedy, tender singer, she sounds like she's through with softening and steadying her performance before it's over. —Jewly Hight (WNXP 91.ONE)
68.
Patrice Roberts
"Tender"
Trinidad and Tobago singer Patrice Roberts is the star of two huge soca songs this year. The first is her collaboration with singer Nessa Preppy and producer Travis World, "Splash," one of the year's most-watched videos that sadly didn't qualify for this list due to its December 2019 release. The second is "Tender," a gorgeous Caribbean bop that promises love long after the fete is over. The way Roberts turns over the word "eternally" in the chorus, emphasizing a different syllable each time, gets me every time. —Otis Hart
67.
La Doña
"Quién Me La Paga"
La Doña's music is never separate from struggle. Like the rest of her debut EP, Algo Nuevo, "Quién Me La Paga" is rooted firmly in San Francisco, where Cecilia Peña-Govea was born and raised, and in resistance to the rapid gentrification and rising costs of living for the city's Black and brown communities. Its first movement, a cumbia, notes the costs of not only rent and bills but of the personal rituals of nails, clothes, cars and weed that sustain joy beyond subsistence in a city growing ever more hostile to its working class. It builds to a reggaeton chorus that celebrates the resilience of community, resisting displacement in the joyful repetition of its titular question. —Stefanie Fernández
66.
Meet Me @ The Altar
"Garden"
This one's for the girls who never saw their own at punk shows growing up. Meet Me @ The Altar first met online, as three young women of color sharing their love for the swoopy-haired pop-punk acts that'd play Warped Tour after the turn of the millennium. "Garden" synthesizes the trio's scrappy EPs and Paramore influences into a headline event, as neon-blasted guitar riffs burst over double-kicked drums and Edith Johnson's voice sends your heart into the stratosphere. —Lars Gotrich
65.
Rolf Lislevand
"Tombeau pour Mesdemoiselles De Visée"
New to the theorbo, the lengthier sibling of the lute? Let Rolf Lislevand, the Norwegian master of the instrument, introduce you to its quiet charms and rich color palette. This intimate and bittersweet "tombeau," a musical memorial to lost loved ones, is by the little-documented Robert de Visée, who was likely the guitarist in residence for Louis XIV. While essentially sorrowful, the music, with its gentle repetitions and subtle dissonances, allows a few stray rays of sunlight to poke through the solitude. —Tom Huizenga
64.
Sarah Jarosz
"Johnny"
David Crosby works with a lot of young Americana artists, and when I had the chance to interview him this year, I asked him: Which young artist are you most excited about right now? His answer: Sarah Jarosz. And for good reason. The first time I listened to her song "Johnny," I found myself singing along with the chorus. There's something about it that feels like a long-lost hook from a '90s alternative rock song, but Jarosz manages to seamlessly integrate it into her own Americana-leaning songwriting style. That hook, combined with her stellar voice, is what makes this track shine. —Raina Douris (World Cafe)
63.
Lido Pimienta
"Eso Que Tu Haces"
Lido Pimienta has now, after years of uncompromising artistic development, mastered what feels like a tectonic, elemental power; whatever physical or imaginary space she places herself in is immediately and completely enthralled to it. Even in heartbreak, as on "Eso Que Tu Haces," she has a transcendent presence, locating a relationship's rift, cracking open its causes and confronting the messy contents, wholly. A lament, yes – but never a cry for help. Why would a mountain weep? —Andrew Flanagan
62.
Moor Jewelry
"Look Alive"
Moor Mother spits ancestral fire to confront our present. The Philly poet and experimental musician released several albums and collaborations in 2020, including True Opera, an improvised punk missive with producer Mental Jewelry. They both set aside electronics for live instruments, open to the whims of mistake and instant creation. Crass and No Trend course through these veins, especially on "Look Alive," as a scuzzed-out groove spirals out of an urgent question: "At what point do we stand up for trans youth? At the breaking point? At the point of no return? At the point of release, of retraction?" —Lars Gotrich
61.
Sam Sweeney
"Steppy Downs Road"
Albion, take me away. British fiddler Sam Sweeney has written a timeless tune for the ages, the kind of instrumental that you can listen to hundreds of times and never grow tired of. It's almost inconceivable that the violin has existed for 500 years and no one during that time stumbled across this monster of a melody. —Otis Hart
100-81 / 80-61 / 60-41 / 40-21 / 20-1
60.
City Girls
"Jobs"
If there's one thing City Girls know how to do, it's stay with a bag. The Miami-hailing rap duo have always prioritized the almighty dollar in their rhymes, but in this economy especially, City Girls' exorbitant entrepreneurial anthem "Jobs" is reminding us all to diversify our sources of income. Did you start your Etsy shop or OnlyFans this year? Figure out how to make money off a hobby? Learn a new skill to save some coins? This song is yours to belt and bounce to. Matter fact, I'm surprised JT and Yung Miami haven't copyrighted "Nasty but classy, Birkin bag me" yet. —Sidney Madden
59.
Fontaines D.C.
"A Hero's Death"
Any other year, it'd be steeped in irony, a deadpan poke at our frailties and frivolities, but here in 2020, "A Hero's Death" strips away our protective cloak of cynicism and trashes our attempts to appear unfazed. Sincerity is indeed currency, which is why 20 years from now, "A Hero's Death" will still resonate. It's a meditation on the love we have for our people and the value of our own self-care, bundled up in an addictive sucker punch of a track with biting hooks, Buzzcocks-esque harmonies and an elegantly chaotic, cathartic precision illuminating the simple beauty of the chorus. —Gini Mascorro (KXT 91.7)
58.
Moses Boyd (feat. Joe Armon-Jones)
"2 Far Gone"
This highlight from Moses Boyd's Dark Matter is captivating: Boyd's drumbeat keeps driving, while the song's R&B core anchors jazzy adornments and syncopated eighth notes. Ezra Collective keyboardist Joe Armon-Jones' dexterity inspires a jazz-infused musical atmosphere of peace, a fundamentally beautiful feeling where unity prevails. —Suraya Mohamed
57.
Disclosure (feat. slowthai & Aminé)
"My High"
Nothing on pop radio went this hard in 2020. Clocking in at an indefatigable 133 beats per minute, Disclosure's "My High" is a return to the Brothers Lawrence's 2013 heights, when Settle dominated British airwaves. The track's breathless percussion resembles U.K. funky on amphetamines, with the treble and bass trying to outdo each other for a solid 5 minutes. American rapper Aminé stars as a tweaked version of Kendrick Lamar in "Don't Kill My Vibe" mode. —Otis Hart
56.
Steady Holiday
"Living Life"
"Living Life" is inspired by Paul McCartney's part in The Beatles song "A Day in the Life." It's the portion of the song about the mundane, everyday aspects of life. Here, Dre Babinski, a.k.a. Steady Holiday, sings, "The door opens / A woman stumbles in / Her dress is covered in her daughter's meal / She has to laugh / This is living life / This is who I am tonight." With a glorious and contagious refrain, Steady Holiday celebrates humanity in all its ordinary and wonderful ways. —Bob Boilen
55.
Shemekia Copeland
"Walk Until I Ride"
From the moment that she emerged as a teenaged blues phenom in the late '90s, Shemekia Copeland sounded like she wasn't about to let herself get pushed around. That's still the case two decades later, following her continual, roots-minded expansion of the song styles and sonic settings in her repertoire. "Walk Until I Ride" is her chance to summon the righteous determination of down-home, civil rights-era soul. She sings as someone refusing to be defined or diminished by denial of the most basic services on the basis of race and class, her voice flaring with dignified defiance and vigorous vibrato. —Jewly Hight (WNXP 91.ONE)
54.
Freddie Gibbs / The Alchemist (feat. Rick Ross)
"Scottie Beam"
With more than a decade in the game, a steady run of unstoppable releases and seemingly insurmountable life obstacles, the Gary, Ind., emcee is dead set on becoming the greatest rapper alive. So it may come as a surprise that he only just added "Grammy-nominated" to his resume this year (then again, maybe not, given the award show's track record). Alfredo, his collaborative project with The Alchemist, was the album I couldn't escape in 2020 and its best track is a four-minute movie on wax featuring a call for revolution, a run-in with the law, and hip-hop's biggest boss, with media personality Scottie Beam serving as the song's muse. —Bobby Carter
53.
Jeff Parker
"Go Away"
Obviously, 2020 was a year bursting with problems we wished would disappear. From the COVID-19 pandemic to the toilet seat challenge, there were many things I wished I could banish for good. Fortunately, Jeff Parker's song, "Go Away," from his February release, Suite for Max Brown, provided the sweet escape I craved. Alongside Makaya McCraven on drums and Paul Bryan on bass, Parker used electric guitar, sampler and chants of "go away" to create an immersive and mesmerizing, Afrobeat-influenced anthem. It's a cosmic journey that reveals more depth with each listen. —Nikki Birch
52.
Bad Moves
"Local Radio"
"Local Radio" channels the fist-pumping rhythms of The Go-Go's and joyful bounce of '80s-era R.E.M. with the alternating power chords and muted-palm chug of early Weezer. In other words, it's perfect. Add a few finely rendered reflections on millennial burnout and early adulthood existentialism, sung in unison, and you've got the year's best party anthem for heavy thinkers. "I wanted more, I wanted more than I was getting," the group sings, before later adding, "I took the job and what I got was just some paid-off credit." It's both a celebration of youthful ambition and an elegy for the spark that once kept it alive. (Disclosure: My colleague, NPR Music editor Daoud Tyler-Ameen, is the drummer of this D.C. band. He played no role in its selection for this list.) —Robin Hilton
51.
Emma Ruth Rundle & Thou
"Ancestral Recall"
Never thought I'd see the day when sludge-metal maestros Thou would co-write a Gothic cathedral-shaking, hard-rock radio unit-shifter, but after 2020, you take confounding surprises like this one as a blessing. Uplifted by a soaring-eagle riff, "Ancestral Recall" neither leans on Thou's extreme doom or Emma Ruth Rundle's post-rock gloom; instead, it discovers a third stream somewhere between Soundgarden and Stevie Nicks, rendering the song's existential crisis a defiant triumph. —Lars Gotrich
50.
Romy
"Lifetime"
In October, the xx's Romy Madley Croft shared a playlist with a to-the-point title: "Emotional Music to Dance To." Bookended by "Lifetime," her debut solo single, and a remix of the song by Planningtorock, it's a guide to a microgenre (featuring Robyn, Christine and the Queens, and King Princess) meant to elevate your heart rate while activating your tear ducts. Written and recorded in lockdown, "Lifetime" is a worthy addition to the crying-on-the-dancefloor canon: radiant with day-glo energy, pulsing with end-of-night abandon, it articulates a promise to be there that's aware of the limitations of such words. —Lyndsey McKenna
49.
Arlo Parks
"Eugene"
When I first heard "Eugene," it felt like a spiritual successor to Mazzy Star's "Fade Into You." Both songs share soft, comforting vocals with an undercurrent of emotional stress and heartache caused by someone close. While "Fade Into You" is informed by '90s alternative music, "Eugene" is infused with the R&B of Corrine Bailey Rae and Aaliyah. That combination makes "Eugene" one of the best songs of 2020 and turns Arlo Parks into an artist to watch in 2021. —Tarik Moody (88Nine Radio Milwaukee)
48.
Helado Negro (feat. Xenia Rubinos)
"I Fell In Love"
It's always cool when your favorite artists collaborate in a way that reflects their individual creative energies. "I Fell In Love" has the immediate sonic identity of Helado Negro's work: ethereal instrumentation creates a dreamlike bed for Roberto Lange's whispered vocals. This time Alt.Latino fave Xenia Rubinos adds a sultry vocal that made me think "of course she would sing on this" as soon as I heard it. The two of them harmonizing on the chorus at the end is one of the most beautiful things I heard all year. Four minutes, two voices and just a handful of words softly sung, but it's enough to make you wish for a full album out of this collaboration. —Felix Contreras
47.
Jayda G
"Both Of Us"
I imagine ghosts danced to "Both Of Us" in empty nightclubs. After all, this is a house track born from the spirits of genre forefathers, of voices ethereal yet familiar, of cultural logics upended and re-formed and of soul fibers that move and shake and pull us toward each other in ancient rhythm. When time slows in the song's third act, Jayda G bottles up the low end, leaving only handclaps, drums and her own haunting voice for what feels like an eternity. Then, her world pours back in. Back to normal, and this time, everything's a little brighter. —Mano Sundaresan
46.
Deep Sea Diver
"Stop Pretending"
Deep Sea Diver's "Stop Pretending" was born from the band's Stay Home Stems series in which the band offered up bits of audio of potential songs to fans as a means to engage and collaborate, inspiring creativity and connection to help cope with the lockdown isolation. Alongside the song on Deep Sea Diver's Bandcamp page, singer Jessica Dobson posted, "I often write apocalyptic songs as way to enter a new world that juxtaposes despair with hope. I hope it can bring a little bit of light in a dark season." Indeed, out of pandemic fear and the depths of despair came this beautiful quarantine classic. —Kevin Cole (KEXP)
45.
Lakecia Benjamin (feat. Marcus Strickland & Brandee Younger)
"Going Home"
The Largo theme from Dvorak's Symphony No. 9 "From the New World" sounds like a pentatonic 12-bar blues. The Czech composer's melody gained lyrics and became this song, one that improvisers now play as a modern black spiritual. Lakecia Benjamin joins an impressive list of interpreters that includes saxophonists Yusef Lateef, Archie Shepp and Albert Ayler. All those predecessors were associates of John and Alice Coltrane, the subjects of Benjamin's album Pursuance: The Coltranes. Mrs. Coltrane's transcendent version of "Going Home" from Lord of Lords provides some foundation, and you get that tug from harpist Brandee Younger's glissandi. Marcus Strickland adds a woody timbre on bass clarinet over a rolling pulse before Benjamin's alto sax goes full praise to bring it home. —Josh Jackson (WRTI)
44.
Chucky73 & Fetti031
"Dili"
At 23 minutes, Bronx crew Sie7etr3's debut EP is a lightning round demonstration of the raw skill that fueled the group's exponential rise online. With spare production usually relying on one or two instrumental loops, each track by the duo of Chucky73 and Fetti031 makes room for their playful, distinctly Dominican wordplay and breakneck flow that established them as innovators in New York's Latin trap and drill scenes. "Dili," even in the EP's most familiar territory of a piano trap loop, hits like new. —Stefanie Fernández
43.
RMR
"Rascal"
What do we do with this one? Thanks to a "wait, what" music video destined to haunt the footnotes of viral marketing guides, there's no separating the song from the flak vest it arrived in, no way to imagine hearing it except at gunpoint. That the anonymous artist behind the balaclava can really sing feels almost like a taunt. We're fully through the looking glass that "Old Town Road" held up to the pop charts, so a masked singer flipping Rascal Flatts' frosted-tips version of the country ballad "Bless the Broken Road" into a hood anthem feels right on time. But there's an earnest edge in RMR's uncanny delivery that sells "Rascal" from its first few notes and lingers after you've closed the YouTube tab. Whatever his reasons are for doing all of this, the dude seems to mean it. —Daoud Tyler-Ameen
42.
Clarice Jensen
"Holy Mother"
I like to think that, right now, somewhere not too far away from where I sit, Clarice Jensen is playing her cello, refracting and coagulating its deep voice. I wish I lived next door. Jensen's music seems to leak out from under the woodwork and shift down from the ceiling like silk, omnidirectional and swaddling, but not exactly comforting. Across its 11 minutes, "Holy Mother" feels preparatory and prayerful, an appropriate posture in a plagued year. —Andrew Flanagan
41.
Tyler Childers
"Long Violent History"
Well before this year, Tyler Childers established that he sings from the perspective of an Appalachian contrarian with a searching mind, and that he knows how to speak to the white, working-class, rural dwellers in his audience without condescension. He applied all of that to "Long Violent History," a shambling string band waltz that he stuck at the end of a brief collection of old-time fiddle tunes and paired with an explanatory YouTube video and a liner note essay from Dom Flemons for added context. Appealing to his own people's resourcefulness and fierce drive to survive, Childers urges a reckoning with the reality of Black lives under siege. "How many boys could they haul off this mountain, shoot full of holes, cuffed and laying in the streets," he presses in his strenuous, cutting vocal attack, "'til we come into town in a stark raving anger, looking for answers and armed to the teeth?" —Jewly Hight
100-81 / 80-61 / 60-41 / 40-21 / 20-1
40.
Lil Baby (feat. 42 Dugg)
"We Paid"
When I was in the Army, I learned a lot of acronyms and their meanings, but one has stayed with me since I have left the military more than 10 years ago: K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple, Stupid). And that is what Atlanta's Lil Baby and Detroit's Dugg 42 do on the hypnotic "We Paid." From the Spaghetti Western-style whistle that kicks it off to the minimal beats intertwined with piano keys, the track puts me in a trance. After a minute, I'm dancing in my chair. While Lil Baby shines, you can witness Dugg 42's star continue to rise. —Tarik Moody (88Nine Radio Milwaukee)
39.
Dua Lipa
"Break My Heart"
If Dua Lipa's Future Nostalgia brings Studio 54 to the TikTok generation, "Break My Heart" is a reimagination of Queen's disco crossover hit "Another One Bites the Dust." The dark and funky bassline, combined with the British pop star's distinct vocal delivery, make for a groovy dance floor treat. —Joni Deutsch (WFAE)
38.
Soccer Mommy
"circle the drain"
Sophie Allison, who performs under the name Soccer Mommy, doesn't shy away when faced with an emotional precipice. In "Circle the Drain," the Nashville-based singer-songwriter addresses her experiences with mental health and depression through the fog of a light, almost carefree sound. It's the musical manifestation of asking someone if they're OK and them responding, "I'm fine." I can't think of a more fitting song, or message, for the year. —Stacy Buchanan (GBH)
37.
Sun-El Musician (feat. Azana)
"Uhuru"
"Uhuru" means "freedom" in Swahili, and the song of the same name by South African musicians Sun-El Musician and Azana is a reminder that the unrest that defined Summer 2020 in the U.S. was not exclusively an American ordeal. Azana sings of a Black underclass that is disrespected and robbed of opportunity, while Sun-El — one of South Africa's deep house dons — conjures a stirring production that urges action while tugging at heartstrings. —Otis Hart
36.
Immanuel Wilkins
"Ferguson - An American Tradition"
The voices of a new generation rang out in the streets this summer and fall, as America reckoned anew with systemic violence and oppression. That urgency also courses through Omega, the stunning debut by alto saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins — never more powerfully than on this song, which cycles from elegiac calm through impassioned fury, articulating an ensemble dynamic that Wilkins and his onrushing peer group are forging for themselves. —Nate Chinen (WBGO)
35.
Kllo
"Still Here"
Australian cousins Chloe Kaul and Simon Lam (whose band name fittingly rhymes with "whoa") wrote a haunting piano ballad about a loveless yet devout romance, then smothered the whole thing in melancholic breakbeats and paired the song's left-hand chords with subs you can feel in your chest. When the beat drops leading into the first chorus, it feels like a velvet anvil. My most-played song of the year, and nothing else really came close. —Otis Hart
34.
Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit
"Letting You Go"
It's an uncomfortable truth: Some of life's most moving moments are often depicted in a deeply corny manner (see: professional wedding videos, made-for-TV rom-coms). Truly emotional stuff can feel cloying when described by anyone less than a top-tier storyteller – which is why Jason Isbell's undefeated track record of creating intimate character studies with emotional complexity shouldn't be taken for granted. Take "Letting You Go," a standout on an album that may well contain some of his finest songwriting to date: Rather than flatten a father-daughter bond with truisms, Isbell goes long, tracing the arc across time. —Lyndsey McKenna
33.
SAULT
"Wildfires"
If one group could symbolize 2020 and its racial reckoning, it has to be SAULT. From NPR's No. 1 album of the year, Untitled (Black Is), it's the track "Wildfires" that captures all of the rage and sadness at this moment in time. Just like the story of the phoenix, it's also a song — as NPR Music contributor Marcus J. Moore noted — about the process of burning down old systems that oppress a people and beginning to create a new one out of the ashes. —Tarik Moody (88Nine Radio Milwaukee)
32.
Angelica Garcia
"Agua de Rosa"
Within each loop and phrase of Angelica Garcia's "Agua de Rosa" is memory. For the first half of the track, they're all vocal — some sound, some spoken. In conversation with her ancestors and herself, each of Garcia's responses land with both comfort and a challenge. "Agua de rosa, chica / Sin nosotros tú no existes," she sings in reminder and in warning. In this dialogue of repetition, Garcia creates a sacred space to look pastward, regarding the totems of inherited femininity with a care befitting holy relics, fraught and precious. —Stefanie Fernández
31.
Inbal Segev & London Philharmonic Orchestra
"DANCE, I. when you're broken open"
In a year that seemed to offer only death and protests, music of extreme beauty, such as the opening movement from Anna Clyne's alluring cello concerto DANCE, came to the rescue. Inbal Segev's cello sings in high register above gently shifting strings and winds in contrasting colors. Clyne's landscape is warm and spacious, a nod to the English pastoral tradition, but tinted with melancholy that ultimately gives way to purgation and, most importantly, hope. (Please listen to the rest of this distinctive work.) —Tom Huizenga
30.
William Prince
"Gospel First Nation"
The religion forced on Indigenous people by their colonizers makes for mighty unwieldy musical subject matter, but William Prince came to it with uncommon insight this year, attuned to the complexities of descending from both the namesake of Peguis First Nation and preachers among their people. In his ambling folk-country song "Gospel First Nation," he bears amiable witness to the ways that he and his community staked their claims to symbols of incarnation and salvation by fashioning them into comforting familiarly, but largely abandoned features of a remote landscape. —Jewly Hight (WNXP 91.ONE)
29.
Lianne La Havas
"Can't Fight"
Lianne La Havas creates music that resonates on a universal level. On her self-titled album's standout track, "Can't Fight," the South Londoner combines R&B rhythms and soulful melody for an exuberant ballad that conveys the allure and longing of a love that you can't deny. —Desiré Moses (WNRN)
28.
Stephanie Lambring
"Joy of Jesus"
Built around a Bible verse extolling Jesus' empathy, this lament by one of Nashville's most fearless young singer-songwriters calls out hypocrisy in a year when it's run rampant and ruined many lives. —Ann Powers
27.
Noname
"Song 33"
"One girl missin', another one go missin'." This refrain is how Noname brings her attention back to what truly matters: how the deaths of Black cis and trans women require public awareness campaigns before they make headlines. That said, the fact the hook doubles as a course correction of sorts is just as valuable. Noname may regret the "distraction" she caused, by wrestling with how J. Cole's "Snow On Da Bluff" admonished the "queen tone" of her righteous fury. But by revealing that self-negotiation with her initial disbelief, we witness what it means to meaningfully and skillfully transform anger. —Christina Lee
26.
The Chicks
"Gaslighter"
Speed bumps kept slowing down The Chicks' long-delayed 2020 victory lap: A national reckoning compelled the excision of "Dixie" from the band's name, a stadium tour proved impossible due to the pandemic and the Grammys dealt the group a surprising shutout. But "Gaslighter" feels unstoppable anyway: It's a rousing, harmony-rich, devastatingly specific (and yet somehow universal) takedown of a man who knows exactly what he did on Natalie Maines' boat. —Stephen Thompson
25.
Goodie Mob
"4 My Ppl"
As Goodie Mob reunites with production group Organized Noize, the foundational Southern rap group acknowledge that, once again, we're living in a time where the depictions of government surveillance, concentration camps and a race war in 1995's "Cell Therapy" sound prescient. But this time Goodie Mob finds strength in remembering its purpose: serving the working class Black America that informed and uplifted them 25 years ago: "Every time I write / It be for my people." This restorative Dungeon Family reunion is also a fitting anthem for a year when not even a global pandemic could deter from civil engagement. —Christina Lee
24.
Fiona Apple
"I Want You To Love Me"
Perhaps early on, Fetch the Bolt Cutters' opening cut was such a rush because it was the first we heard from Fiona Apple in nearly eight years, released in the early, uncertain days of global catastrophe. And yet, to hear the song at the year's end — from the way Apple wrings the life out of the you in that first "I hope that you love me," to the grit in her voice as she admits "none of this will matter in the long run," to the declarative force of "I want what I want" and "I know that you do" to the onomatopoeic clamor of "bang it / bite it / bruise it," until her final drawn-out, hiccupped notes as the fierce, rhythmic chaos that has simmered underneath all along takes over — it remains undeniably bold and wondrous. —Marissa Lorusso
23.
Childish Gambino
"47.48"
Exactly 47 minutes and 48 seconds after Childish Gambino's 3.15.20 album begins, this old-school jam lets loose with steady accents on each measure's four beats. "47.48" is a soulful pop song, a message of hope that emerges from fear: "Don't worry 'bout tomorrow / The violence, the violence." Keep listening until the outro to hear Donald Glover in sweet conversation with his young son: "Do you love yourself?" "I do love myself," they ask and answer each other. Beaming with the innocence only a child can convey and an adult can appreciate, beauty unfolds as a reminder that we can overcome any danger. —Suraya Mohamed
22.
Taylor Swift
"invisible string"
The narrative threads that weave together Taylor Swift's many perfect songs have rarely been invisible. Her surprise quarantine album, folklore, won notice for its "indie" vibe and collaborators, but to my ears it's the first record where Swift sounds relaxed — certain of her abilities and suddenly less concerned with how every last fan and critic will respond to them. "invisible string" is its apex, another one of those perfect songs, and it plays out like a chance to revisit the romantic world of one or another of her teenage hits — "Our Song" or "Love Story" — but with a real partner glowing at the center of her writer's mind. All the beautiful detail, all the muscular melody and immaculately placed acoustic production details (all those, ahem, strings -- she's still Taylor) in service of a mature celebration of the fact that love doesn't have to paint the entire world to change your life. One tiny thread of gold can be enough. —Jacob Ganz
21.
Lil Baby
"The Bigger Picture"
Released less than a month after George Floyd was killed by the Minneapolis police department, "The Bigger Picture" exists in that long tradition of great political rap. While the song lacks the ecstatic and joyfully rebellious pulse of "Fight the Power" or Kendrick Lamar's "Alright," it approaches the issues of racism and police brutality from a world-weary, but ultimately hopeful angle. Lil Baby delivers the song's lyrics at a quick and desperate clip: "They killin' us for no reason / Been goin' on for too long to get even / Throw us in cages like dogs and hyenas." Skillfully illustrating the confusion that comes along with trying to figure out how to make things better, Lil Baby resolves: "You can't fight fire with fire / I know, but at least we can turn up the flames some." Written in the midst of an uncertain and chaotic time, "The Bigger Picture" smolders with righteous indignation. —John Morrison
100-81 / 80-61 / 60-41 / 40-21 / 20-1
20.
SZA (feat. Ty Dolla $ign)
"Hit Different"
The first voice we hear on SZA's comeback single isn't hers, but that of Ty Dolla $ign. "Hit Different" opens with an emotive chorus, handled by hip-hop and R&B's go-to gun for hire and carried by a deceptive simplicity, made compelling by Ty's gravelly vocals. Produced by The Neptunes, "Hit Different" features SZA burrowing deeper into the earthiness of rhythm and blues, and exploring the complexities of the genre's central focus: love, at its most passionate. —Kiana Fitzgerald
19.
Joshua Redman, Brad Mehldau, Christian McBride & Brian Blade
"Right Back Round Again"
During their first go-around in the mid-1990s, the members of this quartet were shining avatars of youthful promise, carrying a message of continuity for a jazz tradition more accustomed to counting its losses. They've since grown into their stature, graduating to a midcareer prominence and shaping the art form along the way. This high-stepping tune, a title cut of sorts for their reunion album RoundAgain, captures the silvery grace and flickering combustion that was special about this all-star alignment in the first place — but even better. —Nate Chinen (WBGO)
18.
Víkingur Ólafsson
"The Arts and the Hours"
Víkingur Ólafsson is a pianist after my own heart — a seeker of unexpected connections, a nuanced storyteller, a cartographer of unexplored territories. With his mesmerizing arrangement of Rameau's "The Arts and the Hours," he blurs time and place, as music from the 1760s comes to save us from the noise and chaos of 2020 with measured calm and the promise of peace. The video, too, is a thing of intimate simplicity: four people sheltering in place share the things that bring them comfort — books, toy robots, pinball machines and the Steinway piano that is Ólafsson's companion in his own isolation. —Lara Downes (NPR's Amplify)
17.
Phoebe Bridgers
"I Know The End"
There's a love-hate relationship musicians have with touring. "I Know the End" begins with Phoebe Bridgers dreamily singing about the road's boredom while romanticizing the quiet life at home. This multipart tune is an ode to depression in need of a screaming catharsis. And the brilliance of this song is how it builds so gently from point A to point B. It's a sonic adventure with references to The Wizard of Oz, ending with a group singalong, blaring horns, guitars and whatever else this tornado can suck up and spew out. It feels so good. —Bob Boilen
16.
Chris Stapleton
"Starting Over"
Some songs just nail what it feels like to find what you're looking for after a lifetime of false starts and psychic bruises. "Bless the Broken Road" is one; several others are called "Home." This year's bless-the-broken-road classic is Chris Stapleton's plainspoken wonder "Starting Over," in which two weary souls head off wandering together in pursuit of a faraway existence that's bound to be better, simply by virtue of each other's presence. —Stephen Thompson
15.
Perfume Genius
"On The Floor"
A joyous, warm dreamscape of a song that's also about unavailable human contact, feeling slightly unhinged and being stuck inside your own head: "On the Floor" captured just as much of what my year wasn't as what it was. Maybe that's why Perfume Genius' perfect, throbbing ode to infatuation saw me through some particularly dark moments this year. Or maybe it's just that the song, with its mix of aching vulnerability and commanding certainty, its romantic guitar lines and marvelously messy music video, is an unimpeachable delight. Either way, I'm grateful for it. —Marissa Lorusso
14.
J Hus (feat. Koffee)
"Repeat"
"Repeat" may be J Hus' song, but the British rapper yields the spotlight to Koffee, who creates the sonic equivalent of bottled sunshine atop a carefree dancehall production. Themed around the celebratory exhale of victory, it could just as easily double as Koffee's acceptance speech, having arrived on the eve of her historic Grammy win: "I cyaan believe it, no, this ah weh mi mudda conceive / She did tell me fi be di best ah wah mi can be, see mi now, mi ah di prodigy ah mi country," she coos in the second verse. J Hus takes up hook duties; the deep, warm tones of his voice offer a lovely contrast to Koffee's feathery singing. "Repeat" just feels good, an offering of escape in both sound and lyric that lives up to its name with ease. —Briana Younger
13.
Caylee Hammack
"Small Town Hypocrite"
From her debut album, the fast-emerging country artist Caylee Hammack offers a clear-eyed assessment of personal regrets in a song so well-written and communicated, you'd never guess she's only 26. Never fitting in, sacrificing a scholarship for love, being cheated on and realizing mistakes, it's all here in elegantly scored music — sighing steel guitars and murmuring keys — that sports hooks, urgency and a chorus that comfortably sticks in your ear. —Tom Huizenga
12.
Jazmine Sullivan
"Lost One"
Two things stand out about "Lost One." The first is the feeling it articulates, a kind of longing mixture of grief and desire that often goes unspoken due to the shame of it all. The second is Jazmine Sullivan's voice, which conjures both fragility and resilient soul at once. Over three minutes, she purges with little to support her but a muted guitar loop and the occasional chorus of herself, as if to channel the lonely hollowness of a love lost. "Don't have too much fun without me," she pleads on the hook, "please don't forget about me, try not to love no one." It's an impossible ask delivered with impossible fierceness. A slow-burn that gradually rips open the heart with every note, "Lost One" (her first solo single in a half-decade) is some of Sullivan's finest and most wrenching work. —Briana Younger
11.
Sam Hunt
"Hard to Forget"
This spring, there was a lot of talk about optimizing our time under stay-at-home orders (a common refrain on Twitter: "Shakespeare wrote King Lear during a pandemic!"). To hell with writing a book during quarantine; I could barely stomach a few sentences without pausing to doomscroll. In 2020, my attention span shrank to tweet-sized, and Sam Hunt's "Hard to Forget," clocking in at just over three minutes, became the only song I wanted to hear. When it was released in February, the slick sample and singalong chorus made it feel like an early song of the summer contender; in lockdown, listening on repeat, it felt like a fever-dream fantasy from the recent past. In a year when I couldn't focus on anything for very long, "Hard to Forget" was somehow precisely what the title advertised. —Lyndsey McKenna
10.
Adia Victoria
"South Gotta Change"
Through a pandemic, a tumultuous election and an uprising in response to police brutality and racial injustice, musicians in 2020 kept on creating. For many, there seemed to be a renewed sense of purpose: calling for unity, for strength and for change. Adia Victoria is one of those artists who rose to the challenge, with her song "South Gotta Change." A Black songwriter raised in South Carolina, Victoria contrasts the love she feels for her home with an acknowledgement of its painful, ugly past. You can hear the tension between love and anger bubbling under the surface of her performance, giving the song a depth and nuance that sets it apart in a year that saw no shortage of protest anthems. —Raina Douris (World Cafe)
9.
Ana Tijoux
"Antifa Dance"
Last year, a hike in metro fare and rising economic inequality sparked weeks of violent clashes between military and protesters in the streets of Chile's capital city, Santiago. Chilean-French artist Ana Tijoux charges into the political hellstorm of 2020 with that same energy, her fast-paced delivery heating up with every pulsing beat. Sin pelo en la lengua, she reclaims derogatory slurs waged against the working class and denounces the effects of capitalism and colonialism in the same breath. Tijoux's raucous anthem calls us into a wildly choreographed uprising: The existing systems collapse, and we dance on their ashes. —Isabella Gomez Sarmiento
8.
Thundercat
"Dragonball Durag"
Just as his namesake Lion-O wields the Sword of Omens, shooting blasts of energy to defeat evil, so does bassist-singer Thundercat strut his "Dragonball Durag," riding virtuoso grooves to reaffirm the culture within pop culture. Feel the magic. Hear the roar. Enjoy the goofball charm of a funk prodigy. —Joni Deutsch (WFAE)
7.
Bob Dylan
"Murder Most Foul"
"Murder Most Foul" begins as a rumination on the cold, calculated assassination of John F. Kennedy. "We're gonna kill you with hatred, without any respect," Bob Dylan sings over muted funeral-home piano-and-violin chords, putting himself in the minds of the plotters. The lugubrious mood sustains for 17 minutes, with Dylan seeking to understand the tragedy and its many cultural aftershocks. Just past the song's halfway point, he turns to a trusted source — his record collection — and begins the most unusual litany of disassociated listening recommendations ever recorded. "Play John Lee Hooker," Dylan commands his listener (or maybe his smart speaker?). "Play 'Mystery Train' for Mr. Mystery." He's grasping for sounds that might provide consolation, comfort, a sliver of enlightenment, and as he invokes each artist and every song, his plainspoken reverence becomes striking. It could be that he's just rattling stuff off the top of his head. But by the song's end, the listmaking itself feels like a heroic act. "If you want to remember," he advises helpfully at one point, "better write down the names." —Tom Moon
6.
Adrianne Lenker
"anything"
"anything" opens on sketches of memory that peer out at the world — hazy and intense, sometimes romantic and sometimes frightening. But gradually, it draws inward, becoming a song about the danger, violence and rupture that the world presents and the way small moments of intimacy can create a shield against them. In her high, soft voice, Lenker speaks her desire plainly: "I don't want to talk about anything / I wanna kiss, kiss your eyes again" and, later, "I wanna sleep in your car while you're driving / Lay on your lap when I'm crying." Knowing that Lenker's latest albums were written in the aftermath of a breakup, it's hard not to hear heartache beneath the song's romance; "Didn't you believe in me," the way she sings it, can sound like a plea for reconciliation from an ex-lover or an acknowledgement of gratitude. Like many of Lenker's best songs, "anything" finds healing and grace in these moments of connection, even while recognizing they won't last forever. —Marissa Lorusso
5.
Bad Bunny (feat. Jowell & Randy and Ñengo Flow)
"Safaera"
With three new albums under his belt, Bad Bunny made 2020 his most prolific year to date, with "Safaera" serving as his dizzying opus. A pastiche of DJ megamixes reminiscent of early-'00s Puerto Rican marquesina parties, the spiritual locus of all of YHLQMDLG, the song exists in a space of sweaty communion that honors reggaeton's most jubilant and nostalgic hallmarks as well as its insurgence. Its roster is stacked, and its raunch is right and just, with features by veterans Jowell & Randy and Ñengo Flow and a production master class from Tainy and DJ Orma. Across its numerous beat drops, tempo changes and layered, iconic samples, "Safaera" cites forebears from Missy Elliott to Alexis y Fido to DJ Nelson, creating a perreo textbook with a deep respect for its history and a celebration of reggaeton's roots in community. It's a magic that can't be conjured twice. —Stefanie Fernández
4.
Mickey Guyton
"Black Like Me"
"Little kid in a small town," Mickey Guyton murmurs at the start of this intimate anthem. Most songs in this vein get sappy after the first line, but instead of a typical dose of down-home, feel-good patriotism, Guyton describes what it feels like to be marked as different in a supposedly inclusive space: the playground snubs, the parents who work hard to shield their daughter from the effects of inequality. She grew up, moved from Texas to Nashville, found more smiles hiding the bitter truth. "If you think we live in the land of the free," she cries, her tone transforming heartbreak into conviction, "you should try to be Black like me." The best pure singer to emerge in Nashville since Carrie Underwood, Guyton delivers her message with calm indefatigability: This is reality, she's saying, acknowledged or not. Her song started many necessary conversations and will be remembered as a milestone in the genre's evolution. —Ann Powers
3.
Megan Thee Stallion (feat. Beyoncé)
"Savage Remix"
"Savage" was a runaway hit before a remix was even conceived. Within two weeks of TikToker Keara Wilson uploading her own choreography to the song, a viral dance challenge took off, leading to more than 3 million unique videos being posted to the platform. (That number now sits at a cool 29.5 million.) While the original song was doing exceptionally well on its own, "Savage Remix" reached new heights, hitting No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Surprise-released in April, the track, featuring Thee Beyoncé, is a complete reimagining of Megan's standout cut from her Suga EP. The production, handled by frequent Cardi B beatmaker J. White Did It, doesn't change much; instead, Beyoncé liberally sprinkles her ad-libs throughout the chorus and behind Megan's effusive, revamped bars, and sing-raps full verses, complete with harmonized background vocals. Both Bey and Meg approach this collaboration as a balancing act: they work to be relatable to listeners, with references to current trends, while presenting themselves as untouchable by their peers. To put it simply, the "Savage Remix" is the remix to end all remixes. —Kiana Fitzgerald
2.
Christine and the Queens
"People, I've been sad"
2020 saw Christine and the Queens evolve from a French indie upstart into an auteur realizing her global, pansexual pop vision in multiple media and languages. "People, I've been sad" is an odd breakup song in that, instead of addressing her beloved, Chris breaks the fourth wall, asking the audience to bear witness to her sorrow. Sadness becomes theater rather than a diary entry. Instead of playing the part of introspective lover, she turns up the drama and goes larger-than-life. Over a sparse synth-pop backbeat that conjures neon lights, the singer's earnest and unvarnished delivery warps into something more otherworldly and surreal, ushering us into a world where pain can be transformed into an object of beauty. —Nastia Voynovskaya (KQED)
1.
Cardi B (feat. Megan Thee Stallion)
"WAP"
Cardi B dropped exactly one song this year, but after "WAP," any more might have been overkill. Raunchy, fun and infinitely quotable, she joins Megan Thee Stallion for a shameless ode to, well, wet-ass p****, that flies in the face of those who might suggest these women's sexuality is a shortcoming. At every turn, the two dare listeners to look away with a perfect storm of irresistible qualities: the familiar, through a prominent sample of Frank Ski's Baltimore club classic "Whores in This House," the taboo in subject and attitude, the spectacle of unity between two of music's brightest talents. Meg is a more traditional stylist, whose voice oozes unassailable confidence, while Cardi is all theatrics and humor, effortlessly selling every last line, no matter how ridiculous (or anatomically incorrect) — a synergy that refracts the best qualities of one through the prism of the other. Together, they are magic.
To no one's surprise, a pair of women honoring their own ladyparts and the pleasures they dish out and expect returned in spades drew the ire of the insecure, of zealots and moral grandstanders. The backlash, however inseparable from the song's cultural narrative, only bolsters the argument for its politics of pleasure. At its core, "WAP" is Cardi and Meg's assertion that their expression, both artistic and sexual, belongs to them and them alone. Such a filthy bit of joy may be born of entertainment, but it persists as necessity — fake prudishness be damned. —Briana Younger
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