Favorite Songs of 2020

50. Easy Life—”Peanut Butter”

It feels like these pop/alt-R&B boy groups are becoming a dime-a-dozen (especially British ones). This general sound has occupied my year-end lists since 2018 and I haven’t quite gotten sick of it yet. “Peanut Butter” is not ground breaking, but it has a knack for getting stuck in my head, so here we are.

49. Travis Scott—”Franchise” (ft. Young Thug & M.I.A.)

One thing my internet-poised brain found fascination in this year was the collaboration between McDonald’s and rapper Travis Scott. I’m, regrettably, a big McDonald’s fan. And I like hip-hop and branding, so it was kind of a unique crossroads of interests for me. The pair’s multi-faceted partnership didn’t stop at the drive thru. It also included a song. Unfortunately, I liked that, too.

48. Dominic Fike—”Chicken Tenders”

Dominic Fike is someone I caught early and immediately clicked with. I’ve spent the last 18 months or so buying stock in anticipation of 2020’s debut album. While What Could Possibly Go Wrong? ultimately underdelivered, its standout tracks will still stick with me, and I think the long tail of his career will ultimately reward his potential.

Fike oozes talent and marketability. He can nail the summer smash and the intimate ballad. In “Chicken Tenders,” he hasn’t strayed too far from the winning formula he found on 2018’s Don’t Forget About Me. Hopefully one day we get the logical expansion of this sound I wanted in 2020.

47. Jay Electronica—”Ghost of Soulja Slim” (ft. Jay-Z)

I can’t believe the world finally got the Jay Electronica album we’ve been waiting for since 2007, especially just months after new music from Jai Paul. My high school self is back and flourishing.

While Jay Electronica’s A Written Testimony didn’t totally blow me away (it’s impossible to deliver on 13 years worth of hype), “Ghost of Soulja Slim” is a brilliant opener that places Jay-Z and Electronica in opposite corners in a dueling mic scenario and deftly lets Jay-Z go first. We’ve waited for 13 years and now Jay Electronica is forcing us to sit tight for another two minutes. Hilarious. Perfect.

It feels dumb to hyperbolize an album I didn’t love, but the first bar of verse two—Jay Elec’s grand return—is an earth-shattering musical moment. “If it come from me and Hov, consider it Qur'an.”

I do love A Written Testimony, if only for the fact that it brought Jay Electronica back to us.

46. Nas—”Spicy” (ft. Fivio Foreign & A$AP Ferg)

I’ve always been a pretty big fan of A$AP Ferg, but he hasn’t made this list since 2013’s “Work” remix. I did not expect his eventual return would be on a Nas song, but 2020 means all bets are off the table. Also, on this song Nas says he “wear[s] a mink at the roller rink [in the] middle of the summer.”

45. Terrell Hines—”Get Up” (ft. Vince Staples)

And speaking of underrated artists making year-end list returns on unexpected features, Vince Staples returns to this list for the first time since 2017’s “Big Fish” with this Terrell Hines collaboration. It sounds like the type of song that would be in NBA 2k. Not sure if that’s an insult or not.

44. Taylor Swift—”Exile” (ft. Bon Iver)

Taylor Swift, the unstoppable force, warrants a deep-dive I can’t provide here. Her 2020 album Folklore was perhaps the first of her’s I really liked, largely predicated on this sales pitch of it being an “indie” “folk” album. Of course this is nonsense. Taylor Swift is arguably the biggest entertainer in the world, and nothing about this pop album is indie or folk. But any convincing indie ploy in 2020 needs to include Bon Iver, the king of the world she’s trying to co-opt. Taylor is a master at manipulating her public image, but the music this year was good enough that I’ll go along with it.

43. Boldy James & The Alchemist—”Scrape The Bowl”

One of the surest signs I’m getting older is that my taste in hip-hop has largely flatlined and I find myself reaching for stuff that reminds me of 2010.

I first discovered Boldy James from 2011’s “JIMBO,” a mixtape single riding a Chuck Inglish beat that’s so volatile I think it might damage your car stereo if you don’t handle it with care. James is still at work in Detroit and his newest Alchemist-powered album has a few hits—namely “Scrape The Bowl,” which leans on fellow Rust Belt artist Benny The Butcher. Muddy bass and ominous pianos are still my thing a decade later.

42. Freddie Gibbs & The Alchemist—”God is Perfect”

Another Alchemist beat! This is the type of song that immediately activates the stank face. I’m an avowed Freddie Gibbs supporter, and “God Is Perfect” is the exact type of song I come to him for (and frankly the type of song I feel like he’s been avoiding a bit too much recently).

Alchemist laced him up with a menacing low rumble and Gibbs is just slithering all over it. He even breaks into Arabic on the chorus. I am a fan of this at all times.

“God Is Perfect” doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but the greats don’t have to. Both Gibbs and Alchemist are effortlessly great, throwbacks to an earlier era of hip-hop.

41. Touché Amoré—”A Forecast”

Touché Amoré’s Lament is a pretty heavy album, but it’s hard not to gravitate to its quietest moment. Lead singer Jeremy Bolm wrote the song about his life in the aftermath of his mother’s death, but 2020 has brought a lot of people face to face with the pain and growth that comes with grieving, making this one suddenly a lot more universal.

40. Wild Pink—”The Shining But Tropical”

“The Shining But Tropical” is about realizing one’s relative insignificance in relation to the scope of the world. Think of it like an upbeat, anthemic flip of Bon Iver’s “Holocene”—one of my favorite songs ever.

The song features additional vocals from Julia Steiner from Ratboys. I was not aware of their work before 2020 and they managed to make two appearances on this list, both in guest roles. How bizarre.

39. A$AP Ferg—”Mask” (ft. Antha Pantha)

I don’t know if it’s cool to like A$AP Ferg anymore, but I don’t care. Floor Seats II is not quite 2013’s Trap Lord, but I don’t care.

He’s not the best rapper in the world, but he just knows how to consistently make good music. He’s been doing it for close to a decade and he probably doesn’t get the credit he deserves.

38. The Wonder Years—”Brakeless”

In celebration of the ten year anniversaries of The Upsides and Suburbia, The Wonder Years released a pair of brand new singles recorded in the styles of those fan-favorite albums. I have never heard of another artist doing this, but it’s really clever and deserves a shoutout even without “Brakeless” being a 2020 standout.

37. Megan Thee Stallion—”Savage Remix” (ft. Beyoncé)

I think most of this song’s success, at least in the immediately viral sense, can be attributed to Beyoncé’s swaggering rap verse, which captures the zeitgeist in a way that is just begging to blow up. There’s just no way Beyoncé rapping about TikTok wasn’t gonna be a hit—much like Jay-Z referencing “Damn Daniel” was so funny and exciting.

Beyoncé rapping reminds me a lot of Frank Ocean rapping. Neither do it very much, yet are kind of unfairly good at it. I need more of it.

36. Fiona Apple—”Shameika”

Every year there’s an album that approaches something close to a critical consensus. That honor in 2020 belongs to Fiona Apple’s Fetch The Bolt Cutters, a brilliantly titled album full of boundless, frenetic energy. Apple rarely makes music that could be described as catchy, but “Shameika” is wonderfully ear worm-y.

35. Tiny Little Houses—”Richard Cory”

Tiny Little Houses is an Australian band, again lending credence to my theory that every single band from Australia is good. The group has been quiet since the release of their 2018 album but made a surprise return this year with “Richard Cory,” which marked a departure from the slightly sunnier music that led me to discovering them (“Milo Tin” is fantastic). The composition is darker and sharper, but only to suit the content. Here’s a song about inner demons and mental health born out of a year so defined by those things.

34. Glass Beach—”Running”

I make these lists every year and the big secret is that I’m actually pretty bad at them. There’s only so much stuff one guy can consume during a year, and the gaps always show themselves fairly quickly. Many of my favorite albums in recent years have escaped my rankings simply because I didn’t discover them until the year after they came out. Glass Beach, whose debut did not make my 2019 list, actually has one of my favorite 2019 albums. “Running” rules and it speaks to how much good stuff came out this year that it’s at #34.

33. The 1975—”Frail State of Mind”

The 1975 released an 80-minute album with an obtuse title that opens with a spoken word piece by climate-change activist Greta Thunberg. Across its 22 songs, Notes on a Conditional Form traverses a handful of sonic spaces, somehow managing to find success at each stop. I could name a favorite from each genre, some of which are among the album’s seven singles. Picking one song for this list was difficult because the album essentially contains an EP of singles within itself. I’m confident I could make a really exciting 30-minute cut.

The 1975 is great, and music is better with bands like this shooting from the hip and garnering tons of attention. The only cost of admission is that you surrender to their unwieldy scope and ambition.

32. Jeff Rosenstock—”Nikes (Alt)”

I kinda feel bad for Jeff Rosenstock, because it’s become impossible to talk about his music divorced from the current political climate. He’s brought it upon himself, though. 2016’s WORRY. was one of the first major releases to arrive after the election, and it slowly became one of my favorite albums of the past decade. POST- landed on New Year’s Day 2018 to soundtrack a new era of chaos.

NO DREAM arrived in May—in the midst of a pandemic and casually early for one of the most tumultuous months of our lives in June. The second verse of “Nikes (Alt)” opens with Rosenstock wailing, “Looking for a dream that won't morph to a nightmare.”

Rosenstock’s music is cynical on its face, but there’s therapy in communal anxiety. This pent-up frustration never feels heavy. I expect he’ll have an album on my year-end favorites list for the third time in four years.

31. The Killers—”Caution”

I’m a pretty big Killers fan, at least when it comes to their early work. They have a certified classic in “Mr. Brightside” and a flawed-but-fascinating sophomore album in Sam’s Town. My only awareness of them in the years since is their transition into the kind of stale pop-rock that consumes so many bands of this type. Much to my surprise, Imploding The Mirage feels like somewhat of a nostalgic return to form, anchored by the lead single: “Caution.” It’s loud, a little pastiche, and full of lyrics that don’t make much sense, but I don’t care. The Killers are back in my life. What a weird, weird year.

30. 2nd Grade—”Velodrome”

2nd Grade’s sophomore album Hit to Hit is remarkable in its construction, spanning 24 tracks yet just 41 minutes. It’s like three Joyce Manor albums in one. There are three songs shorter than one minute and just two songs longer than 2.5 minutes. The instant each track has a chance to latch onto a full idea, it’s on to the next one—like you’re flipping through channels.

The double-single (“Velodrome” + “My Bike”) is what caught my attention, primarily the former, a jaunty piece of guitar pop that feels lived-in sonically but fresh lyrically—very classic at first blush but unmistakably 2020:

“Well I saw you looking into a window. There’s a cool breeze at the top of my cage. I check my radar, it’s all so exciting. I’m losing contact but can’t disengage.”

29. Phoebe Bridgers—”Garden Song”

2020 has been a year of introspection for all of us, especially people around my age. I think we all have a tendency to get caught up in going that we sometimes forget to stop and dream about where.

28. Soccer Mommy—”Circle the Drain”

Something about this song feels like such a throwback to me. Maybe it’s Sophia Allison’s voice. Maybe it’s her singer-songwriter take on pop, or her melancholic tone. “Circle the Drain” feels a bit like a 2020 take on a Vanessa Carlton or Natalie Imbruglia song. It sounds a bit silly but I think it’s a niche that still plays, and it’s one artists like Kevin Abstract have cited as inspiration in recent years.

27. Me Rex—”Rites”

I’ve never named a Best New Artist as part of my year-end lists, but if I did it very well might be London’s Me Rex taking home the 2020 prize. The group has yet to release a debut album, but 2020 saw them release a collection of singles and EPs featuring enough promise and consistency to firmly place them on my radar whenever that album does arrive. “Rites” is exceptional and it’s not even my favorite song of theirs to come out this year.

26. Remi Wolf—”Hello Hello Hello”

Things move fast in 2020. In June I was trying to pitch friends and loved ones on Remi Wolf’s oddball pop EP I’m Allergic to Dogs! and by November she was the soundtrack to an iPhone commercial. After years where it seemed like pop was a genre for “serious” artists to avoid, it’s great to see it returning as a playground for genuine expression. One of the year’s most inventive sounds is pop-meets-reggae. Remi is headed somewhere.

25. Peach Tree Rascals—”Things Won’t Go My Way”

It kinda feels like Peach Tree Rascals took BROCKHAMPTON’s penchant for jubilant posse cuts and adapted it for the mainstream. The San Jose group burst onto the scene after their song “Mariposa” blew up on (where else?) TikTok. In total, they’ve released 16 singles, much of which have hit seven-figure play counts on streaming services. These kids have 5.5 million monthly listeners on Spotify without so much as an EP, much less an album. It’s all very 2020 and very fascinating.

24. Kevin Gates—”Weeks”

Kevin Gates has never made this list, but he’s someone I’ve always felt has a knack for sonic success. He has greater hits (“2 Phones” was one of the biggest songs of 2016), but “Weeks” is the essence of why he works for me. It’s melodic and morphing, slithering from a more traditional hip-hop sound to an irresistible refrain: “G Wag’, G Wag’, big bag, big bag, C note, C note.” I don’t think I have much company on this bandwagon in 2020, but it’s absolutely one of the year’s best rap songs.

23. Bartees Strange—”Boomer”

Man, what a year for Bartees Strange. I’d never heard of him before his October debut Live Forever and now it seems like I can’t stop bumping into him. Even as genre-bending has practically become a genre unto its own, Strange still manages to deliver something nearly un-recognizable yet completely sticky. The first time I heard “Boomer” I felt like I couldn’t quite pin it down, but I knew I loved it. I suppose the verses are hip-hop, but the energy feels a bit punk with a bridge that might be pushing… Americana? Heartland rock? Typically these trailblazing debut success stories fall off into one of two categories: ‘flash in the pan’ or ‘tip of the iceberg.’ I think Strange has the talent to make songs like “Boomer” part of the latter group.

22. Taylor Swift—”Invisible String”

Taylor Swift spent the better part of her career slowly eroding the walls between commercial success and critical acclaim before eventually breaking through a few years ago. Her work on me happened much more suddenly, as I heard 2020’s Folklore and decided, “Okay, I guess we’re doing this.” While a lot of her faux-indie album didn’t work for me, some of it really did, especially “Invisible String,” which doesn’t seem to be one of the songs the critics anointed, yet is clearly one of the album’s strongest points. It might be the ideal T Swift song—catchy but textured, poppy yet well-written.

21. Dominic Fike—”Politics & Violence”

This is not my favorite song from Dominic Fike’s debut album What Could Possibly Go Wrong?, but it may be his best, or at least most fully represent what I feel are his superpowers. It’s at the corner of pop and hip-hop, it’s catchy, the production has just enough edge, the song morphs in the middle, and Dom is letting loose with his flow in the second verse. I think most of us were a little underwhelmed with the album, but songs like this keep well out of bust territory. Dominic still has the juice. He’ll figure it out.

20. PUP—”Nothing Changes”

An unspoken consequence of a year so defined by a single struggle is that everything becomes viewed through a single lens. I can’t think of 2001 without thinking of 9/11, and I’m sure people 19 years ago discussed every piece of culture through the lens of war and loss.

“Nothing Changes” feels very of 2020, which is interesting seeing as it was recorded during the Morbid Stuff sessions. In the most repetitive, escapist year of my life, this all felt very apt. “Thought I could just crank up the noise, and maybe it would drown it out. But nothing ever changes.”

19. Touché Amoré—”Reminders”

I’m a sucker for a catchy melody or hooky chorus, but I also prefer music with a little bite. Because of this, I’m constantly falling in love with songs like “Reminders” and their dissonance between palatable sounds and important thoughts. This is a frustrated song: “With a head so beat and drained, I’m running on empty as the world collapses with complacency.” And yet it’s the catchiest song on the album, and (by my tastes) blending the exact perfect amount of pop and noise.

18. Bleachers—”45”

I don’t get the sense it’s particularly cool to love Jack Antonoff. Frankly I’ve always hated his brand of pop super producer, and it’s one I don’t personally bestow with the same type of admiration I give great artists.

And yet I think Antonoff deserves to have his cake and eat it too. He has production on five Taylor Swift albums as well as credits with Lana Del Rey and Lorde. And yet he’s also proved capable of making good music with his band, Bleachers. Much like past standouts “Goodmorning” and “Don’t Take The Money,” this is fantastic pop music.

17. The Killers—”When The Dreams Run Dry”

In a normal year, the best Killers lyric would be the Sinatra-alluding “We'll beat the birds down to Acapulco Bay.” But this is 2020 so the best Killers lyric is a couple moments earlier when Brandon Flowers uses the end of his chorus to shout “We're all gonna die!”

16. Future—”Life Is Good” (ft. Drake)

I had to check several times to ensure this song was actually released in 2020, but the internet promises me it dropped on January 10th, which feels like it occurred three lifetimes ago. It’s probably the most decidedly pre-pandemic song here, lending a funny kind of wistfulness to what’s otherwise nothing more than a really fun (and really good) kind of double-single featuring Drake and Future each delivering solo work in one Frankenstein’d track.

Much like my life before this year went sideways, it’s uncomplicated. But it’s also my favorite pure hip-hop song of 2020.

15. Kanye West—”Wash Us In The Blood” (ft. Travis Scott)

“Wash Us In The Blood” feels like a mosh pit begging for sanctification, a frenetic palette ripped from the pages of Yeezus, and what the ‘Kanye Goes Gospel’ experience should’ve been in the first place. Life is a Kanye fan in 2020 is so complicated that I’m not sure I’d want to classify myself as one, yet I can’t help but wonder how his critical reception would be if the last two albums worked like this song does.

Do I miss the old Kanye? Yes. Yes. …Yes. But “Wash Us In The Blood” feels like a moment of creative synthesis, the type of thing that’s rarely happened for Kanye in the last four years.

14. Maxwell Stern—”Never Ending Equals Sign”

Real Maxwell Stern fans know this song was originally released in 2017 as part of his EP, There’s A Time For Everything. That 2017 version slowly built to a stellar trumpet solo, a brilliant flourish in an otherwise sparse collection of songs. When I saw that the track was being re-recorded for inclusion in 2020’s Impossible Sum, I immediately checked the credits for signs of trumpeters. Nothing.

But everything about the album version of this song has been improved, including, it turns out, the solo. It was replaced with a guitar that works flawlessly within the context of the album. I love this song so much.

13. Me Rex—”Stellar Abattoir”

Nothing released in 2020 better speaks to the limited scope of mainstream music outlets than Me Rex’s “Stellar Abattoir.” The fact of the matter is that there are simply too many artists making music in 2020 for everything to make it into the ears of people at Pitchfork, or even something like The Alternative.

In a world where music receives the attention it objectively deserves, this song would be littered across year-end lists. Instead I’m giving it a couple paragraphs and mourning how a band capable of writing absolutely genius couplets like this isn’t more popular: “Are you sick or ill-defined? Are you lost, or are you just difficult to come by?”

This song has less than 9,000 plays on Spotify. Criminal.

12. Mustafa—”Air Forces”

The next dominant force in the world of prestige R&B is Toronto’s Mustafa. After earning his stripes as a poet he turned his attention to music. It’s a medium where his gift as a songwriter, and his taste in collaborators, immediately paid dividends.

“Air Forces” is accented by samples of war chants from his parents’ native Sudan. They caution against incoming danger in Mustafa’s Regent Park neighborhood, especially when paired with his opening plea: “Don’t crease your Air Forces, just stay inside tonight.” This isn’t even his best song of the year and yet it’s one of 2020’s most promising releases. I absolutely cannot wait for his 2021 debut When Smoke Rises.

11. Remi Wolf—”Woo!”

I find Spotify’s algorithm works best for assembling endless playlists of artists I already like. Occasionally, however, it’ll manage to snag a new hit like it did with this new Remi Wolf EP.

The future of indie pop is littered with similarly exciting artists. Remi Wolf slots in beautifully with acts like Dominic Fike, Still Woozy, and Roy Blair. It’s an explosion of sound and energy—home on the perfect shower playlist. (A waterproof Bluetooth speaker was a long-overdue addition to my shower this year.)

It’s the type of song that shows up on a few algorithm-driven playlists and before long you find yourself humming lines about dentists and hunting it down to play it again. Remi Wolf is bound for big things.

10. Maude Latour—”Furniture”

Much like the previous entry on this list, I think Maude Latour was a random W for Spotify’s song recommendation algorithm. This one is steadily creeping towards two million plays on the platform, which is reassuring yet also feels insufficient 146 seconds of pop perfection like this.

My goodness, this song goes. I am frantically buying all the Maude Latour stock I can get my hands on. If she keeps making stuff like this I’m going to end up becoming whatever her version of a Swiftie is.

09. Zach Bryan—”Heading South”

I’m bending the rules a bit here, as “Heading South” was released as a single in 2019. But the album it’s featured on, Elisabeth, came out in May.

I have a weird relationship with country music. I spent seven years of my childhood living in Nashville, so I sometimes joke that country music seeped into my blood. I wouldn’t call myself a country fan, and I can’t name a country album I love, yet occasionally a song or two breaks through. I have a lot of respect for the genre, and songs like “Heading South” are why.

While I prefer Bryan’s acoustic YouTube version, the song in all its forms succeeds on the back of the kind of heart and imagery I love from country. It’s a song about dirt, blood, and freedom. I just can’t quit it.

08. Waxahatchee—”Fire”

Waxahatchee’s Katie Crutchfield has gone into detail on the meaning behind “Fire.” It’s something artists won’t always do, but I appreciate it because the songwriter can always lead me to a deeper understanding than I can find myself.

The general conceit of the song is obvious: It’s a pep talk. But I think the beauty of the song is unlocked in this comment: “I love the idea of writing a song that feels like a traditional song to a romantic partner, but then having that other person be me.”

Also “Fire” just sounds great.

07. Taylor Swift—”The Last Great American Dynasty”

I wrote a whole post on this song in July:

The biggest stumbling block for me when it came to Taylor Swift, the musician, has been the corner she painted herself into. When unprecedented career success drives you to the antithesis of your worldview as an artist, what comes next? Jay-Z could no longer convincingly sell the struggling drug dealer act while swimming backstroke through deposits from Budweiser brand deals. Taylor could no longer sell the “aw shucks, I’m the broken-hearted girl next door” character after she propelled herself past the point where she was anything but.

Like Jay-Z 13 years before her, the unrelatably successful Swift found a fresh pocket to play in by exploring kinship with a bygone predecessor. Jay’s was drug kingpin Frank Lucas. Swift’s was Rebekah Harkness—wife of Cleveland Standard Oil heir William Hale Harkness. Rebekah’s marriage in 1947 made her one of the wealthiest women in America. William died of a heart attack seven years later at 54 years old, leaving Rebekah in charge of the 11,000-square-foot Holiday House in Watch Hill, Rhode Island, which brings us to the Swift connection. The pop star bought the house for a reported $17 million in 2013.

06. Maxwell Stern—”Tying Airplanes to the Ground” (ft. Ratboys)

This song is like posse cut for charity. It features Adam Beck (Into It. Over It.), Ian Farmer (Modern Baseball), Evan Lortisch (Mother Evergreen), and Julia Steiner and Dave Sagan (Ratboys). Proceeds from the single go to the National Independent Venue Association, helping to stem the tide against a year that ravaged the bars and clubs that host all of my favorite artists.

Stern says the song was born of out of an idea to take the ethos of musician John Prine (who passed away in April) and apply it to the calamity around us this year. It worked. In a year with so many songs (intentionally or not) fighting to be the “sound of the pandemic,” this is mine.

05. Dogleg—”Kawasaki Backflip”

I’ve been in on Dogleg for a while. “Fox” made the list of my favorite songs of 2019, and it seemed like overnight they got stuck with the “future of punk/DIY” label. I liked Dogleg, but I’ve gotta admit I didn’t see transcendence at first.

It wasn’t until the re-release of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater was announced in May and people started spitballing a new soundtrack headlined by Dogleg that it finally clicked. “Kawasaki Backflip” is absolutely a THPS song. I understand it now, and I love it.

I resent that I did not get to scream this song at a sweaty bar show this summer. The pandemic has ruined my life in numerous ways.

04. Dominic Fike—”Why”

Dominic Fike teased this song on his Instagram in May… of 2019. I spent the next year listening to 60 seconds of it on loop and dreaming about what his debut album could hold.

As I’ve written here, What Could Possibly Go Wrong? was a bit of a mixed bag, but one song that absolutely delivered on all its promise was “Why.” It’s nothing more than a little pop song, 140 seconds long. But the melody is pure dynamite. It’s the year’s best piece of bubble gum.

03. Maxwell Stern—”Pull The Stars Down”

It’s a very weird (and awesome) feeling when an artist you’ve loved for years suddenly hits a new level, in the process blowing all of their previously great stuff out of the water. That’s what Maxwell Stern did with his solo debut, Impossible Sum. It’s everything I’ve ever appreciated about his music, just… better. It’s all perfectly tuned up and locked into a zone he feels born to play in.

Nowhere is this perfect synergy more apparent than on “Pull The Stars Down,” one of the year’s sharpest pieces of songwriting. It’s a song that’s less about cutting ties with our past than it is about forming a healthy relationship with it. I’m an extremely nostalgic person so I have to be keenly aware of the ways in which my love of the past can prevent me from living in the present. “Pull The Stars Down” believes we can do both, and it’s right.

02. Phoebe Bridgers—”Kyoto”

Push every single one of my buttons, Phoebe Bridgers.

“Kyoto” is a song about problems that doesn’t offer a solution. It’s a song about discomfort and pain—some of which is very valid and some if which is kind of smirked at self deprecatingly. It’s a song about resentment that sounds uplifting. It’s a song about finding culture at convenience stores and making connections through payphones. It’s a song about seeing the world during a time in which none of us were able to, but it’s also a song about being homesick, perhaps the single most ironic thing to feel in 2020.

It’s a song I listened to what feels like 1,000 times in the last month.

01. Mustafa—”Stay Alive”

Occasionally I’ll have the luxury of discovering an artist when they’re brand new. There’s nothing better than hearing something just once and knowing you’re going to love it forever. The first time I heard Mustafa’s “Stay Alive” reminded me of the first time I heard Frank Ocean.

I make these dumb lists every year. I don’t know that I’ve ever been able to predict my favorite song of the year as far out as I did here. “Stay Alive” clinched this spot nine months out.

The song came out nearly simultaneously with our world being turned upside-down by a pandemic, and just months before our country’s largest civil rights movement in 50 years. 2020 only makes Mustafa’s intimate plea for humanity and survival more relevant and affecting.