Songs of 2020 Part 3: Top Twenty

 It's later in the day than anticipated, but this is only late because of other unrelated things; I otherwise had this ready to post this morning. Just in case you're wondering if I've been frantically bashing out these writeups (I will be bashing out my albums writeup right up to the very last minute though, I believe). Finally, after more than 1000 albums and many, many more singles, here are my top 20 songs of 2020.

20) Argitikos - Romarabeat (Roma-Maghreb Jazz) 

You may have seen (of course you have, in fact) that this is Romarabeat's second track on this top 100, but naturally it doesn't matter unless you crack my top 20 so here they are. This song is a hugely entertaining bit of world fusion jazz that combines European and north African influences to create something that's oddly whimsical as well as just being skilfully composed and produced.

 

19) Are You In Love? - Basia Bulat (Art Pop)

I mentioned earlier on "You've Got My Number" by Margaret Glaspy that the two songs who beat it that week were still to come - this is the first, and was my #1 song of that week. This track was really a standalone highlight on the album of the same name, but its slow build to its dramatic climax is worth every minute. It has a real cinematic scope to it, feeling like you've been told a story with a beginning, a middle and then its big explosive, melodramatic end - it's a wonderful song.

 

18) Oh My… Polkadot Politics - YOHIO (Visual Kei)

I still don't really know if 'visual kei' is my new favourite music genre/movement or not, but YOHIO was a damn fine introduction to it for me. This Swedish-born Japan-based singer/nutcase made an outstanding album of wacky Cabaret-adjacent J-pop with this as the crowning touch. The crowning touch largely because it even dares to add a touch of ska punk to the musical arrangement so it's just a tick-box exercise of outlandish showy performative stuff that I love.

 

17) Tony Wilson Said - Badly Drawn Boy (Indie Pop Rock)

As part of this year's listening, I did a throwback 'retrospective' of all of the Mercury Prize winners which introduced me to Badly Drawn Boy's brilliant 1999 album "The Hour of Bewilderbeast". It was not long after we listened to that album that he came out with his latest which, if not better, was certainly more immediately likeable and catchy. This track took a little while to grow on me as my favourite from the album but it's retained my esteem ever since as a lively and interesting pop tune that has BDB's trademark cheeky personality all over it.

 

16) Flight of Ideas - Warm Digits (Krautrock)

Warm Digits are also a previous entity on these year-end blogs, having done my #24 album of 2017 (and potentially will feature on this year's album list too, I genuinely haven't finalised my order as of the writing of these words). This track which closes the album of the same name is certainly the best bit of single music they've done, taking the repetitive motifs of krautrock and adding a complex system of percussive and synth sounds over the top that make it extremely dynamic and energising.

 

15) I / Me / Myself - Will Wood (Cabaret Rock)

I've mentioned Will Wood only once so far in these writeups as the maker of my #84 song of this year as well, but I can tell you there will be more to come, because I loved every minute of his crazy bonkers "The Normal Album" when I first heard it, and this was my favourite song from it at the time. Blending doo-wop and singalong cabaret with so much manic energy and head-rattling lyrics on personal identity and gender politics, it's a brilliant piece of musical storytelling.

 

14) Trouble - Kleerup feat. Ana Diaz (Dreampop)

This is probably a bit more of a typical entry on my end of year list. It's haunting dreampop with lots of ethereal layers, from Ana Diaz's vocals to the tintinnabular synth harmonies producing this surreal, dreamy atmosphere. It's not a groundbreaking bit of song composition or anything, but when all of the layers are firing it's quite a compelling experience to my ears.

 

13) Headline - Unified Highway (Electroreggae)

Little bit of a surprise to see this one so high, but I never skip this track when it comes up on my playlist; even if I'm looking for something slow and ballady, I'll make time for this. Based around a big driving pop beat, it delivers the sort of laid back reggae vibes that I love while maintaining a sense of social awareness. It's just a good nod-along track with a great rasta lilt but even better drive.

 

12) Six Days in June - The Fratellis (Indie Rock)

Makers of Jez and my combined #1 song of 2018 (his #1 of the year, my #10), The Fratellis were supposed to have an album out this year but it kept getting pushed back until we were offered this morsel late in the year. But what a morsel, full of their big ensemble rock sound where all sorts of instrumentation and backup vocals can be brought in to bolster the sound and the energy. It really served to remind me of why their next album is such a hotly anticipated one, at least for me.

 

11) Like in the Movies - Lola Marsh (Israeli Art Pop)

You'll be hearing more about Lola Marsh as well; this was only my runner-up song of the week it was released back in January, beaten out by another Lola Marsh song and beating a third Lola Marsh song in third place. This is an outstanding example of a great modern love ballad, utilising Yael Shoshana Cohen's husky vocals and depth of personality to its fullest, augmenting it with a heavy dramatic string build that gives me all the feels even after all these months of relistening to it.

 

10) Throw My Bones - Deep Purple (Dad Rock)

Kicking off this year's top ten with an absolute belter. This was the other track to beat Margaret Glaspy's "You've Got My Number" but this was originally second to "Are You In Love?" by Basia Bulat - now only #19 of the year - because I finally realised I needed to embrace the daggy Dad Rock of this track. Deep Purple surprised me a few years ago with their album inFinite, and they went even harder this year with this track that belongs on the top shelf of 70s head-banging hard rock. Yes it's Dad or even Grandpa rock by now, but the new members of the band give it so much life that the oldskool style feels new again.

 

9) This Is the Squeeze - Melt Yourself Down (Jazz Punk)

Melt Yourself Down were one of Jez's prized discoveries of the first year of our music project and I paid them very little mind at the time. Their album this year, and this track in particular, were a big surprise hit. This song is full of crazy improv jazz with some tribal beats and chanting, and underlying it all is this tremendous amount of cool attitude that makes all the weirdness extremely compelling.

 

8) Nickel and Dime Blues - Gangstagrass (Gangstagrass)

It's not often I get to write up a band whose name and premise have invented their own genre. These guys combine bluegrass instrumentation and songwriting with gangsta rap, and yes it is the stupidest idea imaginable, and yes it not only shouldn't work at all but it should be terrible, but astonishingly it's fantastic. The fact that there's a thematic simpatico between the two genres such as singing about the rich-poor divide means that when the two elements are committed, they do fuse together in weird and wonderful ways. This is a perfect example of a song that frankly has no right to be as good as it is, and I admire and enjoy it more for that.

 

7) (Just Won't) Keep Me Down - The Spitfires (Ska)

Bit more of a personal choice here: one of my formative bands growing up was Madness, and the Spitfires managed to perfectly recreate that North London laddish sound with this song. Their album was a little bit inconsistent in how well the brass and the attitude got under my skin, but this track was the epitome and I felt like being seven years old watching "House of Fun" being performed on The Young Ones for the first time again. I mean, personal preference aside, it's also a great deal of raucous fun.

 

6) Wooden Leg Part 2 (The Woodening) - Alestorm (Pirate Metal)

I warned you you'd be hearing more about Alestorm and their silly pirate-themed folk metal. This is not only an enormous amount of rollicking fun, but frankly it's also the best bit of prog metal I heard this year. It's got great drive throughout all of its movements, a fun tongue-in-cheek singalong chorus, and an entertaining story of hubris and revenge. Also knowing that this was 'part 2' without a 'part 1' on the same album, I went back to listen to part 1 from an earlier Alestorm album, and this does build on the same motif but takes it into far bigger and more interesting territories, proving that Alestorm really do take an enormously dumb premise and continue to build on it until it's great. Again, this is really some of the best fun I had with music this year.

 

5) Suburbia Overture / Greetings from Mary Bell Township! / (Vampire) Culture / Love Me, Normally - Will Wood (Cabaret Rock)

I also foreshadowed you'd be hearing more from Will Wood before these posts were done. This song was only runner-up to "I / Me / Myself" when I first heard them both, but relistening to this one I realised it's truly the masterpiece of his brilliant album. As per the unruly title, this is a medley of four tracks that would kick off the hypothetical cabaret show this album represents, and the journey it takes us on, beginning with a sweet doo-wop tour through a clean, pleasant suburban neighbourhood and steadily devolving into a dark occult nightmare that hides beneath, it sets the scene exquisitely for the crazy bonkers album that this is while standing alone as an amazing set of subversive and irreverent show tunes.

 

4) Never Ending Dream - Kishi Bashi (Baroque Pop)

A very late entry into the music project, this one was released in the last week of November, i.e. the last week of our listening year, but I knew immediately that this was a special piece of music. Kishi Bashi is of course no stranger to this end of my year, having gotten this very spot (#4 song of the year) four years ago with "Can't Let Go, Juno", as well as my #3 album of 2016 and my #7 album of last year so it's fair to say I like the guy a lot. It's therefore no small thing when I say this may be the best song he's ever made. It takes his bright, uplifting approach to baroque pop instrumentation and ratchets up the joyful, feel-good vibes in way that's playful, quirky but ultimately just lovely. It almost makes me want to get an Apple TV  subscription to watch the kids' show 'Stillwater' that uses this as the theme (i.e. why it was written), because this sets it up to be a potentially very magical experience.

 

3) Dear Brother - Nahko and Medicine for the People feat. Xiuhtezcatl (Latino Folk Rap)

This song was kind of an aberration when I first heard it, because it marks the point on Nahko and Medicine for the People's album "Take Your Power Back" where they stop committing to a socially conscious folk and expand into other musical territories. But the moving themes and beautiful musical arrangement on this track have always captivated me from that moment regardless. Essentially this song is framed as a letter from a man to his wayward younger brother but expands into commentary on the Latino (and Native American - Nahko Bear is part Puerto-Rican, part Filipino and part Apache according to Wikipedia) experience, racial injustice and eventually is just a plea for blokes to look out for and take care of each other. It's a song that always tends to get me a bit misty-eyed especially in the face of my own white person brand of adversity and reminds me of the bad news that greets other people daily.

 

2) Kaingin - Pantayo (Kulintang Gong Pop)

Speaking of aberrations, this song definitely felt like one on this album that experiments throughout with traditional kulintang metallophones and drums, taking on a lot more xenharmonies than I could quite connect with. But this song which takes those eccentric percussive sounds and xenharmonies and weaves them into an epic pop song is quite extraordinary. It has an otherworldly feel, consisting as it does of a fusion and clash of such disparate and even alien musical traditions, but there's an absolute expression of joy here, and I marvel at the magic that can happen when such unusual sounds come together so perfectly.

 

1) Echoes - Lola Marsh (Israeli Desert Rock)

And at the top of the list for the year is the second top twenty appearance from Israeli noir pop ensemble Lola Marsh. It's ultimately a fairly simple song in its construction and scope when compared to the previous two in particular, but it's four minutes of musical perfection. It takes a psychedelic desert rock motif, drives it forward with a brilliant pop drive and then rides Yael Shoshana Cohen's bewitching voice to the end. But it tops my list not just for being as perfect as it is, but the unrelated fact is it was released on an album in January, and it's remained the most entertaining, compelling and surprisingly comforting song for me, despite its themes of mental disquiet and loneliness. It's been my constant companion throughout the whole of this terrible year, and I will always think of it more fondly than anything else that came out of this year.