Only fifteen songs this year. A lot of good but often depressing music was made given that it was 2020, and I’ve limited this to songs that excite me whenever I hear them.
Inara George, Dave Grohl – Sex in Cars: Road Angel Project
I didn’t submit my top ten to this year’s Hottest 100, since I don’t think Australia Day should be celebrated as long as it’s held on January 26th. Instead I voted only for A.B. Original – January 26. It’s an important message, but I also like the tune.
Starts with my top ten for Hottest 100 purposes, the rest are ordered by (Spotify) track length. This year I restricted myself to one track per artist in the top ten. Was itching to have more Barnett, Grimes, Torres.
Pedestrian At Best – Courtney Barnett
Sprinter – Torres
California – Grimes
Fourth of July – Sufjan Stevens
Clearest Blue – CHVRCHES
Electric Indigo – The Paper Kites
Price Tag – Sleater-Kinney
Huarache Lights – Hot Chip
Automaton – Là-bas
Puppet Theatre (feat. Peter, Bjorn and John) – Claptone
Waste the Alphabet – Dick Diver
Nobody Really Cares If You Don’t Go To The Party – Courtney Barnett
Fading Out – Lurch & Chief
Too Much Time Together – San Cisco
Never Ending Circles – CHVRCHES
Running With The Wolves – AURORA
Hiding To Nothing – Bad//Dreems
Distant Past – Everything Everything
Born Again Teen – Lucius
Cream On Chrome – Ratatat
Leave A Trace – CHVRCHES
A Heroine – Holy Holy
Boys Latin – Panda Bear
Flesh without Blood – Grimes
Son, You Are No Island – Torres
Into The Cave – Lonelady
Poison Drum – Gang of Youths
Evil Eyes – Róisín Murphy
Let It Happen – Tame Impala
Blackstar – David Bowie
Honourable Mentions:
The Hamilton Original Broadway Cast Recording is my album of the decade, hands-down. Nothing came close to topping it this year. But being a musical – and a good musical – most of its songs require the context of the others, so it’s difficult to name them in a list like this.
Since it’s primarily a hip-hop musical, Cabinet Battle #1 is the best example of the show. But if there was going to be a breakaway pop hit it would probably be Wait For It, sung by Leslie Odom Jr’s Aaron Burr.
