Top 30 Songs of 2020
By: Caleb Catlin
Tags: Culture, Music, Lists

I’ve found myself frequently repeating the sentiment, “this year was a bit rough at times but the music got me through” a lot over the years. However, no year has truly demonstrated just how important music is to the human experience quite like 2020 has. Lots of death, grief, stress, and racial injustice have been dumped on top of our battered psyches this year. That’s before you even consider just how draining the global pandemic has been. Still, music prevails over all, serving as the soundtrack of the lost summer, our daily home-ridden monotony, and the ultimate comforter in times of distress. In appreciation of the small glimmers of good to come out of this brutal year, I gathered some writers/friends of mine to discuss 30 of the best songs of 2020. Before we dive into the list proper, here’s a small list of honorable mentions that were definitely worthy of a mention: Thundercat- “Dragonball Durag”, Beabadoobee- “Further Away”, Khurangbin & Leon Bridges- “Texas Sun”, Jay Electronica- “APIDTA”, Tony Shhnow- “Rush Hour”, The Weeknd- “Blinding Lights”, Brian Brown- “The Release Pt. 2”, Curren$y & Harry Fraud- “Gold & Chrome”, Dinner Party- “Freeze Tag”, Taylor Swift- “august”/“mirrorball”, and Phoebe Bridgers- “Kyoto.” For more amazing songs from 2020, here’s a playlist including the songs in this list (Apple Music/Spotify).

Yves Tumor- “Kerosene!”: I often found myself asking, “How does a song so grandiose and massive exist in a space where it can’t bloom outside of the margins?” “Kerosene!” was supposed to be a song that existed as an earth shaking, hair raising stadium anthem for the ages. My first reaction was extremely physical; the slow buildup rose from the pits of my stomach to my throat in eager anticipation. Yves and guest singer Diana Gordon, formerly known as Wynter Gordon, both explore the heightening desires and desperation that accompany love. Although they sing a lot of the same lyrics, their approaches are drastically different. In Yves’ case, their tone demonstrates unbothered confidence, more lusty and dominant. Diana is a fireball, her wails of “I ain’t like them other girls. Look me in the eye, tell me I’m the one” and her whispers of “I can be what you need” highlight the love to be a necessity to keep going. The dynamic is one of clawing need, they need one another to ignite each other, to keep the flame inside them going. Musically, “Kerosene!” is jaw dropping. When the beat drops after the slow burn, it is awe-inspiring. The ripping guitar riffs and the Prince influences elevate this song from a regular power ballad to one of world-ending stakes. Even though “Kerosene!” couldn’t live out its greater rockstar aspirations of pure live spectacle, it was one of the few songs that made me feel alive in a year where my energy was drained — Caleb Catlin (@caleb_catlin23)

Dua Lipa- “Break My Heart”: They say the bigger they are, the harder they fall. How could Dua Lipa possibly follow up the smash success of her eponymous debut album? Future Nostalgia reinvents the English-Albanian star as not just another popstar, but one in full command of her voice and sound. At its climax is “Break My Heart,” a two-hour long film’s worth of emotions packed into 4 minutes and 18 seconds. Its bumping bass is reminiscent of golden age disco yet also of “Another One Bites the Dust” while its glamorous guitars find themselves somewhere between solo Gwen Stefani and The Ting Tings.

Dua Lipa’s music has found brilliance in being simple, sometimes too simple, but “Break My Heart” is the 25 year-old at her best, her coolest and most confident. In so few words, she understands the warmth love provides (“You say my name like I have never heard before”) and the emotional battles it creates (“Everyone before you was a waste of a time”). The future is exciting with a popstar as naturally talented as Lipa, her music sounds and feels like something beyond her young age and her bravado and emotion shine through whatever track is put in front of her. 2020 was Dua Lipa’s year, who’s to say 2021 won’t be hers either?- Emilio Calderon (@meeeeeeeeeels)

Sam Smith ft. Burna Boy- “My Oasis”: Impact can’t be quantified. Rather, impact shouldn’t be able to be quantified because it is more about the feeling than any metric. As we know, the music game has done its best to find ways to measure one’s impact through various statistics, charts, awards, etc. Still, when you know, you know. That was my experience with “My Oasis.”

The names alone drew me in, as Sam Smith and Burna Boy are two artists I have no issue confidently labeling as having never missed musically. The intrigue here was the two coming together, coming off to me as Sam Smith’s team recognizing Burna’s talent and popularity, with this being the lead single as they worked toward rolling out Sam’s latest album Love Goes. Surely no one fantasy booked this collaboration, but it was a major look for the Twice As Tall artist. They delivered on this heavily instrumental, frantic jam delving into the consuming nature of love. “Ooh baby, I really need ya/My feelings getting deeper/My mind is a freefall/There’s nothing I can do when it comes to you/You play with my emotion/I’m flowing like the ocean/I pray for your devotion.” Sam is what today’s generation would call “simping,” but simpin’ is pimpin’.

The continual references to bodies of water and the slight underwater filter over the heart thumping drums truly makes you feel like you’re drowning in love. Where Sam Smith is the sailor lost at sea but accepting of their fate, Burna Boy is the shipmate calling out for help and absolutely refusing to be content. “Wait a minute, tell me why you’re movin’ like that/Na, you wey I choose, but you make it so hard/I gave you my heart, you’re makin’ it so dark/But there’s nothing I can do when it comes to you/You takin’ it for granted/A lot of silence, the river don’t end.” It is a unique contrast which makes for a layered, dynamic record. I can never listen just once. — Armon Sadler (@armonsadler)

Phoebe Bridgers- “I Know The End”: In the final moments of “I Know the End,” Phoebe Bridgers screams. It’s a dry scream, soundless, all air. She chokes and sputters a bit between eruptions; you get the sense that she has no voice left at all. But who would have anything left after all that? The last track on Punisher ramps up from a sterile start into a relentless, frenetic rage; while it begins mired in memory, as soon as we depart from the past, we’re hurtling toward the future. And there’s clearly darkness ahead: the somewhat sunny “Driving out into the sun / Let the ultraviolet cover me up” quickly morphs into a pseudo-apocalyptic drive. In its pernicious second act, the song throttles forward, boiling with both paranoia and an unbridled, chaotic ecstasy amped by its ever-growing percussion, a pressure cooker set to explode. That explosion — clearly touched by Bright Eyes member Mike Mogis, who mixed the album — is essential cacophony to close out her meditations on the untouchable past, rapidly deteriorating present, and inevitable future.

In “I Know the End,” there’s no looking back. The title itself is assertive enough; I’m inclined to believe her. Picture the music video, where Bridgers holds the face of her older self and screams; moments later, they kiss. Bridgers screams in the face of aging, of death, after she runs down from her place on the stage. And then, she embraces it. — Caitlin Wolper (@CaitlinWolper)

Lil Baby- “Emotionally Scarred”: Just about every rapper has told their story of coming from the bottom and exceeding expectations with life. But Lil Baby has never made this feeling of overcoming the odds sound so epic. The dramatic production intensifies the multiple situations that Baby describes. The ups and downs he experiences in this song sound so profound to how successful he has been. Whether it’s him experiencing love and loyalty fall flat on its face or imagining if rapping never happened he’d still be in the trap instead of hopping out of Lambo’s, it’s the detailed life moments that has defined him. Then Baby gets humble on the second verse, realizing how great has become with his Nipsey Blue painted Trackhawk and seeing his son play with new toys. His flow is golden, it has never sounded more effortless. It’s one of the many tracks off his new album My Turn that provided a case for Lil Baby being not just a superstar, but rapper of the year. Too bad the Grammys and BET didn’t recognize him as such. — Brandan Verrastro (@bverrastro_10)

Lil Baby ft. Young Thug- “We Should”: You’re going to be hard-pressed to find a rapper whose stock rose more than Lil Baby’s in 2020, and that is in large part due to the success of his second studio album My Turn. But the standout verse on the album doesn’t come from Baby, it comes from Young Thug, who delivers a heart-wrenching verse about how even with all of the success he has found in music, sorrow and tragedy still seem to follow him. This is perfectly encapsulated with these bars, “had a bittersweet birthday, got a bad call in a Rolls truck, red guts look watermelon, and spaghetti and some ketchup. All my n****s leaving me this shit got me depressed, thought he was gone wreck the Maserati or the ‘Vette, but he on the yard with the old dogs, they at rec, I missed the court call what they said?” The more his star grows and the higher he climbs up the ladder of success, the less day one friends make their way up the ladder with him, falling victim to the system or the streets. Thug has a habit of doing this on guest verses, with his 2017 verse on Meek Mill’s “We Ball” serving as one of the most emotional and best verses of Thug’s prolific career. He has a way of making you feel every word, deeply. “We Should” is no different, and is the one verse from 2020 that has stuck with me for the last 10 months. — Kameron Hay (@Kameron_Hay)

Pop Smoke- “Invincible”: The most apt comparison for Pop Smoke stemmed from the excellent Yoh Phillips. In his DjBooth article, “Hip-Hop in 2020 is Full of Greek Mythology”, he argued that Pop Smoke was akin to Hercules, son of Zeus and Alcmene, an artist who similarly embodied impenetrability and limitless strength. It’s hard to argue with this point; no one embodied pure dominance and conquest the way the late Pop Smoke did. In a time where New York, on a mainstream level, was waning severely, Pop was an energizing lightning bolt hurling towards the center of Brooklyn. His voice was thunderous and commanding in ways I’ve never heard from an artist. His death was horrifying because it was so sudden. He was only 5 months older than me. He was supposed to be the primary leader for the incoming generation of New York artists and he was gone right at the peak of his powers. With songs like “Invincible”, though, his voice and his legacy will live for an eternity. — Caleb

Hotboii- “Gram House Blues”: By industry metrics, Hotboii had a breakout year. The West Orlando rapper racked up tens of millions of streams, collaborated with rap A-listers like Lil Baby and Polo G, and signed a fat deal with Interscope. But the 20-year-old’s ascent is tangled up in tragedy. His breakout single “Don’t Need Time” is about the death of his childhood friend Wolph, and themes of lost innocence and stolen youth pervade his debut mixtape Kut Da Fan On.

Like too many great rap songs, “Gram House Blues” was born from incarceration. Hotboii wrote it at the age of 18 while serving time in a juvenile detention program, where he’d been locked up on burglary charges since he was 16. Most Hotboii songs come with catchy hooks, but “Gram House Blues” is one sprawling verse. Over a warm bed of horns and guitar, Hotboii unpacks various cruelties and indignities that our justice system inflicts on teenagers, from dreams deferred to lovers torn apart. He’s not being dramatic or indulging self-pity. He’s just finding poetic ways to tell the ugly truth. “I couldn’t even pursue my dream, because I couldn’t behave / I did 19 straight, I even missed a b-day / Same shit on replay, just for playing / And I don’t know how to pray, but I know how to repent.” Despite the myriad obstacles posed by this racist, broken country, Hotboii blossomed into a star, in the middle a pandemic, on his own creative terms. The least we can do is hear him out. — Jack Ellis (@pocketfull0ston)

Ka- “I Love (Mimi, Moms, Kev)”: Ka raps as if he’s reading from his own autobiography. He’s a steady narrator, his tone flat and monotonous. When he speaks, it’s like hearing a balloon pop in the middle of a party. Everything comes to a pause. But you don’t run for cover when Ka speaks. Instead, you take a seat next to him and listen to the allegorical stories he tells about growing up in Brownsville. Ka would be the first to admit that being a fire fighter isn’t his true calling — maybe he’d enjoy being reborn as a griot.

If I said that “I Love (Moms, Mimi, Kev),” the closing track of Descendants of Cain, was a rare moment of vulnerability for Ka, I’d be lying. Cautionary tales from a New Yorker being torn apart by the Crack Era are the foundation of the 48-year-old rapper’s discography. “Sayin’ you proud of me, the sweetest words ever / Purest soul I know Moms, you deserve better,” he raps in the second verse. “Whatever ailments, you nursed me back to health / Defend me even when the enemy’s in fact myself.” These aren’t simple acts of gratitude to Ka. That wouldn’t be enough — his wife, his mother, and his late friend Kev were key to his survival. Ka has been praised for his monastic storytelling for years, but on Cain, scenes of the city he grew up in have never seemed clearer. — Brandon Callender (@callenderdates)

Chris Keys & Quelle Chris ft. Merill Garbus, Cavalier, & Homeboy Sandman- “Sacred Safe”: On “Sacred Safe”, Quelle Chris and company string verses of self reflection together over a subdued backing beat and entrancing piano line that feels like your uncle and his friends sitting around a table giving you much needed life advice. It’s a revealing and personal song that feels comforting at its core, pulling you in softly with its beautifully layered hook and crisp rim hits. Each member’s verse feels like they are trying to impart some type of knowledge to the listener while also making sense of their past. For Cavalier, this is meditating on his generational trauma. For Homeboy Sandman, it is trying to find his place in the world. Lastly, for Chris himself, it is simply trying to get through the day to day. With all of this, “Sacred Safe “is not only one of the best songs on Innocent Country 2 but one of the best songs of the year. — Kyle Mayo-Blake (@lilindieemby)

Boldy James & Alchemist- “Grey October”: “Grey October” hit me like a ton of bricks upon my first listen. While it maintains the dark tone that carries through The Price of Tea in China, the production here creeps in and makes you stop in your tracks. It took me to a sudden place of peace as the entrancing strings and slow-paced verses created an atmosphere of stillness. The type of stillness that makes time tick a few paces slower; your senses are heightened in relation to your surroundings. When it’s you and the music together, the music slows your mind down and seduces your ears. The production by Alchemist is pure hypnotism, and Boldy James and guest feature Evidence take full advantage of it. James’ tales of drug-dealing and surviving are as gripping as ever, and his wordplay shines brightly. James sounds seasoned and comfortable spitting his bars, and it feels like he’s vocally slow-dancing with the music. Then, Evidence comes right behind him and evokes a different feeling to “Grey October”. Evidence reflects on life, his career, and his experience with such commanding clarity. He is clear in his delivery and his intentions, and it brings a considerable weight to the song. The dreamy and absorbing production by Alchemist coupled with exceptional verses from Boldy and Evidence make “Grey October” such a sobering track. — Kennedy London (@klond00)

Qari & greenSLLIME- “Retrospective”: Two of Chicago’s finest follow up last year’s impeccably grimy Operation Hennessy tape with this feet-up, head-nodding track dedicated to Black women. SLLIME slices a perfect loop from a soul record dusty enough for Herb Kent, the warbled vocals hanging in the air like blunt smoke. Qari flashes back to childhood: knucklehead cousins ducking prison, his dad’s beeper chirping as he bags up work in the kitchen, women in the background “criticized, victimized, villainized.” He resolves to be a better role model for his own daughter, and if that means he has to smack racists to make America Blacker, so be it. SLLIME’s more focused on the present: surfing Black Planet while cleaning his nine, looking for someone to share weed and Sharks lemon pepper wings with.

greenSLLIME dropped the self-produced-while-smashed iboga tape this year on top of excellent loosies like “Sell Coke To White Folks, Pt. 2,” while Qari’s been on an impressive run of features for Mick Jenkins, Sen Morimoto, theMIND, and more. Strong as they are on their own, the two artists are best together, like Madlib and DOOM, like weed and chicken. — Jack Riedy (@jackriedy)

G-Herbo ft. Polo G- “Lawyer Fees”: Polo G hasn’t been shy about his appreciation for G Herbo. Last year, he told Pitchfork, “when G Herbo first came, that’s when the real Chicago music started.” You don’t actually hear a lot of Herb’s approach in Polo, though. Herb is a rolling storm cloud — thunderous, explosive, active on every beat he touches — whereas Polo prefers to build somber, gray tones out of muted melodic rap. Together, they achieve something deep and devastating on “Lawyer Fees,” a piano-driven record about then and now, old traumas and new troubles. Polo’s hook is easily his best to date, and to hear Herb burst out of it with a volley of rhymes is the kind of thrill that defines great rap music. There’s no question they have chemistry, but it’s more subconscious than rappers who share flows or trade bars. These are two fully-formed stylists, approaching DJ Ayo’s beat in their own singleminded ways. What ties them together is Chicago — not so much the place on the map as the musical legacy, the shared history, the lived experiences. They understand each other. Polo G’s “No matter what, when it get rough, can’t let that shit break you,” reads as a response to Herb’s “I’m so post-traumatic / Yes I’m ‘posed to have it.” And so “Lawyer Fees’’ is transformed into a piece of local history — a passing of the torch, but also a way for two men, and others like them, to cope and heal.— Mano Sundaresan (@manosundaresan)

Blu & Exile ft. Jacinto Rhines- “The Feeling”: From Exile’s serene, key heavy beat and scratches on the hook to what might be Blu’s most introspective verses in years, “The Feeling” is the kind of song that some white dude with a braided beard will tell you about and say “that’s real hip hop bro” in a questionably racist way. There’s a calmness to Blu’s delivery that clashes with the hopelessness of the lyrics themselves, like a man who’s accepted that he lost something irretrievable but is determined to push forward without it. He’s determined to make sure you know what that something is so maybe you’ll appreciate it in a way he couldn’t. The feeling. In a year permeated with despair, the closing spoken word by author Jacinto Rhines is embedded into my mind: “only the feeling makes a house a home, only the feeling makes a word a poem. Joy is the feeling that we feel so strong.” And for a couple of minutes, while he speaks the perpetual cloud of pessimism and borderline misanthropy that dominates my ethos dissipates, my fractured, depressed mind feels it too and they have my gratitude for that. — Zurraiz Khan (@ZTheJustOK)

Duwap Kaine- “Da Feeling”: After sitting with this song all year, I’m still uncertain on why this song continuously mystifies me. It has soundtracked literally everything I did this year. Writing? Not many songs helped me focus more. Sleeping? What better song is there to snooze to? Perusing social media? Of course. Grocery Shopping? No song was better for picking up a flavor of Simply Lemonade or if I wanted pizza rolls for lunch one week than Duwap Kaine’s “Da Feeling.” There is an extremely confusing yet immense comfort within Kaine’s robotic, auto-tuned monotone. The layered multitrack recordings are combined in an all-consuming cocoon of camp fire warmth that stick in my head for hours. While it sounds extremely warm, the feeling I get from the song can change on a whim. One minute, it can sound like background music on a level in Super Mario Galaxy. The next minute, it can sound like any underwater level in any video game. With the smallest change in perspective, “Da Feeling” transforms into a completely new, distinct experience. It’s magical in ways I’m still unraveling every day. — Caleb

NEZ ft. Schoolboy Q- “Wild Youngster”: To kick off the new year, Chicago musician Nez debuted his debut solo single “Wild Youngster” with West Coast king Schoolboy Q, whom he previously produced the hit single “Man of the Year” for on 2014’s Oxymoron with the duo NEZ and Rio. This infectious, sensual house jam feels like second nature to Q, showing how little difference there is between the club and the streets. Inspired by NEZ visiting Paris for Fashion Week, the song has carried over into quarantine serving as a soundtrack for turning even the most dull into something vibrant. — Jade Gomez

Chris Brown & Young Thug- “Go Crazy”: A lot of the best music this year — or at least the music that was most searing — was buried within the stone walls of our quarantine prisons. Contemplative missives and claustrophobic yearnings. It’s tough for art to not feel like a constant self-referendum in a year where there hasn’t been much else to reflect on but the mirror. “Go Crazy” isn’t that. There are other anthems this year, but no others that capture such aspirational elation, a dreamlike pocket of a fake reality, a blazing sunset crossing over at noon. Art is not reality, and the most interesting art doesn’t mirror it, but some of the best art renders it immaterial. It’s a hit that’s a mirage, but also a painted window.

It’s tempting to frame this one as the hit that should’ve been, because it’s easy to imagine this one swelling into something generational if we were Outside — but I’m also willing to embrace the poetry. Like Thug and Future’s “Relationship” back in 2017, it feels like a glimpse into a glamorous alternate reality, where Thug basked in weeknight MTV glory and went triple platinum, all off the strength of the CDs. I’m aware that he’s almost imperceptibly slid into the same type of commercial success that felt incomprehensible for him just 5 years ago (“Go Crazy” went top 10 Billboard, which I am just learning now), so a bit of the effect is robbed — but the link up here remains surreal in effect. For a few minutes, we get to float. — Sun-Ui Yum (@snnyym)

Lil Uzi Vert- “Prices”: “Prices” was the last time 2020 felt normal for me. The Eternal Atake surprise release was unforgettable, a Friday morning out of time. Each track was a new divine realization of excess, Uzi’s sharpest rapping and most exciting moments on display. The moment when that angelic sample hit on “Prices” brought a childlike sense of peace. The chorus fit Uzi’s higher vocal range better than Travis Scott’s original warbled melody. The magic of Uzi is he can reference SILENCE OF THE LAMBS next to a child’s nursery rhyme flip, hitting the highs and lows of pop culture with equal reverence. I worked at a film festival that weekend and ran the song on repeat all three days. I woke up each morning to Uzi’s exuberance for life. It felt like my year. 2020 is almost over, and the journey we’ve taken is nothing close to the blockbuster tale of outer space and alien encounters of Eternal Atake. It’s rare to find those pockets of joy anymore, but “Prices” still gives me comfort. — JT Chipman (@chipoffyoblock)

Glockboyz Teejae, OnFully, The Godfather, & BandGang Lonnie Bands- “Wack Jumper”: This is, with no hyperbole, one of the greatest posse cuts I’ve ever heard. Where past supergroup songs like “Swagga Like Us” or “Forever” were extremely underwhelming, uncoordinated, lukewarm affairs, “Wack Jumper” works so well because of seamless chemistry every artist had with one another. The biggest strength lay in its hypnotizing, brain thumping production from Enrgy Beats. The strings in the background exist as part Godfather, part Beethoven, an ominous classical symphony with Detroit’s finest spitting mind-boggling one liners. They balance playful boasts and absurd visuals with menacing taunts and sinister threats. On one hand, OnFully will say “leave an opp head by my feet, fuck around and punt it.” On the other, BandGang Lonnie Bands will riddle off darkly hilarious lines like “this the ugly white bitch, I call her Mona Lisa” or “Them boys can’t shoot long distance, call em Rajon (Rondo).” Where many group cuts tend to feel disjointed because each respective artist sound separate from one another, the union with Teejae, The Godfather, OnFully, and Lonnie Bands is tangible. The balance they reach between stark reality and playful references amongst the cinematic production made this one of my favorite rap songs of the year. — Caleb

Baby Keem- “Hooligan”: Last year, I got up on my soapbox and proclaimed that the year 2020 would be the year that Baby Keem takes over and claims his rightful spot in the upper echelon of rap. And to be quite honest, I was flat out wrong: the 20-year old from Las Vegas only released music once, dropping a two-pack of songs in the middle of September. While the quantity wasn’t present, the quality surely was with the lead track “hooligan,” a brief glimpse into the potential stardom he holds. Over a beat carried by a dark and foreboding piano that’s reminiscent of the original Scooby-Doo background music, Keem retains the same attitude that captivated the world on “Orange Soda.” The piercing whistle that propels the song drills directly into your cerebellum and rests there. The smooth combination of a nonchalant, well-paced delivery with playful lyrics makes it ridiculously easy to jaunt along with, bouncing in and out of pauses. For all his hard work, he’s in possession of one of the best lines to yell out, as he raps, “I am done / bitch go to your room!” If “hooligan” is any indication, I should be able to translate my 2020 prediction to 2021. — Matthew Ritchie (@mkrwrt)

Cash Kidd ft. Sada Baby- “Unappreciated”: 2020 has been dubbed by IG captions and people who don’t know what else to say in conversation as the year of vibes, and Cash Kidd reads them as well as anyone. On the lovesick “Unappreciated,” he notices his girl’s vibes are off and that she’s about to leave him, so he turns to the bottle, singing “Ooh I been drinking lately / Cuz I been fighting demons baby,” in maybe the most relatable hook of the year. Sada Baby tags in after the emo hook to hammer home everything he doesn’t like about his girl, including the way she parks her car. Cash Kidd seems to take the pep talk to heart, as he boomerangs combos of “bye” and “bitch” in the outro, finally moving onto his new bitch, who’s bi.- Harley Geffner (@gnarlyheffner)

Megan Thee Stallion ft. Young Thug- “Don’t Stop”: Megan Thee Stallion has had an incredible run the past 2 years, finally embracing a strong stylistic departure on her debut album Good News. Amongst the hyper pop and TikTok-ready bangers was “Don’t Stop,” one of the more overlooked singles of the album’s release. Featuring strong PC-music adjacent sounds similar to SOPHIE and Arca, Megan and collaborator Young Thug provide a more than satisfying display of versatility with their take on a rising genre. — Jade

Machine Gun Kelly- “Bloody Valentine”: I generally don’t believe in the idea of guilty pleasures because I wholeheartedly stand by my preferences and distastes despite any potential backlash. However, this one probably lands the closest towards this territory because of how little “Bloody Valentine” seems to bring to the table. MGK is not a particularly great vocalist in the way a lot of the best pop rock artists are. Comparing him to Fall Out Boy’s lead singer Patrick Stump, MGK seems a lot drier because he can’t access a wide array of emotions in his vocals nor can he reach a very high register. Musically, it’s glaringly simple. The guitars aren’t very dynamic, teetering between a very simple set of chords. Where “Bloody Valentine” succeeds, however, is MGK’s ability to tap into a very specific brand of pop rock and recreate it in a modern setting.

It’s very much a 2000’s rock recreation, from Travis Barker’s production and excellent drum work to its snug fit with the rest of the Tony Hawk soundtrack on its remaster. It doesn’t pretend to do anything new with the rock genre but it comes from a genuine place of care and appreciation. MGK is clearly a connoisseur of 2000s rock, studying what makes nostalgic tunes like “Thnks Fr Th Mmrs” or “Mr Brightside”, this song’s obvious inspiration, work at its core. He makes rock music a lot better than he ever did with hip-hop. With “Bloody Valentine”, I’m glad he found his natural calling; it allows him to make some of the catchiest mainstream rock music I’ve heard in a long time. — Caleb

Fiona Apple- “Heavy Balloon”: It can be hard to let go of grudges. Though we may not think it, grudges are part of our identities. We hold grudges against people, places, or things we feel are wrong or have wronged us. Some of us even hold them against ourselves, and some of us are cursed to have them with the world itself. Destructive and enabling they may be, yet comforting and familiar they can seem. A seemingly defeated Fiona Apple moans, “We get dragged down, down to the same spot enough times in a row / The bottom begins to feel like the only safe place that you know.” Fetch the Bolt Cutters is about confronting grudges and finding safety, but not in the way we’re conditioned.

“Heavy Balloon” finds peace in uneasiness. It is the realization that the emotional barriers we set for ourselves are meaningless, that these boundaries we create out of fear of the unknown are what kills growth. You can’t protect yourself from the world by keeping yourself locked in — the world will find its way in eventually. Apple finds that it’s easier to just open the gate yourself. “I’ve been sucking it in so long / That I’m busting at the seams,” she quietly but defiantly decries, a eureka moment or a light at the end of a very long tunnel. The ceremonial percussion of “Heavy Balloon” edges the listener towards this epiphany slowly, like the menacing drones of a horror movie which precede a character being in danger. Years of abuse, physical and emotional, and the unkind effects of fame have taught Fiona Apple one thing: the only way to survive the world is to kick down the door and say hello to it. — Emilio

Problem ft. Freddie Gibbs & Snoop Dogg- “Don’t Be Mad at Me”: In the midst of the lyrical warpath Freddie Gibbs went on this year, skewering beats and outshining rappers left and right, he stopped at the West Coast to hop onto Problem’s “Don’t Be Mad At Me.” We’re treated to a fierce performance over the haunting acapella loop, rife with classic Gibbs flavor and wordplay (favorite moment was when he compared himself to a legend in two games by calling himself “Tiger Gibbs”). It was no shock that Gibbs killed his verse, but the surprise came with how easy it meshed with Snoop Dogg’s proximal verse, which was a complete switch-up in pace and tone. If Gibbs’ verse was a blazing inferno, Snoop’s performance was the sweet, cooling relief of rain that follows. The beat might have well been made for him, as the classic West Coast bounce allows him to slide over top with ease. The juxtaposition of two legends set Problem up perfectly, capping off one of the coolest tracks of the year. — Ritchie

Drake- “Time Flies”: The streets sure do try to avoid giving Aubrey the nod for anything on an end of year list, but any list without this song is suspect. It has all the components of a Drake hit; a catchy hook, energizing beat, lover boy lines, and the half-rap-half-sing flow that he’s mastered over the course of his career. Having released two months into quarantine, the idea of being outside someone’s house hit so differently. Those linkups feel all the more special.

Did Drake really catch a shawty off of finsta? Will he be her man down the road? Why does she believe in angles more than angels? So many questions that make this song worth relistening and pondering. You bump something nice but you also think. It’s the perfect storm. It only lost due to us not being outside. It was the Drake song this year that had the perfect timing if the pandemic never occurred. Alas, we shall keep it alive with each sneaky link and stream. — Armon

Drake ft. Chris Brown- “Not You Too”: In a year that saw Drake release or appear as a feature on over 20 songs, the one that captured me was a B-Side from a throwaway mixtape. “Not You Too” with Chris Brown on Dark Lane Demo Tapes was the soundtrack to every night of mine for almost all of 2020, for better or worse. Paranoia, trust issues, heartache, and insomnia all bundled into 4:30 of darkness. Drake does most of the heavy lifting here with Brown serving as a glorified background vocalist but it channels the same darkness as “Jaded” from Scorpion without being as heavy handed, finding the perfect balance of being able to send you spiraling into your feelings while also singing your heart out. Drake has seemingly made a variation of this song 100 times, and it still hits every single time, and this one is sure to have you asking the ever important question: trust who? — Kam

Ari Lennox- “Bussit”: It’d been 4 years since Revenge of the Dreamers 2 when the mysterious calling cards inviting just about every single rapper, singer, producer, and songwriter in the universe to Atlanta began popping up on Twitter and Instagram. Every day, a new face would appear in the studio, building anticipation for what would eventually become Revenge of the Dreamers 3, a showcase of talent from new Dreamville signees like JID and EarthGang as well as other rising artists including Saba and Baby Rose. ROTD3 landed in July 2019 initially with 18 tracks, but the deluxe edition (They insist that its a “Director’s Cut”) tacks on another 12, including the sticky “BUSSIT” by Ari Lennox, one of the best songs on the colossal project.

“BUSSIT” doesn’t leave much to the imagination. “Said have off my clothes when you arrive” is the song’s opening line. Ari’s warm singing gives the song an effortless sexiness. “I know that you’re into me, about it, then let me see / Ride, don’t be scared of me, I’m rowdy as they can be,” she teases on the hook. The slow, dreamy beat gives her room to work her magic. Ari won’t wink when she asks you to take form in her ocean. She’ll look you straight in the eye. When you hear “BUSSIT” years in the future, you’ll be remembering every late-night conversation with the person you love. — Brandon

Mac Miller- “Good News”: At the beginning of the year, before things took a nasty turn for the worst, the people in Mac Miller’s camp were getting ready to release his posthumous album Circles. They started with “Good News”, something that sounds like Mac made it from the heavens. Its fluttering, soft beat made this a soothing experience on the first listen; it sounds like a walk through the meadows. But when you break down the lyrical content, it’s actually heart-breaking. Some of the bars are so god damn depressing, it makes me want to crawl in a hole. The opening line “Spent the whole day in my head” immediately directs you to the emotional distress he was feeling. It touches on multiple viewpoints of life; regret, depression, confusion and thoughts about “the otherside”. The chorus paints a picture that people around him don’t want to hear about his problems. “Good news, good news, good news That’s all they wanna hear No, they don’t like it when I’m down But when I’m flyin’, oh. It make ’em so uncomfortable, So different, what’s the difference?” It’s a gut-wrenching single, but it was a message that explained Mac’s mental state. It felt like the final send-off for Mac before he left our presence, couldn’t have asked for anything better from him. — Brandan

Snoop Dogg- “Nipsey Blue”: Life is brutal. It’s a seemingly never ending cycle of death, grief, and mourning we’ll never escape. 2020 put this on full display, taking some of our cherished heroes (Kobe Bryant, John Witherspoon, Chadwick Boseman, Pop Smoke, among others) and innocent Black men and women at the hands of racially and morally corrupt police (George Floyd, Breonna Taylor are a couple amongst a depressingly long list). How does one even begin to cope when all we know is tragedy? Perhaps we don’t. Snoop Dogg on “Nipsey Blue” showcases just how fruitless it is to combat the heartache that accompanies death. With Dorothy Moore’s “Misty Blue” as the backbone, Uncle Snoop lightly sings a devastating ode to the late Nipsey Hussle, whom we lost in 2018. Where so many heartbreaking songs about loss favor power in order to convey just how strong the pain is, “Nipsey Blue” relies on subtle pain. Snoop sounds fatigued, utterly burnt out by the toll death weighs upon his psyche. He sounds like he’s cried his last tears only to revisit the pain and fall apart all over again, “I should forget you, heaven knows I’ve tried.” No matter how long it’s been, the time that’s been separated, the weight of life and death remain a heavy boulder on our shoulders. All we have left at the end of death is the remains. “Nipsey Blue” is one of the most heartbreaking songs ever but it’s also warm. It’s a song bleeding with love for a legend gone far too soon. It’s up to us to lead with the same love and cope with our pain the best we can, to honor the spirits and memories of those we love. — Caleb