12 Songs That I Enjoyed In 2020
Tags: 2020, Lyrics, Lists, Songs, Music

12 Songs That I Enjoyed In 2020

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

1. 25 in Barcelona (JP Saxe)

“I’m halfway ‘round the world with all these people / Happy in a foreign language / Where they don’t know a thing about you.”

✔️ Recognisable acoustic guitar motif.

✔️ Soothing and sad. (A pre-requisite for late-night-emo playlists?)

✔️ Conventional in many ways, yet manages to be elegant and unique.

2. Run (Joji)

“And I travelled the country just to get to you.”

✔️ Guitar, guitar, guitar! (Did I mention guitar? It’s a big part of this one.)

✔️ Simple but heart-thumping drum beat.

✔️ Relatively slower tempo.

3. How Far We Can Go (Upstate)

“Let’s set out on our own / We’ll see how far we can go.”

✔️ One of the shorter songs in this list.

✔️ Relatively more upbeat and positive, perhaps even inspiring.

✔️ Shout-as-you-drive-down-the-empty-highway type of song. (Safely.)

4. Drink to Drown (Stand Atlantic)

“Cut me too deep / So uneasy / Fragments of me / That I don’t need.”

✔️ Many quotable lyrics.

✔️ A more metaphorical song.

✔️ One of Stand Atlantic’s more ‘chilled’ songs. (They are a pop-punk band. Absolutely great, check out their 2020 album, Pink Elephant.)

5. could cry just thinking about you (Troye Sivan)

“I could cry just thinking about you / Every line I write is somethin’ about you.”

✔️ Literally the shortest song I know at 52 seconds. (It doesn’t need to be long to tell a good story!)

✔️ Again, the simplest beats hit the hardest. A big part of this is carefully-chosen drum sounds.

✔️ Interlude vibes. The transition. The turning point.

6. The Way We Say Goodbye (Circa Waves)

“So take this plane, delay it / I heard the music fading / With you, you know.”

✔️ Immaculate songwriting.

✔️ Awesome panning of the drums.

✔️ Lots of ear-candies to keep you listening. (Wait, was it over already?)

7. anything 4 u (LANY)

“I’m something so familiar / That you don’t even notice.”

✔️ Dreamy, smooth vocals.

✔️ Classic tale of unrequited love.

✔️ Lots of reverb and airy sounds. (I envision the persona standing atop a windy hill, looking out at the horizon, when I hear this song.)

8. Easy (Troye Sivan with Kacey Musgraves feat. Mark Ronson)

“I can’t even look at you / Would you look at the space just next to your feet?”

✔️ If you thought the original Easy by Troye Sivan was great, this takes it up a whole notch.

✔️ Electronic stabs, cool synths, catchy melody, the goods.

✔️ Has an upbeat element to it, though it’s not exactly ‘happy’. (We love us some duality.)

9. Wide Awake (Hot Milk)

“There’s no heart, no moral, no regard / The judgement swift, the cash cold and hard.”

✔️ Extremely relevant lyrics especially in 2020, socially and culturally.

✔️ Rich texture, lots of layers.

✔️ Ideal song to rock out to at a concert. (Along with all the other songs Hot Milk has in their repository!)

10. Monsters (All Time Low ft. blackbear)

“I’m wondering why do all the monsters come out at night? / Why do we sleep where we want to hide?”

✔️ Big, big drums.

✔️ Catchy and relatable. (Relatively easy to play along on guitar too!)

✔️ Feels like an exhilarating rollercoaster ride with all the instrumentals, in a satisfying way.

11. Transient (Makari)

“I’m fading with the daylight to skies of grey / I’m waiting on the cosmos to call my name.”

✔️ Exudes a sense of longing. Not for someone else, but for yourself.

✔️ Details. The percussion in the background, the smooth build-ups, the almost screeching sound the synth makes, the layered melodies pushing against each other as if fighting for space.

✔️ Insane vocals. (I’m not sure how high it is but it sounds pretty high!)

12. Take Me To Church (Chris Kläfford)

“I’ll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies / I’ll tell you my sins and you can sharpen your knife.”

✔️ A cover of the original song, Take Me To Church by Hozier. This version has a more ‘Rock’ sound to it. An ‘angrier’ version, if you will, while Hozier’s is more emotional.

✔️ Vocal range and control add depth to the song.

✔️ Well-written lyrics. (Not a surprise coming from Hozier!)

There you have it. Did you find something new? If I could only have listened to one song in 2020 from this list, (wow I would be missing a lot) I would probably made sure I listened to Wide Awake by Hot Milk. You can’t miss that one.

You can find a playlist of all these songs here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/19WyRfxF62BAfiJRSKl8Yh?si=gHDoNS8iQf-qNiVw3mtPcw

Have a great day!