The Best Music of 2020 — The Top Shelf, Low Brow Review
Ranking the top albums and singles from a year unlike any other.
Hello and Happy New Year, babes! I hope you all had a safe and joyous New Year’s Eve and that you’re enjoying your day watching Jennifer Lopez lip sync last night. For this Friday letter, I wanted to put the bow on 2020 once and for all by talking a bit about the thing that propelled the year to the finish line and kept me sane throughout: music. Last year saw so many artists releasing some of their best work yet, dancing around the traditional industry release structures and massive album campaigns to reach new highs in their discography, some of which were completely unexpected.
Because music is so subjective, I really only want to touch on the best and not the worst. The song someone else hated might’ve been a saving grace for another, and while I seriously doubt anyone’s comfort song was “Yummy,” I’m going to start the new year out on a positive note with the Top 9 songs and albums of 2020. Why nine and not ten? Because nine fit into a perfect square grid on Instagram, and I’m nothing if not subservient to the godly hand of social media.
Top 9 Songs of 2020
09. “seven,” Taylor Swift.
I just know Taylor Allison Swift derived great pleasure out of making it so insanely difficult to choose just one song from her two career-redefining albums for year-end lists. This could’ve been “willow,” “marjorie,” “cardigan,” “coney island,” or “exile.” But I just kept coming back to “seven” more than any other Taylor Swift song this year. To me, it’s the song that sounds the most like folklore on folklore, a soft piano tune free of too many specificities and more focused on melody and feeling. It’s the song I listened to most after experiencing some major loss the week the album dropped. In the long pond sessions documentary, Swift mentioned that the lyric, “Before I learned civility I used to scream ferociously/Any time I wanted” was about her realization that at some point growing up, you just learn to tuck your primal emotions away in favor of more commonly accepted coping mechanisms. All I wanted to do this year was scream, “seven” made me realize that sometimes it’s not worth sacrificing the potent catharsis of primal rage, especially when the only person around to hear it is myself.
08. “DAMN DANIEL,” Bree Runway & Yung Baby Tate
It’s the age-old story: a woman finds out her man is sleeping with someone else and, cursing her naïveté, teams up with the other girl to make sure he won’t do it to anyone else. “DAMN DANIEL” may just be one of the many certified hits on Bree Runway’s 2020 mixtape 2000AND4EVA, but it’s undoubtedly the most fun. Seeing Bree Runway and Yung Baby Tate, who are both making the best music of their careers so far, come together to playfully and joyously ride over nostalgic 80s synths and drum kits to such raucous success is what makes “DAMN DANIEL” an insanely satisfying journey. Not only that, but it solidifies Bree Runway as one of the most exciting emerging artists out there right now.
07. “Real Groove,” Kylie Minogue
The return of a pop music figurehead like Kylie Minogue is always an exciting affair, and by the third track on DISCO, it was clear Ms. Minogue had no intention of doing anything other than what she’s best at: crafting earworms so otherworldly effective you just can’t get them out of your head – pun obviously intended. “Real Groove” begins simple enough with sparse production that highlights Kylie’s crisp vocals. That is, before they’re thrown and whipped around in the chorus against a plucked bass, flowing with an effortless elasticity over one of the most memorable Kylie Minogue melodies of this decade. I’ll be honest, “Real Groove” was in hot contention with the uber-addictive disco perfection of “Magic,” but the vocoder laid over Kylie’s vocals in the second chorus of “Real Groove” is just the right touch of perfection to edge it out as one of this fantastic album’s best tracks.
06. “Easy,” Troye Sivan
For Troye Sivan, who made one of 2018’s best songs under the spell of passionate queer love, it appears that the painful lows of love can produce art just as splendid and thoughtful as the highs. Written with nothing but time to reflect on a recent breakup during self-isolation, “Easy” finds Sivan regretful and melancholic, taking responsibility for his own mistakes while holding space for the version of him that made them. The chorus finds us seemingly thrust into the conversation, with Sivan staring off at the floor while their world burns down around them: “I can’t even look at you, would you look at the space just next to your feet?/The wood is warping, the lines distorting.” It’s rare to find this kind of vulnerable self-immolation in a queer love song, and you can hear every stage of their relationship in Sivan’s final pleas: “’’Cause he made it easy, easy/Please don’t leave me…don’t leave me.”
05. “Soul Control,” Jessie Ware
This year saw Jessie Ware shed her adult-contemporary roots to break new ground on a new sound: unapologetic, intoxicating disco. No other song from the immaculate What’s Your Pleasure? sticks quite as hard as the brilliant, groove-heavy “Soul Control,” unquestionably earning its place on this seconds after pressing play. Staccato harpsichord synths pump through the song, making it completely irresistible to even the most stone-faced listener. It’s a tune plucked directly from a Solid Gold dance line, complete with “woos!” punctuating the repetition of the “baby it’s automatic, we touch and it feels like magic” chorus. “Soul Control” is definitive proof that Jessie Ware can flex over any tempo she pleases, all while making it sound completely effortless and better than any disco-tinged release this year.
04. “forever,” Charli XCX
Charli XCX has become so well known for her hyperfuturistic, intricately-made pop songs that it’s sometimes forgotten she’s also a brilliant songwriter, one who has constructed some of the most gorgeously emotive pop ballads of the last decade. “forever,” – the lead single to how i’m feeling now, the first big quarantine album that had just six weeks between announcement and release – is a prime example of XCX’s ability to spin a simple notion into a sprawling electronic opus. “forever” is a song about, simply, staking the importance of someone in your head, vowing to love them forever even if, at some time in the future, you’re not together anymore. It’s both a love song and a breakup song, a song to listen to with your partner or thousands of miles apart. Like so many Charli XCX songs, its most beautiful moments are tucked away in unexpected places. In “forever,” the song’s most vulnerable, simple vow is almost hidden away in the song’s glittering outro: “front of my mind, in the front of my mind, you stay right in front, in the front of my mind.”
03. “SLIME,” Shygirl
The pulsing, blown-out bassline running through the verses of Shygirl’s “SLIME” only consists of four notes, but it’s enough to make it impossible to listen to the song just once. Produced by electronic music savant SOPHIE, “SLIME” takes the slickest, nastiest elements of the producer’s most addictive cuts to spin them into pure aural sexuality. When Shygirl opens the song’s second verse bluntly with, “she came to fuck, tell me now if you’re lookin’ to get down,” there’s a moment of true gratification. “SLIME” is like locking eyes with a stranger in a dimly-lit corner of the club and silently agreeing to share a dance – swinging and grinding until, suddenly, you realize the song is over and your partner has folded into the crowd. But it’s okay, it was never about the person, it was about the moment. And this is Shygirl’s moment.
02. “Physical,” Dua Lipa
Choosing between the top two songs on Future Nostalgia, “Physical” and “Levitating” was a task I wouldn’t wish on anyone, but ultimately the pop-music-lovers dog whistle that is the ominous opening bassline synths of “Physical” found the album’s second single winning out. From those high-octane synths to the song’s very last triumphant breath, it’s a masterpiece. “Physical” has a pervasive, pulsing sense of darkness that lies beneath it – one that you might call prophetic; it’s a song about wanting to spend one incredible night with a lover that sounds more like pleading desperation: “hold on, just a little tighter,” Dua growls on the bridge, her rasping soprano nearly threatening to betray her, “baby keep on dancing, let’s get physical!” Dancing is not a request, it’s a demand. Without it, and without the propulsive dance-pop that kept this year moving, it’s all going to fall apart — fast.
01. “Rain On Me,” Lady Gaga & Ariana Grande
Chromatica’s second single, “Rain On Me,” finds indelible pop powerhouses Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande teaming up to reflect on the immense distress they’ve experienced throughout their careers, transforming it into a house-tinged wallop of a song about ceasing to fight against their pain and, instead, letting it wash over them, dancing through the storm the whole time. At the risk of sounding corny and repeating everyone else’s sentiments, it’s exactly the kind of anthem the world needed during a year when every month seemed to hold new darkness. By acknowledging the existence of all the evil in the world, along with all of your own personal trauma and demons, you cleanse yourself of debilitating worry, at least for a moment, and find the strength to fight for another minute, hour, day, or week.
Top 9 Albums of 2020
09. folklore + evermore, Taylor Swift
No one expected Taylor Swift – whose album campaigns have historically been massive, expensive, and drawn out – to suddenly drop a new collection of career-defining music in a year where she couldn’t promote it in her traditional fashions, much less to do it twice. But the thing about Swift is she has never been quite interested in doing anything on terms other than her own. folklore and evermore strip down the abrasive color of Lover to find Swift wandering the forest and singing to the trees about stories both real and imagined. Whether she was spinning tales of love triangles across three songs or imagining herself wistfully sitting at a pier, pondering things that could have been, Taylor Swift skillfully stripped away all preconceived notions of her songwriting and artistic style to create her most thrilling, dreamy works yet.
08. ALIAS - EP, Shygirl
In a mere 19 minutes, Shygirl’s second EP, ALIAS, manages to bounce across several of the most infectious, ambitious electronic melodies released this year. But what’s really staggering is the amount of sheer confidence and personality Shygirl brings to every syllable of every bar on ALIAS. Her kind of brazen self-assuredness is not just the kind that elevates an underground electronic EP to best-of status, but the kind that signals the arrival of a new star. If “SLIME” wasn’t enough to make you pay attention, try experiencing the wanton sexuality of “FREAK,” the reckless insatiability of “TASTY,” or the dark desires laid out on “SIREN.”
07. Róisín Machine, Róisín Murphy
If anyone was qualified to make an album of retro-inspired dance tracks this year, it’s Róisín Murphy. Not only is Murphy of the most supremely underrated solo acts of this century, she’s a venerable master of indie, underground electronic music. Róisín Machine is ten tracks total but plays top to bottom as a continuous 54-minute mix, a thrill ride through human emotion: complacency, desire, love, regret, vanity, and envy. It all fits together seamlessly – “Murphy’s Law” dips and dives along 70s grooves just after the raucous chanting choruses of “We Got Together.” Perhaps the best description of Róisín Machine as a whole would be the question Murphy poses on “Shellfish Mademoiselle” when she asks, “how dare you sentence me to a lifetime without dancing?” There is no fate worse.
06. Plastic Hearts, Miley Cyrus
Miley Cyrus is an industry force of nature, a chameleonic artist who has never been afraid to be entirely who she is in that moment. The success of these transformations varies, but the execution is always interesting. With Plastic Hearts, Cyrus stepped into the genre she was born to inhabit. As a rollicking rock goddess, Cyrus has never sounded better – the grit in her voice glides across every track so effortlessly, it’s almost staggering. Swerving equally between soft-rock balladry and bass-driven blowouts, Plastic Hearts holds the best music of Cyrus’ career thus far. “WTF Do I Know” opens the album with a raging fire, electric guitars riffing against xylophone neatly tucked away over the refrain of, “I don’t e-ven miss you!” Elsewhere, “Gimme What I Want” and “Night Crawling” oscillate between darkness and desire at every turn. But it’s the contemplative album cuts that keep Plastic Hearts from sounding like a pop-goes-rock gimmick, particularly the stunning “Angels Like You,” which releases a kind, doting lover from the toxicity of their relationship with Cyrus. It’s the kind of self-awareness that makes the record a resounding win for Miley, someone who has been striving to prove that each version of herself is truly authentic.
05. In A Dream - EP, Troye Sivan
Since his major-label debut in 2015, Troye Sivan has been the darling of the mainstream gay music scene. But beyond a handful of fantastic tracks, his music lacked the consistent bite it takes to make an entire body of work stick. This year, Sivan shed his fears of being disliked and moved further away from the controlling hands of his label to dive into experimental production and deeply vulnerable songwriting to great success – In A Dream is Sivan’s best work to date. The EP finds Sivan questioning it all after an earth-shattering breakup, shirking the formerly irresistible pull of romance and adventure in the big city to start over in the quiet comforts of familiar surroundings. “I’m tired of the city, scream if you’re with me/if I’m gonna die let’s die somewhere pretty,” he sings on “Take Yourself Home.” “Easy,” one of the finest songs of the year, finds comfort in admitting your mistakes while “STUD,” explores the strange sensation of the body in queer sexuality, knowing you don’t look like the men you’re attracted to and wondering if you can still really be desirable. In A Dream finds Sivan in brand new territory, both literally and artistically, signaling the emergence of an artist finally getting to know himself.
04. how i’m feeling now, Charli XCX
Even for an artist as ambitious as Charli XCX, creating an entire album in just six weeks is a lofty task. how I’m feeling now was announced April 6th and released May 15th, complete with eleven songs, two music videos, and an entire collection of album art – the first mainstream record developed entirely during the pandemic. But there’s no rushed quality to how I’m feeling now. In fact, Charli’s music sounds more finely-tuned than ever. Charli used self-isolation to expand the reach of her songwriting, going deeper and allowing herself to be more direct and vulnerable than ever before. From the tender, lovesick melodies of “party 4 u” and “forever” to perfectly capturing the manic listlessness of quarantine on “anthems,” how i’m feeling now is a masterpiece that proves something critics and fans alike have known for years: Charli XCX is in a creative realm all her own, creating work that will stand tall among her peers long after the immediacy of its isolated conception has passed.
03. What’s Your Pleasure?, Jessie Ware
On her fourth studio album, Jessie Ware defied all expectations to step into the role of a dazzling disco diva, crafting some of the most infectious, potent dance and soul melodies released this year. “Spotlight” lowers the disco ball into the record – it’s pure sonic perfection, with not a note or synth out of place. “Ooh La La” sticks like the humidity of a sultry summer day in 1970s New York, romping around town with a lover while “Save A Kiss” channels Robyn with its relentless pulsing synths. Ware brings it all to a head with “The Kill” and “Remember Where You Are,” an indulgent, soulful, comedown for when the sun comes up – bodies sore and hearts full.
02. Future Nostalgia, Dua Lipa
As the first major pop album released after worldwide lockdowns, Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia was unexpectedly tasked with giving listeners around the world enough joy and reasons to dance to forget about the chaos quickly worsening around them. Luckily, Lipa had already risen to the occasion, crafting a pop album so impeccable and so knowledgeable that it transcended its place in time. With the handclaps and retro guitars on “Levitating” and the euphoric, dizzying chorus of “Hallucinate,” Lipa calls us to the dance floor, even if it’s the one in our own living room. Elsewhere, “Break My Heart” and “Love Again” chop and screw samples to create some of the most distinctive hooks of 2020. With Future Nostalgia, Dua Lipa solidified her place in the pop music pantheon forevermore. The only question left is: “What’s next?”
01. Chromatica, Lady Gaga
Although Lady Gaga’s buzzy return to her dance-pop roots was unfortunately plagued from the start with the leak of her sixth studio album’s lead single a month before its scheduled release (not to mention a whole other host of leaks along the way), Chomatica delivered on Gaga’s promise of pop with an emotional bite. Not only did “Rain On Me” become an anthem for resilience in the world’s most dire moments, but cuts like “911” and “1000 Doves” ruminated on the importance of self-preservation at all costs. Chromatica also happens to include some of the finest work of Gaga’s career, both lyrically and melodically, in “Alice” and “Replay,” two songs about finding oneself in the throes of a trauma spiral. But there are uplifting moments here too, particularly the album’s final track, “Babylon,” which finds Gaga strutting off into the sunset against a 90s house loop and slick saxophones. It’s a triumphant moment, one that propels Gaga and the listener into the future, free from the burdens of life on Earth and onto the glittering, pink world of Chromatica.
Well! We’ve come to the end of our lists and the end of a year. Originally, I wanted to do more of a year-end wrap-up to talk about film, television, and memorable moments, but unfortunately, I do have limited space in your inbox. Perhaps part of the Monday letter will be dedicated to that. But who knows, I may take up a whole lot of space talking about Jennifer Lopez’s truly insane New Year’s Eve performance.
Happy New Year to you all. I really, truly love you for being here and reading. One of the best things that happened to me last year was this newsletter. It fills me with so much joy knowing I can come directly into your inbox twice a week because as I’ve said before, I’m nosy! I love talking about the insane world of pop culture together and I’m so excited to do it a lot more in 2021.
Take care and I’ll see you again on Monday. 💖