150 Songs From 2020 I Enjoyed, #100-#51

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Getting to it...this is the second installment of my 150 favorite songs of 2020 list, if you missed the first one you can check it out right here. Part 3—specifically, the final 50 songs—will be published on Friday. Without further ado:

100. Georgia, "I Can't Wait"

Ten years in and I think Georgia Barnes' solo career thus far still seems to be in "almost" mode, which is a shame because I do think there have been flashes of real promise. "Move Systems" had a really nice M.I.A.-lite feel (she should be getting behind the kit more, imo) and I think this one from Seeking Thrills is a solid synth-pop banger, the chorus sounds more like an echo than an actual chorus which is most of the appeal here. "Solid synth-pop" seems to be the ceiling for her, if 2023's reasonably decent Euphoric was any indication—but she stands out in an always-crowded field by way of the music being just a little better than what else is out there.

99. 22Gz, "No Questions"

There were better and worse NYC drill songs in 2020, but this was one I listened to a lot regardless. I like how 22Gz sounds like he's literally spitting on you, and the ad-lib pile-up feels like a total whirlwind. 22Gz ended up being something of a classic went-nowhere case ultimately, paying subscribers (newsletter sales plug) have seen his name pop up once or twice more in the last couple of years though.

98. Squarepusher, "Oberlove"

I love how regal and pompous this is, like an IDM "Ode to Joy," almost embarrassingly major-key (music theorists, don't come for me if I'm off there). I've always been more someone who respects Squarepusher than actively checks for him, but I appreciate when he's able to turn out something fun (see also: "My Red Hot Car," of course).

97. Yaya Bey, "celie again"

Fun fact, back in 2020 I emailed what is surely now a defunct email address on Yaya Bey's Bandcamp because I wanted to interview her after being knocked out by Madison Tapes...very cool that she's continued to gain prominence, I still think she's most effective when embracing this low-key sound instead of the more beat-driven stuff she's occasionally done recently. I'll never forget listening to Madison Tapes and being like "Is that my smoke detector's low battery beeping?" only to realize that...it was hers...on the record. Hope she replaced the batteries since.

96. Bad Bunny, "LA NOCHE DE ANOCHE" [ft. ROSALÍA]

Both people here went on to do much more impressive work in the decade thus far, but all told a very solid team-up between two massive pop stars, I really like the sighing melody in the background of the chorus.

95. Bright Eyes, "Persona Non Grata"

I'm perhaps a curious case as Fevers and Mirrors didn't start making sense to me until I was well into my 30s, but this kind of sounds like a baroque, Decemberists-y, and very reaching-f0r-the-rafters crowd-pleaser attempt to channel that early anguish, and I find myself beguiled by the accompanying drama and theatrics. That's what makes it a Bright Eyes record, I guess! I thought the latest Bright Eyes record was also quite good (as well as one of the more curious no-Pitchfork-review cases in recent memory), obviously Conor has been publicly struggling in some form in recent years, prayers up for the guy in general.

94. Lomelda, "It's Lomelda"

Lomelda's hannah fell square in "promising breakthrough" territory for me, I would hope that she plans on following it up at some point soon, been a long damn time! The slow build of this song is very appealing, but I also very much appreciate someone making a song where they very specifically speak on their influences in the most straightforward way possible, I might even attempt a high wire act of a comparison here and say it's like "if Jonathan Richman did Seven Swans-era Sufjan Stevens"? Don't all start yelling at once...

93. Toni Braxton, "O.V.E.Rr."

I enjoyed Toni Braxton's comeback record Sex & Cigarettes from 2018, and her follow-up Spell My Name was also very solid...classic laying-it-on-thick betrayal ballad here, real R&B shit, you can practically hear her bending her knees slightly while leaning into that chorus.

92. Kevin Krauter, "Surprise"

One big chorus of an indie rock song (that key change!), absolutely indelible and very easy-to-love stuff here from Kevin Krauter, formerly bassist of the since-disbanded Hoops. Their debut record Full Hand was a really nice surprise (haha) when it came to the indie rock slate in 2020, I also really liked their contribution to 2023's Winspear compilation, they've had a very well-earned second-and-a-half act with their work in Wishy but I have to wonder what another solo record from Kevin would sound like too.

91. J Hus, "Repeat" [ft. Koffee]

Koffee (who, after a just-OK debut LP in 2022, has been pretty quiet since) goes off on this, she's basically the star of this one—even though I do love J Hus, who as of Big Conspiracy hadn't yet really made a front-to-back solid album but had some very, very good tracks. (I thought Brutal and Beautiful Yard was a bit better, unfortunately the Drake track stuck with me in particular.)

90. Waxahatchee, "Lilacs"

Don't get the knives out for me, but Saint Cloud was the first time I really "got" Waxahatchee instead of admiring the music from a distance...powerful stuff, this song might be an obvious choice as a highlight but it is the kind of chorus that you could imagine mouthing along to while your car windows are down driving in a non-city environment, so evocative of a specific feeling that it risks being on-the-nose but nonetheless avoids the risk. Notable as well for kickstarting Waxahatchee's real-deal imperial phase in indie rock, which very much continued with last year's Tigers Blood (didn't hit me as hard as Saint Cloud but a few excellent songs at the very least) and has been impressive to witness in regards to someone who's already had quite an extensive career as a musician.

89. Drake, "D4L" [ft. Future and Young Thug]

Future probably appears more on this list than any other mainstream rapper, largely owed to the fact that what he does continues to be extremely melodically pleasing and, occasionally, hilarious...I was not a fan of his mid-2010s run post-Pluto save for the occasional single, and some of the issues with that period (misogyny) certainly persist, but he's simply remained interesting as someone to listen to while some of his peers simply have not. On that note, 'memba Dark Lane Demo Tapes? Kind of genius in that it was a pandemic release designed to be buried, as so many pandemic releases eventually were; obviously, you look at 2020 Drake, and the seeds for what we're dealing with now from him were certainly planted, if not quite sprouting. The star here, as you can surmise from the intro to this blurb, is Future—mostly because his money-counter impression resembles something approaching birdcall, not unlike the squeaky coo's he let loose on Ciara's "Body Party." Always love someone willing to do weird stuff with their voice!

88. Chief State, "Deciduous"

There is nothing—NOTHING!!!!—more emo than writing a song where you are like, "I so badly want to be a tree whose leaves fall off when it gets cold, only to be borne anew in the spring." This is the only one I really liked from these Vancouver boys' first record Tough Love; it really is pretty friggin' Canadian to get all deciduous-yearning.

87. Kero Kero Bonito, "It's Bugsnax!"

I was an early PS5 adopter, like we're talking maybe a month after it came out, so of course I was playing the first few games released specifically for the console. I did my usual Soulslike routine with Demon's Souls (play for five hours, get destroyed several times in a row, say to myself "OK that's enough of that" and move on to something enjoyable [and this is, to be clear, why I still haven't even bothered to touch Elden Ring]) and churned through the miserable campaign and even worse endgame of the failed loot-shooter-but-make-it-medieval-aliens-with-swords(???) Godfall. I also watched my wife play Bugsnax, which was fun to witness since I don't really gravitate toward playing those type of games myself; Kero Kero Bonito's score for the game was excellent, and I loved the theme song, which is a real-deal no-nonsense "this is literally a theme song for the game" deal. It delivers lore that is barely in the game, drops a few ridiculous lines about the existence of bugsnax that get stuck in your head, and throws in a "Bugsnax-eating-something" sample for good measure as well. "Everyone's talking about Bugsnax!" Not quite, but maybe they should be?

86. Jhené Aiko, "Tryna Smoke"

Jhené Aiko is modern R&B's pre-eminent stoner, so it makes sense that one of my favorite songs from her period is about getting high. The bass line on this sounds so good, ironically given the subject matter I actually feel like this cut has more personality than most of her stuff, the rest of Chilombo included. One of the more fascinating career trajectories of the 2020s in that she basically dipped out to do children's music; there was also a career-spanning compilation that hit streaming last year, you have to wonder if another record's on the way, but also, maybe you don't.

85. William Prince, "Wasted"

Uncomplicated songwriting with a fair amount of simple wisdom, which also defined William Prince's solid 2023 album Stand in the Joy along with his second record Reliever, which this song is taken from. Feels like someone sitting back in a chair and commiserating about how life moves, nothing feels forced here which is impressive considering how many others try to force stuff like this. He's got a great, easy-flowing voice as well.

84. Smino, JID, and Kenny Beats, "Baguetti"

Not my absolute favorite JID verse on the list but one that's indicative of the nice year he had back in 2020. Low-key low-stakes smoke-filled-room rap with a nice lilting croak to it, like someone stepping on a wood-plank floor; I run hot and cold on Kenny Beats' production but he's in his introspective bag (sorry) here.

83. Jim-E Stack, "Note to Self" [ft. Empress Of]

Perfect pairing here, two artists who I spent most of the 2010s asking myself what the appeal was beyond offering weaker versions of stuff that was already more than prevalent in the indie and pop ecosystems. Feels like they finally found their footing together on this one, a song that sounds straight outta 2013 (a compliment), I think since this cut Empress Of has continued to marginally improve by going further and further in an explicit pop direction—and, of course, I'm very interested to hear what Jim-E Stack is cooking up with Lorde on her nesxt record.

82. Record Setter, "Someplace"

The Screamo Class of 2020 produced plenty of great songs, but Record Setter's I Owe You Nothing was without a doubt the crown jewel of records to come out of the loosely defined group. Just undeniably forceful music, the hooks are relentless, the vocals feel like running a knife across flesh (in a good way). Incredible stuff, and after a long time away they came back this year (like, just a few weeks ago) with the Evoke Invoke EP, which found Record Setter stretching their legs (a six-minute song!) to fascinating effect.

81. Victoria Monét, "Ass Like That"

She's had bigger hits since but this is definitely the moment that Victoria Monét came into her own as a public-facing artist after stepping in front of the figurative camera and stealing the show on the Ariana Grande collab "Monopoly," which was one of my favorite songs of 2019 easily...as for this song, great chorus and clever lyrics, video is a little basic execution-wise but this ain't the "Best Videos" list, so she gets a pass here.

80. Skullcrusher, "Places/Plans"

I saw someone online say that Skullcrusher is (and I may be misquoting here) "What if Phoebe Bridgers was Grouper," and that just about works for me...I know the name of this project always suggests some sort of gnarly metal but I actually think Helen Ballantine's zoomed-in intimacy is close to the bone in its own way, so that association also kind of fits! Everything she's done this decade so far is very good to me, great songwriter in general.

79. Westerman, "The Line"

I used to think Westerman sounded a bit like Arthur Russell (blame the Bullion involvement, and yes, I did talk to him about that for the newsletter) but with time I've come to hear his eerie glow as what it might feel like to hear Phil Collins' music through a broken radio, and I mean that as a compliment. The bridge that launches this song (from his debut Your Hero Is Not Dead) into the final third is immaculate; wish I liked 2023's follow-up An Inbuilt Fault but it didn't quite land for me unfortunately.

78. Bibio, "Sleep on the Wing"

Easily the most beautiful thing Stephen Wilkinson's put to tape since the first Phantom Brickworks record, quite possibly one of the best Bibio tracks period. I had the good fortune of Stephen agreeing to an email interview back in 2023 and I thought his answers were really insightful and at times even provocative, you can read that right here.

77. Porches, "Hair"

Anecdotally, I've always liked Porches' music more than a fair amount of my critical cohort have, although it also seems like people largely turned a corner with the release of 2021's excellent All Day Gentle Hold!; this year's Shirt (which I'm still making my mind up about, although I do admire what it's going for) also seemed to connect with quite a few people. I liked Ricky Music but you could probably pin it as something of a valley in terms of his impressive (and, in my opinion, underrated) discography thus far; it sounds sparse and sad and raw and maybe a little sketch-esque than other Porches records have. This song's had its claws in me since I first heard it though, it just hovers in the air like a broken spider web strand. I frequently like Aaron's lyrics for their ungainly nakedness but he's really spitting here: "I'm kinda pretty, kinda busted too/ Kinda disarming when I first meet you/ Do you wanna cry?/ I do too." I've interviewed Aaron twice for the newsletter thus far, you can read those chats here (from 2022) and here (from last year).

76. Guitar Fight from Fooly Cooly, "Teens//candle"

I loved Tennessee trio Guitar Fight from Fooly Cooly's 2020 record Soak because its sound provoked endless far-fetched comparisons..."chiptune Japandroids"? "What if Origami Angel were Deerhoof"? "Kingdom Hearts-esque pop-punk"? (OK, that last one is pretty par for the course these days.) Wish I liked their follow-up, last year's Drought EP, a little more—it lost the melodic tang and ratcheted up the metal of it all—but we'll see if they cook up something again in the future.

75. JERREAU, "RIDE DEATH" [ft. Kaine]

The melodic warmth of this track from Columbus, Ohio rapper JERREAU's second album KEEP EVERYTHING YOUR SELF has stayed with me, Kaine's hook does a fair amount of heavy lifting amidst that sliding-your-fingers-along-the-keys production. JERREAU—who just put out another solo record this year—has roots in the early-2010s rap group Fly Union, who I was not aware of at the time; finding more information about him in general online was close to impossible, which of course says as much about how little information the internet seems to hold these days as it does about the perpetual lack of resources in music writing to properly cover artists of all tiers.

74. Squirrel Flower, "Headlights"

Ella Williams has been sneakily building one of the more rock-solid indie rock discographies of the decade as Squirrel Flower, I think she's far surpassed her Polyvinyl debut I Was Born Swimming but this song is absolutely spellbinding to me, she's been working in more rock-y confines lately but it's crazy how good she is in "hovering just above the ground" mode. "Realize I'm not getting older/ But I'm not getting younger" is a bar. I had Ella on the newsletter back in 2023, you can read that right here.

73. Giveon, "World We Created"

I've seen people theorize that Giveon is corny as fuck, mainly because he got exposed for allegedly cheating on Justine Skye back in 2021...fair enough I suppose, the music itself has also been diminishing returns ever since 2020's Take Time, but you really can't deny that voice, or the way it's draped across this very classic-R&B melody. Paid subscribers might or might not recognize the following anecdote, but back in 2022 I was waiting for food outside a food truck in Bushwick that played the also-good "Heartbreak Anniversary" several times in a row...it was nice but it also drove me insane.

72. Jay Electronica, "Ghost of Soulja Slim" [ft. JAY-Z]

One of many "RTs are not endorsements" on this list, it is what is...can't deny how easily pleasing this beat is, easily one of the best if not the best JAY-Z verses of the decade, shame about Electronica's whole deal in general, was funny (not funny haha, but funny "that ain't right") when he popped up again to go all antisemitic (and anti-Ukraine, lol) on the Noname record.

71. Bartees Strange, "Mustang"

Was it all downhill from here? I thought Farm to Table was honest-to-blog the worst indie record of 2022, Horror was a little better but not by much if we're really being honest with ourselves, I've always been very á la carte with Bartees in general. He's best, to me, when making stuff that sounds like Boxer-era The National; what I would give to go back in time and tell my National-hating self in the early 2010s that evoking their sound would scan as a net positive for me, but it is what it is. Overall (and I think this includes Live Forever) I think his ability to do everything doesn't necessarily mean he should do everything, but as with anyone with clearly discernible talent I'm very far from writing him off completely regardless.

70. JPEGMAFIA, "BALD! REMIX" [ft. Denzel Curry]

Speaking of downhill journeys...the less said the better on my end about Jpeg at this point (and if you don't know why, I'm not going through it again), the real star here is Denzel Curry, whose 2019 record Zuu snuck in to the backdoor of the 2010s to deliver one of the decade's best and most sonically audacious rap albums. On this remix, he further proves how much he can really spit and gestures a little (not a lot, but a little) towards the more formalist approach he's taken across this decade since. I've quite enjoyed his output in general, and I say that as someone who definitely more or less just wanted more Miami bass-isms; he's adept and chameleonic, and you could probably say he's more consistently strong than most of the peers he came up with as well.

69. Off the Meds, "Hiccups"

I usually associate Studio Barnhus with warm'n'woozy electronic music that can get a little techno-esque, a little house-y, and even throw in some of that old-skool hip-hop sound that Euro types love so well...which is why Off the Meds' self-titled LP really threw me for a loop, the Swedish-slash-South African collective make trippy and ultra-rhythmic dance music where you don't know whether to move your body or just let a pile of drool accumulate like you're staring at a screensaver. Good reminder to always expect the unexpected!

68. Taylor Swift, "Invisible String"

Stop groaning, this was inevitable—and what's worse is that it's not even the only time she appears on this list. Of course, we now know that the twin-hydra that was Folklore and Evermore led to what is now recognized as Taylor Swift's second imperial phase, for better and (mostly) worse. For me, it marked the beginning of the end when it came to being actively interested in the music she was making; I thought Lover from 2019 was brilliant in all its embarrassing eccentricities, and it felt like a true dgaf-slash-ijbol statement from someone who otherwise very much does gaf and is not bol. But the pandemic did terrible things to everyone, and for Taylor Swift it caused her to get really into mid-2000s indie-folk—and, with a captive lockdown audience partially made of late-stage millennials suddenly finding themselves at a second life stopgap (the last recession was the first) and wanting to go back to a time in which things were simpler, the back-to-basics approach turned out to be a direct fucking hit. I think she's made better music this decade far, just barely (the Midnights highlights, specifically), but you can't deny the pretty simplicity and Nicks-iness of this Folklore cut, as well as the medium-funny line "She said I looked like an American singer." Obviously, since Tortured Poets cemented the arrival of Taylor's current "What if Mark Kozelek was a Disney adult" phase, this era sounds slightly better in hindsight.

67. Sorry, "As the Sun Sets"

Back in the fall of 2020 I dedicated an entire newsletter post to Sorry's 925 that, with today's eyes, reads as a collection of half-formed observations sketched out by someone doing a C- job of keeping various mental illnesses at bay. I think much of the first year (two years?) of this newsletter might read that way, and I do thank the day-ones who continue to support the newsletter on a financial basis as well as those who kept reading in general. The real tea on 925 is that it was a fascinating, often extremely engaging record with strong buzzy appeal released at a time in which buzzy appeal had no, well, buzzy appeal; the flavor of genre-blurring indie-pop they were working in was quite compelling to me at the time though, and I thought 2022's follow-up Anywhere But Here was pretty good as well (if possibly not as totally striking as 925). They dropped a new single last fall so you have to imagine a new record is on the way; I interviewed Asha Lorenz for the newsletter in 2021 as well and I think it illustrates how far along this newsletter has come in terms of my ability to conduct interviews you actually want to read.

66. mgk, "forget me too" [ft. Halsey]

Ironically, "Forget #metoo" is exactly what a lot of male celebrities of mgk's ilk have spent most of the decade trying to do, ha ha ha. Anyway...another thing I wrote during lockdown was this assessment of mgk's Tickets to My Downfall that, unlike the aforementioned Sorry piece, actually holds up really well. I'd go as far to say that all my attempts to be prescient in this piece turned out totally correct, including my assertion that we were set for a decade-long time-traveling exercise back to the 2000s. (mgk's directorial debut and feature-length film Good Mourning, which I actually watched, is one of many pieces of shit from this decade that feels resolutely 2000s in its construct.) Maybe the one thing I was wrong about is my estimation that the extremely "Mr. Brightside"-esque "bloody valentine" was the album's best song; this two-hander of a faux-headbanger actually reigns supreme, mostly because Halsey's verse absolutely obliterates the surroundings, rendering mgk to dust (as is deserved). You can hear what would become the highly contentious (and, in my estimation, actually good) The Great Impersonator in her vocal take, so depending on how you feel about that record, here's where it all basically started.

65. Bonny Light Horseman, "10,000 Miles"

There are tons of people who make music like Bonny Light Horseman but from their 2020 self-titled debut on they've proved that they are one of the very best doing it right now...if you're not familiar, the first record from this supergroup (Eric Johnson of Fruit Bats, celebrated singer-songwriter Anais Mitchell, and production wiz Josh Kaufman) dug deep into a "folk standards reimagined" conceit, and not since Sam Amidon's All Is Well has there been such a flawless and emotionally resonant execution of the concept. I ride hard for the latest record as well, and if you want to read my interview with Josh and Anais from last year you can do so right here.

64. Kim Petras, "Party Till I Die"

Kim Petras works best with a theme, which is why the Slut Pop tapes go off while Feed the Beast did not. ("Unholy" is, obviously, one of the worst pop singles of the decade thus far, quite possibly the century.) This quirked-up cut from the Halloween-themed project TURN OFF THE LIGHT is probably my second-favorite Petras cut after "So Icy,", there is nothing she does that is "new" here or in general across her career but she's good in a pinch for vaguely clubby electro-pop fare, which never quite goes out of style.

63. Kurt Vile, "Dandelions"

Top-tier KV-ism here: "I like the feeling/ Of being sentimental/ And also a little mental." This gorgeous stuff continues to flow out of one of Philly's finest, his 2020s output so far feels like a plane cruising at high altitude endlessly, you know exactly what you're getting from him and you get the feeling he'd be giving it even if no one was asking for it.

62. Enter Shikari, "T.I.N.A."

I will admit that I've spent years thinking Enter Shikari were crabcore...guess not. (Very crabcore name though, no?) This is a very delicious slice of nü-rave straight outta 2008 though, with a decidedly political bent; I especially love how the big drop sounds like the guitar is a bug writhing around in the dirt.

61. Amaarae, "FANTASY" [ft. Maesu and CKay]

One of two times Amaarae—one of 2020s pop's MVPs no question—makes an appearance on this list...THE ANGEL YOU DON'T KNOW in retrospect feels like a stepping stone to the absolutely sensational Fountain Baby, but as this song proves, what a stepping stone it was. Maesu sounds incredible on this too. I got to see Amaarae on the Fountain Baby tour last year and it was fantastic, great live performer in general.

60. The Killers, "When the Dreams Run Dry"

When I interviewed the Killers for VICE back in 2017 around their fifth and not-quite-worst-but-pretty-damn-close record Wonderful Wonderful, they seemed defeated and uninterested in anything beyond a punching-the-clock level of existence. The underplay that I saw with a friend around that time at Brooklyn Steel further confirmed those suspicions; typically an at-least-satisfactory live act, they sounded so bad that we left early. Real left-for-dead stuff, and yet Imploding the Mirage was an improbable comeback—and, in a full-circle moment, it seemed directly inspired by a VICE News segment they lensed the same day as my interview, in which Brandon and Ronnie heard the War on Drugs for the first time and clearly had their minds blown. Sonically, they reinvented themselves on Imploding the Mirage while also reheating the Sam's Town nachos and maybe adding some fresh guac on top; the bombast was never more bombastic (the last third on this song is as powerful as anything they've done since "Mr. Brightside") and, somewhat unintentionally, they made the perfect #ResistanceLib record for COVID times, an album in which the Killers seemingly gaze upon the landscape and gasp "Someone really should do something about this!" while offering no real answers or even coherent sociopolitical perspectives. The done-on-the-quick follow-up Pressure Machine is also quite good, and more heartbreakingly personal; I talked with former Foxygen guy Jonathan Rado back in 2023 about working with them, and even though it seems like they've since been a bit stymied in the studio, I'm holding out hope they can capture lightning in a bottle again.

59. Against All Logic, "Penny"

Well into the second decade of his incredible career, Nicolas Jaar continues doing exactly what you don't expect, right when you need exactly what he's doing. I don't think he's released a single uninteresting thing this decade so far (even the Darkside records have been solid, given that I was not a fan of the first one) and given how far-flung he's gone it's so fascinating he kicked the 2020s off with a very luscious slab of straight-up dance music under his Against All Logic moniker. Wild how he can go toe-to-toe with the Radio 1 gang whenever he wants—and easy to forget because his mind more often than not seems elsewhere.

58. Spillage Village, "Baptize" [ft. Ant Clemons]

This is my favorite JID verse of 2020, it's basically ASMR the way he says "Alabaster flows/ Out in Cali with some Calabasas hoes/ Hella bad, put your ass up on my nose." Overall this track feels like a bit of a collection of people whose moment has passed quite possibly, as a whole the Spillage Village output hasn't really reached these heights across the decade so far.

57. glaive, "arsenic"

There were a few hyperpop major-label concerns who got chewed up and spit out by the machinery, and glaive was certainly one of them. (When I interviewed him for the newsletter back in 2020, I point-blank asked the then-15-year-old Ash Gutierrez if his team really had the best intentions when it came to working him in the industry while he's at such a young age; at best, you could say the jury is very much still out.) Here's hoping his post-Interscope career takes the shape of what he was putting out in the beginning, which was sweet-and-sour glitchy pop that felt like your brain was being twisted into a double helix.

56. Justin Bieber, "Second Emotion" [ft. Travis Scott]

I'll go to my deathbed insisting that Changes is the best Justin Bieber album to date...a record that's still like a body of placid water, possessing a calm and shimmering beauty. More importantly and less purple-y, it features a singular genre focus unlike Purpose (which is good) and Justice (which is not), showcasing the fact that this kid-who-is-very-much-not-a-kid-anymore can sing the hell out of some straightforward R&B. This song features the right amount of Travis Scott too, which is barely any...very much up in the air still whether we'll ever hear music from Bieber again, seems like four-way split possibility between a massive mental health crisis, a secret "long COVID destroyed me" case, a classic "got subsumed by a McMinistry" casualty, or a severe amount of brain damage that also caused him to mistake Palestine for Israel.

55. Trippie Redd, "Red Beam" [ft. Sean Kingston]

Be real, you didn't expect to see this here. You don't expect to see Trippie Redd on any year-end list, ever. Shout out to Sean Kingston obviously, the man who will forever be immortalized for capturing how it feels to see a woman so beautiful that you want to kill yourself, and who is also somewhat less celebratedly facing federal wire fraud charges alongside his mother. It's hard out here! I think I'm drawn to this song because it sounds deeply and spiritually unwell, like it's being performed in a cave or quite possibly is the aural representation of something unseemly crawling out of a sewer. That's The Trippie Redd Promise (and, yes, I can guarantee he will show up on future year-end lists).

54. Soccer Mommy, "up the walls"

At this point it's fair to say Soccer Mommy doesn't get enough credit for the subtle shifts in her sound across the 2020s, and with color theory she made the best Deerhunter record of the decade so far (still haven't really taken to Diamond Jubilee the same way so many others have, oh well), all silvery guitar lines and propulsive, chugging rhythms. And yet the track that's stuck with me since is this extreme emotional zoom-in, a very good example of how heartstopping her songwriting can be when she slows things down. Sophia's one of a few artists who have appeared on the newsletter twice so far, I interviewed her back in 2020 and again last year around the fantastic Evergreen, both are worth reading if you haven't done so already.

53. Overmono, "Clipper - Another 5 Years"

Overmono have been on a very impressive run during the 2020s, I would go as far to say that every single year they've dropped at least one song that's been absolutely cracking when it comes to fizzy bass-adjacent dance music. You can tell that they've hit a certain level of success just going off of the occasional TL grousing about Overmono-sounding music and any copycats their work may have wrought...but the fact of the matter is that they've rarely missed (not even when they did a terrible-on-paper Fred Again... and Lil Yachty collab) and this tune pretty much kicked off their reign to my ears, something vaguely Radiohead-ish about the glowing center of it all (even though most of Radiohead's electronic excursions are way more chilly than this).

52. BENEE, "Snail"

The bedroom pop wars of the early 2020s were unsparing and left no survivors, you could certainly count BENEE as a casualty...when I remarked to a friend in A&R that I found a song or two that I liked from her first major-label swing Hey u x, I received an incredulous "Really?" But "Snail" is almost as close as it gets to a perfect song from the post-Clairo set (the actual perfect song is higher up on this list), it marries wistfulness and bounce that feels a little 2000s even as it's undeniable that this type of song could only really exist in 2020.

51. Speaker Music, "Amerikkka's Bay" [ft. Maia Sanaa]

I was a huge fan of DeForrest Brown Jr.'s sweeping and intense Speaker Music record Black Nationalist Sonic Weaponry; as I write this I just recently featured a song from his also-very-good 2023 record Techxodus on a Baker's Dozen (yup, that's another paid subscription plug right there), unlike that record it's nearly impossible to pin down a track to highlight from BNSW because it really does work most effectively as one massive tapestry. But I have found myself rewinding its opening salvo featuring poet Maia Sanaa, which really kicks you upside the head with zero reservations. DeForrest did an interview for the newsletter back in 2020 too, you can check that out right here.