150 Songs From 2020 I Enjoyed, #150-#101

This is a free post from Larry Fitzmaurice's Last Donut of the Night newsletter. Paid subscribers get one or two email-only Baker's Dozens every week featuring music I've been listening to and some critical observations around it.

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OK! So. I typically do not do year-end lists on the newsletter, simply because by the time the year ends, I have not heard all the music in the year. Around two and a half years ago, I finally set my list of my favorite songs of 2020, and since then I've been chipping away at blurbs and making slight edits to the numerical ordering. A few weeks ago, I finally finished blurbing all 150 songs, resulting in the three posts that you'll be seeing unfurl across this week.

Why did this take two years to put together? Simply put, this newsletter is not my full-time job, so a relatively massive one-man undertaking such as this had to be chipped away at in small parts over time. After the blurbs were finished, I also had to give several edits to the entire shebang, updating where necessary in regards to the passage of time as well. In short, a lot of work—very spread-out work, but work regardless—went into this, and if you enjoy this resulting series on any level and want to show some appreciation, taking advantage of the newsletter sale above would be the absolute best way to do so.

(You'll also get the Baker's Dozen playlists every week, which is essentially like receiving one or two of these—current thoughts and all—regularly. To wit: paying subscribers will receive one tomorrow!)

I also honestly think it's more interesting to revisit and reconsider stuff from recently-but-not-too-recently than it is to try to justify the critical importance of stuff that's from the same year, so throughout these blurbs I tried to do a combo of looking back and contextualizing why these songs all stuck around for me. I should also note that this list isn't meant to be definitive or emblematic of anything; it's just a way to organize thoughts around a year's worth of music for me personally, and if people enjoy reading it then that is certainly a bonus.

When you get lists like these, it's usually from staffs or publications looking to make a larger statement about what a year looked like and what truly mattered to them. For me, everything here is intentionally subjective and personal, so if you disagree or think there's notable omissions, that's cool—let's just not fight about it.

OK, here we go:

150. BLACKSTARKIDS, "TANGERINE LOVE"

There's a lot that makes sense about Missouri's BLACKSTARKIDS, starting with the fact that they're on Dirty Hit, a home for bands whose aesthetic is both smudgily defined and almost too on-trend. Straight out of the gate, Toro Y Moi and Mac DeMarco loomed large here, with a bit of Weezer-slash-Sublime melodic glaze. There's something about them that's very sweet and sincere, and I honestly think they are regularly risking making something that is unlistenable; early in their catalog, there is the occasional song that I would uncharitably describe as "awful" but more charitably describe as "not for me." But like many line-walkers past and present they frequently and inevitably end up with something quite appealing and interesting...This is from their debut Whatever, Man, and they've since smoothed out the rock influences in favor for more explicitly rap-slash-electro-pop sounds, at times they actually sound like PM Dawn now.

149. TSHA, "Change" [ft. Gabrielle Aplin]

Last year my wife sent me a TSHA song and was like, "This is good," and after checking out 2020's Flowers EP I was even more taken by this one. Solid Radio 1 vibes going on here, her last two records (especially 2022's Capricorn Sun) were even better than Flowers in terms of delivering fizzy dance sounds, her Fabric mix from 2022 is also highly recommended. My friend who works with TSHA recently pointed out that I was pronouncing "TSHA" wrong—common folly of writing about music more than you actually talk IRL about it.

148. Navy Blue, "Sea Bass"

At this point I'd count Sage Elsesser as one of the decade's best rappers, he possesses a level of confidence and insight that seems purely his, the words and the way he lets them flow are simply radiant and nourishing to take in. Gorgeous flip of Numero-reissued Columbus '60s/'70s soul outfit the Four Mints' "Do You Really Love Me" on this cut from Song of Sage: Post Panic!, stuff like this is just so stunning to hear unfold: "I been this way since age six/ Sprits visit me, I'm shadowless/ What does it mean to be a catalyst?"

147. Material Girl, "On My Way Out"

Philadelphia rapper and producer Material Girl's 2020 record Tangram leaned hard on the obtuse end of things for me, but I thought this comparatively breezy track stood out immediately and has been a figment of a melody that's hung in my brain ever since. The rest of their output across this decade so far has been sonically varied and very interesting, largely steering far of the abstract instrumentals on Tangram and heading more towards straight-up breakbeat territory.

146. 156/Silence, "Upset/Unfed"

2020 was the year I got way more into metalcore than I ever expected to, and it's pretty much stayed that way for me since. If you haven't been a paid subscriber over the past five years and am mostly familiar with my work elsewhere, you will probably be surprised by the amount of metalcore and screamo that will be featured on this (and future!) lists. These guys are from Pittsburgh (a very metalcore place to be, imho), their second release Irrational Pull was very solid, and they've gone on to put out two good-to-very good records since as well.

145. macaroom and Chiku Toshiaki, "326"

This song from Japanese electro-pop duo macaroom's full-length collaboration with Chiku Toshiashi, kodomono odoriko, reminded me of the wide-eyed optimism generated from certain strains of avant-indie in the early 2000s. A shorter way of putting this is, "When's the last time you listened to Múm's Yesterday Was Dramatic — Today Is OK?"

144. Cold Beat, "Crimes"

Cold Beat rose from the ashes of the late, great Grass Widow back in the mid-2010s, and their overall approach—punk-ish indie-pop leavened with analog electronic fantasia sounds—continues to be a winning one. The project's been quiet since 2021's also-solid WAR GARDEN, but I believe Mother was one of the last releases (the last release?) of the pre-sorta-collapse DFA era. Not a bad way to send things out, all things considered.

143. Kareem Ali, "Night Echoes"

Gorgeous and windswept techno from Phoenix-via-New York producer Kareem Ali, as the title implies extremely potent nocturnal vibes going on. Kareem's been quite prolific across the first half of the 2020s in general, a lot of it has been in this super-gorgeous mode to the point where he's headed towards purely ambient territory recently (see: the 45-minute "Azimuth" from 2023).

142. Shabason, Krgovich & Harris, "I Don't See the Moon"

Canadian greats Joseph Shabason, Nick Krgovich, and Chris Harris are extremely capable when it comes to straddling lines marked "jazz," "pop," and "indie," their first collab record Philadelphia is very ample evidence of this, as well as the gorgeous companion piece Florence from 2021. I love how this song settles into a groove and then sounds like it's dissolving in front of your very eyes, with Shabason's sax adding lovely and essential embellishments as the three of them wave farewell...I had Nick on the newsletter last year, you can read that right here, and when I recently spoke to Destroyer's Dan Bejar we also talked about Krgovich's Shabason's seemingly endless talents in particular.

141. Frail Hands, "Holding"

I love the way this song has this constant destroy-and-rebuild feeling, it feels like falling down the stairs without being able to stop yourself for even one second. I got a real and explicitly Full Collapse vibe from these Nova Scotia guys more than most of the other screamo on this list.

140. Kacy & Clayton and Marlon Williams, "Last Burning Ember"

More from Canada, this time with some cross-continental flair...this cut from Saskatchewan duo Kacy & Clayton and NZ'er Marlon Williams' collab LP Plastic Bouquet has a very no-frills timelessness to it, I like the way the chorus swings and swaggers in general.

139. I Love Your Lifestyle, "No Harm, No Foul"

Despite being an emo band, I Love Your Lifestyle are sooooo Swedish that it kills me (complimentary)...I understand that "sooooo Swedish" might mean "Drain Gang?" to some of the youths these days but these guys sound way more like what would happen if there was a band on Labrador that was, well, really into emo. I Love Your Lifestyle finally got around to putting out another record, Summerland (Torpa or Nothing), last year (what is a Swedish artist if one that takes their time between releases); it's good, but nothing quite matched this blast of a song for me.

138. Moor Mother and billy woods, "Rapunzal"

billy woods and Moor Mother are two of the decade's more gripping and slippery underground figures at this point, only fitting that they kicked off the 2020s with an excellent record together. woods' one-of-the-best-doing-it reputation in rap is self-evident; one thing about Moor Mother that's so impressive is that her volume of work is so varied and constant that, whenever I find myself left slightly cold by something I've heard from her, I know that there's something else coming along that will sound totally different and that's very cool.

137. Oliver Coates, "Honey"

Love the exquisitely Ben Frost-y shivers of this one from cellist and composer Oliver Coates' RVNG release skins n slime. Coates has been largely in scoring land the last few years, I thought his work on Aftersun was fairly effective in context of the film itself, but his proper skins follow-up Throb, shiver, arrow of time might be even better than what came before it.

136. MIKE, "Trail of Tears"

Feels like a Rosetta Stone of a song for MIKE's whole deal, mostly because of the line "Big MIKE, you know the guy behind a bunch of tears"; his delivery is proud and strong, delivering the very potent message that vulnerability can itself be its own strength...pretty wild that he's gotten to the point five years later where his fanbase is broad enough to include the sort of white internet shitlords that would pull something like this, especially since he's generally made zero sonic compromises from day one.

135. Ichiko Aoba, "Sagu Palm's Song"

Beautiful song that reminds me of Broken Social Scene's always-memeable "Anthems For a Seventeen Year Old Girl," I thought Aoba's Windswept Adan was really lovely, this year's Luminiscent Creatures was even better.

134. Teenage Halloween, "Drown"

Teenage Halloween, good band, shout out to Jersey of course. Their record from last year was quite good too but this is their best song to date for me, irrepressibly catchy...Luk did an interview for the newsletter last year that was a lot of fun, they make their own hot sauce for a living and also had a lot of trouble with their internet while we talked, but we made it work. You can read that here.

133. SAKA-SAMA, "nezumi no seikatsu"

Strong and charming indie-pop from Japanese pop group SAKA-SAMA's excellent record kimi ga ichiban kakkoii jan, which has a lot of range across its considerable sprawl. I liked Maiwai from 2022 a lot, too.

132. Respire, "Flicker and Faint"

Toronto's Respire refer to themselves as an "orchestral post-everything collective," not a bad way to put it...I sorted their excellent 2020 record Black Line in the "screamo revival" camp personally, but their approach to the sound is very Explosions in the Sky-esque, lots of expansive drama and patient tempo-building. Last year's follow-up Hiraeth wasn't bad either, a bit more on the orchestral side which takes a minute or two to get used to.

131. Raye Zaragoza, "Ghosts of Houston Street"

Simple and straightforward and incredibly sincere song here from this NYC singer-songwriter, it's not about COVID but this hit me especially hard during lockdown. Real sentimental bullshit on my part, but that is what music is for occasionally. I also thought she had a few good songs on her most recent record, Hold That Spirit from 2023.

130. Oneohtrix Point Never, "I Don't Love Me Anymore"

Daniel Lopatin has been in a weird place post-Garden of Delete, in that his work with other people has often proved more fascinating, engaging, and outright successful than what he's done under the OPN banner proper. (This streak definitely had a hiccup with the arrival of the Weeknd's latest, the dismal Hurry Up Tomorrow, but it's hard to pin that record's bloated failure on him given its sheer scope of collaboratiors.) Of course, he has yet to release a "bad" OPN album;—I thought the highly reflective "return to form" Again was a sometimes-interesting but not always mind-blowing course corrective after 2018's Age Of and its spiritual predecessor Magic Oneohtrix Point Never, two experimental pop albums with fascinating ideas not always coming together to form a satisfying whole. Both Age Of and Magic OPN have undeniable high points: Age Of (which had a wicked stage show, btw) featured the towering, almost Boards of Canada-esque "We'll Take It," and this silvery, slightly wistful inside-out-t-shirt-shoegaze cut from Magic OPN is sneaky and catchy and almost feels like something you'd get from an indie band in the mid-2000s trying out new textures.

129. El Alfa, "Coronao Now" [ft. Lil Pump]

Little Pimp! As with El Alfa's biggest bangers, this is very psychedelic and intense with or without Pump's presence, although the way his voice echoes through the total dembow assault here is quite pleasing...on the whole, much better than Pump and Alfa's other collab from this decade.

128. Miley Cyrus, "Hate Me"

Lil Peep's influence continues to snake through popular music in the most unexpected of places. Plastic Hearts' attention-getting feature was Miley's retreat to glam rock and synth-pop, as rockist of a move in the early 2020s as they come; the approach yielded some solid singles ("Midnight Sky" especially), but the album's ultimate allure to me is its pervasive sense of diaristic self-loathing, which seems ripped from Peep and his emo-rap peers in lyrical tenor if not in sonic style. "Never Be Me" is a devastating example of this, and this song finds the middle ground between "gotta be me" and, well, "Never Be Me." It sounds weirdly self-accepting, given the circumstances.

127. Future, "100 Shooters" [ft. Meek Mill and Doe Boy]

Great Tay Keith beat, good hook, pretty much all there is to it. One of the best things Meek Mill has been involved in across the decade so far? Not a lot to pick from there, granted. High Off Life is one of those pandemic albums that kind of disappeared from view, in terms of what Future's catalog from this decade so far it's a decidedly minor work.

126. Viva Belgrado, "¿Qué Hay Detrás de la Ventana?"

Killer closing track from this Andalusian band's third record Bellevista, an even more potent combo of screamo and post-rock than that Respire track a few notches below this one. I will confess I didn't love their latest record, last year's Cancionero de los Cielos, but it had a song that I featured on (subscription sale plug!) a past Baker's Dozen for my paid subscribers.

125. Lil Uzi Vert, "Venetia"

I remember listening to Eternal Atake a lot pre-pandemic and being like, "Great new Uzi record, year seems pretty good so far, what else could go wrong?" You know the rest...of course, Uzi's alleged violence against women, bizarre public behavior, terrible System of a Down covers, and overall decline in musical quality has since blunted the meteoric impact of Eternal Atake in a way that no Jersey Club revival could possibly counteract. So it goes! I don't find myself returning to Eternal Atake at all as a result, but just show me the word "Venetia" and this song appears in my brain as a locked groove, unfortunately this is extremely potent stuff.

124. Declan McKenna, "You Better Believe!!!"

A British person online once told me Declan McKenna's listener base was "Paolo Nutini mum vibes" or something...that's a pretty goddamn British thing to assert! I liked this song from his first record, and his one-good-song-per-album streak continued with this one from his sophomore bow Zeros, a charming-enough Supergrass-via-hand-me-down-glam approach that you kind of wish he had nailed throughout the whole LP. I actually thought his third record from last year was much better and tilted more towards Still Woozy-ish territory—could be better, could be worse.

123. Mozzy, "Can't Let You Go" [ft. Eric Bellinger]

Mozzy's a good rapper—dependable, adept—and you generally cannot deny a solid rap love song like this when it's done capably well, Eric Bellinger is always nice with a hook in this capacity too. I saw someone recently remark online that Mozzy's biggest hurdle at this point is his beat selection, which I won't argue with at large.

122. Annie, "Miracle Mile"

Dark Hearts got pandemic-album-hole'd, which is a shame...I think people would've been way more into it if it had been released at any other point, especially given the fact that we are never getting another Chromatics album as long as we live. As reinventions go, this one was sublime, dreamy, and apocalyptic; it's music that feels like the end of the world, or at least the best-case scenario of how it would feel to be on the brink of annihilation. Annie was an early newsletter interview, you can read that one here.

121. Luke Abbott, "August Prism"

After a few excursions down even more left-field paths throughout the latter half of the 2010s, the always-brilliant Luke Abbott returned to Border Community in 2020 with Translate, which had a few dazzling moments like this. Some of the obfuscating, psychedelic haze of his earlier releases has since been cleaned up, but few still remain better at locking you into a total and absolute trance.

120. Pa Salieu, "Betty"

Pa Salieu got released from jail last year after serving time for a 2022 violent disorder conviction, his pre-incarceration run was very strong at the least. I loved what he did on FKA Twigs' "Honda" was one of the many standouts on CAPRISONGS, and this single from his debut mixtape Send Them to Coventry was absolutely indelible, excellent cavernous production and the way he rides the beat is intoxicating. I thought his record from last year was pretty good, too.

119. Everything Everything, "Violent Sun"

True story, my wife heard me listening to this and immediately clocked it as "dumb Radiohead." When you're right, you're right! Granted, "dumb Radiohead" could easily describe the band themselves these days...but it's also always been a decent fit for Everything Everything in terms of Jonathan Higgs' vocal timbre. Like many bands of their ilk, they occasionally strike an extremely pleasing British art-rock chord despite themselves, which is exactly the deal with this track from 2020's Re-Animator, a song that sounds like a guy is running down the street shouting it with a GoPro attached in front of him (complimentary).

118. Tems, "Ice T"

Tems makes another appearance way higher on this list but this track from the For Broken Ears EP is also sneaky-good, as well as the type of sound she'd later fully crystallize on last year's incredible debut LP Born in the Wild.

117. Boneflower, "Starless"

More atmospheric, expansive screamo, this time from Spaniards Boneflower's second (and, to date, last) album Armour from 2020; really thick and charging stuff here, definitely some Envy influence on here as well (they very suitably make an appearance later on this list too).

116. Brigid Mae Power, "Head Above the Water"

Brigid Mae Power is one of those songwriters that feels like a well-kept secret; she balances the strange and the ominous in a very beautiful way, she's put out darker and more complex work but this closing title song from her solid third LP and follow-up to 2018's excellent The Two Worlds has a breezy, light-hitting-the-window feeling that's hard to capture quite like this.

115. Doves, "Carousels"

In terms of what you'd want from Doves coming back after 11 years on the sidelines, "Carousels" does pretty much exactly what you'd want it to; it feels like one big supercharged midtempo sigh of a rock song, which is exactly the kind of song that Doves have always been so good at. The Doves reunion ended up being a bit more difficult than anyone anticipated; I didn't quite love their new record Constellations for the Lonely, but it's good that Jimi Goodwin is doing the right thing for his own well-being.

114. FERG, "In It" [ft. Latto]

Here's a cut from back when he still had A$AP in the name...I did Ferg's bio in the mid-to-late 2010s at one point, nice guy, his musical output post-Trap Lord has obviously been very take-it-or-leave-it to say the least, I love the bite-sized energy this cut packs though, his ad-libs are (as always) very funny and, wait a minute, is he talking about going to Bossa Nova? Latto doesn't do much here, she's become more of a formidable presence in the pop-rap sphere since.

113. MicrOpaqu3, "Library Takeout"

We all had those moments where we consumed some not-terrible thing surrounding the pandemic and thought, "Well, this is nice at least," and here's one of mine. My wife is a librarian so I'm a bit biased here, but I think this is a charming and effective electronic pop song about library takeout, which was an essential service provided by many a fearless librarian during the first year of things.

112. Perfume Genius, "Just a Touch"

Mike is at the point in his career where some of my favorite things off his records are the deep cuts. I love how Set My Heart on Fire Immediately elevated his status like never before, one of the most pleasant surprises over the last decade was watching Perfume Genius rise above being an indie niche concern (which, as a very fervent fan of the early stuff, I was certainly concerned about) and actually become influential on the musical landscape at large. Strong "smoldering Radiohead ballad" vibes to this, and my favorite Radiohead songs at this point are smoldering, so. I'm still digging into the latest Perfume Genius record but I thought it was quite good on first pass, Mike's been a guest on the newsletter twice thus far—you can read our pandemic-era convo here, and you can check out our chat around the 10-year anniversary of Too Bright here.

111. Fireboy DML, "Airplane Mode"

I'm gonna keep it real with you: I played a lot of Red Dead Redemption 2—OK, some Far Cry 4 too—during lockdown while listening to Fireboy DML's APOLLO. Almost every song hits on some level, overall just a really great record, this one stuck with me the most. I don't think he's topped it album-wise since thus far but he's nice with it regardless.

110. Avalon Emerson, "Poodle Power"

Avalon Emerson's 2023 album Avalon Emerson and the Charm reinvented the DJ and producer as a brilliant pop songwriter, firmly situating her in "Is there anything she can't do?" territory. More evidence towards that is this heater of a single from her very solid DJ-Kicks installment, I also had a great time hearing her DJ before the Four Tet b2b Floating Points set at Forest Hills Stadium a few years back. Avalon (who, subscription-sale plug no. 2, subscribes to the newsletter!) did an interview for the newsletter back in 2023; you can read that here.

109. Coriky, "Clean Kill"

Whaddya know, the band that features half of Fugazi sounds...a lot like what Fugazi sounded like at the end of Fugazi. Not complaining! If anything I'm looking for another Coriky record pronto, especially when you get The Argument itch properly scratched like this.

108. Damien Jurado, "The End of the Road"

One of the most reliable indie-folk artists of the 21st century, across a crazy-long career (27 years?!?) that is very much still going. Wild how you could go to any point in his catalogue, reach out, and pull something like this from it. This song in particular, from the quite-solid What's New, Tomboy?, kind of reminds me of Sea Change-era Beck.

107. Brett Eldredge, "Sunday Drive"

Brett Eldredge's fifth studio album Sunday Drive sounds handsome, accomplished, and radiant even at its most old-fashioned (the Golden Hour production team of Daniel Tashian and Ian Fitchuk were behind the boards on this one); there is something uncomplicated about the songwriting that speaks to me on an elemental level. The nostalgia in this song really aches, almost like heartbreak, even though it seems way more about honoring past rituals than lamenting that they're gone. Such a nice-sounding song, possessing such an overpowering musk, that it almost sounds "fake," if you know what I mean. I liked his most recent album too, a few keepers, but didn't have the uncanny sepia-toned feel that this record did.

106. Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, "Cars in Space"

Fairly certain I wrote the bio for this one, but I'll give you the straight dope anyway: RBCF's third album Sideways to New Italy was a nice and necessary course-corrective after their just-OK sophomore effort Hope Downs from 2018, they really came into their own when it comes to expansive down-under jangle. This is probably the best song they've recorded to date by my measure, 2022's Endless Moons dialed down the jittery enthusiasm a bit again but there were still some nice moments.

105. Quelle Chris and Chris Keys, "When You Fall..." [ft. Nappy Nina, Fresh Daily, and 5ILL]

I love the beat-switch on this highlight from Quelle Chris and Chris Keys' very solid Innocent Country, also really like Nappy Nina's verse on here as well. I know people liked Guns but this is the record where I really connected with Quelle Chris as a whole, I thought his 2023 collab record with Backwoodz guy Cavalier was also very good.

104. waveform*, "Shooting Star"

No-frills indie rock thickness from these Connecticut guys, with the sweet and chewy emo center that a lot of indie took on from 2014 on. This was reissued by Run For Cover in 2022, so if you feel like you're time-tripping here it's my fault; their 2023 album was also pretty good if a bit more Alex G-ish in sound.

103. Metz, "A Boat to Drown In"

Metz have become very dependable over the last decade, but I was really impressed by this extended ripper that closes out their fourth record Atlas Vending. They stretch their legs in a fairly un-Metz way and lock into a super hypnotic groove. I really enjoyed their most recent (and, for now, last) record Up on Gravity Hill and the exquisitely goth-y turn they took on it; I did the bio for Alex Edkins' 2022 record as Weird Nightmare, but I highly recommend that one as well, really tuneful in a GbV-meets-TNV (iykyk) way.

102. Fleet Foxes, "I'm Not My Season"

Pretty big Fleet Foxes fan over here, Shore hasn't lasted with me the way previous records have, but I still like it a bunch...the highlight for me from every record since Helplessness Blues is when Robin Pecknold zooms out and slows down, so of course this is the big standout for me in the vein of "Blue Spotted Tail" and "If You Need to, Keep Time on Me." I interviewed Robin again around this record for GQ, please read it if only to justify the lil' pandemic-related menty b I had while putting the piece together.

101. Magdalena Bay, "Story"

Across this decade Magdalena Bay have gone from "we're pop but we're a little weird" to "we're pop but we're a little too cool to be actually famous," which is roughly what the pop-undercard trajectory is like these days. They're always heavily reminiscent of chillwave to me, Neon Indian specifically, I think that at this point they're in danger of being a little overrated when it comes to the actual depth of what they do, but people seem to really like these two so it's possible that I'm missing something at the moment...I thought Mercurial World was even better than the solid EP this song is off of, Imaginal Disk seemed to be a real turning point for them but it didn't stick with me a ton, I have plans to revisit soon though.