I can't overstate how this list is reflective of one person. I'm Justin Barney, white guy, lifelong Milwaukeean, lives in Bay View with a cat, dad listened to a lot of David Bowie and Talking Heads. This list is subjective because we can't leave our own story out of the music we listen to.
I was thinking about writing some kind of preamble to 2020 and how great songs were still written, but you already know. Let's get into the list.
25. KAMAUU - "Far Rockaway"
Our editor, Evan, asked me to "Please, never play that song on the radio" after hearing it in a meeting. He was only encouraging me. It's on some weird Sean Kingston shit and I'm here for it.
24. Wye Oak - "AEIOU"
This song is a showcase of beauty.
23. Jeff Rosenstock - "***BNB"
What I would give to be cramped in a sweaty room, wearing a beanie that is too small, holding a warm beer, and losing my voice screaming every word to this song with a bunch of people I've never met.
22. Holy Motors - "Country Church"
Who knew that a band from Estonia would be the torch bearers of the yee-haw agenda?
21. Young Jesus - "Root and Crown"
Young Jesus anticipate the analysis of people like me who are paid to pick apart the meaning in their work by starting this song by saying, "Every record needs a thesis, needs a crisis or campaign," and asking "What if living wasn't of the mind?" Somehow they made this album where the importance is the improvisation of life.
20. Joey Dosik - "Lakers Town feat. Michael Bolton"
I like a song that has a shelf life as long as the song itself. It's like looking at a mosquito trapped in amber and reveal what life was like for Lakers fans in the offseason between the 2019 and 2020 NBA season. Which is that they were scared that they were going to be replaced by Clippers fans. In the off season the L.A. Clippers traded up for Kawhi Leonard and looked like they were going to outshine the Lakers, so Joey Dosik wrote this impassioned defense of, what he thought would be the second place Lakers. Instead, the Clippers hilariously got bounced in the second round of the bubble by the Denver Nuggets, of all teams, and the Lakers WON THE CHAMPIONSHIP. Giving this life a strange life of it's own as it became an anthem for the winning team.
19. RMR - "Rascal"
This song also seemed unique to this time in the world. It takes what was a Rascal Flatts song and reworks it in a way that embraces the heart of country's music while rejecting the culture it.
18. BERWYN - "TRAP PHONE"
BERWYN is a poet first.
17. Genesis Owusu - "Don't Need You"
If you need an anthem for getting out of a relationship this is it. Owusu is sassy, petty, and full of self confident in the way that you can only be if you are still pushing away from a relationship and trying to convince yourself that you did the right thing.
16. Walter Martin - "The Soldier"
Over seven minutes Walter Martin tells a meandering story of his father-in-law's life that is full of admiration and love.
15. Dan Deacon - "Become a Mountain"
Dan Deacon builds a wall of sound that is magnificent, grandiose, flowing, but it still reminds you that it's just him, living in the beautiful world of imagination that is now your beautiful world of imagination because you have entered through it's magic door.
14. Austra - "Anywayz"
Austra wrote this BEFORE the pandemic: "What if we died and the world keeps turning anyways?" It came out like one week before we went into lockdown and sounded like a dance party at the end of the world and a reminder that this tiny virus that we can't see might take us out, and if it does, the world will keep going on without us. It was comforting in its own way.
13. Fiona Apple - "Ladies"
The way you hear that note on the upright bass slide up the scale as Fiona comes in all smokey and cool. The way her voice waivers a bit when she's really selling the point. The fact that it's a note passed from woman to woman.
12. Perfume Genius - "On the Floor"
Let's not overlook the contribution of Blake Mills on this track. The whir of his guitar makes this track sound like nothing else.
11. Frances Quinlan - "Rare Thing"
This song came out when we were still in the building and one time, after doubting myself out of another relationship, I put this song on and had to leave my desk because I was crying after hearing her say, "There is love that doesn't have to do with taking something from somebody. I have to stop myself and admit you make me happy."
I didn't text that person again and go running back, but it was a good reminder to stop focusing on every little thing that might be wrong and recognize the positive moments when they come.
10. Little Kid - "Thief on the Cross"
There is a part of this song that sounds a lot like "The Trapeze Swinger" by Iron & Wine, a song that I used to play for hours at a time on long walks through the countryside of Franklin when I was in search of something I was too young to have had or lost in high school.
This song falls apart at the end and I always like when a song falls in on itself.
9. Arlo Parks - "Eugene"
With the line, "I hold the Taco Bell and you cry over Eugene," Arlo Parks told a whole story and became one of my favorite new songwriters.
8. 070 Shake - "Guilty Conscience"
Every once in a while there is a song that isn't about the lyrics and just about the vibe. This song was one of 2020's greatest vibes.
7. Waxahatchee - "Ruby Falls"
“Saint Cloud” by Waxahatchee was my favorite album released in 2020. I listened to it as an album, one song falling into the next. Katie Crutchfield, after long resisting her southern roots, finally opens up her country cry, and fully expressed her true self. No hiding the southern drawl. No guitar fuzzing over the verses. A plain note sung into space. True and clear.
My favorite part of this song is the “I tell this story every time, real love don’t follow a straight line, it breaks your neck it builds you a delicate shrine.” I love the line, but even more, the way she sings it. She reflects the sentiment of the line in her voice. Singing it with a choppy cadence that doesn't follow a straight line either. At the end she catches it and sends the last word. That's a master stoke right there.
6. 100 gecs, Charlie XCX, Rico Nasty and Kero Kero Bonito - "ringtone" (Remix)
100 gecs makes some of the most interesting music being made right now. Whether you like it or not, 100 gecs is not a group you can accuse of being lazy. Their goal is to keep your attention and they do that by throwing the kitchen sink at every song. In this song alone, I count eight distinct changes over three minutes and 35 seconds. In ways it's a perfect parallel to life on the internet. It’s a Twitter feed in a song. That’s going to turn a lot of people off, and maybe it doesn’t stand the test of time, but, let me tell you, it feels good right now. The song rips from the start. It’s immediate. From there it never lets go of your attention. It twists and turns. Adds and subtracts.
In a lot of ways it reminds me of K-pop. If you look at what the best groups there are doing, it follows a similar flow of a constant barrage of new elements and genres, coming together in succession, one after another.
It comes at you fast and will give you whiplash, but man, what a ride.
5. Busta Rhymes feat. Kendrick Lamar - "Look Over Your Shoulder"
Busta Rhymes has been in the game for 30 years. Chuck D actually gave Busta Rhymes his name when his group, Leaders of the New School, opened for Public Enemy.
Many people first heard Busta Rhymes on A Tribe Called Quest’s posse cut “Scenario.” His voice comes in, instantly recognizable. His voice booms and has a low growl. He’s become known for having one of the fastest flows in hip-hop.
His voice is so distinct, it’s so hard, it booms so loud, that it’s been hard for him to have a seriously good solo album. He’s like a great character actor who has a tough time stretching that into a leading role. But because he’s so good for a fast and furious devastating verse, he’s been most successful as a feature on other people’s songs. Cause when you see that Busta is on the verse, you KNOW that’s gonna be good.
And on this track Busta gets Kendrick Lamar and plays it right. It’s Busta’s album, but even on this song, he is essentially the feature. It’s Kendrick's song. And Kendrick does what Busta does best. He raps breathlessly. This endless attack of consonants and vowels. Unrelentingly and rhythmically.
After 30 years, Busta knows exactly what he’s doing here.
4. Bartees Strange - "Boomer"
In an interview, Bartees Strange told me that some people would ask him questions like, “Well, you’re a Black man, making music with guitar riffs, and hip-hip beats mixed with synthesizers. How do you do it?” And he said he’s stare blankly and respond, “Well, I listen to music. That’s music.” And then he told me about a country song called “Cocaine Country Dancing.”
That’s what I like about this song. It’s kind of everything.
3. Remi Wolf - "Photo ID"
I think that what Remi Wolf did in this song was capture joy. There were plenty of songs this year that sounded happy and fun, but there weren’t any that I believed like “Photo ID.” The fun is built in the song. It snaps. It’s got funk elements that are pure Parliament. She puts her voice through a vocoder so it sounds like a robot. Clearly fun is being had in the production of the song, but the selling point is Wolf’s voice. She’s got an attitude and an energy that comes through as pure joy caught in a song.
2. John K. Samson - "Fantasy Baseball at the End of the World"
This is a song about hating the president and refusing to give up hope, no matter how defeated he feels or how mundane his anger has become.
In it he compares managing the big problems of the world with managing his fantasy baseball team. His anger, once white hot, has faded into the underlying rhythmic fingerpicking guitar of daily life. His voice, almost defeated, reminds himself that no matter how helpless he feels, if he puts in love, and faith, that eventually, this will be over. And when it is, he will still have the little joys like fantasy baseball.
1. Bill Callahan - "Pigeons"
This song is a kernel of wisdom, at the center of a story, that is wrapped in a joke about an exploding pigeon.
The thing you hear on first listen are the jokes. The Johnny Cash gag in the first line, the pigeon bit in the second. They provide a good reason to listen to it a second time.
On the next couple listens you get the story. A couple is in the backseat of a limo, they just got married, and Bill Callahan, our hero and narrator is their driver.
And then the kernel of wisdom hits. The center of the song. It’s a piece of wedding advice, saying that when you’re dating you date each other, and when you get married, you are married to the whole wide world and have to care for it as such.
In the song, he wonders out loud how his advice lands. I’m here to say it lands well. The message, which he worries is “preachy” is perfectly balanced with the surreal setting and charming storytelling. And, of course, the humor.
For that, it’s my favorite song of the year.
The full list