Top 50 Songs of 2020

1/10/2021

Car Seat Headrest - Making a Door Less Open (2020)

1. Life Worth Missing - Car Seat Headrest
2. You Fear the Wrong Thing Baby - The Radio Dept.
3. Martin - Car Seat Headrest
4. A Reason to Celebrate - bdrmm
5. Deadlines (Hostile) - Car Seat Headrest
6. Seventeen (Feat. Norah Jones) - Sharon Van Etten
7. Momo - bdrmm
8. Starting Again - Day Wave
9. Julia Take Your Man Home - Wolf Parade
10. I Know the End - Phoebe Bridgers

Almost all of these songs came out in the first half of the year, with the only exception the bdrmm tracks that were released on the shoegaze band's debut Bedroom on July 3rd. So obviously everyone on the list so far had recorded these songs pre-pandemic, and in fact the Car Seat Headrest and Radio Dept. tracks were already at the top of my charts by the time the pandemic hit in March. So what does that mean, other than that artists--indie rock artists I love--didn't have the ability (because of social distancing, financial, or artistic-wise) to record and release new tracks in the 2nd half of this shitty ass year and I suspect, quite sadly, that many artists I love--whose livelihood depends on live touring income--have had to call upon backup plans to survive, which is a precarious place to try to make new music. I've personally supported where I could through Patreon and other donation vehicles (Spencer Krug and Mountain Goats and AJJ and others) but I can't do enough, no one can do enough; our country's lack of support of the arts in general manifested this year more clearly than ever, much like our lack of support for the poor, for health services, for relief services, etc. etc... It's a sad year for indie rock music, and for my love of music personally, as the last concert I saw was back in early February, in Philly, for Wolf Parade. It was a great show. It was a really great show. I never ever would have imagined it would be my last show of 2020.

Bright side, though - this should be bright side - I loved the new Car Seat Headrest (obviously); the new Wolf Parade kicked ass; I was blown away by the British shoe gaze revival in bdrmm, and The Radio Dept. occupied my earwaves the entire year, with a couple singles and catching up on a decade of tracks I never truly appreciated until 2020. They really are an amazing band I didn't even realize was still recording. And I'm glad I got the chance to catch up. Also, Sharon Van Etten's "Seventeen" made last year's top 10, in its original version, so this slowed-down track with Norah Jones's vocals is particularly impressive. And Phoebe Bridgers' "I Know the End" was the soundtrack to my December, after discovering this track on her amazing second album Punisher that came out in June. Watch her "live" below, in an empty concert hall. The track starts slow (which is probably why it didn't register for me at first) but yeah, if there's one track that sums up 2020 for me, it's this. Phoebe in an empty concert hall screaming "the end is here..."

11. There Must Be More than Blood - Car Seat Headrest
12. Potions - Day Wave
13. Out of Control - Wolf Parade
14. If... - bdrmm
15. Kyoto - Phoebe Bridgers
16. Glada - Future Islands
17. Pay for It - July Talk
18. Fire - Waxahatchee
19. Nothing at All - Perfume Genius
20. Worm in Heaven - Protomartyr
21. Empty - Day Wave
22. Forest Green - Wolf Parade
23. Plastic Beach - Future Islands
24. Dvergmal - Sigur Ros
25. Dry Fantasy - Mogwai

A few tracks here came from the latter half of the year, including the Future Islands record and new songs by Sigur Ros and Mogwai (off a forthcoming 2021 (!) album). But yeah, still a lot of 2020. You have no idea how excited I was when Waxahatchee played with AJJ early in the quarantine on Instagram Live and I was like "I got this, a few more weeks of this and the quarantine will be over". "Fire" indeed.

26. Campfire - Long Neck
27. Thriving - Diet Cig
28. The Absence of Birds - The Radio Dept.
29. Against the Day - Wolf Parade
30. For Sure - Future Islands
31. Distant Axis - Matt Berninger
32. Video Game - Sufjan Stevens
33. Head Sport Full Face - No Age
34. Crush - Day Wave
35. Care - beabadoobee
36. Happy - bdrmm
37. Plantation Country - Nana Grizol
38. Vanishing Point - Kestrels
39. ICU - Phoebe Bridgers
40. Dream Boy - Beach Bunny
41. Governess Shadow - July Talk
42. Future Version - Nana Grizol
43. You're Looking at My Guy - The Radio Dept.
44. One More Second - Matt Berninger
45. Lemon (Feat. Sharon Van Etten) - Local Natives
46. (We Are All Mirrors) - Angel Olsen
47. Wheels Roll Home - The Antlers
48. Solipsism - Fenne Lily
49. Under Glass - Wolf Parade
50. Grey and Blue (feat. J. Mascis) - Kestrels