Note: Here’s a handy Spotify playlist for listening while you’re reading.
Frankly, I am already a little sick of hearing about it. We’re only days away from the end of a year which will undoubtedly be talked about amid pained winces for decades to come. I fear that we’re already poised for disappointment. I am sensing a collective expectation that when you wake up with your first hangover of 2021, the spell will be lifted and the world will zip backward like a sci-fi film into the good old days.
Unfortunately, on January 1st Canada will still be dealing with its issues (I know we had some, I just can’t hear them anymore over the mournful cries of our southern neighbours). The United States will still have to wait the better part of a month for its new leader, about whom the best accolades we’ve heard are that he’s at least sane and most importantly, he’s not Trump. But setting aside all the politics, resurgent racism, global warming, floods, wildfires, covid 19, and cancel culture, there was something that remained not only stable but positive and comforting during the course of the year. If it could be said that music was in a bit of a lazy lull (and I believe it could) prior to 2020, this year seemed to give new artists new reasons to do some of their best work.
From Tool releasing their first album in 20 years to artists showing up on social media feeds with free intimate concerts and acoustic shows, it’s been a banner year for that which unites us. Popular music and the industry which surrounds it enjoyed a massive spike in great albums, innovation and new ways to enjoy in 2020. As artists should, they met this challenging time and shared their anger, comfort, sadness, joy and fear and encouragement in ways we could all relate to.
No particular genre dominated the year for me and while some seemed under-represented in general, all seemed to feature something worth hearing. This year I am following the example set by Bandcamp’s year-end list and presenting my single picks in no particular order. And since “albums” are a decaying relic of a time that constrained music to its delivery medium, I am focusing for the first time only on singles. These are a group of songs spanning genres, which represent some of the best new tracks of 2020.
Frank Turner - Falling in Love
Originally released by NOFX on their 2010 punk album So Long and Thanks for all the Shoes, “Falling in Love” was a 2 minute and 15-second punchline of a song about a couple in a plane crash using the opportunity to express the unstoppable nature of their love. 2020 saw mostly folky but punk-adjacent British musician Frank Turner give the song another level of seriousness by slowing it down, adding some reverb, atmospherics and as much painful realization as he could muster. The result is a wonderfully melancholy reinterpretation that’s even more memorable than the original. It’s worth noting that the West Coast vs Wessex album from which it comes is a collection of covers of NOFX classics by Frank Turner as well as Frank Turner classics reinterpreted by NOFX. It’s well worth your time.
Kurt Vile - How Lucky (with John Prine)
Back when concerts were still a thing, I had the great pleasure of catching what would be one of John Prine’s final performances at Bonnaroo. I don’t need to rehash the legendary songwriting prowess of this man or how revered he is among the musicians and fans alike but what might be more surprising is the presence of him on this pretty and hopeful melody by Kurt Vile. We lost John Prine in 2020 and the idea that he’s symbolically given a nod to Kurt Vile lends a certain continuity to his traditions. Vile is far less well known and though somewhat revered in his own right, it’s in far smaller circles. I count myself among his fans and when this duet was released with it’s sparse finger-picked melody and humbly celebratory lyrics I had no idea just how much it would be a comfort in a year which many would consider anything but lucky.
Roho & Homemade Weapons - Falling Stone
“Falling Stone” is absolutely furious. I’ve heard it said that over the last few years the genre of Drum and Bass is enjoying something of a renaissance. It peaked in the 90s when some major pop artists dabbled with the sound — most notably Madonna on “Frozen”. While she didn’t go as far as to drive her tempo up to the requisite ~175 beats-per-minute, her use of chopped breaks and dark atmospherics is unmistakably influenced.
The artists haven’t stopped making the music and dance music sales site Beatport.com has fresh new tracks by the hundreds every month. The style known as “Liquid”, which is fairly accessible to most people for its constant rhythms, beautiful melodies and more musical bent has been fairly everpresent. Indeed listening to a modern liquid track really hasn’t deviated from the formula which existed back in the 90s. There are, however, some labels and artists who have been constantly pushing Drum and Bass to its extremes. Both Homemade Weapons and Roho release heavy-hitting tracks by themselves. If you thought that little more could be done with the traditional breakbeats, taking a listen to a Homemade Weapons track will make you rethink that assessment. The music is stark, clinical and direct. The progression of Falling Stone plays with themes of turning chaos into order and the presence of both producers can be felt throughout. Play the song and watch your heart rate rise.
The airy atmospheres back off and give focus to the drum patterns that give the track an urgency. This same ebb and flow occur throughout the 8-minute epic. A note for the music fan — you’d best listen to this one with a good pair of headphones, in a car, or somewhere where the low range of the bass frequencies can really shine.
Future Islands - For Sure
There’s something nostalgic about Future Islands’ single “For Sure”. I am acutely aware that my appreciation for this track may be related entirely to my equally inexplicable love of Balloon’s “Now that the Thrill is Gone” or The Lightning Seeds’ “The Life of Riley” or “Pure”. Maybe it reminds me of how enthralled I was with The War on Drugs, which shares some of the same aesthetics despite being a completely different genre. It’s difficult to say what these all have in common outside of the embrace of retro-futurism and synthpop aesthetics. It makes for a splash of pop music that one can adore without all the modern trappings of ear-worms, R&B, and ill-conceived guest rapper appearances. It also doesn’t indulge in a straight-to-the-dance floor 4-4 kick drum but prefers instead to explore an almost cold wave musicality. The last few years have given us a fantastic resurgence in synthpop and while Future Islands are entirely new to me with this single, I’ll be paying attention from now on.
Grimes - Delete Forever
Grimes’ recent albums have been increasingly more accessible to the mainstream. She began her music career with a sort of experiential mundane electronica for which the critical acclaim seemed to have more to do with her proclivities as an artist and her (bold?) fashion choices than any real musical merit. Critics liked the idea of Grimes more than they liked the music of Grimes in particular. But every subsequent album sees her dialling into an understanding of the makeup of a song as it would raise her star power. For someone who claims to dislike the media, she seems very good at manipulating it. You could choose to see this as her compromising her artistic ‘weird’ cred for commercial success, or you could choose to see an artist who’s smart enough to know an opportunity when she sees one. “Delete Everything” is the first pop ballad written around guitar chords that we’ve heard from Grimes and it’s a great one that stands out an on album full of great songs. It’s a song seemingly about wallowing in the misery of the day and according to Rolling Stone, she wrote it about the opioid crisis the night a fellow artist died from related complications. And if weird “Artist” stuff is your thing, have no fear — this year she named her first child with Elon Musk, “X Æ A-Xii”. So her music might be the only thing that’s getting more accessible.
Muadeep - Back to Berlin
2020 may have seen the end of the public dance floors but humanity took to dancing in Zoom calls and freaking out in kitchens and social media posts. Across many genres the spirit of the dance-floor banger never seemed to let up and all sorts of artists are pushing the envelope of what makes us move. One of the most interesting is the weird cousin of Drum n Bass — leftfield bass music. It’s a genre that approaches music with a ‘less is more’ delivery, leaving the details of the timing and drops to the clocks inside your mind. Imagine Drum and Bass tempos played at half-time with sparse, industrial and aggressive hip hop as a formula.
Vision Recordings is the label owned by the trio of artists who make up bass music stalwarts, "Noisia”. This year they signed Muadeep for an EP of bass-forward tracks which see him leaving behind his more ‘typical’ previous releases in favour of flirting with something deeper and darker, more akin with producers such as Hekler and Peekaboo. “Back to Berlin” is a sign of things to come not just for this artist, but something we’re starting to see more of in bass music - evolution.
Aesop Rock - The Gates
Despite album after album of great tracks and a long history of innovative, intelligent and unmistakable hip hop that’s well-respected across the scene. It never ceases to amaze me how these mammoth releases seem to go unrecognized for their merit in the mainstream. Aesop Rock is a wordsmith who’s unequalled and he quietly released another masterpiece at the end of the year. It’s a hip hop concept album about escapism — getting lost in a spiritual realm. One of the highlights among many on this record is the first single “I was at the Gates”. Aside from the video game-inspired earworm of a synth sample, this track will have you bopping to “That’s what’s up…. That’s what’s up… That’s what’s up…” well into 2021.
Donovan Woods - Grew Apart
I’ve been a fan of Donovan Woods since his first record and live recordings on YouTube. The most remarkable thing about him is that despite being an acoustic folk singer he adapts just as well to larger, more produced pop singles. “Grew Apart” might be the grandest, most produced single he’s ever released and while normally that would make me cringe, he pulls it off. The orchestral strings could easily overpower a song about the bruise of a breakup and how we spin it to save face among our friends. The subject matter is Woods’ typical relatable and grounded material and somehow the grandiose delivery just makes it all the more effective.
M. Justa - Reflect
Sometimes it’s simple. I don’t need to waste your time articulating why this particular track deserves your attention. It’s enough to say that this is a track load of butt-shaking funk. It showed up as a prerequisite on all my playlists this year. “Reflect” answered a need for minimalist uplift — to forget troubles and just nod my head to a shuffling rhythm. Sometimes you just want to tap your foot or get down while you’re hanging out at home. This was my go-to groove in 2020. Straight-forward, simple, clean, bright and jumpy.
IDLES - A Hymn
If it had qualified, I would have put IDLES “Never Fight a Man with a Perm” on this list but it was not released in 2020. Admittedly I was late to the party on IDLES but when I discovered their brand of friendly, progressive post-hardcore I was hooked. This wouldn’t be the first of their ballads to carry the heft of cleverness and sincerity at the same time. A sentiment like “I wanna be loved. Everybody does.” seems straight-forward enough but the band lays it bare here amid a bath of growing percussion and reverb-muddled surf-rock guitar and it feels like a far deeper sentiment.
Gydra - Lava Run
I wasn’t lying when I said Drum and Bass was making a comeback in 2020. Russian label Neuropunk is at the forefront of some of the most aggressive dance-floor bangers to come out in the last few years. Bes, who is one of the members of Gydra owns the label and used it to raise the profile of multiple Russian neurofunk artists. Many, including Gydra, have now crossed over to release singles with a pre-established global reputation, “Eatbrain”. This track was another staple on my playlist and DJ mixes this year. The futuristic dark dance music known as Neurofunk hasn’t yet taken North America by storm — but I believe it’s just a matter of time.
Woodkid - Horizons into Battlegrounds
I stumbled upon Woodkid through YouTube suggestions after watching a favourite video performance by Yugen Blakrok. Both of them had done live tracks for a great YouTube series simply titled “Colors”. It’s a fascinating story — this french musician is also primarily a film director and his music had always taken a back seat to his success making other musicians famous. If you’ve seen Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream” or Taylor Swift’s “Back to December” then you’ve seen his work. Luckily in 2020, he found the time to release his first solo record, which is bursting with deep and expansive strings, apocalyptic tones and a bleak outlook on things. It’s definitely not a pick-me-up, but there is a certain comfort to be found here.
Tool - Invincible
A lot of music writers will deliberately overlook this magnificent record simply because it’s so obvious that it deserves to be on every relevant best-of list. We’re like that sometimes. I am not that guy and I intend to give credit where credit is due. This record has been covered at the beginning of the year ad nauseam so I’ll simply pick my favourite track — “Invincible”.
After 20 years, Tool pulled off the impossible by coming back with a record that is every bit as great as their older material and still somehow felt as though they’d progressed. While the influence of A Perfect Circle is evident in Maynard’s vocal style. He uses it to his advantage with more mature and less overt aggression. The themes on “Invincible” are more menacing than pissed off. In 2020, a year that truth as we know it took many blows and we wrestle with the implications of social media and personal branding, I can’t imagine a more perfect subject matter to wail about in a metal song.
Though some might argue it’s unnecessarily lengthy at 12 minutes and 45 seconds, every moment of it is dynamic and compelling and moves from soft percussion to metal guitar grooves to powerful vocals and grand crescendos. All of it is tied together with a vocal melody that balances out the dark, echoing instrumentation. The song soars across an expansive landscape of craggy surfaces. All of this happens without a hint of getting too cheesy or preachy and it’s in that balance that Tool succeeds.
By Darryl Wright