it's the end of the year as we know it
As 2020 comes to a close, I realize what a strange, weird year it has been. Not just for me, but for everyone.
It’s also been a year of reflecting and a year of growth, despite the setbacks and let downs it threw at the entire world.
It’s felt like the longest year. A year that won’t end, and here we are: December 27, a few days away from 2021.
It’s my first Christmas in Tennessee. We had a white Christmas, and it was so nice seeing more snow from the 24th-25th than I have this entire year. I think that’s a good sign going into the new year, don’t you?
This might be the first year that I’ve released my annual End of the Year list so late, since I like to release them in the middle of the month. There’s been a trend over the last few years where artists drop “surprise” albums seemingly out of nowhere. Those surprise albums usually ruin end of the year lists and December has thrown many curveballs for everyone’s!
Why has 2020 been a weird year? This is also the first year that not one, but two Taylor Swift songs make it into my favorite songs list. Both “evermore” and “folklore” get a brief shoutout in my honorable mention Albums of the Year list. This is a first, and the world has known I’ve never been a Taylor Swift fan. But, I have to give credit where credit’s due. Those were both very nice albums with some spectacular production. I think out of the two, “evermore” is the stronger album with stronger writing. I also think that it’s great that Taylor’s music is introducing a whole new generation of young fans to extremely talented musicians like The National and Bon Iver (Justin Vernon). They didn’t seem like artists in her immediate “orbit,” and I think it’s fantastic that a younger generation can explore more about her collaborators.
Another thing that’s different about this year is that I only ranked my top five albums. There were so many amazing albums that came out this year, that I didn’t want to give myself another existential crisis trying to rank everything, so I limited it to five albums only. You’ll see a list of 25 records listed, but the rest of the albums aren’t ranked. After all, I didn’t rank my mid-year list!
Let’s start with the songs:
This year’s list features 85 songs that I really enjoyed, but only the first 20 in the Spotify playlist are ranked.
Each year I try to include a mix of different songs by different artists, but this year I made an exception. As mentioned above, Taylor released two albums. I really loved “exile,” off of “folklore,” but I can’t get “no body, no crime” out of my head.
Hayley Williams released the stunning “Petals For Armor,” and dropped an acoustic EP featuring one song on “Petals For Armor: Self-Serenades” that didn’t make it onto the full record: “Find Me Here.” If I had to rank “Find Me Here,” it would make it into the top 25 songs. The same goes for “Oh How We Drift Away” by Tim Heidecker and Weyes Blood. Both songs are absolutely stunning.
The other artist to release two albums? Sufjan Stevens, whose music has ebbed and flowed through so many phases. “The Ascension” felt like “Age of Adz” mixed effortlessly with “Carrie and Lowell,” with a tiny bit of “fuck you” directed towards the year that just won’t seem to end. “Aporia,” released with his stepfather, Lowell Brams, almost seems like the complete opposite. It’s very New Age-y and is great music to have on in the background when you’re trying to work.
My musical tastes are all over the place, and this list of 85 songs truly reflects that. Sure, there’s some Guaranteed Staples on there, such as Andrew McMahon’s “Get On My Wave,” as well as new songs by Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus (petition to get boygenius to release a new EP in 2021, anyone with me?).
There’s also a few pop-punk gems on this list, because once you’re a pop-punk kid, you never really outgrow your roots.
There are some curveballs on here that some folks might not expect to see, like Daddy Yankee/Bad Bunny’s “PA ‘ ROMPERLA” and the late Mac Miller.
2020 was also the year of Pop Music for me, and there’s quite a few bops sprinkled in this list, from billie eilish to Carly Rae Jepsen to Ariana Grande, who might’ve released 2020’s “horniest album.” In two days, Aly & AJ will be releasing an explicit version of the iconic “Potential Breakup Song,” but in the meantime, “Joan of Arc on the Dance Floor” sparkled with disco flair.
And then there was the entirety of Lady Gaga’s “Chromatica,” as well as the absolutely delightful “pop songs 2020” EP by BUMPER (Japanese Breakfast’s Michelle Zauner and Crying’s Ryan Galloway).
2020 was the year that needed more movement, even if you’re a terrible dancer. Since we’ve all been staying within the confines of our humble abodes, it doesn’t even matter, right? Right.
2020 was also the year of highly political tunes, which I went into more detail on back in October. ¡Viva la revolución! Some of the tunes on the “State of the Union” playlist made it into my favorite songs of this year, including Maren Morris’ “Better Than We Found It” and Tyler Childers’ “Long Violent History.”
Now, let’s move onto the albums! The following albums were my favorite five of the year, and were the only ones I ranked. It might be a little hard to read the picture below (thanks to my love of neon-colored Gelly Roll pens on neon Post-Its), but don’t worry. I’ll still type them all out!
“Saint Cloud” - Waxahatchee. This album was magnificent. It had more raw moments on it, while touching on rough, personal issues, like sobriety and death. This might be one of my favorite Katie Crutchfield records to date.
“Punisher” - Phoebe Bridgers. Shortly after this record came out, I said it might not end up in my top five. Joke’s on me, because I kept listening to this record a LOT, especially in the wake of being laid off. The accompanying “Copycat Killer” EP that reworked some of these songs also solidified the reason why “Punisher” should make it into my top five. Did I mention “Graceland, Too” made me cry (even harder than the album as a whole)? Because it totally went there.
“Shape & Destroy” - Ruston Kelly. This was not a breakup album by any means, even though Kelly went through a divorce with Kacey Musgraves earlier this year. Fun fact: Musgraves did a lot of backing vocals on this record! This was a record that resonated strongly with me. In a dark year, this record brought a lot of light to the world. Kelly might classify himself as “dirt emo,” but this record was anything but. It’s an album of growth! (A true theme for this year.) “Hallelujah Anyway” was my fourth favorite song of the year; listening to this song gave me a religious experience I have rarely felt. It’s only happened during live shows (i.e. Beyonce’s Formation World Tour and Sufjan’s Carrie and Lowell tour).
“Petals For Armor” - Hayley Williams. Am I surprised that this record didn’t make it onto a lot of mainstream year-end lists? Absolutely. “After Laughter” was my favorite record in 2017 and Williams’ first solo record felt like the best extension of it, especially exploring themes of depression and what it’s like growing out from that. When it came out earlier this year, I was humbled to be featured alongside 13 incredible folx in the music industry on Drew Beringer’s inaugural issue of “Bad Zine.” This record featured it all: dance-ready bops, songs about working through your own issues, healing and what it’s like to truly grow into yourself, embracing the flaws and building yourself up.
In addition to all that, I think NPR Music’s Marissa Moss had my favorite piece of writing about this album. It’s been months since it’s been out and I still find myself thinking about this one particular line:
“Live Forever” -Bartees Strange. Honestly? This record and “Petals For Armor” almost were tied for my favorite record this year. Both records were incredible, but this one managed to stand out to me more. I tweeted out on the last Bandcamp Friday of the year: “BUY THIS RECORD. IT SLAPS.” And folks, it did in fact, slap. In fact, it slaps so hard, Thursday invited Bartees Strange to perform at the upcoming Signals V2 livestream in a few days. How has one artist gone from being practically unknown to opening for Thursday? The magic of mixed genres and rave reviews, that’s how. If I had the chance to take the “History of Punk Rock” class again that I took my senior year of college, I would rewrite my paper on what it means to be punk by including Bartees Strange alongside Laura Jane Grace.
In typical me fashion, I also have a thing for album closers. “Ghostly” was a closer I loved and it left me yearning for more. It’s very rare that I listen to an album and want it to keep continuing, but there’s something about “Live Forever” that calmed me down and kept my spirits bright.
So, what other records did I dig this year? There were a lot, actually. It was hard enough ranking the top five, but I wanted to shine a spotlight on all the records I really enjoyed during this hell year. The prospect of even ranking them (save for the two honorable mentions of “evermore” and “folklore,” because it just feels weird to me to have them *officially* in my list) gave me an existential crisis. It’s bad enough I’ve got things written all over Post-It notes in an effort to make sure I wasn’t missing anything. That mess basically is the physical manifestation of what my mind’s looked like the past few days trying to put this all together. Y’all don’t need to see that picture.
“Reunions” - Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit
“Down In the Weeds, Where the World Once Was” - Bright Eyes
“Brave Faces Everyone” - Spanish Love Songs
“Fetch the Bolt Cutters” - Fiona Apple
“Lament” - Touché Amoré
“color theory” - Soccer Mommy
“Chromatica” - Lady Gaga
“Cuttin’ Grass” vol. 1 + vol. 2 - Sturgill Simpson
“Ohms” - Deftones
“Every Sun, Every Moon” - I’m Glad It’s You
“græ” - Moses Sumney
“Dedicated Side B” - Carly Rae Jepsen
“Shore” - Fleet Foxes
“Visions of Bodies Being Burned” - clipping.
“Show Pony” - Orville Peck
“Whole New Mess” - Angel Olsen
“Serpentine Prison” - Matt Beringer
“At the Moonbase” - Slaughter Beach, Dog
“Womb” - Purity Ring
“RTJ4” - Run the Jewels