Class of 2020 – The 100 Greatest Songs of the Year!

13 Dec, 2020

Playlist on Spotify at the bottom of each page.

#100-#81 | #80-#61 | #60-#41 | #40-#21 | #20-#11 | #10-#2 |#1

80. Chocolate Puma “It Ain’t Right (feat. Colonel Red)”
(Single)

79. Muzz “Red Western Sky”
(from Muzz)

“Louis and me did the backbone of this song in my bedroom, when we played with a band it felt bigger and we added build ups and made more dynamic…”

78. Sorry “As The Sun Sets”
(from 925)

“‘As The Sun Sets’ was a song that started at home. The lyrics came out quite fast over louis guitar line, it was a song that the flowed quite fast. When that happens it feels like things you have been thinking about, things people have said, imagery that has repeatedly been coming up, dreams or literature all collides into one thing and forms a sort of single idea, the idea being the glue that sticks all the abstract things that didnt once make sense together. The idea is then explored through the song and it’s almost a relief that the feeling has been recognised. The lyrics sort of vocalise the inner muddles of my mind and what happens. When the day bounces up and down so much you sort of cling on to things by the hour, line by line.

The instrumentation mimics the turbulence pitching vocals, to sink like “and i feel like a fool”.. I like how the general temprement is happy, light angelic tones but the offness and distrubance is still always in the undertow. The first versus just go on a bit of trip, everything is okay but its not, its hot but its too hot, its uneasy, then the mundane meeting with someone who is of obvious importants throws the person off completely and the song delves into utter despair but also resolution and also into something spirtitual. My dad actually always used to tell me to imagine myself bathing in white light when ever i felt really dark and that made its way into the song “I flood myself in the light”.

I find the time just before sunset one of the most empty hours of the day and the “As the sun sets i really want to run into it” is maybe about how at points one would like to dissapear with the sun… but then when it drops back in for the final throws it sort of about realising the lights and darks, “then i think to myself what a wonderful world, what a hell of a day, what a beautiful girl” you hold on little snaps of beauty. My dad also always used to sing what a wonderful world, the lyrics flowed out and i distorted and changed the last two phrases like in a dream things are slightly obscure and different to me this song felt like an important dream.

Louis and me did the backbone of this song in my bedroom, when we played with a band it felt bigger and we added build ups and made more dynamic. but the arrangement didn’t change from when it started. We usually play it first in the set and walk on to the Louis Armstrong version, it sets a nice scene!”

– Asha Lorenz

77. Bombay Bicycle Club “Is It Real”
(from Everything Else Has Gone Wrong)

76. Sneaks “Faith”
(from Happy Birthday)

75. Oddisee “The Cure”
(from Odd Cure)

74. Best Coast “For The First Time”
(from Always Tomorrow)

73. Black Pistol Fire “Hope In Hell”
(Single)

72. Purr “Boy”
(from Like New)

71. Nicolas Godin “We Forgot Love (feat. Kadhja Bonet)”
(from Concrete And Glass)

“Our songs usually follow more of a punk vibe to psych rock vibe, so having this relatively gentle and melodic arrangement is definitely something new…”

70. The Pack a.d. “Give Up”
(from It Was Fun While It Lasted)

“This was a song that followed a fairly typical Pack writing process in that Becky wrote the verses and Maya wrote the chorus. For years, we had really wanted to create a solid anthem type of song and that desire became Give Up. It’s a song about packing it in, being exhausted by the music industry and life. But it is hopeful and ultimately about friendship. The main refrain, “say you give up, I give in”, is not so much accepting defeat as agreeing that it’s okay to just stop the fight and move on. There’s a relief in reaching an agreement. This is also one of the slowest tempo songs we’ve ever written! Our songs usually follow more of a punk vibe to psych rock vibe, so having this relatively gentle and melodic arrangement is definitely something new and is incredibly satisfying to play.

We filmed a video for ‘Give Up’, during lockdown due to the pandemic, in Vancouver, BC. The video was filmed entirely by drone, with us being in separate places which oddly fit the song lyrically and now it’s hard to imagine any other video.”

– Maya Miller

69. Celeste “Stop This Flame”
(Single)

68. Nick Hakim “QADIR”
(from WILL THIS MAKE ME GOOD)

67. Thao & The Get Down Stay Down “Temple”
(from Temple)

66. Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever “The Cool Change”
(from Sideways To New Italy)

65. Anna Burch “Can’t Sleep”
(from If You’re Dreaming)

64. Porridge Radio “Sweet”
(from Every Bad)

63. Fleet Foxes “Can I Believe You”
(from Shore)

62. Frazey Ford “Motherfucker”
(from U Kin B In The Sun)

“I had one line written, ‘the last time I saw you was the last time I saw you’, and I thought it would make a great last line of a song…”

61. Donovan Woods “Last Time I Saw You”
(from Without People)

“This was the first song written for the album. I had one line written, ‘the last time I saw you was the last time I saw you’, and I thought it would make a great last line of a song. My friend Jake and I worked on it, and imagined someone piecing back together a final memory of someone they love. Not being quite sure what’s memory and what’s invention, or whether they’re conflating two nights. I’m kind of obsessed with memory and what it does to our sense of self. Studies continue to show us that it’s essentially just bullshit. It’s a way we reinforce our own ideas about ourselves.

I recorded a guitar/vocal of the song first, and then we had a pianist play on it, my friend Robbie Grunwald. I remember sending him the direction, “don’t pay much attention to what’s going on in the song, just play a bunch of chords anywhere”. The producer James Bunton and I captured some sounds in Toronto’s Kensington Market. The song felt like it should feel like dreams running into each other. I love the line “and the people I was sitting with asked me what was wrong.” It’s a very strange little detail that does a lot of heavy lifting.”

– Donovan Woods

#100-#81 | #80-#61 | #60-#41 | #40-#21 | #20-#11 | #10-#2 |#1