Best songs of 2020? That list is impossible. Defying a global pandemic that shuttered most studios for most of the year and responding to racial and social injustice, artists put out revolutionary, necessary music. Here are 10 singles that inspired, challenged and delighted me.
“With Me,” STL GLD & members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra
Already an anthem for social, racial, gender and LGBTQ justice, “With Me” took on more meaning when STL GLD teamed with the BSO to remotely rearrange and re-record the song and shoot a video during quarantine. A towering affirmation that music feeds off radical collaboration. MC Moe Pope combines powerful levels of insight and intensity in his verses. And yet, when the strings and trumpet swell at the ending of the video, the instrumental coda suddenly carries the same weight as Pope’s call of “Either you with me or you ain’t.”
“I Can’t Breathe,” H.E.R.
Built from a legacy of pop protest music, “I Can’t Breathe” echoes messages and aesthetics from Billie Holiday and Stevie Wonder to Chuck D and Janelle Monae. But the ballad-shot-through-with-epic-hip-hop-interlude stands firmly in this moment with lyrics that don’t blink: “Destruction of minds, bodies and human rights/Stripped of bloodlines, whipped and confined/This is the American pride/It’s justifying a genocide.”
“XS,” Rina Sawayama
Writers love to compare Sawayama to Destiny’s Child and Evanescence but need to name check Janet Jackson, Lady Gaga, Avril Lavigne, Ariana Grande and Gwen Stefani to approach the aesthetic of the next global pop star. In an appropriate 2020 twist, “XS” delivers dance magic, rock riffs and a sweeping critique of consumerism in the face of a climate crisis.
“Ghosts,” Bruce Springsteen
Playing with the past and looking to the future gives Springsteen and the E Street lineup the courage to rush into thunderclaps, hush to a whisper and revel in garage rock symphonies on new album “Letter to You.” Standout track “Ghosts” calls out to the fallen kings of Asbury Park with the bottom of the song dropping out long enough for the gang’s vocal cry of, “By the end of the set we leave no one alive!”
“Yearning,” The War and Treaty
The duo opens new LP “Hearts Town” with a track that charges in with a cool clatter of noise, something akin to the sound of Duke Ellington’s big band and Led Zeppelin tumbling together down a set of stairs. Eventually the tune resolves into a groove between Stax soul and White Stripes garage rock.
“Pulling the Pin,” Run the Jewels
New album “RTJ4” features Killer Mike and El-P delivering a masterclass in art-meets-politics. The mighty “Pulling the Pin” has the pair attack everything from gerrymandering to capitalism’s failures. After each verse, the mighty Mavis Staples comes in singing, in her wounded, glorious voice, “There’s a grenade in my heart and the pin is in their palm.”
“Trump vs. Biden,” Billy Dean Thomas
The cut digs into a divided citizenship, not just between left and right, but between communities who can’t agree on Biden and full of people on “autopilot.” Over a deep beat and hypnotic clicks, Thomas runs through racial injustice from “Birth of a Nation” to modern murders with a wicked flow — and a blistering guest verse from S’natra.
“Stay,” Valerie June
“Stay” takes the symphony-in-a-song model pioneered by Motown and re-envisions it for June’s artistic voice. Beginning with a soulful, simple piano riff and June’s vocals, somewhere between Billie Holiday and gospel, the song rolls toward a crescendo of marching drums, jazzy flute and uplifting strings.
“Listen, to the Cry of Your Fellow Man,” Richard Sebring & Charles Overton
Shortly after the death of George Floyd, Boston Symphony Orchestra associate principal horn Richard Sebring reached out to harpist Charles Overton. Sebring had improvised a melody and sent it to Overton. Sebring’s horn is so soaring and Overton’s harp so calming, the duet doesn’t feel as dark as the moment it responds to. The piece has a contemplative and, in flashes, optimistic air to it.
“Levitating,” Dua Lipa
“Levitating” takes the Carly Rae Jepsen template (quadrangulate early Madonna, turn-of-the-century Kylie, peak Debbie Gibson and all things Robyn) and adapts into a modern Cool Britannia club cut.
When you need a sugar rush to blank your mind from the hate and death of the year, gobble up this sweet, sweet, oh-so-dumb piece of candy.
"that" - Google News
December 25, 2020 at 05:55PM
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Top 10 songs that got us through 2020 - Boston Herald
"that" - Google News
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