By: Christian Hagen
Every year since 2017, I’ve made a Spotify playlist collecting some of the best new music from across many genres, countries, and levels of notoriety. I take 100 songs, all from different albums by different artists, which I think are deserving of your listening pleasure, and I spend months carefully arranging them into an order that requires no shuffle, and provides a unique sonic experience that might change the way you perceive some songs.
And then 2020 happened, and I almost didn’t have the energy or mental capacity to make another playlist. I spent several months, cumulatively, ignoring new music, filling my ever-growing “To Listen” list larger than it’s ever been before while I retreated into comforting and familiar songs and albums. As a result, I was unable to make it to 100 songs on this year’s playlist. For a while, I feared I’d have to cap it at 50. Then 75. And then, in December, I made a point to listen to a whole bunch of stuff I’d been putting off, and I was finally able to bring the list to 90 songs. Technically, this means it’s the shortest of these playlists I’ve made. Emotionally, it feels like the longest.
I feel conflicted when talking about 2020. There was so much international tragedy, strife, pain, confusion, anger, and danger across the entire globe, and we were forced by an invisible but devastating menace to watch it all from the sanctuaries of our homes, making them feel increasingly less comforting and more suffocating. And yet, if I’m being honest, a lot of really great things happened to me personally this year: I got my first job in nonprofit fundraising, which I went back to school for in the fall of 2019, I have a wonderful girlfriend, and I moved into a new apartment where I’m now living completely on my own for the first time in my life. It would be disingenuous of me to pretend that everything in 2020 was bleak and terrible, because for me, a substantial portion of my life improved.
For those who lost loved ones, for those ravaged by disease, for those who stood up to police violence, for those who campaigned for political change, for those who were forced out of work with no guarantee of return, for those who’ve been run ragged or laid low by the historic and unceasing pressures and conflicts and disasters that befell the world in 2020, I dedicate this playlist to you and yours. I know that dedicating a Spotify playlist is about as insignificant a gesture as polite gestures can possibly get, but I sincerely hope that anyone who needs joy in their lives can find some pleasure in the work I’ve done collecting and arranging these songs.
As always, I’ve broken the full list down into a handful of shorter “mini-mixes,” thematic chunks you can use to guide you through as you listen or to take the intensive experience of listening to a 90-track playlist in short bursts. I hope you enjoy, and if you know anyone who’s into new music, maybe send them a link to this mix and see what they have to say!
Thank you to everyone who helped me survive 2020. Let’s hope things get at least marginally better in 2021.
THE BEST OF 2020: THE MIXTAPE
“How long till this washes away?”
AJJ, “Mega Guillotine 2020”
The Weeknd, “Blinding Lights”
Soccer Mommy, “circle the drain”
Perfume Genius, “On the Floor”
Slotface, “Laughing at funerals”
Charli XCX, “anthems”
Little Dragon, “Are You Feeling Sad? (feat. Kali Uchis)”
Christine and the Queens, “People, I’ve been sad”
Kacy Hill, “Much Higher”
Owen Pallett, “A Bloody Morning”
Much like the fractured mental state of life in 2020, this playlist opens with cognitive dissonance in the form of songs which are simultaneously danceable and bright while telling stories of deep pain and expressing loss and ennui. It’s a party where you’re sad that you showed up. Fitting, then, that The Weeknd, forever the king of feeling bad about how much fun he’s supposed to be having, would kick things into gear (after AJJ finishes with the political folk anthem of the year). I wanted to start things off with a bang, while also acknowledging how miserable so many things in this year were.
“I’ll believe you if you make me feel something”
Half Waif, “Blinking Light”
Shamir, “On My Own”
Margaret Glaspy, “Killing What Keeps Us Alive”
Steve Buscemi’s Dreamy Eyes, “Moon”
Slowgold, “Din hand”
The Seshen, “Dive”
Waxahatchee, “War”
Julien Baker, “Faith Healer”
Del Water Gap, “Ode to a Conversation Stuck in Your Throat”
6LACK, “Float”
Dua Saleh, “umbrellar”
Half Waif’s The Caretaker was among the albums I listened to the most this year. It was hard to pick a track to represent it on this list, but the climactic drop in “Blinking Light” is just too majestic to pass up. This section also includes several artists I heard for the first time this year, including Shamir, Steve Buscemi’s Dreamy Eyes, Del Water Gap, and Dua Saleh, whose EP ROSETTA blends genres and tones in often brain-bending ways. Of the tracks on this playlist that were the most difficult to settle on, Dua Saleh’s was among the trickiest. I settled on the song that’s probably the most accessible of the bunch, though it’s not necessarily the most representative of her other songs. Oh, and I don’t know why The Seshen isn’t, like, ten times more popular than they are.
“Nothing gonna keep us silent”
Terrace Martin and Denzel Curry, “Pig Feet (feat. Kamasi Washington, G Perico, and Daylyt)”
SAULT, “Stop Dem”
Sa-Roc, “Goddess Gang”
J Hus, “Reckless”
Fontaines D.C., “A Lucid Dream”
Bartees Strange, “Stone Meadows”
Deep Sea Diver, “Impossible Weight (feat. Sharon Van Etten)”
Rina Sawayama, “Dynasty”
Cardi B, “WAP (feat. Megan Thee Stallion)”
Fiona Apple, “Under the Table”
Freddie Gibbs x The Alchemist, “God Is Perfect”
CHIKA, “CROWN”
Protest music took on a renewed significance in 2020, with the longest sustained national protests in American history taking place in all 50 states over the summer following the murder of George Floyd and far too many other people of color by the outdated, unaccountable, and racist police forces which patrol our streets. Minneapolis is my home. I have its skyline tattooed on my arm. Seeing its leaders fail time and again to stand up to law enforcement that’s been steered by bigots and opportunists for decades has been infuriating and heartbreaking. Seeing so many of my fellow Minnesotans taking to the streets in solidarity, despite both the global pandemic and the violent police riots which left many innocent protesters injured or worse, gave me hope for change. Will it happen? Well, I refer you back to the first track on this playlist. In the meantime, enjoy this run of songs which confront difficult subjects. While only a few of them could be literally classified as “protest songs,” each one is daring in its own way, and could inspire anyone dreaming of a better world to take action.
“Ghosts of the past came to haunt me”
Jhene Aiko, “B.S. (feat. H.E.R.)”
070 Shake, “Guilty Conscience”
Hazel English, “Off My Mind”
Teyana Taylor, “Ever Ever”
Lydia Liza and Big Cats, “Wouldn’t Know (feat. Jake Baldwin)”
Halsey, “Without Me”
Brooke Bentham, “Blue Light”
Chelsea Cutler, “nj”
Kehlani, “Grieving (feat. James Blake)”
Thus begins a long run of songs in this playlist which are all about love, whether its loss or its presence, for one person or for one’s self. Not to get too personal (though there’s a reason I put Jhene Aiko’s “B.S.” at the start of this section), but my love life was surprisingly active in a year where leaving the house was something we were all discouraged from attempting. It just goes to show that 2020 was messy, unpredictable, full of crushing lows and surprising highs. First up, these songs about loss, regret, and wistfulness. I was so pleased to see Hazel English return; her debut album (technically two EPs pushed together and released as one record) became an unexpected comfort to me over the last few years, and her new album is in much the same vein.
Also, a big shout-out here for Brooke Bentham in particular, whose album Everyday Nothing was in deep rotation throughout the spring and summer.
“Reaching out for something out of reach”
Polica, “Forget Me Now”
Lianne La Havas, “Sour Flower”
Grimes, “IDORU”
Tennis, “Need Your Love”
ShitKid, “Get jealous”
Banoffee, “This Is for Me”
TeaMarr, “Doin It Wrong”
San Fermin, “The Hunger”
Angelo De Augustine, “Blue”
Laura Marling, “Held Down”
The complex back-and-forth of love and its loss. Especially when time is so hard to demarcate, it can feel like good moments are both in the distant past and very recent, and same for moments of doubt or regret. I’d like to say I perfectly laid out which feeling went where, carefully weighing the lyrics of songs by their content to present a careful overview of relationships, but sound was the most important consideration when putting this together, so it’s a bit scattershot. I’d like to highlight Polica’s “Forget Me Now” for the absolutely thunderous drum drop in the chorus, which kept it near the top of my list all year long.
“I want to trust me the way that you trust me”
Sam Lee w/ Bernard Butler, “The Garden of England (Seeds of Love)”
Wilsen, “Birds II”
Ariana Grande, “pov”
VanJess, “Come Over”
Sunflower Bean, “Moment In The Sun”
Chloe x Halle, “Baby Girl”
Slow Dakota, “Obelisk”
Dua Lipa, “Break My Heart”
Yumi Zouma, “Right Track/Wrong Man”
Born Ruffians, “Waylaid (feat. Hannah Georgas)”
Thundercat, “Interstellar Love”
When she saw that I’d picked “pov” to represent Ariana Grande’s Positions on this list, my girlfriend laughed and called me a sap. That’s this section. I don’t think any other track is quite as bluntly sappy as “pov,” but I leaned into the romantic feelings in tracks like “Waylaid” and “Interstellar Love,” especially. The subtler second theme of this run is in the rhythms. It was fun to track the bass and drums from song to song here to find where songs from such disparate artists as Chloe x Halle and Slow Dakota could live together. “Break My Heart” and “pov” both emphasize the rhythms of their choruses by dropping out instruments behind the vocals. If I put this together right, it should be easy to keep a solid groove going in this mix.
“I just don’t know who to look to”
Boldy James w/ Sterling Toles, “B.B. Butcher”
Beabadoobee, “Dye It Red”
Benny the Butcher, “One Way Flight (feat. Freddie Gibbs)”
The Innocence Mission, “We Don’t Know How to Say Why”
Kari Faux, “Look at That”
Ratboys, “Look To”
Sleeping Bag and Rozwell Kid, “Absolutely”
Sorry, “Perfect”
Orla Gartland, “Oh GOD”
Samia, “Minnesota”
Megan Thee Stallion, “Freaky Girls (feat. SZA)”
Spillage Village, “Baptize”
Westside Gunn, “327 (feat. Joey Bada$$ and Tyler, the Creator)”
We all needed laughter to get through the days in 2020. But, I don’t know about you, but just as often as I tried to distract myself with fun, I felt pangs of guilt and ennui. The joy was present, but often hollow. To me, the lingering unease of The Innocence Mission’s “We Don’t Know How to Say Why” hangs over everything that follows it, even the aggressively self-aggrandizing “Look at That,” the lighthearted punk of “Absolutely,” and the sludgy guitar rock of “Perfect.” Also worth noting: This section includes the only two artists who have multiple appearances in the playlist this year: Megan Thee Stallion (who, of course, featured prominently with Cardi B on “WAP”) and Freddie Gibbs, who showed up in a number of great guest verses in 2020.
“Dream me a dream soft as a pillow”
Agnes Obel, “Broken Sleep”
Miel, “I’ll Be Holding”
Fleet Foxes, “Quiet Air / Giola”
Blanco White, “Samara”
Porridge Radio, “Good For You (feat. Lala Lala)”
This is the shortest mini mix of the bunch, and that was not really intentional, but it couldn’t be helped. Here are five quiet but haunting indie folk, pop, and rock songs to recover from the energetic cuts that came before, to re-acclimate the listener going into the grand finale, which, I’ll be honest, gets a little heavy..
“And I’ll get up and lay back down”
The Districts, “Changing”
Adrianne Lenker, “not a lot, just forever”
Johanna Warren, “Part of It”
Yves Tumor, “Kerosene!”
Ethan Gruska, “Dialing Drunk”
Haley Blais, “Firestarter”
Tom Vek, “Survive”
Moses Sumney, “Bless Me”
Phoebe Bridgers, “I Know The End”
Yes, from a pure title standpoint, “I Know The End” is a pretty on-the-noise choice to close out a playlist. But listen to the end of that song and tell me how to follow it, because I couldn’t think of a better way to close out 2020. It’s heartbroken, nihilistic, cathartic, and oddly uplifting. And believe me when I say that, if you choose to scream along with the gaggle of friends Phoebe Bridgers brought along to vent their frustrations on this track, you will not be alone. This section is full of gems, too. The Districts’ You Know I’m Not Going Anywhere was a surprisingly refreshing throwback indie rock album that could have easily taken the scene by storm if it had been released 10 or 15 years ago. Johanna Warren is at her most confident on Chaotic Good. I hadn’t heard Tom Vek since high school, but “Survive” was just a perfect way to catch back up with him. I’m happy to see Moses Sumney getting the love he deserves from the music press with grae after his debut in 2017 left me completely awestruck. And Haley Blais’s Below The Salt was probably the last album I listened to in 2020 that captured my love and attention, and “Firestarter” is just…well, if you’re willing to let yourself be as earnest in listening to it as she is in singing it, it might just be the most powerful rock ballad of a year that desperately needed one.
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In short, 2020 was one of the hardest years of all of our lives, regardless of who you are or where you live. The universal constant: 2020 was difficult. Now that it’s over, hopefully this playlist can serve as one of the few relics of the year that’s actually comforting to keep around. The rest should be left where it belongs: Behind us.
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