How great is this band name?! It would have been such a shame if they wasted a good band name and made crappy music. Thankfully, they make very cute music, including this wonderful little new wave pop rock track!
This is one of those songs that starts and you know immediately that you're about to hear something amazing. Which is fitting, because it's basically a song about how she's the shit. And I don't disagree. Check out the metric fuckton of sass with which she performs this live!
Sandor Gavin is a name I hadn't heard in many many years; I first (and last) heard of him in the mid 2000s when he released a cover of the Bananarama song "Cruel Summer" (which has apparently vanished from the internet). The real star of this track, though, is the absolutely gorgeous vocal performance by Eileen Jaime, who perfectly sells this synthwave.
Absolutely gorgeous new wave track that leans heavily into the synthpop side of the genre, and takes a turn toward the end that really sticks with you.
Funny enough, I came across this one when a YouTuber I follow used it as bed music in one of his videos. I loved it so much I Shazamed a part that he wasn't talking over. Absolutely killer chord progression and groove!
Ha, I didn't even notice until just now that these two instrumental tracks ended up next to each other on this year's list. That wasn't intentional!
For a musical act that named itself after a Coldplay song, they certainly don't make shitty married millennial pop like one would expect. This is just a fluffy, glowing little synth bop.
Magdalena Bay seems to have had quite the year. They're one of those bands that I'd never heard of, and then suddenly all my friends seemed to be fans one day. And for good reason! They're making some damn fine pop music.
Reminds me of some of the cool dance music that was coming out of Europe in the mid 2000s, but with far more interesting production. Love these vocals!
I turned on the song "Drinking In L.A." for a Gen Z friend a few months ago and he described it as "vibes." I think that's a pretty apt descriptor for this one, too.
Making a song about youth party culture (and perhaps one's feelings of exclusion from said culture) is certainly nothing groundbreaking, but this song is just so cute. The lyrics and song structure are both interesting enough to elevate this to something special.
I love songs about technology. I love that idea that people get excited enough about gadgets to write songs about them. This is not to the level of say, Jane Child's "DS-21," but it's still dorky as hell and I love it.
I love that people are making genuine new wave rock songs again. This absolutely has modern indie sensibilities, but is undeniably a new wave song in structure and melody.
Kygo keeps making my lists, and he'll continue doing so as long as he keeps making quality beats like this. It's borderline corny-ass nu disco à la Timberlake/Mars, but manages to stay on the correct side of that line thanks to his careful production and the barely-not-too-dramatic vocal performance of the DNCE fellas.
Don't let the horrific cover art fool you, this is a very cute new wave synthpop track from what seems to be a still new-ish musical due. According to their bio on their website, "The name for their band THEY KISS came from their friend who said, 'Well you two are in a relationship, so you should call yourself THEY KISS cause you guys kiss.'" Can't argue with that, I suppose.
According to their Instagram, Dolorous appears to be more of an artistic collective than exclusively a musical act. I really love this cute little track because it expertly employs cute little monophonic synth melodies behind a pleasantly soft indie pop song.
I heard the first two lines of this song in an Instagram story and was immediately sold. Admittedly, I'm also a sucker for shouted lines that aren't corny. The vocal delivery is a bit of an odd match for the production, but it somehow comes together into a funky lil ass shaker.
I honestly can't believe it's taken this long for Shania to release an unabashedly pure pop song, and judging from its lyrical content and music video, it's something she's probably wanted to do for a long time. And it was worth the wait! This is the leadoff single from a new album that's due out in February.
I was fooled by the opening bars of this the first time I heard it. I'm glad I stuck with it, though, beause it goes from what sounds like a run-of-the-mill pop rock track into a beautiful vocal performance with heavy reverb on the production and subtle but tight electronic drum samples.
For a few personal reasons, I haven't been motivated to post my annual top songs of the year list until now. And although I have no idea how much I'll feel like writing about these, I at least wanted to archive my list because there are some really great songs here.
Super cute and interesting instrumental track! Absolutely love the way this starts almost like a soft lullaby and crescendos into what feels like a bunch of warm soft blankets and pillows tucking in to surround you.
Bit of a strange little song, this one, but there's something that kept pulling me back to it. The vocals have a kind of bitchy '90s quality, and they work really well with the brilliantly catchy vocal melody of the chorus.
I feel like every year a song like this makes my list. It sounds straight out of 2005, something I'd have played on college radio. I guess part of me thinks it's cool that there are still bands making music that sounds like this, even if I only actually enjoy one out of every 10,000 or so songs. Fuckboy lyrics, but it's a cute song.
I want to love Years & Years more than I do (mostly because Olly is such a cutie!) but they tend to lean a little too heavily into that corny post-disco sound that just doesn't do a lot for me. I don't blame him, though, he's British.
Saweetie had quite the year, didn't she? Years from now when someone is like "remember when celebrities had their own McDonald's meals?" hers is the name I'll think of first, and I'm not sure I can say why. Supremely bizarre video ft. Drag Race UK girls and also the Little Mix gals as drag kings -- not sure why this didn't hit in the US!
This one crept up on me. I thought it was fine when I first heard it, but I found myself humming it again and again and returning to listen again. It's just a great little pop song!
I first learned of Primo from her vocal feature on Sunglasses Kid's "Fixing Me With Love," so I was very pleased to hear a solo track that I also loved! Her voice is so silky.
We don't get enough good pop duets these days, but maybe that just makes the really good ones that we do get even more special. I hadn't listened to either of these artists prior to this release, but they certainly seem made to work together. This is a great song!
Early last summer, a video of a band comprising four teen girls singing in their local public library about a racist, sexist boy at their school took the Internet by storm, and I was absolutely one of the many who were captivated. These girls are fantastic and I look forward to seeing where their career takes them.
I usually know my song of the year the first time I hear it, and this was no exception. I love it from top to bottom, front to back! Everything pop music should be!
I wanted to briefly mention two songs that were standouts for me last year, but that I didn't feel qualified for this list. One was not released this year, and the other was more of a remix than a cover of an old song.
I'm burying the lede a bit here, but this song was the topic of the best podcast episode I listened to last year, Reply All's "The Case Of The Missing Hit": The story of a guy who remembered a radio song from his late-'90s childhood that nobody else remembered existing. Spoiler: It was this.
I'm not even sure it's fair to call this a remix; it's really more of a re-sheen, a polish of the disco hit we all know and love. But it is great, and they even shot a cute little video for it!
Dua Lipa (whose real name, I was surprised to learn, is Dua Lipa), has been around for a few years now, but 2020 was truly her breakthrough. Her album was reviewed far and wide as one of the year's best, and it makes sense; it's a collection of incredibly competent pop songs that sound contemporary and interpolate some '80s ideas that are en vogue.
This track is a particularly good example of that. Her vocal delivery is undoubtedly of this moment, and assuming the synth motif isn't directly pulled from some underground '80s track I've never heard, it is an absolutely brilliant tribute to that era. I love the way it doesn't ascend to the note you think it's going to, dropping down instead to a complimentary lower tone in the scale. Delicious ear bubbles!
The first lady of Cameroooooooooooooon herself put out this absolute toe tapper early in the year, and it's haunted me as a near-daily earworm ever since. It's so easy to run with the cadence and make up your own lyrics about what the dude wants to do to you like a banjo.
A lot of drag queens are also gay dudes, and gay dudes love hot electropop, so it's not a surprise that a lot of drag queens who dabble in music end up making hot electropop songs. I absolutely love the production on this and just think it's a really cute and extremely gay little song.
I haven't heard a song with this specific kind of groove since Daft Punk released their magnum opus Random Access Memories in 2013. It's funky as hell, has great synth motifs, and a robot singer that doesn't feel the slightest bit cheesy for some reason. Damn it I miss roller skating, and I'll be requesting this one the first time I'm back on the rink.
I also love the ever-so-slight alteration at the end of the bridge to avoid a direct Michael Jackson ripoff. Hilarious.
Covers are an extremely rare inclusion on my year-end top songs lists, but Hildebrand delivers this song with so much love, emotion, and expressiveness, I'd have been a damn liar to leave it off. She was the star of the Netflix series Trinkets, a realistic story of trauma and teen troubles shot in my beloved Portland. This song plays over the credits of the series finale, and I had no idea it was her singing when I first saw it, so learning that made it all the more special.
Kudos to the writers of this genuinely charming series for making RuPaul seem human for ten episodes. I'm not being the slightest bit cynical or sarcastic when I say how much I truly loved every minute of this show. It had the energy, charm, and innocence of an '80s road movie, while still tackling some heavy stuff. It's a damn shame it died after a single season, but I'm sure glad we got it.
This was the series theme, but also served as the titular queen's ringtone, which was just too perfect. It's a delightul Patti-Labelle-a-la-Beverly-Hills-Cop romp, matching the series' overall feel.
Freezepop will always be one of my favorite bands, and I'll always be exited about whatever they're up to. They're genuinely kind people who just really, really, really love synthpop and are very, very, very good at making it. Liz's signature over their icy synths will always put me in my happy place.
We fans have been waiting YEARS for this album, so finally getting to hear it and how damn good they still are was just awesome.
Everyone who's known me for more than 5 minutes knows how much I love synthwave music. Ollie Wride simply has the ultimate synthwave voice. I could listen to this dude sing over a wall of synths and reverbed/gated snares all day every day. The way he crushes these brilliantly-flowed vocal melodies is just...man it's heaven.
Troye is another of those artists I'll always follow because they have such a deep affinity and respect for pop music, and it comes through in the tightly-constructed motifs and melodies of his songs. I'm never quite sure what the hell is going on in his music videos, especially in the video for the version of this song that featured Kasey Musgraves, but he's just so adorable and talented that I don't care.
Kiesza absolutely exploded onto the gay/dance scene in 2014 with the most perfect house song produced since the '90s, "Hideaway," but other than the immediate follow-up "Giant In My Heart," I wasn't really into anything she's put out since...
...until now. Man, Kiesza is BACK! And in a big way, too. This is a massive pop song that would have been a #1 radio hit for the entire summer of 1990.
When Aiden released her debut single "Gein," I was definitely into it, and it would have been on this list, but lower.
But then this bitch had to pull out a 707 basketball kickdrum and release the best goddamn Halloween jam since the Oingo Boingo era, and here we are. I mean goddamn, this is great.
In a year of some truly stunning pop singles, it was only fitting that the reigning queen of dancepop gave us one of the best singles of her career. She knew her fans were hungry for a track like this after years of loyalty through an experimental era, and boy did she give us what we'd been waiting for.
It makes me so, so happy to put a Louisville band this high on a year-end list for the first time, ever. And no nepotism here at all -- I genuinely love this song. It's part new wave, part shoegaze, and just gives me a fuzzy glow from the inside out, sort of like when you can tell there's an old CRT television powered on somewhere in the room you're sitting in.
Why is this my top song of the year? It's honestly hard to describe. I'm pretty sure I listened to it more than any other song in 2020, even though it only came out in September. The structure of the vocal melody is perfect. Her delivery is transcendent. The chosen samples are exactly right. It's just all correct!
Yep, alright, yes, I'm back to just 25 songs this past year. I'm not sure if the music selection wasn't up to my tastes, or Mama Rona snuffed out a lot of creative potential, but probably both.
Nevertheless, some great tunes came out last year, and here are 25 of them.
I heard this track before knowing who the featured artist was, and immediately thought "wow, that is some New-Order-ass bass." Welp.
With very few execptions, Gorillaz have only ever been about as interesting to me as Daft Punk, which is not to detract from their talents, just that I don't always find their grooves super compelling. This one, however, is a delightful little trip down a peaceful, new-wavey lazy river. It also features the same Georgia who did the fabulous "About Work The Dancefloor," which slaps!
It's become increasingly important to me in my 30s to be more in touch not just with my queer identity, but also the history of queer people and the people who had to throw bricks so that I can safely exist. This song is both a celebration of queerness and a reminder to respect those who fought for us. It's also an acknowlegement that a lot of us have not had access to our usual public safe spaces in the last year.
And how awesome is it to see NIKI HARIS on a track in 2020?! You've heard her voice on countless club tunes from the late '80s and early '90s, perhaps most notably on Natural Selection's "Do Anything."
It's absolutely no secret that I love synthwave music. I especially love the occasional synthwave track with a guitar track (it happens less than you'd think!), and this guy's awesome power vocals just bring it home for me!
Jessie Ware has been giving us solid bops for almost a decade now, yet I still feel like almost nobody knows about her, which is dreadful. This is a beautiful dancepop track that draws influence from both house and disco music, delivered with an attitude that lets you know she's British. At her fourth album, she's still as vibrant as ever, and I will continue to stan.
I'm just now noticing as I write about each of these songs that there is kind of a recurring theme of late 1970s disco influences in a bunch of songs last year. Interesting.
Anyway, this song is pretty great. I don't know much about Doja Cat, but if tweets I've seen are any indication, it sounds like that's for the best. This is just a very fun and insanely danceable tune.
I was drawn to this song by how weird it is. It feels like it has no bottom end, no backbone -- but it also doesn't really need one. Despite its decently powerful vocals at times, it's a real wafer. I would love to hear a produced-up version of this with loud sawtooth synths and a buzzy bass track, but I really do love how this one just sits like meringue.
Covers are extremely rare on my year-end top songs lists, but this year I had to make more than one exception, and this is the first. And I'm using the term "cover" very loosely here -- it's a reinterpretation, nay, a sequel! to the track we all know and love about being jealous of your friend's squeeze. I would never have pegged this for a Coheed passion project, but it does (sort of) make sense considering the undeniable influence of '80s hair metal on their music. I'm glad Rick is along for the party, too, even if he deserved a bigger part!
If classic movies can get new sequels and reboots, why not classic songs too, right?
It's been really cool following Greyson's career for these last few years while he really comes into his own as an artist. His music conjures up a lot of feelings and thoughts that I also had in my early 20s, so it's kinda nice to look back on them and smile while I listen to this stuff. This is just a cute song about seeing a hot dude on a dancefloor, but there's some genuinely cute lyrical play.
I have never been able to fully hop aboard the Miley train, but this is a really cute song. She is certainly a person who seems forever in search of an identity, but artists like that can be fun for a while when they stop on an identity with a neat aesthetic that makes good music (see also: Tegan & Sara, Goldfrapp). I am absolutely not buying whatever "I'm a rebel, I was born to run" nonsense she's selling, but this is a very well-produced song and it makes me dance.
This may be the most mysterious entry I've ever included on one of my year-end lists. This song premiered in the middle of The Game Awards and simultaneously popped up on Spotify and YouTube. It appears to be the group's only release. I cannot tell if the lyrics are mocking this "cancel culture" that I am told exists or if they are making a tongue-in-cheek argument for its existence. I love the synths and drum samples, though, so I just wanna dance with you.
I'm so glad that queer pop is continuing to creep ever closer to the mainstream, and it's thanks to artists like this just being themselves and churning out bangers. Midtempo dancepop, man. I'm a fan.
Mexican pop singer Ximena Sariñana has been around for about a decade now, but I discovered her just this year after hearing this track on my local public radio station. It has the feel of a warm, breezy day that complements the lyrics about a burgeoning love interest.
This is the very first song ever released by new group Riki. Their debut LP comes out on Valentine's Day of next year, and if this single is any indication of how great it's going to be, I'll be first in line to pick it up. Her vocal presentation and the chorusing of her voice over those punchy drum samples is just [chef's kiss].
In which an enbie twink hilariously shits on people who pride themselves in putting their work before their health. This is just some amazing subversive synthpop with excellent production and vocal effects.
What an incredibly well-written pop song! Alec is a singer/songwriter from Phoenix who had a well-deserved breakthrough at the beginning of the year with this track. He also cut a duet version with Alessia Cara.
Ollie is now a full-time member of FM-81, with whom he's been recording for several years, but he's still pumping out excellent solo work. This track has the feel of the opening credits of an LA crime drama, and his voice is absolutely flawless.
A decade ago, I came across this video of three young Brits playing a fabulous synth medley. Earlier this year, I was going through some of my earliest YouTube bookmarks, rediscovered this video, and clicked the channel to see if they'd been up to anything in the decade since. Lo and behold, Envelope Generator (which, best I can tell, is really just singer/songwriter/synthesist J. Cronin) had indeed released a few very excellent EPs, including this year's Songs I Hate. This structure of this track is just so delicious - J really knows their way around that mega synthpop chord progression and how to write a vocal melody that complements it.
