My favourite music of 2020

So that was a year. Once again, I feel like my musical tastes are growing ever more detached from any semblance of the cultural pulse and this is the first time since I started doing this that I didn’t even make an effort at listening to all the big critical lists sifting for songs I may have missed before putting together my own. Instead this is a reflection of what I, personally, listened to and the points in time when I was most interested in discovering new music, namely January and the summer which, as it happens, were the points in time before the pandemic and when it was easiest to ignore.

I also won’t lie to you: a huge part of my musical discovery was done on the Lorem playlist on Spotify. It popped up one day on my feed and I was intrigued by its lack of description and placeholder name, and then thrilled to discover song after song by new artists I’d never heard of but immediately loved. But this isn’t all a curation of Lorem, there’s music from the #BlackLivesMatter movement in Toronto, some that reflects my status as an aging fan of the Canadian indie scene and more British dance stuff than normal.

There weren’t many albums that really got me to listen to them repeatedly but the ones that did I will vouch for strongly. They are:

The 1975, Notes on a Conditional Form

BLACKSTARKIDS, Surf and Whatever, Man

Kathleen Edwards, Total Freedom

Danny Bell and His Disappointments, Songs for the Town

Fiona Apple, Fetch the Bolt Cutters

For now this is just a Spotify playlist. I’ll probably curate the order and put up a Mixcloud link later but until then, if you’re looking for something new, hit shuffle and I hope you hear something you like.

Mura Masa – Teenage Headache Dreams (with Ellie Rowsell)
Tame Impala – Lost In Yesterday
Goody Grace – Scumbag (feat. blink-182) – Absofacto Remix
Caroline Rose – Feel The Way I Want
We Are The City – RIP
Mura Masa – Live Like We’re Dancing (with Georgia)
Selena Gomez – Dance Again
Arkells – Years In The Making
Jessie Reyez – LOVE IN THE DARK
100 gecs – ringtone (Remix) [feat. Charli XCX, Rico Nasty, Kero Kero Bonito]
Christine and the Queens – People, I’ve been sad
The Avalanches – Running Red Lights (feat. Rivers Cuomo & Pink Siifu)
L Devine – Boring People
The Strokes – The Adults Are Talking
Megan Thee Stallion – Savage Remix (feat. Beyoncé)
Fiona Apple – For Her
Clubhouse – Weekend
TOBi – 24 (Toronto Remix) (feat. Haviah Mighty, Shad, Jazz Cartier & Ejji Smith)
Yung Tory – Vancouver
Carly Rae Jepsen – Now I Don’t Hate California After All
mazie – no friends
Kamal. – blue
Froogle – Flow Now
Tycho Jones – Don’t Be Afraid
Jany Green – Little
Remi Wolf – Woo!
Car Seat Headrest – Can’t Cool Me Down
deadmau5 – Pomegranate
BLACKSTARKIDS – MUSIC TO SURF TO
HAIM – Don’t Wanna
Dominic Fike – Chicken Tenders
Justin Bieber – Holy (feat. Chance The Rapper)
Kathleen Edwards – Glenfern
Jamie xx – Idontknow
Danny Bell and His Disappointments – Doing Sound
The 1975 – If You’re Too Shy (Let Me Know)
The Big Moon – Barcelona
Frazey Ford – Azad
Pantayo – Heto Na
July Talk – Identical Love