My 2020 Soundtrack

As 2020 finally finds itself on the way out and we blow our noisemakers alone in our living rooms this Thursday offering it good riddance, we have to do these requisite round ups of the year that was. I have no idea why, apparently it's the law or something.

2020 was a good year for music regardless of genre. Pop fanatics got two new Taylor Swift albums this year, Sir Paul McCartney gave us new music, and Cardi B. had us reflecting on the sound of macaroni in a pot. While we didn't get our usual outings to festivals and concerts, good music was still able to be made.

Now I, as an old, appreciated a mix of new music this year peppered in with some oldies I found again, and have a new appreciation for over this year. So let's take a look at my top 20 of 2020 (available here, btw) and talk about why they worked so well this year.

1. Ordinary World - Duran Duran

Let's open with my anthem for 2020.

"As I try to make my way, to an ordinary world, I will learn to survive." - When Duran Duran first came out with the 'Wedding Album' as it's known back in 1993, 'Ordinary World' was the melodic power ballad that put the kings of 80s pop back on the map for GenX to enjoy.

Since we were all locked down in early 2020, I tuned into their Showtime documentary, "There's Something You Should Know." This was a doc I probably would have passed on had I been able to leave my house, but watching it made me want to get reacquainted with a group that had been such a cornerstone of mine as a teen. We're all searching for an ordinary world at this point, so it resonates even more today.

2. Zombie - Cranberries

Late 2020 gave us an incredible cover of this song by Miley Cyrus, and again, because a person my age prefers the ancient text, I sought out the original version of this song for the first time in probably twenty years. It's amazing how so many of the aternative protest songs of the 90s are holding up today. I mean, Miley's great, but there's no comparison to Dolores O'Riordan's vocals on the original.

3. Norwegian Wood - The Beatles

I don't have a good reason why this song was in such heavy rotation this year. It's a relatively forgettable Beatles song as far as Beatles songs go. I guess it is a testimony for the old adage that everything old can be new again. For me, the musicianship of this song is what stands out the most. The perfect waltz tempo, the sitar making sense where it shouldnt, and Lennon's hilarious and coy lyrics are something I can appreciate more in my 40s, I guess.

4. Listen To Your Heart - Roxette

2019 ended with the death of Roxette's front woman Marie Fredriksson, thus giving me a deep dive into their discography into the beginning of 2020. While they had commercial success in the 90s, and this song has been covered and charted almost every year for the last two decades, the original gives us the powerful and perfect pop vocal with solid composition and song writing; proving Roxette was always underrated.

5. Supalonely - Bennee

Ok, with this song we are back in this century. You're welcome. 'Supalonely' came out mid-summer and it was the anthem for those of us sick of ourselves at home in three day old sweatpants. It was a track that let us celebrate how miserable we are and gave us a bit of solidarity in the struggle.

6. Rain on Me - Lady Gaga feat. Ariana Grande

2020 gave us Lady Gaga's return to pop camp with 'Chromatica' and this single that gave us the hook, "I'd rather be dry, but at least I'm alive," a lyric that became kind of a mantra as we slogged through the spring and summer vacillating between hope and despair as the pandemic evolved.

7. Bang Bang - 2 Cellos feat. Sky Ferreira

2 Cellos has always been my favorite musical niche, and as I had their albums shuffling in the background while I worked from home, this cover of the Sonny Bono penned, "Bang Bang" featuring a haunting arrangement and vocal by Sky Ferreira, gives new life and depth to the song first made famous by Cher and Nancy Sinatra five decades ago.

8. Dance Monkey - Tones and I

If 2020 has an official earworm, it's this song. It's one of those songs that has you lamenting, "Oh this is awful, simply awful," and then an hour later you're singing, "dance for me dance for me," while you're vacuuming sparking that age old debate... is a song good because it's catchy?

9. Don't Turn Around - Ace of Base

Apologies in advance that my 2020 soundtrack is heavy on the Swedish pop, but the heart wants what it wants. A little over a month ago, I was going through some stuff and an old friend of mine made me a playlist with this song, and when it came on I was like, "... whoa. This is a banger." Ace of Base was panned often because of their poor English lyrics and reggae influences, but 25 years later? We didn't appreciate them enough.

10. Dreams - Fleetwood Mac

All it took was a guy on a longboard drinking cranberry juice to this Fleetwood Mac classic to get it back in heavy rotation on our playlists because it's one of those timeless songs that stitches perfectly into the fabric of this year we will probably burn at midnight, but we at least got to know Fleetwood Mac again.

11. Hallelujah - K.D. Lang

I've had a 2020 K.D. Lang renaissance, and I'm not sorry. Her rich brooding vocals have matched some of the tones of this year. her cover of Hallelujah especially is a masterpiece of acknowledging the struggle while giving us eternal hope.

12. Insane - Texas

Even though I've been a huge Texas fan for almost 30 years, this song was another accidental discovery from an old playlist I threw on for background music. It's a great ambient beat with some very apropos lyrics for what we're all experiencing now. For me, this song is a great vehicle for just staring off into the middle distance.

13. The Man Who Sold The World - Nirvana

Very rarely do you get a cover that is better than the original. Yes. I said what I said. Nirvana's version is better than Bowie's. We can take this outside and air punch each other if you want to fight about it. With 2020's political landscape, this song was the perfect companion to the moments we saw our leaders fail us.

14. Run, Baby Run - Sheryl Crow

"She was born in November, 1963, the day Aldous Huxley died. And her mamma believed that every man could be free, so her mamma got high, high, high. And her daddy marched on Birmingham, singing mighty protest songs..." like the last song on this list, this opening track to Crow's debut album mirrored America's landscape as people took to the streets in protest. It's the ballad for those of us challenging what we thought we knew and how we can do better.

15. Soul to Squeeze - Red Hot Chili Peppers

Another old song. I think you might be seeing a pattern here:

Where I go, I just don't know

I got to, gotta, gotta take it slow

When I find my peace of mind

I'm gonna give ya some of my good time

There's something about Anthony Keidis acknowledging that he's not in the best of brainspaces, but he'll come out the other side that resonates with a lot of how I've felt during this year.

16. This I Promise You - 'NSYNC

Ok, ok, ok... hear me out. I know a schmaltzy early aughts boy band ballad on this list is out of place, but I can explain. I don't know how I discovered this, but earlier in the spring I found out that this song had been written by Richard Marx, and that fact alone made me listen to this song with a new set of ears that didn't have my internal dialogue screaming, "EW!" the whole time. Lyrically, compositionally, and as a love song, this one is sentimentally perfect.

17. Transatlanticism - Death Cab For Cutie

This song is literally a middle finger to distance. It was originally penned about a relationship being kept apart by a literal ocean, but for all of us, the ocean is now figurative, and we can all feel the pain of distance from our loved ones universally.

18. Uninvited (Live/Unplugged) - Alanis Morissette

Something about this year, maybe it's reverting to a grunge look by default, made me seek out old unplugged albums which led me to Alanis's. The album itself never got the accolades it deserved. Upon a fresh listen twenty or so years later, the closing number 'Uninvited' is a soaring and dark ballad about the watched, and gives me chills every time I listen to it.

19. Vanishing - Mariah Carey

This fall I read 'The Meaning of Mariah Carey' which had me deep diving into all of the b-sides and rarities of Mimi's extensive catalogue. Every person who has been a singer knows 'Track 5' on Carey's debut album. With all of the pomp and theater that has come to be Mariah's personal over the last couple of decades, this song is one of the best vocal performances of its time, and I'm secretly glad it never became a hit because I like the secret club of those of us who know.

20. Around the Bend - Pearl Jam

Closing out this year's list with another classic. While there are several prescient songs from Pearl Jam that work seamlessly into our landscape rgiht now, I chose this song to close out my playlist because it's a lullabye and an apology for missing out on so much. Again, one of those great songs that let you feel several feelings simultatneously.

So, that's my 20 songs for 2020. Some great new songs mixed in with revisited and newly appreciated classics. It'll be interesting how our taste and choices in music hold up as we get further and further away from this year. Will they hold up over time or age like milk much like we have this year?