It turned out to be a good year for music despite the pandemic and various responses by incompetent governments; perhaps there was a lot of good music already recorded and ready, but at least some of the songs on this ranking were recorded during lockdowns. I had more songs on my first cut at the top 100 than I have in years, and I’m sure I omitted something I liked, although I have proofed this list a few times now. You can also check out this year’s top albums ranking, and previous years’ top 100 lists are all here: 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012.
If you can’t see the Spotify widget below, you can listen to the playlist here.
100. Creeper – Cyanide. Creeper’s sophomore album, Sex, Death, and the Infinite Void, was my #2 LP of 2019, with multiple, hook-filled tracks that draw on multiple genres. The best tracks recalled early Suede and other glammy Britpop darlings, including this one, the first of two on my top 100.
99. The Weather Station – Robber. I didn’t care for this folk-jazz-rock hybrid track when I first heard it in the spring, probably because it’s so subtle and has a slow build, but it has grown on me, especially in the last few weeks as I was reviewing songs for this ranking.
98. Disclosure ft. Eko Roosevelt – Tondo. Disclosure’s ENERGY was an honorable mention for my best albums list, but “Tondo,” which features the prominent Cameroonian musician Eko Roosevelt, is only on the deluxe edition. The most interesting tracks on the album are those with African musicians contributing, like “Douha (Mali Mali),” with Malian singer/actress Fatoumata Diawara; and “Ce n’est pas,” with Cameroonian singer Blick Bassy. If they’d made the whole record out of this, it would have been in my top 5.
97. Purity Ring – Stardew. I finda little of Megan James’ vocals goes a long way for me, but it only works in certain musical contexts, rather than across an entire album or body of work.
96. Christine and the Queens – People, I’ve been sad. This tenebrous, soulful track made numerous top ten lists for 2020, including Pitchfork (#2), NPR (#2), Paste (#1), and the Guardian (#3), and I agree it’s a great song … but it wasn’t my favorite song from Héloïse Letissier this year.
95. Fontaines D.C. – A Hero’s Death. For some reason, repeating the line”Life ain’t always empty” makes it seem far more convincing that life is, in fact, quite often empty. This Dublin group might be the most authentic punk band in the world right now, and while they don’t always hit with their formula, when they do it’s up there with classics of the genre.
94. Dirty Streets – Can’t Go Back. Unapologetic blues-rock throwback songs will always go over well with me. If you think there’s something clever or interesting about Greta Van Fleet, go listen to Dirty Streets instead.
93. Moon Destroys, Paul Masvidal – Stormbringer. This might have been the heaviest song I’ve ever included on a top 100 – I’ve had an Opeth track, but modern Opeth is more prog-rock than metal anyway – except for an even heavier track in my top 25 this year. Masvidal, who adds vocals on this song, is the only remaining original member of technical heavy metal icons Cynic, two members of which died this year (Sean Reinert at age 48 in January, Sean Malone at age 50 just two weeks ago).
92. MID CITY – Forget It. Australian indie rock that reminds me a bit of the Killers’ first album. MID CITY just released their first EP, Wishing for the Best, three weeks ago, including this banger.
91. LA Priest – Beginning. When I first heard this song, I thought it was Hayden Thorpe, former lead singer and guitarist/keyboard player of Wild Beasts, but Thorpe’s solo stuff since Wild Beasts broke up isn’t actually this upbeat or interesting. My second guess was Neon Indian, but the voice wasn’t right. LA Priest is neither of those artists, but a singer and electronica musician (formerly of a band called Late of the Pier) who released his second LP, Gene, this June, five years after his solo debut.
90. The Go-Go’s – Club Zero. I don’t quite know how this song fell so far under the radar; maybe because the documentary with which it was released was only on Showtime. It’s vintage Go-Go’s, which is amazing since we’re 39 years past Beauty and the Beat.
89. Zeal & Ardor – Vigil. Zeal & Ardor dialed down the death-metal aspects of their gospel/metal blend, and it’s for the better, especially on this track, where the lyrics are quotes uttered by black people murdered by the police (“I can’t breathe/It’s a cellphone, please/don’t shoot”).
88. Sunflower Bean – Moment In The Sun. I know Sunflower Bean haven’t remained critical darlings since their debut, but their sunny indie-pop sound is just right for me even if they never evolve away from it.
87. Texas & the Wu-Tang Clan – Hi. This improbable pairing has a long history, as they collaborated on a live rendition of Texas’s best song, “Say What You Want,” with new vocals from Method Man and RZA, after they were both playing the same event in 1998 and Texas singer Sharleen Spiteri heard that the promoters had segregated the rappers to keep them away from other (white) artists. The groups have stayed in touch over the ensuing two decades, and collaborated again on this brand-new track, which works better this time because the song is specifically built around the rappers’ contributions.
86. The Amazons – Howlin. A compilation album called Introducing … The Amazons appeared in the U.S. this past January, featuring tracks from their first two proper LPs as well as several bonus tracks, including this one, which has the kind of big, muscular guitar riff that has made me a fan since their debut.
85. Public Enemy featuring Nas, Rapsody, Black Thought, Jahi, YG, and ?uestlove – Fight The Power: Remix 2020. This song was the opener on the 2020 BET Awards and later appeared on PE’s comeback album What You Gonna Do When the Grid Goes Down? Artists revisiting and re-recording their classics nearly always goes wrong, sometimes to cringey effect, but this song, with these new lyrics, appearing this summer was spot-on. The video, built around images from this past summer’s Black Lives Matter protests, is also worth watching.
84. HAERTS – It’s Too Late. Here’s hoping 2021 brings us a new album from this indie/soft-pop duo, whose sound also hasn’t changed much since their Hemiplegia EP appeared seven years ago.
83. Working Men’s Club – White Rooms and People. If you just heard this without any context, assuming you’re old enough to make this connection, wouldn’t you think this was some English post-punk track from 1981? The guitar and synth lines could have appeared on any number of albums back then, and the off-kilter vocals will always evoke that particular time in music, even though it’s become more common (at least in European pop/rock) in the interim.
82. Pale Waves – Change. This Mancunian band got quite a bit of airplay back in 2017 for “There’s a Honey” and “Television Romance,” but I’d rate this as their best single to date, a timeless pop track with a clear nod to the heyday of late 1990s alternative music.
81. Radkey – Seize. Why haven’t Radkey broken through yet?They write hooky songs that blend punk and power-pop, they’re a good story, and as an all-Black rock band, they’re still a bit of a rarity in the music world (although I hope that’s becoming less notable over time). Their fourth album, Green Room, just dropped a month ago and I still need to dive into it, but this lead single rocks.
80. Tame Impala – Lost In Yesterday. Tame Impala’s The Slow Rush was one of my favorite albums of the year, taking Kevin Parker’s project from psychedelic rock into everything from acid house to ’70s soft rock, with at least four songs I considered for the top 100.
79. SAULT ft. Michael Kiwanuka – Bow. Get usedto seeing SAULT on this list, since they released two full-length albums in 2020, one of which, Untitled (Rise), was my #1 LP of 2020. This sparsely arranged track, driven by a potent bass line and wah-wah guitar riff, features the artist who scored my #1 LP of 2019, the amazing, Mercury Prize-winning singer/guitarist Michael Kiwanuka.
78. Yard Act – Fixer Upper. The most British song on this list, bar none, with spoken-word lyrics like a short story where the presence of music is almost a happy coincidence.
77. The Mysterines – Love’s Not Enough. Add The Mysterines to the list of bands I think should be a lot bigger than they are, although the fact that they haven’t released a proper LP yet might be holding them back. Singer/guitarist Lia Metcalfe is a force on vocals and with the axe, and the group just keeps churning out songs with powerful riffs and incisive lyrics.
76. Ten Fé – Nothing Breaks Like A Heart. This track was the only release this year from the soft-rock quintet Ten Fé, and it’s a cover of the Mark Ronson/Miley Cyrus song, performed in a bare-bones vocals/acoustic guitar rendition by bandmember Leo Duncan.
75. Space Above, So Below – Golden. Space Above is the new project from former Naked & Famous keyboardist and producer Aaron Short, releasing their second album this August at the same time that TNAF’s Recover dropped. It’s more atmospheric and slightly more experimental, but on this, the album’s best track, you can hear the same pop influences you do in his former band.
74. Arlo Parks – Black Dog. I root for the success of many artists, and sometimes express surprise when certain artists aren’t more successful, but I am cautious not to predict success very often because so many variables go into it beyond just talent or musical quality. But my God, if Arlo Parks isn’t the next big thing in 2021, there’s no justice whatsoever in the world of music.
73. Black Honey – Run For Cover. One of twonew singles from this Brighton indie-rock group who have a real knack for great pop hooks.
72. Middle Kids – R U 4 Me? An exuberant pop/rock track from the band behind 2016’s alternative radio hit “Edge of Town.”
71. Wild Nothing – The World is a Hungry Place. I go back and forth on Wild Nothing; I prefer him to be a little less experimental, generally like his sense of melody, but have also found him being extremely derivative (never more so than on “To Know You,” which borrows very liberally from Talk Talk’s “It’s My Life”). There is something about his sound that keeps bringing me back, and it’s here on the one standout from his EP of songs cut from his previous record, Indigo.
70. Pure Reason Revolution – Silent Genesis (Edit). Go with the six-minute edit, not the 10:20 version on their album Eupnea. PRR’s music is a peculiar mix of electronic music and ambient metal, and while it doesn’t always work, the ceiling, which they approach here, is pretty high.
69. Jake Bugg – Saviours of the City. Bugg hasn’t built on his first two albums, released in 2012 and 2013, after turning in a slower, more folk/country direction, which led to his original label dropping him after his deal expired. He released three singles in 2020, with this folk-tune more in line with his first album, the more rock-oriented “Rabbit Hole,” and the overly poppy “All I Need.”
68. Ministry – Alert Level (Quarantined Mix). A bunch of 1990s artists had bigand unexpected comebacks this year, including Hum (whose Inlet was their first album in 22 years), the GoGo’s, Rob Zombie (further up the list), Arab Strap (ditto), and industrial metal pioneers Ministry, whose grim outlook on modern, post-capitalist life could not feel more apposite to 2020.
67. Talk Show – Stress. British press call them a punk band, but they’re definitely more post-punk, less abrasive than straight punk and more melodic, although the same indignant attitude is present here on the lead track from their four-song EP These People.
66. Waxahatchee – Can’t Do Much. If this was Katie Crutchfield’s best song of 2020, that would be a strong cap to a year that saw her produce one of its best albums in Saint Cloud. It’s the second-best song on the record, though, which is more evidence of why she’s so great.
65. SAULT – I Just Want to Dance. How can you resist a title and line like that? SAULT sucks you in with the groove, and then the anonymous singer explains that she can’t just dance because Black people are being murdered by cops and nobody cares.
64. Artificial Pleasure – The Movement of Sound. Artificial Pleasure might be the direct descendants of Heaven 17 and the Human League, with just a brief nod to modernity in some of the drum and bass elements, like the pounding backdrop to this very danceable track.
63. Hot Chip, Jarvis Cocker – Straight To The Morning. Hot Chip are good for one banger an album, and this is at least the equal of “Huarache Lights,” but I couldn’t even tell Cocker was on this track.
62. L.A. WITCH – True Believers. The best track on this all-female hard-rock trio’s new album Play with Fire.
61. PAINT – Strange World. This is the best Badly Drawn Boy track in 20 years (that is not actually by BDB).
60. Sprints – The Cheek. The first single from this new Irish band, whose music is a half-step less outraged than Fontaines D.C.’s but still shows a close kinship with vintage pink.
59. Ghost of Vroom – Rona Pollona. The new project from former Soul Coughing lead singer Mike Doughty and bassist Andrew Livingston is more like Soul Coughing than any of Doughty’s solo work, between his free-flowing, half-spoken lyrics and emphasis on the drum-and-bass elements over other instruments.
58. Lauren Ruth Ward – Water Sign. The best track of Ward’s album Volume II pairs her evocative, smoky voice with a heavy bottom of bass and pounding drums.
57. Deep Sea Diver – Hurricane. The intro to this song might mislead you into expecting some sort of big, over-the-top horn section, but it’s subtler and more folk-tinged than that, with a strong hook to support it.
56. Jade Bird – Headstart. The 23-year-old Bird is about to release her second album, led off by this bouncy single that still lets her release her inner Janis Joplin on the chorus.
55. Jackie Venson – Make Me Feel. I missed Venson’s album release in late October, but loved this lead single from the spring, which showcases her guitarwork – even though she’s only played since 2011, according to Wikipedia – and distinctive vocal style.
54. Black Orchid Empire – Natural Selection. If I hadn’t included “Stormbringer,” this would be the heaviest track on the top 100, although I think BOE’s music is a lot more accessible, just produced in a way that emphasizes the heavy drum work in the chorus – which is the best part of the song.
53. James BKS feat. The New Breed Gang – No Unga Bunga. I didn’t know James BKS was the son of Manu Dibango, a famous and popular Cameroonian musician, until the latter’s death this spring from COVID-19. This song, released just last month, is meant as a tribute to Dibango, and brings in more of the Afropop elements that BKS showed on his debut track “Kwele.”
52. Tori Handsley, Ruth Goller, Moses Boyd – What’s in a Tune. The only instrumental track on this ranking probably would never have crossed my radar if it weren’t for the presence of jazz drummer Moses Boyd, whose name you’ll see again on this list. Handsley is a jazz/rock harpist who gets sounds from the instrument like I’ve never heard before. The riff here – and, guitar or no, that’s a damn riff – is good enough to support the whole track without vocals.
51. Django Django – Spirals. As lead singles go, this is promising – better than anything off their last album, I think, and on par with “Shake and Tremble” from the previous LP. They still haven’t matched “Default” or “Hail Bop,” but I suppose that’s a lot to ask of any group.
50. BLOXX – Coming Up Short. This West London quartet’s sound reminds me more of California indie pop/rock, for reasons I can’t quite pin down, but their debut album Lie Out Loud was solid, highlighted by this song and the title track.
49. Are We Static – Wildfire. This is how you build a crescendo in a rock song – the song sets your mind running and pays it off with a hook in the chorus that brings the vocals and the lead guitar together.
48. TRAAMS – Intercontinental Radio Waves. It’sarather lo-fi affair – is that guy playing drums, or just some overturned buckets? – and the vocals sound just as unpolished, but the layering that takes us into the chorus of this alt-rock track is brilliant.
47. The Wants – The Motor. I talk a lot about punk, post-punk, and new wave, since my formative years as a music fan came during the heyday of the latter two and were influenced heavily by the main bands of the first one, so artists that remind me of those periods score well with me. I’m not sure I’ve heard anything as reminiscent of the first generation of post-punk bands, like Gang of Four or Magazine, as this song, from the Brooklyn trio’s debut album Container.
46. Glass Animals – Your Love (Déjà Vu). If it’s not quite up to their peak of “Life Itself,” “Your Love” is still a great Glass Animals track – memorable, danceable, driven by unusual percussion sounds, without too much tweeness in the vocals.
45. Grimes – 4ÆM. Grimes’ album Miss Anthropocene was my #5 LP of the year, placing two songs on this year’s list and one on last year’s (“Violence,” #53). “4ÆM” shows Grimes’ strength on the electronic side, while the track I ranked even higher shows off her straight musicianship.
44. Khruangbin – Pelota. Khruangbin added vocals for their third album, Mordechai, and got worse reviews for it – but for my money, it’s their best album to date, as the added vocal melodies make their incredible technical skills far more accessible.
43. Disclosure – ENERGY. Disclosurewent back to the well that produced their first big hit, “When a Fire Starts to Burn,” once again sampling minister and motivational speaker Eric Thomas over a strong beat for one of their best tracks to date.
42. Fake Names – Brick. If you like the Descendents’ style of tight punk with just a slight nod to the demands of melody, you’ll probably enjoy this new punk supergroup, with former members of Minor Threat, the Refused, and Girls Against Boys.
41. Sad13 – Sooo Bad. The reviews for the second solo album from Sadie Dupuis (Speedy Ortiz), Haunted Painting, were stronger than I expected; I think I come down more on the side of her noise-pop sounds with Speedy Ortiz, but this was my top song off the solo album.
40. Mourn – Stay There. The bestsongoff my #15 album of the year is one of the more interesting tracks musically thanks to an off-beat drum line that gives the whole song a sense that it’s about to fall apart.
39. Goodie Mob, Organized Noize – Frontline. This is just right in my wheelhouse, at least in terms of the style of rap, but that’s probably because these guys are all right about my age.
38. Everything Everything – Arch Enemy. I give E2 a lot of rope when it comes to experimentation, but I definitely favor their songs with a strong beat, even if you wouldn’t call them dance songs. This one, my favorite track off RE-ANIMATOR, is definitely good for hitting the floor.
37. Allie X – Sarah Come Home. I wasn’t wild about Cape God, which was as inconsistent with hooks and melodies as her previous releases, but this song is a real standout and deserved a lot more airplay than it got.
36. Cut Copy – Like Breaking Glass. Cut Copy might not reach the heights of their 2011 album Zonoscope again, but with “Black Rainbows” off their last album and this track off Freeze, Melt, they’re at least good for one great pop single per LP.
35. The Beths – Dying to Believe. I liked Jump Rope Gazers, but I had kind of expected to love it; this New Zealand quartet have a great knack for pairing sweet vocal harmonies with crunchy guitar riffs, best showcased here in the bridge and chorus.
34. Lupin – May. Lupinis Jake Luppen, lead singer of Hippo Campus, who released his first solo material this year, including this surprisingly funky synth-heavy track.
33. Arab Strap – The Turning of Our Bones. Arab Strap’s first new music in 14 years also gave us a new sound, gothic, haunting, with unabashedly erotic lyrics.
32. San Cisco – Reasons. This Australian pop trio leaned hard into the vocal and visual presence of drummer Scarlett Stevens, although the music suffers when she takes the lead at the mic, as she doesn’t have the vocal range of singer Jordi Davieson. They’re at their best on tracks like this one, where there’s some back-and-forth between the two, not to mention another great hook. Some other highlights from their newest album Between You and Me: “On the Line,” “When I Dream,” and “Flaws.”
31. The Districts – Cheap Regrets. Definitely the best thing I’ve heard from the Districts. The opening builds so much drama, and it pays off as soon as the vocals and drums enter around the one-minute mark.
30. Little Simz – might bang, might not. The only flaw in this furious burst of hip-hop energy is that it’s barely two minutes long.
29. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit – Be Afraid. Peak Isbell for me. Or, the peak of a certain type of rock/country hybrid that has to be near its ceiling to get my attention.
28. Lucius – Man in My Radio. Thistrack actually dates back to 2013, from the sessions for their debut album Wildewoman, which makes no sense because it’s better than anything on that album.
27. clipping. – Say the Name. Daveed Diggs as MC with a pair of his friends as producers. The album Visions of Bodies Being Burned had a lot of experimental noise that made it a tougher listen than it should have been given Diggs’ technical skill as a rapper and facility with wordplay.
26. Jorja Smith, Popcaan – Come Over (feat. Popcaan). Still waiting on Smith’s sophomore album, although she keeps teasing listeners with one-off singles like this one and her appearance on a song from the Eddy, “Kiss Me in the Morning.”
25. The Killers – Dying Breed. My favorite track from my #9 album of the year, although I also really liked “Caution.”
24. Pallbearer – The Quicksand of Existing. The title track from the doom-metal stalwarts’ fourth album is almost certainly the heaviest song I’ve ever included on a top 100, but the way the band managed to increase the tempo and reincorporate the feel of rock into a subgenre that is often so distant from it made it the best track they’ve ever recorded.
23. SAULT – Wildfires. The best track off Untitled (Black Is) follows the same template as most of that album, marrying lyrics of stark protest against police violence against Black Americans with a sparse but uptempo funk backdrop. The vocals here, possibly by American rapper/singer Kid Sister, are just gorgeous.
22. Fontaines D.C. – I Was Not Born. “I was not born/into this world/to do another man’s bidding” puts the band’s ethos front and center, and it sits atop a driving guitar and drum pattern that refuses to give you a chance to catch your breath.
21. Catholic Action – Another Name for Loneliness. The intro to this track will never not remind me of New Order’s “Love Vigilantes,” but in the right way, and the hook in the chorus is perfectly melancholy. This album appeared on a number of best-of-2020 lists too.
20. Rob Zombie – The Triumph of King Freak (A Crypt of Preservation and Superstition). This track was Zombie’s first new music in over four years, and it’s a glorious throwback to his halcyon days with White Zombie and his earliest solo work, if maybe a half-step heavier and more abrasive than “Dragula” or “More Human than Human.”
19. Anderson .Paak – Lockdown. The best song written about the lockdowns of 2020 wasn’t actually about lockdowns, but about the Black Lives Matter protest movement that swept the country in the wake of the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.
18. Doves – Carousels. Doves’ first new music since 2009 was extremely promising, something that sounded right out of the sessions for The Last Broadcast, but the album failed to live up to this lead single’s potential.
17. All Them Witches – Lights Out. A number of critics loved this album, but some of it is just too noodly and navel-gazing for me; three minutes of ATW’s dark, gothic-blues riffing is perfect, but nine minutes is a bridge too far, I suppose.
16. The Mysterines – I Win Every Time. Another killer single from the Mysterines, powered by Metcalfe’s charismatic and vaguely threatening vocals.
15. Porridge Radio – 7 Seconds. Every Bad wasone of the most acclaimed albums of 2020, but I wanted more memorable hooks or melodies than the album could provide. This track had the best earworm of anything on the record, an alternative rock track that seems like it could come from any decade.
14. Bananagun – The Master. This Australian band’s debut album The True Story of Bananagun borrows heavily from late 1960s psychedelic rock, but with some elements from funk and terrific musicianship. The way the vocals are mixed on this, the album’s best track, definitely evokes something from just before I was born, but the music is more daring and experimental.
13. Bartees Strange – Mustang. Strange’s debutalbum met with rave reviews, although his love of the National, and critics’ love of the same, show through in both the music and critical responses. This rocks a good bit more than the National’s music does, more like a good Hold Steady track, and the droning guitars work well with Strange’s voice.
12. Shamir – On My Own. If you rememberShamir at all, it might be from his debut single “On the Regular,” where he rapped rather than sang, but he has a beautiful singing voice that shines here over a swirling, jangly guitar lick.
11. Grimes – Delete Forever. The softer side of Grimes is every bit as interesting as her jagged, rougher side, so while it’s not as daring or experimental as some of the tracks on Miss Anthropocene, but it’s the one I come back to most often.
10. Christine and the Queens – I disappear in your arms. This is the Christine and the Queens song that has been stuck in my head all year; it’s incredible that this and the widely acclaimed “People, I’ve been sad” both came off a six-song, 22-minute EP (La vita nuova) that seemed like a brief filler between albums. With this song, “Tilted,” and “5 dollars,” she should be globally acclaimed by now for her pop songcraft.
9. Creeper – Annabelle. The most Suede-like song on Sex, Death, and the Infinite Void is my favorite, of course.
8. The Naked And Famous – Monument. Alisa Xayalith’s vocals elevate this song above the rest of the tracks on TNAF’s outstanding fourth album, Recover, with some help from a cracking call-and-response moment in the chorus.
7. Tame Impala – Borderline. Kevin Parker’s ability to take a synth riff that sounds like he recorded it in a bathroom on an old Casio home keyboard and build a billowing cloud of melody and intrigue around it is unparalleled.
6. Arlo Parks – Green Eyes. Parks’ debut record, Collapsed in Sunbeams, is due out January 29th, and I don’t think I’m looking forward to any album more. “Green Eyes” showcases her voice, her lyric writing, and her sense of melody as well as anything she’s released so far.
5. Khruangbin – Time (You and I). The best song off Mordechai is its funkiest track, right down to the vocals, all of which owes a huge debt to ’70s funk and disco. The interplay between the guitar and the walking bass lines is utter genius – taken on their own, they sound like they’d work at cross purposes, but they marry perfectly once combined.
4. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – Automation. A heavy dose of psychedelia beneath my favorite guitar riff of the year produced a song that’s been in my rotation for months. King Gizzard flows so easily between styles of rock, blues, and metal, but this right here is his sweet spot.
3. Waxahatchee – Lilacs. My earliest contender for song of the year has just the right balance of country elements in Crutchfield’s formula of indie or roots rock, and her voice shines here on the chorus and every time she sings “And the lilacs drink the water.”
2. SAULT – Free. I dare you to sit stillwhen this song – and its infectious bass line – come on the speakers. The song shifts gears into the chorus, but doesn’t lose any of the momentum from that bass or the drum beat as it moves.
1. Moses Boyd ft. Poppy Ajudha – Shades of You. Boyd, a jazz drummer who’d recorded previously as half of Binker and Moses, was everywhere this year, including his incredible solo debut Dark Matter, his collaborations with jazz/rock harpist Tori Handsley, and work with Village of the Sun (which also includes Binker Golding). This song has elements from jazz, trip-hop, trap, and more, while jazz singer Ajudha sears her way across the intricate instrumentation with one of the year’s best vocal hooks in the chorus. This song floored me when it came out in March and it still floors me now. It’s a great single, but even more, it’s a brilliant piece of genre-bending songwriting.