Not to be a downer, but what more can one say about this abomination of a year? That, like any other, there was still an abundance of good new music? Beyond selections from my top ten albums, you’ll find other tracks that did their part in keeping me as sane as they reasonably could: droll, clever wordplay from Rufus Wainwright and The Radio Dept., neo-disco from Kylie Minogue, Dua Lipa, Jessie Ware, Roisin Murphy etc., sharp ‘80s revivalism from Future Islands and Of Monsters and Men and comeback singles from actual ’80s acts Erasure, The Psychedelic Furs and Pet Shop Boys, the latter ever-dependable for at least one great cut per album.

However, I want to single out three transcendent singles in the order of first hearing them: U.S. Girls’ obscenely catchy and tongue-twisting “4 American Dollars” (everybody now: “I don’t believe in pennies, and nickels, and dimes, and dollars, and pesos, and pounds, and rupees, and yen, and rubles, no dinero”), Christine and the Queen’s triumphant, euphoric title track to their La Vita Nuova EP and, with help from vocalist Leon Bridges, The Avalanches’ “Interstellar Love”—still absorbing their just-released dense third album We Will Always Love You, but this highlight, wrapped around an ingenious sample of the Alan Parson Project’s “Eye In The Sky” is, if not exactly the sort of the magic this group trafficked in on Since I Left You twenty years ago, just as effective as that touchstone of 21^st century pop.

Go here to listen to my favorite songs of 2020.

1. Haim, “The Steps”
2. Kylie Minogue, “Say Something”
3. Jessie Ware, “Save A Kiss”
4. A Girl Called Eddy, “Someone’s Gonna Break Your Heart”
5. Lianne La Havas, “Can’t Fight”
6. Perfume Genius, “On The Floor”
7. Pet Shop Boys, “Will-O-The-Wisp”
8. Erasure, “Nerves of Steel”
9. Real Estate feat. Sylvan Esso, “Paper Cup”
10. Waxahatchee, “Lilacs”
11. Laura Marling, “Held Down”
12. Ivan & Alyosha, “Wired”
13. Rufus Wainwright, “You Ain’t Big”
14. Ben Watt, “Figures In The Landscape”
15. Future Islands, “For Sure”
16. The Radio Dept., “You Fear The Wrong Thing Baby”
17. Katie Pruitt, “Expectations”
18. Troye Sivan, “Easy”
19. The Avalanches feat. Leon Bridges, “Interstellar Love”
20. U.S. Girls, “4 American Dollars”
21. Calexico, “Hear The Bells”
22. Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, “She’s There”
23. Fiona Apple, “Cosmonauts”
24. Sufjan Stevens, “Video Game”
25. Destroyer, “It Just Doesn’t Happen”
26. Phoebe Bridgers, “Chinese Satellite”
27. Kate NV, “Plans”
28. Dubstar, “Hygiene Strip”
29. Washed Out, “Too Late”
30. Nicole Atkins, “Forever”
31. Fleet Foxes, “Can I Believe You”
32. Shamir, “Diet”
33. Dua Lipa, “Hallucinate”
34. Sylvan Esso, “Ferris Wheel”
35. Cut Copy, “Like Breaking Glass”
36. The Psychedelic Furs, “Wrong Train”
37. Owen Pallett, “A Bloody Morning”
38. Christine and The Queens feat. Caroline Polachek, “La Vita Nuova”
39. Roisin Murphy, “Something More”
40. Of Monsters and Men, “Visitor”