Kool Kids Music Club’s Favourite Songs of 2020
Weird year! But here, in no particular order are my favourite tracks from 2020.
“If You’re Too Shy (Let Me Know)” – The 1975
“Kyoto” – Phoebe Bridgers
“Crying Is Cool” – The Sonder Bombs
“anthems” – Charli XCX
“forever” – Charli XCX
“Tall Girl” – Wares
“For Props” – Yves Jarvis
“Can’t Do Much” – Waxahatchee
“Postcard from Spain” – Quarter-Life Crisis, Frances Quinlan
“Fever” – Just Friends
“WebMD” – PONY
“Can't Get Over You With You” – ML Buch
“Care” – beabadoobee
“Wildfires” – SAULT
“shlonkey kong” – Niiice.
“Sweat” – Teenage Halloween
“Kawasaki Backflip” – Dogleg
“Divine” – Pantayo
“circle the drain” – Soccer Mommy
“Free” – SAULT
“Overtime” – U.S. Girls
“Dragonball Durag” – Thundercat
“If You Let It” – Sleepless Nights
“walking in the snow” – Run The Jewels
“Phase” – Pinegrove
“Rot” – PUP
“Wringer” – Lydia Loveless
“Shedding Skin” – Higher Power
“mirrorball” – Taylor Swift
“On Division St” – Nation of Language
“Dying to Believe” – The Beths
“freequent letdown” – illuminati hotties
“chinatown (feat. Bruce Springsteen)” – Bleachers
“Spells” – Backxwash
“Meet Me on the Roof” – Green Day
“Gap Tooth (On My Mind)” – Best Ex
“Where to Start” – Bully
“Home” – Caribou
“This Love Isn't Crazy” – Carly Rae Jepsen
“Heavy Metal” – Cindy Lee
“The Spirit Of” – Cloud Nothings
“It Just Doesn’t Happen” – Destroyer
“Levitating (feat. DaBaby)” – Dua Lipa, DaBaby
“HEADCASE” – Field Medic
“A Hero's Death” – Fontaines D.C.
“Delete Forever” – Grimes
“Forget (Friendly)” – Gulfer
“The Steps” – HAIM
“Simmer” – Hayley Williams
“Eulogy of Regret” – Rich Aucoin
Kool Kids Music Recommendation Club (Xmas Edition)
I’ll register my interest in Christmas music as “neutral,” but given the season and the number of pretty decent new entries this year I thought I’d do a little round-up of my favourites.
Phoebe Bridgers is coming off a banner year, which she capped off with a handful of Grammy noms. Somehow she still found time to record this cover of Merle Haggard’s “If We Make it Through December.”
Bleached emerged from the ashes of Mika Miko in the early 2010s, starting life making extremely catchy garage rock in the vein of Vivian Girls and early Best Coast. They’ve since evolved their sound into something they can call their own, which you can hear on their take of the perennial classic “Jingle Bells.”
Like many of Carly Rae Jepsen singles, this new track pairs a heartfelt lyric with a goofy video. I always think that the visual accompaniment gives her songs a vaguely musical theatre vibe (I got this vibe when I saw her live last year too). Normally that would be a disqualifier for me, but when it comes to CRJ, I am oddly fine with it.
Vancouver-based Jody Glenham follows up this year’s Mood Rock with an EP of Christmas and Christmas-adjacent tracks. All three work surprisingly well in and out of season.
U.S. Girls dropped the stellar Heavy Light just before the world ground to a halt. Yet the inability to promote the record hasn’t stopped them from landing on a number of year-end lists. This timely anti-consumer track follows in similar vein.
“Shit for Christmas” is a great original from Sad13 aka Sadie Dupuis from Speedy Ortiz. It’s part of a new compilation from Father/Daughter Records and Wax Nine Recordings that includes selections from Diet Cig, Melkbelly, Illuminati Hotties and Pronoun covering Jimmy Eat World's “12.23.95” which for some reason I’d never thought of as a holiday track (it totally is, duh). Proceeds go to Feeding America.
Everyone’s favourite (okay, maybe just me) smart-dumb hyperpop sensations 100 Gecs have gifted us this glitchy ska track, which attempts to redeem everyone’s favourite holiday thief (apologies to the Wet Bandits).
Kool Kids Music Preservation Club
Lockdowns and whatnot have no doubt limited the amount of Christmas music you’ve encountered in the wild this year. So depending on your tolerance for seasonal schlock, you may or may not have already gotten your fill of Mariah Carey’s ubiquitous Xmas anthem, “All I Want for Christmas is You.”
No doubt its creation myth is covered in Mimi’s recent memoir The Meaning of Mariah Carey (I have yet to read it). But reportedly Carey drops a far more titilating nugget in the book: back in the mid-90s, she convinced the head o her label, who also happened to be her husband, Tommy Mottola, to release and alt-rock record she’d ghostwritten during the sessions for 1995’s Daydream album (aka the one with “Fantasy” and “One Sweet Day” on it).
The album, Someone’s Ugly Daughter, by a back called Chick fits neatly into the Belly/Lush/Hole mold of angsty mid-90s alt rock, with Carey’s friend Clarissa Dane serving as front woman. A recent episode of The New York Times’ Popcast had a fun discussion about the whole thing.
Based on the two videos that were shot to promote the record, I’d describe it as totally fine. Supposedly Carey’s voice is layered somewhere in the background, though I can’t hear it.
Hit up koolkidsmusicclub@gmail.com for questions, criticisms and submissions.