Now here’s what I call music: the best of 2020
In a year of living anxiously, music has been a balm and a boost. Here are 20 songs to give you a lift while you wait for normality to return. To hear them all, go to spoti.fi/3agFtTN
Billie Eilish: Therefore I Am The girl with the half-green hair (below) puts Descartes in the charts. Just 19, she deserves her superstar status: she’s both a teen heroine and a secret everywoman.
Dua Lipa: Physical Pop star born in 1995 parties rties like it’s 1983.
Cardi B feat. Megan gan Thee Stallion: WAP One of pop’s duties is to give ive young people a way ay to shock their elders. rs. Cardi B and Megan an Thee Stallion take this is duty very seriously.
Joan As Police Woman n (right): I Keep p Forgettin’ Sensuous s cover of a neglected d classic by Michael McDonald.
Fiona Apple: Ladies
Typically original: a song addressed not to a lover, or an old flame, but to a lover’s old flames.
Emily Barker: Machine The feel of a spiritual, the punch of a protest song.
Tim Burgess: Undertow With Tim’s Twitter Listening Party, the singer from The Charlatans celebrated more than 500 beloved albums. Then he released one of his own, full of elegant ruminations.
Paul McCartney (top): Seize The Day He only released his lockdown album the week before Christmas, and still walked off with the prize for tune of the year.
Laura Marling: Blow By Blow A piano ballad inspired by McCartney, and it shows: the kink in the melody arrives in the middle of the chorus.
Courtney Marie Andrews: If I Told A country singer of riveting clarity.
Randy Newman: Stay Away A master songwriter addresses social distancing. Can someone please give him a government to run?
Karen O and Willie Nelson: Under Pressure Queen and David Bowie are a hard double act to follow, but this odd couple – an art-punk and a country pothead – manage it just by being themselv themselves.
Lola Lenno Lennox: Pale Annie Lennox passes the torch to her daughter, who responds with a sublime torch song.
Phoebe Bridg gers: Savior C Complex A tr track spun fro from gossamer, bar barely there but bea beautiful. Don’t mis miss the video, dir directed by Pho Phoebe WallerBrid Bridge, starring Paul Mescal (from Norm Normal People). James Blake: Atmosphere One influential act pays homage to another – Joy Division.
Elvis Costello: No Flag In his first full year as a pensioner, Costello found his old ferocity.
Kraftwerk: Autobahn Not new, of course, but championed in the excellent Electronic exhibition (Design Museum, London, until May 3, tiers permitting).
The Anchoress: Show Your Face Rousing electro-rock from Catherine Anne Davies.
Liam Gallagher: All You’re Dreaming Of Like East 17’s Stay Another Day, this is a Christmas song that doesn’t actually mention Christmas. Liam’s cheesiest solo single, and his best.
Sparks: All That A celebration of enduring love that could be a pub singalong – if only your local was open, and equipped with a harpsichord.