THE ULTIMATE PLAYLIST OF 2020
Looking for the perfect soundtrack to accompany your Christmas and New Year festivities? Then start with Classic Rock’s selection.
ICONS
& A-LISTERS Big hitters from rock’s
big cheeses.
AC/DC
Realize In an unsettling world, the return of AC/DC felt like an arm around the shoulder. Nobody wanted curve balls, and Realize broke negligible new ground, sticking with the stomp-’n’-chant template and a vintage shriek from Brian Johnson.
DEEP PURPLE
No Need To Shout Ian Gillan has never sounded snarkier than
on this “broad pop at politicians”, and the music seethed too, with Steve Morse
driving a snakey riff that you couldn’t believe Jimmy Page hadn’t already written.
PEARL JAM
Dance Of The Clairvoyants ‘Save your predictions, and burn your assumptions’ sings a David Byrnechannelling Eddie Vedder over a naggingly
funky bass line punctuated by vicious guitar stabs. Never truer words sung as PJ surprised us with this itchy pop groove.
FISH
Weltschmerz The optimistic chimed verse of Weltschmerz clouded over into a distinctly stormier chorus. Saluting the next generation as humanity’s best shot at salvation, and closing what could be Fish’s final album, it’s
hard to imagine a better full stop.
ALTER BRIDGE
Last Rites Written over lockdown, Last Rites finds
Myles Kennedy raging about saying ‘goodbye to the only way of life you’ve known’ while Mark Tremonti’s guitar is more
brutal than it’s been in a long time.
FOO FIGHTERS
Shame Shame Dave Grohl has teased next year’s Medicine
At Midnight as “our Saturday night party album”, but Shame Shame is no standardissue mosher, coming out of left field with
twitchy beats and Bowie-ish judders.
OZZY OSBOURNE
It’s A Raid Any notion of Ozzy creaking towards retirement was nixed by this unhinged thrasher alongside Post Malone. Raging, hollering and cussing, the 72-year-old Prince Of Darkness sounded more deranged than he had in decades.
FAT GROOVES
& FUNKY STUFF
Floor fillers, party choons…
PATRÓN
Who Do You Dance For? This strutting, sexy brainchild of these ‘desert lounge punk’ mavericks (featuring QOTSA, Kyuss and Danzig alumni) has one of the fattest grooves we’ve heard in years, while lead vocals are deliciously
wicked and deeper than the Pacific.
ROYAL BLOOD
Trouble’s Coming Trouble’s Coming nailed frontman Mike Kerr’s shot at a more danceable third album, splicing the groove of a New York fetish club with stabbed riffs that felt like Angus Young hijacking Matt Bellamy’s
pedal board. It worked a treat.
FANTASTIC NEGRITO
Chocolate Samurai The opening track from Xavier Dphrepaulezz’s latest album is lipsmackingly tasty. Fun, funky and built on a guitar hook that calls to mind Stevie Wonder’s Higher Ground, Chocolate Samurai will have you shaking your hips and tapping your toes even if you have no
natural rhythm whatsoever.
THE CADILLAC THREE
Road Soda The Nashville dream team roll back the clock to the 70s, unleash their inner James Brown and borrow a few tricks from Bruno Mars’s Uptown Funk on this highlight from Tabasco & Sweet Tea. Just try not to bob your
head along to this one – you will fail.
ORANGE GOBLIN
The Devil’s Whip (live) Let’s be real: it ain’t no rock party without a bit of OG. Happily, they released a live
record this year (the aptly titled Rough & Ready, Live & Loud) from which this hairy,
glorious beast is taken. Play it loud!
DANGEREENS
Streets Of Doom Punky, scuzzy and accompanied by a video that found the pissed-up Canadians piloting their own private jet, Streets Of Doom was the best New York Dolls steal we’ve heard in decades. If they get down in
one piece, they could be massive.
KING KING
Dance Together In a year when dancing together was not allowed, the Scots’ most groove-driven single to date made us desperately miss the hot crush of the security bar. All optimism, no irony, it felt like the sun was always out
when it played.
MAVERICKS
& PROTEST SONGS Because 2020 hasn’t exactly
been short of fuel. STEVE EARLE & THE DUKES
It’s About Blood The fulcrum of Earle’s concept album about an explosion at a Virginia coal mine,
It’s About Blood nailed the details of the tragedy – like the wives of the fallen waking up alone in bed – and built from a benign country twang to a stark outro, with Earle
shouting out each dead man’s name.
CELISSE HENDERSON
Freedom Watching a slew of young AfricanAmericans shot dead by police in 2016, Henderson wrote Freedom. And when George Floyd was killed in May, she knew
“this is the time”. Buzzing with slowburn intent and blossoming into a gospel
climax, it’s music that matters.
THE DOWLING POOLE
Fuck You Goodbye It doesn’t take a genius to deduce the inspiration behind this dulcet, prettily harmonised track from Willie Dowling and Jon Poole. Let’s just say he is a lot less sweet (and more orange) than the Jellyfishcome-XTC power-pop at work here.
HAWXX
Dogma With Hawxx having previously ragged on organised religion and NHS funding,
Dogma found the London polemicists skewering the unattainable, male-driven ideals of modern femininity, with Anna Papadimitriou deriding the ‘leeches on our
skin’ over thrash-monster guitars.
DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS
The New OK Few musicians have jabbed Trump harder this year than Patterson Hood (“I would vote for Bush right now if it’d get that motherfucker out of there”). But this impossibly wistful, bruised-but-unbowed
title track from the Georgia band’s thirteenth album proved that protest songs
can be thoughtful, not just spitting-mad.
THE OBGMS
Fight Song Granted, Densil McFarlane’s lip is so ridiculously curled that you can barely catch a word, but that only adds to the primal power on this clattering gem from these Canadians’ latest album/manifesto, The Ends. Keep your polished satire, we’ll
take Fight Song’s guttural fury.
THE BLINDERS
Lunatic With A Loaded Gun The opening reference to ‘children in cages on Monday’s front pages’ announced which particular despot these Manchester-based alt.rockers had in their sights. But Lunatic was far more than Trump-baiting, with Thomas Haywood’s bared-teeth vocals sounding like a man about to ram-raid
the Oval Office.
SINGALONGS
& SUGAR RUSHES When only the catchiest, sweetest things will do.
SILVER SUN
Fireworks Tragically, frontman James Broad checked out in October, but not before giving us one last flash of his melodic genius with Fireworks. Driven by funk-rock bass, stopstart drums and a guitar hook like the Foos’ Monkey Wrench with sugar on top, it couldn’t have been more full of life.
TYLER BRYANT & THE SHAKEDOWN
Crazy Days Bryant wrote this in March, when the prospect of returning to normality still felt at least vaguely tangible. Clearly that hopefulness ignited a spark, because this might be his best track yet. It’s like hearing the buzzy, bluesy prodigal son of Aerosmith, all spread wings and
chant-along chorus.
JIM KIRKPATRICK
Ballad Of A Prodigal Son FM’s lead guitarist proves himself to be a dab hand at singing – not to mention
nailing an absolute killer chorus and verses to match – on this blues-rocking title track from his solo album. It had us
at the first lick.
THE STRUTS
I Hate How Much I Want You Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott doesn’t get out of bed for just any old guest vocal, but The Struts’ best single to date boasted an instant-classic vocal hook so full-hearted that it offset the rocketing covid graphs.
Hear it once, hum it for eternity.
JOYOUS WOLF
Odyssey More erudite than your average Cali rockers, Joyous Wolf cited Homer’s epic poem as the inspiration for this tale of “hope through the turbulence”. But you didn’t need a degree in Greek mythology to
appreciate the chunky roots-rock churn and a vocal that filled the sails.
MASSIVE WAGONS
In It Together The title might sound trite on paper. But with the covid shit-storm raging outside, In It Together felt like a people’s anthem, with its chin up and one eye on the stadiums that the Lancastrian band might soon be playing after another
breakthrough year.
CATS IN SPACE
I Fell Out Of Love With Rock And Roll The crowning glory from their new album
Atlantis packs in more immaculately executed glitz than most rock bands would dare to even contemplate. The sound of Queen, Jim Steinman and Supertramp combined, with the best of the West End at
their disposal. So wrong. So right.
ROOTSY TUNES
& BADASS BLUES Right outta Nashville
and beyond.
NEIL YOUNG & CRAZY HORSE
Be The Rain (Live) The kinda forgettable closer to 2003’s
Greendale always kicked harder live, and when Young raided the vaults for November’s Return To Greendale this 2003 performance from Toronto was powerful and prescient (‘Don’t care what the governments
say, they’re all bought an' paid for anyway’).
BROTHERS OSBORNE
Hatin’ Somebody Part Little Feat-esque boogie, part countrified ode to being a decent human being, this sunshiney single from John and TJ Osborne will make you want to
hug your friends and your enemies. Well, when social distancing guidelines
allow it, anyway.
CROWN LANDS
Spit It Out Opening up the Ontario duo’s debut album – and shaking off the pretty-boy
image – Spit It Out was a grade-A alt.blues bone shaker, complete with electric-shock slide guitar and animal howls. A few more like this and they’ll
steal Jack White’s crown.
CHRISTOPHER SHAYNE
Any Given Sunday Arizona-born desert blues renegade Shayne was a new discovery this year, pricking up our ears (and putting huge grins on our faces) with this moreish, organ-blasting tale of lusting after a girl, in
church, while hungover.
JASON ISBELL & THE 400 UNIT
Be Afraid Alabama-born country star Isbell has bloomed into a tremendous songwriting force, and the best song from Reunions is a haunted anthem encouraging his peers to speak up for injustice or be
damned to irrelevance.
THE TEXAS GENTLEMEN
Ain’t Nothing New Another tip of the hat to Little Feat. Gorgeous harmonies, swampy guitars, tempo changes, warming brass and organ lines… Seldom has a band in recent years
sounded this loose and been this tight.
LARKIN POE
Back Down South This scuttle-riffed blues shout saluted the Lovell sisters’ formative years below the Mason-Dixon Line, and expressed their preference for reincarnation instead of an
afterlife beyond the pearly gates.
THE BYSON FAMILY
Hope And Pray Not since the sozzled days of the Faces has a session sounded more fun than these Glaswegians’ second single. It’s a candid
rave-up of sniggers, whoops, banter, happy-handed piano, twanged soul guitar
and a solid-gold chorus.
EARWORMS
& HUGE BANGERS Conquer the world
with this lot.
GINGER
Meet My Killer As he continued to excavate his bottomless
pit of great songs, Ginger Wildheart fused the year’s most head-in-hands lyric (‘Sobriety is killing me, it’s fucking me up/Reality,
you’ll be my killer’) with a melodic crunch that frogmarched you out of the doldrums.
PHIL CAMPBELL & THE BASTARD SONS
Son Of A Gun Campbell tells us he’ll always have a little Motörhead in his DNA. And with his sons playing out of their skin on Son Of A Gun you can imagine Lemmy signing off on this galloping second-album highlight.
H.E.A.T
Dangerous Ground It seems that no one has told these melodic-rocking Swedes that it isn’t 1986 any more. If Dangerous Ground – complete with guitar riffs, glass-shattering vocal shrieks and Danger Zone oomph – is anything to go by, then we hope they never do. Joey Tempest (and Kenny
Loggins) would be proud.
TUK SMITH & THE RESTLESS HEARTS
Looking For Love (Ready For War) The former Biters frontman calls this song “my own personal anthem”, setting out his manifesto to plough on through the rock scene’s obstacles, come stadiums or shit creek. Based on its charging guitars and
soaring chorus, bet on the former.
AUSTIN GOLD
You Got It All Peterborough four-piece Austin Gold found a beefy sweet spot between the Foo Fighters and Bad Company on You Got It All, with singer/guitarist David James Smith channeling Dave Grohl and Paul Rodgers in one of his most commanding
performances yet.
PALAYE ROYALE
Anxiety With these Las Vegas dandies growing more politicised with age,with their third album The Bastards they weren’t afraid to ask the big questions. And they nailed the nation’s unravelling mental health with Anxiety’s claustrophobic beat-down. For the full sensory assault, skip Spotify and
watch the Mad Max-style video.
BUFFALO SUMMER
If Walls Could Speak We saw these Welsh rockers playing this
live in London just before covid-19 came along and slammed shut venues’
doors. And we’re glad we did; all the potential of their heavy southern-comegrunge rock sound explodes in this arsekicking, collar-grabbing rock’n’roller.
Catchy as hell too.
SKAM
Green Eyes With burbling thrash riffs, lyrics that underlined the inherent pointlessness of jealousy, and a seething outro expressly
designed by the band to “melt faces”, the Leicester trio’s latest single dethroned
Take It Or Leave It as their best track.
ALT.ROCK,
PROG & WEIRD SHIT Prime left-field cuts and atmospheric choices.
STEVEN WILSON
Personal Shopper Like many artists, Wilson’s latest album has been pushed back to 2021. But he kept us hooked with this dark love letter to 21st-century consumerism. Another compelling twist in his career, it makes us think of Trent Reznor at an EDM night – with Elton John popping in to read out his shopping list. Yes, really.
THE PINEAPPLE THIEF
Versions Of The Truth Bruce Soord’s vision just keeps getting more widescreen, and this, the title track of his thirteenth album, was ambitious even by prog’s lofty standards. Shape-shifting from a hushed, marimba-decorated dreamscape to an epic sonic cyclone, Versions Of The Truth offered a much-needed trip as the world locked down.
THE POSIES
Sideways One of the most tragically underrated bands around, The Posies make the sort of sweet, smart alt.rock/pop songs that ought to be classics but never seem to make it that far. This dreamy number is a case in point, a sun-kissed medicine for bad days and turbulent times.
TIM BOWNESS
Northern Rain The veteran songwriter’s pulsing electrorock ballad was stunning enough out of context. But when you learned of Northern Rain’s true message – “about a person seeing their partner slowly descend into the fog of dementia” – it became almost unbearably poignant.
AMY MONTGOMERY
Anywhere Irish singer-songwriter Montgomery has a worldly, enigmatic head on her 21-year-old shoulders. There are touches of Alanis Morissette, Zero 7-era Sia and Tori Amos in Anywhere, but with a depth that falls somewhere between 70s counterculture and Montgomery’s own magical mystery land.
EMPYRE
The Only Way Out (acoustic) In a year when the last thing we needed was more bombast and bluster, Northampton rockers Empyre got the memo. They stripped the best track from their album Self Aware to its nucleus, and discovered a dark, graceful ballad in which a Steinway grand piano conjured more power than a Marshall stack.