Bingo’s Best of 2020

Here we are again; my now traditional annual drive-by posting to bequest unto each of you the sonic fruits of the year just gone. I recognise that it’s both regrettable and painful for all concerned, but then – so has been 2020.

Before I get started, a couple of points of order:

(i) I recognise that I have already ruinously undermined the central premise of this post (being that, like Santa himself, I visit the blog but once a year, but when I do, I bring good cheer) with my recent Maradona obituary. I assure you all that this was unavoidable – when one’s heroes die, one does not tarry with matters of mere etiquette. Nonetheless, I will take this opportunity to say thanks for the kind words from those who spared them, RIP Diego and also to note that, with the passing of Chuck Yeager, this annus has been particularly horribilis for the idols of my youth. Which brings us neatly to point two…

(ii) Can there really be such a thing as a “best of” 2020, I hear you ask? Surely, the past 12 months have been so thoroughly blighted by plagues, economic catastrophes, gigantic mega hornets, Matt Hancock and Zoom quiz nights that such accolades are inappropriate. To which I reply: quite so; and yet, tradition is tradition. I am compelled to provide you with the following list, just as surely as you are compelled to read it, open mouthed at the horrors it contains.

I like to think that, somewhere out there in the hidden depths of time and space, there is another 2020. A 2020 where man did not bite bat. Where we went about our business, unhindered by thoughts of pestilence and untroubled by the dread worry: what will become of us. A 2020 spent not working from home/sleeping in the office, but tripping the light fantastic.

I also like to think that in that other place and time, that other 2020, these songs soundtracked a truly fabulous year. Sigh.

At this point, I must ask you to steel yourselves. Those familiar with previous entries in this series will surely testify that my tastes have deteriorated with age; each year brings fewer songs which might be meaningfully essayed via the acoustic guitar.

This list sees that trend continue apace, and I am assured that in this, of all years, lack of taste really should be treated as a cause for alarm.

With all of that said, let’s dive in.

1. People, I’ve Been Sad – Christine and the Queens

Christine has been threatening to make a truly classic tune for a few years now. In 2020, she delivered on the threat. Few words needed; I believe it rather speaks for itself.

2. Pig Feet – Terrace Martin/Denzel Curry/Kamasi Washington

Obviously, it wouldn’t be 2020 without a nod being tipped to our dear friend social unrest.
I’m not traditionally a fan of Kamasi Washington. I like the idea of him, all the packaging looks great, but then I sit down and listen and end up sort of wishing I hadn’t.

He does have a great name though, and he’s deployed here to rather wonderful effect, providing the backdrop for Denzel Curry and co to do their thing. So he’s got that going for him.

Something about Pig Feet reminds me of Do The Right Thing. It captures that late 80s/early 90s synthesis of racial tension and jazz-inflected hip hop and allows us all to raise a righteous fist, listen to all the right podcasts and feel great about ourselves.

3. GATTI – Jackboys

Released at the very tail of 2019, and therefore narrowly missing last year’s list, I am including this here by default.

At its outset, 2020 seemed all set to be the year of Pop Smoke, the doyen of Brooklyn Drill. Alas, he was shot dead in mid February, as is so often the way of these things, leaving behind him a handful of great releases and a larger than usual quota of potential unfulfilled.

For my money, GATTI was his high point; the spooky-dookey production brilliantly offsetting his super unusual flow. Very few musical moments in the year were as much fun as listening to Mr Smoke intone “I don’t know, but I’m gon’ go.” And go he did.

4. Ain’t It Different – Headie One (feat AJ Tracey, Stormzy)

Now, I know that everyone on the blog has fond memories of Crazy Town. Who can forget their outstanding pilfering of prime John Frusciante guitar work from “Pretty Little Ditty” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers? And the gnawing sense that the sample was so good that it deserved a far, far better song than 1999’s decidedly unseminal “Butterfly”?

Clearly, not Headie One, who here deploys the same sample, slowed down and to slightly diluted effect, but underneath what is clearly a far, far better song.

5. I Dunno – Tion Wayne

In a year where we all found ourselves looking inward, seeking a broader view of life and grappling with some of the biggest questions, I Dunno provided some of the wisest counsel available.

Who can argue with lyrical gems such as “Calm, still got my girl from Enfield/Because her pum-pum tun up”, “Touch my watch/why you wan get dead/run up your mouth/and you might get cheffed”, or “I whip magic like Penn and Teller (facts”)? Not me, and – let’s face it – not you either.

Truly, a balm in dark times. I absolutely love it (facts).

6. BEN AFFLECK – seeyousoon

One of the year’s great surprises, as troubled Hollywood action lunk Ben Affleck emerged from his stupor to release this excellent, incredibly vibey, slice of hip hop gold. Well done that man – who would have guessed he had it in him.

7. Prices – Lil Uzi Vert

To my mind, no song released this year slapped harder than Prices. It’s an absolute Godzilla of a record, with young Master Vert rough riding all over that absolutely seismic beat.

It’s precisely the sort of thing that would take on even greater dimensions in a live setting, which is a great shame, because in my pre-Covid existence I was scheduled to head to this Coachella this year to watch it performed live, slap bang in the middle of one of the most exciting festival bills I’ve ever seen (Frank Ocean on a Sunday night – good lord).

Obviously, that wasn’t to be – stupid 2020.

8. Sundown – Juice Menace

Utterly disposable, but equally essential, this year would not have been the same without Sundown and its glorious 2 Step stylings.

I cannot speak to the merits of – ahem – Juice Menace as an MC. I have no idea what she’s done previously or what she’ll go on to do. I barely even know that she’s a she (also a clear theme of 2020, by the way). All I’m able to report is that this tune has made me super happy and super buzzy all year long.

The drop, about 35 seconds in, is a thing of joy so profound that you’re not allowed to listen to it in Tier 3.

9. Both of Us – Jayda G

Oof. This gorgeous slice of early 90s House-aping wonderment is the soundtrack to all the many BBQs I didn’t have this year. Friends and loved ones, borne aloft by alcohol and lightly charred foodstuffs, paper cups raised skywards in mutual celebration of all that is good in life. In my head, at least.

10. Stay Away – Carly Rae Jepsen

In the period I’ve been absent this blog, probably nothing has so signified the shifts in my musical tastes as my enormous and still building love for Carly Rae Jepsen and pretty much everything she’s ever recorded.

Let’s face it: Run Away With Me is THE single best thing anyone has released in the last decade (if you’ve not heard it, please drop everything and correct that oversight), and her delightful inability to take herself too seriously, coupled with her faultless ear for a tune, render her – to my mind – not so much a national treasure as a global one.

Stay Away hails from the album of B-sides released by CRJ earlier this year. It’s dance-around-your-kitchen brilliant, it makes the bad times bearable, the good times even better and there are unsubstantiated rumours that it’s the central ingredient of the Pfizer Covid vaccine.

I don’t even need to imagine a world where this soundtracked party days. Shortly before the original lockdown I attended a Carly Rae Jepsen gig at Brixton Academy and had one of the best nights out I’ve enjoyed in years. A whole venue full of dancing, singing, cheering lunatics being lead merrily into delirium. She’s basically the pop Andrew W.K, and world badly needs a pop Andrew W.K.

11. Somewhere – The Blaze

I loved this song from the very first second I heard it. I’m a sucker for a synthy background drone, and the way this opens with what is almost certainly a chorus of mournful elephants bemoaning the current price of fish reached out and grabbed me from the off.

Somewhere has my favourite production of the year; the lurking vocals, the drones, the way it ebbs and flows.

It sounds amazing on a warm day with the sun coming down, and it makes me think about love, and life and people and all that glorious stuff.

12. Gospel for a New Century – Yves Tumor

When people tell me that nothing good has happened this year, I remind them that Prince rose from the dead and released this classic new tune, just for us.

13. Hit Em Where it Hurts – PawPaw Rod

There’s a lot to like here. The rubberneckin’ funk bassline, PawPaw’s drawled delivery, the statement “set sail, lighthouse, search”. But the record really comes into its own with the glorious refrain: “I been down with you/you been down with me/we know this ain’t all talk”.

Superb accompaniment to emptying the dishwasher for the third time of the day and dreaming about adventures that might somewhere exist beyond the realm of domestic chores and wondering what’s left on supermarket shelves.

14. In The Blood – Darren Korb, Ashley Barrett

A bona fide new low. Music from an actual video game soundtrack. Has anyone in here played Hades (available on PC/Switch)? No? Well, please correct that oversight immediately.

It’s a roguelike dungeon crawler based on the attempts of the son of Hades to escape the underworld (aren’t we all, darling).

It’s not much to look at, admittedly, but it is genuinely one of the top 10 games I’ve ever played in my life: it has perfect balance, perfect pacing, can be played in glorious 30 minute bursts and is just so fabulously well realised that it will make you question why so few other games are this good – they’ve made it look easy.

Without wishing to spoil anything about the experience, In The Blood is the tune that plays over the game’s end credits.

Hades is a very metal game, and this song is appropriately metal-sounding without actually being metal. It has a lovely sense of melodrama, a terrific caterwauled chorus and has the production values you’d expect of incidental music from a mid priced indie Nintendo game. I freaking love it.

Shout out here also to Wolf Totem by The Hu, an ungodly fusion of Mongolian throat singing, nu metal guitars and the vocalist from Papa Roach which was released in 2019 but only discovered by me this year. It has a decidedly similar vibe and – in my head, at least – is what Limp Bizkit’s Stampede of the Disco Elephants will sound like when it’s eventually released to universal acclaim.

Seriously though: play Hades. So good.

15. Parkland (Into the Silence) – Surfer Blood

I have such a soft spot for this band. They are basically doing the same thing over and over again, and yet I love it. Which is ironic, because a lot of this year has felt like it’s been spent doing the same things over and over again and questioning one’s own sanity.

I blame work from home; give me back my damn commute.

16. Can I Believe You – Fleet Foxes

There are times when I feel like I never need another Fleet Foxes record. 2020 has not been one of those times.

I liked that they went big (or as big as they’re every likely to go) on this one. It sounds like the kind of thing that would have ended up on a Word cover-mounted CD. You can take that as a solid recommendation or a damning dismissal, depending on mood.

17. Trouble – Father John Misty

There’s a suspicion on my behalf that Father John Misty is rather losing his caustic edge with each successive release.

Certainly, Trouble feels a long way from the sarcastic bon mots and withering rejoinders which one punctuated his work; indeed, it seems possible that we may now be entering into Ray LaMontagne territory (indeed, the man known to his friends as “Ray the Mountain” has also recorded a song with this title).

Despite all of the above, I have found Trouble to be a soothing balm across the balance of 2020.
It feels like the kind of thing that was knocked out in about 20 minutes, and yet there’s something about the refrain of “Trouble, oh trouble set me free, I have seen your face and it’s too much, too much for me” that rather sums up the year.

A reminder that music does not always need to innovate in order to hit the right spot – a realisation I’m sure will come as a startling revelation to all the denizens of the Afterword blog.

18. Love in the Dark – Jessie Reyez

Landing smartly in the first weeks of the original lockdown, the Jessie Reyez album merrily opened with the immortal line “I should have fucked your friends”, and pretty much went on from there.
Love in the Dark was/is its highlight. It’s a ballad, cynically constructed to pluck the heartstrings. It wouldn’t sound out of place on a TV talent show or a McDonalds ad, which is probably where it will end up.

I loved it anyway, partly because it’s so much fun to listen to Reyez struggle gamely against what sounds like an absolute surplus of phlegm (the highlight of that struggle being a fantastic, half drowned “yo” at 3’07 which is so moist sounding as to be of genuine medical concern), and partly because this was a good year to remind yourself that there is indeed love in the dark.

19. Elsewhere – Minke

Push comes to shove, this just might be my favourite thing on the entire list. Recommended by a friend’s wife, it soundtracked much of the Summer (including the bits where we were allowed to do stuff), and has enjoyed a long tail into the winter.

Elsewhere has exactly the video you’d imagine; a slice of millennial life, evocative of a stroll down a particularly busy social media feed. It’s all the sort of thing that might rather have seemed redundant a mere 12 months ago, and yet here and now it feels like the very stuff of life in an era where life is under threat (in both literal and figurative senses).

Plus! It feels purpose built for karaoke, should karaoke continue to exist in any meaningful way once this is all over.

Somewhere out there, I am belting this out, arms around my comrades, eyes closed, breathing all over one another and generally doing as human beings are meant to do.

20. Take Care In Your Dreaming – The Avalanches

Not normally an Avalanches kid over here. Generally tend to think that their records have a whacking great hole in them where a soul of some description might otherwise go.

In this instance, Denzel Curry delivers on that front, stepping in to spray all over what is, in this case, a perfectly fine production, and giving proceedings an animus they might otherwise lack.

Also provides a nice counterpoint to Pig Feet, and that’s enough to see it make the list.

That just about wraps it up. Another year in the books, another fine mess we’ve gotten ourselves into.
I’ll confess that, over the last few years, music has become more of a communal experience for me, less of a bedroom/headphones things.

Typically, when I hear a tune these days the first lens through which I assess it is how it’ll sound when I have people around me; be that my family, my mates or at a gig. Will it give us all a buzz, connect us and bring us those wonderful shared moments?

Obviously, those wonderful shared moments have been fewer and farther between this year, but they still inform my tastes.

So I will look ahead to 2021, and to vaccines, reunions and parties in the street. I will look forward to being in crowds, and amongst lots of friends, and to shouting at the top of my voice and dancing until my feet hurt. For all that 2020 has been a chore, there are surely good times ahead.

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year. Here’s to a 2021 spent looking to the stars.

Bingo Little

5