NPR Music - Our no. 1 songs: 2020

Episode Date: December 1, 2025

We make some bad moves, start over, and take a day off in Kyoto as we look back at the songs we loved most from 2020.Note: This is a recurring series in celebration of All Songs Considered’s 25th anniversary. A shorter version of this episode ran earlier in the year.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

It's all songs considered. I'm Robin Hilton, Stephen Thompson. Welcome, as always. Hello, Robin. Somehow we've made it to 2020 in this long haul through all of these years. We're in the home stretch. Yeah, I'm glad, Robin, that we have finally gotten to a nice, quiet, uneventful year. Just not a lot happened in 2020.

You know, actually, joking aside, I really struggled trying to come up with what my number one song of 2020 would be. I kind of thought it would get easier once we got. got to the more recent stuff because we're in the final five years, but it's not gotten any easier, actually harder. It's going to get harder. But what do you got? What do you think of when you think of 2020? Well, what do you think of?

I think of just like out adventuring in the world. What do you think of with music at 2020? I mean, tempted as I am to force you to create a radio edit. for WAP by Cardi B featuring Megan the Stallion. I'm going to go with this song right here. So we've been playing Name That Tune, and this is Phoebe Bridgers, right? Yes. And this is Kyoto, which I think she says, that's like the first word she says in the song.

It's like in the first line. This is from, I can't remember the name of the album. This is her second one, wasn't it? Yeah, it's from Punisher. Right, Punisher, yeah. Oh, that was a great record. It is such a great record. I mean, musically speaking, 2020 was full of bangers.

You know, you had not only Wop, you had, you know, Savage. It was a big year for Megan the Stallion, you know, because you had Savage with, you know, Beyonce and Megan the Stallion. Right. But then album-wise, for me, it was just this one-two punch where I spent the entire year, like, what's my favorite album of the year? Toggling between Punisher by Phoebe Bridgers and Fetch the Bolt Cutters by Fiona Apple. Yeah.

The Fiona Apple record was my number one album. of the year. I didn't have a song from it that I would pick as my number one song of the year. But yeah, the Phoebe Bridgers, that I remember just thinking that was one of the most gorgeous records I'd ever heard in my life that came out. So gorgeous and so insightful and so quotable, just about every song on that record has some great line that kind of stops you in your tracks. Like even that, you know, that song Kyoto, which is probably the biggest kind of pop-y-banger from that record, has this amazing line. I wanted to see the world through your eyes until it happened, then I changed my mind.

What an incredible line. It's funny, too. It's so funny. It's really, really funny. But I think my pick from that album would have been the song I Know the end. Yes. Which I think that closes. That's a slow burn at the end until it builds to just this screaming. That's a pretty near perfect record. Well, so like I said, I had a hard time just finding a very clear winner for me for 2020. I thought about maybe atheist by Christian Lee Hudson. which is from his album Beginners, which Phoebe Bridgers produced. She's been a big supporter of his.

But I think I'm going to go with this one. And I actually think that this song was maybe on your personal top 10 for 2020. Oh, bad moves. Bad moves. Come on, man. With our colleague and friend, Dowd Tyler Amin on drums. I mean, come on, man. That's so catchy.

So infectious, so hooky. great power pop, bad moves. Great lyrics? Great lyrics. Oh my God. So this is the song Local Radio from their album, the second album that they put out called Untenable from Bad Moves. And yes, full disclosure, the drummer, Dowd Tyler Meen.

It was a long colleague of ours here at NPR Music. And, you know, there's part of me that feels like, oh, you shouldn't cover this bit, you know, just like the ethics and... Absolutely, yeah. A bias absolutely exists because we love Dowell. We do, but that's just so good. It's just so genuinely so good. This whole album was so good.

The album was called untenable, which, by the way, felt like the perfect word. Perfect word for 2020. For 2020. But, you know, right to me, a band that's right up there with like super chunk or pop or something like that. And heartbroken to know that the band has just this year announced that they're breaking up. They're going out with a bang because the album they put out last year is also great. But just undeniable. Absolutely.

Let's just take a quick break and then we can come back and we'll talk about some of the other songs that we loved from 2020. All right, Stephen, what else? Music-wise takes you back to 2020. Well, maybe my favorite song by one of the most decorated country stars working right now. Oh, it's Chris Stapleton. Yep, very good. Give me a minute on the title. kind of plan

this town I can stand silent or getting farther away from it starting over any day starting over yes oh god it just came to me

it's the last thing he says in the chorus so I was just kidding well we want to run he had these last five 10 years, too. All the records produced staggering works by other artists while releasing his own staggering works. Yeah, and he has not, the quality has not faded. No, not at all. I could have picked anything from the Max Richter album, voices that came out that year. Incredibly powerful, powerful, powerful, powerful record from him. I mentioned Atheist by Christian Lee Hudson. Oh, Rafiq Badiah of the band Sun Lux.

He had a solo EP called Standards, Volume 1, that had this incredibly haunting version of the first time ever I saw your face. And then I also think of this song by Injimile called To Meet You There. Yeah. After death, after life, I was up half the night. Hurricane, never came. Not for me. again I celebrate your celebration I revel in your revelation

by holler in your hallelujah in plain view your azaleas grew wide believe you now have I been unyielding my 2020's also the year the chicks came back as the chicks yeah they took dixie out of their name and came back as the chicks and put out of their name and came back as the chicks and put out a record called Gaslighter that I heard in my car probably 350 times in 2020 on the rare occasions I ventured out of my house. You know, they were clearly planning,

you know, they were going to do a giant stadium tour and like so many plans in 2020, that got dashed, but that's definitely a record I listened to a lot that year. I always think when I finally came back to the building, like a year and a half later, it was like deep into 2021. There was this massive bin full of mayor, that I'd gotten just before we all had to vacate the building.

And there was a postcard in it from someone that said, here's to a great 2020. I just thought, yeah, about that. Here, enjoy this box of fresh fruit. Yes, exactly. Anyway, so much that we could play and talk about from 2020, but this gas slider song feels pretty good. So until next time when we look back at 2021, thanks, Stephen.

Thank you, Robin. And for NPR music, I'm Robin Hilton. It's all songs considered. Oh,