The Best Music of 2020. Matt is the Culture Editor at Esquire where he covers music, movies, books, and TV—with an emphasis on all things Star Wars, Marvel, and Game of Thrones. After just a few listens, you’ll certainly find sweet, cathartic release. Taylor Swift has found her voice as a great American storyteller. —Matt Miller, “Care” is a perfect gateway into 20-year-old British-Filipina Beatrice Laus’ debut album Fake The Flowers. Bruno Mars, Anderson .Paak, Silk Sonic - Leave the Door Open [Official Video]. There’s space in this song—in the dialed back production, between each word—begging you to react, to truly share this experience. It’s unfair, I know, but I was worried about what Parker had coming next. Jdot Breezy - Camera C (Official Music Video) (Dir. It’s a powerful reminder to be open, to listen, and to really meet people as individuals with feelings and not as fleeting moments on your timeline. 1 for the first time, “Life Goes On” made it two in a row, but if this track from Be gets released as a single, expect the phenomenon to get even bigger. Written the night that Lil Peep died, the song, musically and production-wise, doesn't hide its fantastic songwriting beneath overly lofty ideas. The genre is among the most influential sounds in global hip-hop and Bad Bunny continues to be a lead innovator in the space, proving why he deserves to be the biggest pop star in the world in 2020. When you think about the headlines that dominated in 2020—unprecedented pandemic, halted economies, mass unemployment, impossible-to-contain fires—that an explicit ode to female pleasure would not just cut through, but take over front pages and prime time, should rattle your bones. 2020 has been one of the oddest and most trying years in recent memory for a number of reasons. — Matt Miller, “Dynamite” got our Winter issue cover guys to No. And this song is an ineffable reminder to never stop fighting. It’s perhaps the least pretentious concept album you'll find—and by the end of this opening track, Shauf has already made a great friend out of you. But music saw us through it all. Since their song “Girl Crush,” off 2014’s truly excellent Pain Killer LP, broke out, igniting a debate about whether or not it promoted pro-gay content—“I want to taste her lips/ Yeah, ’cause they taste like you,” Karen Fairchild sings, soaked by jealousy—the act has embraced its ability to transform from the mainstream’s center. “We don’t take requests, we won’t shut up and sing/Tell the truth enough, you’ll find it rhymes with everything.” And for Isbell, it’s not just talk: on March 3rd, he did a Super Tuesday fundraiser for Alabama Senatorial candidate Doug Jones. —Dave Holmes, “Be afraid, be very afraid, but do it anyway”: The exact right message at the exact right moment. From a bittersweet posthumous release to petty breakup bops, here are the best songs 2020 has to offer so far. One of mine arrived late on The Lone Bellow’s February LP, Half Moon Light in the form of “Martingales.” “If yesterday is too heavy,” lead singer Zach Williams pleads, with his full-throated, rasp-lined instrument, propped up over warm acoustics by his bandmates’ harmonies, “put it down.” Put it down. “When I wrote that chorus, I was like, ‘All right, we’re going to make this a little bit of a light at the end of the tunnel,'” Crutchfield told Rolling Stone of the song. © 2021 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. We may earn a commission from these links. Artists like Run the Jewels have provided anthems for a civil rights movement. The Korean girl-group queens make their power move on … the night Kobe Bryant died. “I've heard of God the Son and God the Father,” they sing, brazenly, “I’m just looking for a God for the daughters.” It’s a theme that ebbs and flows throughout their ninth album, Nightfall. Dave Holmes is Esquire's L.A.-based editor-at-large. Full of fury and nearly overwhelming in its feeling, it’s a uniquely female fantasy that can’t, and won’t, be ignored. DaBaby feat. With the record, Poe lands his #1 debut on Apple Music across countries like Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Uganda etc. It’s pure, knowing poetry. But Swift maintains that she attempted in this song to use her music to tell stories from different perspectives. “People, I’ve been sad,” she says carefully, slowly. The track, with references to Ronald Reagan’s war on drugs and a system that’s set up to explicitly work against him, is an introspective look at a world that is conspiring to bring the rapper down. When the city's noblest daughters in... 3. They’re lyrics that Mike could have written in 2020 as the murder of George Floyd sparked a civil rights movement. — Matt Miller, “They wanna judge me from what they heard I do / It’s a big conspiracy,” J Hus sings on the title track of his sophomore album. “The day my momma died, I scrolled her texts all day long,” he raps on the track. It’s an earnest meditation on the opioid crisis; straightforward, beautiful, and powerful in its simplicity. Just sit back and enjoy what he has to tell you.