AND NOW FOR THE THRILLING CONCLUSION….
You might be surprised to know that Billie Eilish was reasonably quiet in 2020 apart from the release of some scattered singles including a James Bond Theme but it was the first of the scattered singles post the album that got my attention.
10. “Everything I Wanted” by Billie Eilish
My god, this song breaks my heart, Billie sings about this nightmare she had where she commits suicide by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge yet none of her friends or fans watching cared or even tried to stop her committing suicide, the nightmare sees Billie seek comfort from her brother Finneas reassures her that he’ll always be there to support her and deal with the feelings associated with the nightmare, the pair of them will okay as they have each other. It’s a gorgeous song that I am not sure got all the attention it deserved.
This next song is the only Australian entry on this list although there were one or two songs from Aussies that were close to making the list (“Bad Child” by Tones and I and “This City” by Sam Fischer) and it’s by a band that I have had quite a weird relationship with but yet…
9. “Live In Life” by The Rubens
There’s an inherent sleek pop sensibility to this song that ruminates over the breakdown of a relationship and all the second guessing that happens as the individual at first feels fine with it and then realizes “Well no…this is not okay, I need to do something to stop this break up from happening” but by the time that realization has dawned and goes about trying to fix things, the partner or person involved has upped and gone, it’s a devastating moment, it’s a rather dark and almost bitter song that wonders what could have been.
It’s not quite The Rubens best but my god, it’s a catchy song that I am glad I grew to like a lot, this is good stuff, am looking forward to that new Rubens album in February 2021.
We finally got the world’s busiest boyband on the ARIA singles chart…thank goodness…they have got a hit…
8. “Sugar” by Brockhampton
I was never going to leave this song off the best list, hell, this might just be the only time Brockhampton have chart success (thanks Tik Tok) in Australia and while I’ve not had time to fully dive into Brockhampton’s discography (still trying to figure out a starting point and I am also fully aware how my previous statements show a lack of faith in the Australian public) but “Sugar” is a concentrated piece of wonderful, I love the intricate melodies and how the lyrics talk about a relationship facing uncertainty and wanting to figure out why so the couple can move forward and move ahead together and the production plays up to the questions being asked about the relationship.
Hope to see a lot more of Brockhampton on the ARIA singles chart especially if it is more songs like this.
This song took a while to grow on me, I wasn’t even sure I liked it all that much when I first heard it however, I eventually realized the critics weren’t joking, this is Lady Gaga’s best pop song in years…
7. “Rain On Me” by Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande
Let’s not mince words with this one, this is Lady Gaga’s best pop song since “Alejandro’ in 2010 with it’s splashy keys and production that supports both Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande perfectly, “Rain On Me” is almost the sort of pop song I would have expected to hear during the club boom in the early 2010s but unlike a lot of music from the club boom, it doesn’t feel like it’s going to get annoying and or old quick, the only reason I wasn’t the biggest fan of it was Lady Gaga say “Rain…On….Me” however I can see that it does work within in the song.
The lyrics play to pent up frustration about their lives and tears shed over situations they might be in and boy that sounds familiar in 2020 in a lot of ways with regard everything that has happened in this shitty year. ‘Rain On Me” is one of the best pop songs of the year”. I highly recommend you check it out.
For all the garbage that Tik Tok has enabled to chart this year, 2020 showed that there was openings for older songs that didn’t make their year end in their respective year and by openings I mean becoming a meme on Tik Tok thanks to a guy riding a skateboard and drinking cranberry juice while this next song was playing in the background…
…
6. “Midnight Sky” by Miley Cyrus
This year was the year Miley Cyrus finally found the lane that her voice is suited too: pop/rock and boy it paid dividends to the point where “Plastic Hearts” is the best album of her career to date. “Midnight Sky” was the lead single from the album and was the song on this list that grew on me the fastest (the songs above it I liked from the jump), I thought this was merely good without really being great but subsequent listens to the song since it’s release earlier in the year have me convinced that this is Miley’s best song since “Nothing Breaks Like A Heart” with Mark Ronson, its not better than that song but it’s damn close.
The interpolation of “Edge of Seventeen” by Stevie Nicks just works so god damn well so much so they basically mashed up Miley’s “Midnight Sky” with Nick “Edge of Seventeen” for one of the best remixes/mash ups of 2020 and seriously, Miley sounds stunning here.
Miley just needs to keep making pop/rock because while it’s not the best song on the album, its still AWESOME.
The UK is still the home of producing EDM/house bangers like this one…
5. “Head & Heart” by Joel Corry and MNEK
This song was one that I was reluctant to like at first, it felt like another EDM/house song but the more I heard it the more I liked it. Sound wise it reminded me of the early nineties dance music that dominated the charts with MNEK providing the vocals about how he has met this attractive girl who has his head saying “Uh oh, she’s trouble, it’s just a crush…stay away from her” but his heart wants something more than it just being a crush, it wants him to hook up with her, it’s actually framed a lot better than other songs in a similar lane like Taylor Swift’s “I knew You were trouble” in that Joel Corry and MNEK don’t frame themselves or this girl as caricatures in cartoons like Taylor did but as humans with very real feelings which is what I appreciate about “Head & Heart”. Good job!
Imagine if all music that came from the trap sound was like this:
4. “Mood” by 24kGoldn feat. Iann Dior
I was stunned when I heard this song for the first time, a trap song that was tight, catchy and had a rock leaning with guitars that were bright, colourful and had a tonne of flavour…I thought this couldn’t be a real song coming from a sound that had been done to death to the point of being boring, derivative and generic but no, “Mood” was a real song and my god, its now one of my most played songs of the year because of its production and the fact both 24kGoldn and Iann Dior sound enthusiastic and deliver that ridiculously catchy hook with so much energy and passion that I get caught up in it.
Imagine if trap music leaned more into the rock/emo sound in 2017/18 rather than the ultimately way too dark to make their songs fun…trap music could have been awesome and honestly when rock music does finally find its way back on the charts in full, it might just have this unexpected gem among others to thank for it.
I also suspect that 24KGoldn might not be able to recreate this lightning in a bottle on his next release but hey at least I’m always in the mood for this song.
I really advise you all not to take my top three ranking all that seriously, at some point all three have been number one and I have had a nightmare of a time trying to figure out which song I loved the most but anyway here is the final Dua Lipa song to have made the list…
3. “Physical” by Dua Lipaspec
So I thought “Levitating” was going to be the Dua Lipa song that wound up fighting for the top spot on my best hit songs list when I set out to make it but I just couldn’t deny “Physical” after three or four more listens and it only got better every single time I heard it and yeah it is just so much better than Olivia Newton John’s “Physical” (I have NEVER liked that song, the beat and instrumentation doesn’t match the lyrics/sentiment of that song) that it interpolates on the hook in nearly every single possible way, it’s the sort of synth pop/power pop song that gets everyone on their bedroom dancefloors almost immediately that gorgeous persian flute sample that opens the song plays.
Unlike the lead single “Don’t Start Now”, “Physical” celebrates meeting somebody special and getting ‘physical’ with that person, it’s a song that is just out to have a good time and drag you along for the ride which happened every time I heard this song on the radio.
Also, this wasn’t a massive hit in the USA for some ungodly reason so yeah, I am delighted I can name it one of the best hit songs of the year in Australia.
There are four guarantees in our existence on earth: Life, death, taxes, and this song making a year end best hit songs list for 2020.
2. “Blinding Lights’ by The Weeknd
It kind of goes without saying or even needing to be said: “Blinding Lights” will go down as a classic song of the decade and maybe for years beyond this current decade and while it’s a brave prediction to make now, I can see it ending up getting the same classic treatment as the song “Blinding Lights” interpolates and deservedly so because it’s one of the best synthpop verging on new wave and dark wave songs I have heard in some time.
Every single element of this song works perfectly with The Weeknd delivering one of his best vocal performances since…I don’t know…possibly “Starboy” or “I Feel It Coming”, ‘Blinding Lights” just feels like an event in itself with just how huge and immense the production is unlike other songs where the release of the song is the event, “Blinding Lights” is a massive event of a song itself which of course helped to make the song absolutely huge around the world this year unlike a few songs last year which got labelled events more for the hype surrounding the release however “Blinding Lights” is still a damn great song and if it does become a classic…it will be richly deserved.
So even with all that “Blinding Lights” is not my best hit song of 2020 because given how terrible and miserable this year has been, there was one song that got me through the horror and sadness of the year and made me smile so if a song can do that in a year like this, it deserves top spot (Granted most of my top ten make me smile) so what song could it be…
1. “Adore You” by Harry Styles
Yeah, Harry finally did it and with a song that has its own share of flaws in that the multi tracked vocals sound a little wonky but honestly, I think that kind of adds to the charm of the song? Seriously, that “Ahhh” sounds exactly like what a person would do when adoring another and Harry’s vocal delivery just makes the song even better, he sounds like he is happy and also helps that his delivery reminds me a lot of Neil Finn’s vocal delivery of the verses on the Crowded House song “World Where You Live” which probably forms part of the reason that I think “Adore You” is a damn great song.
Hell, “Adore You” is just three and almost a half minutes of pure escapism and in a year like 2020 escaping on that fluffy white cloud with Harry Styles crooning about adoring somebody was enough to make me smile this year in amidst lockdowns, politics and a pandemic that refuses to just go away.
I adore this song and it’s the best hit song of 2020.
I was never going to leave this song off the best list, hell, this might just be the only time Brockhampton have chart success (thanks Tik Tok) in Australia and while I’ve not had time to fully dive into Brockhampton’s discography (still trying to figure out a starting point and I am also fully aware how my previous statements show a lack of faith in the Australian public) but “Sugar” is a concentrated piece of wonderful, I love the intricate melodies and how the lyrics talk about a relationship facing uncertainty and wanting to figure out why so the couple can move forward and move ahead together and the production plays up to the questions being asked about the relationship.
Hope to see a lot more of Brockhampton on the ARIA singles chart especially if it is more songs like this.
This song took a while to grow on me, I wasn’t even sure I liked it all that much when I first heard it however, I eventually realized the critics weren’t joking, this is Lady Gaga’s best pop song in years…
7. “Rain On Me” by Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande
Let’s not mince words with this one, this is Lady Gaga’s best pop song since “Alejandro’ in 2010 with it’s splashy keys and production that supports both Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande perfectly, “Rain On Me” is almost the sort of pop song I would have expected to hear during the club boom in the early 2010s but unlike a lot of music from the club boom, it doesn’t feel like it’s going to get annoying and or old quick, the only reason I wasn’t the biggest fan of it was Lady Gaga say “Rain…On….Me” however I can see that it does work within in the song.
The lyrics play to pent up frustration about their lives and tears shed over situations they might be in and boy that sounds familiar in 2020 in a lot of ways with regard everything that has happened in this shitty year. ‘Rain On Me” is one of the best pop songs of the year”. I highly recommend you check it out.
For all the garbage that Tik Tok has enabled to chart this year, 2020 showed that there was openings for older songs that didn’t make their year end in their respective year and by openings I mean becoming a meme on Tik Tok thanks to a guy riding a skateboard and drinking cranberry juice while this next song was playing in the background…
…
6. “Midnight Sky” by Miley Cyrus
This year was the year Miley Cyrus finally found the lane that her voice is suited too: pop/rock and boy it paid dividends to the point where “Plastic Hearts” is the best album of her career to date. “Midnight Sky” was the lead single from the album and was the song on this list that grew on me the fastest (the songs above it I liked from the jump), I thought this was merely good without really being great but subsequent listens to the song since it’s release earlier in the year have me convinced that this is Miley’s best song since “Nothing Breaks Like A Heart” with Mark Ronson, its not better than that song but it’s damn close.
The interpolation of “Edge of Seventeen” by Stevie Nicks just works so god damn well so much so they basically mashed up Miley’s “Midnight Sky” with Nick “Edge of Seventeen” for one of the best remixes/mash ups of 2020 and seriously, Miley sounds stunning here.
Miley just needs to keep making pop/rock because while it’s not the best song on the album, its still AWESOME.
The UK is still the home of producing EDM/house bangers like this one…
5. “Head & Heart” by Joel Corry and MNEK
This song was one that I was reluctant to like at first, it felt like another EDM/house song but the more I heard it the more I liked it. Sound wise it reminded me of the early nineties dance music that dominated the charts with MNEK providing the vocals about how he has met this attractive girl who has his head saying “Uh oh, she’s trouble, it’s just a crush…stay away from her” but his heart wants something more than it just being a crush, it wants him to hook up with her, it’s actually framed a lot better than other songs in a similar lane like Taylor Swift’s “I knew You were trouble” in that Joel Corry and MNEK don’t frame themselves or this girl as caricatures in cartoons like Taylor did but as humans with very real feelings which is what I appreciate about “Head & Heart”. Good job!
Imagine if all music that came from the trap sound was like this:
4. “Mood” by 24kGoldn feat. Iann Dior
I was stunned when I heard this song for the first time, a trap song that was tight, catchy and had a rock leaning with guitars that were bright, colourful and had a tonne of flavour…I thought this couldn’t be a real song coming from a sound that had been done to death to the point of being boring, derivative and generic but no, “Mood” was a real song and my god, its now one of my most played songs of the year because of its production and the fact both 24kGoldn and Iann Dior sound enthusiastic and deliver that ridiculously catchy hook with so much energy and passion that I get caught up in it.
Imagine if trap music leaned more into the rock/emo sound in 2017/18 rather than the ultimately way too dark to make their songs fun…trap music could have been awesome and honestly when rock music does finally find its way back on the charts in full, it might just have this unexpected gem among others to thank for it.
I also suspect that 24KGoldn might not be able to recreate this lightning in a bottle on his next release but hey at least I’m always in the mood for this song.
I really advise you all not to take my top three ranking all that seriously, at some point all three have been number one and I have had a nightmare of a time trying to figure out which song I loved the most but anyway here is the final Dua Lipa song to have made the list…
3. “Physical” by Dua Lipaspec
So I thought “Levitating” was going to be the Dua Lipa song that wound up fighting for the top spot on my best hit songs list when I set out to make it but I just couldn’t deny “Physical” after three or four more listens and it only got better every single time I heard it and yeah it is just so much better than Olivia Newton John’s “Physical” (I have NEVER liked that song, the beat and instrumentation doesn’t match the lyrics/sentiment of that song) that it interpolates on the hook in nearly every single possible way, it’s the sort of synth pop/power pop song that gets everyone on their bedroom dancefloors almost immediately that gorgeous persian flute sample that opens the song plays.
Unlike the lead single “Don’t Start Now”, “Physical” celebrates meeting somebody special and getting ‘physical’ with that person, it’s a song that is just out to have a good time and drag you along for the ride which happened every time I heard this song on the radio.
Also, this wasn’t a massive hit in the USA for some ungodly reason so yeah, I am delighted I can name it one of the best hit songs of the year in Australia.
There are four guarantees in our existence on earth: Life, death, taxes, and this song making a year end best hit songs list for 2020.
2. “Blinding Lights’ by The Weeknd
It kind of goes without saying or even needing to be said: “Blinding Lights” will go down as a classic song of the decade and maybe for years beyond this current decade and while it’s a brave prediction to make now, I can see it ending up getting the same classic treatment as the song “Blinding Lights” interpolates and deservedly so because it’s one of the best synthpop verging on new wave and dark wave songs I have heard in some time.
Every single element of this song works perfectly with The Weeknd delivering one of his best vocal performances since…I don’t know…possibly “Starboy” or “I Feel It Coming”, ‘Blinding Lights” just feels like an event in itself with just how huge and immense the production is unlike other songs where the release of the song is the event, “Blinding Lights” is a massive event of a song itself which of course helped to make the song absolutely huge around the world this year unlike a few songs last year which got labelled events more for the hype surrounding the release however “Blinding Lights” is still a damn great song and if it does become a classic…it will be richly deserved.
So even with all that “Blinding Lights” is not my best hit song of 2020 because given how terrible and miserable this year has been, there was one song that got me through the horror and sadness of the year and made me smile so if a song can do that in a year like this, it deserves top spot (Granted most of my top ten make me smile) so what song could it be…
1. “Adore You” by Harry Styles
Yeah, Harry finally did it and with a song that has its own share of flaws in that the multi tracked vocals sound a little wonky but honestly, I think that kind of adds to the charm of the song? Seriously, that “Ahhh” sounds exactly like what a person would do when adoring another and Harry’s vocal delivery just makes the song even better, he sounds like he is happy and also helps that his delivery reminds me a lot of Neil Finn’s vocal delivery of the verses on the Crowded House song “World Where You Live” which probably forms part of the reason that I think “Adore You” is a damn great song.
Hell, “Adore You” is just three and almost a half minutes of pure escapism and in a year like 2020 escaping on that fluffy white cloud with Harry Styles crooning about adoring somebody was enough to make me smile this year in amidst lockdowns, politics and a pandemic that refuses to just go away.
I adore this song and it’s the best hit song of 2020.
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