Jark's 2020 in Music (soon-to-be-completed EOY countdown)

Jark

Jark

PLUMP and RIPE
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Oct 27, 2007
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Good afternoon, ladies, gentlemen and ultra woke snowflake elitist bullies of Moopy, and welcome to the festive event you've been waiting for all year.

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this year I will be counting down my favourites of 2020 in a slightly different fashion to normal, beginning on this fine day and to be completed before Dec 31 (2020). :disco:

please join me for the ride as we take a look back on a truly momentous year in music with commentary, hyperbole and not even a hint of HeLikedTurner.
 
let's kick off!

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2020 was a year in which I spent more time listening to music than any other - being unemployed for ages gave me ample opportunity to discover a lot of new music outside the usual web of pop girls who've made up 80% of my Spotify listening in years gone by. In particular I took a deep dive into house, disco and the adjacent genres of dance music, and these tracks I decided to include in a separate list from the main Songs of 2020 countdown.

This list is a combination of throwaway bangers in the post-EDM/deep house vein, sparkly synthy throwback house, chill-out, piano-house and more straight-up dance-pop. Hope you find something to enjoy - unless you're @funky in which case you already know everything here. :eyes: I've assembled a playlist at the end.

30. The Blaze ft. Octavian - Somewhere
29. Jax Jones ft. Au/Ra - I Miss U
28. Duke Dumont ft. Say Lou Lou - Nightcrawler
27. Faithless ft. Nathan Ball - I Need Someone
26. KC Lights - Girl (6am remix)
25. Hot Chip ft. Jarvis Cocker - Straight to the Morning
24. Hyenah - The Message
23. Le Youth - About Us
22. Kygo ft. Kim Petras - Broken Glass
21. Maurice Fulton & Peggy Gou - Jigoo

Le Youth served up an addictive deep house banger during a prolific year with multiple EP drops, The Blaze flew largely under the radar with a very chill first single (no follow-up or album in sight yet) that sounds great in the sun, Hot Chip enlisted Jarvis Cocker for a disco-funk number with a killer vocal, and KC Lights gave his own Girl a lovely spacey reswizzle that's probably the perfect 6am after-party soundtrack - NOT that we have any way of knowing.



20. SG Lewis ft. Lucky Daye - Feed the Fire
19. Tchami ft. Daecolm - Proud
18. Black Coffee ft. Celeste - Ready For You
17. KC Lights - Tonight
16. LEISURE - Slipping Away
15. Moksi - Tidalwave
14. Ella Henderson, Roger Sanchez - Dream On Me
13. Solardo ft. Paul Woolford - Tear It Up
12. Tensnake - Make You Mine
11. Tom Ferry ft. Kiesza - I Think That I Like You

SG Lewis followed up the marvellous Impact (look out for that in the main singles countdown) with the more lightweight funky shuffle of Feed the Fire, and Moksi dialled up the funk further still on the tasty Tidalwave. Ella Henderson returned with a slept-on dance track that's very Friday night at Wetherspoon's (but I won't hold that against it), Solardo literally tore it up (it being my anus) and Kiesza capped an absolutely wonderful 2020 with this energetic Tom Ferry collab that would've slotted in perfectly on her own album.



10. Disciples - Only the Gods/Better On My Own
09. Groove Armada - Lover 4 Now
08. Tensnake - Antibodies
07. Purple Disco Machine - Hypnotized
06. TSHA - Sister
05. RAYE ft. Rudimental - Regardless
04. Tensnake - Strange Without You
03. Karen Harding, Digital Farm Animals - Undo My Heart
02. Faithless ft. Nathan Ball - Synthesizer
01. Jayda G - Both Of Us

#10 is a mild cheat from me, Only The Gods and Better On My Own being a "double A-side" (in this economy!) but since they're sister songs in the dirty deep house vein you'd expect from Disciples, I lumped them in together. Check out both. Tensnake gave us a COVID anthem, Groove Armada riffed off the Italodisco classic Faces by Clio with Lover 4 Now, and Purple Disco Machine scored a minor smash with Hypnotized (huge in Germany apparently!) - well deserved for a very immediate dance-pop number with a lovely propulsive bassline.

TSHA created something ethereally beautiful with Sister, RAYE had me like "Rudimental are so six years ago but I love this Regardless", and Tensnake (a revelation this year) score a second top 10 here with Strange Without You, which shifts quite abruptly into the sparkliest disco number each time the chorus appears. Karen Harding continues to be the voice of house tracks in need of a big diva vocal and Faithless unleashed a new album including the fairly MAD Synthesizer, which is several tracks in one tied together with the most delectable male vocal from Nathan Ball.

and at number one, Jayda G slows things down... just to speed them up again with Both of Us. A banger.



 
BIG FAN of the Karen Harding one and love Raye obviously.
Shall give this list a listen tomorrow :disco:
 
What a list!

there’s only a couple on there I’m not familiar with but will definitely give them a whirl
 
JARK-2020-STATS.gif


perhaps you guys won't mind indulging me in a little interlude moment of whatever - obviously as a demented stats freak I have to share my listening stats for the year of our lorde 2020.

13
the number of tracks with more than 100 plays. two of these were from 2019, Dua's Don't Start Now (103 plays) and Sam Smith's How Do You Sleep? (102) - the rest from 2020.

87
the number of times I played my most-played interlude, which was, shockingly, the artful transitionary orchestral banger Chromatica II

743
the number of plays I gave Selena Gomez. forgive me father, for I have sinned. the questionable top 3 from our charismatically-challenged ASMR queen were Rare, Kinda Crazy and Fetish.

3
the number of artists in my top 50 most-played "discovered" (streamed for the very first time) in 2020 - namely Jessy Lanza, Tei Shi and Tensnake.

625
the number of Jarkette streams separating Kylie Minogue and Lady Gaga this year - but who came out on top? :o

434
the number of times I streamed a track from the most aurally pleasing dance record BUBBA by dazzling knob-twiddler and LGBT king KAYTRANADA :disco:

101
the number of songs played each day across 2020 - or 6 hours of every 24 spent pumping music into my poor ears :(

179
the number of times I used and abused my #1 song of 2020 :disco: ANY GUESSES?
 
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80. Moyka - Backwards
I have no idea who Moyka is, but this sparkly dance-pop triumph from the first half of the year is all energetic synthlines, and cool, understated vocals, the call-and-response chorus flipping between calm interrogation ("are we going backwards now?") to urgent outbursts of emotion with each line. sadly flew way under the radar.


79. Selena Gomez - Feel Me
first performed way back in '16 on the Revival tour, Feel Me finally surfaced in studio form on the deluxe edition of Rare this spring. a relaxed tropibop with a slight hint of desperation, it imagines somebody in her past (I wonder who?) being unable to move past the memory of her.

every time your lips touch another
I want you to feel me
I want you to feel me...

can't be healthy.


78. Gabrielle Aplin ft. Nina Nesbitt - Miss You 2
Gabrielle Aplin has mostly skirted my radar, but I love Nina Nesbitt and her addition to Miss You gives a warm, wintry edge to a fairly typical Spoti-girl bop. no reinvention of the wheel here, just good old pop melodies, well sung.


77. Katy Perry - Cry About It Later
Katy reins in her wik-wink-nudge-nudge songwriting tendencies for this fairly straightforward ode to dancing the heartbreak away, for some reason never pushed as a single during the disastrous 15-month campaign that began on a high with Never Really Over and ended with the DOA release of Smile. the riff under the verses is enjoyably hypnotic, and the song reaches a nice climax when the electric guitar comes in for the propulsive middle 8. a lost hit.


76. The Weeknd - Save Your Tears
The Weeknd's transition into big pop girl du jour may be complete, but who could deny him his globe-conquering status when he can toss out glitterbangers like this without breaking a sweat? Save Your Tears is so easy and effortless, it hardly seems fair on anyone else playing this game, and speaks to Abel's clear chemistry with Max Martin—who's always on his A-game when they come together.


75. Taylor Swift - peace
the first of several entries from Taylor's unexpected return to understated, sophisticated songwriting (spelling is FUN!), peace is a beautifully airy love song that comes paired with a warning: "the rain is always gonna come if you're standing with me." her ability to make that sentiment feel romantic, and not emo, is part of what sets her songwriting apart, and her softly subdued vocal is the perfect complement.


74. Ariana Grande ft. The Weeknd - off the table
a dreamy, delicate slow waltz about seeing somebody without really investing your heart—my personal highlight from Ari's sixth album. despite the hesitation to commit, it's dripping in romance.


73. The 1975 - Having No Head
The 1975 were facing a bit of a backlash by the time their fourth album came out, a mere 18 months after the last. once you stop expecting them to deliver another Somebody Else, it's easier to accept the music they are making—melodic, electronic, ambient and inviting. this six-minute instrumental track begins as a delicate piano arrangement and then erupts into an bass-driven electronic banger which pulsates and glitters in all the right ways. before coming to a close, it pulls itself back into its little box. gorgeous stuff.


72. The Killers - My Own Soul's Warning
I didn't anticipate considering myself a Killers fan in 2020. this album was excellent, though, and the opener My Own Soul's Warning sets the tone with stratospheric, stadium-sized hooks and lyricism that, typically of Brandon Flowers, sounds grand and poetic but also nonsensical and meaningless.

but man, I thought I could fly
and when I hit the ground
it made a messed-up sound and it kept on
rattling through my days
and cutting up my nights

OK, hun! :eyes:


71. Faithless - Innadadance
The return of Faithless in 2020 didn't exactly get much attention even within dance music, but the sounds remain as distinct as ever - several of the tracks on All Blessed touch on social issues in the Faithless tradition, and while Suli Breaks' spoken word verse here could be considered a little on-the-nose ("your account's in the minus and the bills are increasing / council turned off the water and they still ain't fixed the heating"), he's serving peak Maxi Jazz in the absence of the man himself.

the whole album is actually exquisitely chilled dance music—perfect to clean the house to.
 
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"Feel Me" is great, and "Cry About it Later" was one of the only tracks I remembered off the KP album. "Peace" is nice but plenty I prefer off folklore.
 
Jark The Herald Angels Sing said:
JARK-2020-STATS.gif


perhaps you guys won't mind indulging me in a little interlude moment of whatever - obviously as a demented stats freak I have to share my listening stats for the year of our lorde 2020.

13
the number of tracks with more than 100 plays. two of these were from 2019, Dua's Don't Start Now (103 plays) and Sam Smith's How Do You Sleep? (102) - the rest from 2020.

87
the number of times I played my most-played interlude, which was, shockingly, the artful transitionary orchestral banger Chromatica II

743
the number of plays I gave Selena Gomez. forgive me father, for I have sinned. the questionable top 3 from our charismatically-challenged ASMR queen were Rare, Kinda Crazy and Fetish.

3
the number of artists in my top 50 most-played "discovered" (streamed for the very first time) in 2020 - namely Jessy Lanza, Tei Shi and Tensnake.

625
the number of Jarkette streams separating Kylie Minogue and Lady Gaga this year - but who came out on top? :o

434
the number of times I streamed a track from the most aurally pleasing dance record BUBBA by dazzling knob-twiddler and LGBT king KAYTRANADA :disco:

101
the number of songs played each day across 2020 - or 6 hours of every 24 spent pumping music into my poor ears :(

179
the number of times I used and abused my #1 song of 2020 :disco: ANY GUESSES?
Click to expand...
The self indulgence of this.:disco:
 
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