Hey yo my lovers! What’s good?!
2020 was a hell of a year right?Whooo! There were unprecedented happenings that brought feelings of difficulty, isolation and loneliness. But thankfully we had God, family, friends and of course, music to pull us together.
Both coincidentally and intentionally, certain awesome artists gifted us the most nostalgic, cuddly, vibrant and dance-worthy songs we’ve heard in recent times.
Here are the golden albums and songs that made the otherwise stricken 2020 fun-filled, cherishable and memorable for me!
THE ALBUMS I LOVED
FOLKLORE – TAYLOR SWIFT
Dropping out of nowhere, Folklore stunned the world with its brilliant storytelling, emotional acuity, poetic ingenuity, painstaking vocal delivery and novel cinematographic production.
Folksy, woodsy, melancholic and metaphoric – Folklore embodies unparalleled quality, originality, conceptuality, creativity, depth, consistency, coherence and emotional resonance.
What a mind-boggling album for the ages. I’m still bewildered about how almost NONE of the amazing sonics, melodies, lyrics or general production of the album sounds like anything I’ve heard before. It’s absolutely crazy.
I’m forever honoured to be alive in the time of this masterpiece. You can check out my full review of the album here.
Favourites include: The 1, Cardigan, August, Tears Ricochet, Illicit Affairs, Invisible String, Mad Woman and Peace.
FUTURE NOSTALGIA- DUA LIPA
The buzz that surrounded this fabulous ’90s inspired album was just too loud and overwhelming for me not to check it out. And lo and behold, the hype was indeed justified.
Just right after the virus went bonkers, Dua inadvertently brought infectious disco back with modern charisma; highly delectable, sophisticated production; and powerful husky, sultry vocals.
Future Nostalgia, without a doubt, made 2020 so dance-worthy, let-loosing and delirious for me. It was just so unabashedly upbeat and happy and gushy and the feelings sure rubbed off at a very needy time.
Favourites include: Cool, Levitating, Love Again and Break My Heart.
BLACKPINK – THE ALBUM
True to Blackpink’s style, we had those hard-hitting bangers, no-nonsense bars and orgasmic vocals that never fail to bring out the don’t-give-a-fuck diva in me and make me feel so good.
For all the reservations I might have about Blackpink; I can’t deny the bossy, bitchy, baddy way they make me feel whenever I blast on one of their tracks.
For their first full length and most anticipated album, the number of songs were complacently small; but what can I say, they gave me some sassy bangers.
Favourites include: How You Like That, Pretty Savage, Crazy Over You and Lovesick Girls.
SONGS I LOVED
LEVITATING – DUA LIPA
Immensely milky, relishable, flirtatious, wild and sing-dance-along worthy. The whole song and its little sprightly rap are just so freaking goooood! Urgh!
Levitating sure made me levitate – ’90s and Gen Z style – high up in the sweet bubbly clouds. It is irreversibly one of my favourite songs ever!
COOL – DUA LIPA
What a feverish summery love song laden with tingly pianos and poundy, slow-heavy, jivey drums. With its modern twist on the ’90s beat, plus Dua’s passionately feverish vocals; it’s in a literal cool class of its own.
Any hopeless romantic like me would be instantly caught in its dreamy-chilly fever.
LOVE AGAIN – DUA LIPA
My personal favourite production off of Future Nostalgia! I think?
Love Again reverbs with strong ’90s hollywood beats that shimmer, glimmer, sheen and shrill so pleasingly to one’s auditory senses. Coat it with incredulous lyrics of discovering a kind of love never thought possible after myriads of tears and heartbreaks and you have something completely riveting.
PRETTY SAVAGE – BLACKPINK
Wanna feel like a bad bitch high on zero fucks in a sec? Tap play on this braggadacio banger and thank me later.
Instantly thrilling and hard-dishing, Blackpink will literally get you feeling on top of the world with it.
LOVESICK GIRLS – BLACKPINK
I don’t think people express enough the climactic deliciousness of Blackpink’s pre-choruses and bridges.
To be honest, I wasn’t sold when I first heard Lovesick girls. The sparse anthemic chorus and 2010-pop inspired production sounded lazy and outdated to me. Even the title of the song sounded cringey and out-of-date😝 (at least, considering the bad girl image they try to own).
It took the bridges and pre-choruses and lavish vocals of Rosè and Jisoo and of course, their exceptionally polished sound to make me reconsider the song.
And once I started playing it more, the more I started to find it really delicious enough to include it on this list😜.
CRAZY OVER YOU – BLACKPINK
I contemplated adding this song here. But I just couldn’t resist. The whole chill, kiss-off vibe Jennie entranced with, especially on that second verse- OHHH MYY GOD😱! I wasn’t experring itttt! Changed the whole feel of the song in a switch. Despite it being wickedly short, it was just chef’s kiss! My highlight, no caps! So delish!
And then Lisa hopped in too on that same verse with her own splitting, flair-filled, chewy bars and sealed it all for me. I love this song. Yes, I love it. Including Ji soo’s concrete e-e-e-e’s on that whimsical, eclectic, electric beat!
CRY FOR ME – TWICE
Meal came late but it still managed to make my 2020 gratifying! My girls went sexy, sultry, dark and I…everyone was shook.
What makes this song so sonically pleasing and unique sounding, is its unlinearity, creative arrangements and inherent sophistication.
Twice’s vocal deliveries are at the most experimental and sexiest I’ve heard them. They nailed this song’s sonics, aura and production and I’m HIGHLY impressed. The choreography was the crowning. It utterly complemented the song. My breath was taken away!
Truly can’t wait for what Twice has to offer next.
CAN’T STOP ME – TWICE
To think I hated this song at first. Ahhh! The devil is a liar. Can’t Stop Me is a ’90s-reminiscent song done entertainingly and beautifully. And the production…urgh! Just impeccable and freakishly good! I absolutely love this song and can listen to it for ages!
GO HARD – TWICE
Go hard is sleeky, flowy, clubby and infectious. I’m in love with it and so jealous even, I didn’t get to record the song with them!
DEPEND ON YOU – TWICE
Feminine falsetto at its most melodic. Twice delivers a sweet, sonorous song that just touches my heart and transports me to paradise. To sink into it completely, play it quietly at night. It’s a starry, twinkly earworm.
DYNAMITE- BTS
My boys smashed 2020 with Dynamite and scored their first Billboard 100 number 1 with it. It’ll always be a historic song for Armys, the boys, Kpop and South Korea.
While BTS admittedly have way better, amazing songs, there was something so contagious about Dynamite. The song came out around a period I was emotionally wan and I swear whenever I put it on, my spirit automatically turned bright and happy. It marvelled me. It’s such a genuine, pure mood-lifter and happiness-inducing ’90s disco song and that is why it’s massively successful.
UGH! – BTS
The spiteful male version of Pretty Savage, I would say.
It’s fire-spitting, seething and paranoiac. The bars are spiked up with crisp tumultuous, head-ramming, bullet-charged production that feels so f-king good to the soul. J-hope’s insane crescendo is definitely the track’s highlight.
BTS rappers burned their haters to ashes with this one.
There was nary mercy.
FRIENDS – BTS (Jimin & V)
Haaa! How elevating and heart-warming this song is! Jimin and V professed their never-ending love for each other and even called each other soulmates. Oh my god!😭😭😭 I love this pure friendship! The backing choral and nostalgic endearment with which the song is sung just makes my heart so warm and full and sentimental every damn time! Urghhh! (no pun intended).
PSYCHO – RED VELVET
Wine-filled, immaculate, timeless vocal deliveries from Red Velvet as expected. Psycho invokes refined goth and haunting climactic goodness. And the chorus?
Loses me every freaking time in its wholesome, honey over-drippings.
CANDY – BAEKHYUN
Let’s just say this song is as candilicious as its title. I have such a strong memory of how much I loved it in quarantine. It’s bubbly, delightful, flirty and so pleasurable to vibe to. And the choreography?
Well, in my entire life, never felt so jealous of people who can dance.
The moves are that covetous.
CARDIGAN – TAYLOR SWIFT
I feel so warm just thinking of this song. Unhurried, buttery, vintagey, cottagey and snuggly.
Taylor blankets me and cuddles me on imaginary long drives with this song.
TEARS RICOCHET – TAYLOR SWIFT
Soul-crushing, heart-wrenching, gut-punching. It’s devastating, epic poetry masterpiece that sneeks up on you when you least expect it to and shakes you up to your core. It is unarguably one of Taylor’s most stirring pennings and vocal renditions of all time. I’m mesmerized every time by it.
AUGUST – TAYLOR SWIFT
First off, give it up for one of the best, if not the best bridges and post-choruses you will ever encounter on a track in your entire life.
August smells of autumn and rust. The song’s protagonist is haplessly and hopelessly in an unrequited love and with the way Taylor vocalizes her longing, you can’t help but be affected and wonder if Taylor is not more romantically happy than she’s been in her whole life.
To know more about the fictitious story behind the song, you can check my comprehensive review of Folklore.
DAECHWITA – AGUST D (BTS’ SUGA)
Honestly, each time I listen to this song, it itches me that it isn’t officially promoted on Korean music shows or awarded a damn grammy. Because I swear it is a masterpiece.
Constructed with beautiful Korean traditional horns and beats, Daechwita is powerfully brazen, boastful, majestic, charismatic and enthralling. I experience delirium each time I turn it on.
With the way you effortlessly switch between earwormy flows and self-produced this gem, Suga, I must admit, you are indeed the genius you proclaim yourself to be😅.
Just to add: the seguk (Korean traditional dramas) – inspired video of the song was self-conceptualized by Suga as well and it is JAW-DROPPING!
KICK IT – NCT 127
Whoa whoa whoa, I was blasting this anthemic bomb non-stop during quarantine.
Kick It introduced me to NCT and their cohesively loud, domineering, brash bombshells. And honestly, I CAN’T COMPLAIN. Their tracks get me so pumped I momentarily forget all my worries.
Kick It is emboldening and overdriving. It certainly made 2020 thrilling for me and my brothers. And the choreography and visuals for it were just as spectacular and thrilling!
BLINDING LIGHTS – THE WEEKND
’90s meets futuristic with Blinding Lights. You can place a hand on the song, yet you can’t exactly.
It’s timeless art that sounds like something I’ve heard and unlike things I’ve heard. It’s experimental and expensive in all senses. Just. Pure. Gold. The Grammys made their nominations sans it for God know what. I mean, what the heck? It’s undeniably a bonafide 2020 hit.
DUDUKE – SIMI
As you can see, no other Nigerian song appears on this list. Well, since 2014 or so, I unfortunately stopped enjoying Nigerian mainstream music. Whenever I start getting quality lyrics or brilliantly produced songs like I used to back in the days (and not abundant lacklustre lyrics and redundant production), then I can pay attention again.
That asides, Simi (one of Nigeria’s few susbtantial artists), made 2020 memorable for me with her angelic R&B single – Duduke. I can categorically call it my best 2020 Nigerian song. It just tingles my romantic, mushy heart. And the music video? Hearteningly gorgeous 💛.
CONCLUSION
Whooo! 2020 was definitely the year of ’90s love. Ever since Dua Lipa and The Weeknd went gold with the nostalgic trend, almost every other artist and record label decided to hop on it. And quarantine serendipitously coincided with the trend so of course, it blew up.
Not complaining (we got some golden stuff). But it definitely got overbeaten and tiring at some point.
Thankfully, someone came back stronger than a ’90s trend. That’s right: Miss Taylor Swift. Folklore was the masterpieces of masterpieces and it rebirthed 2020 for me in such a special way I’ll never ever forget.
Meanwhile, Folklore’s sister album, Evermore is already doing some great job here. It didn’t make the list ’cause it was released in December and honestly I didn’t fully devote to it (it’s deeep as hell too😅) until the new year rang in.
Here’s to 2021🥂. Hope it’s much freer of the virus and blesses us with even more memorable, golden, extraordinary music✌😘.