This year threw everything at the world of music, but the individual track stood tall against the storm. Singles are the blood of the underground, they’re energy exchanges, brimming with the possibilities of success. This list is full of sonic victories, heartfelt messages, and above all incredible composition – these are the best singles of 2020.
10: Kevinhilfiger x heartbrian – If You Heard Different, You Was Lied To (prod. lb66 x tweepea)
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Kevinhilfiger & heartbrian’s track ‘if u heard different, u was lied to’ is an uptempo banger that wears the EDM influences heavy on its sleeve. Featuring a rhythmic, pulsing instrumental and amazing FX-laden vocals, the song’s arrangement still carries some trap and hip-hop inspiration, with the blaring mixtape-era DJ tags scattered throughout its full runtime and hedonistic lyrics pitched up and brought to a faint echo behind the main instrumental sections of the song. It is a boundary-pushing endeavor, even for both artists who are familiar in crafting this style of music, but it is executed well and with grace, not overstaying its welcome and always catchy enough to put on repeat. – Arctic
9: Nari – Necromancer (prod. odece x srd)
One of three flawless singles from Nari this year, ‘Necromancer’ perfectly encapsulates her ambitions as an artist. ‘Blow up in the scene like a cancer’ might seem like a strange line to use in a hook, but to an artist as norm-defying as the bitchcore creator it’s water off a duck’s back. This song has some of the year’s coolest-sounding lyrics, echoing the boldest of Drain Gang material without ever descending into imitation. Thanks to a beautifully glitchy, nostalgic beat, ‘Necromancer’ is a whirlwind of robotic sound that displays immense artistic growth within one of the most oversaturated musical scenes in recent memory. Nari may have only really found perfected her sound in the last three or so months, but in that time it has quickly risen to be one of my favourite artists, and a bastion of outsider music as a whole. – Chris
8: Big Nate – Chaos (prod. GYPTXVN)
Soundcloud | Spotify | Apple Music
This assuredly impactful statement from UK rapper Big Nate and veteran bass supplier GYPTXVN rumbles with the power of a dark summer’s heatwave; for two blistering minutes Nate is on top form, claiming his place amongst elders of the genre whilst remaining ferocious; “I done been making drill, way before them dance moves made it cool” he growls. Nate names himself “Zeus” and “The Big Bad Wolf” in the same visceral hook, and backs both with a skittery, guttural flow – every time he touches the beat it’s as if an adrenaline shockwave strikes. A forceful tour-de-force. – Jamie
7: Kurtains x Whitetrash – Devil Cry
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“I been selling food just to get it by, I been feeling sad – make the devil cry” is the snarkily grave point-of-no-return on this carefree banger from stuttering duo Whitetrash and Kurtains; it’s just as well that it comes right at the song’s beginning. The entire track is designed to addict – squeaking synths worm their way up and down the octaves, bass is constant and massive, and the performances are stickily saccharine. Kurtains’ verse is impossible to understand, and that’s never mattered less. – Jamie
6: Kid Trash – Retail Therapy
Soundcloud | Spotify | Apple Music
Kid Trash has explored a lot of musical avenues in their career, but only in 2020 have they truly mastered the art of the perfect pop song. Clocking in at two minutes long, ‘Retail Therapy’ is a perfect slice of guitar-driven emo pop that adopts a slightly darker tone reminiscent of the excellent Slasherrr from early in the year. A dizzyingly hypnotic piece of music, the track sees Trash set yet another benchmark for contemporary music in the underground. In truth, this is unlikely to even be the pinnacle of the English artist’s sound. – Chris
5: Archangel2 x DEEGS – Cold Water Therapy
Archangel2’s winter banger “Cold Water Therapy” is most impressive in how it masks and represents mental anguish. DEEGS produces, bedding the tune with clustered delay lines and waterborne leads. Archangel2 enters like a stage actor, speaking of the “friends in [his] head”, doubling up when singing about “putting on a show”. He is, flawlessly, in many minds at once; “all my life, full of lives I know”. – Jamie
2020 was truly the year that underground pop reached a new milestone in terms of eclecticity. On the flipside to the system shock that the sugary, dance-influenced sounds of Hyperpop brought to us this year, to emerge this year, Archangel2’s music is like a warm embrace from an old friend that you haven’t seen in ages. There’s an immensely soothing aspect to the Canadian artist’s voice (one that leaps out the most over fellow Canadian Deegs’ gorgeous production), and like ‘Cheer U Up’ before it, ‘Cold Water Therapy’ is an incredibly satisfying, emotionally-grounding listen. Warning: prepare to have ‘We still share the same bones’ stuck in your head after hearing this. – Chris
4: Osquinn x Blackwinterwells – oblivion
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osquinn’s ‘oblivion’, released this year in September, is a stellar track that features vocalist/producer blackwinterwells and showcases both artists at peak performance, with them both singing over a distinct Blink-182 sample (“The Fallen Interlude”) that many listeners may recognize from Lil Peep’s 2016 song “the song they played (when i crashed into the wall)”. After an emotional performance delivered by both singers, the song then cascades into an EDM-influenced beat switch with heavy bass slides, arpeggiated synths, and a much more confident, confrontational energy from Quinn throughout the second half of the track that even interpolates a section of her 2020 hit ‘bad idea’. This track showcases Quinn’s dynamic musical ability and range extremely well within just a three-minute and fifty-four second runtime, and it is easily one of the most well-crafted songs to come out of the underground in 2020. Both artists are credited with production on the song. – Arctic
3: DeEtta Jain – Bronco
Soundcloud | Spotify | Apple Music
Like a spectre from another time and place, ‘Bronco’’s singer creates a truly ethereal presence on her ghostly indie pop masterpiece. Jain provides one of the year’s strongest vocal performances here, weaving subtle yet incredibly memorable melodies into the very fabric of the song. Her lyrics aren’t easily decipherable, but when read back reveal an astonishingly complex and powerful piece of feminist writing. Indeed, when it comes to strong, subversive voices in music it’s safe to say that few are as inspirational as DeEtta. Note: to best experience this song it’s essential to watch it alongside its accompanying video, which is not to be missed out on. – Chris
2: GYPTXVN – Flight
Soundcloud | Spotify | Apple Music
The moodiest hip-hop single of the year, ‘Flight’ sees the UK’s premier underground producer finally take full vocal form. Rapping over a jazzy trap beat of his own creation, the London MC expresses an inherent desire to escape his chaotic surroundings (something that I think we’ve all been able to relate to this year). Masterfully arranged, Gyptxvn’s anthem for the outcasts is as exhilarating as it is technically marvelous. – Chris
1: Styxcitycult – Diamond Eyes
Soundcloud | Spotify | Apple Music
What more can really be said about this song? An opus of emo rap, this song sees eight members of the now sadly defunct collective unite on 2020’s most infectious, memorable rap song. Dag, Bleachh, Ivan Silk, Losesleep, Trrm, Wulfpunk, Postwar and Spaghking are all wildly different artists with entirely separate influences and musical interests, and yet they managed to create a truly harmonious, timeless product here. These guys may not be working together as much any more, but their legacy will live in on this stunning song. A reminder of better days, ‘Diamond Eyes’ is the song that my mind will jump to first when someone asks me to recall 2020, and for that reason it can’t be anything but my number one pick. – Chris
“Diamond Eyes” is a close to flawless display of a team in perfect alliance. Styxcitycult were at their best at their end, and when their collective record did drop – post-fracture – it was a reminder of a time where anxiety had no hold on life, when friendship was less complicated and socialising was the death of all pain. “Diamond Eyes”, even now the best and most immutable of these tracks, captures this perfectly. Losesleep and Ivan Silk practically embrace on the hook, with twisting and melodically rich contributions from each verse writer. This four minute posse cut ends with Ziggy Duncan, aka spaghking, dissolving into near-yelled autotune strains; the immensity compounds throughout, in tandem with instability, giving us some of the most electric moments in the entire Styx canon and the year in general. – Jamie
– By 108MICS Staff: Chris (@108seraph), Jamie (@youngjade1216), Arctic (@907arctic)
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