2020s 100 Club: A Discussion On Favorite Songs

As the big music publications start talking about their collectively decided Best Songs Of The Decade So Far and people respond with This Is What I Would Say, I've been thinking about what it means for a song to really be my favorite. I was going to make a little tweet of some favorite songs. I'm beholden to no delusions of canon or heavy hand of editorial voice so this would just be a list of my favorite songs. Unfortunately, I struggled to come up with anything, but not to worry! I can always fall back on the clean, beautiful world of hard data. I will decide my favorite song of the decade so far through the power of data.

My Last FM is more of a shrine to the way I listen to music than anything. I love to run a song back and that mostly just leads to things like having a song by Jeff Rosenstock off an album I broadly don't really like as my second most listened to song on the account. It's not what you're supposed to say, but I'm a songs listener and playlist faithful. Last FM's style of song focused data says more about me than most people for that reason, I think. It also means my Last FM charts I post online every week say less about my music listening habits than some others. But the scrobble system is good for this exercise I'm doing today. The basic data inherently speaks more to songs and preference toward certain artists than albums. Even if you are only listening to albums, an album with more songs will be shown as more favored than one with a shorter tracklist.

My most listened to song that's been released since the start of 2020 is "Kill Something" by PUP. It's a song that gets stuck in a loop for me. Does listening to it the most mean it's my favorite song? I'm not sure. I don't think so. It doesn't feel like my favorite song. Art is more than engaging with it gt65a lot, but it's not nothing.

Recently on twitter I read a thread about how if you only take points into account when assessing a hockey player you'll only get part of the story. This is kind of like that. Scrobbles are only part of the story. But, like points, to say it's not relevant is a bit silly. It's not like a favorite movie or favorite book where I believe you can read or watch once and be so moved that it can retain a place as a favorite. Albums I think can be this way, too. Some albums are taxing. A song, though? I think you should be engaging with your favorite song with regularity. Or at least I do as a decontexual listener of many of my favorite songs.

My methodology, with all of this in mind, is that my favorite song is probably within the collection of songs I've listened to over 100 times since their release in 2020. After I understand the data, I'll go with my heart– the incalculable X Factor. There's probably some kind of formula here that could be made.

Let's get into the pool of possibilities.

Right away we're drawn to the spikes on the chart. "Kill Something" we've already discussed. It is a song I love and a song to listen to when I feel bad. It's sort of their "Plea From A Cat Named Virtute" and for that reason it would probably crack my top 10 PUP songs, but I just don't see it as a true favorite of the last 5 years. PUP has the second most number of entries on this list, but they play a pretty specific role in my life so that's no surprise. "Nothing Changes", "Habits", "Robot Writes A Love Song" and "Smoke Screen" are all songs I like, but I feel about them significantly less than I feel about "Kill Something."

We've got "Bring Back My Dog" by This Is Lorelei second which has been a staple of this year at a very impressive 529.

This Is Lorelei is the only artist to beat PUP in number of entries. He really just has a lot of music out in the last 5 years which sort of makes Nate overpowered, but god do I love a lot of those songs. "Bring Back My Dog" is the obvious favorite, but "Dust In The Wine" and "My Good Luck" feel, emotionally, on the same level, albeit for different reasons. Both of those songs and the others on the list– "S.F. and G.G.", "My Friend 2", "Dancing in the Club" and "What It Do About Nothing"– are more simple tracks compared to the electronic-heavier ultra-wordiness of "Bring Back My Dog."

The next highest played song is "Do It Faster" by Militarie Gun. Militarie Gun has three songs on this list– the EP version of "Big Disappointment" and their cover of "Whoops I OD'd" are both on the list. The first two make sense. I think both of those songs are indicators of why I think Militarie Gun pushed themselves into the forefront of their genre. I love the original EP version of "Big Disappointment" in a way I don't love the more sanitized, thinner album version. "Do It Faster" is probably their best song. The inclusion of "Whoops I OD'd" is embarrassing on two levels, but in my defense it's only here because I fell asleep while it played through my headphones and was the only song I had saved from that EP. It's funny to have a cover on here, but it's not the only one. I also have Drug Church's cover of Arcwelder's "Remember to Forget" on the list.

Obviously none of these songs will be my #1.

There are a chunk of songs here that I've written about– sometimes that means writing about them because I listen to them so much, sometimes listening a lot because I'm writing about them. In the former category:

• "Rene Goodnight" by Advance Base: released in 2023, I wrote about it and remain obsessed with the song. Owen Ashworth is probably my favorite songwriter, but I find myself too clouded by the upcoming album to call this my favorite.
• "Cool About It" by boygenius ended up being the prevailing favorite from an album that took me months and a trip to the Oregon coast to really appreciate.

In the latter category:

• "Asking Price" and "Rollercoaster Ride" by Dazy are my favorite songs from the Dazy album from a few years ago, but I did listen to them way more because I interviewed James Goodson for Creem.
• Similar story about "Gotta Let It Go" by Joyce Manor.

This chart also accidentally does a pretty good job of defining what my favorite albums of 2020 were. Phoebe Bridgers, Trace Mountains, Walter, Etc., Slaughter Beach, Dog and Jeff Rosenstock all had albums out that I was super fond of. 2020 also has some Into It. Over It. songs– "Home Is The Gift" a Christmas track that maybe speaks more to me being just depressed in Philly and "Perfect Penmanship"– and also totally perfect song "Velodrome" by 2nd Grade.

Of the 2020 cohort the only tracks that I think really have a chance at being my very favorite are "Cooper's Dream" by Trace Mountains and "Savior Complex" by Phoebe Bridgers.

2021 is lighter on tracks and a lot of them are songs I got into after 2021 because that year I mostly just listened to Hard Girls and Self Defense Family. One of the worst years of my life. I've addressed most of the songs in the 2021 cohort, but there are some one offs that are strong options. "Handsome Man" is a top 3 Wednesday song for me. Recently I got really into listening to "Me & Magdalena" by The Hold Steady and it's one of their best later career songs. "Christine" by Lucy Dacus is my favorite Lucy Dacus song. Sometimes it's the only one I really like, but I do really like it.

On the chart, we were So Back in 2022, but when you really look at it... I guess I kind of just liked MJ Lenderman– "You Have Bought Yourself A Boat", "You Are Every Girl To Me", "SUV" AND "Hangover Game"– and a ton of This Is Lorelei songs came out that year. Looking elsewhere I'm faced with being a sucker for Christmas songs again– "Wintering" by the 1975 is a great modern Christmas song, to me. "Belinda Says" by Alvvays is in there. It's a perfect song, folks. It really just is. Might be my favorite of the half decade! But my eyes are pulled back to "SUV" so I'm not ready to commit just yet.

2023 was back down. I've got the Charly Bliss single "You Don't Even Know Me Anymore" that I think is really good, but is eclipsed by my favorite songs on the new album. I did put "Rudolph" in 2023 since the single is where the plays are coming from the same way I put "Rene Goodnight" in based on the single release date. I love that song, similar to Charly Bliss, though, I don't like it as much as I like some other songs on MJ Lenderman's new album. Chappell Roan has representation here and I love her but that's overpowered because she's become a go-to for playing music with other people. Then we have my favorite Wednesday song "Bath County" which is very likely the winner of this overwrought exercise.

The only 2024 track we haven't addressed is "On My Knees" which is my early choice for favorite MJ Lenderman track off the new album.

Results

The shortlist after considering the data and how I feel is as follows:

Belinda Says by Alvvays
SUV by MJ Lenderman
Bath County by Wednesday
Bring Back My Dog by This Is Lorelei

They're all kind of correct, but you know what.. I think the answer is "SUV."

Thanks for playin! You can listen to my 100 Club: 2020s edition playlist below if you feel so inclined:

Miranda Reinert is a music adjacent writer, zine maker, podcaster and law school drop out based in Chicago. Follow me on Twitter or Instagram for more thoughts on the songs I listen to on repeat: @mirandareinert.  This blog does have a paid option and I would so appreciate any money you would be willing to throw me! You may also send me small bits of money at @miranda-reinert on venmo/on Paypal if you want. As always, thanks for reading!