It’s already that time again: below you’ll find my favorite 100 songs of the 2020s so far, ranked in order. It feels bizarre that I’m already dissecting songs from the last five years under the lens of them being the encapsulation of the decade so far. That might sound uselessly cyclical or redundant, but the last five years have felt and acted like no other half decade span I’ve lived through. The elasticity of time has never been more dynamic, and with it our perception of art and trends. Compounded with that, the last few years have been taxing beyond belief, molding our brains into contorted forms of what they once were. How much of my changing perception is due to these traumatic times versus just being a general byproduct of aging, times changing, and life events naturally accumulating brain wrinkles?
In making this list, I’ve been constantly looking back at the other decade-recapping lists I’ve done, taking note at what kind of songs rank high and why. These last five years already feel, music-wise, so distinct from the five years preceding the 2020s. Again, this might just be wholly due to the pandemic, and without it would have felt like 2019 part two in 2020 (it honestly started to in the beginning there).
What you’ll find below is a collection of 100 songs, ranked, with little blurbs (not Warm Visions descriptions) and stream links. It’s predominantly “indie rock, pop and electronic,” with a few crowd-pleaser mainstream pop tracks in the mix too. There are artists that repeat, but I only pull one song per project. I make a better note of it at the end of the list, but my Top 10 picks really adequately reflect my desired mental state as we hit the halfway point of the 2020s. I hope you enjoy looking back at these songs, or finding new ones you may have missed.
Warm Visions 