Category: 2020 Indie Songs

As we finalize rolling out the best of top indie songs and playlists for 2020, it becomes evident that there were more smokin’ tracks than the conventional wisdom says.

Because we were very late in determining our monthly top 10 at the end of the year, it gave us even more time to listen to these songs and by doing so, it helped to reinforce our selections.

This playlist also serves as the September 2020 Top 10 Indie Songs playlist. There are some amazing songs, and new artists and bands, to stream below. We hope you agree.

P.S. – See our short tracks’ notes below. Please share, comment, and like with others.
P.S.S. – Still three more Top 10s to post. They also serve as our top songs of 2020 overall.

Best 2020 Indie Songs, Vol. II

1. indie trailblazers The Shins returned in 2020 with this soaring, feel-good, anthemic single that will be a blast at live shows when they return
2. catchy, booming, and enthralling grunge-pop from the relatively new and unknown (stateside) U.K. quartet
3. one of IRC’s all-time favorite indie folk-rock bands regroups for this wonderful, heartfelt single
4. london based (and subpop freshmen) band offered this fantastic, hard-hitting, Tarratino-esque single
5. upbeat indie surf/dream-pop from the south coast of England
6. sharp, deadpan, riff-driven rock music and a chorus (“relax/relax”) that is antithetical to the song’s nervous energy
7. sweet and heartbreaking bedroom love pop diddy from new DIY artist to watch
8. sprawling energetic blazing indie rock on the edge of mania with a relatable story
9. fun, energetic pop; fast rhythm with vocal overlays and choruses
10. reminds us of The Fall (which is awesome!) but at the same time, not. And that’s good. This impossibly passive-aggressive, clanging riff together with laser beam sound effects and an impossible-to-resist main chorus

Due to a number of reasons brought on by the virus, family health issues, our Top 10 Songs playlist series for 2020 fell behind.

That said, we will complete the full 2020 Top Ten Indie Songs playlist series that so many of you have followed and listened to loyally for more than a decade now. And there are dozens of amazing tracks.

The playlist below (which also is the August 2020 Top 10) features some of the best indie songs of 2020 that we’ve actually heard during the year. Please enjoy, like, and share.
 

Best 2020 Indie Songs Playlist

NOTES:  
1. quiet acoustic dream pop dripping with vocal and instrumental melodies from indie superstars Local Natives and Sharon Van Etten
2. a drunken, lazy, childlike diddy that is DIY as you can get (and that’s awesome)
3. feel-good upbeat track with various layered atmospherics and melodic swings
4. fast-moving, energetic punk pop-inspired garage rocker with tints of cheap trick
5. moody indie-pop; a little long but worth it
6. sweet and inspiring acoustic and electric guitar instrumental duet
7. folky dark pop with soaring melodies and harmonies from indie veterans
8. fascinating and uplifting song despite sad lyrics
9. chorus-led with bumping bass and soaring guitars and percussion
10. beautiful and dreamy with sexy whispery vocals and a desert whistle

Costa Rican indie rock band The All Black Cast’s third EP, Bulk, features the electrifying track, “New Cah!”

The band says the track is heavily influenced by artists such as Gary Numan, T. Rex, and The Cars, specifically. It’s also not far off as we can hear some of those influences.

The band, founded in 2003, draws not just from 80s artists but also 90s indie/noise bands like The Jesus Lizard. The single is about the “confusing, contradictory, and hyper-partisan current political climate” of our times.

On vocals, guitar, and songwriting is veteran Hernan Tasies, who has 25 years of playing in bands and later as solo artists, James Catholic.

The bulk of Tasies’ work happened during his years spent in Houston and New York City and has continued in his native Costa Rica. Carter, a guitarist turned bassist (for the ABC), drives the recording and engineering of the band.

Toronto born, turned Tico (Costa Rican), Carter spent years in Toronto music, with his own projects, Faceplant and Spoutbec, and also doing session work. Pablo Montero was the last to join the band, a hard-hitting drummer who has a special devotion to Deus and The Cure.

IRC is excited to introduce all eyes and ears on this page to Eau Claire, Wisconsin forklift driver, Ross Lucas, who moonlights as a musician in his off-hours.

Lucas’ wonderful track, “Under The Sun,” is a sparsely filled, experimental composition fashioning a skinny rhythm on electric guitar and Lucas’ strangely interesting vocals and lyrics –  which are spoken more than they are sung. It reminds some of Mac DeMarco.

He says that he failed music in his freshman year of high school and promptly left school to start his first band Wussbudget. Lucas never looked back, opening for bands like Tenement, Arms Aloft, and Savage Unicorn.

He moved to the U.K.  following the break up of the band.  During his two-year sojourn, Lucas wrote a flurry of new songs while managing to “get kicked out of a couple different bands for failing to sound like either John Squire or Tom DeLonge.”

“Under The Sun” is one of those salvaged tracks. This is what we love about indie – you don’t have to fit into a box.

Lucas is a one-man band and multi-instrumentalist. He plays, records, mixes, and masters his tracks laying down all of the work on guitar, bass, drums, and vocals. “Under The Sun” is off of his 2020 EP, Pastoral Paragraphs, a recommended listen.

The music of the Brooklyn artist Andres Javier – who uses the moniker ‘Huella’ – doesn’t fit into a particular genre, and in many respects is genre-less.

His four-track urban vibe-heavy E.P., Reckless, is a testament to this fact incorporating and mixing pop, hip hop, rock, reggae, and soul – all within a little over 15 minutes.

It also speaks to his talents as an artist who is not trying to appeal to a particular audience but instead to be true to his work.

The track, “Trouble,” is an upbeat jazzy pop track with elements of jazz and soul. In fact, it’s the kind of track you might hear flowing out into the streets along Bourbon Street in New Orleans. Creative and intricate.

Notable musicians who contributed to the project include bassist Rodney Skeet Curtis (Parliament, Funkadelic); trombonist Reggie Watkins (The Temptations, Jason Mraz); keyboardist Jacob Bergson (Jojo Mayer, Nerve); and soul singer Ada Dyer.

Reckless was mixed by seven-time Grammy Award-winning engineer Michael Brauer (Coldplay, John Mayer), and mastered by another Grammy winner, Joe LaPorta who has worked with the late David Bowie, among other big artists.

“The musicians performed with passion and heart, the engineers brought their A-games, and the final product is better than anything I could have imagined,” Javier says.

Songs like the pop melodies of “The Function” and the more mellow, horn-booming reggae/R&B of “Trouble” in addition to the timely “New York City” theme and the powerful Motown-inspired soul of “Show Me” make the E.P. one of our favorites in the DIY realm so far this miserable year.

RIYL The Weeknd, Bruno Mars, and Ed Sheeran.

Portland, Maine post-rock, ambient musician Andrew LaVogue delivers a perfect respite from our chaotic world with his glorious and bold guitars on the single, “Oh, Sunny Day!”

This is an instrumental that may make you feel better thanks to the warm chords and strings from LaVogue’s fingers. While he describes his sound as more post-rock or ambient-leaning, this track hits us more as a warm desert rock track more than anything else.

The fact that there are no vocals allows the listener to really focus on LaVogue’s wonderful instrumental work – no vocals required.

Originally from the Midwestern U.S., he moved to coastal Maine for a quieter life. “I have spent most of my time in bands…[as a] touring guitarist playing all over the US and Canada,” LaVogue says.

“My music is a mix of acoustic roots, fingerstyle guitar, accompanied by surf swells, and psychedelic flourishes. Sort of like John Fahey meets Pink Floyd.”

Recently we were introduced to the heart-wrenchingly beautiful voice and acoustic music of London DIY musician Chi Limpiroj who uses the moniker Dunebug.

Limpiroj effortlessly blends an array of genres and styles that include dream-pop, surf-pop, shoegaze, and lo-fi. Her magical soothing voice may remind some of the musicians Cat Power and Beach House.

Dunebug is a Manchester-born and DIY in every sense of the word. Self-taught in guitar and singing, and with a background in sound recording, Limpiroj combined her skills to craft the first Dunebug EP in the comfort of her own bedroom. The first single from the E.P. is the captivating “Alone Like Me.”

“Alone Like Me’ is a bleak insight into the complexities of my love life (or lack of), due to past difficult relationships coming back to haunt me,” Limpiroj says.

“It’s about the struggle of becoming involved with someone who is perfectly lovely but pushing them away at the smallest hint of it becoming anything even remotely serious and ultimately being left alone, again, something I’m sure many people can relate to.”

Limpiroj recorded the song in her “tiny box of a bedroom” on a cheap condenser mic and an old Squire Telecaster she bought from her first boyfriend when she was 17 years old.

Then Limpiroj used Logic Pro X, nothing that her bedroom studio was “the most basic set-up you could possibly dream of, and I love doing it all myself.” More power to her! We want to keep hearing these amazing songs from an artist to watch in 2021.

Her previous band, Chi & the Twelfth Wall, supported the likes of Lucy Rose, Slow Club, Roddy Woomble around Manchester and Leeds, as well as playing at Magneet Festival in Amsterdam.

The live band includes herself on vocals and guitar, plus Rob Wynne on guitar; Tom Daley on bass, and James McGuinness on drums. Dunebug’s main musical influences include Cat Power, Feist, Beach House, Soccer Mommy, Japanese Breakfast, and Big Thief.

BONUS TRACK: “Baby it’s Over” – Junebug