It's the end of January, which means I've had time to agonize over the ritual of trimming my favorite songs from last year down to a playlist of just 20. This time with brief commentary!

1. Dominoes - Twin Shadow: Every song on this album is a remake of a song from his previous album. Easily my song of the year.
2. WHERE IS MY HUSBAND! - RAYE: I vow to karaoke this one day.
3. Defeat - Flock of Dimes: I have a playlist called "Why don't they make the whole song like that one part?" and this song is on it. Jenn Wasner continues to be amazing.
4. Strobe - Armlock: Sounds so much like Pinback that I originally thought it was new Pinback.
5. What It Sounds Like - HUNTR/X, EJAE, AUDREY NUNA, REI AMI, KPop Demon Hunters Cast: This rivals Daft Punk's Too Long for Best Arena Concert Movie Climax Song.
6. Ratgirl - Pearly Drops
7. Something for Somebody - Mallrat
8. JAM! - BETWEEN FRIENDS: The last two minutes of this song is your reward for making it through the first two minutes of this song.
9. Move On - Jaguar Sun, Jesse Maranger
10. WE WERE JUST HERE - Just Mustard
11. Another Tangerine - The Barr Brothers: Sounds a lot like Even the Darkness Has Arms but you don't hear me complaining. One of the most underrated bands of all time.
12. Deep End - Twin Shadow
13. Lùlù - Lùlù: I have no idea what they are saying but this song rips.
14. Virtue - Mallrat
15. Egg - Djo: You just gonna let fear take that?
16. Tennessee - Kesha, Orville Peck, Hudson Mohawke, Tayla Parx: Not what I expected, but lots of fun.
17. LIE DOWN.. - Saya Gray
18. No Broke Boys - E Disco Lines, Tinashe: I found this song thanks to my seven year-old. She clearly has good taste.
19. Sugar - NoSo
20. nobody matters but You - Leyla Ebrahimi: This song takes a hard turn halfway through. I would be a mess if I ever saw this live.

I've been doing this for over a decade but this is the first time I've bothered putting it on my website. The requirements are arbitrary but simple: Assemble a playlist of my favorite 20 songs that were released in the past year. This unfortunately means that songs released in previous years that I hadn't discovered yet are ineligible, but hey, I don't make the rules. (I do make the rules)