Part 1: https://australian-charts.com/forum.asp?todo=viewthread&id=58553

2015 chart thread: https://australian-charts.com/forum.asp?todo=viewthread&id=44062
Archive: https://hitparade.ch/personal_charts.asp?member=brokenrecords

EOYs:
2018: https://australian-charts.com/forum.asp?todo=viewthread&id=58553&pages=#4
2019: https://australian-charts.com/forum.asp?todo=viewthread&id=58553&pages=#8

Thread in hitparade: https://hitparade.ch/forum.asp?todo=viewthread&id=69112
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My EOY will begin at 6pm on Tuesday 23 February. I'm giving myradiostream another go this year (RIP plug.dj ) and will be in Discord on the night - memo me if you aren't already there and want an invite. Here's the link: http://myradiostream.com/station/flashplayer.php?s=s7&p=60084
(Alternate link: https://myradiostream.com/embed/free.php?s=brokenstream&btnstyle=default&id=580413&n=7&p=60084 )

I'll be unveiling #101-#250 as 20-second snippets (totalling about 50 minutes) and then #51-#100 as longer snippets before the top 50 will be played in full! I'll be revealing the lower half of my top 500 in the meantime in this thread

For a look into what might be in the top section of my list, my mid-year list can be found here and in my first thread: https://pastebin.com/2jCNfvfk
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Like last year I have a list of songs from the previous year that I enjoyed listening to in 2020. The list is very much without any defining qualifiers of inclusion because some of these songs have vastly different degrees of relevance to 2020 to others

0171 - 1000 Words
0171 - SMTHN RL
220 KID & GRACEY - Don't Need Love
24kGoldn - CITY OF ANGELS
Annie Hamilton - Kitchen
Arlo Parks - Paperbacks
Ava Max - Salt
DIIV - Like Before You Were Born
DIIV - Taker
Doja Cat - Streets
Doja Cat feat. Gucci Mane - Like That
Foals - Sunday
Hope D - Swim
KAYTRANADA feat. Durand Bernarr - Freefall
Nilüfer Yanya - Paradise
Nyxen - Insomnia
Poppy - Fill the Crown
Post Malone - Saint-Tropez
Sam Fender - Hypersonic Missiles
SASSY 009 - Maybe in the Summer
SebastiAn & Gallant - Run for Me
The 1975 - People
Tove Lo - Mistaken
Tove Lo feat. MC Zaac - Are U Gonna Tell Her?
TR/ST - Iris
Zoe A'dore - Galaxy

This list is less consequential than last year's since I already love most of these originals and featured all but two 2017 songs in my last two years of EOY lists but nonetheless, these are some of my favourite 2020-released remixes/alternate versions:

Allie X & Della Casa - Downtown (2020)
Angel Olsen - New Love Cassette [Mark Ronson Remix]
Angel Olsen - (Summer) Song (essentially an acoustic version of "Summer")
Dua Lipa - Don't Start Now [KAYTRANADA Remix]
Dua Lipa - Future Nostalgia [Joe Goddard Remix]
Georgia feat. Yung Baby Tate - Feel It
Robyn - Honey [Avalon Emerson's Deep Current Reroll]
ROSALÍA - A Palé [Gesaffelstein Remix]
Tinashe & THEY. - Hopscotch
Tinashe & ZHU feat. Ms Banks - Die a Little Bit

2020 remixes I really liked will be littered throughout the list as always!

I also have a list of my favourite albums and EPs of the year!

Arca	KiCk i
Ava Max	Heaven & Hell
Banoffee	Look at Us Now Dad
Charli XCX	how i'm feeling now
Chloe x Halle	Ungodly Hour
Disclosure	ENERGY
DMA'S	The Glow
Dua Lipa	Future Nostalgia
Dua Lipa & The Blessed Madonna	Club Future Nostalgia
Duke Dumont	Duality
Fiona Apple	Fetch the Bolt Cutters
Grimes	Miss Anthropocene
HAIM	Women in Music Pt. III
Jessie Ware	What's Your Pleasure?
JoJo	good to know
Lady Gaga	Chromatica
Megan Thee Stallion	Good News
Mura Masa	R.Y.C
Ocean Grove	Flip Phone Fantasy
Perfume Genius	Set Me on Fire Immediately
Phoebe Bridgers	Punisher
Rina Sawayama	SAWAYAMA
Róisín Murphy	Róisín Machine
Taylor Swift	folklore
Taylor Swift	evermore
Tia Gostelow	CHRYSALIS
Tired Lion	Breakfast for Pathetics
Two People	Second Body
Yves Tumor	Heaven to a Tortured Mind

EPs:

0171	Change Nothing
Annie Hamilton	Annie Hamilton
Bree Runway	2000AND4EVA
Christine and the Queens	La vita nuova
CXLOE	Heavy, Pt. 1
Diana Gordon	Wasted Youth
George Maple	MYTH
Hayley Kiyoko	I'm Too Sensitive for This Shit
Little Simz	Drop 6
Moyka	Spaces
Owl Eyes	Invisible Woman
RAYE	Euphoric Sad Songs
Shygirl	ALIAS
Tei Shi	Die 4 Ur Love
Tkay Maidza	Last Year Was Weird, Vol. 2
Vero	Heaven on Earth
Victoria Monét	JAGUAR
Wafia	Good Things

As a change from only revealing my favourite songs of the year in my long mid-year and yearly lists, I've wanted to do so in a slightly different way for a while, having long accepted that weekly charts just don't work for me with every occasional impulse that I have to attempt to revive mine (as much as I do wish I had an extensive chart history that spans more than one year ). I began saving all the current music I liked on Spotify in late 2016 and this has been my method of keeping up with everything since. Provided I don't accidentally un-save a song and remove it from its original place in date order (I feel like most Spotify updates make it increasingly easier to do this ), it makes it really useful to decide what ends up in my end of year lists. So I've decided to isolate the 2021 songs I've saved in each month of the year and rank the songs after the end of the month, which should be a nice touchstone for when I do make an EOY list. I like the idea of having everything grouped amongst songs I've saved at the same time rather than by release date, though it might expose how late I am to some things further down the line In a way it's like what a chart might look like from me without any songs returning for a second week.

To start I have 65 songs that were released in January 2021 that I happened to save, which is more than expected and is indeed more than the 46 2020 songs I saved last January (and the 50 in January 2019, 38 in January 2018 and... 14 in January 2017 :p). I've shuffled the order of the top 7 songs since the end of the month so I'd call it a strong start to the year!

January 2021

Commentary is less daunting without looking down the barrel of 100 or so songs so here goes... my first #1 belongs to Julien Baker's "Hardline". I liked boygenius' song "Bite the Hand" quickly (which I always seem to hear when I'm in IKEA lol) but I was surprised to find "Hardline" to be so instant after unfairly thinking the rest of her solo music would sound as kind of... stoic as "Appointments" (not necessarily a bad thing but it took me a while to get into it). This song sounds as precarious as its lyrics - there's something about those heavy organ chords at the start that make it so easy to just sink into its doom. It reminds me of "Breathe Me" in the release that comes with the instrumental chorus.
Last year I really warmed to Baby Queen's debut "Internet Religion", which I'm sure Spotify would sort alongside "Mad at Disney" or something but instead reminds me more of "Give Yourself a Try" [s]without Matty Healy's generally insufferable persona[/s] in how she dresses some scathing and depressing commentary in such a warm and fuzzy song. Her EP was quite solid ("Buzzkill" and "Pretty Girl Lie" were highlights), but her first single of this year "Raw Thoughts" is perhaps the most worthy follow-up to "Internet Religion", aptly matching its breathless energy and impressive lyricism.
I've keenly anticipated a full album from HUGE DANNY L Harle for a long time - his work across his two amazing EPs, one-off singles, production for other artists and remixes have made him one of my absolute favourite producers. Last year's "Dreaming" hinted at something harder and reminiscent of happy hardcore compared to the sugary-sounding singles he'd released before. "On a Mountain", one of the first tastes from the album, lands somewhere in the middle. Unexpectedly the vocalist is not co-writer (and "1UL" vocalist) Eyelar but Georgia Twinn, who delivered my second favourite song titled "I Don't Mind" last year (cue money/pole emojis).
London Grammar's 2017 album had enough really lovely songs on it to make me hold them in a higher regard than I'd previously thought and the singles from their new album have also been pleasantly interesting and quite distinct from each other. "Lose Your Head" has become my favourite so far, I really like the build-up of textures which makes the chorus sound almost chant-like.
A more recent grower in Odette's "Amends" is #5. It's her first in a while to resonate with me so strongly and I think it's down to the interesting twists in the melody and especially the chorus, which feels like it grows in intensity each time. The saxophone makes things all the more lush.
I've been a fan of Bicep's music from the second I heard "Glue", which is probably the perfect introduction to their sound. Their music is so sparse and repetitive that it could sound simple to some, but I love the indulgence in how the songs develop and their new album Isles certainly delivers on that front. Even after three of its best tracks were released last year, there are still highlights to be found in its new songs; my two favourites are album closer "Hawk" and "X" featuring Clara La San (of their previous collaboration "Saku" which was #79 in my EOY).
I think "Mariners Apartment Complex" marked a really important shift in Lana Del Rey's music because everything from her since has sounded so good. Even when I didn't find myself as intensely in love with NFR! as a whole as a lot of others did ("Venice Bitch" set too high a bar obviously) I think Jack Antonoff has more than proven himself to be a great collaborator especially in Lana's case. I'm quite looking forward to Chemtrails Over the Country Club (COCC if you will) if the title track is anything to go by. She has a knack for memorable choruses and "Chemtrails"' hook is really catchy and becomes more charming over its runtime.
Aly & AJ are demanding that we "Listen!!!" ahead of their new album When The Pawn Hits The Conflicts He Thinks Like A King When We All Fall Asleep Where Do We Go When The Fire Goes Out. "Listen!!!" is one of my favourite offerings from their solid recent string of releases and it sounds closer to their 2017 EP in sound (very pleasing to me as "I Know" from their EP is my favourite single of theirs).
I liked the previous two songs she's released since her 2019 mixtape but it feels like Slayyyter is properly back with "Troubled Paradise". It's more straight-forwardly conventional than maybe ever before for her but she's certainly not alienating me with a chorus as huge as this one.
Broods have returned alongside Bad Sounds in the very good sounds of "Move Into Me". I don't have much to say about it other than that it took me a while to place that the twinkly piano reminds me of Flight Facilities' "Two Bodies" and that Georgia Nott is one of my favourite voices (and people) and a worthy addition to anything. And that somehow "Hospitalized" is two years old.

Elsewhere: my favourite offering from Maggie Lindemann's recent pivot into pop rock (which is unexpectedly an Alex Lahey and Gordi cowrite), Mall Grab and Ross From Friends with quite long songs that I couldn't tell you how they sounded from the title but are very good, a fantastic new remix of one of my favourite songs from Perfume Genius' last album, Blanck Mass in unusually short form thanks to the single edit of new song "Starstuff" and ELIO's Charger (which already sounded like "Gone" before Charli XCX made a new version of the song) among other songs...

1	Julien Baker	Hardline
2	Baby Queen	Raw Thoughts
3	Danny L Harle	On a Mountain
4	London Grammar	Lose Your Head
5	Odette	Amends
6	Bicep feat. machìna	Hawk
7	Lana Del Rey	Chemtrails Over the Country Club
8	Aly & AJ	Listen!!!
9	Slayyyter	Troubled Paradise
10	Bad Sounds feat. Broods	Move Into Me
11	Still Corners	White Sands
12	Ben Böhmer & Tinlicker feat. Felix Raphael	Run Away
13	Maggie Lindemann	Crash and Burn
14	Smerz	Believer
15	Digitalism	No Holiday
16	Bicep feat. Clara La San	X
17	Royal Blood	Typhoons
18	FKA twigs, Headie One & Fred again..	Don't Judge Me
19	San Mei	In the Machine
20	Rose Gray	Easy
21	Ashnikko feat. Kelis	Deal with It
22	Mall Grab	Nonstop Feeling
23	HAERTS	Shivering
24	Jazmine Sullivan feat. Anderson .Paak	Price Tags
25	Middle Kids	Questions
26	Issey Cross	Who
27	FRITZ	Die Happily
28	dvsn feat. Miguel	He Said
29	Charlotte Cardin	Daddy
30	Virgil Abloh feat. serpentwithfeet	Delicate Limbs
31	Perfume Genius	Your Body Changes Everything [Boy Harsher Remix]
32	Alice Glass	SUFFER AND SWALLOW
33	Tate McRae	rubberband
34	Blanck Mass	Starstuff [Single Edit]
35	ELIO	CHARGER
36	Taylor Swift	right where you left me
37	Avalon Emerson	Rotting Hills
38	Georgia Twinn	Raccoons
39	LANKS	Cold Blood
40	Poolside & DRAMA	I Feel High
41	Ashnikko	Good While It Lasted
42	Ross From Friends	Burner
43	JPEGMAFIA	FIX URSELF!
44	Bicep	Sundial
45	Run The Jewels feat. Pharrell Williams & Zack De La Rocha	JU$T [What So Not Remix]
46	DEJA	Losing Game
47	Kokiri, Jem Cooke & Todd Terry	So Free
48	Saweetie feat. Doja Cat	Best Friend
49	Running Touch	Juno
50	Molly Burch feat. Wild Nothing	Emotion
51	KDA vs. Lady Blackbird	Collage
52	Selena Gomez	De Una Vez
53	Kitten	Do U Still Love Me?
54	Jazmine Sullivan feat. H.E.R.	Girl Like Me
58	Duke & Jones & Nicole Millar	Walk Away
56	Pale Waves	Easy
57	Sub Focus & Wilkinson feat. Empara Mi	Freedom [High Contrast Remix]
58	Olivia Rodrigo	drivers license
59	Charlotte Lawrence	Talk You Down
60	Dirty South & EDDIE	Just a Riff
61	Arlissa	Rules
62	Leony	Faded Love
63	Grimes	New Gods [Tale of Us & Âme Remix]
64	Zara Larsson feat. Young Thug	Talk About Love
65	Black Coffee & Diplo feat. Elderbrook	Never Gonna Forget

February 2020

This month Danny L Harle ranks two spots higher than he did in January with the immense "Interlocked" at #1 - his highest of six songs from Harlecore making the list this month. "Interlocked" was co-produced by "DJ Mayhem" (Hudson Mohawke) and has L Devine on vocals, as well as a writing credit from Lauren Mayberry of Chvrches (now that's a collaboration I'd like to hear, if only for harley's sake). Danny also claims #5 this month with "Do You Remember", which is appropriately titled considering how much it sounds at once like five different early 2000s songs that would have been uploaded on SteveAATW's YouTube channel.
KSHMR is a name I've known in passing for years without hearing much of his music other than Tiesto and his 2015 banger "Secrets"... or so I thought, because I recently discovered that he was one half of the Cataracs and the only member in the final two years of their activity (meaning that he is solely responsible for producing eternal Selena banger "Slow Down"). Ahead of his 2021 debut album I came across the lead single "The World We Left Behind" featuring his frequent collaborator KARRA and I've unexpectedly kept coming back to it. I don't know what to say about it other than that it's a total rush of euphoria.
The Best Band on Earth Wolf Alice are back. If anything can be learned from "Yuk Foo" and Visions of a Life, it's that their new album could sound nothing like the lead single and, to be honest, "The Last Man on Earth" being largely piano-led is perhaps even more of a disorienting return. I think there is something in the arrangement that admittedly holds me back from being wholeheartedly won over (as far as their own songs go I feel like "Silk" is a distant cousin which to me has the edge over this in how much more substantial it is in hooks from the start) but that feels unfair to get hung up on when Ellie's lyricism and presence is as strong as ever and when the second half of the song sounds as huge as it does. I also really like that the lyrics can read as this sardonic criticism of individualism while the song sounds so universal.
Like Danny, Julien Baker is in my top 10 for a second time: "Favor" is another very good cut from Julien's very good album, this time with her boygenius bandmates involved.
I called "Troubled Paradise" the most conventional that Slayyyter has sounded but "Clouds" is similarly quite straightforward if even more subdued - worlds away from anything like "Alone", "BFF" and "Candy" which I first encountered her through but nonetheless a direction I can get behind.
Franky Wah had two songs in my 2019 EOY ("Time After Time" and "Hide") and he's kept up the good work and general resemblance to CamelPhat with Anjunabeats release "Should Have Seen It Coming" featuring AETHO.
Not even a year after her first solo album, Hayley Williams has released another album and it's quite good, perhaps without the same variation in sounds as the first (it's very acoustic). The single (or the song put on 'the playlists') "My Limb" is something of an outlier and is naturally my favourite song on it, it reminds me more of "Over Yet" on the last album with the fast chorus.
I first came across Norwegian Sámi band ISÁK in 2018 via Popjustice's New Music Friday playlist featuring their song "In Comparison" and have liked their music since, including their previous collaboration with Alan Walker in 2018 on the song "Lonely" (which Steve Aoki did a new version of in 2019 which has just about double the streams of the original). Their new collaboration "Sorry" is really impressive and less characteristic of his usual style (honestly, "The World We Left Behind" sounds more like him), I was surprised to see it released as a commercial single.
I'm yet to know for sure if Allie X is officially releasing her older songs as a project or anything but I do know for sure that her 'new' single "GLAM!" was intended for her debut CollXtion I and it certainly sounds like it. Her music is so reliably solid across the board that there's at least one song I really love on all four of her projects but after getting less out of last year's Cape God than I expected, particularly after "Fresh Laundry", it's nice to hear a 'return' to the full-throttle synthpop of songs like "Prime" and "Sanctuary" from CollXtion I.

Elsewhere, Madison Beer delivers a very impressive debut, perhaps unexpectedly to anyone who hadn't heard the pre-release songs or to those who only judged her by whatever her conspirators on TikTok have incriminated her for ("Blue" and "Effortlessly" are my favourites of the new tracks); Gorgon City & DRAMA reunite after last year's brilliant "Nobody" with "You've Done Enough" which I was happy to see quickly make the UK chart (and more recently/importantly the ACI ~); Katy B's first high-profile release since 2016 (!!!) in a vocal mix of Mercury Prize-nominated jazz drummer/composer Moses Boyd's "2 Far Gone" (a really good fit for her). Dua Lipa's "That Kind of Woman" is #28 after the anachronistic Jacques Lu Cont remix placed one spot higher in my 2020 EOY.

I've capped the list at 100 songs because I saved slightly more than that in February, and I think I'll cap each list at a round number when they exceed 100 songs from now on. I'm also going to aim to keep the posting of the monthly lists within the next month so watch this space

1	Danny L Harle & DJ Mayhem	Interlocked
2	KSHMR feat. KARRA	The World We Left Behind
3	Wolf Alice	The Last Man on Earth
4	Julien Baker	Favor
5	Danny L Harle	Do You Remember
6	Slayyyter	Clouds
7	Franky Wah feat. AETHO	Should Have Seen It Coming
8	Hayley Williams	My Limb
9	Alan Walker & ISÁK	Sorry
10	Allie X	GLAM!
11	Cardi B	Up
12	Big Scary	Stay
13	Madison Beer	Blue
14	Josef Salvat	One More Night
15	Cherry Glazerr	Big Bang
16	Smerz	Flashing
17	Haich Ber Na	87 Days
18	Madison Beer	Effortlessly
19	Danny L Harle	Where Are You Now
20	Hope D	Addict
21	KUČKA	No Good for Me
22	Gorgon City & DRAMA	You've Done Enough
23	Half Waif	Orange Blossoms
24	Baby Queen	These Drugs
25	Dawn Richard	Bussifame
26	ISÁK	Starting a Fire
27	Moses Boyd & Katy B	2 Far Gone [Vocal Mix]
28	Dua Lipa	That Kind of Woman
29	Real Lies	Oh Me, Oh My (Nicotine Patch)
30	Architects	Dead Butterflies
31	Drew Sycamore	45 Fahrenheit Girl
32	Eli Brown & Talk Show	Trouble
33	Mealtime	4 U Only
34	Hayley Williams	Asystole
35	Danny L Harle & MC Boing	Boing Beat
36	Cat & Calmell	dramatic
37	Tkay Maidza & Yung Baby Tate	Kim
38	Julien Baker	Heatwave
39	San Holo feat. Bipolar Sunshine	find your way
40	Abbie Ozard	breakdowns
41	King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard	O.N.E
42	Danny L Harle	Take My Heart Away
43	Priya Ragu	Chicken Lemon Rice
44	Brent Faiyaz & DJ Dahi feat. Tyler, The Creator	Gravity
45	Daya	Bad Girl
46	Paul Woolford & Amber Mark	HEAT
47	Shura feat. Rosie Lowe	obsession
48	Madison Beer	Follow the White Rabbit
49	Charlotte Qvale	Ghost
50	Black Coffee & DJ Angelo feat. Jinadu	Lost
51	Manu Crooks & Hooligan Hefs	Don't Cross the Line
52	Hayley Mary	Would You Throw a Diamond?
53	Xiu Xiu feat. Liz Harris	A Bottle of Rum
54	Deb Never	Someone Else
55	Lynks	Everyone's Hot (And I'm Not)
56	Dimension feat. Poppy Baskcomb	Alive
57	Kitten	American Football
58	Sad Night Dynamite	Smoke Hole
59	Celeste	Tonight Tonight
60	Riton & Nightcrawlers feat. Mufasa & Hypeman	Friday [Dopamine Re-Edit]
61	HAIM feat. Thundercat	3am
62	Lava La Rue	Magpie
63	Kings of Leon	The Bandit
64	Biig Piig	Cuenta Lo
65	Surf Mesa & Madison Beer	Carried Away
66	Hayley Williams	Just a Lover
67	Joel Corry, RAYE & David Guetta	BED
68	The Chain Gang of 1974	Fall Into Me
69	Genesis Owusu	Gold Chains
70	Victoria Monét	F.U.C.K.
71	NEIL FRANCES	Falling for You
72	Danny L Harle & DJ Ocean	Ocean's Theme
73	Rita Ora, David Guetta & Imanbek feat. Gunna	Big
74	Lil Peep & Nedarb feat. Craig Xen	california world
75	FAANGS	RELAPSE
76	Dennis Ferrer, Disciples & James Yuill	Whisper
77	Charlotte Clark	Odyssey
78	Freddie Gibbs feat. ScHoolboy Q	Gang Signs
79	Dua Lipa	If It Ain't Me
80	Crazy Cousinz feat. Caitlyn Scarlett	Sweet Side
81	Hayley Williams	First Thing to Go
82	Alok & VIZE feat. Alida	Love Again
83	YONAKA	Seize the Power
84	Fredo feat. Dave	Money Talks
85	Ninajirachi & Kota Banks	Secretive!
86	Arlo Parks	Hope
87	Jarryd James feat. Trapo	Overdue
88	Rita Ora & Imanbek	Bang Bang
89	POOLCLVB	Love Track
90	Alan Walker & salem ilese	Fake a Smile
91	VanJess feat. Phony Ppl	Caught Up
92	Elliphant	Drunk & Angry
93	Thandi Phoenix	Count Me Out
94	Madison Beer	Sour Times
95	The Lazy Eyes	Where's My Brain???
96	Raveena	Tweety
97	Django Django feat. Charlotte Gainsbourg	Waking Up
98	Rezz feat. PVRIS	Sacrificial
99	Pale Waves	Fall to Pieces
100	MK feat. Raphaella	Lies