Orville Peck, Lady Gaga and Anderson .Paak: The Day 6 music panel shares their top 2020 picks

If the year 2020 was a musical genre, it might be best described as "horrorcore," according to CBC Music's Andrea Warner.

For so many reasons, it's been a difficult year. But one part that did not disappoint was the music — and its retro throwbacks.

"Whether it's Dua Lipa reaching back to disco of the '70s, or maybe The Weeknd reaching back to 1980s electropop, we are looking backwards, maybe to a more simple, imagined past and, I think, wishing for a certain escape," said musicologist and Switched on Pop host Nate Sloan.

With this in mind, Day 6 assembled a panel of music experts to take us through the year in tunes and pick out the best of the best.

Pandemic pop

Facing various COVID-19-related restrictions, many artists took the opportunity to create songs inspired by this challenging year.

For Odario Williams, host of CBC Music's Afterdark, one of the best is Amanda Palmer and Rhiannon Giddens's cover of the 1994 Portishead track, It's A Fire.

Stuck in New Zealand, Palmer was inspired to record a cover of the song after hearing the song's lyrics: "Because this life is a farce and I can't breathe through this mask like a fool. So breathe on, sister. Breathe on."

"They stripped down that trip hop feel of '90s U.K., and made it into a very intimate version and it's really, really sweet," Williams added.

Warner's pick comes from Canada's West Coast. 

"It's sort of a summer track, so maybe summer is just where I came back to life … but Jayda G and her track Both of Us."

The underground DJ is from B.C.'s interior and released a two-song EP in July. Both of Us is nominated for Best Dance Recording at the 2020 Grammy Awards.

"It is like a disco ball in my heart. It is the dance floor of my soul," she said. "It's the celebration as a Black artist, as a Black woman, walking in the world and that feeling of Black joy being a form of resistance."

"You can feel every inch of that in this track."

Perhaps the most aptly-named selection for 2020 is Nate Sloan's pick: Anderson .Paak's Lockdown.

"This track dropped on Juneteenth as people were out there in the streets protesting the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis," he said. "This kind of became, I think, a soundtrack for a lot of people."

"Paak is the only artist I know who can ask really hard questions in his lyrics, but on top of a really infectious beat so he makes sure that you can't turn away and you can't stop listening."

Best albums

Beyond some pandemic-inspired tunes, it was also a big year for albums.

Orville Peck's Show Pony EP, featuring the hit Legends Never Die with Shania Twain, was at the top of Warner's list.

"I love every corner of this record. It's like glam and grit and grime, and that's a pretty powerful feeling in 2020 for so many reasons," she said.

Lido Pimienta's Grammy-nominated album Miss Colombia was also at the top of Warner's list.

Choosing just one album of the year was no small feat for Williams either, but his pick goes to Free by the U.K.-based band Sault.

"It's infectious, the entire record," he told Day 6.

"They put out two albums this year. That just goes to show how inspired they've been due to the times, and how they write is they just get together and jam until something comes up, and they jammed over 100 songs and put two albums together over the course of the year."

Of course, the year in music wouldn't be complete without mentioning one of the biggest albums to drop in 2020: Lady Gaga's Chromatica.

"I think it's Gaga's best work in years. It's this kind of high concept psychedelic trip through dance history," said Sloan, who also singled out Rain On Me, featuring Ariana Grande, as an album highlight.

"This track samples a 1970s track by Gwen McRae called All This Love I'm Giving You, which has been reused by dance artists in every decade since, so it kind of connects the song to this deeper tradition and reminds everyone listening that life will go on."

You can find our panel's top songs of 2020 on Spotify.

Written by Jason Vermes. Produced by Annie Bender.