Every year, we have songs or albums that resonate with us, and it’s likely that the albums that got us through the global pandemic in 2020 with not just continue to dominate our playlists in 2021, but will stick with us well beyond and into the future.
For me, Big Thief was a mainstay; an artist I largely ignored prior to last year came to be among my most-listened-to artists. Kevin Morby and Waxahatchee also grace that list, the former being my most-listened-to artist of 2020.
And finally, Julia Jacklin and her LP Crushing, my copy of which you can see in my “5 Things I Love About Crushing by Julia Jacklin” video below on green vinyl:
Two songs in particular resonated and found their way into my Spotify Top Songs of 2020. One is opening track “Body” in which Jacklin recounts leaving an abusive relationship, or at least a highly toxic one:
Here’s the video for “Body”
However, the song that truly took ahold of my heart was “Don’t Know How to Keep Loving You” which seems to represent the turmoil in your mind when you see a relationship ending. She seems to realize it’s over, but is torn because even when it’s over, it often doesn’t stop you from loving the person. Even when you are the one doing the ending.
The pure emotion in the song is best captured in her Paste Studios performance:
You’ll be hard pressed to find “Crushing” on green vinyl, part of Polyvinyl Records’ limited early edition colored wax pressings. I think I snagged a copy in mid 2020 before they truly became elusive, despite it being released in early 2019.
Jacklin returned in 2020 with perhaps the most 2020 song title of the year on a Sub Pop single as part of the label’s fifth Singles Club Edition, “To Perth, Before the Border Closes” and the scarcity of that single is even greater, to no surprise.