Flat Hat Magazine staff all came together to make a comprehensive playlist of what we listened to while struggling to stay afloat and/or twiddling our thumbs at home. Check out our playlist entitled “SPIRALLING TOWARDS NORMALCY,” by using the widget above or clicking this link. 

“Kyoto” — Phoebe Bridgers 

Nothing captures the essence of 2020 more than Phoebe Bridgers debuting her song “Kyoto” from her bathtub on the Jimmy Kimmel Show. The song’s upbeat instrumentals are contrasted by lyrics that capture the loneliness and isolation one feels when beginning a new journey. While Bridgers is recounting her time traveling abroad, her message still applies to anyone who is struggling to cope with their emotions in lockdown. So whenever you get the urge to sit in a bathtub and be lonely in 2020, this is the song for you. 

— Ellie Kurlander ’24

“Susie Save Your Love” — Allie X and Mitski

A song about unrequited same-sex love in 2020; feels a bit on the nose, doesn’t it? Yes, but Allie X’s and Mitski’s silky smooth voices make this track come to life, rendering it a certifiable must-listen. Maybe it’s just me, but with the quarantine forcing my return to my hometown, catching up with old friends has also meant catching up with old feelings. This song is basically four minutes of “too relatable.” If you know, you know. 

— Gavin Aquin ’22

“Cooped Up” — Tedadore 

This song is straight up about 2020. Tedadore’s debut song as a solo artist. Just listen to it. You’ll understand.

— Rebecca Klinger ’22

“Physical” — Dua Lipa

Dua Lipa released the song of the year in January! How long ago was that now? Was it 9 months? 12? 14?  Time is an abstraction. Regardless, this synth-pop bop immediately transports me to an ’80s inspired dreamworld. An entrancing double-entendre, Lipa’s repeated chants of “Let’s Get Physical” remind me of the fact that the quarantine has made me miss the physical touch of other human beings — while also capturing that quirky zeitgeist of everyone wanting to stay fit during the lockdowns. Is this on my night time run playlist? Certainly. 

— Gavin Aquin ’22

“Swamp Cat King” — Bennett Wales and the Relief

When nonessential businesses started closing their doors and toilet paper was nowhere to be found, a lot of us were sitting at home watching the show “Tiger King” on Netflix. The show’s release was perfectly timed for most of the US to be sitting at home, bored enough to watch as each episode was wilder than the previous. This song is representative of early quarantine, referencing Joe Exotic’s rise to fame, and the push to release him from prison which all comes together when Bennett Wales starts repeating “All hail the Swamp Cat King.” During the initial push to support local businesses, Bennett Wales and the Relief, a local act from my hometown of Virginia Beach, released this song. The combination of blues and rock is reminiscent of more optimistic times, when all that seemed to matter was if Carol Baskin really killed her first husband.

— Rebecca Klinger ’22

“Supalonely” — Benee, Guss Dapperton

This was a dependable bop of early quarantine. Waking up to another day of Zoom classes with not a friend or acquaintance in sight made this song extremely fitting, since it's exclusively about the sensations of being alone in moments of personal crisis. Sound familiar to anyone?

— Ethan Brown ’20

“Marrow” — St. Vincent

St Vincent is an iconic musician who everyone should give a listen to, and this song gives an intimate portrayal of anxiety and dissociation, set in the dramatic scene of a highway car accident. For my moments of pure angst and woe this spring, “Marrow” was the perfect soundtrack, enabling me to pretend I was stumbling around in the Arizona desert rather than stuck in a suburban townhouse. 

— Ethan Brown ’20

“Love It If We Made It” — The 1975

To not include “Love It If We Made It” in an essence-of-2020 playlist would be a tragic disservice to The 1975. Two years after the British indie band released the single, this protest tune is perhaps the single best attempt in the 21st century at encapsulating how America gradually lost its mind. Those listening in 2020 will feel an acute sense of deja vu from the very beginning: “Selling melanin and then suffocate the black men / Start with misdemeanors and we’ll make a business out of them.” The song is a poignant laundry list of problems mostly associated with the US in the past few decades, although it mentions global events too, like the Syrian civil war. There’s simply too much to unpack in the lyrics so I’ll just highlight some of the most defining and relevant parts: “Oh, fuck your feelings / Truth is only hearsay / We’re just left to decay”; “Modernity has failed us / And I’d love it if we made it”; “I moved on her like a bitch / Excited to be indicted”; “The war has been incited and guess what, you’re all invited.” 

Yeah, it’s a doozy.

— Linda Li ’24

“Peachfuzz” — Boys Cruise

Have you or a loved one suffered from stomach splintering agitation or nauseating societal contempt — with a dash of agoraphobia for good measure — over a certain senator-from-Vermont’s exclusion from the ballots this election season? You’re in luck. Allow me to introduce you to your power-chord pacifier, your electric elixir, your next dip into the Green Mountain state’s wealth of spoils after you polish off that pint of Ben & Jerry’s. 

— Matthew Kortan ’22

“Heart of Glass” — Miley Cyrus 

Miley Cyrus’ live cover of “Heart of Glass” by Blondie at the iHeart radio festival serves as a highlight in the dumpster fire which is 2020. Cyrus’ raspy yet melodic voice hooks listeners from beginning to end. In the midst of college midterms, a contentious presidential election and a raging pandemic, this cover offers 3:35 minutes of pure, unadulterated escapism. 

— Ellie Kurlander ’24

“Lonely" — Chloe x Halle

“It don’t have to be lonely being alone.” God, Chloe x Halle — that’s a relief. “Ungodly Hour,” the R&B duo’s second album, has been a commercial success for hits like “Do it” and “Forgive Me.” However, this track stands out as a self-isolation anthem. Best played on full blast at “three in the morning, stayed up,” this song is an ode to those of us (ALL of us) whose loneliness began to eat away at their sanity and sleep schedule. Thankfully, Chloe x Halle acknowledge and comfort us with their soothing vocals and the reminder that none of us have to brave life’s challenges — especially this year’s — alone. 

— Nina Raneses ’22

“Hoax” — Taylor Swift

The surprise drop of Folklore was definitely one of the very few great things about 2020. “Hoax” is the closing song of the album, and it carries a somber vibe fitting to the year of the global pandemic. The chorus provides a relatable few lines of clinging on to hope and hoping for the light at the end of the tunnel yet to be seen. 2021 will be here soon and it’ll be better because at least it’s not 2020, right?

— Sabrina El Shanti ’22 

“Delete Forever” — Grimes

As someone who has followed her musical and artistic journey since 2012 with the release of “Visions,” I am familiar with Grime’s penchant and skill for channelling personal pain into her art. “Delete Forever” is her latest manifestation. Instead of being accompanied by experimental production, heavy synth, and autotune in Grimes’ normal fashion, “Delete Forever” is stripped down in comparison to her other work. The track is her way of coping with the loss of six friends in opiate-related deaths, and has been my way of attempting to stomach the mass loss of life we’ve encountered this year. 

— Nina Raneses ’22

“Imposters (“Little by Little”)” — The Fratellis

“You wear your mask, I wear mine,” the opening line, feels a bit on the nose for a song about 2020, except these lyrics were written in 2016. I’m not entirely convinced that The Fratellis aren’t time travelers as the song repeats the phrase “Little by Little” which is how most of us are getting through these times. The title is evocative of the game Among Us, though once again the song came first. It still amazes me every time I hear this song that it came out four years ago; nevertheless, it embodies current events as we find normalcy in these strange times, little by little.

— Rebecca Klinger ’22

“New Normal” — Caroline Polacheck 

Aptly put in a Youtube comment under this song, Caroline Polachek “had foreseen the future after the pandemic and made a song about it” with “New Normal.” Coming off her 2019 album Pang, everything about this track’s production and lyrics scream 2020 despite being released a year prior. Production-wise, it is 2020-esque in the sense that you are led to believe it’ll be one thing when it turns out to be something else completely. Lyric-wise, a number of lines resonate with pandemic-era life, (“it's house arrest, no stopping for dinner …”) but I also laugh at the possibility that Polachek predicted Zoom’s 2020 world domination: “Now, what is this? Microphone working, I hear myself, the cameras are rolling … and there's the cue.”

— Nina Raneses ’22

“Forever” — Charli XCX

The pop universe hath no Quarantine Queen™ like Charli XCX. In just 39 days, she employed the efforts of her loyal fans, the Angels, to help her create an entire album while in isolation — aptly titled “How I’m Feeling Now.” The album and its debut single, “Forever,” are the perfect embodiment of the pandemic’s effects on our personal relationships and our new outlook on life. The song’s heavy synth intro, complemented by Charli’s enchanting vocals, perfectly demonstrate the wide spectrum of emotions we’ve all experienced over quarantine. 

— Nina Raneses ’22

“Fine Line” — Harry Styles

Turning on Harry Styles’s song “Fine Line” is like stumbling into a spiral of symphonous sound. It makes me feel like I am surrounded by the music, and songs with that magical quality are always my favorite. Styles repeatedly chants, “we’ll be alright,” seemingly into the void, possibly as a message of positivity or as one of hope, which reflects our current state of uncertainty and confusion.

— Alyssa Slovin ’22