9 Best Songs of the Last Two Weeks: HAIM, Little Dragon and Moses Sumney, Taylor Swift, and More
Plus Julia Jacklin, The Besnard Lakes, Anna Burch, and a Wrap-up of the Week’s Other Notable New Tracks Dec 18, 2020 By Christopher Roberts (with Joey Arnone) Little Dragon
Welcome to the 45th and likely very last Songs of the Week of 2020. We didn’t do a Songs of the Week last week because there weren’t quite enough inspiring songs to put together a full list, so this week’s list covers the last two weeks, but we still only came up with nine choices rather than a Top 10. This week we have quite a few holiday songs, as well as some reworked versions of previous songs.
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Kyshona Armstrong, Becca Mancari and Lilly Hiatt outside The 5 SpotPhoto: Eric England
Just about nothing has gone according to plan in 2020. Though their industry and the country have stayed in a state of crisis, musicians of all stripes have still released extraordinary work and found ways to stay connected with their audiences, even if it couldn’t be in person.
Kyshona Armstrong, Lilly Hiatt and Becca Mancari are among many Nashvillians who started this chaotic year with big ideas for sharing new songs. Armstrong, who performs as Kyshona, released the soulful and bluesy
Listen in February, Hiatt’s rocking
The Arizona singer-songwriter, who released her latest album ‘Old Flowers’ in July, recorded the song earlier this year alongside Liz Cooper and Molly Sarlé.
The delicate, acoustic take on the 1965 track appeared on the star-studded ‘…Collapse Of American Democracy’ compilation in aid Voting Rights Lab, who campaign for fair voting rights in the US.
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Also featuring the likes of Pearl Jam, David Byrne and Arcade Fire, the collection was previously only available via Bandcamp for a 24-hour period in October.
Speaking of her contribution, Andrews described Simon & Garfunkel’s classic song as “a beautiful novella of a certain place in time that stirs our emotions”.
ATOM & HIS PACKAGE - BOAT OF A CAR (THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS PODCAST)
Atom & His Package guested on a new episode of Punknews contributor Greg Simpson s They Might Be Giants podcast This Might Be A Podcast, and in doing so, he also covered their song Boat of Car. Atom and TMBG are both masters of quirk, so it s no surprise that Atom was a good fit for this.
Orange county ska-pop-punks Bite Me Bambi released their debut EP
Hurry Up and Wait today (and we included it on our ska year-end list). The EP includes all of the band s previous singles, and the just-released This Love Is Dead, which finds Bite Me Bambi exploring their darker minor-key side (with a bridge that seems to nod at House of the Rising Sun ). It comes with a