No Joy
No Joy (photo by Matieu Fortin)

No Joy's Jasamine White-Gluz tells us about her favorite songs of 2020

No Joy released Motherhood this year which took the Montreal shoegazers, led by Jasamine White-Gluz, into uncharted territory, mixing in elements of pop, R&B and electronica for a truly unique sound. If you haven’t checked it out you can listen below.

The band are putting a cap on 2020 with a “No Bummer All Summer” virtual beach party on Saturday, December 5 at 8 PM ET, where they’ll perform live and the party also features sets from Sad13 (Sadie of Speedy Ortiz), Winter, Peel Dream Magazine, Aerin Fogel, Lost Cove Tiki, Drynx, and Second Sight. Tickets are on sale.

Speaking of 2020 almost being over, Jasamine has made us a playlist of her favorite songs from the year. “I really appreciate everyone who put out an album this year,” Jasamine tells us. “It was a year when touring was impossible, venues struggled, streaming still didn’t pay us and there was just such uncertainty in our communities. Your music made me turn off the news, quit the doomscroll and really listen. It was so hard to pick only a small list of faves so I chose the ones that I listened to on a continuous loop so many times my cats probably know all the lyrics now.” Her list includes tracks by Lido Pimienta, Tricky, Sad13, Shamir, I Break Horses, Grimes, Sufjan Stevens, Deftones, Backxwash, Nothing, Caribou, and more.

You can listen to a playlist of all her 2020 faves, and read more about her picks, below.

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No Joy’s Jasamine White-Gluz on her favorite songs of 2020

I really appreciate everyone who put out an album this year. It was a year when touring was impossible, venues struggled, streaming still didn’t pay us and there was just such uncertainty in our communities. Your music made me turn off the news, quit the doomscroll and really listen. It was so hard to pick only a small list of faves so I chose the ones that I listened to on a continuous loop so many times my cats probably know all the lyrics now.

Running by Shamir is the best pop rock song of the year, listen to that chorus hook and tell me otherwise! Shamir is such an immensely talented vocalist and songwriter, I am so happy to see all the worthy attention this record got.

I recently learned Stephen Carpenter might be an anti-masker, which kind of taints my usually deep love for Deftones. I still quite enjoyed the latest Deftones album and this track in particular, I feel like Frank Delgado is finally getting some moments to shine. Chino, I am fully available to fill in on guitar if you wanna get rid of the anti-masker.

Backxwash put out some of my favorite music this year. Both the LP “God Has Nothing To Do With This Leave Him Out Of It” and the Stigmata EP were sadly erased from Spotify so instead I put an equally incredible remix onto this playlist. (but that means everyone should go buy her albums off Bandcamp) Some of the most simultaneously beautiful and brutal sounds I’ve heard all year.

There were a ton of ‘big’ and ‘small’ releases that helped me feel okay in this terrible year. I don’t think ranking them in any particular order is necessary, so instead thank you to everyone who kept creating despite this year being absolutely nightmarish – Thanks and good riddance 2020!

JASAMINE WHITE-GLUZ (NO JOY) – FAVORITE SONGS OF 2020
Lido Pimienta – “Eso Que Tu Haces”
Austra – “I Am Not Waiting”
Sad13 – “Take Care”
Nailah Hunter – “White Flower, Dark Hill”
Helena Deland – “Smoking At The Gas Station”
Tricky w/ Marta – “Take Me Shopping”
Grimes – “So Heavy I Fell Through The Earth” (Algorithm Mix)
Sufjan Stevens – “Ursa Major”
Shamir – “Running”
Caribou – “Cloud Song”
Oneohtrix Point Never – “Auto & Allo”
I Break Horses – “I’ll Be The Death of You”
Baths – “Wistful (Fata Morgana)”
TOBACCO – “Jinmenken”
SUUNS – “PRAY”
Uniform – “This Won’t End Well”
Deftones – “Urantia”
Metz – “No Ceiling”
Nothing – “Bernie Sanders”
Backxwash – “Bad Juju” (Morris Blak Remix)

28 Essential Songs from the Shoegaze / Heavy Crossover

Listen and/or subscribe to our playlist of all 28 songs (with MBV’s “Feed Me With Your Kiss” replacing “You Made Me Realise” because the latter isn’t on Spotify):