Top 20 RGV Singles of 2020
This tense historic year slowed down a lot of activity, but the music never stopped. Our Rio Grande Valley musicians put their hearts into their output in 2020. Some used their increased time spent at home to finetune their craft, others challenged themselves to find ways to collaborate more than ever. Local creatives sound inspired like never before. The lack of live shows didn’t fracture our independent music community. Through resilience, online networking, and countless charity and activist causes, the scene feels truly united. As they have done so much for the community, let’s look back on some of their finest singles of 2020.
20. Swayze♪ - Purified Pimp (Gucci Gucci)
In the modern trend of sampledelic hip-hop instrumentals, swayze ♪ stood out this year thanks to his flute-driven trap remix of Kreayshawn’s 2011 breakout hit. Her Cali-Valley Girl snobbery gets remixed in two different speeds for good measure. Bonus points for including Rick Ross’s signature grunt (the two rappers had beef back in the day.)
19. Lore-Do - Make a Killin’
With several clever ways to express both meanings of “make a killing,” Lore-Do flaunts his money-making confidence and brawny flows over a sinister hip-hop riff. It’s a bloody good time.
18. Italia - Loona
While a lot of artists based in an internet subculture rely on irony for their appeal, Italia’s hip-swaying city pop is an up-front banger and her most immediately satisfying single.
17. Nautilus vs. Pangolin - Burnga (feat. Joshua Lopez)
Too often instrumental prog-metal sounds like just a bunch of noodling around, but this RGV supergroup tastefully strings together some adventurous song sections with impressive technical skill.
16. That Guy Montag - Feel Like
The RGV’s pop culture rap junkie is riding the tranquil waves of his boldness and laid-back nature as he finds ingenious ways to compare himself to everyone from Pablo Escobar to Austin Powers.
15. Tina Van - Daylight
Perhaps the most stunning RGV acoustic single released this year, the song’s coziness builds to a gracefully extravagant surprise. It’s soothing throughout, along with its relevant hopeful message.
14. High Regard - Nothing Left To Lose
In a year that had Machine Gun Kelly introduce pop-punk to a modern mainstream audience, and a new generation introduced to Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater soundtracks, High Regard did their pop-punk duty on a local level too. A bit of angst, some sharp hooks, and infectious enthusiasm was all they needed to make the style fresh again.
13. CANA! - R U in Luv?
A bedroom pop version of retro Latin freestyle music. The melodies and synths are sparkling, misty, and colorful, while the drum machine and bass guitar are spellbindingly danceable. The performance by singer Danica Salazar is so sublime for such a humble sound.
12. Valley Swerve - Emilia
One of the standout tracks in Valley Swerve’s lo-fi anime-inspired discography is one of his most emotional. Faded pianos, muffled bass, and vinyl crackle form a nostalgic and gloomy dreamscape behind one of his most crisp trap beats.
11. STRGHTFWRD - Leave Like This
This song comes with the tense build-ups and strong female vocal samples of any respectable EDM club track, with some harsh tech-house riffs and 2-step garage syncopation to keep from being too “straightforward.” With songs like these, this duo kept the rave spirit alive in the dance-less 2020.
10. Apache Pistol - Star
This song about self-potential uses the heartland passion of Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run and The Killers’ empowering synth leads. At a time when live music is on hold, Apache Pistol comes up with a massive stadium rocker.
9. R U I N K R Ô S - Necromachina
There’s something strangely cathartic about romantic martyrdom coming from a cold and stiff goth voice. Dramatic themes of flesh/machine and heaven/sin duality run through this sci-fi dark wave thriller.
8. Royal Angst - Lover Girl
As a song about being an obsessive and domineering lover, the dynamic song sections in this grungy six minute slow burner are truly hypnotic.
7. Allen Michael - 2020
It’s eerie to hear these lyrics and know that it was released pre-pandemic and pre-civil unrest (“With martial law outside take a shotgun to your pride. Chaos in the streets and all the bombs are falling,”) but the music is prophetic as well, as the serene 70’s soft rock intro explodes into a dazzling prog-rock/R&B odyssey.
6. Boiz - Star Girl (feat. Italia)
The always-reliable electropop of Boiz becomes an immersive experience as video game synths and sound effects zip over the band’s signature sleek production and youthful beats. The guest verse from Italia adds more gamer references and fun to the level that listeners will want to hop into.
5. honeyflowers - yellow boy.
Whether he’s singing about inadequacy (“you want somebody taller, a big burley baller, a jawline to cut your soul”) or humorously mocking ignorant assumptions (“Yellow boy, a distant relative of Jackie Chan,”) it works on every level. This brand of indie, pop, and rock is as wholehearted as it is heartbreaking.
4. Noe Saenz - Love 2 Me
The most jovial and uplifting song this year, driven by Saenz’s charming vocals. Loving someone sets so much right with the world and causes the sweetest memories to come flooding back. For a pop song that’s unapologetically sugary, there are some powerful drum and bass grooves behind it as well.
3. Pillowsnake - Copaganda (ft. I Killed Techno)
The movement to burn the rug that issues of race and policing keep getting swept under has inspired two of the Rio Grande Valley’s biggest noisemakers to add more fuel to that fire. Even through the musical madness, the meaning of the indiscernible lyrics are clear: the warmhearted portrayals of police won’t distract us anymore. Every element of the song brings a sense of urgency: the harsh trip-hop beat, the icy bells, the paranoid string-synth, and especially the flickering notes that ascend like a sci-fi cannon charging up.
2. Jay Sol - The Game
As cold as it is soulful. Jay Sol sings about romantic flaws in a seductive and dark atmosphere. The instrumentation is sparse and steady, and allows Jay Sol to drop a vocal performance that should be the envy of the year.
1. Futuro Conjunto - Simonada: “Heatdeath”
The RGV-centric speculative fiction album by local studio producer Charlie Vela and Stanford scholar Jonathan Leal (and an entire cast of guest singers) has a lot of musical highlights that show the creative diversity of our region, but also addresses the ongoing concerns of our present and future. This song is the gem that gets plucked out the most from this project. It’s a dream-pop scorcher that is reminiscent of Beach House and their contemporaries, but instead of sunny pleasantries, it’s a brutal and sweaty walk through a drought. The soundscape makes you feel the dryness of the terrain, and the disappointment with the broken world that created this climate crisis. The song starts with an accordion playing what sounds like a mournful dirge, then delicate layers of drums, guitars, synths, and trumpets slowly trudge throughout, while the hazy layers of vocals add a sense of hope and relief. The praise for this song spreads far: A lyric video for the song was premiered in the Austin-based Future Traditions Fest and was named in Pitchfork’s 22 Best Songs by Latinx Artists in 2020. The context of the song’s story centers on the future’s second Mexican-American war, ignited by desperation for water. Two months after this album’s release, real life tensions for Mexican farmers reached a high point when they seized a dam to protest the shipping of water debts to the US, fearing their own scarcity. The eventual violence added another exclamation point on the cautionary tales of this song and album.
