Pulse Rankdown: 2020 AAA Rankdown (Winner Up)

[Daryl the Beryl]

Welcome to the adult alternative rankdown for 2020!

(Seen in the collage: Bakar, Black Pumas, Bright Eyes, Caroline Rose, Devon Gilfillian, Fiona Apple, Illiterate Light, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Katie Pruitt, The Killers, Lianne La Havas, The Lone Bellow, The Lumineers, Marcus King, Michael Kiwanuka, My Morning Jacket, Nathaniel Rateliff, Pearl Jam, Phoebe Bridgers, Pretenders, Semisonic, Soccer Mommy, The Strokes, Sylvan Esso, and White Reaper.)

1) PM me (Daryl the Beryl ) the top 100 Triple A songs of 2020, all ranked to your preference. (e.g. if you like a song the most, rank it the highest and vice versa). If you do not send your ranking to me, your ranking will not be acknowledged.
2) The points a song has will be totaled up based on an inverse point system. So if you rank a song #100, it gets 1 point, and if you rank a song #1, it gets 100 points. All the points from the participants will be totaled up.
3) The deadline is currently on January 29, 2021, 10PM Eastern Time.
4) ALL songs must be ranked.
5) To avoid posting with duplicate lines when you PM me, click BBCode below the text box before pasting your list.
6) All your rankings will be posted when I post a song in this thread.
7) You are allowed to make changes to your rankings, as long as you do so before the deadline. Any changes that are made after the deadline will not be counted.
8) Please try to make the effort to listen to every song in full.
9) Do not remove the "The" in front of artist names, so please input "The Killers", not "Killers", "The Lone Bellow", not "Lone Bellow", "The War and Treaty", not "War and Treaty", etc.
10) For reference, here are the top 100 Triple A songs of 2020.

1. Bakar - Hell n Back
2. Tame Impala - Lost in Yesterday
3. Nathaniel Rateliff - And It's Still Alright
4. The Strokes - Bad Decisions
5. Milky Chance & Jack Johnson - Don't Let Me Down
6. The Head and the Heart - Honeybee
7. Noah Cyrus & Leon Bridges - July
8. Coldplay - Orphans
9. Black Pumas - Fire
10. Maggie Rogers - Love You for a Long Time
11. The Killers - Caution
12. Beck - Uneventful Days
13. White Reaper - Might Be Right
14. Cage the Elephant - Black Madonna
15. Ray LaMontagne - Strong Enough
16. Major Lazer f/ Marcus Mumford - Lay Your Head on Me
17. Black Pumas - Colors
18. Michael Kiwanuka - Hero
19. Mt. Joy - Strangers
20. Michael Franti & Spearhead - I Got You
21. My Morning Jacket - Feel You
22. The Black Keys - Shine a Little Light
23. Of Monsters and Men - Wars
24. Matt Maeson - Hallucinogenics
25. EOB - Shangri-La
26. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit - Be Afraid
27. Mumford & Sons - Blind Leading the Blind
28. Michael Kiwanuka - Rolling
29. Pearl Jam - Dance of the Clairvoyants
30. KALEO - I Want More
31. The Lumineers - Life in the City
32. Nathaniel Rateliff - Time Stands
33. Dermot Kennedy - Giants
34. Devon Gilfillian - Unchained
35. The Killers - My Own Soul's Warning
36. The Rolling Stones - Living in a Ghost Town
37. Devon Gilfillian - The Good Life
38. Marcus King - The Well
39. Tame Impala - Is It True
40. HAIM - The Steps
41. Alanis Morissette - Reasons I Drink
42. Lana Del Rey - Mariners Apartment Complex
43. Pearl Jam - Retrograde
44. Phoebe Bridgers - Kyoto
45. Caamp - By and By
46. Glass Animals - Your Love (Déjà Vu)
47. Dawes - Who Do You Think You're Talking To?
48. The Lone Bellow - Count on Me
49. Illiterate Light - Sometimes Love Takes so Long
50. Illiterate Light - Better Than I Used To
51. Future Islands - For Sure
52. White Reaper - Real Long Time
53. Semisonic - You're Not Alone
54. The Lumineers - Salt and the Sea
55. Taylor Swift f/ Bon Iver - Exile
56. Bruce Springsteen - Letter to You
57. Elle King - The Let Go
58. Khruangbin & Leon Bridges - Texas Sun
59. Sylvan Esso - Ferris Wheel
60. Meg Myers - Running Up That Hill
61. Soccer Mommy - Circle the Drain
62. The Avett Brothers - Victory
63. Michigander - Misery
64. Maren Morris with Hozier - The Bones
65. Saint Motel - Van Horn
66. Fiona Apple - Shameika
67. Green Day - Oh Yeah!
68. Marcus King - One Day She's Here
69. Absofacto - Dissolve
70. Wilco - Everyone Hides
71. The Avett Brothers - Tell the Truth
72. Caroline Rose - Feel the Way I Want
73. Lianne La Havas - Can't Fight
74. Local Natives f/ Sylvan Esso - Dark Days
75. Delta Spirit - It Ain't Easy
76. Moon Taxi - Hometown Heroes
77. Sam Fender - Will We Talk?
78. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit - Dreamsicle
79. Norah Jones - I'm Alive
80. Best Coast - Everything Has Changed
81. Pete Yorn - I Wanna Be the One
82. Katie Pruitt - Expectations
83. Old 97's - Turn Off the TV
84. James Bay - Chew on My Heart
85. Nicole Atkins - Domino
86. Pretenders - The Buzz
87. Chris Cornell - Patience
88. Pretenders - Didn't Want to Be This Lonely
89. The War and Treaty - Five More Minutes
90. Vampire Weekend f/ Steve Lacy - Sunflower
91. Bastille f/ Graham Coxon - What You Gonna Do???
92. Liz Phair - Good Side
93. Car Seat Headrest - Hollywood
94. Brittany Howard - He Loves Me
95. Declan McKenna - Beautiful Faces
96. Matt Maeson - Go Easy
97. Grace Potter f/ Lucius - Back to Me
98. Bright Eyes - Mariana Trench
99. The Lone Bellow - Good Times
100. Real Estate f/ Sylvan Esso - Paper Cup

Spotify playlist, courtesy of myself. Note: I have attached the radio edits/versions of songs wherever possible, as some people complain of long track lengths, or/and if a different version of a song was pushed to radio. You are allowed to rank either the radio version or edit, or the original version of the track - whichever is the version you prefer.














Spotify playlist minus the songs on the alt rankdown + Running Up That Hill since we ranked it in alt last year.














Preference-revealer friendly list:

SPOILER: Click to show

Bakar - Hell n Back
Tame Impala - Lost in Yesterday
Nathaniel Rateliff - And It's Still Alright
The Strokes - Bad Decisions
Milky Chance & Jack Johnson - Don't Let Me Down
The Head and the Heart - Honeybee
Noah Cyrus & Leon Bridges - July
Coldplay - Orphans
Black Pumas - Fire
Maggie Rogers - Love You for a Long Time
The Killers - Caution
Beck - Uneventful Days
White Reaper - Might Be Right
Cage the Elephant - Black Madonna
Ray LaMontagne - Strong Enough
Major Lazer f/ Marcus Mumford - Lay Your Head on Me
Black Pumas - Colors
Michael Kiwanuka - Hero
Mt. Joy - Strangers
Michael Franti & Spearhead - I Got You
My Morning Jacket - Feel You
The Black Keys - Shine a Little Light
Of Monsters and Men - Wars
Matt Maeson - Hallucinogenics
EOB - Shangri-La
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit - Be Afraid
Mumford & Sons - Blind Leading the Blind
Michael Kiwanuka - Rolling
Pearl Jam - Dance of the Clairvoyants
KALEO - I Want More
The Lumineers - Life in the City
Nathaniel Rateliff - Time Stands
Dermot Kennedy - Giants
Devon Gilfillian - Unchained
The Killers - My Own Soul's Warning
The Rolling Stones - Living in a Ghost Town
Devon Gilfillian - The Good Life
Marcus King - The Well
Tame Impala - Is It True
HAIM - The Steps
Alanis Morissette - Reasons I Drink
Lana Del Rey - Mariners Apartment Complex
Pearl Jam - Retrograde
Phoebe Bridgers - Kyoto
Caamp - By and By
Glass Animals - Your Love (Déjà Vu)
Dawes - Who Do You Think You're Talking To?
The Lone Bellow - Count on Me
Illiterate Light - Sometimes Love Takes so Long
Illiterate Light - Better Than I Used To
Future Islands - For Sure
White Reaper - Real Long Time
Semisonic - You're Not Alone
The Lumineers - Salt and the Sea
Taylor Swift f/ Bon Iver - Exile
Bruce Springsteen - Letter to You
Elle King - The Let Go
Khruangbin & Leon Bridges - Texas Sun
Sylvan Esso - Ferris Wheel
Meg Myers - Running Up That Hill
Soccer Mommy - Circle the Drain
The Avett Brothers - Victory
Michigander - Misery
Maren Morris with Hozier - The Bones
Saint Motel - Van Horn
Fiona Apple - Shameika
Green Day - Oh Yeah!
Marcus King - One Day She's Here
Absofacto - Dissolve
Wilco - Everyone Hides
The Avett Brothers - Tell the Truth
Caroline Rose - Feel the Way I Want
Lianne La Havas - Can't Fight
Local Natives f/ Sylvan Esso - Dark Days
Delta Spirit - It Ain't Easy
Moon Taxi - Hometown Heroes
Sam Fender - Will We Talk?
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit - Dreamsicle
Norah Jones - I'm Alive
Best Coast - Everything Has Changed
Pete Yorn - I Wanna Be the One
Katie Pruitt - Expectations
Old 97's - Turn Off the TV
James Bay - Chew on My Heart
Nicole Atkins - Domino
Pretenders - The Buzz
Chris Cornell - Patience
Pretenders - Didn't Want to Be This Lonely
The War and Treaty - Five More Minutes
Vampire Weekend f/ Steve Lacy - Sunflower
Bastille f/ Graham Coxon - What You Gonna Do???
Liz Phair - Good Side
Car Seat Headrest - Hollywood
Brittany Howard - He Loves Me
Declan McKenna - Beautiful Faces
Matt Maeson - Go Easy
Grace Potter f/ Lucius - Back to Me
Bright Eyes - Mariana Trench
The Lone Bellow - Good Times
Real Estate f/ Sylvan Esso - Paper Cup

Participants
Daryl the Beryl
Trilogy
Taiga
Troy
singingrulebritannia
@humanshazam
Leo ✔
macattack
wheatsquares33
CarnoTorrential
wrip
DadJokes
jamesflame
American Idiot
narp
@bobpatience
rowellfarm490
recordyear
bbfan97
Doc Indie Party Rock
Beno
SHOOTER
maine
BB🌕
fearlessarrow
aerodynamite
willapted33
.indulgecountry
peacebone
BlurryKyle
samo🦕
taylor
Fire
Sambalada
lyhom
Red
Az Paynter
Adrian C. 🍓
Leaf
Lordef†ones

Tags:

SPOILER: Click to show

Beno jamesflame singingrulebritannia Leaf @matthewlam Red samo🦕 @humanshazam tanooki Web Zach Albie American Idiot BlurryKyle Doc Indie Party Rock Geometrical Trilogy janinho lyhom Walking Contradiction matteeeb MoD Alex1901 rowellfarm490 wheatsquares33 YotamTS maine willapted33 Lordef†ones Sambalada newpower Lukas Az Paynter Mirago Troy Juan Carlos Juanca jtd Thee Stallion alexcuse eidde wrip BB🌕 narp macattack dremolus - solarpunk 𝕡𝕙𝕖𝕖𝕓𝕤 @bobpatience fearlessarrow aerodynamite @greento c0smicvillain CarnoTorrential .indulgecountry @tim cedric Alex1901 Leo ✔ Taiga @xfer bbfan97 SHOOTER House Lannister rom recordyear

[fearlessarrow]

Ms. Taylor let's gooooo

[Daryl the Beryl]

Welcome to the adult alternative rankdown for the year of 2020! AAA, as you know, is by far the most diverse rock format. You have indie, Americana, singer-songwriter, alternative crossovers, classic rock, and more. AAA is also a format that has been more receptive to indie country than the country format themselves. You'll see those in the extras section later. A number of artists from the 80s rankdowns also show up here, notably, the Rolling Stones, the Pretenders, and Bruce Springsteen. This year was another great year for AAA, and while I had fun hosting last year's rankdown with disassociative, I've decided to host it by myself this time round. Enjoy the selection of songs!

For the record: I started this thread early so as for those who want to submit earlier. The deadline will be announced at a later point, and do expect it to be at least four weeks after I make the first reminder, and after submissions close for both the alternative and mainstream rock rankdowns.

And for the songs moved to 2021:
Phoenix - Identical
Of Monsters and Men - Visitor
Dayglow - Can I Call You Tonight?
Fleet Foxes - Can I Believe You
Tom Petty - Leave Virginia Alone
The Heavy Hours - Don't Walk Away
Caamp - Officer of Love
Kathleen Edwards - Hard on Everyone
Chris Stapleton - Cold
The Shins - The Great Divide
Michigander - Let Down
Kurt Vile & John Prine - How Lucky
Gracie Abrams - Friend
Cage the Elephant - Skin and Bones
Bastille - Survivin'
Lake Street Dive - Making Do
David Shaw - Shaken
Matt Berninger - One More Second
Deep Sea Diver f/ Sharon Van Etten - Impossible Weight
The Strokes - The Adults Are Talking
Cannons - Fire for You

[YotamTS]

I've never heard about 90% of this list

I see a lot of familiar names though, excited

[Leo ✔]

Yes!! Can't wait to rank Noah Cyrus at #1 to make some good discoveries!!

[Daryl the Beryl]

Dec 18, 2020 7:57:15 GMT -5 Leo ✔ said:

Can't wait to rank Noah Cyrus at #1

Lol be glad Lewis Capaldi, JP Saxe and Conan Gray missed the cut because these may have increased the suffering lol :kii:

[tim]

I enjoyed doing this last year and I'm looking forward to it again. I went ahead and made an Apple playlist for anyone that doesn't use Spotify like myself:

2020 AAA Rankdown Playlist

[Daryl the Beryl]

It is early, but I do want to share several extras first.

Firstly, we'll start with some songs that showed up on either Billboard's most increased plays or new and active section. This was the first single Bright Eyes have released in 9 years, but it failed to do as well as the follow-up.

BILLBOARD NON-CHARTER EXTRA

Persona Non Grata
Bright Eyes

Feel free to share your thoughts on this song below!

[Daryl the Beryl]

The supposed second single following "I Need a Teacher", which was an extra last year.

BILLBOARD NON-CHARTER EXTRA

Happy Birthday, Baby
Hiss Golden Messenger

Feel free to share your thoughts on this song below!

[Daryl the Beryl]

BILLBOARD NON-CHARTER EXTRA

Trouble Found Me
Madison Cunningham

Feel free to share your thoughts on this song below!

[Daryl the Beryl]

Atkins' second single failed to perform on the same level as "Domino". This one is pretty good too, if you ask me.

BILLBOARD NON-CHARTER EXTRA

Mind Eraser
Nicole Atkins

Feel free to share your thoughts on this song below!

[Daryl the Beryl]

Songhoy Blues are a band from Mali who got a quite a bit of non-commercial attention this year for both this song and "Barre". This one's cool and should've done something on alternative as well.

BILLBOARD NON-CHARTER EXTRA

Worry
Songhoy Blues

Feel free to share your thoughts on this song below!

[Daryl the Beryl]

Sufjan's biggest radio success to my memory (Chicago still gets some recurrent airplay though), and it's not one of his better singles, though it's more radio-friendly than most of Carrie and Lowell.

BILLBOARD NON-CHARTER EXTRA

Video Game
Sufjan Stevens

Feel free to share your thoughts on this song below!

[Daryl the Beryl]

Another artist I wished had more success on radio, but I wish it was something like "Because I'm Me" or "Frontier Psychiatrist" instead.

BILLBOARD NON-CHARTER EXTRA

Running Red Lights
The Avalanches f/ Rivers Cuomo & Pink Siifu

Feel free to share your thoughts on this song below!

[Daryl the Beryl]

Oh hey, an artist from the new and active extras last year

BILLBOARD NON-CHARTER EXTRA

Lonely Heather
The Nude Party

Feel free to share your thoughts on this song below!

[Daryl the Beryl]

And finally, "AAA", and the song that is poised to be their first top 20 on alternative in over a decade.

BILLBOARD NON-CHARTER EXTRA

Cyr
The Smashing Pumpkins

Feel free to share your thoughts on this song below!

[Daryl the Beryl]

That covers the extra reveals for the day. Expect to see the Mediabase new and active and top 50 extras in the coming days and weeks. It's still very early, so I might reveal those at a slower pace. Billboard extras will be covered during reveals.

[Daryl the Beryl]

Dec 18, 2020 15:17:13 GMT -5 tim said:

I went ahead and made an Apple playlist for anyone that doesn't use Spotify like myself:

2020 AAA Rankdown Playlist

This is minor, but the version of Dark Days that should be ranked is the one with Sylvan Esso listed as a feature (this version was released this year). Your playlist has the original instead. It's minor since the only difference is that the Sylvan Esso singer does the female vocals in the new version, rather than the Cardigans singer (who is not credited) in the original.

[tim]

Dec 19, 2020 7:57:00 GMT -5 Daryl the Beryl said:

This is minor, but the version of Dark Days that should be ranked is the one with Sylvan Esso listed as a feature (this version was released this year). Your playlist has the original instead. It's minor since the only difference is that the Sylvan Esso singer does the female vocals in the new version, rather than the Cardigans singer (who is not credited) in the original.

Thanks for the catch...I had made the playlist in a jiff before my run yesterday afternoon. It’s been updated!

[Troy]

the better Bright Eyes song didn’t even chart

also, what’s with “Video Game” & “Running Red Lights” missing? those songs are awesome!

at least CYR should make the cut for 2021 Alt

[Daryl the Beryl]

Now let's start with the new and active Mediabase extras. I track the Mediabase chart performances too and to qualify for being a new and active extra, it must have 500 spins total on alt, 150 for active, and 400 for AAA. This is the second single from the Walkmen frontman's latest album, and it failed to do much even after they sent a Lucy Dacus remix too.

EXTRA

Isabella
Hamilton Leithauser

Minimum Total Spins: 403

Feel free to share your thoughts on this song below!

[Daryl the Beryl]

The lead single from the British singer-songwriter's second studio album. This one's pretty good, too.

EXTRA

Womxn
Låpsley

Minimum Total Spins: 411

Feel free to share your thoughts on this song below!

[Daryl the Beryl]

This band have gotten a bit of airplay below the line, and this was another one of those to not make the top 50.

EXTRA

Black Cat
The Band of Heathens

Minimum Total Spins: 411

Feel free to share your thoughts on this song below!

[Daryl the Beryl]

Fittingly as a song of theirs leaves the 1984 alternative rankdown tonight, here I reveal the lead single for their first album in 29 years. The later singles from this album failed to achieve the same amount of attention as this song.

EXTRA

Don't Believe
The Psychedelic Furs

Minimum Total Spins: 424

Feel free to share your thoughts on this song below!

[Daryl the Beryl]

Prine's last recorded song before his death this year. He also had a collaboration with Kurt Vile that was his first (and probably only) song to make a rock airplay chart officially, but due to it having its chart run in two separate chart years, we unfortunately, won't be ranking that one either. This song is beautiful.

EXTRA

I Remember Everything
John Prine

Minimum Total Spins: 440

Feel free to share your thoughts on this song below!

[narp]

Going to do this, for sure. Only have a few new listens so my list should be ready in a week!

[Daryl the Beryl]

I've set a tentative deadline of January 29 for now. How does that sound?

Tags:

SPOILER: Click to show

Beno jamesflame singingrulebritannia Leaf @matthewlam Red samo🦕 @humanshazam tanooki Web Zach Albie American Idiot BlurryKyle Doc Indie Party Rock Geometrical Trilogy janinho lyhom Walking Contradiction matteeeb MoD Alex1901 rowellfarm490 wheatsquares33 YotamTS maine willapted33 Lordef†ones Sambalada newpower Lukas Az Paynter Mirago Troy Juan Carlos Juanca jtd Thee Stallion alexcuse eidde wrip BB🌕 narp macattack dremolus - solarpunk 𝕡𝕙𝕖𝕖𝕓𝕤 @bobpatience fearlessarrow aerodynamite @greento c0smicvillain CarnoTorrential .indulgecountry tim cedric Alex1901 Leo ✔ Taiga @xfer bbfan97 SHOOTER House Lannister rom recordyear

[tim]

Dec 21, 2020 1:08:50 GMT -5 Daryl the Beryl said:

I've set a tentative deadline of January 29 for now. How does that sound?

Works for me!

[Daryl the Beryl]

We still have a lot of extras to cover before the real show, so let's resume with these. Firstly, an artist you can rank in the 2016 AAA re-do.

EXTRA

Time
Jack Garratt

Minimum Total Spins: 442

Feel free to share your thoughts on this song below!

[Daryl the Beryl]

Hey, a listenable Judah song. You can rank this on 2020 alt.

EXTRA

Beautiful Anyway
Judah & the Lion

Minimum Total Spins: 444

Feel free to share your thoughts on this song below!