Alyssa's Greatest Hits: 2020 Edition

Alyssa Rogan
Dec 7, 2020
2 min read

This year was completely weird and totally unanticipated, but that doesn't mean I didn't find a few new favorite things along the way. Let's end this year on a high note, shall we?

Favorite mainstream song of the year: "In Your Eyes" by The Weeknd

This song didn't get as much airtime on the radio as "Blinding Lights" (which came out at the end of 2019 and was actually my second most listened to song on Spotify this year), but "In Your Eyes" has the same synthy '80s vibe as its predecessor. I don't recommend watching the music video, though. This girl chops the Weeknd's head off and dances around with it. Gross, right?

Favorite album of the year: "Dreamland" by COIN

I found this one pretty off-handedly. I'd known a couple of their songs already, including one of the songs from this album, but one day I decided to venture over to their Spotify page to listen to a few more. The whole album's solid. It reminds me of working on my homework in the kitchen or driving to work at six in the morning.

Favorite book of the year: The Stars We Steal by Alexa Donne

This was the first thing I read this year. I actually won an advanced reader's copy back in December through a raffle on Twitter and wrote a review about it here. In short, it was fluffy and fun and jaw-droppingly gorgeous. Please do read it if you haven't already!

Favorite indie song of the year: "white noise (reimagined)" by flor

I've been obsessed with flor for a few years now. Their album "come out. you're hiding" was on repeat the entirety of my senior year of college, so it only makes sense that new music from them would hit me in the same way this year, and it did--especially this one. According to my Spotify Wrapped, I listened to "white noise" before it hit 50,000 streams. Pretty cool!

Favorite TV show of the year: Schitt's Creek

This one's a little off the grid for me. I probably wouldn't have thought to watch it had my brother not bothered me about it, but I'm so glad he did. This show is so feel-good and comforting; outrageous and relatable; dramatic and realistic; heartfelt and hilarious. The character development is subtle but so well done, and I loved seeing how the characters evolved through the seasons. David will forever and always be my favorite.