Let’s get this out of the way first: this year suuuuuuuuuuuuuucked. For oh so many reasons—more than we really have time or energy to get into right now.
But if you look at the date in the corner of your computer screen or on your phone or on the calendar on your wall, you will see that it is almost over. We’re not delusional enough to think that a simple turning of the page will make everything better. What we do know is that we made it. And we made it to the finish line of this gauntlet together—you, our loyal listeners, tuning into the station day after day; and us, your beloved DJs, providing the soundtrack for this long, dark stretch of our collective history. If there’s any one thing that helped soothe our collective aches, it has been music.
That’s what makes this list feel a little more poignant than usual. Our favorite albums and songs of 2020 have served to lift us when the landscape looked particularly bleak, provided a boost to our spirits as we prepared to join our fellow Portlanders in protest against inequality and police brutality, or simply echoed the bone deep sorrow that sometimes overtook us. We hope you find some solace or enjoyment or righteous fury in the music listed below. Thank you, as ever, for your continued support of XRAY. We love you all.
DJ JBJ – Hello Cruel World (Thursdays @ 3 pm)
Fontaines D.C. – A Hero’s Death
Torres – Silver Tongue
Of Montreal – UR FUN
Drive-By Truckers – The Unraveling
Pottery – Welcome To Bobby’s Motel
Favorite song of 2020: Afel Bocoum – “Penda Djiga”
Tom Humphrey – Backroad To Nowhere (Sundays @ 6 pm)
Natalie Jane Hill – Azalea
Lonnie Holley – National Freedom
Brigid Mae Power – Head Above The Water
Barry Walker Jr. – Shoulda Zenith
Waterless Hills – The Great Mountain
Favorite song of 2020: Fiver & the Atlantic School of Spontaneous Composition – “It Is What It Is (Regular Life Edit)”
Marissa B – PDX Pop Now (Saturdays @ 4 pm)
DJ Python – Mas Amable
Beatrice Dillon – Workaround
Yves Tumor – Heaven to a Tortured Mind
Theo Parrish – Wuddaji
Favorite song of 2020: DJ Python – “mmmm”
DJ Klyph – Welcome To The Neighborhood (Saturdays @ 8 pm)
Young RJ & Mega Ran – 2 Hands Up
Sa-Roc – The Sharecropper’s Daughter
Grand Nationxl – Twice on Sunday (Season 1)
Jay Electronica – Act II: The Patent of Nobility (The Turn)
4-IZE – Look Into My Ize
Favorite song of 2020: Young RJ & Mega Ran – “Storm”
Elizabeth Elder – Borrowed Time (Wednesdays @ 4pm)
Fontaines D.C. – A Hero’s Death
U.S. Girls – Heavy Light
Run The Jewels – RTJ4
Sault – Untitled (Black Is)
STRFKR – Future Past Life
Fiona Apple – Fetch The Bolt Cutters
Favorite song of 2020: Run The Jewels w/ Greg Nice & DJ Premier – “Ooh LA LA”
DJ Tex Clark – Circa Rad (Wednesdays @ 7 pm)
Pottery – Welcome To Bobby’s Motel
Sweeping Promises – Hunger For A Way Out
Rose City Band – Summerlong
Junk Drawer – Ready For The House
Jeff Parker and the New Breed – Suite For Max Brown
Favorite song of 2020: Sports Team – “Here’s The Thing”
DJ Ed – Discovery (Thursdays @ 10 pm)
Mike Cooper – Playing With Water
Beatrice Dillon – Workaround
Patrick Shiroishi – Descension
Ubaldo – Casa
V/A – New Neighborhoods
Favorite song of 2020: Ono – “Sycamore Trees”
Shawn Swagerty – Big City Radio Show (Mondays @ 8 pm)
All Hits – Men and their Work
Yuvees – Human Dance
Mr. Wrong – Create a Place
Deathlist – You Won’t Be Here For Long
Federale – No Justice
Favorite song of 2020: Lithics – “Hands”
Aaron & Cheyenne – Reverse Couple-Skate (Saturdays @ 8 am)
Our Top 5 45s Reissued in 2020
Power of Attorney – “Changing Man”/”I’m Just Your Clown”
The Fabulous Performers – “Oh How You Hurt Me”/”There She Goes”
Unity & the Downbeats – “Love Dream”/”High Voltage”
The Truths Inc. – “If I Had a Love”/”Why Then”
Skeme Richards – “King Cornbread”/”Streets of Itaewon”
Favorite song of 2020: Thee Sacred Souls – “Weak For Your Love”
DJ Bob Ham – Double Bummer (Tuesdays @ 11 pm)
Still House Plants – Fast Edit
Prolaps – Pure Mud Volume 7
Evritiki Zygia – Ormenion
Yaeji – What We Drew
Autechre – SIGN
Favorite song of 2020: MICHELLE – “Sunrise”
DJ Skull – Strike of Death (Saturdays @ 2 am)
Perdition Temple – Sacraments of Descension
Kurnugia – Forlorn and Foresaken
Precambrian – Tectonics
Black Curse – Endless Wound
Cardiac Arrest – The Day That Death Prevailed
Favorite song of 2020: Icon of Evil – “Ojcze Wasz”
DJ Kittybot – Leopardus Pardalis (Mondays @ 3 am)
Oranssi Pazuzu – Mestarin Kynsi
Marcel Bontempi – “Downbound Train” 7″
Haus Arafna – Asche
Yard Act – “Fixer Upper” 7″
Jaap Blonk/Mama Baer – Geraeusche
Favorite song of 2020: Viagra Boys – “Ain’t Nice”
Jason Urick – Galaxy My Dear (Tuesdays @ 8 pm)
Lifted – 3.3
Protect-U – In Harmony of an Inferior World
Carly Barton – O.S.T.
Nour Mobarak – Father Fugue
Auscultation – III
Favorite song of 2020: Madeline Kenney – “Picture of You”
James Dineen – Sessions From The Box (Saturdays @ 2 pm)
Sorry – 925
Lithics – Tower of Age
Loma – Don’t Shy Away
Short Haired Domestic – Short Haired Domestic
Public Practice – Gentle Grip
Favorite song of 2020: Ohmme – “Mine”
Scili – The Sound of Pictures (Wednesdays @ 4 am)
Laura Karpman & Raphael Saadiq – Lovecraft Country
Tamar-Kali – Shirley
Heather McIntosh – The Quarry
Branford Marsalis – Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Nora Kroll-Rosenbaum – Don’t Look Deeper
Favorite song of 2020: Nora Kroll-Rosenbaum & Taura Stinson – “Places I Never Knew”
Eldorado – Ballin’ The Jack (Sundays @ 9pm)
Cindy Lee – What’s Tonight To Eternity
Mort Garson – Didn’t You Hear?
Patrick Cowley – Some Funkettes
V/A – The World is a Cafeteria: Soul Music 1955-98
Budos Band – Long in the Tooth
Favorite song of 2020: Anderson .Paak – “Lockdown”
Ruth R. Ford – 80lb. Cardstock (Sundays @ 6am)
Beauty Pill – Sorry You’re Here
Com Truise – In Decay, Too
FACS – Void Moments
Bailterspace – Concret
Paul Uusitalo – any of his releases
Annie O. – Too Much Class + PDX Pop Now! (Wednesdays @ 2pm & Saturdays @ 4pm)
Mr. Wrong – Create A Place
Cold Beat – Mother
Shopping – All Or Nothing
Lithics – Tower of Age
Sweeping Promises – Hunger for a Way Out
Favorite song of 2020: Woolen Men – “Outta Reach”
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