Hey everybody, welcome to the first half of the top 10! Figured I’d start this one a bit earlier today!
Number 10!
I Can Change: It was so hard for me to choose between this and Can’t Deny My Love. However after a lot of flip flopping I decided to go with this one. This song has one of the catchiest hooks of the year. It’s so grand without being too bombastic. It’s just great from the get go when Brandon comes in harmonizing with himself. This song is surprisingly dancey. Musically, I love the atmosphere of it. It sounds so urgent and determined. I also love how he manages to do those high falsetto notes near the end of the song without sounding shrill and annoying.
Number 9!
Magnets: I love the smoky tropical vibe of this song. The melodies in the verses and pre-chorus are just divine, that pre-chorus might just be my favorite musical moment of the year, and the hook is pretty good too. I just don’t get tired of listening to this song at all. In fact it’s grown on me since I’ve first heard it, which says something about this songs staying power as I believe it’s probably my most played song of last year. The lyrics are great, so sensual and poetic at the same time, and I just love how seductive Lorde’s voice is here. I’m not surprised she can pull that off either, Glory and Gore was already a good indication that her voice can be very alluring when she wants it to be. Bonus points also go to this for having one of my favorite videos of last year.
This Feeling: This was another one that was hard to pick, for a while I actually was going to go with Don't Wanna Fight but ultimately I decided to go with this song. This is a nice slowed down number that just really shows off how emotive Brittany Howards’ vocals can get. I just love the way she sings on the chorus. You can just feel how she’s desperate to keep her newfound emotions. I love how the songs about coming out of a stage where you’ve felt numb for so long. The music is very simple, the main point of this song is the singing after all, and there’s this strange kind of distortion effect that’s going on in the chorus that just really sells it for me. This is just a very nice song that just gets me right in the heart every time.
Message Man: Twenty-One Pilots came out of nowhere and grabbed my attention this year and I’m glad they did. This song is my favorite off of their album Blurryface. I really like the way the lyrics are sort of ambiguous so that people can derive their own message from it. For me I think this song deals with depression and letting other people words interfere with how you see yourself. I could be totally wrong but that’s how I see it. I also love the melody and the music of course, as I’ve stated before good lyrics alone won’t make me love a song, but here it’s the lyrics that just cement my love for this song.
Welcome Home: This song is just so heartwarming. This song’s subject is simple, its Joy welcoming her loved one back home to her. It’s simple, yet so effective. The lyrics are just so warm and fuzzy in the best way. Her voice here is so sweet and beautiful, though it's always beautiful no matter what's she's singing. I also really love how the sweeping melody is in the chorus and the climax in the bridge is very nice. The music itself has an orchestral feel to it and just makes this sound like a grand epic. It really makes me think that this song would be great for a coming home scene at the end of a big adventure movie. I'm very glad Joy decided to continue doing music after the break-up of The Civil Wars and especially since she changed direction from the Christian/pop she was doing beforehand.
That’s it for tonight. Tune in tomorrow at around 7:30 for the finale of this list!
Traveling Song: It was really hard to choose between this and New Constellations but in the end I had to go with this. Here we have Ryn’s memorial to her grandpa. Ugh, this song gets me right in the feels yes it does. I relate to this so well because I too had a really close relationship with my grandpa on my mom’s side. However, relatability alone is not enough to get a song this high on my list. I happen to find that this song is both really emotional and profound at the same time. It’s basically a song where she’s thinking about what it means to be alive and dead and how everywhere she goes she’ll be singing a traveling song to remember her grandpa by. Lyrically this is one of my favorite, if not my favorite, song to come out this year. Every line of this song is great to me. It has a very folksy vibe to it that is accompanied by a similarly folksy instrumental. No fancy bombast here, Ryn lets the lyrics do the talking for her. I especially love the spoken word outro where she really seems to be almost breaking down as she talks about her relationship with her grandpa and how he would encourage her to go on with the show despite his absence. One of the most genuine songs of the year.
Take You High: This is my favorite Kelly song from this decade. Everything about it is great, the lyrics, the melody, the instrumental, everything is awesome. This song is just hit moment after hit moment. First we get Kelly’s voice, which sounds more beautiful on this track than in most of her other songs, and a blast of 80’s inspired synths. That then leads up to an orchestral pre-chorus which builds into the wonderful climax that is the chorus. When that beat drops in the chorus it’s just an explosion of euphoria. Then we get back to the 80’s synths but this time we have more layers to the production. That is one thing I really love about this song, it just builds up to the bridge which is honestly probably the most epic moment in Kelly’s discography, especially as it’s building up to the final chorus and from there the song is just pure awesomeness, completely with Kelly howling like a wolf, until the end. Kelly really needs to branch out and experiment more like she did with this song.
Lazarus: This is by far one of the most addictive songs of the year for me. I just could not stop listening to it when it first came out, and even now it still feels as epic as the first time I listened to it. This song has a very cold feel to it, cold and futuristic. Which goes great with the subject matter. Lazarus is VV Brown’s critique of modern day consumerism and privilege. The melody in this song is just divine, it just shimmers. The way the chorus just hooks me like a fish is just awesome and the verses are amazing too. Listening to this song just makes me feel like I’ve traveled into the future because of how out of this world it sounds. I think this is VV’s best song yet.
Black Lake: Lyrically this is probably my favorite song of the year. Instead of being obtuse as she’s usually known for being, she is remarkably straight forward here. Her straightforwardness about her sorrow is what makes this song powerful as her words are just so saddening. This song is an epic to go through. Despite the fact that this song is ten minutes it does not feel like it overstays its welcome as this is a song that just builds and builds. The beginning starts out with just Bjork’s heartbroken vocals and a violin but as it goes along more and more layers get added to the production. Eventually we start getting more and more electronic beats added in and more instruments as well. The song starts getting more “full” you can say as it goes along eventually coming together at around the halfway point. From there the melody starts becoming more complex and hectic until around the ending where it gets more simple again as Bjork seems to have worked her though her emotions and is now either ready to move on or give in to the despair depending on how one interprets the final lines. This song is just so soul crushing in all the best ways.
Loud Places: This song, this song is just everything. The mood, the melody, the production, the lyrics, the vocals, everything on this song is perfect. It’s a perfect song about still being in love with an ex-lover. Romy’s vocal here is everything, she sounds so sad and destroyed over the relationship that is dead and gone. The lyrics here are simple but really cut to the heart of the matter. The ending lines “You're in ecstasy without me, When you come down, I won't be around” are just a knife to the heart every time and just a great stinger for this song. The melody here is so simple, yet so genius. It’s really does a good job at conveying the feeling of loneliness and despair, especially at the end of the bridge. The music here is also lush and feels so cold and yet so beautiful. The chorus is a bit different than the rest of the song where it actually feels a bit happier and warm as the singer is remembering just how much they love their ex. This song just puts me in a trance every time I listen to it. Despite how sad it is there is something oddly relaxing about the song, maybe it’s the beat or maybe I’m just a bit crazy. It just a song that I have never grown tired of listening to even after so many plays. This song is just brilliant in every way.
Well that’s it for this list. It’s been fun doing this countdown. Tomorrow will be the beginning of the list of my favorite albums of 2015! Hope to see you there!
my 2nd fave songs from their respective albums 
is gonna make this best of go up in flames and BURNITUP (feat. Missy Elliott) 
but Magnets was the only song I loved! Lorde 
