If Ms. Jackson was significant for opening up a door to conversations about custody and co-parenting in aworld where those kinds of things historically aren't the hottest topics, then Hello is significant for giving us an update on that same conversation 15 years later, showing us that even as some things don't work out ... everything still usually comes out alright in the end. It speaks to the songwriting outlook of both parties. that the best song on a project about phones is the one that drops that theme altogether in favor of something about 100 times more expansive and universal.
39. Beach House - Sparks
All the texturey deliciousness of shoegaze but with a level of restraint and organization that never existed
back when that was the big thing to do. You didn't expect them to switch it up thaat much, did you now.
38. Pusha T - Untouchable
blunted in a 600 blu blunted in a 600
THUNDERING
37. easyFun - Laplander
Hm, so from about 15 seconds in through most of the rest of the song, we're in pretty standard PC
territory. But that little recurring finicky bit – that is all we needed to blast the whole thing through the
stratosphere and elevate it into something much, MUCH bigger.
36. Animal Collective - FloriDada
No need to spend any time walking around with a flashlight searching for a melody; the new approach is hitting you over the head with 15 different ones all in a row, + they are bright and sunny ones. that make me happy
35. Neon Indian - Slumlord (+ Slumlord's Re-Lease)
putting hedonism ON BLAST in a masterpiece of pacing. I just got the double-meaning of 'lease'! haha!
34. Car Seat Headrest - Something Soon
A reminder that angst has roots in a very real combination of hopeless, anxiety, fear etc. etc., but that starting your own rock band as a way to deal constructively will never not be an option there for you.
33. Kehlani f/ Lexii Alijai - Jealous
There are just so many more ways of doing someone dirty in today's world than there were 10-15 years ago, but at least here's our girl to take an honest stand at doing away with one of them. The actual tangible e•mo•tion that comes straight to the front by the time the guest verse wraps up. A nice + I would have to think not 100% intentional, touch.
32. Hannah Diamond - Hi
Maybe the first time with this gang that the surface artificiality goes so hand-in-hand with the subject matter at hand. So looks like we're playing double negatives or some **** because that peak outburst of 'WANTING, WAITING' doesn't feel calculated, it feels like genuine spontaneous pop magic, 'PC' label not necessary.
31. M.I.A. - Borders
Because the best protest music bangs hard as ****. We've known this.
Our boy holding himself accountable for all the tragedies surrounding
him is maybe the saddest part of it all. But what a pretty melody.
29. The Weeknd - Can't Feel My Face
The first Weeknd song that didn't sound like every other Weeknd
song! Instead it sounds like an MJ song! Maybe even better!
28. Waxahatchee - Under a Rock
The 90s were a fun time.
27. Snakehips f/ Tinashe & Chance the Rapper - All My Friends
It's got its roots in the general lack of connection that it's easy to feel as a young person in (2016), and in a couple slight phrases it does an amazing job of articulating the frustration that I am sure that has spawned in all of us at some point. But I dunno, maybe wait till the song gets a little bigger and go out with some budz and wait till the song comes on and see if the ensuing group singalong doesn't make you feel a little better.
26. A$AP Rocky - L$D
He says the D stands not for drugs but for dreams, but it doesn't matter, or rly it's both.
Melodic hip hop at its best, to the point where it's v questionable whether it's still hip hop at all.
The best Max Martin song since .. Style! Weird ESL lyrics on top of a monumentally, just explosively HUGE chorus that takes it time getting where it needs to go + feels that much more warranted because of.
24. Björk - Stonemilker
Totally heartbreaking, independent of whether you speak English or
are even paying attention or whatever. It bleeds through to the music.
23. Carly Rae Jepsen - Warm Blood
The best example on an album filled w/ many of pop magic not beating you over the
head with its immediacy, but worming its way into the BLOODstream on a more low-key level.
feels good I can't control it anymore ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
22. Miguel - Simple Things
It's just...adorable and I know he probably doesn't explicitly want it to be, but it comes out that way because
for all the intentness on ~cool it's a very sincere moment. Stunned at the genre blurring as per usual.
21. Skepta - Shutdown
~a buunch of young men all dressed in black dancing extremely aggressively on the track, it made me
feel so intimidated and it's just very much what I expect to be hearing in the rap music of today
--
that Drake vine was the worst thing I'd ever seen in my life and he turned it into the best thing I've ever heard
the magic trusss me dadee
Love Me Like You Do Song of the year tbh. The verses are amazing but the huge chorus is definitely what makes it phenomenal (I'm always a sucker for explosive choruses.)
Warm Blood Great track from EMOTION. It definitely sticks out as it's a lot darker and deeper than most of the album.
I was in the shower a couple days ago trying to put my finger on which 80s Prince
single that 'and then you looked at me that way' bit came from, then it hit me.
and that really tells you all you need to know about the melodic soundness of this one doesn't it.
If there is a SOPHIE/PC track that without sounds 100% as good in a vortex as it does in context
of the world around it, this is ur guy. Not a backhanded compliment, it is really just something very pure.
19. Joanna Newsom - Divers
Divers wins the award for first 2015 album I listened to in 2016 (there's one more that came right after)! + there were a lot of moments on it that showed me maybe I've been doing wrong by not paying her much attention at all over the yearz, but its GORGEOUS centerpiece (probably inspired at least in some part by Andy Samberg) was def the biggest of all. I stay the most novice of novices at deciphering the lyrics she writes, but man that **** moved me no problems.
18. Grimes - Butterfly
So shamelessly indebted to soo many different strands of pop history but at the same time unmistakably
the work of a true individual blazing her own trail forward. It's all great but I swear those ****ing guitar parts
elevate it to this new level that's just... ---Teenage Dream the song's greatest asset that no one else in pop
has since really thought to emulate.
for some reason it just strikes me as the music equivalent of one of ATRL's pokemon smilies.
Such a good thing. maybe Bulbasaur.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
17. Sufjan Stevens - No Shade in the Shadow of the Cross
So it's not the same as Should Have.. where he's physically blaming himself for what others have done wrong, but turning to the thing that's always been your pillar during in the midst of the biggest crisis of your whole life and finding no relief is honestly prob. a little sadder. But just in case we have an even more gorgeous melody to wrap us up this time, just a man, his guitar + his like air conditioner or something running in the bg to keep it raw.
16. Drake & Future - Diamonds Dancing
I mean obvs the whole thing is ****in gold
But if songs could only be vine length and no longer, and the chosen section for this one was the 'DIAMONDS DIAMONDS DIAMONDS ON ME DANCIN' bit. then it would probably be the best song of 2015 instead of just the 16th.
But ohhh who is Drake if not a lil tease.
Just when all the ******** he be spewing has gotten truly endearing he comes and knocks you on the ****ing floor with those lyrics. Not even in a sad way at all, just like ... wooo the CUTTING, cutting observation, you know it's there even if you can't get straight to his message at all times. And he's just like... listing things. Not to underscore all the other things that make ILYHB so good as a whole because those are all here too in fine form, but definitely the best thing I listened to all year from a straight lyrical perspective.
14. The Weeknd - The Hills
Couple notes
- listen to how ****ing strong the base is here. How it can barely go 1 line without cutting
into the story somehow, turning in into its own very crucial character in the story being told.
- this song is about Ariana Grande
- if you told me 1 year ago that this would go on to be a 6 week #1 I would have thought you were a big dummy. But just think a bit about how stacked the odds were against that happening. here we are
- but at the same time it makes a lot of sense, how it hearkens back to that good old Ethopian who gave us House of Balloons that the GP didn't know they were missing until he came to reintroduce himself, but ties the whole package together with the absolute tightest structure and the absolute most insidious big singalong chorus in the whole world
It's just soo good
13. YG - Twist My Fingaz
See I can't break this one down into the same kind of multi-part analysis that I could with the above or really a lot of the other songs in this section but I don't need to bc it's so clear from 2 seconds in how good it is and what exactly makes it that way.
a SCRUMPTIOUS cut of classic g-funk just as slick, just as catchy, just as likable as anything from the 90s that set the stage for its very self to be made.
They see my altitude and have a attitude
12. Courtney Barnett - Depreston
The most emotionally probing artistic depicting of suburban house hunting that I have been exposed to by a pretty sizable margin. But then also the best. It's like one of those moments not even when you've suffered a tragedy but just anytime out there when you least expect it when you see something on its basic level + a second later it opens itself up to a dimension you didn't even know you had in your brain and just WRECKS you throwing your whole life perspective out of whack. If that makes sense. It does when she tells the story. But it is all good with that guitar riff along to hold your hand for the ride.
11. Miguel - waves
I thiink
driving up and down the Amalfi Coast -- like above actual waves -- in a rental van w/ assorted
family members, snapping pics here and there while having this beamed into my head on loop
means that I had a better vacation this summer anyone else ever in the world
The most ~psychedelic thing they've ever done in the sense of truly making you feel you're on a journey. Compulsively listenable and replayable even in the face of an 8 minute running time and a perfect encapsulation of everything the whole era was about re:responding to big life changes. Turns out fight or flight are not the only two options anymore!
What can I say about Fetty Wap that hasn't been said already? He was definitely a breath of fresh air this year in the context of a hip hop scene being pulled apart to 2 distinct sides: clouded claustrophobia and Hotline Bling, and this lil' quietly progressive blast of optimism was what kicked it all off! Very simply one of the most likable songs I have EVER heard, and for all of its potential novelty value it made it through the whole year without dipping in enjoyability one bit.
It's all about the build. Let me listen once or twice and on a song like "Sparks" I can spot it from a mile away; it's something rigid and structured and most definitely appreciated -- it makes the song what is is and even with that touch of experimentation on top it still does so in that classic Beach House way that of course we came in expecting. This is different. It takes its time getting to that point and it never even really becomes HUGE the way you might think it is coming off the starkness of the beginning. But even if it's different for every listener, there will be a point where you realize it's snuck up on you, when you're just totally engulfed. And from then on it's a gentle rock back to the end, till its time to press repeat start all over again.
So what's the secret ingredient? The thing that makes it different from every other Beach House Song?
It's gotta be the choir
Remember this from the HMs?? Yeah this was supposed to be Kill v. Maim's spot, but in the ~month or so since I first made this list, this has been the one to stick with me the most. + you could see that as some kind of statement: the most overtly sonically weird thing that she's ever done post-breakthrough versus the song of hers with the most likelihood ever of being played on the radio somewhere. But ofc it's not that simple + nothing wrong with a giant obvious pop song (#5 ), but the fact that 3 months and 70+ listens in I continue to find new things going on with every return says what it needs to say about the layers she's working with even at her most human and instantly gratifying.
6. Jamie xx f/ Young Thug + Popcaan - I Know There's Gonna Be (Good Times)
Multiculturalism Lyrics that don't make sense 8 tracks of gradual buildup and then just with no warning at all an EXPLOSION of life and happiness and COLOUR! The good times have arrived.
Sample of assorted YouTube comments as I go to copy and paste the link to this video:
"I don't understand why this isn't ALL over radio. Consider the facts: it's catchy as hell, has the same production as Taylor's 1989 (the second biggest album of 2015) and she seems like a decent, hardworking person. This song is magnificent!!"
"I only listened to this song because Justin Bieber tweeted about it and dedicated this song to his gf but I ended up listening to her whole album and it's actually really good. I wish she wasn't so underrated."
"Why is mainstream radio sleeping on this song? This easily wins best pop song of 2015."
"only 11 M ??? seriously ??? Blanck Space 1 B ?? World ??"
so the system is broke and life isn't fair but it's all still kinda good because the underdogs will continue to excel and be recognized as such if only on a less visible level, because you can't hide excellence (note: most of this only applies to Carly. there's so many lower level pop almost-rans who are truly, truly awful. the same goes for YouTube comments).
Anyway this is one of those songs that does an amazing job at just capturing a feeling (prob the one that it mentions in its lyrics.) When you first hear that saxophone hook at the beginning of the song, then a little while on and the chorus starts and it JUMPS back on you, it's like getting lost on a safari + hearing an elephant make its noise from like 2 miles away then you lose yourself in the surroundings for like 45 seconds then the next thing you know you're on the elephant's back running across the safari 3763 miles per hour. exhilarating