Getting closer...
21. Angel Of Business (Grace Ives):
takes a stunningly simple pop premise and runs with it.
22. 2 Be Loved (Am I Ready) (Lizzo):
a delirious future smash on which Lizzo capitalises on the post-‘Blinding Lights’ flair for ’80s pop sounds in the most Lizzo way imaginable: by sounding a bit like the Pointer Sisters. (NME)
23. Cybah (Syd feat. Lucky Daye):
pulling these glorious results out at will now.
24. Photograph (Perfume Genius):
maybe it’s a youthful crush or a now-deceased lover but the searing tenderness and burn that Hadreas utilizes here borders on obsession.
25. Run Away (Koffee):
we don’t get a personal check for the intended but when it rocks this smoothly, who cares?
26. Diet Coke (Pusha T):
at this point, just flexing for fun.
27. Gasoline (The Weeknd):
disturbing but giddy.
28. Fired (Remi Wolf):
“I’m a fine design, busy when you hit my line, I’m a working girl in a wicked world,” Wolf sings over breathy and chopped background vocals and long-drawn-out keyboard notes. “Get it wrong every day I’m trying to figure out my life, I’m a cry baby I’m so lazy… I ramble, I gamble with my future, that’s true sir,” she sings in the second verse, juxtaposing her confidence in the first. Wolf goes on questioning if she’ll ever be able to be herself, and if she’ll ever be able to get it right- a familiar feeling for people struggling to meet the needs of a capitalist society while also meeting their own needs. (THE ANTI MAGAZINE)
29. D.M.B. (A$AP Rocky):
yes, it’s a love letter to Rihanna but in the process, Rocky presents something even grander—a stunning rap opus.
30. Blink Twice For Yes (Jam Baxter):
pipes its levels just at the right cues.
31. Livin’ In The After (Panda Bear & Sonic Boom):
a rich, flourishing pop song replete with dancing strings and a massive vocal hook. It's the kind of song you could play in the dead of winter and end up instantly transported to the shimmering sands of a remote tropical paradise. (SPUTNIK MUSIC)
32. Midnight Sun (Nilufer Yanya):
“don’t like whenever I’m not in pain/Peeling back, not noticing/The blood and bones beneath my skin,” she sings on “midnight sun,” one of several disquieting lyrics about doing herself harm or inviting whoever hurt her to go ahead and grind her heart underfoot while they’re at it. The sting proves that this thing was once alive, even if she has to dig her nails under the scab to still feel it. (PITCHFORK)
33. Saviour (Kendrick Lamar feat. Baby Keem & Sam Dew):
striking yet forceful.
34. Come On, Let’s Go (Nigo & Tyler, the Creator):
it’s a testament to Tyler’s greatness that a throwaway track dealing with trying to get your lady ready to go out, becomes such a groove addiction.
35. Selfish Soul (Sudan Archives):
black women and their hair—this is your new anthem.
36. Confession (Katy J Pearson):
comes inspired by a conversation about #MeToo: it’s an anxious rattle of a song, with the synthesizer mimicking a claustrophobic tightness in the chest. Anger bleeds through the lyrics as Person repeats: ‘I tried to tell you something / React, react, react, react, react / But you just wouldn’t listen’. (NME)
37. Strung With Everything (Animal Collective):
a carnivalesque Beach Boys reverie that peaks with the sort of call-and-response breakdown you’d hear in a romantic early rock’n’roll single—though, in this case, the view from Lookout Point has gotten a lot bleaker: “Let’s say tonight, you and me,” Portner excitedly sings, “we’ll watch the sky fall into pieces!” (PASTE)
38. Simulation Swarm (Big Thief):
the first thing that jumps out is the song’s dizzying crispness. Against a shimmering backdrop of open-string acoustic strumming, James Krivchenia lays down an uncharacteristically minimalist drum pattern, all knife’s-edge hi-hats and bone-dry snares; into the wide-open space suggested by those elements sails Max Oleartchik’s high-necked bass melody, which positively glows. All the usual components of a Big Thief song are here, but it’s as if they’ve shifted in position, relative both to each other and to you. The details are sharper, the shadows deeper. (PITCHFORK)
39. Thorn (Pendant):
blending ethereal shoegaze with hip-hop elements, he touches on pop's left-field while also embracing underground electronics.(CLASH MUSIC)
40. Trip (Yung Lean):
featuring producers Woesum and Art Dealer, who slap the song with a strong bass, “Trip” sees Yung Lean indulging in the braggadocious lyricism often associated with popular rap songs. As he raps about a girl that smells “like peppermint” and boasts about his swagger (“Let me change your life / Southside, motorcycles in the summer, leather jacket life”) Lean creates a sonic portal meant to allow listeners to entertain their own ideas about reveling in hedonism. (NYUNEWS)
