The finale---and what a great batch to close out the year!
1. A&W (Lana Del Rey):
maximum Lana Del Rey: a sweeping, seven-minute epic that follows the sunburned, SoCal folk rock she’s perfected on recent albums back to the hip-hop-inspired pop productions of her early discography. That musical scope is paired with a narrative that’s no less ambitious — vulnerable and lurid, nostalgic and hopeless, funny and utterly bleak. “A&W” tells a story, paints a picture, communicates something ineffable about sex, identity, perception, power, exploitation, girlhood, womanhood, and class. s. And the bow tying it all together? The name of classic root beer brand, “A&W” used as shorthand for “American Whore,” because no one bends American iconography to their will like Lana Del Rey. (ROLLING STONE)
2. Y.B.P (Danny Brown feat. Bruiser Wolf):
the beat for “Y.B.P” is a bit goofy and brings to mind early Insane Clown Posse but, as Brown knows well, ICP is a Detroit institution. The song is glowing with the personality and local color that’s missing from many of these songs (Bruiser Wolf hilariously sums up the state of Michigan thusly: “It’s hard to fit in the murder mitten like O.J.’s glove”). (STILL LISTENING)
3. Jenn’s Terrific Vacation (Danny Brown):
a comment on Gentrification that was released as the final single, pinpoints all the classic signs that a gentrified neighbourhood carries, from organic food spots to White Girls and hard seltzers. It’s also the most fun the production gets, tapping into tones familiar with ‘Atrocity Exhibition’. (PITCHFORK)
4. Namesake (Noname):
producer Slimwav’s sonorous funk bassline and forceful percussion set the tone for some of the most inspired rapping of the year. “’Cause if you want some money you can say that/You deserve the payback, these niggas took everything,” she spits, seemingly addressing other Black entertainers, less agitated by the single-minded ambition to deepen their pockets than by the fact that they’re pretending otherwise. (PITCHFORK)
5. So Typically Now (U.S. Girls):
the song opens with a pummeling electronic drumbeat, then slides into a strutting synth melody as Remy casts a side-eye at the “traitors with loans” that “run this show.” Remy is no stranger to oblique anti-capitalist critiques, but this one feels more than a little tongue-in-cheek: “Gotta sell all my best to buy more, not less,” she sings, hinting at her own complicity. “See you someday in heaven.” With a soaring outro that sounds lifted straight from Robin S., this disco-house banger is more fun than socio-economic commentary has any business being. It might hit different if you’ve just closed on that cute three-bedroom cottage on the Hudson, but maybe that’s the point. (PITCHFORK)
6. Scaring The Hoes (JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown):
JPEGMAFIA, a genre-straddling iconoclast himself, shares Brown’s pharmaceutical appetites and distaste for culture-industry dross. A veteran of the U.S. Air Force and Baltimore punk clubs, he’s cultivated a comparably broad audience by contrasting frenetic glitch-hop with meme-fluent snark. Their collaborative full-length, Scaring the Hoes, produced entirely by JPEG, is a vehicle for the duo’s irreverent humor and energy that captures a pair of spitballing pranksters who nevertheless maintain perfect GPAs. (PITCHFORK)
7. Brooklyn Bazquiat (Danger Mouse & Jemini The Gifted One):
and they say old school hip/hop is dead!
8. The Tide Is My Witness (Cautious Clay):
it’s not easy to blend the past with current beats for one smooth, yet great, soul interpretation but here we are.
9. Low (SZA):
the soundtrack to modern day romance…nah, this is hook-up coda 101.
10. Sweeper’s Grin (Avey Tare):
retains the hazy, searching qualities of classic AnCo songs like “Visiting Friends” or one of the longer tracks on Campfire Songs. Building in echoes, the track nearly folds in on itself, but in its final minute strips down to a recording of flowing water. It sticks the landing. (BEATS PER MINUTE)
11. Begin Again (Jessie Ware):
Ware has continued her trend of upbeat pop defiance, and in the wake of such brilliance comes a truthful, disco-revolving pop track. Ballroom brilliance, tinges of electronic sharpness mixed with a defiant, layered beat. Nothing short of sensational work, a call to arms for those stuck working all day, all night with charm spilling over. (CULT FOLLOWING)
12. Shut Yo Bitch Ass Up/Muddy Waters (JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown):
noise rap is always a confrontation, seeking to either push you to the brink or pull you in closer, and the tenor of the taunting here leans toward the latter. "You satire, camp fires to Al-Qaeda / I'm like the only lighter in Rikers," Brown raps on "Shut Yo Bitch Ass Up / Muddy Waters" in one of many verses full of numb-faced, narcotic oversharing. JPEG navigates similar signifiers from a more aggrieved perspective. (NPR)
13. All The Clubs Are Broken (Animal Collective):
the playful, boyish charm is obvious.
14. Wild Animals (Liv. e):
tossing off experimental gems like this as if it was not anything.
15. LLYLM (Rosalia):
as if last year did not gag us enough.
16. Quiet Eyes (Sharon van Etten):
perfectly suited for the Past Lives soundtrack, van Etten paints little dots of reflective happiness within the bleak production.
17. Garbage Pail Kids (JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown):
“n****s don’t rap no more, they just sell clothes / So I should probably quit and start a line of bathrobes,” quips Danny Brown on “Garbage Pale Kids,” while samples of Japanese advertisements all but drown him out. Brown may have just marked his transition to middle age on Quaranta but, if anything, on this standout from his full-length collaboration with JPEGMAFIA—SCARING THE HOES—he sounds another 40 years away from cashing out. He trades irreverent verses with Peggy and cackles his way through the joyous and janky production, which here means the guitar tone equivalent of a deep-fried meme. As a marketing strategy, the aesthetic might put off even the boldest faux-ironic influencers, but it’s a damn good way to sneak a noise rock rager into one of the year’s best hip-hop tracks. (PASTE)
18. Miami (Caroline Rose):
the most heart-breaking song of the year—not only relationship-wise but when that line about her parents matter-of-fact telling her that she needs to live better because theyre in the last act of life, it really hits home.
19. Binoculars (Shabazz Palaces feat. Royce The Choice):
a simple interpolation on what this collective does best.
20. Often (Doja Cat):
a melodic masterpiece that blends Doja Cat's signature sultry vocals with a mesmerizing beat. The lyrics delve into themes of desire and longing, striking a chord with listeners who can relate to the complex emotions the track conveys. (ILLUSTRATE MAGAZINE)
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