Top Songs of 2018: 61 - 80

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80. “No Going Back” 

Yuno
Moodie EP

79. “Immaterial” 

SOPHIE 

OIL OF EVERY PEARL'S UN-INSIDES

78. “Need a Little Time” 

Courtney Barnett 

Tell Me How You Really Feel

77. “Uh Huh” 

Jade Bird

76. “Beggars in the House of Plenty” 

Generationals 

State Dogs: Singles (2017-18)

75. “Beggars in the House of Plenty” 

Chance the Rapper

Angry Chance is not the best Chance (that would be Weatherman Chance) but we love the passion, and this is really Angry Chance.

74. “Time” 

Angelo De Augustine

Tomb

Music is very Nick Drake. Album cover is very Zack Scott circa 1988.

73. “King of Everything” 

Dominic Fike
Don't Forget About Me, Demos EP

72. “Samurai Cop (Oh Joy Begin)” 

Dave Matthews Band 

Come Tomorrow

Best DMB song in 20 years? 

71. “Get Up” 

Mother Mother

70. “Hungry Hippo” 

Tierra Whack
Whack World

69. “False Confidence” 

Noah Kahan 

68. “I Like It” 

Cardi B
Invasion of Privacy 

67. “C'est La Vie No.2” 

Phosphorescent
C'est La Vie

"I don't stand out all night in empty fields and call your name no more"

66. “Fuh You” 

Paul McCartney
Egypt Station 

Best Paul McCartney song in 40 years?  

65. “Leave it in My Dream” 

The Voidz

Virtue

Julian C. and Ezra K. (at 88) make the list but each have a less famous band mate that will make the top 10.  

64. “Minotaur Forgiving Minos” 

Moonface
This One’s for the Dancer & This One’s for the Dancer’s Bouquet 

Spencer Krug's Moonface project ends where it started, with looping Marimbas and Shit Drums (and nothing in the intervening years sounded anything like this).

63. “Florence-Jean” 

Damien Jurado
The Horizon Just Laughed 

62. “Uproar” 

Lil Watne feat. Swizz Beatz 

Tha Carter V

"five, four, three, two / where the ones go?"

61. “When You Die” 

MGMT

Little Dark Age

They probably don't have another "Electric Feel" or "Time to Pretend" in them, but at least MGMT is not actively trying to make frustrating music any more. 

Top Songs of 2018: 81- 100

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Apple Music Link

100. "Silvery Sometimes (Ghosts)"

Smashing Pumpkins 

SHINY AND OH SO BRIGHT VOL. 1

Reunited (mostly) and narrowly beating out Belly's first album in 23 years for the 90's nostalgia spot. 

99. “L.M.F.” 

Smino
NOIR

98. “Light On” 

Maggie Rogers
Heard It In A Past Life 

97. “Doesn't Matter” 

Gallant feat. A$AP Ferg

96. “Tranz” 

Gorillaz 

The Now Now 

Damon Albarn's only appearance on the list as the second album from The Good, The Bad & The Queen disappointed. 

95. “Heart to Break” 

Kim Petras

94. “It's Not Just Me” 

Let's Eat Grandma

I'm All Ears

93. “Run Run” 

RAY BLK

92. “Runnin'” 

Mike WiLL Made-It, A$AP Rocky, A$AP Ferg & Nicki Minaj
Creed II OST

A$AP Ferg is absolutely crushing the early innings of this list. It is not sustained. 

91. “Ever Again”

Robyn
Honey

 

90. “Still Life” 

Katie Ellen  

Still Life EP

89. “Without Applause” 
Horse Feathers
Appreciation

88. “I Promise You (demo)” 
Ezra Koenig
Peter Rabbit OST

A demo outtake from a children's film. Lest anyone accuse us of posturing for hipster points.  

87. “Stock Image” 

Miya Folick
Premonitions

86. “In Between Stars” 

Eleanor Friedberger 

Rebound

85. “Hearts Beat Loud” 

Keegan DeWitt & Kiersey Clemons

Hearts Beat Loud OST

Unlike the other soundtrack entries on the list, this song may not have made much of an impression without the (recommended) movie it anchors. 

 

84. “Young” 

Sun June
Years

83. “Middle Finger” 

Phoebe Ryan & Quinn XCII

82. “The Saddest Little Waffle House in Eastern Pennsylvania” 

Worriers

Survival Pop (Extended Version)

"so I'll pass judgments on NASCAR and shitty coffee / it doesn't help anyone"

81. “We Appreciate Power” 

Grimes feat. HANA

It is only a matter of time before Tesla uses this song in an ad, right? (It was a weird year for Elon Musk by any measure but the Grimes / Azealia Banks text messages about him were a different level). 

Top Songs of 2017: 1-20

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20. “Deadcrush” 

Alt + J 

RELAXER

19. “Mask Off”  

Future 

FUTURE

Modestly preferred over the remix w/ Kendrick.  

18. “High Ticket Attractions” 

The New Pornographers 

Whiteout Conditions

17. “Bad Liar” 

Selena Gomez 

First Bieber, now Selena. Blame this one on sampling the Talking Heads' "Psycho Killer".

16. “Coloring Outside the Lines” 

MisterWives

Connect the Dots

  

15. “America” 

Logic w/ Black Thought, Chuck D, et al.  

Everybody

To get political, Sir Robert Bryson Hall II (Logic's real legal name!) brings along The Roots and Public Enemy. Kanye gets hit as badly as Trump. 

14. “Nothing to Find” 
The War on Drugs 

A Deeper Understanding

Much like with their prior album, A Deeper Understanding makes a lot of appearances on year-end top 20 song lists with at least four or five different tracks getting highlighted. Strong, consistent work from Ganduciel & co. 

13. “May I Have This Dance (remix)” 

Francis and the Lights w/ Chance the Rapper

The original version of this song was from 2016's Farewell, Starlite! (this exact spot on last year's list was taken up with "Friends" from said album) but the remix w/ Chance and the fantastic video merit 2017 consideration. Even if Francis is cribbing maybe a little too much from his video template at this point.

12. “Now and Then” 

Sjowgren 

We know very little about this band, who have released only a handful of singles to date. But we did just learn that they are apparently from California, not Sweden. Självklart. 

11. “HUMBLE.” 

Kendrick Lamar 
DAMN.

Best video imagery of the year, and another album that sees many of its excellent CAPS LOCK tracks spread among top song lists.  

10. “The Wanting” 
J. Roddy Walston & The Business 
Destroyer of the Soft Life

We'd love to see a new age of "modern classic rock". While The War on Drugs seem to strive for the anthems of Springsteen, J. Roddy does a great job echoing the rollicking feel of T. Rex or even .38 Special. 

9. “Ran” 
Future Islands
The Far Field

No one sells genuine feels like Sam Herring. "And what's a song without you / when every song I write's about you"

8. “I Know a Place” 
MUNA
About U

Such a strange, great way to say "weapon" (way-pon).

7. “The Maze” 
Machester Orchestra 
A Black Mile to the Surface

A father writing a song from the perspective of his newborn child. Probably would have seemed pretty corny a decade ago. As a father of two, it hits. "Wish me a wonder / wish me to sleep / you don't have to wander to hear when I speak / there is nothing I have when I die that I keep / it's amazing"

6. “Unforgiving Girl (single version)” 
Car Seat Headrest

A pretty fascinating example of how a song can evolve with further tinkering. The original version on 2016's Teens of Denial was fine but, like a some of CSH's work, less than the sum of its parts. Re-released as a heavily reworked single in 2017, we finally feel like they are on the exact same page, at the exact same time. 

5. “Tin Can” 
Kevin Morby
City Music

A song that kept climbing the list with repeated listens. Fantastic instrumental interludes. "I am a prisoner here / but I don't mind"

4. “Call it Dreaming” 
Iron & Wine 
Beast Epic

Sam Beam, sounds more like the Sam Beam of Our Endless Numbered Days here than he has in a long time. "And we get a chance to say / before we ease away / for all the love you've left behind / you can have mine" 

3. “Feel it Still” 
Portugal. The Man.  
Woodstock

A blog favorite (top 30 appearances in 2011 and 2013), these guys richly deserve this track's overnight success, 12 years in the making.

2. “Shark Smile (single version)” 
Big Thief 
Capacity

Very much a modern, folk-y version of "Last Kiss", with a perfect "too" in the chorus. Single version streamlines the song by dropping the first minute of noise. A very good sophomore album. 

1. “american dream” 
LCD Soundsytem 
american dream

There are a lot of white dudes in the second decade of their career near the top of this list. Probably not a coincidence and no one captures the yearning better than James Murphy. The disenchanted hipster approaches middle age and is wise enough to know what he is lacking but still not wise enough to find it. If we lived vicariously through the wanderlust of musicians in our shared youth, we are content to do the same as we age together and they grapple searching for the meaning we think we've found. A song worthy of its lofty title. 

"in the morning everything's clearer / as the sunlight exposes your age / but that's okay"

"find the place where you can be boring / where you won't need to explain"

"you just suck at self-preservation"

"but now more will go with age, you know / so get up and stop your complaining"

"look what happened when you were dreaming / then punch yourself in the face"

"'its a drug of the heart and you can't stop the shaking / 'cause the body wants what is it's terrible at taking"