The Spotify playlist first, if you want the artists to get slightly larger fractions of cents than they would from YouTube:
My top ten songs of the year:
1. Lil Baby: “The Bigger Picture”
A liberal wet dream, from “all whites not racist” to the ballot-over-bullet solutions to coming very close to taking moral responsibility for the hard-dripping rap previously dealt by him and his colleagues. As someone who likes both liberalism and his collaborations with Gunna while insisting there’s more to life, I’m moved by his thoughtfulness and leadership and will totally understand if he soon returns to rapping about watches and loud cars.
2. Big Thief: “Not” (2019)
I regret missing this in 2019, though as nothing in their admirable career up until then suggested they had this in them, you’ll forgive me for dismissing the initial reports as hyperbolic. And I’ll forgive you if you don’t agree this is the best hard rock song of the 2010s.
3. Rina Sawayama: “Bad Friend”
These days nostalgia is permissible only if you at least feel guilty about something, a condition she has no difficulty satisfying. She digitally harmonizes with herself on the chorus to make her self-beratement multivocal, and yet since this is pop music it has its element of exultation. Can’t have been a bad friend if you never had friends!
4. Iris DeMent: “Going Down to Sing in Texas”
A model of clear political communication: her takes are served at an appropriate temperature, and she only picks the fights she needs to (yes that includes you, Mr. Bezos.) Add fetching piano and McGarriglesque song-that-doesn’t-end melody and you have a rather unexpected contender for her career best.
5. Bree Runway and Yung Baby Tate: “Damn Daniel”
Over old school snares and with post-retro aesthetics, collegiate ingenue Keisha describes her admiration for one Damn Daniel, as does Felicia from further round the way, and suddenly it becomes clear why neither of them show up on his Instagram. By the time we get to “If you fuck with him, he’ll fuck all your friends”, it feels like the culmination of a 30-year pop feminism syllogism.
6. Baby Queen: “Buzzkill”
She takes “Loser” and the Butthole Surfers’ “Pepper” as a musical base, adding contemporary vocal effects and subtracting ’90s ironic self-loathing for the more committed ’20s kind. Bummer!
7. Gmac Cash: “Coronavirus”
This March 15 release turned out to be more prescient than the bulk of the officials who were paid to be: pro-mask, understanding the necessity of contact tracing slash snitching, haunted by the feeling that we were in for a year of this. His follow-up paean to his governor Big Gretch was more of a regional thing.
8. Luke Combs: “Six Feet Apart”
“Everyman” has been a dangerous status to aspire at least since women became recognized as people too. Still, there’s no more appropriate word for this normal dude, who misses his parents, likes hugging people, gets lonely social distancing, but mostly doesn’t want to murder anyone. What’s more, it’s how he sings: anyone can sing along, though that doesn’t mean you’ll sound like an everyman.
9. Taylor Swift: “Betty”
After a decade plus, she’s returned to her historic strength: a short character piece about teens in love, only here with harmonica and cardigans to make the triumphant-or-is-it key change acceptable to the hipsterati. To be clear, this is not an improvement over the best of Fearless, but this would be like asking Shakespeare to improve on Romeo and Juliet. What? He did? Like, six times? Tell him to go fuck himself.
10. G Flip: “Hyperfine”
Post-Sia Australian drops her f-bombs in the first half of the chorus, so that “hyperfine” becomes an even higher aspirational state, like it’s Super Saiyan 2.
Note: For year-end poll purposes, I’m dropping Big Thief and adding the BLM remix of DaBaby and Roddy Ricch’s “Rockstar” (which has the video of the year.)
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Rather than present the whole list as one big glop, I’ll categorize by how much streaming revenue each song has brought in.
Two large pizzas plus a free Coke with coupon (less than 100,000 Spotify plays)
Iris DeMent: “Going Down to Sing in Texas”
Peter Stampfel and the Bottle Caps: “Surfer Angel”
Elizabeth Cook: “Thick Georgia Woman”
Mexican Institute of Sound, Graham Coxon: “My America Is Not Your America”
Annika Norlin: “Showering in Public” (2019)
Thiago Nassif, Arto Lindsay, Vinicius Cantuaria, Gabriela Riley: “Soar Estranho”
Laura Jane Grace & the Devouring Mothers: “This Year”
Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Daniel Bjarnason, Iceland Symphony Orchestra: “Metacosmos” (2019)
Wussy: “Breakfast in Bed” (2012)
Elizabeth Cook: “Bayonette”
Kefaya, Elaha Soroor: “Jama Narenji” (2019)
Kalie Shorr: “The World Keeps Spinning” (2019)
Aly Keïta, Jan Galega Brönnimann, Lucas Niggli: “Bafut”
Yonic South: “Tell Me Why”
Anna Högberg Attack: “Dansa Margit”
Jeffrey Lewis: “My Girlfriend Doesn't Worry” (2019)
Peter Stampfel and the Bottle Caps: “Funny the First Time”
Fox Green*: “The Day Marc Bolan Went to Nashville”
Guiss Guiss Bou Bess: “Majorettes #1” (2019)
The Rails: “Call Me When It All Goes Wrong” (2019)
Gyedu-Blay Ambolley: “Who Made Your Body Like Dat”
*Disclaimer: A member of Fox Green has given me medical advice.
A month’s rent, if you don’t mind sharing a room (100,000 to 1 million plays)
Bree Runway, Yung Baby Tate: “Damn Daniel”
Baby Queen: “Buzzkill”
Gmac Cash: “Coronavirus”
Duke Deuce, Lil Thad, Lil Yachty: “Crunk Ain’t Dead Mob”
Simmy, Da Capo, Sun-El Musician: “Emakhaya”
John Anderson: “Years”
Wand: “Airplane” (2019)
Billy Nomates: “Hippy Elite”
K. Michelle: “Table for One”
Sunflower Bean: “King of the Dudes” (2019)
Jealous of the Birds: “Marrow” (2019)
Sauce Twinz, Sauce Gohan, Sada Baby: “Big Drip Squad”
Elder: “Halcyon”
Midnight: “Lust Filth and Sleaze” (2011)
Azana: “Your Love”
Sudan Archives: “Iceland Moss” (2019)
A year’s health insurance, as long as you don’t have dependents and you can put some time into comparison shopping on the exchanges (1 million to 10 million plays)
Big Thief: “Not” (2019)
Rina Sawayama: “Bad Friend”
G Flip: “Hyperfine”
Fiona Apple: “For Her”
Touche Amore, Manchester Orchestra: “Limelight”
Master KG: “Skeleton Move” (2018)
Mickey Guyton: “Black Like Me”
Sun-El Musician, Msaki: “Ubomi Abumanga”
Charli XCX: “Forever”
Jessie Ware: “Save a Kiss”
Brown Eyed Girls: “Sixth Sense” (2011)
Petter Eldh, Koma Saxo: “Fanfarum for Komarum II” (2019)
Itzy: “You Make Me”
Romy: “Lifetime”
Fiona Apple: “Shameika”
Rina Sawayama: “STFU!”
Julien Baker: “Hurt Less” (2017)
The Comet Is Coming: “Summon the Fire” (2019)
BM: “Rosalina (Break Your Back)” (2018)
Rico Nasty: “iPhone”
Tiny Ruins: “Olympic Girls” (2019)
Kvelertak, Troy Sanders: “Crack of Doom”
Little Big Town: “The Daughters” (2019)
Yerin Baek: “Square (2017)” (2019)
A sensible midsize hybrid sedan (10 million to 100 million plays)
Luke Combs: “Six Feet Apart”
Taylor Swift: “Betty”
DaBaby, Roddy Ricch: “Rockstar” (BLM remix)
100 Gecs: “Stupid Horse” (2019)
Taylor Swift: “’Tis the Damn Season”
Taylor Swift: “The Last Great American Dynasty”
Sam Hunt: “Hard to Forget”
100 Gecs: “Ringtone” (2019)
Apink: “Dumhdurum”
Riley Green: “I Wish Grandpas Never Died” (2019)
Morgan Wallen: “7 Summers”
Troye Sivan: “Easy”
Breland, Sam Hunt: “My Truck” (remix)
Soccer Mommy: “Circle the Drain”
Raye: “Please Don't Touch” (2019)
Playboy Carti: “@ Meh”
Usher, Ella Mai: “Don't Waste My Time” (2019)
Hyo, Loopy, Soyeon: “Dessert”
Jon Pardi: “Heartache Medication” (2019)
Haim: “The Steps”
Girl in Red: “Dead Girl in the Pool” (2019)
Troye Sivan: “In a Dream”
A yacht, used (over 100 million plays)
Lil Baby: “The Bigger Picture”
Billie Eilish: “Xanny” (2019)
Red Velvet: “Psycho” (2019)
Cardi B, Megan Thee Stallion: “WAP”
Gabby Barrett: “I Hope” (2019)
The Weeknd: “Blinding Lights” (2019)
Lil Mosey: “Blueberry Faygo”
Roddy Ricch: “The Box”
Saint Jhn, Imanbek: “Roses” (remix, 2019)
24kGoldn, Iann Dior: “Mood”
Joel Corry, MNEK: “Head & Heart”
Lil Uzi Vert: “That Way”
Billie Eilish: “Everything I Wanted”
Lil Baby: “Woah”
Master KG, Nomcebo Zikode: “Jerusalema”
Megan Thee Stallion, Beyoncé: “Savage Remix”
Next: Some of these names return in Odds & Ends 102.