YoungBoy Never Broke Again, ‘Toxic Punk’Īnd they say rock ’n’ roll is dead! 13. The heretofore unexplored middle ground between the Peloton and the pit, “Stay” was a colossal smash, a hi-NRG song that’s somehow completely particular to the pop-punk revival breakthrough moment and also could be 30 years old or a beacon from 30 years in the future.
Tems featuring Brent Faiyaz, ‘Found’Ī woozy and cocksure R&B duet that sounds like it was recorded in the middle of a lovers’ quarrel. A viral smash but more important, a directly effective grunge-y burst of frustration with American bigotry that seeps even into the minds of children. What an assured, confident, necessary howl of pure punk pushback. The Linda Lindas, ‘Racist, Sexist Boy (Live at LA Public Library)’
The rapping is relaxed and lush, and the union with Rick Ross is pitch-perfect nostalgia for the arriviste arrogance of a decade ago. The certified lover boy’s best song this year was a throwback to a hungrier era. Drake featuring Rick Ross, ‘Lemon Pepper Freestyle’ The battles around Kacey Musgraves always seem to be about genre, but she’s far more interested in internal scuffles. The ruthless Summer Jam screen exposé of country-pop. Sparse, leisurely guitar picking and impassive programmed drums accompany Leon Bridges as he bemoans the fading passion in his romance, trying to figure out who’s to blame. The R&B singer Rod Wave welcomes death as a relief from a hard life, in a track that starts as a plaint set to acoustic guitar and builds toward gospelly redemption. “I would kill him if you let me,” Dacus offers. Tension seethes under stately keyboard chords and a calmly rising and falling melody, as the narrator accompanies her girlfriend on a fraught family visit, a meeting with her long-estranged father. Gently but decisively, Kacey Musgraves confronts the many mixed feelings of a divorce, in a track that repeatedly shrinks to a lone guitar before opening canyons beneath her voice. Over a snaking, circling 7/4 guitar line and tremulous strings, Jenn Wasner sings about purpose, fate and acceptance. “I wanna know they can’t take this away from me,” Nandi Rose Plunkett sings in the dramatic “Swimmer.” Synthesizer tones appear and then speed up into arpeggios, pulsing and swarming around her as she turns herself into a choir and proclaims her love, need and uncertainty. “I do it for the culture,” Lizzo insists, and she points out that “Black people made rock ’n’ roll.” 6. Lizzo featuring Cardi B, ‘Rumors’Ī thoroughly self-satisfied Lizzo and Cardi B exult, over horn-topped funk, in the way misinformation only increases their visibility and clout. The double-length remake of this song from “Red” is the extended director’s cut, or the DVD packed with extras, for Taylor Swift’s reproach to an ex who was “so casually cruel in the name of being honest.” It’s a longer slow burn with new damning details, as well as a chance to hear Swift curse “the patriarchy.” 5. Taylor Swift, ‘All Too Well (10 Minute Version)’
Lil Nas X reigned as provocateur, songwriter, singer, video figure, memelord and self-promoter in this song: a coming-out statement propelled by flamenco handclaps, fully prepared to foment and then mock a moral panic. Lil Nas X, ‘Montero (Call Me by Your Name)’