Top Lyrics of 2017

1.

“Share some conjugated meaning / Watch the light drip down your face.”

— VÉRITÉ, “WHEN YOU’RE GONE”

The English major in me delighted when I first heard Vérité drop the word “conjugated” in general, especially in the context of such a quickly-spoken verse, but I was even more delighted when I read her annotations of “When You’re Gone” for Genius and discovered the word had different scientific meanings. In a biological context, the term refers to when bacteria combine to exchange genetic material, which makes whatever sexual encounter she depicts sound even more unpleasant/unfeeling, despite the beauty in the following line of intensely watching light drip down your lover’s face.
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2.

“I’m sorry, the old Taylor can’t come to the phone right now. Why? Oh, ‘cuz she’s DEAD!”

— TAYLOR SWIFT, “LOOK WHAT YOU MADE ME DO”

When Taylor Swift’s comeback single first dropped, I wasn’t entirely on board. It felt forced, like it was trying too hard to be trendy and to single-handedly control the narrative of whatever the next chapter in her career would be. So, when she fakes a phone conversation during the bridge and utters the lines about her old self being dead, I rolled my eyes and laughed out loud simultaneously. Swift is many things, and while meta may be one, it’s so ridiculously laughable it’s actually decent.
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3.

“I bought a bottle of Moscato / You’ll be drunk until tomorrow.”

— BETTY WHO, “YOU CAN CRY TOMORROW”

Betty Who has a knack for choosing a type of wine, inserting it into a romance narrative, and creating an iconic lyric out of it. As a result, her simple purchase of Moscato to help a heartbroken friend get through a breakup on “You Can Cry Tomorrow” is the perfect successor to her exaltation of day-drinking Chardonnay simply because she could on “High Society.”
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4.

“I’m sorry I’m not what you wanted / A blissful expectation of something you never got.”

— VÉRITÉ, “NEED NOTHING”

Calling out a lover for having unrealistic expectations is never an easy conversation to have, and it’s even more difficult to try to genuinely apologize for not meeting those expectations. On “Need Nothing,” Vérité is profoundly aware of just how difficult it can be to acknowledge the sorry state of a relationship and the role her penchant for self-deprecation and self-destruction play in getting the relationship to that state. Her apology rings disingenuous, yet there is something extremely powerful in her juxtaposition of it with the phrase, “a blissful expectation.” It’s almost as if she is simultaneously crucifying and praising her lover for whatever expectation they created: perhaps it was well-intended, but it certainly poisoned the relationship.
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5.

“I overthink your punctuation use.”

— LORDE, “THE LOUVRE”

In the age of texting, when most of our conversing happens through a screen rather than face-to-face, we have very little to go on to determine how a person intends their words to come across. So, when texting has all but destroyed proper punctuation and grammar, it’s refreshing to hear Lorde openly admit she spends way too much time overanalyzing her lover’s punctuation. Is it excessive? Maybe. Is it a sign she actually is the “sweetheart psychopathic crush” she claims to be in later lines? Probably. Is it proof that all has not been lost? Absolutely.
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6.

“Don’t bite the hand that feeds or you’ll, you’ll never eat, no.”

— KATY PERRY, “POWER”

Katy Perry doesn’t always get empowerment anthems right. “Firework” was decent but overplayed; “Roar” was obnoxious and overwrought; and “Rise” was too tepid and misplaced. But with “Power,” Perry and her songwriters finally achieve something close to perfection. It recognizes culpability in the demise of a relationship while also asserting individuality. It asserts revitalization while also offering a strong warning to future lovers: despite the cliché, Perry makes them keenly aware that they will not survive if they take her for granted.
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7.

“How could anybody have you and lose you and not lose their mind, too?”

— ST. VINCENT, “LOS AGELESS”

For however trite the initial inspiration for “Los Ageless” may be—Los Angeles’ obsession with youth and conflating it with beauty—the mania St. Vincent instills in it is inspired. Instrumentally, St. Vincent uses her guitar to highlight the dangerous spiral this obsession with youth can create. And by the time she gets to the chorus, her words and ideas have gotten sucked up in that same manic tornado of emotions. When she delivers the final line of the chorus, then, it seems she has already begun losing her mind trying to iron out the logic of having and losing and how (in)sanity plays into it all.
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8.

“I do my makeup in somebody else’s car.”

— LORDE, “GREEN LIGHT”

There is something incredibly poetic about how Lorde narrates something as mundane as hurriedly applying makeup on the way to a party. It’s equal parts poetic and acerbic: her ex-lover no longer gets to witness what it takes for her to become the person she shares with the world. He no longer gets to reap the rewards that come from wooing such a made-up beauty. She’s not his, the car’s not his, and whoever this “somebody” is is none of his business—a reality she makes abundantly clear throughout the rest of the track.
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9.

“If I’m not evolving / I’m just another robot / Taking up oxygen.”

— KATY PERRY, “BIGGER THAN ME”

While Perry’s promise for “purposeful pop” may have gotten a big muddled over the course of the Witness album campaign, it’s strongest and clearest on “Bigger Than Me,” a track focused on the political fallout of Clinton’s loss for presidency and what a single person’s impact can be on the world. Perry doesn’t offer any specific advice for how to move forward, other than the notion that we must evolve past the upsets. Progress cannot be made if we stay the same, stand still, or simply resign ourselves to being “just one grain” in the sand.
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10.

“I live off the echoes of your ‘I love you’s’ / But I still feel the blows from all of your ‘don’t want to’s.’”

— KATY PERRY, “DÉJÀ VU”

Post-breakup, it may often be difficult to reconcile lingering feelings of love with whatever feelings of resentment and rejection may be threatening to boil over. In “Déjà Vu,” Perry explores this emotional paradox and others, only to realize there isn’t an easy solution for preventing the cycle from continuing because the heartbreaking truth is that the memories of love lost is not just painful but also strangely sustaining. We need the echoes to remind us of what can be, even if it can’t be right now or with the person we thought it would be.

Top Albums of 2017

#5: LANY – LANY

Just when we thought chillwave was over, LANY compiled a small handful of the standout tracks from their previous EPs, sprinkled in some new tracks, and released a self-titled debut album that managed to update chillwave and infuse it with deeply personal narratives about heartbreak, distance, and loneliness. “Super Far” and album closer “It Was Love” capture all three concepts perfectly.  At times, the lyrics err very close to juvenile, with admissions like, “We would pass notes in science / And I would end ’em with a heart.” Yet, LANY render them oddly charming, and the powerful choruses that follow are genuinely moving, so those potentially juvenile emotions feel profoundly relatable.

#4: Goldfrapp – Silver Eye

With each new album, Goldfrapp have tried to reinvent themselves, sonically, thematically, and aesthetically. Yet Silver Eye isn’t so much of a reinvention as it is a compilation and deeper exploration of some of their previous sounds and fixations. The throbbing synths of Supernature and sensual experimental electronics of Black Cherry pair beautifully here with Goldfrapp’s obsession with the moon and all the folklore and mythology surrounding it. Lead single and opening track “Anymore” is an undeniable banger and a fantastic addition to Goldfrapp’s live set, but the tone it sets doesn’t quite follow through the entire album. So, while tracks like “Systemagic” and “Faux Suede Drifter” are both great tracks, they suffer from being stuffed between songs that all begin to sound the same. Aside from “Anymore,” then, “Become the One” is perhaps the only other standout track, wherein Goldfrapp subtly and delicately explores transgender issues and the euphoria that comes from finally reconciling who you are with whom you want to be.

#3: Lorde – Melodrama

Considering the pop tour de force Lorde was when she released her nearly-perfect debut album Pure Heroine, the then-16-year-old Kiwi set the bar impossibly high for whatever sophomore album would follow. When she returned in March with “Green Light,” she made it very clear she was coming back with a vengeance, that the time she spent away from the music scene only made her stronger, wiser, and more prepared for a second round. Yet, despite the absolute euphoria of “Green Light,” Melodrama is a tepid affair with a few brief highlights, all of which supposedly take place over the course of a single evening/house party. Lorde attempts to convey how much she has learned about herself and about love, yet really what we get is a series of narratives about drinking, partying, and dancing alone/with tears in your eyes. “Supercut” is perhaps the only track that remotely resembles “Green Light,” and the album is better because this emotionally cathartic track exists. Overall, though, the album sounds too much like Jack Antonoff trying to strong-arm Lorde into sounding like Taylor Swift, and if “Hard Feelings/Loveless” is any indication, Lorde does TSwift better than TSwift.

#2: Katy Perry – Witness

When Katy Perry released PRISM, her follow-up to her triumphant and record-breaking album Teenage Dream, it seemed her cotton candy clouds had melted and catapulted her back to the status of mediocre pop star, riddled with hype and inconsistencies. With Witness, however, Perry manages to rebuild almost all of the momentum she generated during her Teenage Dream wonder years, even if inconsistency remains her Achilles’ heel. The Witness album campaign, around the time she first teased and released “Chained to the Rhythm,” promised KatyCats pop with a purpose. What that purpose is or was still remains a mystery, considering how dramatically Perry and her PR team pivoted away from whatever groundwork “Chained” attempted to establish. Instead of more pop songs that were heavy-handedly critical of pop music yet nonetheless infectious, we got “Bon appétit” and “Swish Swish,” featuring Migos and Nicki Minaj, respectively. Once we finished scratching our heads and wondering how we got here, we were able to realize just how oddly and illogically great both of those tracks are.

This brief lapse of logic aside, Witness does deliver on some of the “purposeful pop” we were initially promised. With anthemic tracks like “Hey Hey Hey,” “Power” and “Bigger Than Me,” Perry explores the potency of female individualism in the face of setbacks both small and large, all without losing her characteristic cheekiness and near cringe-worthiness. During “Hey Hey Hey,” Perry delivers a series of odd comparisons, ranging from “A babydoll with a briefcase” to “Marilyn Monroe in a monster truck,” but they all kind of work when, during the bridge, she adamantly whispers, “You fucking love it!”

#1: VÉRITÉ – Somewhere in Between

The debut album from independent singer-songwriter and alt-pop goddess Vérité has been a long time coming. After releasing her debut single “Strange Enough” in 2014, Kelsey Byrne teased her steadily-growing fanbase with a series of EPs that finely tuned her deeply personal, dark, and honest lyrics and her knack for experimental, pop-oriented electronics. By the time she announced and released “When You’re Gone” and “Phase Me Out,” the first two tracks from her forthcoming full-length debut, she had built herself a solid fanbase and identity as an artist—one that only get stronger with each listen of Somewhere in Between. Few pop artists seem to render heartbreak quite like Byrne does, in a sardonic, self-scathing kind of way where all faults are laid bare and nice, neat apologies and demure female concessions do not exist. Instead, Byrne openly admits to knowing she is “a sinner / But I could be a saint in your head” (“Saint”) that she “need[s] nothing” (“Need Nothing”) and is “in love with control” (“Control”), yet she’s got “nothing to do” (“Nothing”), so she will “come try you out / Like a drink I tasted once” (“Bout You”), even if the results will always be the same: these “romances” will be the “death of me” and are probably “better off” when they’re over.

Few albums these days are cohesive yet diverse enough to warrant multiple listens over multiple months, yet Somewhere in Between is one of those few. It is the kind of album that slowly reveals itself the more you listen to, learn, and analyze the lyrics, to the point where Byrne feels like the perfect stranger—the kind of person you rally behind, despite whatever self-destructive behaviors they indulge in, all in the hopes they will eventually “[count] the marks on ceilings” to a better place somewhere in between what you want for them and what they want for themselves.

Top 15 Songs of 2015

As I compiled my list of top songs for 2015, I came to a pretty saddening realization: not many individual songs stood out for me this year. Yes, I could theoretically include every song from Marina and the Diamonds’ album FROOT or the same for Grimes’ Art Angels, but that wouldn’t be very fair, now would it? So, I limited myself to one song from each and found myself coming up short, hence why there are only 15 entries this year—a mere half of what I included last year.

15. Modest Mouse – “Coyotes” (from Strangers to Ourselves)

When Modest Mouse first released “Coyotes” as a promotional single for Strangers to Ourselves this past winter, my initial reaction was shock. I never expected Brock et al. to ever be able to write anything nearly as beautiful as “The Good Times Are Killing Me” (from Good News for People Who Love Bad News). But somehow the simplicity of “Coyotes” manages to come close, especially for the breakdown, and closer still each time Brock repeats the line, “And we say we’re in love with all of it / And we say we’re in love with everything / And we say…what can we say?”

14. Tep No – “Karma, You Got Owned” (Single)

At this point, Tep No is known for releasing quality single after quality single, all of which manage to offer a slightly different version of his trademark chillwave style. “Karma, You Got Owned” is an incredibly sexy track that takes just the right amount of time to unfold, offering the perfect song for a lazy/hazy summer romance.

13. Vérité – “Wasteland” (from Sentiment EP)

While part of me wants to be able to look past the inconsistent styles that Vérité has employed over her two EPs thus far, I just can’t. But “Wasteland,” like “Strange Enough” before it, proves that she knows how to craft a proper banger with a sufficient amount of powerful emotion. “Wasteland” is one of those rare tracks that makes you want to dance, despite its honestly realistic lyrics about not knowing how to love another person correctly: “But I am just a fool / ‘Cuz I could be in love if I really tried.”

12. RAC – “One House (feat. SPEAK) (Single)

RAC’s “One House,” from its very opening, is a pretty perfect downtempo-inspired house track with the kind of epic feeling that comes from walking home at night when the weather is just right. The chorus is bombastic, with guest vocalist SPEAK delivering the unforgettable lines, “Tell me ‘cuz I wanna know now / Is it beautiful when you figure it out?” It’s inspiring to hear him question whether reaching a grand understanding of life is really all it’s chalked up to be.

11. Selena Gomez – “Me & the Rhythm” (from Revival)

Selena Gomez’s Revival was one of the many albums from female solo pop stars that, in my opinion, utterly failed to deliver anything the lead and promotional singles promised. “Me & the Rhythm,” for both better and worse, sounds like nothing else on the album—an out-and-out banger that avoids the trappings of the rote R&B-inspired “sexiness” that bogs down most of the other songs.

10. Disclosure – “Omen (feat. Sam Smith)” (from Caracal)

I’ll admit that I was hesitant when I first saw that Disclosure had done another collaboration with Sam Smith because, initially, it seemed like a desperate marketing attempt to reclaim the glory of their previous collaboration “Latch.” But I was wrong: “Omen” very much stands on its own, and in many ways it actually eclipses “Latch” in terms of repeat appeal—perhaps because it didn’t end up getting played to death on mainstream radio. The massive chorus certainly doesn’t hurt either.

9. Lana Del Rey – “Music to Watch Boys To” (from Honeymoon)

Don’t let the beautiful single artwork fool you: “Music to Watch Boys To” is every bit as beautiful. What it lacks in neon or tropical flavor, “Music to Watch Boys To” more than makes up for in dark and pensive soundscapes reminiscent of Del Rey’s earlier, moodier work on Born to Die and Paradise. The lyrics are confounding, but in the best way possible: what does her fascination with pink flamingos have to do with anything? But really, it has everything to do with it. “Music to Watch Boys To” reads like LDR’s fuck-you to people who dismiss her and her music as encouraging other women to assume passive/submissive roles in life and in love. Indeed, the chorus’ opening lines, “‘Cuz I like you a lot / Putting on my music while I’m watching the boys” seem to confirm those critics’ dismissal, yet it ends with an intentionally understated war cry that proves she means business: “No holds barred / I was sent to destroy, yeah.”

8. Hilary Duff – “One in a Million” (from Breathe In. Breathe Out.)

In an ideal world, “One in a Million” would have been given to Kylie Minogue for her hopefully dance floor-inspired follow-up to the disappointing Kiss Me Once. But we’ll have to settle for it being probably one of the best things Hilary Duff has ever done since “Come Clean.” “One in a Million” is, as its title implies, a self-empowerment anthem, where Duff recognizes she’s better than the games her man insists on playing with her. And the chorus is world’s more bombastic than most of the “love yourself” anthems that actually managed to get on the radio. Because in a parallel ideal world, “One in a Million” would have, too.

7. Little Boots – “Working Girl” (from Working Girl)

“Working Girl” and the similarly titled album it comes from not only capture the struggles of 80s Ladies in the Workplace but also transform that struggle into something worth dancing to/about. A strange contradiction, to be sure, but “Working Girl” would fit perfectly into one of Little Boots’ DJ setlists, and I’d venture to say you’d be hard-pressed not to want to sing along with her on lines like, “It’s so hard, it’s so hard for a working girl / Come so far, come so far for a working girl.”

6. Giorgio Moroder – “Diamonds (feat. Charli XCX)” (from Déjà-Vu)

Not every song Charli XCX collaborates on is gold, especially when they just add unnecessary layers of “what the fuck?” to her already confusing shifts in musical styles. But “Diamonds” sounds like what Sucker should have sounded like: pulsing, relentless, and of course a bit silly. So, while the diamonds comparison isn’t all that nuanced, it nonetheless makes for some incredibly catchy lyrics. “On my hand / on my head / on my chest / I’m dressed up like a girl’s best friend.”

5. Miley Cyrus – “Milky Milky Milk” (from Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz)

If you want a truly “what the fuck?” moment (or 23 of them, to be exact), look no further than Miley Cyrus’ newest album, which she claims is a series of odes to her dead pets (hence the title) but really sounds more like an experimental K-Hole where she somehow manages to find herself as an artist. “Milky Milky Milk” stands as one of the album’s weirdest yet most infectious tracks. Once you get over the fact that Cyrus explicitly references suckling a breast in the first chorus, you’ll find yourself repeating the phrase “milky milky milk” in the distorted baby voice she uses to surprisingly great effect throughout the song.

4. Demi Lovato – “Cool for the Summer” (from Confident)

Like Selena Gomez’s Revival, Demi Lovato’s Confident was a complete waste of time. It lacked cohesion, interest, and inspiration. But nestled among that nest of rotten musical eggs sits “Cool for the Summer,” arguably one of the most perfect pop songs I’ve heard since Marina & the Diamonds released “Radioactive” in 2012. “Cool for the Summer” is everything anyone could ever ask for in a summer anthem: it’s sexy, it’s fun, it’s unapologetic (bitch), it’s neon, and it’s catchy. If you aren’t screaming along with Lovato when she sings “Take me down into your paradise,” then you aren’t doing drag.

3. Grimes – “Flesh without Blood” (from Art Angels)

Even with admittedly very little prior experience with Grimes, I can say with confidence that “Flesh without Blood” is one of the greatest tracks she has ever written, produced, and released. The verses and pre-choruses are propulsive, hastening us to what we would expect to be an even bigger chorus, but nope. Grimes slows down the tempo to let us linger on the sentiments, “And you had every chance / You destroyed everything that you know.” Although Grimes has said the song is about the dissolution of a once-beloved friendship, “Flesh without Blood” reads more like a scathing critique of the pop music industry for its ability to forsake artists with actual talent just “‘Cuz you want money / You want fame.”

2. Carly Rae Jepsen – “Run Away With Me” (from E•MO•TION)

If “Cool for the Summer” comes close to achieving “Radioactive”-level perfection, then Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Run Away With Me” comes even closer. The opening sax is EVERYTHING as it leads into Jepsen delivering the first verse in a quiet, breathy voice. Her desire to run away with her lover initially seems like a secret we’ve somehow become privy to—that is, until the chorus where she completely turns it out as the beat explodes into even greater epic proportions. Hearing Jepsen sing, “Baby, take me to the feeling“ with such emotion (no pun intended) and such conviction simultaneously inspires tears and utter joy. Beauty like this seems unparalleled, especially in the bridge’s final line, “Over the weekend / We could turn the world to gold.” Ultimately, “Run Away With Me” makes you feel like you want to go out and fall in love yourself, revel in the love you’ve already found, or look on with sheer excitement as Jepsen pursues hers.

1. Marina and the Diamonds – “Blue” (from FROOT)

It’s almost impossible for me to articulate just how much I adore “Blue.” The first time I heard “Blue,” I was reminded of everything I felt when I first heard “Radioactive.” I was in awe. I wanted to dance. I wanted to cry. I did cry. And I knew immediately that “Blue” would be the best song I would hear all year. And it was; it is. “Blue” seems like a song only Marina Diamandis could write: it’s honest, lovelorn, hopeful, powerful, and infectious all at once. It takes multiple listens to even realize that “Blue” is actually a sad song, as its name implies. Marina laments that “We’ve broken up and now I regret it / I said goodbye when I shouldn’t have said it.” But the music refuses to let us wallow in that sadness. “Gimme love / Gimme dreams / Gimme a good self-esteem” Marina sings as she attempts to build herself back up again. On the surface, the chorus doesn’t sound like Marina has won the breakup battle as she gives in to her desire for “one more night / One last goodbye.” But again, the music proves otherwise: it’s carnivalesque, bass-heavy, and cathartic, enough to make you wave your arms and celebrate with Marina because she does in fact know exactly what she wants, even as she recognizes that it isn’t good for her.

“I don’t wanna feel blue anymore,” she reminds us throughout the song, but ultimately “Blue” makes us feel anything but.

Top 30 Songs of 2014

December is always the month when various music publications—both online and offline—share their year-end lists. More often than not, I find myself disappointed with the results. Two recent examples would be PopJustice’s Top 45 Singles of 2014 and Under the Radar’s Top 140 Albums of 2014. As I was discussing my disappointment with my younger brother earlier today about how PJ named “Chandelier” by Sia the top song of 2014 and spent the year piping La Roux’s sophomore album, he made a valid point that I couldn’t argue with—that these lists are essentially opinions, so we can’t really take them that seriously, or at least we shouldn’t get upset when the results don’t exactly mirror what ours would be.

That doesn’t mean I completely forgive Under the Radar for relegating St. Vincent’s glorious self-titled album to the number-two slot, or that I condone how PopJustice threw shade at Lorde’s “Yellow Flicker Beat” by saying they’d ventured into territory where almost any/every song could be considered a top single of the year.

What it does mean, though, is that I have some perspective on how to approach my own list for 2014.

Now, in the past, I’ve never chosen only songs that were actually released as singles because that usually means some of the best musical offerings don’t qualify. Plus, I’d much rather have too many options to choose from than too few. What you’ll find below, then, is a wide array of songs that span genres and go beyond chart performance. What sets this list apart from most others, in my humble opinion, is that you’ll find that drag queens like Alaska Thunderfuck 5000 and more “serious” artists like St. Vincent can happily coexist. And that’s just how I like it.

Note: When available, I’ve linked to the official music videos, lyric videos, or audio for each of the songs, just in case you need a listen.

30. The Rosebuds – “In My Teeth”
What I love most about the lead single from The Rosebuds’ new album Sand + Silence is also what holds the album back as a whole: it’s quintessentially them. It’s smart, a good mix of raucous and reserved, and above all subtly sentimental. But it doesn’t show as much progression as I would like to see from them—especially considering it’s the band’s first album post-divorce (their previous amazing effort Loud Plans Fly Low was very much the narrative of the divorce).

29. RuPaul – “Sissy That Walk”
“Sissy That Walk” is a fabulous (yes, fabulous) track that emphasizes the importance of not paying attention to your haters and one that is every bit an empowerment anthem without being too overdramatic about it (which is odd when considering “drag music”).

28. Tove Lo – “Talking Body”
By and large, Tove Lo’s much anticipated debut album Queen of the Clouds was a mess: even though it was split up into three sections (“the sex,” “the love,” and “the pain”), it makes very little sense in terms of showing us her staying power. Yes, she can do infectious electro pop well—”Talking Body” is her newest testament to that—but I’m skeptical of how consistent she will be in the future.

27. Jenny Lewis – “Completely Not Me”
How this track didn’t end up on The Voyager, I will never know. It’s one of the strongest tracks Lewis has produced since her stunning “solo” debut Rabbit Fur Coat. And it doesn’t hurt that it fit incredibly well in the HBO series Girls.

26. Coldplay – “A Sky Full of Stars”
“A Sky Full of Stars” felt like everything that Coldplay had been trying to be on Viva la Vida and Mylo Xyloto finally came together. It proves that they can achieve the kind of grandiosity and bombast they’d been searching for on previous tracks like “Viva la Vida” and “Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall”; they just needed some love from EDM.

25. Lily Allen – “Sheezus”
In a lot of ways, “Sheezus” and its similarly-named album felt like Allen’s mission statement—a sassy, pointed vocalization of all that she doesn’t like in pop music. Shameless name-dropping aside, “Sheezus” offers something very real about the lingering sexism that dominates pop, despite being a genre that is increasingly dominated by strong females.

24. Say Lou Lou – “Peppermint”
Even though this track was not the lead single from the two-track EP Everything We Touch, it nonetheless shows that Say Lou Lou has a lot to promise for their forthcoming debut LP in 2015. They can do brooding, dark, and romantic simultaneously without feeling cheap, contrived, or off-putting.

23. Klangkarussell – “Symmetry (feat. Tom Cane)”
A standout track from the band’s debut album that promised so much more than they delivered.

22. Charli XCX – “Need Ur Luv”
Amidst all the endless bickering about whether Charli’s new album would be punk or pop or some combination of both (I think we’ve settled on a combination), and all of Charli’s ridiculous tweets criticizing fans for wanting something else from her, “need Ur Luv” is a solid track that show how Charli can fuse pop and punk together in ways that I didn’t like initially, didn’t think we needed, but grew to like quickly.

21. Calvin Harris – “Summer”
When Harris first released “Summer,” I couldn’t wait to listen to it at top-volume with my windows down as I headed to the shore. That moment was beautiful and everything I wanted, but it came and went, just as my intense love for the song itself did (although Harris in a white t-shirt in the video was a nice touch). That seems to be the way it goes with most of Harris’ music, but that doesn’t mean I still don’t consider him one of the best DJ’s/producers out there.

19-20. Taylor Swift – “Welcome to New York” and “Style”
As of right now, I’m giving both of these songs some intense repeat action, but I fear I will quickly lose interest, as I did with “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.” They’re quite the bangerz, though.

Source: Entertain This via USAToday

18. St. Vincent – “Rattlesnake”
Although I loved this track when I first listened to the album, I didn’t realize its true glory until after I saw her perform it live at ACL2014. Annie Clark has an amazing talent for controlling chaos, for making her schizophrenic movements and sounds look natural yet calculated. And it’s just that paradox that she explores on the rest of the album.

17. Adore Delano – “Party”
Never has a song whose only statement is “have fun” actually made me want to do what its title demands. Especially if the sexy clown from the music video will be there. Adore definitely knows how to have/throw a party, just in case any of us doubted the credibility of one of her most memorable catchphrases from Drag Race.

16. St. Vincent – “I Prefer Your Love”
As with all of her previous efforts, Clark always provides at least one example of how expertly she can convey her own brand of sentimentality and romance. And “I Prefer Your Love” is just that: a vision of love that is laced with social critique so that you can’t consider one without the other.

15. Jenny Lewis – “The Voyager”
It’s fitting that one of Lewis’ most emotionally-driven songs directly follows one of Clark’s. As the title track to her newest album, “The Voyager” yearns for a life that is always “more adventurous” despite growing older. But that yearning also comes with hints of loss, nostalgia, and a twinge of regret.

14. Lily Allen – “URL Badman”
This song speaks for itself as Allen adopts the caricature of a man who is largely responsible for the female-only boxing match she introduces us to in the album’s opening title track. The video is trippy and sassy, and I can only imagine Urban Outfitters felt a little butt-hurt because of Allen’s scathing portrayal of hipster-dom.

13. Lana Del Rey – “Money Power Glory”
Unlike Charli XCX, who can’t seem to figure out how to navigate what she wants, what her fans want, and what she thinks her fans want, Lana Del Rey has perfectly captured that tug-of-war in her satirical track “Money Power Glory.” It’s a send-up to all the detractors who think she makes music for those three things alone and who cannot appreciate the art and craft of Del Rey’s performance.

12. BROODS – “Mother & Father”
Yes, I know that BROODS has released a self-titled EP before this track came out, but “Mother & Father” feels like a perfect debut single (or maybe I’m just saying that because it’s how I first fell in love with the brother-sister duo). It’s a pulsing, reflective, and strangely empowering track that only gets better when you hear it live.

11. Adore Delano – “My Address Is Hollywood”
“My Address Is Hollywood” is not nearly as superficial as the song’s title implies or would have us believe. In fact, it recognizes that superficiality and offers some very real advice about how everything we do is a performance: “Make up / And only believe what you see. / Wake up / Someone else is all you can be.”

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10. Betty Who – “Dreaming about You”
In interviews about her stunning debut album, Betty has stated how “Dreaming about You” was chosen as the album’s penultimate track to show her fans how she could create enough strong tracks to sustain a full album. And I couldn’t agree with her more. While “Dreaming about You” is the last dose of fun on the album—the kind of fun I’ve come to love and expect from Betty—it perfectly summarizes the theme of “I love you, even though I know I shouldn’t” that runs throughout Take Me When You Go.

9. Vérité – “Strange Enough”
Shout-out to HillyDilly.com for spotlighting this track way back when it was first released. “Strange Enough” is the kind of track that proves just how beautiful the internet can be when it comes to discovering and promoting a new artist who clearly has the talent to becoming a big name is the world of pop. While Vérité’s debut EP Echo left me wanting more, “Strange Enough” still stands as enough of a promise that I’m willing to give her a second chance because its last lines are absolute pop perfection: “Strange enough / I don’t love you / Like you want me to.”

8. Adore Delano – “I Look Fuckin Cool (feat. Alaska Thunderfuck 5000)”
Let me just preface this mini review by getting the elephant out of the way: the video for this track is terrible. BUT, the song itself is a masterpiece for both pop and drag. It’s not about “looking good and feeling gorgeous”; rather, it’s about looking absolutely fucking fierce and not caring who gives a shit. Not to mention it is the perfect duet between my two favorite queens ever. #teamadoredalaska.

7. Alaska Thunderfuck 5000 – “Nails”
“Nails” is arguably Alaska’s drag manifesto, captured perfectly in the pre-chorus that demands to be shouted as loud and as often as possible: “If you’re not wearing nails / You’re not doing drag.” Yet the song also functions pretty effectively as an allegory for acceptance, in that it doesn’t matter what kind of nails you have (short/long, straight/gay, white/black). It’s something simple enough that anyone and everyone can join in and do.

6. Betty Who – “Runaways”
“Runaways” is proof that Betty Who has already perfected her pop formula: narrative verses about the crazy things we do when we’re in love, epic pre-choruses that lead into even more epic choruses, and choruses punctuated by loud and inspiring “oh’s.” Hands down, “Runaways” should have been the proper first single for her debut album, but oh well.

5. Sam Sure – “Hunger”
I’m comfortable saying that Sam Sure’s debut track “Hunger” is a strong contender not only for my top tracks of 2014 but also for my top tracks of the 2010s. He demonstrates that he has an enviable proficiency with minimal yet infectious electronics and similarly executed choruses. “Hunger” is honest and earnest, and it makes me incredibly excited to hear more from Sam in the near future. Another thanks to HillyDilly.com for introducing me to this track!

4. Lily Allen – “Miserable without Your Love”
I didn’t realize just how deeply I loved this track until I heard the first few words of it live during one of Allen’s performances this past September and literally squealed out loud. I share her complete lack of understanding about why her record label relegated this track to “bonus” material because it’s by far the strongest one on all of Sheezus. It’s as much about unbalanced romantic love as it is about the insatiability of the music industry, and Allen’s voice—figuratively and literally—is at its most inspired. And the opening lyrics (which also serve as the song’s proper chorus) will always haunt me: “I’m a beautiful (beautiful) / Powerful (powerful) / Fashionable (best-dressed) / Animal / But I’m miserable without your love.”

3. Lana Del Rey – “Fucked My Way up to the Top”
In the same vein as “Money Power Glory,” “Fucked My Way up to the Top” addresses criticism that Lana became famous because she slept with the right people rather than because she possesses actual talent and star quality. Just listen to the first line of the second chorus—”I’m a dragon, you’re a whore”—and try to tell me that you don’t believe in her way with words and delivery. Just try.

2. BROODS – “Sober”
“Sober” is probably one of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard to date, which is why it was so difficult to choose between this one and the one I eventually went with for #1. “Sober” is a heart-wrenching narration of the difficulties in reconnecting the person you love, have lost (at least emotionally), and yet are still with. It’s about trying to find the time to make things work when pressure from inside and outside the relationship are seemingly insurmountable. And it glories in the past—”the greatest place I’ve ever been” and “where you became it all for me.” This song more than proves that BROODS have the chops to change the face of pop.

1. Alaska Thunderfuck 5000 – “Your Makeup Is Terrible”
What began as a throwaway line on an episode of Drag Race S05 has become a drag-pop phenomenon, an internet sensation, and the newest addition to drag(aholic) vernacular. “Your Makeup Is Terrible” is weird, there’s no denying that, and yes, Alaska purchased the music for less than ten dollars from some random website. And yes, she met the director for the music video on a gay-dating app. But given the final product, all of these details seem serendipitous, as if this alien from the planet Glamtron was destined to shed her skin as a Drag Race runner-up and transform into a veritable pop star and performer extraordinaire. “Your Makeup Is Terrible” throws shade but revels in a shared inability to beat one’s face—another example that “drag music” can have pretty powerful messages about acceptance and sisterhood.

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