100 Songs I Thought Were Very Good, 2018
As 2018 comes to a close, it’s time to take stock of all the music we’ve been flooded with over the past year. It opening with a Migos album that was approximately 761 tracks long and closed with Kanye West tweeting approximately 761 times in the span of an hour.
In between, a lot happened. I have no idea what the ‘best songs’ of 2018 were, but here’s a list of 100 Songs I Thought Were Very Good in the year that was.
20. Lemon Glow — Beach House
Beach House are sonic contortionists. They conjure up worlds that they’re happy to subsequently undercut, tearing down soundscapes they rebuild on the fly. That delicate juggle happens amid an aura of hazy tranquil sticking to their songs’ outer coat, creating a complicated wall of noise that at once feels overwhelming and muted.
‘Lemon Glow’ encapsulates that implicit contradiction perfectly. It’s a warmly intimate song that initially feels closely held, but the illusion only lasts so long. Distortion flanks in from the song’s utmost corners as the soothing synthetic humming from the intro mutates into unsettling whirring. Victoria Legrand’s vocals become wicked and ‘Lemon Glow’ becomes more of a journey than a song. It’s art that few do as well as Beach House, and in 2018 they kept showcasing mastery in all of its forms.
19. Night Shift — Lucy Dacus
Steven Hyden once said of Ryan Adams, “give Adams a guitar and five minutes and he’ll find a new way to break your heart”. No one, in my mind, has trumped Adams’ potent blend of heart-cranking instrumentation and wrecking ball songwriting, until Lucy Dacus. Blistering onto the scene with ‘Night Shift’, Dacus has put out a needling six minute song that isn’t afraid to bend time, emotion and conventional story-telling.
Such a bold epic should be disorienting, but Dacus’ lyrics and vocals are so sensational that the track never feels in danger of derailing. It opens as an uneasy emotional storm before seamlessly blooming into white-hot anger. After swelling and bursting, ‘Night Shift’ simmers down into a gorgeous conclusion. In a year of fleetingly short songs and projects, Lucy Dacus went against the grain in a risk that paid off.
18. If You Know You Know — Pusha T
Art can be complicated and layered. Patient, brooding, moody, complex. But sometimes, it just slaps. That’s how it felt when the drop of Pusha T’s Kanye West-produced ‘If You Know You Know’ hits, like a haymaker to the temple.
Few rappers can set scenery like Pusha T, and even fewer can do it with such technical grace. Pairing deep cover drug lingo with witty pop culture references, Push puts in an economical performance that strips rapping back to its best and barest. 2018 was the year Pusha T rose to stardom, and there was no more fitting soundtrack for his ascent than ‘If You Know You Know’.
17. Nice For What — Drake
A classic Lauryn Hill sample carries this fleet-footed Drake summertime pool jam from a radio hit to one of the year’s best. Pairing the pitched up sample with Drake’s coarse flirting makes for a pleasant balance, and blending it all into a tasteful homage to Louisana bounce is a stroke of genius that could start a new zeitgeist.
For his knocks, Drake has always been an artist who knows how to delicately lift regional sounds and use his reach to take it global. Be it dancehall, grime or even trap’s early 2010s mutation, the Toronto MC is always at the front of a trend, vaporising into a new slant when the fad hits oversatuation. This time, though, it may be different: there aren’t many out-of-towners who could pull off Louisiana like the hip-hop chameleon from the 6.
16. A Pearl — Mitski
Mitski is a straight shooter and her clear-eyed assessment of her doomed relationship within the first ten seconds is devastating. A monotonous matter-of-fact apology to a soon-to-be ex immolates into stormy drums as she articulates the inner battle sabotaging her attempt to find love.
‘A Pearl’ feels like the eye of an emotional storm — it’s disorienting, dramatic but strangely triumphant. It’s the feeling of putting all of your cards on the table, even when that act leads to someone losing all their chips and the game ending.
For a song that begins all with Mitski commentating on her lover’s feelings and frustrations, apologising for and trying to excuse her alleged shortcomings, there’s significant power in the way ‘A Pearl’ climaxes. What begins a meek bid to rationalise her thoughts closes as powerful ownership of one’s own emotions.
15. Me & My Dog — boygenius
‘Me & My Dog’ starts tenderly slow and picks up momentum until it finishes like an unstoppable boulder. On paper, the song shouldn’t work. It juxtaposes cliche with ludicrous on a belting chorus that pleads ‘I want to hear one song without thinking you/I wish I was on a spaceship, just me and my dog and an impossible view’ and with lesser artists, it’d be clumsy.
With the masterful curation of Baker, Dacus and Bridgers, it turns gut-wrenching. The song’s emotional anchor is a primal, soaring line which the trio sing at once (‘I wanna be emaciated’) and it’s as powerful a moment as we got in any song this year.
14. Baby I’m Bleeding — JPEGMAFIA
JPEGMAFIA invites chaos from the outset of ‘Baby I’m Bleeding’ — its glitchy, piercing and disorienting production feels like a caged animal bouncing off its confines. But that organised confusion is exactly where JPEGMAFIA thrives. He raps with unbridled focus, snarling through the noise and using sheer force to get his bars out, coming off like a plucky underdog in a brawl who throws enough jabs to stay in the fight.
As soon the beat settles and there’s some clean air for Peggy to cut through, his aggression notches up. With uninterrupted space, disses and threats start flying as JPEGMAFIA throws himself into maintaining the song’s frenetic energy even after the eardrum-shattering beat drops off. Flexing his eclectic range of interests, ‘Baby I’m Bleeding’ is undoubtedly, the best (and only) song this year to reference Devil May Cry, Deonte Wilder, A.J. Styles and Kanye West, let alone all within the same verse.
13. After The Storm (feat. Tyler, The Creator & Bootsy Collins) — Kali Uchis
Few would dare take on the inimitable sounds of P-Funk and no one else has come this close to getting it right. Kali Uchis taps a pioneers in Bootsy Collins and an innovator of today in Tyler, The Creator to make ‘After The Storm’ a team effort, but it’s her own presence on the song that elevates into the pantheon of 2018’s best.
Through her methodically steady, syrupy vocals, Uchis guides the song downstream like she’s gently rowing a boat. A gruff Tyler verse is a welcome reminder of the sunniness he brought us on Flower Boy and Bootsy gives the song its credibility, but the track is undeniably strongest in Kali’s hands. As she proved on the rest of Isolation, few have the vision, presence and personality of Kali Uchis.
12. Ace (feat. Smino & Saba) — Noname
Noname used her Telefone follow-up, Room 25, to expand the palette personality we started to fall in love with on the first mixtape. There was more sonic versatility, more humour and more risks. ‘Ace’, a collaboration with fellow Chicagoans Smino and Saba, is the perfect example of Noname’s growth.
Boasting a moodier, more sour beat to Telefone’s porcelain sun-rays and using Noname’s slam poet flow to take on a wider breadth of subjects (radio rappers, Morgan Freeman, tasteful vegan food), ‘Ace’ feels like the track that completes Noname’s rise from star pupil to leader of the new school.
Flanking Noname is Saba, who gifts ‘Ace’ one of his best verses of the year, in a year that he dominated. His flow breathlessly folds into itself as he tosses out quotable after quotable. Be it ‘Since I left the road, I got more hits than a deer’ or ‘I’m overseas with the yen and shit/And I can’t recall the last time my live show was intimate’, it’s a verse of the year contender on a project where everyone more than holds their own.
11. This Is America — Childish Gambino
‘This Is America’ barely feels like a song, but more like a piece of political art. Sliding between Kumbaya guitar strums and growling bass with a cavalcade of all-star ad libs, there’s nothing conventional about it.
But ‘This is America’ resonated on every possible level: it shot into the mainstream on the back of a masterful Hiro Murai-directed video, sparking discussion, analysis and debate over nearly every bar. It soared to the top of the Billboard chart, giving Glover his first monumental hit — whether by design or not — and critics fell over themselves to unpack the confounding styles clash behind such a punchy record. What the song lacks in cohesion, it more than makes up for in social impact.
10. Nowhere2Go — Earl Sweatshirt
In his return from solitude, a monotone Earl Sweatshirt mumbles way through this hazy two minute song that feels built in a boiler room. ‘Nowhere2Go’ feels radioactive, mutating in real-time around a barely-coherent labyrinth of loops that bleed in and out through the concise two minutes.
Darkness and depression has always permeated the works of the one-time wunderkind lyricist, but ‘Nowhere2Go’ is a litmus test for uneasiness. Earl relegates the listener to a voyeur, looking through through the keyhole while a disheveled Sweatshirt mumbles stream of consciousness.
On ‘Nowhere2Go’, Earl isn’t rapping to the listener as much as he’s rapping through them: thoughts are half-developed, bars barely rhyme and the flow is haphazardly loose. But even in the haze, Earl’s economy of language is unparalleled. Every word feels important and deep-buried truths waft out at a such a casual pace it’s easy to miss lines like “I think I spent most my life depressed/Only thing on my mind was death”.
9. Missing U — Robyn
There’s something enchanting about Robyn, whose magical gift for breaking hearts in the most painfully simple ways remains second-to-none. ‘Missing U’ sinks its teeth in on the first line. Over a shimmering fizzle that dissipates into pulsating synth, Robyn declares ‘Baby it’s so real to me, now that it’s over’.
Maybe it’s the soft surprise at herself that you can hear in her wispy Swedish accent, or the photographic detail she lays bare, but ‘Missing U’ is gripping from the outset. By the time the nimble disco keys power into the chorus, ‘Missing U’ is already prodding at bruised hearts and dragging people onto the dancefloor.
Unpicking heartbreak is the oldest trope in music and it feels impossible to hear a new take — especially from Robyn, who has spent decades performing autopsies on shattered romance. But like a magician with a deck of cards, she manages to shock and awe once again.
‘Missing U’ distils the cocktail of disbelief and gradual acceptance that persists after a sudden break-up into something simultaneously pleasurable and haunting. Over rich melodies and precise songwriting, ‘Missing U’ serves as a reminder that no one does it like Robyn.
8. Talia — King Princess
There are few songs that will make you stop in tracks and give it full attention, but newcomer King Princess scores on ‘Talia’. Over acapella humming, the introductory bar of ‘Hey, my love’ feels loaded with danger. It’s uneasy, pained and careful — drawing the listener in as they unravel where ‘Talia’ is heading.
The chorus is pure pop brilliance. It gently lifts and the emotional stakes feel as tall as a skyscraper. Yearning, mournful and resigned, ‘Talia’ is a mysterious slow burner that feels defiant in the face of loss.
By the time a cracking King Princess declares “But four drinks, I’m wasted”, the song starts to sag underneath the heaviness. It bears the weight of barely-contained emotional pain, flotsam in the abyss that manages to prove its resilience with a euphoric, downtrodden last chorus that finishes with little closure — just the bittersweet reminder that we can deceive ourselves into reliving a lost love, but it doesn’t come back.
7. Make Me Feel — Janelle Monáe
‘Make Me Feel’ is ostensibly Monáe coming clean about her feelings for a love interest, but it doubles as an effective explainer for the wider world. For a long time, the suit-wearing, big haired Monáe has felt like she operated on the margins of the critical conscience, despite having all the star power to warrant centre court, because she didn’t conform to a traditional archetype. Monáe was fascinating, but befuddling, and was cast as an intriguing oddity rather than the creative force she’d long proven to be.
On ‘Make Me Feel’, Monáe changes the narrative in an instant: ‘Baby, don’t make me spell it out for ya,” Monáe coyly taunts over a gulping beat on the opening line. Replete with stabs of synths, the backdrop is evocative of Monáe’s late mentor Prince.
‘Make Me Feel’ threatens to pop on the chorus, but breaks down into straight funk. Monáe cuts loose, roping in funky guitars and pulling back the fizzling pre-chorus just as soon as she pushed it away.
With ‘Make Me Feel’, Monáe feels fully formed, pushing and pulling different sounds like a virtuoso whilst standing firmly as the central attraction. It’s confidence, wizardry and it’s all dressed up in a dynamic, fun dance song that does pop in a way we thought died with the legendary forebearers.
6. Bite The Hand — boygenius
The three-woman supergroup’s best song is their simplest. Anchored around the line “I can’t love you how you want me to”, ‘Bite the Hand’ slowly turns and shimmers with each rotation stripping another layer. There’s mournful regret, dispassion, muted anger, sombre dismay, defiant independence and apoplectic flashes, all within the same string of words.
‘Bite The Hand’ isn’t just performed well, but it’s an instantly classic piece of songwriting. Wrestling with power dynamics, ‘Bite the Hand’ plays out two concurrent states: in one, the narrator is biting the hand that feeds, a partner they fear. In the other, the narrator holds the power — smug, defiant, biting the hand that needs.
The song feels fluid, breathing and like its changing on the fly. boygenius’ three voices — strong in their own distinct ways — will start a line sounding vulnerable and finish it dominant, before spiralling back to into the middle and twisting the next line into something even more emotionally gut-wrenching.
5. Shoota (feat. Lil Uzi Vert) — Playboi Carti
How many artists could do this? One could barely imagine what any other rapper would do with this Maaly Raw beat, that kicks in sounding like a classical recital put in a paper shredder or a computer mid-crash. More likely, it’d be turfed or sent off to someone else for some drums. Well, their loss.
Playboi Carti is a confounding rapper, not unlike Cardi B. Both are unique rappers, with glaring holes in their skillset that would cripple most other artists. But both also have immense, generational talent in very specific areas that more than cover their flaws. For Cardi, it’s her magnetic charisma. For Carti, it’s his ability to pick the pocket of any beat that seems incomprehensible to the untrained ear.
‘Shoota’ is a sonic mess — hip-hop has long been about to finding the backbone of a song and using it as a canvas to bend language, but this song feels like two nimble magicians standing at the epicentre of an earthquake, darting across crashing debris to stay untouched amid sheer chaos. It’s a wonderfully experimental take on the artform, dressed up as a party starter.
4. no tears left to cry — Ariana Grande
No one would’ve blamed Ariana Grande if she’d stepped away for a long while after the Manchester bombing, but ‘No Tears Left to Cry’ will go down as a remarkable return. The opening bar wears like a sombre mission statement — an aside, an update — a reassurance that this sudden return is all a part of the plan.
Then the song hits warp-speed and twirls into a swaggering pop shuffle that Ariana struts over. Sultry, catchy and light on its feet, ‘No Tears Left to Cry’ swaggers through the verses and soars on the chorus.
The drums feel nostalgically nineties, the piano line is so simple and the structure is so conventional — ‘No Tears Left to Cry’ still works because it refuses to piggyback on any trends. It’s a dangerous game picking 2018 classics, but something as original and instinctive loveable as this feels a blue chip bet to remain timeless for years to come.
3. Pristine — Snail Mail
‘Pristine’ is an intimate song, a love letter to a very specific person in a very specific set of circumstances. It conveys a complicated set of emotions using nuance and subtlety, but those emotions feel thrust upon you on first listen. Snail Mail spins many plates on ‘Pristine’: dismissive but invested, melodramatic but casual, vulnerable but guarded, ecstatic but desperate.
Lindsay Jordan’s vocals don’t crack so much as they splinter under the weight of her gentle probing, seeking affirmation from the would-be lover at the subject of the song. ‘Pristine’ carries the levity of someone trying to play off a crush, juxtaposed with melodramatic declarations.
This delicate juggle isn’t new to the world of indie rock — indeed, the aggrieved story of potentially-unrequited love is the bedrock of the genre. But while many indie rockers will indulge in the internal conflict over an eight-minute epic or concept album, Snail Mail powers through it in a tight five-minutes that somehow never feels rushed or urgent. It’s a kind of emotional mastery that most could work a whole career to never get, and hearing it come from an artist so grounded forges a special connection.
2. BUSY / SIRENS (feat. theMIND) — Saba
Chicago’s Saba meditates over the introductory track of CARE FOR ME looking inwards, reflecting on loneliness and his perceived shortcomings. As his bars pick up pace, the burning eye looks further — into other people’s criticisms of him. It goes far further a bar later as Saba goes Biblical and finally, the frenzy breaks with the solitary line ‘Walter got killed for a coat’, in reference to his slain cousin.
The song then caves into an airy hook from theMIND and after just 70 seconds, Saba has pulled you in for an emotionally intense experience. When he falls back on his opening line “I’m so alone” on the second verse, it is laced thrice more potently than the first mention. Casual, played-out micro-dramas of sexting a long-distance lover or feeling out-of-place after touring the country feel mountainous when they sit upon the bed of grief that Saba expertly weaves.
Rolling to ‘SIRENS’, CARE FOR ME sets its tone as an album of contemplative balance: willing to burn through 20 years of trauma in a minute, but patient enough to let the beat switch ride for almost a minute. It’s all the small artistic liberties, consistently nailed with taste and creativity. What it amounts to is the year’s most thoughtful rap record, as soulful as it is challenging.
1. thank u, next — Ariana Grande
Now the online sphere is well and truly embedded in every societal seam, there’s unprecedented meditation on what that all means and how its changed our human relationships. Few have done it with the grace and wit of Ariana Grande, who forever changed the art of the break-up song with ‘thank u, next’.
After navigating one of the most difficult, public years in celebrity history, Grande emerged from the debris with one of the most perfect pop songs of the decade, just months after releasing a worth Album of the Year candidate
Over an understated lush production, Ariana glides through ‘thank u, next’ her powerhouse voice gets harnessed into a conversational casualness and the song bounces with an air of confident indifference.
‘thank u, next’ is the perfect song for the moment — from its title-turned-catchphrase, opting for lower caps and text talk, to the complex thematic journey — grateful, but well and truly moved on. It’s a song that recognises the modern break-up is different, with memories strewn across pockets of social media like breadcrumbs and ties that bind long after the relationship dissolves.
Be it Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchats or, god forbid, Tinder, the spectre of the ex lingers, making the dramatic middle finger petty anthems well past their expiry date. Clinging onto past beef and bitterness in the age of permanence is out-of-fashion and it took Ariana Grande to swipe us into the new era: thank u, next.
Full list:
1. thank u, next — Ariana Grande
2. BUSY/SIRENS — Saba feat. theMIND (Care for Me)
3. Pristine — Snail Mail (Lush)
4. no tears left to cry — Ariana Grande (Sweetener)
5. Shoota — Playboi Carti feat. Lil Uzi Vert (Die Lit)
6. Bite the Hand — boygenius (boygenius)
7. Make Me Feel — Janelle Monáe (Dirty Computer)
8. Talia — King Princess (Make My Bed)
9. Missing U — Robyn (Honey)
10. Nowhere2go — Earl Sweatshirt (Some Rap Songs)
11. This Is America — Childish Gambino
12. Ace — Noname feat. Smino, Saba (Room 25)
13. After The Storm — Kali Uchis feat. Tyler, The Creator, Bootsy Collins (Isolation)
14. Baby I’m Bleeding — JPEGMAFIA (Veteran)
15. Me & My Dog — boygenius (boygenius)
16. A Pearl — Mitski (Be the Cowboy)
17. Nice for What — Drake (Scorpion)
18. If You Know You Know — Pusha T (DAYTONA)
19. Night Shift — Lucy Dacus (Historian)
20. Lemon Glow — Beach House (7)
21. High Horse — Kacey Musgraves (Golden Hour)
22. Groceries — Mallrat (In the Sky)
23. Mo Bamba — Sheck Wes (MUDBOY)
24. SICKO MODE — Travis Scott feat. Drake (ASTROWORLD)
25. Saint — Blood Orange (Negro Swan)
26. About You — G Flip
27. Pet Cemetery — Tierra Whack (Whack World)
28. Immaterial — SOPHIE (OIL OF EVERY PEARL’S UN-INSIDES)
29. MALAMENTE — Cap.1: Augurio — ROSALÍA (El Mal Querer)
30. Ever Again — Robyn (Honey)
31. Sleep — Hatchie (Sugar & Spice)
32. Disarray — Low (Double Negative)
33. In My View — Young Fathers (Cocoa Sugar)
34. Praise The Lord (Da Shine) — A$AP Rocky feat. Skepta (TESTING)
35. I Like That — Janelle Monáe (Dirty Computer)
36. 2009 — Mac Miller (Swimming)
37. Scream Whole — Methyl Ethel (Triage)
38. Nobody — Mitski (Be the Cowboy)
39. High — Young Thug feat. Elton John (On The Rvn)
40. Just a Stranger — Kali Uchis feat. Steve Lacy (Isolation)
41. when the party’s over — Billie Eilish
42. 1999 — Charli XCX feat. Troye Sivan
43. Give Yourself a Try — The 1975 (A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships)
44. Moon River — Frank Ocean
45. Self Care — Mac Miller (Swimming)
46. My! My! My! — Troye Sivan (Bloom)
47. When I’m With Him — Empress Of (Us)
48. Valentine (What’s It Gonna Be) — Rina Sawayama
49. New Hair — Strange Ranger (How It All Went By)
50. Shot Gun Shack — Neneh Cherry (Broken Politics)
51. Dostoyevsky — Black Thought feat. Rapsody (Streams of Thought Vol. 1)
52. Colossus — IDLES (Joy as an Act of Resistance)
53. Feels Like Summer — Vince Staples (FM!)
54. Charcoal Baby — Blood Orange (Negro Swan)
55. Sincerity Is Scary — The 1975 (A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships)
56. CLOUT COBAIN | CLOUT CO13A1N — Denzel Curry (TA1300)
57. Fallingwater — Maggie Rogers (Heard It in a Past Life)
58. New Light — John Mayer
59. Body — Julia Jacklin (Crushing)
60. An Air Conditioned Man — Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever (Hope Downs)
61. Acid Rain — Thomston
62. It Makes You Forget (Itgehane) — Peggy Gou (Once)
63. Girlfriend — Christine and the Queens feat. Dâm-Funk (Chris)
64. Your Dog — Soccer Mommy (Clean)
65. Charity — Courtney Barnett (Tell Me How You Really Feel)
66. WEIGHT — BROCKHAMPTON (iridescence)
67. OKRA — Tyler, The Creator
68. Ghost Town — Kanye West feat. PARTYNEXTDOOR, 070 Shake (ye)
69. APESHIT — The Carters — (EVERYTHING IS LOVE)
70. Bridges — Erthlings
71. King’s Dead — Jay Rock feat. Kendrick Lamar, Future, James Blake (Black Panther The Album: Music From And Inspired By)
72. Teenage Fantasy — Jorja Smith (Lost & Found)
73. Come Over — The Internet (Hive Mind)
74. 4EVER — Clairo (diary 001)
75. Sometimes — Cub Sport (Cub Sport)
76. BLACK BALLOONS | 13LACK 13ALLOONZ — Denzel Curry feat. Twelve’len, GoldLink (TA13OO)
77. 3 Nights — Dominic Fike (Don’t Forget About Me, Demos)
78. Child — Kota Banks (PRIZE)
79. Years Gone By — Avantdale Bowling Club (Avantdale Bowling Club)
80. Never Recover — Lil Baby & Gunna feat. Drake (Drip Harder)
81. Kids See Ghosts — KIDS SEE GHOSTS feat. Yasiin Bey (KIDS SEE GHOSTS)
82. Kool Aid — Diana Gordon (Pure)
83. Fly — Low (Double Negative)
84. Hot Pink — Let’s Eat Grandma (I’m All Ears)
85. Off Da Zoinkys — JID (DiCaprio 2)
86. The Face of God — Camp Cope (How to Socialise & Make Friends)
87. Pick Up — DJ Koze (Knock Knock)
88. We Can’t Win — The Goon Sax (We’re Not Talking)
89. Lifetime — Yves Tumor (Safe In The Hands of Love)
90. Dead To Me — Kali Uchis (Isolation)
91. This Feeling — Ryan Hemsworth feat. Marco McKinnis (Elsewhere)
92. Roaches — Maxo Kream (Punken)
93. Change Of Mind — Phonte feat. Freddie Gibbs (No News is Good News)
94. Hockey — Rico Nasty (Rico Nasty)
95. Once More — Yaeji
96. Crying on the Subway — Hana Vu (How Many Times Have You Driven By)
97. Only Acting — Kero Kero Bonito (Time ’n’ Place)
98. Bickenhead — Cardi B (Invasion of Privacy)
99. Wesson — Bernard Jabs
100. Peach — Broods (Don’t Feed the Pop Monster)
