| 100 - 81 || 80 - 61 || 60 - 41 || 40 - 21 || 20 - 1 |
| All 100 Songs |
80. Thee Oh Sees “Scutum & Scorpius”
Buttum and Borpius
79. Devil Master “Black Flame Candle”
78. YG “Bottle Service” / YG “In The Dark”
77. Sean Henry “Surf Song”
76. Big Bite “Blue Nine”
75. Georgia “Started Out”
No longer on Bandcamp. When will they learn?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFnnxmb7Z9g
74. Earl Sweatshirt “4N (Feat. Mach-Hommy)”
73. Lizzo f/ Missy Elliott “Tempo”
Oops wrong song lmao ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
72. Freddie Gibbs & Madlib “Flat Tummy Tea”
71. Young Guv “Can I Luv U In My Own Way”
70. The Boyboy West Coast “U Was At The Club (Bottoms Up)”
Anything we could possibly say about this is already in our review of the TikTok video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-l5Hn5hUuI
69. Fuming Mouth “Visions of Purgatory”
68. Lil B “Task Force Let Us In”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLhlWsHJmZY
67. Slipknot “Spiders”
66. Whitney “Valleys (My Love)”
65. (Sandy) Alex G “Hope”
64. Supermilk “Lycanthrope”
Bro knows Supermilk.
63. Glitterer “1001”
Zeros and ones never sounded so analog.
62. Wolf Whistle “Your Dog Lives (In Pomerania)”
61. Drake f/ Rick Ross “Money In The Grave”
| 100 - 81 || 80 - 61 || 60 - 41 || 40 - 21 || 20 - 1 |
| All 100 Songs |
So we'll admit our blunder here. #20 is way too high for this song. Its limited streaming availability prevented us from proper assessment. With this in mind, here's a quick refresher of Dr. Dre's wacky adventures since the turn of the century.
The production on "Genocide" surpasses everything else on Compton to such a large degree that it might raise suspicions. Sure enough, Wikipedia reveals it's one of the album's only songs without a production credit from Dre himself. Dem Jointz - who also assisted with a handful of the best songs from Janet Jackson's Unbreakable - emulates the same bounciness from Dre's 2001-era with an updated layer of freshness. Complete with phasers firing and an enormous EQ-scope, it was definitely one of the best sounding songs to debut that summer. It's a shame that those willing to pay $19.99 for a subscription service would be among the few who ever got the chance to try it out. But that disappointment was nothing compared to the album's 15 other songs.
The most recent victim of "iTunes bonus tracks that should have been huge radio singles" also contains our favorite dumb pop lyrics of 2015: "When I'm close to you / We blend into my favourite colour / "I'm bright baby blue falling into you." It kinda rules that she actually specifies which colour, instead of leaving it open ended. Also, the title includes the proper spelling of both words. Plus, vocoder was always better than autotune. Once upon a time, we claimed that 
Does it makes sense to brand one of the most musically progressive moments on any major release in 2015 with the "Interlude" stamp? Doesn't this downgrade its importance by insisting that it could only properly function in sequence within the context of To Pimp A Butterfly? In this respect, it works similarly to "Backseat Freestyle" from 3 years prior, although both songs were album highlights and deserved to be treated that way. Perhaps Kendrick realized he made a booboo, which is why its brilliant video had to get made. Slam-poetry scatting over free bebop IS rap. If it wasn't before, it is now. Anyone asking "what does Kendrick's new album sound like?" should be played only this song. It might be the key that unlocks the entire record.
The loud-rock greats of the early-2010s are now all at least 6-7 years older than when their first records broke. Some of them stuck around and are as relevant as ever (No Age, Pile, Ringo Deathstarr), while others either vanished (Japandroids, Now Now, Mr. Dream, Swearin') or got way shitty (Merchandise, Silversun Pickups). We were hoping Yuck hadn't fallen into either of the latter categories, but if "Hold Me Closer" was any indication, they're on the verge of securing their place at the top of the former. There's something to be said for how seamlessly they've flowed from one release to the next despite their various line-up changes, including what could have been a detrimental replacement of their chief songwriter in 2013. With its lazy summertime fuzziness, a giant head-nodding groove and "only hooks" arrangement, "Hold Me Closer" might be within their 5 best songs yet. Not unlike 
The lack of chorus leaves "Them Changes" feeling incomplete and imperfect, but it's also thematically consistent. There's no moment of celebration in "Them Changes" and therefore no reason for a singalong refrain (unless you count the "hoo-hoo-ooo-ooo" which is more like a fadeout than a chorus). It's a song about feeling incomplete and imperfect. Sad songs with tight grooves are often among the sickest combinations for funk and soul. Some of his EP reminds us of Graham Central Station, a highly recommended mid-'70s band fronted by bassist Larry Graham after the dissolution of Sly and the Family Stone. 
Dusty Springfield once sang, "Just a little lovin' early in the morning BEATS a cup of coffee." Miguel is a pretty horny dude, and he seems to have one-upped Dusty. This time around, it IS the coffee. Fucking is his invigorating first-thing-in-the-morning dopamine fix that he requires before showering, throwing on his suit/tie and beaming while strolling to the bus for his 9-to-5. Without the coffee, he'll be grouchy all day. The oils within freshly brewed coffee also contain antioxidants, so he considers this a healthy and necessary addiction. Coffee consumption is also an indicator of maturity, entering young people's lives right around puberty - the time when one might begin to feel the need for that extra boost of energy. It's among the most innocent legal addictive purchases available to the under-18s. And in one part, he describes his addiction as "a new religion," similar to 
"Bug in the crosshair." Small, scrutinized, paranoid, invoking stagnation and discouragement. Alex G's last few records have all contained impressively consistent compositional methods that are now considered his signature sound. But as noted in a previous Hot Mix blurb, his records also contain a handful of unexpectedly bizarre moments. "Bug" begins as a more standard example of Alex G-style melancholy until the song's final 20 seconds when he becomes pitch-shifted into a bug voice after submitting himself to a Kafka-esq transformation. 
We just caught that Track 4 is called "Never Going Out Again," while later, Track 8 is titled "Going Out." So we want to think an outlook shifted at some point between tracks 5 and 7. There's also a moment towards the end of "Going Out" where sixteenth notes are played on a single piano tone, conjuring memories of rock's greatest single-piano-note moments. Only 
The Odd Future backlash arrived almost as quickly as their breakthrough, with their antics and Tyler's Twitter presence frequently cited as too bratty and obnoxious to sustain longevity. But now it's five years later, and they haven't gone anywhere, keeping fans consistently interested by unveiling a handful of outstanding releases each year. Vince, Earl and Syd The Kid were the undisputed vips of O.F. in 2015, with Syd's band The Internet earning a special award for "best breakthrough." 
Granted, this was Missy's comeback single. And as far as anyone can tell, it seems unanimously beloved. But one-off collabs are so frequent these days. We know 
Looking back on the past 15 years of history, major catastrophic events have come and gone when the world desperately needed a unifying cultural moment that never happened. The reaction to just September 11th on its own probably spawned more horseshit musical tributes than any other devastating historical event since the advent of pop music. And then there was the Iraqi invasion, the 2004 tsunami, Hurricane Katrina. U2 and Green Day were more than happy to wave around flags on stage. But this was not protest music. It was just an excuse for another Rolling Stone cover spread. By the end of 2009, the biggest culture changes since 9/11 were social media, the election of a non-white U.S. President, and an immense increase in the glamorization of materialism set in motion by the likes of Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian. We won't really be able to view if social progress took shape in the 2010s until about 10 years from now, but in this specific moment, it feels like we might actually be on the right track.
Large amphitheater-sized psychedelic rock shows have recently been utilizing more and more video loops from DVD spinners. Their repeated visual fragments (often 5 to 20 seconds of found footage video looped over and over for minutes on end) are often so hypnotic that they could elicit unthinking hypnosis from even the most sober concert attendee. "Ankles" seems similarly strategic in its trance-inducing repetition. After a disorienting (and instantly memorable) guitar-clash intro of eighth notes, the song enters a bizarre kaleidoscopic tunnel with no discernible meter. The drummer and bass player seem locked on a sequence of fermatas, which curiously also happens to be the section that includes the song's lyrics and vocal melody. Devo covering Piper at the Gates of Dawn with Panda Bear on lead vocals. Float downstream.
The valley is a vagina. Has that been confirmed yet? We're pretty sure that's the metaphor here. The first two letters in these words are "V" and "A" and they're both 6 letters. It's a warped journey while travelling through the unknown. It's his 36 year mission through Deep Space 9 with Jean Luc Picard in tow. We were gonna make a joke about how it sounded like he was singing "tits, clits," but as it turns out 
Kanye's Yeezus might have been the first major rap release that featured purposely low-bitrate production (specifically "On Sight" and "New Slaves"). "Grief" takes post-Yeezus to a glorious degree of "more shitty than gritty," with drums resembling compressed 64kbps mp3s that have been sitting on some backup CDRs from 1998. There haven't been any recent updates on whether or not 
The classroom clock ticks so loudly. It's the last day of school before summer vacation, and there are only seconds remaining before the bell rings. You and everyone else sit silently, impatiently staring at the clock, anticipating the ticking second-hand to finally reach whatever spot aligns with The Bell - the last time you'll have to hear that annoyance for two months. But this is the one time it's not an annoyance, because it signals freedom. Every last kid in that room is on the verge of explosion. Excitement builds and peaks waiting for that moment. Holy fucking shit, here it comes. The bell rings and everyone promptly knocks down whatever is in their path. The adrenaline rush might surpass any coke you'll ever consume in your lifetime. The large majority of Shinerboy feels like that exact moment. Freedom in the summertime. Adolescent discovery and joy. Extreme uppers. Jolt cola and Monster energy drinks with no tolerance to caffeine. 13 year olds run outside and start making out because they can. The unbridled happiness of being unleashed. The pummeling surges of ultra-caffeinated bliss. Squeeze-its. Nutmeg. Whippets. Poppers. Salvia. The joy of life and adolescence and partying and just being stoked to have any grasp at all on how amazing it is that we exist. Gnarwhal's roots in the Nashville rock scene spotlights their approach. They've somehow harnessed the exuberance of Melt Banana and Boredoms' Super AE and cross-pollinated it with Gummo. 
We're not gonna pretend to be experts on DC-area punk and hardcore. And we weren't obsessed with emo back in the day, although we were pretty big fans of The Get Up Kids and The Anniversary. However, Two Inch seem to have mastered the delicate process of selecting the most effective elements from both of these subgenres. The wildly intricate and unpredictable riffage typically resembles Dischord (notably their most frequently referenced comparison, the great Shudder To Think), and their hugely memorable vocal melodies can get pretty emo (in all the best ways). In the wrong hands, this combination can (and has) led to far more disastrous results, but Two Inch has remained locked in a stride of extreme dopeness ever since 
Taylor Ross's singing voice in Surface To Air Missive has always sounded so familiar, but we figured it might have been our brain playing tricks on us. After all, the album's tape warmth, precise guitar tone and boundless energy might have tricked just about anyone into believing that this was a lost proto-punk relic from the early '70s. We doubt even John Peel himself could have guessed correctly. But after a few moments of Spotify searches and detective work, we may have found our answer. Listen to "Get In The Truck," and then listen to 
Another brilliant would-be single damned to be an iTunes bonus track. "Damned" suggests a dramatization of the American judicial system as a metaphor for Miguel being trapped within his own obsessions. Judge Judy and Judge Joe Brown are both there, slamming their gavels and demanding "order in the court." They sentence Miguel (or damn him) to a life of obsession that he may not be prepared for. "We set fire to these skies...". His burning intensity seems fully reciprocated, but he refers to it as "hopeless fate." He views it as succumbing to imprisonment with everything else in his life completely removed while serving his sentence. Be careful what you wish for. 
Where Black Messiah was the handbook on soul music history, the scope of "King Kunta" just might span the history of black music entirely, starting long before any of our grandparents were alive and extending until years into the future. And the best way for him to accomplish this is by staying relaxed and cool, almost treating the song as a playful exercise, despite the potentially crushingly hefty subject matter. It's this juxtaposition that elevates "King Kunta" to the point of being the strongest moment on 2015's most critically revered record. This song's dozens of musical references primarily point to the 1970s, the decade of Roots, Richard Pryor and The Jackson Five. He sings "I'm mad, but I ain't stressin'" with the same inflection that James Brown would have effortlessly flung into The Payback. "We want the funk!" feels like it might be the most essential Parliament/Funkadelic interpolation in over 20 years. The key change - this one's kinda tough to pin down, but it might be an Isaac Hayes homage? Granted, it somewhat misses the point likening "King Kunta" to one of those "how many hidden images can you spot?" drawings from the backpage of Highlights magazine. But we love a good puzzle and couldn't help ourselves.
"Event songs" seemed so frequent at one point. They were the types of pop songs where enough buzz had generated from radio spins that the song's title became more famous than its artist. This would often happen despite MTV prominently displaying artist name and song title. The buzz didn't surround Mark Morrison; it was about "Return of the Mack." The little kids on the playground weren't asking "Hey, have you heard of Naughty By Nature?" They asked "You down with O.P.P.?" These are not merely hits within a specific niche. Their demographic radius spans so widely that all of them inevitably chart Top 10. It's a phenomenon that seemed especially rampant during the last few years of the '80s. Radio listeners who weren't able to properly identify Martika or Neneh Cherry could still immediately ask their friends if they've heard "Toy Soldiers" or "Buffalo Stance." "Janie's Got a Gun" and "Free Fallin'" were two events where the song title's status seemed to exceed the legacy of their attached artist's name (and in both cases signaled a massive boost in the artist's popularity). They're songs that parents and children might be able to enjoy together, and as a result many of them are not very good, i.e. "Kokomo," "Don't Worry Be Happy," "We Didn't Start The Fire" or Los Lobos' cover of "La Bamba." 
"Mantra" gives us hope for a future Earl & Miguel collab. The beat suggests a painful struggle with intimate exploration. With Miguel, this would entail a more sensual (sexual) journey, while Earl's is entirely introspective - a drug song. Starting at 2:40, the warped coda sounds like the chemicals are finally starting to work their magic. By 3:20, Earl is painless and catatonic while the intro of a far more relaxed and polished beat slides its way into the picture.
The classic rock radio backlash 
“Take a sip of my secret potion / One taste and you’ll be mine.” We hate to break it to you, but what people call "love" is just a chemical reaction that compels animals to breed. It hits hard, and then it slowly fades leaving you 
Despite popular belief, there's a lot more Frank Black than Kim Deal injected into "Purple Rage," a jam that might have been the most perfect traditionally structured loud rock song of 2015. There's even a breakdown after the second chorus, plus plenty of opportunities for audiences at their shows to scream "YAAEEEEEEAAAAAA" while throwing their fists in the air. Slack is back - with a vengeance. 
Not gonna lie here: We don't know enough about jazz to correctly identify which sections of The Epic sound closest to John Coltrane or Chick Corea. But we listen to 
We found two other online reviews of Stove Is Stupider that individually note the ignition of the Big Muff in "Dusty Weather's" outro as an album highlight. And while we're inclined to agree, the preceding 3 minutes and 20 seconds of quiet restraint are equally crucial. Within the album's sequencing, it's the first moment on this record that doesn't rest comfortably on the line between Ovlov and what happened afterwards. The Stove era feels more introspective than ever, and possibly as a consequence, slightly more aligned with the textures of Jimmy Eat World's Clarity and The Get Up Kids' Something To Write Home About (both from 1999). But what's truly remarkable is that any randomly chosen song from Is Stupider might actually prove itself just as timeless as almost anything from either of those albums.
This refers to the 3:34 version posted to Soundcloud back in July and (for some reason) 
Sources have reported that Ava Luna's creative process involves brainstorms and organization so extensive that their notepads might be incomprehensible to average humans. Whenever any band does a song about money or bills, we always say it's "their official commentary on the nation's economic climate," and we're usually half-kidding. But in this case, Ava Luna seem to have sonically captured a frustrating balancing act between responsibility towards both money and relationships. The complexity in the lyrics reflect its "mini-symphony" arrangement, soulful vocals that wouldn't be out of place on a Hall & Oates record, and drum mics pushed into the red. Its arrangement seems oddly balanced as well, with an earwormy singalong chorus that doesn't return the same way twice. 
We regret not throwing together a few interviews for this year's Hot Mix. In this instance, it might have been helpful to know if "Sofa Queen" was remotely composed, like that Postal Service album. In either case, we stand by our initial assessment that we've probably already drunkenly confessed to the three musicians involved: "It sounds like Ellen singing on a Grass Is Green song," which for us is a "Breaking News" headline worth far more than "Check Out Josh Homme and Dave Grohl's New Band." You know those instances of big business collaborations where the headline is worth more than the actual music? Dave Grohl is usually involved in a lot of these. "Check Out Kanye and McCartney's New Single On Tidal." You get the point.
Fact #1: As an official Beyonce-dubbed title, 
2015 may have been "the year of lead singles from promised albums that never got released." While Missy's "WTF" and Rihanna's "BBHMM" were among the most notorious, many Kanye fans must have been tipped early on that the odds of these McCartney collabs ending up on Swish were just as likely as "Mercy" or "Clique" winding up on Yeezus. All three songs arrived within the first 3 months of 2015. By the time October arrived, it was pretty certain that Kanye had moved onto other things. A lot of fans couldn't help noticing the similarities between the intros of "All Day" and 
On their tour following the release of A Distant Fist Unclenching, Krill would frequently close their setlists with a strategically placed emotional earthquake: 
Our favorite moments on Alex G's last few records are the darker, more bizarre moments, if only because they're always more unexpected among the larger, more traditional fraction. The oddities have been showing up more frequently since 2012's Trick. "Salt," "Look Out," "Brite Boy" and "In Love" might be the weirdest, darkest and arguably best sequence on any of his albums so far, while the more traditional singer-songwriter parts of Beach Music are as strong as ever. There's a very good possibility that it's his best album yet. The quiet dissonant guitar feedback in "Kicker" suggests a madness creeping underneath all the coolness. "Big plan for a big man / Tough change for a tough guy." A definite album highlight.
Here's a great example of visuals in a music video capturing the essence of a song. The Youtube viewer gets to literally run away with Carly Rae as she escapes to Paris, NYC and (possibly) Tokyo. The production elements and sax riff help it to fit within the current fake-'80s trend (M83's 
"NOW she wanna fuck with me...". She sounds like she's dealt with this many times before. This lyric accompanied by a abruptly warm and dark introduction kicks off an otherwise outstanding 4-song front-load and the year's most sadly unheralded song sequence. If '90s nostalgia is still considered hip, then Ego Death arrived just in time for what appears to be a brief revival of neo-soul. Syd Tha Kid's understated coolness recalls Amel Larrieux's vocals on 
Homeshake is a home recording project of Mac Demarco's former rhythm guitar player. The sleepy, melancholy aura within "Heat" somehow aligns pretty well with its unauthorized 
In October 2014, we were fortunate enough to visit the Odd Future store on Fairfax Avenue in Los Angeles (which closed down the following January). The items were a bit pricey, but Devin bought socks, and we picked up some "GOLF" bumper stickers. It was pretty empty with the exception of 1 or 2 clerks and 2 or 3 dudes at the front of the store who were loudly playing FIFA 2014 on XBOX. And by "the front of the store," we mean you had to walk right past them since the TV was above the entrance. And by "loudly," we mean they were laughing and yelling expletives at each other creating a less-than-typical environment for a retail store. And if memory serves correctly, there was no music, so these FIFA dudes were the only audible sounds throughout the entire time you were there. We'd like to think that those 2 or 3 dudes were employees who were paid to help generate an OFWGKTA-approved atmosphere. 
Palehound's knack for strong melodic hooks is probably the most obvious attribute at the heart of "Healthier Folk's" dopeness, alongside their excellent usage of careful restraint. But the structural twists and turns are what might make this their quintessential jam. Like the finest Simpsons episodes, it 
A welcome inclusion to any of her future Greatest Hits packages, "No Sleeep" chronicles Janet's sexual excursions confined within some lavishly decorated house or apartment throughout a rainy 48 hour period - one in which Janet and the object of her desire receive no sleep despite surrounding themselves with very soft and comfortable beds, couches, blankets and pillows. It sounds like they start to run out of steam around 2:51 as the beat switches back to the heartbeat-sounding kick drum from the intro. Janet starts to doze off here, but then gets awakened for another round. "No Sleeep" might also a strong candidate for the "fade out hall of fame" (alongside Aaliyah's "One In A Million," Beck's "Loser," Bowie's "Space Oddity") as the heartbeat resurfaces throughout its final 15 seconds. (Sadly, this is the portion of the song that J. Cole raps over in the album version. But fortunately, R&B radio has avoided this version.)
We may have blown our #BBHMM load on