We don't remember how this was found but it's in reference to some other blog...
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| All 100 Songs |
60. Wicca Phase Springs Eternal “I Fell” / Code Orange “Let Me In”
As Bray Wyatt seized responsibility to turn up the horrorcore to 11 and usher his re-brand as The Fiend, he realized his previous entrance from The Jesus and Mary Chain would not be easy to follow. Wisely selected, Code Orange surpassed all expectations with bludgeoning grace. But our favorite between these two might be Darby Allin's "I Fell," arguably the best Marilyn Manson jam of the 2010s (fake Manson or otherwise). In the highly unlikely event of Darby and Fiend facing each other in the ring, we'd sadly place 4 to 5 odds in favor of The Fiend, although an upset would not disappoint.59. Blood Incantation “Inner Paths (To Outer Space)”
Blood Incantation's "Great Gig In The Sky," the growing meditative mid-LP noise crusher. In Jayson Greene's review, he quotes the band saying it was “improvised 'on psychedelics over a period of several months' [evolving] entirely in unexpected leaps, dissolving into synthesizer washes and backmasked guitars and then plunging ahead, again, stirring up the primordial ooze."58. Young Guv “Patterns Prevail”
Me and the boys.
57. Maren Morris “Girl”
Without hyperbole, our hopes for the Hero follow up were higher than Obama's cocaine blunts on a sunny Sunday 4:20. This means the hopes were very high. Criminally underrated (as was the case with far too many 2010s LPs), Hero is a rare "11 songs 11 singles" record that happened maybe once-per-year in the 2010s. In the meantime, we pretended "The Middle" didn't suck and maintained optimism. Now that she has an actual hit, this could potentially lead to huge crossover jams. We're gonna give Maren benefit of the doubt here. She's talented enough to write another Hero, so it must be the label's fault. "Can you make these songs suck more?" The power ballad title track sadly ended up as Girl's best song, eventually spinning on a 2-3 day loop in our brain-chemical-controlled playlist, so that should count for something. ("The Bones" is also fine and would have placed in the 101-200 range.)56. Jute Gyte “Dissected Grace”
55. Ariana Grande f/ Social House “Boyfriend”
Time once again to reiterate how many years since summer radio drives didn't suck. Since we recall Summer 2013 so fondly, we're guessing it might have been the last decent summer for Top 40. It was the summer of "#Beautiful" and "The Way," Mariah Carey's final summer song and Ariana Grande's breakthrough single. We're guessing Mariah's diva/narcissist tendencies might prevent any officially cosigned "passing of the torch" moment, but Ariana Grande's singles have filled the void ever since, peaking in 2018 with "No Tears Left To Cry." Thank U Next dropped so quickly afterwards, leaving the summer radio landscape wide open. Social House saw their opportunity to capitalize with an obvious "Thank U Next" ripoff, and thank the good lord they did. We needed it.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SRxBTtspYM
54. (Sandy) Alex G “Gretel”
53. Purple Mountains “All My Happiness Is Gone”
52. Carly Rae Jepsen “I’ll Be Your Girl”
Hot challenge: Locate the true 3/4 waltzes of chart hits. Apparently, Ed Sheeran had a huge hit about two years ago with a song called "Perfect" that was the 15th biggest song of the decade. We love "Kiss From A Rose" and "Iris." We do not love Edwin McCain or Lifehouse. An old Paramore single called "The Only Exception" came up. Question: What do all of these tracks have in common? The answer: Despite Google's insistence, none of these are true waltzes. They're all played in a slow 6/8 emphasizing kick on the 1 and snare on the 2 -- a less challenging time signature to market and sell to the shmaltz-core wedding-ballad demographic. Both a true waltz and decidedly non-shmaltz, "I'll Be Your Girl" uses the odd timing to hint an overtone of endearing awkwardness. A long time ago in the midst of Weezer's 6/8-heavy Pinkerton era, "No Other One" became their lone true waltz - equally endearing and awkward, but way clumsier.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqBGjbpzpl4
51. CZ Wang and Neo Image f/ Separated At Birth “Just Off Wave”
50. MGMT “In The Afternoon”
Faint / Up against your way-hail / Through the thick and thayl / You will wait untay-hayl
49. Vertical Scratchers “Song of Earth”
48. Freddie Gibbs & Madlib “Crime Pays”
47. Nudie Mag “Please Be The One”
46. Palehound “Urban Drip”
Fun game: Sing Steve Lacy's "Playground" replacing the word "Playground" for "Palehound." Lemme tell ya somethin: this thing works. (Note: We have never tried this.)Part of us is hoping that we never figure out the mysteriously specific but hard-to-place production reference in "Urban Drip." It's definitely from a singer-songwriter late-'60s or '70s, ie, Wings, Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, etc. Whatever it is, we haven't heard any other band nail it with as much conviction in the past 3 or 4 decades of music. Serious skillz to pay the billz.
45. Fury “Angels Over Berlin”
44. Desert Sessions “Something You Can’t See”
Scissor Sisters dude sings this one. We forget which one he is. Pretty sure we liked this better than Like Clockwork or Villians. We're curious to know, what exactly are the 11 or 12 people involved in this project so busy with? What was preventing them from carving out an extra week or two so that the first Desert Sessions record since 2003 didn't have to be 7-and-a-half songs long? Where's the love? Can they do another one of these ASAP?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8XIOz5E5ug
43. Maneka “Time In the Barrel”
Maneka has played "Time In The Barrel" live only once, at their album release show last July. Can they bring it back? No one minds that the one little part sounds like "Drain You." In fact, the jam holds up, especially the free noise section in the middle. A Rick and Morty reference regarding cancel-culture may or may not have influenced the song title and lyrics, although we had trouble locating a more specific origin. No disrespect to Jim Croce. Meanwhile, Bojack (the character, not the show) got sentenced to some literal-ass barrel time, with Princess Carolyn erroneously theorizing that "people forget." [Kobe rant redacted.] Yeah anyway... Maneka! Great band! Serious bangers! Open up the pit!42. DaBaby “BOP”
41. Hatchie “Without A Blush” / Hatchie “Unwanted Guest”
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| All 100 Songs |
We love George Corpsegrinder. We would vote for him if he ran for office. Here are 6 things we learned about him when 
We LIKE that they ripped off "Been A Son." The world would improve as a whole of more bands did this. We want more "Been A Son" rip off songs. No Age's new album was not on Spotify for its first few months after release, which we later realized was a Drag City thing, although it would not have surprised us if it were a No Age thing. In the past, they've expressed similar anti-corporation pro-DIY alignment. Before this realization, we assumed the decision was made specifically for people like us who had strong intent to purchase a physical copy and sought an album preview without spending $9 on mp3s. Soulseek to the rescue. It's been years since we illegally downloaded an album before buying, which gave us nostalgia for back in the Nouns days. And yes, the album does completely rule, and we gladly shelled out real money for the record (their 2nd best!) because No Age is still the best band of the last 10 years, and they're fucking worth it. 
We probably could have placed other songs from Hero higher than this one, except this is one of the few that technically qualifies as a true 2017 jam since the single charted exclusively during that year. The wiki discography reports a few stations added "Rich" back in February 2018 (possibly pushed to radio as a precaution in case country fans opted to not fuck with "The Middle"). So is the Hero album cycle technically still happening? We're unfamiliar with the way country radio works, so maybe this is a normal thing. (Taylor Swift, for example, usually waits 4-6 months before a new song/video gets added to playlists, similar to how they used to promote mid-'90s blockbusters like Jagged Little Pill n stuff.) Either way, "I Could Use A Love Song" is fair game for 2017. She sings about how love songs are the same as drugs or something. It's great.
There are more devastating realizations than figuring out just after settling, after years of preparation, that the goal you've been working towards is not actually what you wanted at all. It might be a new job, or a college degree, or a marriage, or moving to a new city. After the exciting journey brings you to your happily-ever-after, where do you go from there? Ever since the similarly pensive "It's The Weekend" back in 2009, Jason Lytle's lyrics have gravitated more and more towards Plastic Ono Band levels of simplicity. "Mama don't go, daddy come home" repeated over and over again. Rigidly direct prose.
The 11K meme posted here has something to do with the value of Bitcoin but we didn't feel like reading into it. We just really wanted a picture of Eleven stealing Eggos to go along with "let gO Of my egO." Its 
"Fuck a fair one, I get mine the fast way. Ski mask way." Leikeli47's ski mask (shown in the pic to the right switched out with one of many various obscuring devices in the "Miss Me" video) expresses many things: alluring mystery, anonymity, anti-image, anti-patriarchy, a possible MF Doom nod. Also, she probably gets yelled at whenever she walks into 7-11. (At least that's what happens to us when we forget to remove our ski mask before grabbing some Big Gulp.) It actually surprises us that it's taken until now, roughly 40 years into hiphop's history, for a reasonably prominent underground rapper to own the ski mask as a crucial element of their aesthetic. More importantly, her flow is arguably the freshest from any class of '17 rapper, and she deserves to blow the fuck up today. Pharrell & Missy: Don't sleep on this.
The initial 3-4 month coping period after Trump's election affected Twitter users in some unexpectedly strange ways. For some bizarre reason, lots of people started overusing "bonkers" on Twitter between November 2016 and February 2017. During this era, the editors of Pitchfork opted to include this word in their headlines several times, but it has not appeared at all since then. People who used this word on the internet likely never uttered "bonkers" out loud, let alone in public, and many of them claimed that "bonkers" had always been heavily used in their normal everyday vocabulary. (Coincidentally, these are the same people who posted the Meryl Streep "yelling at the Oscars" meme multiple times.) Apparently, Animal Collective fell victim to this same bizarre trend. A true artifact of the era, "Kinda Bonkers" probably would have placed higher otherwise.
On the afternoon of November 17, 2017, we just happened to find ourselves at The Observatory in Santa Ana, California. Not far from our van, we spotted a bunch of lit candles inside of a small fenced off area in the parking lot. It seemed out of place until we realized it was left there from a candlelight vigil. The Observatory was Lil Peep's first cancelled tour date following his fatal ingestion less than 24 hours prior in Tuscon, Arizona. We had all been saddened by the news, and so we went to take some video of the remaining 20 or 30 candles with a freshly acquired Pixel. A mysterious bump suddenly sent the phone crashing onto a sharp section of the fence. Part of the screen was cracked, although the phone still worked ok. From that day forward, we felt the spirit of Lil Peep within that Pixel. (It was tough to forget the circumstances.) The crack enlarged about a month ago when we accidentally dropped a set of keys on the screen. The phone's been swapped out and replaced. We're guessing it was quickly refurbished and sold to a new owner who has no idea that a piece of one of the true emo-rap legends rests so close to them, protecting from certain doom. "Awful Things" is the song that Good Charlotte (his favorite band) was asked to perform at his funeral. We know he frequently sampled emo tracks from the early 2000s; yet despite "Awful Things" suspiciously Blink-193 intro, it's one of the guitar parts that Lil Peep wrote and recorded on his own. He was just getting warmed up, and likely had a bank of ideas stored and ready for Pt. 2. Tragic as fuck.
Yachty is currently the only artist in hiphop who collaborated with Kehlela, Charli XCX and Carly Rae Jepsen throughout 2017. It took us a minute, but we eventually realized his presence was crucial throughout this year, and "Priorities" was the song when we finally "got it." "Fuck school / Fuck the rules." He directly descends from Lil B. Now it all makes sense. "Priorities" is also among the moments that came closest to the essence of the album title Teenage Emotions. Of course, it took until we heard a deep cut on his major label debut before deciding "Soundcloud rap is now a good thing." We don't think it was entirely Yachty's fault that the album suffered. After all, this was Lil Yachty's first major label album. "Getting signed" is a responsibility that Lil B has yet to accept. He never had to deal with record companies fronting the cost of recording and publicity, breathing down his neck and forcing terrible songs onto what could have otherwise been a pretty dope record. Lil B's worst songs are the ones that HE made that way. Big-business has nothing to do with his decisions. He can wear his Bernie 2016 shirt as much as he wants for that very reason. He can portray himself anyway he wants. Yachty seems to have entered 2018 rightfully frustrated with the music business, quickly recording and self-releasing the dark and in-your-face Lil Boat 2 mixtape. Perhaps it's turned him cold, and he's grown unhappy with the fun-loving, youthful experimentation and exploration of "Priorities" or "Shoot Out The Roof." They might be the two best rap songs he'll release for a while.
Red House Painters is cool, but hasn't that Sun Kil Moon asshole already gotten enough props in the past 5 years? Aside from any "Deftones on valium" takes regarding the Cloakroom album as a whole, we'd say the RHP comparisons are definitely all coming from people who've never heard Space Needle, a.k.a. the most underrated Rhode Island band of all time. It's a more subdued sound for Cloakroom, but we did not expect it to immediately make us say, "Holy shit, these guys definitely love Space Needle." It's the intersection of 
"Hip Hop" descends from simpler times. If you're an artist in a genre that lets you get away with repeating the genre name and settling on that as a song's entire chorus, then you have every right to let that happen. "Wasup Jojo" exposes Lil B's perplexing dichotomy; he is at once introspective and philosophical but also a fun-loving and horny rock star. This all helps Black Ken (apparently his first "official" mixtape) gracefully build upon Lil B's prolific and out-of-step discography. He's never marched in time with modern trends, nor walked away from what made him special. He never needed to. Black Ken throws back, but it's very of the moment; it's not forward-thinking, but it sounds like it's from a different timeline. It's his shiniest and most sparkling sounding album to date, but its human imperfections are its most alluring assets.
In 1973, a college student named Patrick Cowley recorded several albums of slinky, mysterious and almost noir-sounding instrumental electronic music. A gay porn company called Fox Studio bought all of this music not long afterwards, and 
Earlier this year, 
As an album title, DAMN. (all caps, plus punctuation) expresses observation, reflection, and a strong, possibly overwhelming reaction. Sadly, it might be the opposite of "Alright." The record feels appropriately cluttered and claustrophobic. Impressive as a whole, only a few of its tracks felt as strong as standalone singles. While the spacey "FEAR." might be its only song that could have appeared on either good kid maad city or To Pimp A Butterfly, it's the deep breath of sonic representation DAMN. required - still as dense as its album's sister jams, but arguably the most musically satisfying on its own. If "DUCKWORTH." and "XXX." display the clutter itself, "FEAR." is up-at-4AM stuck between a youthful memory and trying to make sense of it all. "If I could smoke fear away, I'd roll that motherfucker up."
She was losing her religion, cursing on Sundays and indulging in debauchery. But now Maren Morris has found her church in the FM dial - a claim that clashes with our experience, since we haven't been able to enjoy corporate radio since at least 2012. But we're happy Maren digs it. We checked out some pop-country stations a couple weeks ago, and nothing seemed especially egregious compared to how it sounded in the '90s. There's a lot less Brooks & Dunn and Leann Rimes. There's a lot more of the awkward #wokeness in songs like "I Believe Most People Are Good" (a far drive from the days of "Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off") and they play the shit out of that Florida Georgia Line song that doesn't seem to wanna go away anytime soon. Maren gets the "home" feeling from faith placed into iHeartRadio's program directors. And the "My Church" chorus spun on the FM dial in our brains for 3 or 4 nights in a row. P.S. The word "God" is not mentioned once in this entire song.
We were about to express surprise that a fresh new dope K-pop group has arrived that doesn't have 7 or 9 or 12 or 15 members. After a certain point, the abundance of large-numbered group members enters Polyphonic Spree levels of absurdity, removing any discernible way to connect. Brockhampton are packaged as a similarly daunting collective, whereas Odd Future took their time over the course of several years, slowly introducing more characters over a 3-4 year span to anyone willing to care or listen. 
Yo Charli, what the fuck? Your Soundcloud was definitely streaming "Boys" a few short days ago, but now it's just a 30-second preview. Say it ain't so, Charli. We're not switching this to a Youtube link. No. Not happening.
Blown out production and hardcore screams are exactly what Alex G's last album needed. "Brick" is yet another of his essential weirdo experiments, which maybe should be packaged far down the road into an immense weirdo comp. Nothing's off limits. This makes the "Alex G goes country" headline (accompanying the premiere of "Bobby") seem entirely laughable. We'd love to hear a live version of this song.
Our pitch for Netflix: Once a week, we'll premiere another 2 hour movie about the end of the world. It's a series titled Normalize Armageddon intended to lessen the fear of "we're all fucked." Each week, watch the sun get so hot that everything starts melting. People start melting and eventually burst into flames. Watch yourself melt. Watch your friends melt your family. Watch net neutrality melt. Watch Bitcoin melt. And that's just the title sequence.
"I think I'm in trouble," sang Lindsay Buckingham as the other members of Fleetwood Mac threw him down a flight of stairs. As of 2018, he's been very much fired from The Mack, and it should be pretty easy to figure out why since Steamy Nicks was the only band member who refused to participate in Buckingham/McVie's shockingly dope 2017 album. "In My World" sounds like a lost Tango In The Night deep cut, reprising the "love noises" from "Big Love" and sprinkled with Mick Fleetwood's signature snare tone (probably the #1 drummer in rock history who is recognized more for tone than prowess of rudiments or whatever). Kinda bullshit that this couldn't have been called a Fleetwood Mac album, but swap out Buckingham for Nicks (neither of whom are O.G.), and it's suddenly okay. But not so weirdly, the snare tone steals the show here.
Are you ready for some "Gigantic"/Yuck riffage? What's so funny? Why are you laughing? No seriously, what's so funny? What did we say? Did we say something weird? There's a talking-on-the-phone solo in this song which kind of reminds us of the break-down from the Hanson bonus track that was written by the 9-year-old kid (Zac). So anyway, you're still laughing. This is what modern rock radio should sound like right now. There are plenty of sick pop-grunge songs that should be charting, but instead iHeartRadio continues playing Imagine Dragons. Oh wait, it's 4:21. That's why you're cracking up. Now we get it.
The Lil Yachty LP Teenage Emotions actually does suck. It's a shitty album with 5 really good songs and 5 more kinda ok songs, which would have been enough for a decent 10 song trap-pop LP, but instead Yachty decided to bloat the album to 21 songs with music that is for the most part pretty fucking awful (such as the one where the chorus is an interpolation of Tegan and Sara's "Walking With The Ghost"). It seems like he's still experimenting with his brand and trying to discover who he is and how to be portrayed. The most interesting moments on Teenage Emotions - the parts that won us over and convinced us that he was worth our attention - were the strange outsider moments where he stepped very far out of the confines of trap. We were intrigued enough by "Lady In Yellow" that it inspired 
"Diver Dan" was Robert Pollard's best song of 2017, but we think the best GBV jam of the year was "Overloaded," written by their current drummer and former Shudder To Think member Kevin March (who coincidentally looks a lot like Craig Wedren). Kevin submitted his demo to The Guided for their planned double-album and was considering having the band re-record it, but instead Pollard gave one listen and said "it's done." This ended up being the final version included on August By Cake. Pollard was right; the tape warble and lo-fi elements compliment the song perfectly. No need to add anything else.