Hi everyone! As the year 2019 is coming to an end, we wanted to have a flashback to the best songs of the year. So here we present you the Top of the Hits of 2019:
“Flat Tummy Tea,” Freddie Gibbs and Madlib
Freddie Gibbs is one of the more consistent rappers we’ve got. His voice sits low and his throat sounds like it’s been raked over gravel a few too many times. He’s cynical, but not completely cut off from relatable concepts like love and jokes and the ridiculousness of life.
“How Did I Get Here,” Offset and J. Cole
The world did not really need solo albums from each Migos member, but the world doesn’t need a lot of things it’s getting right now, so here we are. This is, however, a list of the best songs of 2019 so far, and that means that we actually did need “How Did I Get Here,” from Offset’s way better than it needs to be solo album.
“Meet Again,” Maxo Kream
Sometimes you just hear a song and can only think, Now there’s a guy who’s seen some shit. That’s Maxo Kream’s “Meet Again.” In a few short years, the Houston rapper has quickly demonstrated a distinct handle on the fundamentals of rap storytelling.
“Saturdays (Again),” Avey Tare
Quick question: Where does your mind go when I say that this song sounds sort of like the Gipsy Kings? If that turns you off, I get it. Gipsy Kings have their positives, but they also bring to mind that vague connotation of “world music,”
“Sleepwalkin,’” Better Oblivion Community Center
Better Oblivion Community Center is the project of Conor Oberst and Phoebe Bridgers. The former is a veteran of bummer songs about love and loneliness, the other is newer but no less adept at plumbing the depths of human emotion, only she does it with a perpetual smirk that doesn’t so much obliterate the heaviness of what she’s singing about as it does make it feel more real.
“Thotiana (Remix),” Blueface ft. Cardi B
Like any popular rap song, there are plenty of remixes to choose from here. Maybe you’d prefer the one with YG, or the maybe unofficial one with Tyga, or whatever “Thotiana Remix ft. Disney’s Goofy (PARODY)” is supposed to be.
Solange ft. Playboi Carti, “Almeda”
What makes Solange so distinctly Solange is her effortless ability to cull freedom from any form of entrapment. Looking at the way black people have increasingly been snuffed out of black culture for the purposes of commodification, for example, she can still offer hope by snatching back the pride in our ownership.
Lizzo, “Soulmate”
Well, I’ve never made a single song in my life, so who am I to say Lizzo’s “Soulmate” is one of the best songs of the year? I don’t know, man, sometimes facts are facts. Lizzo gets a lot of praise and, suddenly, now more and more flak for her very specific branding of self-love.
Beyoncé, “Sorry – Original Demo”
So rarely do artists let us see their raw emotions in real time, when the wounds are still fresh, exposed, and hemorrhaging. Beyoncé was a mentally battered woman on Lemonade, and it took guts to admit those feelings of defeat she suffered in such a public way; it also took time and a lot of clarity, being removed from the pain and having reached a resolution.
Tyler, the Creator, “Earfquake”
Tyler, the Creator is at his best when he’s exploring the ways in which romantic relationships, at their peaks and valleys, can feel like personal natural disasters, and how you can never really know which end of that stability spectrum you’re at because it all kind of starts to feel the same over time.
Jai Paul, “Do You Love Her Now”
The entitlement fans project onto artists over their work can be detrimental to the work. In some cases, like for the Rihannas of the world, the pressure to deliver on that “give it to me now” deadline is easily silenced with a few snappy Instagram clap backs.
Katy Perry, “Never Really Over”
The wait for Katy Perry to get back down to the business of deliciously executed pop songs is over. After a seemingly never-ending series of missteps and steps back, her newest single “Never Really Over” re-centers the singer to the same sensibility that put her in the upper echelons of this generation of pop stars in the first place.
Beyoncé ft. Blue Ivy, Saint Jhn, and WizKid, “Brown Skin Girl”
It’s incredible to think of this as an off year for Beyoncé, one where maybe she doesn’t release a solo album. Because even in her relatively quieter times, she’s prolific.
Miley Cyrus, “Slide Away”
Cyrus’s “Slide Away” manages to feel quiet and intimate without any flatness. Producers Mike WiLL Made It and Andrew Wyatt mix hip-hop drums, warm guitars, sweeping strings, and layered samples as Miley eulogizes her marriage to actor Liam Hemsworth, a split made public mere days ago as rumors swirl that the singer is seeing Brody Jenner’s ex Kaitlynn Carter.
Taylor Swift ft. the Dixie Chicks, “Soon You’ll Get Better”
The push and pull between Swift’s expressions of strong yearnings and wounding realities has changed from the neat binaries (trueheartedness versus romantic betrayal; earnestness versus bullying) that populated her first few albums and, for some, grew tiresome.
There you go TempoBar readers! If you missed out on any of these awesome hits, go stream them before the year ends!
Comments