Top 100 songs of 2019.

I feel like this was a down year; I haven’t had this hard of a time filling out a top 100 songs list in any of the seven years where I’ve done one. That means there are a lot of artists on here 2-3 times, and I believe a record number of covers for one of my lists. If you can’t see the playlist below, you can access it here.

100. Hatchie – Stay with Me. Hatchie put three songs on list this year, all from her debut album Keepsake, which shows off her ability to cook up sweet melodies that work with her slight vocal range, recalling ’90s alternative acts like the Cranberries and the Cardigans.

99. Floating Points – Anasickmodular. Just the right amount of Floatin Points’ intellectual spin on EDM, especially given the fast-moving, shifting drum machine on this track.

98. Danny Brown – Best Life. This track, produced by Q-Tip, was the star of the veteran rapper Brown’s latest album, uknowhatimsayin¿, which made best-of-the-year lists from Billboard, Paste, and Pitchfork.

97. Supergrass – Next to You. I have a few covers on the top 100 this year, which is unusual but I think reflects that this was a down year overall for new music. Supergrass is an old favorite of mine, and this cover of a modest hit from the Police marked the release of Supergrass’ boxed set this summer.

96. Of Monsters and Men – Róróró. One of two memorable tracks from the Icelandic group’s rather disappointing third album, Fever Dream, and the one that best showcases lead singer Nanna’s voice.

95. Port Noir – Champagne. I don’t know what “the black soul choir” is, but I kind of like the potential double meaning there in this track from a Swedish hard-rock trio who’ve worked with a number of producers from the area’s extreme metal scene.

94. Dry Cleaning – Magic of Meghan. You’ll either love the repeated guitar line in this song or it will annoy you; I’m obviously in the former camp. It’s too bad nothing else on Dry Cleaning’s debut EP sounded like this.

93. Ride – Repetition. Ride aren’t so much shoegaze any more, but indie rock, and almost positive in their vibe. I wonder if they look at the audience when they perform now.

92. Longwave – If We Ever Live Forever. The title track from their comeback album, their first in eleven years, is a great bit of jangly indie-rock driven by some mournful guitar lines below a Ben Gibbard-esque vocal.

91. Rina Sawayama – STFU! The song is good, but the video elevates this to another level. The song is very NSFW, by the way.

90. LIFE – Hollow Thing. I enjoy their sneering modern twist on classic punk, although the hooks aren’t always there on their debut album A Picture of Good Health. This song shows they have the ear for it, so I’m hopeful we’ll get more tracks like this in their future. I look so good in black, I always do.

89. Temples – Hot Motion. The title track and opener from Temples’ latest album grabs you right from the start with that swirling five-note guitar riff, following by the gait of a shambling drum line, a great way to bring you into one of my favorite albums of the year.

88. White Lies – Tokyo. Dark synthpop, not quite up to their best track, “There Goes Our Love Again,” but still strong and the best song from Five V2.

87. The Raconteurs – Help Me Stranger. Jack White at his best: strong melody, pronounced guitarwork, a solid beat, tight from start to finish. The rest of the album was very meh, though.

86. Band of Skulls – Gold. I was disappointed by Love Is All You Love but this track is what I imagine their retro guitar aesthetic would sound like if Mark Ronson produced them.

85. White Reaper – Might Be Right. The soi-disant world’s greatest American band know just what they’re about: their third album, You Deserve Love, runs 10 songs … and 29 minutes. Power-pop jewels like this one – the second-longest track on the record – can wear out their welcome if they go too long, but this album is an exemplar of its familiar genre.

84. Pharlee – Darkest Hour. A new band from the ashes of several other San Diego-area outfits, Pharlee – sort of named after Chris Farley – features the snarling vocals of Macarena Rivera and some driving guitar work that reminds me on this track of Golden Earring’s “Radar Love.”

83. Flying Lotus featuring Anderson .Paak – More. I’ve never been a huge Flying Lotus fan, but this song’s abrupt shifts also give us some of Anderson .Paak’s best work yet for a genre-defying track that alternates between jazziness and a danceable groove.

82. black midi – Reggae. These British experimentalists had my #3 album of the year in Schlagenheim, but it doesn’t lend itself to singles – my favorite track from them in 2019 wasn’t actually on the album. This is probably the most accessible song that is on the LP, and gives you some sense of their avant-garde, inverted take on rock; it’s challenging but doesn’t push the boundary into abrasiveness like some of the album does.

81. Jade Bird – Lottery. My second-favorite track from the Welsh singer-songwriter’s self-titled debut album, after “Love Has All Been Done Before,” my #4 song of 2019. This track also showcases her Janis Joplin-esque vocals and has a solid hook in the chorus; the album was kind of uneven, without enough compelling hooks for that many songs.

80. Ten Fé – Won’t Happen. These soft-rock savants seem to effortlessly churn out radio-friendly pop tracks that would have been hits in a different era; their second album in two years, Future Perfect, Present Tense, is full of tracks like this one, melodic and well-rounded without cloying.

79. Fontaines D.C. – Too Real. I’m not in on Fontaines like most critics seem to be; there’s something about the vocals on their tracks that ring false to me and I can’t quite put my finger on why. It’s as if they’re trying so hard to sound like vintage punk, but the music is two generations too late. Of all of their songs I’ve heard, this one seems the most coherent, or at least has the least discord between the music and vocals, and I think the guitar work here would stand with some of the better stuff from …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead.

78. Lightning Born – Renegade. Two and a half minutes is just about right for this little slice of New Wave of British Heavy Metal-infused rock, with Corrosion of Conformity bassist Mike Dean among the new band’s members.

77. Metronomy – Salted Caramel Ice Cream. Yeah, it’s kind of twee, but it’s really catchy, and I happen to love this flavor.

76. Ceremony – Further I Was. Get used to seeing post-punk revivalists Ceremony on this list, since my #1 album of the year put three tracks on the top 100 and could have put a fourth with “Say Goodbye to Them” or even “Years of Love.”

75. BONES UK – Pretty Waste. This might be the first time I have ever discovered and liked a new song because of a Grammy nomination, but that’s how I first heard about BONES UK, a trio now based in L.A. that earned a nod for Best Rock Performance for this hard-edged electronic/rock track that seems to descend every time it moves from verse to chorus.

74. Crows – Wednesday’s Child. The most accessible song from Crows’ solid, heavy debut album of post-hardcore, “Wednesday’s Child” reminds me tonally of Drenge, but with a wall-of-sound effect from multiple guitars and heavier distortion.

73. Big Thief – UFOF. Every critic seems to love this album, but it did almost nothing for me – it’s aggressively boring, a callback to the stillborn quietcore movement that nobody really wanted to revisit in the first place. The title track was the one song that stood out to me for an actual melody, something you could grab on to aurally that might bring you back to the song for another listen.

72. FKA Twigs – cellophane. The first single from MAGDALENE, released seven months in advance of the album, is mostly just her voice, often in falsetto, and the ghost of a piano, with electronic elements only appearing in the last third of the song, and barely at that. Her maturation as a singer and songwriter was first evident on the 2016 one-off single “Good to Love,” and this song made it clear how much she’d grown since her first record.

71. Holly Herndon – Frontier. Herndon’s third album PROTO includes a choral ensemble and the inputs of Spawn, a “nascent” AI trained via vocal tracks, a process audible on other songs on the record like “Canaan.” “Frontier” is a more finished product, Herndon’s (and Spawn’s) take on Appalachian Sacred Harp music, with the result sounding simultaneously futuristic and decidedly old.

70. Wye Oak – Fortune. Hoping this is a harbinger of another new album from the indie duo, both in timing and in sound, as this seems to sit between Civilian and The Louder I Call, The Faster It Runs.

69. Hatchie – Without a Blush. We can quibble over genres, but this is a pop song, and I’m good with that. It’s bright and shimmering and that opener gets stuck in my head for days whenever I hear it.

68. Mourn – Jumping Someone Else’s Train. This Catalonian trio – it looks like they lost a member somewhere after their last album – deserves a wider audience for their raw, garage-tinged sound, but label problems held them back before their 2018 album Sorpresa Familia was released. They put out a four-song EP of covers this year, headlined by this cover of a Cure track, along with covers of songs by Come, dEUS, and Chris Bell.

67. Lower Dens – Hand of God. My favorite track from Lower Dens’ fourth album, The Competition, is almost … sunny? Bright? It’s still indie-pop with a heavy synth element, but there’s something undeniably upbeat here that isn’t present in a lot of their music.

66. Here Lies Man – Long Legs. HLM’s weird blend of stoner rock, world music, and jazz influences coes together very nicely on this heavy yet grooving track that really doesn’t miss the vocals it lacks.

65. Phantom Planet – BALISONG. Phantom Planet’s first new music in eleven years turned out to be a little pop gem with an earworm of a vocal, even though the song is about a butterfly knife (also called a balisong). They released a second single this year, “Party Animal,” that was forgettable, but there’s apparently a new album in the works.

64. The Ninth Wave – First Encounters. This Scottish post-punk band, which I presume took its name from the Russian painting by that title, followed the same playbook as Foals in 2019, releasing one album in two parts, although Infancy is shorter in total, running just 45 minutes across all 12 songs. This dark, gothic song seems to blend early new wave with the gloomy style of fellow Scots The Twilight Sad.

63. Inhaler – My Honest Face. That’s Bono’s son Elijah Hewson, if any of this sounded a bit familiar, and while the comparisons to Boy and October are kind of obvious, there’s enough contemporary indie to Inhaler’s sound that we shouldn’t dismiss them as a novelty or some sort of nepotism act. They’ve released a few singles so far, with this easily the best and most complete-sounding one to date.

62. Little Simz – Offence. Little Simz, just 25 years old, already has three albums under her belt, with 2019’s Grey Area earning her a Mercury Prize nomination. The London-born rapper has great vocal flow, both fast and precise, although the choices of backing music aren’t always ideal for her style; standout tracks include this one, “Selfish,” and “Pressure,” but to my surprise I didn’t care for her collaboration with Michael Kiwanuka on “Flowers.”

61. Hot Chip – Hungry Child. The longtime electronic stalwarts titled their latest album A Bath Full of Ecstasy, because why not. They may never reach the high of 2006’s “Over and Over” again, but they’re good for one or two plus songs per album, with this one and “No God” the standouts on this record.

60. The New Pornographers – The Surprise Knock. I think I take The New Pornographers for granted; even when an album isn’t the next Twin Cinema or Brill Bruisers, it still has a few subtle pop gems like this one, from their latest record, In the Morse Code of Brake Lights. I also liked “Colossus of Rhodes” and “One Kind of Solomon,” although on the whole I think it’s not one of their stronger albums.

59. Michael Kiwanuka – Hero. The first of three tracks from KIWANUKA, my #2 album of 2019, on this list, “Hero” is a great single in its own right, with two memorable guitar tracks and Kiwanuka’s use of an extra pause in the verses to give the song more tension.

58. High on Fire – Bat Salad. Turns out High on Fire is even better without Matt Pike yelling at us for an entire song.

57. YONAKA – Don’t Wait Till Tomorrow. The title track from YONAKA’s debut album revolves, as most of the album does, around Theresa Jarvis’ smoky, charismatic vocals, here boosted by marching drums and arpeggiated chords that add urgency despite a slower tempo.

56. Working Men’s Club – Bad Blood. A new indie act from the UK that the Guardian compared to The Fall and even Soft Cell, Working Men’s Club debut single reminded me more of Olivia Tremor Control and other Elephant 6 acts, although they’ve gone more synth-heavy with subsequent releases.

55. James BKS featuring Q-Tip, Idris Elba, & Little Simz – New Breed. Tough to argue with that guest lineup – I’m a sucker for any track where Q-Tip drops rhymes – and it’s a big sonic shift from James BKS’s previous songs “Kwele” and “MaWakanda.” He’s one to watch, and has Elba, who signed BKS to his record label, to boost his profile too.

54. Maisie Peters – Look at Me Now. The 19-year-old Peters, who first came to prominence when she posted her own songs to Youtube, released her second EP this year, the amusingly titled It’s Your Bed Babe, It’s Your Funeral, with more clever songs of teen angst and failed relationships, highlighted by this track and “This Is On You.”

53. Grimes & i_o – Violence. I’ve had mixed feelings on the singles leading up to Grimes’ newest album, Miss Anthropocene, due out in February, but perhaps it’ll work better as a whole. This is my favorite of the three singles, certainly the most coherent. Did you know Claire Boucher now goes by c, referring to the scientific term for the speed of light? Yeah, that’s … weird. Only Prince gets away with that shit.

52. Lauren Ruth Ward & Desi Valentine – Same Soul. Two great voices that sound great together. LRW seems to put out a new song every few weeks, while Valentine just released his debut album – the brief, 8-song Shades of Love, this week.

51. Dinosaur Pile-Up – Thrash Metal Cassette. Don’t act like you didn’t have one.

50. Broken Social Scene – Can’t Find My Heart. The other Canadian rock supergroup, Broken Social Scene put out two albums in the spring, Let’s Try the After, Volumes 1 and 2, with this track the best from either record (it’s on the second one).

49. Benjamin Gibbard – Keep Yourself Warm. The best thing Gibbard did this year was this cover for Tiny Changes: A Celebration of Frightened Rabbit’s ‘Midnight Organ Fight’, a project finished before Frightened Rabbit singer Scott Hutchison’s suicide that now stands as a tribute to his memory. This song wrecks me and Gibbard’s voice is the perfect tone for it.

48. Bat for Lashes – Jasmine. One of two tracks from Natasha Khan’s latest album, Lost Girls, on my list. The other is more soaring, while this one sounds like a pop hit from an alternate universe.

47. Just Mustard – Seven. These Irish shoegazers bring the dark guitar sounds of the first shoegaze era but with audible vocals from Katie Ball and sparser production that makes the wall-of-sound style even more foreboding.

46. Ride – Future Love. Speaking of the first wave of shoegaze, Ride has reinvented itself as a more mainstream act after their nearly 20-year hiatus; this lead single from the second album into their return, This is Not a Safe Place, is practically a pop song, and I mean that as a compliment.

45. Joy Williams – When Creation Was Young. The second song, and second-best track, from Williams’ second post-Civil Wars album, Front Porch, is this folk/bluegrass track that showcases her incredible voice in a simple song about timeless love.

44. BROCKHAMPTON – Boy Bye. The best track off their uneven album Ginger manages to squeeze in verses by three different rappers in a fast-moving song that runs just 142 seconds.

43. Artificial Pleasure – Boys Grow Up. If you haven’t figured out that I’m a sucker for any bands that harken back to the formative years of my music fandom by now, I can’t help you. There’s Heaven 17 in here, maybe a little less Spandau Ballet than some of the tracks off The Bitter End, and I always feel like they’re one female vocalist away from the Human League, and I’m here for it.

42. Sleater-Kinney – Hurry on Home. I might be in the minority on this, but I think Sleater-Kinney’s latest album, The Center Won’t Hold, is their worst, and I believe it’s entirely because St. Vincent produced it and turned them away from their post-punk/riot grrl roots. This song was the most authentic Sleater-Kinney track on the album. They were great live, at least.

41. Cœur de Pirate – Ne m’appelle pas. As in, “Don’t call me.” I love Béatrice Martin’s voice, and she has a somewhat European twist on alternative pop (yes, she’s Quebecois); she’d said she planned to stop using the Cœur de Pirate moniker but then released two one-off singles under the name this year.

40. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – Boogieman Sam. KG&tLW released two albums this year, in totally distinct rock subgenres; the first of the two, Fishing for Fishies, was more blues-rock, while the latter, Infest the Rats’ Nest, is aggressively metal. This track was their best this year and comes from the former album, very blues/jam-band-esque but in a digestible length.

39. Foals – On the Luna. The first single from the first of the two albums Foals released this year has a driving urgency to it between the two-note keyboard riff and the thumping bass line. Between the two records, Foals probably produced one really outstanding album of solid rock tunes that bring energy and strong riffs with a few songs left over.

38. Jake Bugg – Kiss Like the Sun. I’ve been waiting for Jake Bugg to turn the tempo up since “What Doesn’t Kill You” dropped in 2013, and this is the track I wanted, with Bugg’s Dylanesque vocals and guitar sounds, but with some energy this time around.

37. TVAM – No Silver Bird. TVAM released this as a single for Record Store Day in April, and I had no idea it was a cover until I put it on a playlist in September (when it first appeared on Spotify) and tried to read about the song. The original is from 1968, by a little-known band called the Hooterville Trolley that released just a couple of singles. TVAM’s cover is far better produced, of course, but surprisingly true to the original’s psycheledic-rock vibe.

36. The Amazons – End of Wonder. Another enormous guitar riff from the Amazons, who seem to know exactly what kind of song gets my heart rate up. This makes me want to get behind the wheel and hit the gas.

35. Night Dreamer – Another Life. Smashing Pumpkins guitarist Jeff Schroeder and Wam Dingis keyboardist Mindy Song collaborated to form Night Dreamer, releasing this broody, mesmerizing single back in the summer ahead of their October EP release.

34. Sunflower Bean – King of the Dudes. The title track from their four-song EP, released in January, is a bit more of the usual from Sunflower Bean, who I think really polished up their sound on their early 2018 album Twentytwo in Blue.

33. Charly Bliss – Young Enough. The title track from their second full-length album is the longest on the record, and I don’t think it really needs to be five-plus minutes, but it’s clearly the best song on the album, with easily its best hook and the strongest showcase for singer/guitarist Eva Hendricks’ smoky, dewy-eyed vocals, which come off as cloying elsewhere on the record.

32. The Mysterines – Gasoline. Three chords and a healthy dose of rage from singer/guitarist Lia Medcalf. “I just love to hate you” feels like a rallying cry for the next generation of riot grrls.

31. Ten Fé – Coasting. If this were 1978, this song would spend three months in the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. Soft-rock is out of vogue, almost permanently, yet here’s Ten Fé unapologetically exhuming the genre and producing songs that rank up against the best from its heyday. This was the best track from their sophomore album Future Perfect, Present Tense, thanks to that little synth line out of the chorus.

30. WOOZE – I’ll Have What She’s Having. WOOZE is the new iteration of a band that was briefly called Movie, then changed their name to Screaming Peaches, that had a pair of songs in 2014 that I quite liked in “Mr. Fist” and “Ads,” both catchy, overtly poppy, and lyrically silly. This song is all of those things with a bit darker edge to the music and vocals, which I think helps offset how sugary the pop aspects are. The resulting balance is just fun, like pop music should be.

29. Of Monsters & Men – Alligator. The Icelandic quintet’s third album Fever Dream proved maddening in its sonic and melodic inconsistencies, as the band’s sound continues to evolve but without any clear direction (although you could argue that’s how evolution works). This lead single is by far the album’s best track, though, one of maybe three songs on the record where they manage to do something a little different musically while still producing a good hook.

28. White Reaper – Real Long Time. White Reaper aren’t breaking the mold, but what they do, a sort of hard-rock-edged version of pop, they do extremely well. The guitar lines that open this song are reminiscent enough of Thin Lizzy that Phil Lynott’s ghost might as well be hanging out in their attic Duke Ellington-style.

27. Potty Mouth – 22. I loved this all-female trio’s 2015 song “Cherry Picking,” but they got caught up in some label nonsense that delayed their second album, Snafu, till this past spring. It’s full of power-pop tracks led by this extremely catchy number (pun intended).

26. Foals – The Runner. Foals decided to rock out this year, with two albums, or one double album released in two parts, heavy on the crunch. This came from Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost Part 2, the heavier of the two records, more guitar-forward and muscular throughout the album.

25. Good Fuck – Flow Flow. Not sure why bands give themselves deliberately difficult names like this, but I can’t deny the hypnotic, sinister sound of this song, from the fuzzed-out guitars to the tritones behind some of the verses to the random shit that pops into the background of the song. I feel like there should be some dark ritual happening behind me whenever this song comes on.

24. Two Door Cinema Club – Once. This is the best thing 2DCC has ever done, easily, thanks to an exuberant chorus with double-time drumwork and cascading keyboards.

23. Tame Impala – Borderline. One of two singles released from Tame Impala’s delayed fourth album The Slow Rush, this track is surprisingly understated and almost poppy for Kevin Parker, but still has the kind of layered, reverb-flush production you’d expect from him. There’s a little chord change in each line in the verse, I think from major to minor, that works every single time because your mind expects something different.

22. Floating Points – LesAlpx. Electronica generally doesn’t do much for me, but neuroscientist Sam Shepherd, who records as Floating Points, manages to create instrumental EDM that is also melodically compelling. This was my favorite track from his 2019 album Crush.

21. Michael Kiwanuka – You Ain’t the Problem. This song opens Kiwanuka with hand-drummed sounds and the chatter of families dancing and talking outside, but right at the 30-second mark it slams you back a half-century into what sounds like peak Motown, a perfect introduction to an album that will span generations and genres while delivering great single after single. The off-beat vocal lines – he starts most lines in the verses on the second beat – help keep you a little unsteady as well.

20. The Amazons – Mother. It’s a slow build, but when the guitar hits, it comes like a dam bursting, which is the sound the Amazons have done well since “Black Magic.”

19. whenyoung – A Labour of Love. This song showcases vocalist Aoife Power’s voice as well as anything on their debut album Reasons to Dream when it gets to that memorable chorus line, “You build me back up, now I see it, a labour of love,” which sounds far better with her Irish accent.

18. Jorja Smith featuring Burna Boy – Be Honest. Smith’s debut album, Lost & Found, was on my top albums of 2018 post, mostly because of the power of her voice, which is very much on display again here in this one-off single that includes the Nigerian singer/songwriter Burna Boy contributing a dancehall verse.

17. YONAKA – Rockstar. YONAKA’s album Don’t Wait Till Tomorrow tackles some serious subject matter in its lyrics, but this ode to pipe dreams and being, what else, a rock star, just works because of Theresa Jarvis’ wide-ranging vocal styles.

16. Opeth – Heart in Hand. The album did nothing for me, but this song … right into my veins, please. Ornate, brilliant guitar work, a throwback power chord riff beneath it, multiple movements, and vocals that aren’t just clean but add to the symphonic character of the song. Fans will debate whether Opeth could still be called metal, or if they just peaked with Blackwater Park and have gone down ever since, but if they give me one of these songs every album I’ll be quite happy.

15. Hatchie – Obsessed. Hatchie has quite the knack for creating smart pop gems, with this the best song off her debut album, Keepsake. I wish her voice had more depth or character to it, but she can spin a melody and seems able to draw on influences from any of the last four decades of pop/alternative.

14. FKA Twigs – sad day. Such a mournful, beautiful song, with thoughtful and quotable lyrics (“would you make a, make wish on my love” repeats in my head every time I listen to this song), with her vocals interspersed by trip-hop elements that break up the dolorous mood of the verses.

13. black midi – Talking Heads. I’m not sure why these British avant garde rockers, barely out of high school, didn’t include this single on their debut album Schlagenheim, but I think it’s the best and most accessible thing they’ve done, which also lets you understand a little bit about their sound – which I can only describe as rock that sounds like it’s been turned inside out, or perhaps reflected through the x- and y-axes – before diving into the longer and often obtuse tracks from their album.

12. Ceremony – In the Spirit World Now. Thetitle track from the modern new wave/post-punk band’s new album veers more towards the former of those two subgenres, with a synth track so retro it comes with mascara and a pastel blazer.

11. The Struts – Pegasus Saiya. This song, from the soundtrack to an anime series called Saint Saiya, is so unabashedly bombastic, like glam metal without the hairspray, with an incredible hook, that I liked it in spite of its overt homage to music that is thirty years out of date.

10. Jehnny Beth & Johnny Hostile – Let It Out. This song from the soundtrack to the documentary Xy Chelsea (about Chelsea Manning) features the lead singer of Savages and her partner and Savages’ producer; they’ve previously released two albums as John and Jehn but recorded this ambient, spacey track under their individual stage names.

9. Sundara Karma – Little Smart Houses. This song came out in February, and ten months later, it will still pop into my head at the most random times, especially the chorus that seems to spill over its boundaries with each line.

8. CHVRCHES – Death Stranding. I’ll take this over anything from CHVRCHES’ last and very disappointing album; I may be thinking wishfully, but it seems like Lauren Mayberry may be ready to go out on her own, and if this is the last single we get from CHVRCHES they’re going out on a high note, a song that wouldn’t be out of place on The Bones of What You Believe were it not for the higher production values.

7. whenyoung – The Others. An Irish trio fronted by the wonderfully-named Aoife Power, they’ll never escape comparisons to the Cranberries, but their sound is grungier and sharper around the edges, so much the better for when Power dials up her voice to the top end of her range as she does on the chorus here.

6. Bat for Lashes – Desert Man. Lost Girls was one of the albums that I considered for my top LPs of the year list, if I’d kept going past 15, and this is the standout track, the best thing she’s recorded since “Laura” way back in 2012, this time powered by her voice but backed by more than just a piano to give the song more texture. She does melancholy melodies as well as anybody right now.

5. Oh Wonder – Hallelujah. Thefirst 20 seconds are a bit precious, but stay with it because the build to the first real chorus pays off beautifully with the multilayered vocals and the drum machine behind it.

4. Temples – Holy Horses. God I love this guitar riff. The entire song is a bit ridiculous – holy horses? – but that swirling guitar line is my favorite of the year, and these psychedelic-rockers have the good sense to get out after three minutes before the riff wears out its welcome.

3. Ceremony – Turn Away the Bad Thing. The opener to my #1 album of the year, In the Spirit World Now, starts out with a driving bass line that demands that you sit up and pay attention while pulling you back to the late ’70s heyday of post-punk, only to envelop you fully the moment Ross Farrar’s voice drops in.

2. FKA Twigs featuring Future – Holy Terrain. I was way out on FKA Twigs’ first album, which I found full of trying-too-hard tracks that didn’t do enough to show off her tremendous voice, but her follow-up, MAGDALENE, really does so while featuring smarter lyrics and without sacrificing the trip-hop leanings she favored on the first record. I don’t know that Future adds a ton to this track, since it’s her vocals that carry the day, and the production of his one verse distorts his voice anyway.

1. Michael Kiwanuka – Rolling. Buoyed by a simple yet intoxicating two-part guitar riff, “Rolling” has an incredible, bouncing energy to it, with highly textured percussion, a wandering bass line to anchor it, and Kiwanuka never sounding more like Jimi Hendrix with more vocal depth. This is the song that hooked me on this album, KIWANUKA, my #2 LP of the year, a record that everyone should listen to regardless of your preferred genres of music because it crosses so many boundaries between them. Just let this track roll right into “I’ve Been Dazed,” as there’s no real transition and the two songs work well as a whole.