Hands down
MOST OF THESE SONGS SHOULD NOT BE HERE
Who made this list anyway
89
Nellas' voice is otherworldly. All her songs and arrangements are beautiful. Please listen to her a cappella rendition on Venezuela's traditional song "La negra Atilia." Also, listen to "El fin de fiesta" ft. Javier Limón y Antonio Serrano.
1
This was an excellent year for R&B music, especially from women such as Summer Walker, HER, Mahalia, Snoh Aalegra, and Sabrina Claudio
5
Check out Samantha Fish.. then redo your lists
7
...No Lana?
14
Any year Springsteen releases an album (Western Stars) a best song will be on it
10
Any 2019 song list needs this sultry pop masterpiece from Haley Reinhart. “Honey There’s The Door”. https://youtu.be/sADOjoNux9o
3
probably better titled as our critics' favorite best-selling pop songs of the year
36
@Chen Except a lot of these songs aren't "best-selling" at all.
13
@Chen most of these are not pop songs
9
@DJF "best selling" is no recommendation.
6
The Beths. The Chats. Lydia Ramsey. Rebel Diaz.
Did I miss anybody with worthwhile music? Nope.
2
Rachid Taha left this world way too soon and I can only hope is smiling down upon us all. “Je Suis Africains” is a terrific tune as are “It Might Be Time” (which took a couple listens to grab me) and “Different Kind of Love” (which grabbed me immediately).
4
I give the critics some credit for including a few global artists, but these lists always seem so biased towards and concentrated in the rap/hip-hop/r&b/pop genres. It would be nice to see more diversity in the songs that are selected. Post Malone and Drake, really???
38
Any "best of" list that doesn't include "Stay High" by the fantastic Brittany Howard is meaningless to me.
24
The 1975 - Frail State Of Mind should definitely be on here. It depicts the current human experience for sure.
4
Seriously? No Vampire Weekend?
23
I would think one of the many great songs on Maggie Rogers' "Heard it in a past life" would make the list. Perhaps "Say it," "Alaska," or "Light on."
5
@JohnB Alaska and Light On were not released in 2019, other than the singles, I felt that most of the album's deep cuts felt like parodies or imitations of the singles, which remain her most powerful work yet.
2
How can Post Malone's "Sunflower" not be on this list?
3
@Maureen Because that song was released in 2018.
1
Some of these songs are terrible. It's like the authors took the top songs off the radio and said 'okay these must be the best.' I mean Blake Shelton?? Did you guys even listen to the song!
60
Happy to see Tame Impala and girl in red on here.
11
Oh, look.
Not a single mention of the incredible Hard Rock releases in 2019 from the likes of Slipknot, TOOL, Alter Bridge, Badflower, Bones UK, Bring Me the Horizon, Fever 333, Starset, KoRn, or anyone else.
What a surprise.
Sheesh.
25
An ongoing problem in pop culture criticism, dating back to the reign of the horrible Dave Marsh, is the lack of humility on the part of the authors, or more specifically, the failure to acknowledge the subjectivity and lack of any sort of legitimate authority they have. There is really no such thing as a "good" song, only the songs the authors would like us to like. Stemming from this is also the authors' inability to acknowledge that they create "good" as much as they observe it. What results is a series of confident statements of objective fact about things that are entirely subjective.
53
@MA I basically agree with your complaint, but I also think it goes without saying. It’s in the disclaimer that you sign when you consume cultural criticism. I still engage, because it’s still fun and interesting to see what I can learn from other listeners, especially ones who I know are more useful to me. My subjective take.
13
@MA Not everyone agrees about everything, lol. There may not be a universally agreed upon definition of a "good song", but sometimes even if a song is not immediately catchy, the song or artist has put some effort into it and it can be appreciated.
1
@ryurick But that's a key part of my point. Since there is no such thing as an objectively good or bad song, there should be vast differences of opinion among pop culture critics. Instead, they are remarkably homogeneous, and in a very specific way.
Even if we imagine that the music critics are trying, in some respect, to fit their views to (preferred) popular music, there should be greater differences of opinion among them than there are.
5
Thanks to Mr. Pareles, my musical guru, for introducing me to the sublime voices of Baby Rose and Adia Victoria, among other great releases this year. In the over saturated music world we currently live in, it's like striking gold to find a critic who shares your taste, and helps you distill it all down to what's worthwhile.
7