We're well past the point where this is a relevant topic. We're nearly a sixth of the way done with 2020 (as crazy as that sounds), and it's well beyond the annual period of year end retrospection for music, yet I'm still going to write this regardless! Better luck next year I suppose.
This post is two similar posts, congealed into one conglomerate piece. First, I'll be talking about why I'm not holding 2019, as a year of music, in a high regard, followed by what I've salvaged as the best offerings the year did end up producing.
If you want the TLDR of this entire first half of the post; All the new gas is being saved for 2020. It's really as simple as that. I plotted out this entire post and all of its examples after frantically hopping out of the shower one morning, but the more I pondered, the more concrete this statement came to be. 2019 was the most transitionary I've ever seen the industry be; The old Vanguard was deafeningly quiet as a plethora of new faces came in to fill the holes they left. I'm talking near Radio Silence from the familiar faces of pop's past. The two biggest hitmakers in rap this past decade, Drake and Kendrick Lamar, decided to completely forego any major releases what-so-ever for the year. The most we got from Drake was a collection of past loose singles packaged together and some late December tracks, whereas Kendrick didn't even muster a single release. You think their peers would be clawing at their heels for these coveted top spots, but Chance Flopped, Kanye Disappointed, and Anderson and Denzel went mostly unnoticed. Even artists like Logic or Eminem, who could've used the available attention to right the narratives surrounding their current careers; they also failed to make a positive impact (although Homicide was a decent attempt). Eminem saved his big album drop for 2020, as did Lil Wayne.
In fact, some really similar trends occurred within the traditional pop production line for the year as well. Selena Gomez, Justin Bieber, Halsey and BTS are just some of the big names to release an album to kick off 2020. Other mainstream acts, such as The Weeknd, Rihanna, Adele, Frank Ocean and Childish Gambino have all decided to kick off a new decade with a bang as opposed to closing out the previous triumphantly. Even the megastars of the 2010's who did release an album kind of did so unconvincingly. When you look at Post Malone and Taylor Swift's recently releases, I've seen only a fraction of discussion that their previous outings mustered up. While obviously 2019 was not just a blanket case of artists not releasing content, it can definitely be said that the artists of years past ultimately passed up on making a name for themselves in 2019.
J Cole, the final third of the big three names of his generation of rap, was the only one to have an album release, with his Dreamville label's collaboration project, and a hit for the year, with his track "Middle Child". How does this prove my point? Middle Child is a track about bridging the gaps between generations. It doesn't get any more on the nose than this. You may now be asking how the lack of old artists releasing music effects the quality of year; Wouldn't younger, vivacious artists come in with some innovative and refreshing breakthroughs to fill in these gaps? The answer is yes, with the caveat that for as promising as the crop of new faces to emerge in 2019 bode to be, their newfound successes do not come without growing pains, at least for me personally.
Now is when I talk about Old Town Road. The superstar, accolade studded, biggest single of all time. As someone who's spent years paying on-and-off close attention to the Billboard Hot 100, calling it anything else would be discrediting the monumental run it had. As much as I enjoy this track, enjoy Lil Nas X, and respect his colossal rise to stardom, Old Town Road did end up being inadvertently problematic for popular music as a whole. OTR was so record shatteringly huge this year, that its kind of boxed out any other concurrently impressive event from feeling like it was properly significant. It stagnated the rest of the industry in this indirect way; they couldn’t keep up with creating a moment of comparable or even adequate significance. I get the feeling the rest of the industry sensed this, and breakout stars have chosen to work their bubbling success stories this year to compensate. Roddy Ricch is the shining example of this for me. Roddy has been absolutely tearing down the industry to kick off 2020, locking down the biggest song in the country for consecutive weeks with his track "The Box", boxing out Industry-backed megastars like Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez with his #1 album all the while. Roddy had a lot of buzz coming out of his XXL Performance this Spring, but he didn't choose to release his album until December of 2019.
This seems like an ample amount of time that his star could've burnt up in, but when you consider the immense presence of OTR, it begins to seem more reasonable. Dua Lipa is set to follow suit in a big way, I'm hoping her Debut album is able to as big of an impact as "Be The One" made on me many years ago. Even Lil Nas X isn't getting in his own way; He still hasn't even put out his debut album. I expect a lot of new artists to kill it in 2020 now that the charts have stabilized to allow for it, but this doesn't account for the underwhelming year prior to me. I'd be remiss to not mention the fresh faces who did put out projects- Lizzo, Kim Petras, Doja Cat, Maggie Rogers, and the other big name for the year, Billie Eilish- But all of these artists' outings come with asterisks for me. I've been on the Doja Bandwagon since "Go to Town" and a fan of Lizzo's since "Juice" was her biggest song to date, and while both of their 2019 projects are promising pushes in the right direction, I know that they still have fuller potentials to reach. Kim Petras and Maggie Rogers are breakout names that, albeit did gain a lot of traction, didn't get the proper amount of spotlight for the quality of work that they put out. Then there's Billie, a curious case for me. Billie had a colossal year and ruled the radio, and while I do see a lot of potential for her as an act, I found her debut project release to be lukewarm at best. I respect her heaps for being cutting edge and innovating her own sound with her brother-turned-producer, but some of her songs feel more like lullabies then top 40 hits to me, no matter how hard I try to get into her sound. When all of the new faces to the scene come with a disappoint in one sense or another, it does make it kind of hard to be hype about the year in retrospect.
With all that said, I don't want to sound like there wasn't a lot to love this year- There was! Tyler put out a masterpiece, and my brand-associated BROCKHAMPTON boys meant expectations with flying colors. Lucky Daye put my jaw on the floor with his stellar blast onto the scene, and YBN Cordae exceeded all expectations with his commercial debut. Genres or styles I'm less in touch with had some great showings too, a JPEGMAFIA here or a Young Thug there. And while artists like Vampire Weeknd, Kevin Abstract and T-Pain did right with some great projects, 2019 became a year of great singles for me if anything. Danny Brown's "Dirty Laundry" still leaves me speechless. Josie Dunne's "Same" is an underappreciated gem. If you see where I'm going with this, it's into the second half of the post. Even if I feel like 2019 was the calm before the storm that 2020 is projecting to be, I still think that individually, there's a lot of single releases from the year that deserve mountains of praise. This is why I still wanted to push out a post about the Top 10 singles of 2019 in some capacity, I think there's still some perspective that warrants to be said.
So, transitioning into part two of this post, Let's discuss some honorable mentions.
HMs: Sunflower, Bad Guy AND Bury a Friend, and Truth Hurts - Post Malone & Swae Lee, Billie Eilish, Lizzo
These are all really good songs that were overplayed a little too much for my personal tastes. I still like all of these tracks, but they've worn me thin enough to not make the list proper for this reason.
HM: Talk - Khalid
I remember when this track first came out, I was incredulous to how it wasn't a hit. A million weeks later, Khalid capped off a monstrous chart run with his biggest song to date. I find this to be one of Khalid's most charismatic performances to date, even if with a repetitive instrumental backing him. The main reason this track didn't quite eclipse the top 10 really boils down to how I can see this track not aging amazingly. Call it a hunch, but I can just see that instrumental getting more and more grating overtime. It's always tough to make lists on music in a short time frame, so I'm going to future proof a little and leave Talk as an honorable mention. (Note: Better would've probably properly made the list, but it was released in September 2018. If It was December, I'd consider making an exception, but September is just too early in the year to make a concession. I know it peaked in April 2019, but, like, it's a gray area, IDK.)
HM: Tequila - Dan + Shay
Am I including this just to stave off any perception of me having a bias against Country music?... Partially. This is my kind of country. Obviously, this track has traces of pop music coursing through its veins, but the core elements of "Country songs that I enjoy" is all there - emotionally resonant, vulnerable, entirely lacking a "Bro Country" attitude and organically composed. I find Dan + Shay's performance on Tequila to be deeply convincing, it lacks any of the artificiality that other country contemporaries have taught me to despise. In the same vein as a Chris Stapleton "Either Way" or the classic "Need You Now", Tequila is emotionally available in an accessible way, and I have a ton of respect for it in that regard. Simply put, however, it doesn't strike that chord for me as much as those former two tracks do, so just shy of the list is where it sits.
HM: Murder On My Mind - YNW Melly
This is my #11 Song, and I feel like I'm going to 100% regret leaving this off the proper list in the years to follow. Murder on My Mind was already an impactful track to begin with, but when you realize that the fantasy described here became reality for Melly, it's an absolutely chilling time capsule of a track. The depiction of violence Melly paints here becomes visceral when considering real life events, really elevating the tracks punchy nature in a grim, twisted way. I'm of the perspective that artist and art can be separated to an extent, with that extent being when the art is comprised out of that real-life material. Without getting into this controversial topic too deeply, I can listen to an R. Kelly track and appreciate it for the music that it is while disregarding the man that Kelly was, but the same can't be said for an XXXTentacion song where the abuse is the subject matter of the music. Thus, the line becomes clouded for me here, would I find this track as powerful had Melly not actually gone and done the deed he's talking about? It's hard to say, but I'm going to say no, and leave the song just barely off the list because of it. Hopefully, I'll be able to agree with this decision as time goes on.
I could go on about more tracks, but this sums things up pretty well for me. One last thing for the list: These songs are all supposed to be hits. In order to prevent me from saucing up A bunch of Tyler the Creator and Brockhampton tracks or deep album cuts, I've put in some loose restrictions. Songs need to have either A) Peaked Within (or really close to) the Top 10, or B) Must've made the Year End Top 100 list to qualify for this list. Additionally, the song needs to have been released in 2019, or the very end of 2018. Basically, the track needs to just be a big enough hit that feels most at home in 2019. Thus, I'm also making an exception for "Heartless" by the Weeknd, because it didn't release until basically the end of the year, so I'm going to save talking about anything from After Hours until 2020. With that out of the way here's the list!
#10: Look Back At It - Boogie Wit Da Hoodie
I should've dropped this from the list just so I didn't have to type out "A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie." What a ridiculous artist name. Ok, so basically, this made the list because the instrumental sounds like a song straight off of 808s & Heartbreak. Am I hypocrite for not including "Bury a Friend" partially for sounding less derivative of Yeezus? Absolutely. BUT, I like this song more, so I can't be judged to hard... I hope. The song is kind of stupid, if we're being honest, but Boogie packed it full of so many hooks and catchy melodies that I can overlook every other flaw. A couple of "Ddrat, da-da, da"'s can be overlooked if they, in addition to the entirety of the song, is quotable and endlessly replayable. That's really all it takes to be top 10 in 2019: Have a cool, ominous instrumental, and be interesting on top of it. Onto number 9!
#9: Close To Me - Ellie Goulding, Diplo, Swae Lee
Kind of ridiculous how brushed under the rug this song was. This should've been a bigger hit than peaking at #49! Ellie Goulding deserves so much better, I say, as someone who still has not fully listened to her most recent album. oops. Regardless, this was one of the very few tracks of the year that hit me with a sense of grandiose and importance in a field of mainly low key and quieter hits for the year. Swae Lee's feature starts off weak, but builds quite nicely, all to accompany the show Ellie is putting on out here. Diplo's production is beautifully layered, and Ellie still strikes the right chord through her repetitious hook to notch a spot on this list. I feel like my thoughts on this song are pretty limited, it's a traditional and familar electropop sound that I found myself craving a little bit during the year. Ellie did by me best to fill that void in my heart, so I feel some praise for this great track is due in return.
#8: Boy With Luv - BTS & Halsey
I know, I know, I KNOW, K-Pop, but let me explain, I have my reasons. I've never blindly hated K-Pop as much as some do. In fact, I have the foundations set and a draft written for a K-Pop based blog post that dates as far back as August, but that's beside the point. BTS is the first K-Pop Act to truly breakthrough overseas here in the US, and the only one to experience any sort of stability with their chart performances. If you can get past some of the bizarre aspects of K-Po the language / comprehension barrier, and the fandom itself, K-Pop is pretty consistent at delivering tracks with memorable, potent hooks. (If you want some concrete examples of this, Check out BTS' other big hit, "Fake Love", the chorus on that is oddly rhythmic and entirely worthy of the success it garnered.) Boy With Luv is no exception in this department, delivering a simple, effective, Halsey-assisted hook. You could argue that the utilization of Halsey on this track is sort of corporate feeling, the push to fully break these boys in the US market is really evident, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't find Halsey's performance on the track kind of charming. Combo my elevating opinion of Halsey over the years ("Nightmare" was awesome) with some sugary guitar beats and colorful synth use, and suddenly, the impending K-Pop invasion looks much more appetizing than the continuation of derivative Latin Pop across the states. Looking towards the stagnation of commonplace Trap and Country songs, K-Pop speculates to me as a fresh outlet to push innovation in the industry forward, and Boy With Luv is a real wholesome foot-in-the-door to me in this regard. Don't close the book on this genre quite yet, I'm expecting a real turn around in the years to come.
#7 Middle Child - J Cole
Kendrick won big with his 2017 effort, DAMN. Drake ruled the radio in 2018 with a myriad of singles from his album Scorpion. It's kind of nice to see Cole have a big 2019 in that regard, it helps keep the constructive competition between these big 3 artists alive. Contrary to what I've seen as popular opinion amongst critics / people with strong opinions on this track, I'm actually a huge fan of Middle Child. I enjoy all of the flows, I think the refrain is really catchy, the hook fits the mood for the track really well in my opinion, and I think it's a really interesting perspective to anchor your big hit single for the year around the reconciliation of the generation gap of the rap game. Those horns are simultaneously grand and malevolent, what's not to love? I feel like we've almost reached the point with J Cole where we've gone from overhyped by his fans to overhated by his detractors. Name a song with better rapping, with stronger delivery than this, from this year's Top 100. Suge? I Like It? You're kidding yourself. I understand this track isn’t as explosive as you’d want a hype anthem to be, and I get that, I agree that Middle Child is no Headlines or Freaks and Geeks. But you know what? It hits in the car, it hits at festivities, it’s consistently a great track in every context it needs to be, I couldn’t feasibly ever ask a track to do more than that for me without reaching. In what I found to be a weak year for traditionally performed rap, Cole easily takes the cake for best performance home. That is, alongside 21 Savage of course, because at #6:
#6 A Lot - 21 Savage Ft. J Cole
Originally, I had Middle Child over A Lot, but then I heard that "I love you / For so many reasons", and it simply wasn't even a question anymore. DJ Dahi did a fantastic job with this instrumental. The sample is blended so seamlessly into the mix, it doesn't overpower the vocalists of the track, but is also a notable and consistent through line for the entire song. And can we talk about the atmosphere of this single!? It's so incredibly reverent, it's unlike anything I'd ever associate with 21 Savage. The fact that 21 not only touched this instrumental, but absolutely bodied it, it's immensely impressive. 21 paints a compelling picture of his life with some of the most emotionally vulnerable story telling I've heard in a long while, pretty impressive for a "mumble rapper." Cole's verse can feel a little tangential or like a non-sequitur, but it shares in the reflective wisdom that dots 21's recanting, so it's not too necessarily out of place. The progression of 21 throughout his career has been a really interesting and surprising trajectory to watch, and A Lot emphasizes this with a masterful declaration of staying power. Probably the biggest surprise of the year, A Lot deserves to be recognized as the pinnacle traditional rap hit of the year. I say that taking solace in the fact that the rest of my top 5 lacks anything of the sort, with the closest thing to a rap song notching the 5th spot. The track in question:
#5 Panini - Lil Nas X
Panini has really grown on me as a track. If you recall, I actually gave my first impressions on this track and Lil Nas X's EP a few months back. To quote my past self:
"I like the switch up in percussion on the hook, If the whole song sounded as unique as the chorus did, maybe I'd bite on it 100%. However, this song is kind of just some faceless trap on the verses... I'm glad the hook is spectacular... kind of surprised that this was the song they chose to push, it's lacking any of the country quirk that has made Nas X an individual thus far. Can't deny a sticky hook I guess."
If any part of that first impression rings true, it's that last line. Sometimes, it's nice to just listen to a front to back earworm for 2 minutes straight. To call the verses faceless seems laughable in retrospect. The amount of times I've uttered "Hey Panini, don't you be a meanie" or a phrase of a similar cadence is embarrassingly high at this point. And the Nirvana interpolation! Even more amazing then when I first heard it. The slow build up on percussion, the charming use of whistling, the quirky music videos, every recurring instance of this track just endeared it more and more to me. Recording a (since unlisted) YouTube video to the instrumental probably helped a ton, too. I'd argue that Panini has a top 3 hook from the entire year, and honestly? It's hard to mess up a track with such a strong foundation. While initially stunned about how un-country Panini was, I find myself recently being more impressed by how genre less the track is in totality. The closest thing I could assign in terms of genre would be Trap, but that feels exceedingly facetious. There's too much of a punkish edge, too much of a grime and rock influence over that hook to really box the track in. In that regard, this song excels at being accessible and just a really, REALLY fun listen. I've never sat down to look at the lyrics of Panini, but I could probably quote the whole thing front-to-back with glee. If you ask me, that's the makings of an excellent pop hit. Let's keep the ball rolling with the most excellent of the pop hits of 2019:
#4 Old Town Road - Lil Nas X
It's criminal to exclude OTR from any sort of list like this for 2019. I don't care if it was overplayed to death, I don't care if it was oversaturated from Nashville down to TikTok, all of that is irrelevant. OTR is the culmination of the genre-bending, internet savvy breed of superstar traits that you've heard discussed at nauseum since this track's herculean rise. Old Town Road is the biggest song of all time, and I think it deserves it. Is it the best? No, it's not even my best for the year. I'll be damned though if it isn't the most unifying piece of American music that I've heard in maybe, ever, though. Similar to Uptown Funk, the previous mega-hit of my lifetime, who doesn't like Old Town Road? Rap fans, country fans, kids, teens, adults, people in the know, people out of the loop, people of every color, creed, and faith seem to be down for Old Town Road, and for good reason; It's a great track! The sample is catchy, the performance is captivating, and the lyrics are relatable earnest. Everybody wants to succeed in life. Everybody wants to cancel out the noise, keen in on that Western narrative of making it on your own, and gallop off into the night's successes. Not only does Old Town Road speak on this notion, it delivers on it: Lil Nas X was able to live his dream by putting it out there to the world. He materialized his heart's desires and converted his dreams to realities. It's entirely improbable, utterly inconceivable, but undeniably inspiring. I may personally enjoy Panini more as a track, jury is still out on that, but I adore what OTR represents, what it stands for. Realistically, this should be the top song of the year, but I'm letting my personal opinion taint what's deserved. Lil Nas X rocketed into living the American Dream on a whim, and the world is better off for it. Old Town Road is, unequivocally, deserving to be the biggest song of all time.
#3 Never Really Over - Katy Perry
I kind of really gassed up Old Town Road there, huh? Well, how else to follow a feel-good success story than with a tale of tragedy! Never Really Over is the equivalent feel of Katy Perry singing her own Dirge; It's heartbreaking, it's extremely sobering, but more than all of that, it's really damn beautiful. It's kind of hard to not put it bluntly, but this track flopped. Pretty hard might I add. After the peaks of multi-platinum albums and NINE number 1 singles, Katy's 2017 album "Witness" faltered heavily. Not commercially, but critically, getting mild praise at best and outright panned at worst. While obviously a big blow, the commercial success of the album and the strong performance of leadoff single "Chained to The Rhythm" kind of masked this. Fast-forward to 2019, and we realize how pivotal of a track Never Really Over plays to be. The performance of this song doesn't directly decide the future trajectory of Katy's career, but it's a huge indicator, and needless to say, you all let her down on this one. Not I, I've adored this track since its inception, but that's a moot point, the writings on the wall. Did you know Katy has put out 2 more singles since this track? Did you even know this track came out? It's pretty unlikely. I for one didn't even know "Small Talk" existed, and "Harleys In Hawaii" didn't even chart. The downfall is here, and it's sad, and it's brutally ironic, because it answers the question Never Really Over poses: It's never REALLY over, but, yes, Katy, it's over. Read some of these lyrics, apply it to Katy's career over the past two years, and tell me how you feel:
"But I don't wanna fall down the rabbit hole
Cross my heart, I won't do it again"
"Two years, and just like that
My head still takes me back
Thought it was done, but I
Guess it’s never really over"
"Oh, we were such a mess
But wasn't it the best?
Thought it was done, but I
Guess it's never really over"
"Just because it's over doesn't mean it's really over
And if I think it over, maybe you'll be coming over again
And I'll have to get over you all over again"
"I guess I could try hypnotherapy
I gotta rewire this brain
'Cause I can't even go on the internet
Without even checking your name"
For me, it stings. I've always really liked Katy's music, there's an argument to be made that she was the most consistent pop act of the early 2010's. Is Katy really singing about a breakup, or is she down the rabbit hole of checking her own name online every day and watching it fade to obscurity? I'm not one to say, but the parallel is stronger than I'd like it to be. The track is so deceptively melancholy, it's a gritted-tooth smile with tears in the eyes to me, incredibly strong, incredibly powerful, but just really sad. I haven't even discussed the song musically, but it's a phenomenal track, outside of some repetitiveness, Katy blends her powerful vocals with the modernized electropop production seamlessly. It's maybe the best Zedd instrumental he's put his name to, it doesn't overdo what it's being asked to accomplish. Yes, Zedd produced this, a producer who seems to love to put his name front and center on his hits didn't even want to cosign this track. Ironically, in my Wokelist 3.0 post, I noted how my count was one off from what it was supposed to be, but I couldn't figure out why: Going back to pull my quote from discussing this song... there isn't one. The universe simply doesn't want this track to succeed. It's just not fair how great of a job Katy did to come up short with this one, it pains me how I'll never really be over how this one went down for her; I bent the rules to include this one, but I think it goes without saying that I find it justified, give it a listen.
#2 Circles - Post Malone
Screw it, I'll just out and say it, Post Malone just quietly cemented his best song to date, didn't he? Circles is the culmination of all of Post Malone's best elements, in my opinion: The wistful acoustics of a "Stay", the hypnotic, rhythmic, drive of a "Candy Paint", and the relatable punchiness of a chorus like "Better Now". It's like his team took my 3 favorite songs of his, put them on a bulletin board, and then pins-and-string theory crafted their way into the zenith of what Malone has to offer. I have serious doubted that Post will ever top Circles in terms of quality. The bassline drives the track forward beautifully, plodding forward through the icy gray of the song's scenery. The utilization of acoustic guitar underneath Post's gritty vocals feels entirely too natural; as someone who's been critical of Post's singing in the past, I cannot deny that he feels entirely in his comfort zone on this track. The way Post impassions his delivery of a listless situation is really articulated and poetic to me; The determination to still put effort force in face of a hopeless bleakness drags streaks of warm relatability through a chilling recanting of a desolate outlook. I know it's a stretch to call Post Malone lyrics "poetic", but the lines:
"Seasons change and our love went cold
Feed the flame 'cause we can't let go
Run away, but we're running in circles"
Read in a really touching way to me. It's the messiness of Stay, that sort of raw reality imposed over a nebulous head spin that you just can't escape. To quote myself once more from my Wokelist 3.0 post; "It's incessantly anthemic, being not only a bittersweet pop earworm, but also an anthem that I could see myself belting my lungs out to in concert. It's applicable in almost any listening setting that a Post Malone song would be, I feel like." Circles is not quite as directly sad as Never Really Over, but the aimlessness it makes me experience is nearly comparable. I think Post Malone might've straight up peaked with this one, it was my easy pick for the #1 song for the making of this list. That was, until, I decided that maybe I just bend the requirements ever so slightly to allow a special track into the list. Something you'd expect of me, something that's not a surprising pick, but a respectable one, something that'd shake things up in a pop discussion just a little bit. Something like...
#1 EARFQUAKE - Tyler, The Creator
Are you kidding me? Of course it had to be Earfquake as #1. I called Igor Album of the DECADE, I filmed an entire visual accompaniment to it, you think I DON'T adore this track? You're bugging. If there's a word to take away from this song, and honestly the top 3 songs from this post, it's raw. Vulnerable. All of these tracks do an outstanding job at yanking on my heart strings like they're ringing church bells. There's something carnal in the wailing of "DON'T LEAVE! IT'S MY FAULT!" It's so soul-crushing, yet personal to me. Maybe the most evocative lyric I've heard in years. It really does touch my heart, how earnest and honest Tyler lays things out on this track. Imagine love is like a beautifully decorated, ornate cane. It's something truly beautiful to behold, it's something we can all lean on when times get tough, and it's something that I hope that one day, when we're all old and tired and worn out from life, we'll all have to keep us going on forward in this often unforgiving world. Now, imagine you are being bludgeoned with the full blunt force of a beautifully decorated, ornate cane across the vitals of your chest cavity. That is Tyler the Creator's "EARFQUAKE." It's pain, it's anguish, it's getting choked out by your lifeline whilst cleaved in twain by your better half. Similar to my sentiments on Lil Wayne's "How To Love", it's nothing short of visceral how effectively Tyler was able to distill raw emotion into musical expression. Everyone has felt like what Earfquake sounds like, and you can't just say that about every song, it takes something really special to strike that chord so eloquently. And, similar to my description of Lil Wayne's classic, I think Earfquake will go down in history as the genre-defying timeless piece of work that it is. Tyler's not the best singer, he's not the best lyricist, and he's not the best rapper of this modern generation of artists, but I think there's a strong justification to assign him the title of "Best Musician." He wrote, arranged, and produced this track. Someone zapped this man’s heart, and instead of bottling up his emotions, he bottled it up and shipped it out to thousands to enjoy his, and his alone, perfect vision. Tyler does not make radio songs, either. This song debuted high off the strength of the album's first week numbers, and then it lingered; It didn't immediately fall off like album-bomb songs tend to do, it stayed up on top off of the power of music alone. Music doesn't get to rattled you to your core like this too often, enjoy it while you can & be thankful that you're able to: EARFQUAKE is the best hit of 2019, and thank you for valuing what I value enough to read my thoughts.
June 2020 Logan here, I'd like to amend something! It's come to my attention that Thank U, Next, didn't release until Nov 2018 and could've realistically bolstered this list in a much needed fashion. My mistake, oops!