“Beauty of Falling Leaves,” the longest track from, , is the biggest “thank you” Scheidt gave to the people and music that saved him. In a short three minutes, Taylor sings of relationship troubles and pines for reparations. She writes from the perspective of someone who knows her partner wants to leave and is resigned to let them, and like any great breakup song, there’s a palpable sadness as well as regret. — ARIELLE GORDON, Here’s a story: At my screening for A Star Is Born, a woman seated in front of me remarked to her friend, “I can’t wait for the haaAaaaAaaaaa part.” She was referring to “Shallow” and the scene in the film (and, importantly, the film’s trailer) in which Lady Gaga jumps on stage alongside Bradley Cooper’s unkempt cowboy country singer and belts the sound that helped launch a thousand memes. Half-woken from a dream, John Ross takes a look at the surrounding Catskills, and sees “a world untouched and set free, the way it was meant to be,” which is to say that the real world is actually something else. But Lil Wayne, the city: A big thing that’s sustained Fabolous’ career is New Yorkers’ love of punchlines, and Wayne throws a bevy of them with his trademark effortlessness (“You a roughneck, I’m a cutthroat”; “Put the gun inside, what the fuck for? (Also: The Pee Tape is real.) “High” paints a robust and tragic and honest portrait of the artist, telescoping between poetry and prose. Laura Jean’s abashed murmur acquires force every minute. Von Jose’s production is overtly service-oriented, made up of stylistic elements that are very familiar; somehow, they are virtuosically reassembled in a way that makes it sound like the platonic ideal of a pan-American 2010s street rap beat. The production is a cross-stitching of well-placed backfiring percussion and reverb-drenched shadows of synths and adlibs. Jay Rock channels his workmanlike energy into a series of spry internal rhymes, then Future pulls out that falsetto to interpolate “Slob on My Knob.” But before you decide if that’s an act of genius or insanity, James Blake arrives sounding like he’s singing for Olympiads’ ghosts instead of a blockbuster soundtrack. “The first name I called you, is not a name at all / More of a duty than a function.” We are, of course, currently living through a period of social turmoil not seen since the pressure-cooked ‘60s, with opioid addictions wrecking families and communities in forgotten Rust Belt and coal towns, the exact sorts of places that were hit especially hard by the realities of Vietnam, be it in raw terms or per capita. Not so with “Freeee (Ghost Town, Pt. But everything comes back to his love. —, “No you’re not gonna get what you need / But baby, I have what you want / Come get your honey.” These lyrics—sober, sensual, and frank—repeat throughout the entirety of Robyn’s “Honey.” A version of the song first appeared on an episode of HBO’s, , but the final product was more intimate: less angular, more supple, fully immersive. “And I know no one will save me, I’m just asking for a kiss / Give me one good movie kiss and I’ll be alright,” she sings, pining for some girlish sense of optimism at even her darkest moments. Kali Uchis feat. / That you shouldn’t fall asleep?” he asks again. Don’t approach it looking for a coherent political critique. “Now Only,” like the record of the same name, is about the ways the aftermath of death can be even harder than the immediate shock. Juli 2018 10. It’s the kind of silky-smooth single that finally makes good on the group’s name, giving new life to the classics in a way that feels completely new. “Lo nuestro iba en un Bugatti y te quedaste a pie” the latter raps menacingly: “What we had was in a Bugatti and you ended up walking.” Resident romantics Ozuna, Nio, and Nicky Jam cushion the resentment with explanations for their pain “Yo te di confianza y me fallaste / Te burlaste de mí y me humillaste” Nio explains. After the singularity occurs and our personalities are woven into a vast matrix, we’ll have crushes on pockets of data, and they’ll sound exactly like this. Tracey gets one life and lives it straight through, while Tracey tries on experiences like costumes. The production, by Ian Fitchuk and Daniel Tashian, finds a balance between Dave Cobb’s simplicity and Daniel Lanois’ ethereality, and that’s largely due to Musgraves herself. Sophie’s album addresses a world without a body, and the operatic query of the song’s title comes off as more of an existential quandary than a literal one. Laura Jean’s story is no less painful: her narrator falls in love with a schoolmate who was a better dancer than the girls on the TV, but couldn’t stop herself from a drug-fueled descent. Regardless of what happens, Sheck Wes made a fuckin’ monster. Das wird mehr als deutlich, wenn man auf die Songs blickt, die 2019 als deutsche Hits in die Musik-Geschichte eingegangen sind. —. One of those addictive hookless wonders of a rap record that come along once every year or two, “Bloxk Party” is an improvement on the short-form bar-trading that gave hometown hero Tee Grizzley a hit with his Lil Yachty duet “From the D to A,” and its replay value is in the class of Bobby Shmurda’s “Hot N*gga.” But Sada and Drego’s record is funnier and arguably more stylistically inventive than either of those. 50. Through their mixture of Carribean, African and New-Orleans-based gestures, they create new and unfamiliar stylistic amalgams on an almost moment-to-moment basis. Das Jahr 2018 hat schon den einen oder anderen deutschen Hit hervorgebracht. How could they possibly surprise you at this point? He was a lowlight on Jay-Z’s late career gem, , clumsily juking through the Beastie Boys-sampling percussion on, (Never mind that he’s a New Orleans native making a borough tribute—it would’ve been fine if the song was good). But listen again and you’ll find her in the midst of a brewing identity crisis and the waking realization of “sleepwalking” through an ill-fitting relationship. Die Musik der Band wird von James Blake, "If The Car Beside You Moves Ahead", Chopped up human voices, served to listeners in a series of disconnected and pitch-shifted rhythmic syllables, have been an unremarkable part of the pop-music wallpaper for the last several years. At one point, she muses, “I think I need D’Angelo on this one”. The song that best captures this mood is “Offshore” with Young Thug, which sounds like it was made specifically to be blared out of a speedboat as the sun rises. He spends most of the song positing various concepts—vintage jeans, Gucci shoes, knock-off lean—and solemnly signaling his approval or disapproval of each. I didn’t notice. But listen again and you’ll find her in the midst of a brewing identity crisis and the waking realization of “sleepwalking” through an ill-fitting relationship. Regardless, the line sets the tone for a song that succeeds on goofy charisma and intoxicating sonics, making high-volume purchases of various illegal substances sound like something Rich does on a whim between rounds of Xbox. / Got steak, ho? Wir präsentieren die bisher besten deutschen Songs mit Lyrics! It makes everything in its reach feel softened and slowed. Either despite or because of Tyga rhyming “claim” with itself three times in a row and assuring you that in the future he’ll be “suck[ed]…like a fucking Hi-C,” its every moment is a pleasure. While they rightfully leaned into maximalist bombast for Bruno Mars’s “Finesse” and “That’s What I Like,” they aim for tasteful restraint here. 49. Meghan Remy’s work under her moniker U.S. “Boo’d Up” is R&B at its most sumptuous: an ornate crystal chandelier of an arrangement, with synth cowbell, waterfall glissando and enveloping chords. But despite their lack of coolness and the distain of today's music generation in Germany, such German golden oldies are actually ideal for German-learners in many ways. Here, Kenny Beats adds kicks and claps that could crunch steel, plus money-counting FX for thematic clarity, while Rico leads a car chase with her top off, her cadence matching the sample. It’s refreshing that he cares. Tracey uses Tracey to create wise, vivacious, heartfelt-but-wry songs for every stage of a woman’s life. Her interpolation of Noreaga’s original “what, what, what, what” hook with the addendum “bitches on my dick, so what” is a star-making moment. Equal parts danceable and emotional catharsis, “Nobody” reveals new melodic terrain without sacrificing what’s made Mitski’s writing so essential. “I’ve been dreaming of your legs and arms / where they go and when we’re gonna meet,” he sings, with a starry-eyed lust that feels romantic and guitar fuzz like an afternoon in the sunshine. Einen Rekord nach dem Anderen konnte der Berliner knacken. Didn’t it work? Or perhaps the streamlining is just the result of Carpenter having four decades to think about what he’d do differently. Instead, accept it for the beautiful failure that it is: a concentrated shot of culture, high and low, hateful and hopeful, delivered swiftly through the breastplate—a gross carnival of human experience, and a monument to our best and worst selves. —, Lil Wayne has had a spotty relationship with New York over the past 11 years. The track has a disco fetish, but Patrick Paige’s bass line would slap in any decade and could loop for three times as long without getting old. — ISRAEL DARAMOLA, Rap often is viewed through a lens of competition, as if fans would rather see their favorite artists scrap than collaborate. One noteworthy contender was the short but heavenly “Mileage.” Cardi’s go-to producer Pi’erre Bourne provides variations on a thumping bassline, with synth pads that imbue surprising tenderness. 30. In the followup to his hit with Sia "From Dusk 'Til Dawn," Zayn is practically … A tip: If you set this track as your Tinder anthem, the lyrics will sync up just how you’d want them. But in the song’s final verse, she twists the narrative from corporate greed to self-care: “When I say work, I mean work for yourself,” she explains. He begins by proclaiming that his lover’s sexual history doesn’t faze him, then plays a round of word association (“Wayne’s World / Kylie, Kylie / Calabasas / Kendall, Kylie / Adidas deal / Shoutout Kanye”) to equally charming effect. “Powerglide” is a sneaky, subversive song. Who wouldn’t be? The mood is serene, a Christmas morning after newfallen snow. If Tyga’s tenuous charm here is lost on you, Offset’s guest verse is one of the year’s vital throwaway features, assuring the song’s serial listenability and making a strong argument for his unequivocal status as the most crucial solo Migo. Here, Kenny Beats adds kicks and claps that could crunch steel, plus money-counting FX for thematic clarity, while Rico leads a car chase with her top off, her cadence matching the sample. Click here to see our 51 favorite albums of the year, and find more from Spin’s 2018 Year in Review here. The track is based on DJ Telly Tellz’s “Fuck It Up Challenge,” and the lyrics are based on a widely criticized tweet of Ciara’s about marriage. Doe-eyed and resilient, she’s trying to piece together her broken heart, wrapping it in ringing guitar, heavy reverb, and vocals that crack with each sentence. I don’t care what you call it; “Miki Dora” guides me to peace. “The first name I called you, is not a name at all / More of a duty than a function.” We are, of course, currently living through a period of social turmoil not seen since the pressure-cooked ‘60s, with opioid addictions wrecking families and communities in forgotten Rust Belt and coal towns, the exact sorts of places that were hit especially hard by the realities of Vietnam, be it, . But she did both and more on the ebullient “Level Up,” a 153 BPM torrent of tastefully placed chords, slapstick interjections, and beats that plunk like a basketball on hardwood. As the song fades out with increasingly thin chants of its one-word title, it’s hard not to feel some impending sense of a breakdown. The loss of a familiar embrace may leave you in limbo, with no words to guide yourself toward closure. “You know it: these days, I’m hot,” sings Wendy, and the chorus finds the girls dictating how quickly this boy should be chasing after them. —, 21. Travis Scott ft. Drake & Swae Lee, "Sicko Mode", “Sicko Mode” is a literal Frankenstein, with scraps of differents songs fused together to make one powerful song like it’s the Power Rangers robot. —, Even as sleepers go, “Boo’d Up” seemed an unlikely hit: a track, since 2014, finally given to a former downballot. —, Rico Nasty pilfering N.O.R.E.’s savage “Superthug” riff is a good opportunity to remember that the Neptunes gave MC Lyte basically the same riff first. I don’t care what you call it; “Miki Dora” guides me to peace. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Last year, that proved to be literally as well a figuratively true: Scheidt barely survived diverticulitis, and the metal community raised nearly $30,000 to help with his medical bills. The whole thing is over in less than three minutes, but the stretches of quasi-silence between these judgements can feel eternal. She’s always slipping away behind the dark glass of her songs, like a window rolling up over the “back seat of a blacked-out car,” as we find her on “Queen.” So we just end up seeing ourselves, instead. He’s just having fun. Always. Westerman’s musical influences are far-reaching, but the minimal aesthetic is entirely his own. — WILL GOTTSEGEN. Here are some of them: “Consultation, degradation, fossil fueling, masturbation, immigration, liberal kitsch, kneeling on a pitch / ‘I moved on her like a bitch.’” The 1975 are fed up, but they can’t really tell you why. Her album art, which featured a powersuit-clad Davidson atop a large metal briefcase, seemed to simultaneously mock and glamorize the capitalist culture that serves as the music’s backdrop. Family sits at the top: He’s spending his savings on mom and dad, he’s gonna set his brother up somehow. At the heart of “Baby I’m Bleeding” is a rhythmic bounce between two unarticulated syllables, refracted through what sounds like the inside of a washing machine. This is how “Numb” conveys the feeling of being numb, the inexplicable slip into dissociation even as the world seems to rush and push itself all around you. His playful, NBA-reference-filled appeal is on display on plenty of other records, but “Bloxk Party,” his collaboration with like-minded Detroit talent Drego, is both his breakthrough and current masterpiece. During a time when melodic hip-hop continues to encroach on R&B’s territory and creative progress, Jacquees’s viral Instagram post also serves as a defense of the genre as something worth ruling. If sentience can produce moments of ineffable beauty like these, maybe it’s not so bad after all. So what was Scott’s workaround that issue? As satisfying as it is to hear Bowie make outright pop, it wouldn’t be Yves Tumor without some larger conceptual gesture, and it’s on “Noid” that both the sonic and political aspirations of the project feel fully realized. Their only new material was “Hornet’s Nest,” which came out in June through the Adult Swim Singles Series. In a perverse validation of concept, the upwardly mobile Soundcloud-ers Smokepurpp and Lil Pump stole the flow for their own single, “Nephew,” which was released two months later and has since racked up 10 times the YouTube views. Also, it is a good fucking song, Cooper’s grizzled twang and Lady Gaga’s grandiose majesty making for a deeply engrossing ballad. “If You Know You Know” is an instant signature song, the kickoff to everything that came after it, including Pusha taking on the biggest rapper on the planet. The short-form call-and-response in the song’s first half is its initial enticement, with transitional purrs, grunts, “weelll”s, and unified talking points turning it into a true conversation. Besides, disco deserves the love. He was a lowlight on Jay-Z’s late career gem American Gangster, clumsily juking through the Beastie Boys-sampling percussion on “Hello Brooklyn 2.0.” (Never mind that he’s a New Orleans native making a borough tribute—it would’ve been fine if the song was good). Ich will mit Dir zusammen träumen, Am besten Du … Carpenter isn’t working alone these days: his music is generally a family affair, with son Cody Carpenter and godson Daniel Davies, son of The Kinks’s Dave Davies, co-writing and co-producing new tracks. Sada Baby has a magnificent beard and even more impressive dance moves, and he’s one of the year’s most charismatic breakout rap stars. But instead of being plagued by bitterness and crippling self-doubt she ends up letting herself fall apart, simultaneously inviting all the love to seep in, regardless of it being reciprocated or not. Carti effortlessly finds the pocket, turning every phrase he spews out into a miniature earworm. If you’re surprised by the fact that “Mooo!” was embraced by serious people instead of dismissed, consider that, above all, it advertises a love and appreciation of hip-hop. —, A callout but not a throwback to Poppy Bush Interzone-era R&B, Tamia’s biggest hit since “Stranger in My House” skitters like prime Caron Wheeler, and like Soul II Soul’s most famous adjunct, Tamia knows her points require no belting. —, 48. —, , “Space Cowboy” is a clear-eyed ballad about coming to terms with the end of a doomed relationship. That’s exactly the subject matter, too: finally giving way to a crush, then slipping into new love like you would a warm bath. Lead single and opening track “Malamente” announced this stylistic change with a seamless marriage of influences. / That you shouldn’t fall asleep?” he asks again. It’s not you, Mariah; it’s them. Reliable hit music info. Don’t think too much about it. The melody recalls DeBarge’s “, “) in the way it ascends and falls gently down the scale, as if pulled taut and let go. His lyrics, what little of we can hear of them, seem to address an existential crisis on a nighttime highway drive. Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper, "Shallow", , a woman seated in front of me remarked to her friend, “I can’t wait for the haaAaaaAaaaaa part.” She was referring to “Shallow” and the scene in the film (and, importantly, the film’s trailer) in which Lady Gaga jumps on stage alongside Bradley Cooper’s unkempt cowboy country singer and belts the sound that helped launch a thousand memes. That’s exactly the subject matter, too: finally giving way to a crush, then slipping into new love like you would a warm bath. But, as with Empress Of’s “I Don’t Even Smoke Weed,” the drugs are meant as a material benchmark, so that you might become lucky enough to edge toward some earthly semblance of what Thug feels when he’s with, . It’s a scream trapped in a whisper. (It wouldn’t sound unnatural in a DJ set flowering out of the final seconds of “The Sweetest Taboo.”) What’s truly impressive about “It Makes You Forget” is the way Gou makes something so strictly constructed feel so casually and naturally arranged, as if the bell pattern that runs through the length of the song had been stirred into life by a light breeze. — JORDAN SARGENT, No one writes about loneliness like Mitski. But the element that always rises to the surface of “Ubala” is Simmy’s voice, a vehicle for totally effortless-seeming effervescence, dipping confidently in and out of the thick mists of the track, wreathed in ghostly echoes of herself. But it displays the deceptively simple exactitude Damon McMahon and his Amen Dunes project have been building toward since the release of his long-overdue 2018 breakout album in March and, in a way, across his 10-year career. Refusing to sprawl, Jenny Hollingsworth and Rosa Walton are fully in control throughout. — MOSI REEVES, Sun-El Musician produces a form of Afro-house so deep it’s a body of water; his 2017 hit “Akanamali,” for all its shimmering surface beauty, was pulled along by dark invisible undertows. Nao serenely mourns and then straight up howls over lost love. Who’s the best producer? — RICH JUZWIAK, What better way to write a pop song about a crush than construct it as a grid of overlapping heartbeats? G-Wagon or di Bentley?” goes the chorus. — ANDY O’CONNOR, Breakups are always heavy. Der beliebteste deutsche Song 2018 steht fest! The song originally had a more psychedelic approach, but as a brief but charming video from the New York Times reveals, Musgraves stripped away most of the extraneous instrumentation because she felt like it was “trying too hard.” It’s not that less is more, but negative space fits better with lines like, “taking my time let the world turn.” Some elements of psychedelia remain—such as the reverb tail extending into the ether as she delivers her lines—but they feel more organic. “I’m not in the mooood / I’m tryna make mooooves,” she sings, and then later: “I’m just tryna turn up in the country / I ain’t in the city cuz they ain’t got lawns.” In a year that begged for it, “Mooo!” is the ultimate escapist fantasy. This music directs the listener through meditation subliminally, letting the linear through-line of the composition build to the crest of that perfect and most delicious wave. December 14, 2018.