Part 5 - #20 to #1
20. Ava Max - “Sweet But Psycho”
Let’s start the top 20 off with a newcomer. In the pop music world, we have a thing we like to call the “Pop Girl Prophecy”. in the 8th year of every decade, a new female pop star makes her debut with an irresistibly catchy pop song that veers away from the trends of the time, and over the course of their subsequent singles, they slowly but surely take the world by storm. In 1998, it was Britney Spears with “Baby One More Time”. In 2008, it was Lady Gaga with “Just Dance”. Which begs the question, in a 2018 where the charts are saturated with hip-hop, who could possibly fulfil the prophecy this time? When I first saw the music video for Ava Max’s “Sweet But Psycho”, I was blown away. The catchy hooks. The bold image. Could this be it? The truth is, only time can tell if Ava will fulfil this prophecy or simply just be a one hit wonder. But if she does succeed, then “Sweet But Psycho” is a hell of a first impression.
19. Janelle Monáe (feat. Grimes) - “Pynk”
Janelle Monáe and Grimes are commonly considered two of the most forward thinking artists in pop in the 2010’s. They may not be the most commercially successful artists of today, but I like to think the world isn’t completely ready for them yet. “Pynk” sees Monáe once again collaborating with Grimes for the first time since 2015’s “Venus Fly”. The pair add their own touches to create a fresh sounding synth-pop-rock hybrid that fits perfectly within the context of Dirty Computer’s futuristic aesthetic. The song mentions the colour pink repeatedly, as if to recontextualize what pink means. To Janelle, to be pink is more than to be feminine. To be pink is to be human. In our flesh and in our blood, we are all pink. So why are we fighting, when we’re all pink on the inside?
18. Kendrick Lamar & SZA - “All The Stars”
Alright fine, I admit it. I have not yet seen Black Panther yet. I haven’t seen many movies this year anyway, but it’s up there with the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe films that I need to catch up with. That being said, I don’t need to watch the film to know that the soundtrack that Kendrick Lamar curated for the film is an ambitious project featuring an impressive roster of guest stars. What also really impresses me that after creating something so grounded to personal experiences and current events with DAMN., Kendrick shows that he can also seamlessly transition into creating his own musical complement for a cinematic narrative. As someone whose perspective lacks the context of the film, one can interpret “All The Stars” as a meditation on the price of fame and reaching for “the stars”.
17. Dean Lewis - “Be Alright”
On “Be Alright”, Dean Lewis tells the story of a man left devastated after catching his partner cheating on him, and the aftermath in which he meets up with a friend to console him. But while the song may have been originally about a heartbreak told from Dean’s own perspective, there’s a sort of comforting presence in the song’s chorus makes it almost feel like he could be talking to you. I don’t know exactly what it is, but perhaps it’s just the earnest Australian-ness of it all. When you put this song on, Dean’s your mate. Dean is there for you. He’ll let you cry for a bit to settle. He’ll stay with you to drink the night away. And some times, that’s all you need. Things may be painful now, but you’ve just got to convince yourself that, in time, it’ll be alright.
16. Ariana Grande – “No Tears Left To Cry”
2018 will be remembered by many as the year that Ariana Grande truly ascended to the A-list of pop music. There was no pop star that the general public talked about this year more than Ari. Her music was ubiquitous. Her music videos were breathtakingly spectacular. Her relationships were hot topics for the media. Her overall presence seemed larger-than-life. And part of what made her music so appealing and relatable this year was that it was always coloured in an unbridled shade of optimism, something that was desperately needed in a dark time, both for the world at large, and – considering many events revolving her and people close to her in the last few years – especially personally for Ari herself. Ari marked her return this year with the massive “No Tears Left To Cry”, an epic dance-pop anthem for the ages, where she calls on her fans to pick up with life and live it up to the fullest, no matter how difficult the circumstances.
15. The Rubens (feat. Sarah Aarons) – “Never Ever”
The Rubens are a band that are usually known for their Black Keys-esque fusion of indie rock with soul-injected vocals. This year though, the band came out and surprised many with a piano ballad about cheating, betrayal and heartbreak from two different perspectives. The song sees lead singer Sam Margin play off of the vocals of Melbourne singer-songwriter Sarah Aarons, who has had a large yet relative unseen presence in pop music for the last couple of years. She's helped write songs with Zedd, Cosmo's Midnight, LDRU. In fact, she also happens to be that mystery singer from Peking Duk's "Fire"! In that regard, the male/female back and forth dynamic reminds me a lot of Gotye's "Somebody That I Used To Know", another track about relationship breakdown.
14. Panic! At The Disco – “High Hopes”
It’s been very interesting watching the careers of the pop-punk bands that I grew up with pass their peak years and into a decade where rock is less relevant than ever. Fall Out Boy tried to add some trendy production to their latest album, and that flopped hard. Paramore said “screw that” and make a new wave album about depression, and as good as it was, it also flopped hard. My Chemical Romance don’t even exist anymore. But out of all the bands I grew up with, the career trajectory that’s truly stumped me recently is the 2018 resurgence of popularity of Panic! At The Disco. At this point, Panic! exists solely as a solo project of founding member Brendon Urie. But where the Urie of 2005’s A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out was all about irony, early 20th century fashion and verbose song titles, “High Hopes” finds Urie at his poppiest, most upbeat, and most sincere.
13. Taylor Swift - “Delicate”
If you’re not a close fan, you may think that this may have been Taylor Swift’s weirdest album cycle yet. In August 2017, Swift unleashed “Look What You Made Me Do” as the lead single to Reputation. It was unlike anything she had released before - an abrasive, electroclash-inspired track that acted as a response for Swift’s negative media coverage in the year before. Understandably, it got polarizing reviews from fans and critics. And it only seemed as if Swift wanted to double down on this new sonic path by following it up by the industrial-sounding “Ready For It?” and the hip-hop inspired “End Game”. Looking back with the full context of what we know now, it seems as though these singles didn’t give the best representation of what the album actually was. It is only on Reputation’s fourth single “Delicate” that the general public got to learn the true face of the album; a woman just trying to find love despite her public perception.
12. The Jungle Giants - “Feel The Way I Do”
Look, I really hate being late on artists that were big and putting a song that grew on me on the following year's list. But my aim with these lists is to provide a complete picture of my musical year, and this song was a huge part of it. While Ball Park Music may still be my favourite band to hail from my hometown of Brisbane, I never realised that all these years I had been sleeping on The Jungle Giants, who had proven themselves a worthy contender with their 2017 album, Quiet Ferocity. I really fell in love with the album's lead single, "Feel The Way I Do" upon hearing it take #16 on the Triple J Hottest 100. It takes musical cues from 2000's dance-rock bands like The Rapture and LCD Soundsystem (Heck, lead singer Sam Hales even sounds like a dead ringer for James Murphy at some points)
11. Zedd, Maren Morris & Grey - “The Middle”
And while we’re on the topic of artists who have had lengthy careers despite the landscape of their original genres drastically changing, let’s talk about Zedd. EDM in 2018 doesn’t seem to be having the same kind of hold on the mainstream as it did in the early 2010’s, when the producer’s career really took off. Zedd has been keeping his career alive over the past couple of years by adapting and moving into poppier territory, producing for the likes of Ariana Grande and Hailee Steinfeld. “The Middle” sees Zedd once again team up with frequent collaborator duo Grey. According to an interview with the New York Times, Zedd and Grey went through a long process in creating the song, labouring over searching for the perfect sound for the song. The team went through upwards of 20 different female vocalists, ranging from Camila Cabello to Demi Lovato to Carly Rae Jepsen. Eventually, they struck gold when they heard the vocals of country singer Maren Morris.
10. Jack River - “Ballroom”
Here is a song you might not know, but should definitely check out. Jack River is the musical project of New South Wales singer-songwriter Holly Rankin. “Ballroom” is a glittery dance-pop banger that captures the feeling of wanting someone so bad, you’ll look through the noise of a crowded party or dancefloor just to find them. But there’s also a sense of optimism and determination there, as Rankin sings about defying the “creatures of the night” to get what she desperately needs. In a just world, it deserves the recognition to be ranked up there with other euphoric indie-pop classics like Robyn’s “Dancing On My Own” and Sky Ferreira’s “You’re Not The One”.
Personally, I first heard this song on Triple J, being one of the station’s most played tracks of 2018. I heard it on the car radio while I was cruising down the highway with the windows down, one night. At that point, I had just recently moved away from home, and something about that feeling of optimism of being somewhere new and exciting will forever be something I tie along to this song. This song is a lock for my Hottest 100 vote, and if it does make it into the countdown, I will be very happy.
9. Billie Eilish & Khalid - “Lovely”
They say that when you’re a teenager, your feelings are at their most intense. The pain you feel is bigger than anything in the world. When you’re sad, it’s the most pure kind of sadness because you’re not sure if you’ve ever felt like this before. You spend so much time being sad, that sometimes all you can do is wallow in your own misery. Isn’t life lovely? No it’s not. Or at least it never seems to be. But what can you really do?
Billie Eilish only turned 17 about two weeks ago, but the songs she write shows maturity years beyond her age. The character she creates within her songs can be defined by many emotions. Apathy. Angst. But most commonly, Billie’s music is characterised by her sadness. It’s quite possible for that reason that I think Billie’s music resonates with so many young people today; a generation of people worried about the world and desperately trying to find their way. On “Lovely”, Billie teams up with fellow rising star Khalid to play as two lovers who have become numb over their continual heartbreak.
8. Amy Shark - “All Loved Up”
Amy Shark’s Love Monster was one of my most anticipated releases of 2018. The week before the album came out, Triple J had it as a Feature Album and previewed a few songs off of it. There were many songs off that album I liked, but out of the tracks that were unreleased at that point, “All Loved Up” was the track that swept me when I first heard it. And no surprise either; this was produced by Bleachers’ Jack Antonoff, who was here in the #8 spot last year with “Don’t Take The Money”.
Even though this is still very much Amy’s song, you can definitely hear a lot of Jack’s Americana influence in there. The production is covered in warm and comforting synth tones that wouldn’t sound too out of place along side Taylor Swift’s “Call It What You Want” or “Getaway Car”. And if you look through the lyrics, there are also many references to New York City and baseball caps. There’s also a line in there about “living in a small town way too long” and wanting to leave for bigger things that Bruce Springsteen would be proud of.
7. King Princess - “1950”
One of the biggest up and coming artists of 2018 is Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter Mikaela Strauss, known better under her moniker King Princess. This year, she made one of the best first impressions of recent times through her breakout single “1950”. The song was so impressive, it caught the attention of big music names like Mark Ronson and Harry Styles. “1950” is a big ballad with a classic feel, about finding your life’s salvation in an unrequited love, all the while trying to battle feelings that the love just doesn’t feel right.
As a queer woman, Strauss feels afraid to express her love for this person. She compares this to the struggles queer people had to face in the 1950’s, supressing their true feelings due to rampant homophobia. The resulting song is something so emotionally stirring, it’s stuck with me throughout the year. If you want the definitive version of this song, I recommend checking out the 6-minute version she did on Triple J’s Like A Version, with extended outro. Girl can really rock the heck out of this song.
6. Childish Gambino - “This Is America”
When the 2010’s have been long gone, I think that many of us will see Donald Glover as one of the defining artists of our time. He makes comedy. He acts. He has written many acclaimed TV shows and movies. And of course, he’s a talented musician, always finding new ways to incorporate different influences into his music. This year, he released “This Is America”, which maybe the highlight of his musical career.
By combining elements of rap and gospel music that define American pop culture with themes of sociopolitical injustice that many ordinary Americans face every day, Glover has created a defining centrepiece about the worrying state of current affairs in his country and the difficulties that black men still face in the modern United States. Combine this with an iconic music video which is simultaneously both confronting and meme-able, and you have a true work of art, and also one of the defining pieces of pop culture this year.
5. Twenty One Pilots - “Jumpsuit”
People who have followed my lists for the last few years will know that Twenty One Pilots are one of the bands that have had the most profound effects on me in the last few years. Following the massive success of Blurryface, the have expanded their fanbase from a cult following to an audience of millions. After that, it’s possible they could’ve just as easily released an album full of potential hits and aim for commercial success, like Imagine Dragons.
But I knew they were better than that. I knew that they were aiming to do something a lot different. Darker and more personal. And I could tell it all from the moment I first heard “Jumpsuit”. I remember the thrill of hearing the sound of that crunching, galloping bassline kicking into gear, sounding like it could have been lifted out of an Absolution-era Muse song. Throughout the song, Tyler Joseph vents his confusion and frustrations of the limelight that had seemingly suddenly been thrust towards him. It’s a relatively risky song for an album’s first single. Radio wouldn’t play a song where Tyler screams like he did near the end of the song. But it got me excited for Trench and the tour that followed. And both of those experiences exceeded my expectations.
4. Drake - “Nice For What”
Despite already having almost a decade of commercial success, 2018 may be the biggest year of Drake’s career yet, for better (gaining three #1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100, four if you count his feature on “Sicko Mode”.) or for worse (his feud with Pusha T, which resulted in one of the year's most brutal diss tracks in “The Story Of Adidon”). As someone who has always been more interested in the poppier side of the charts, I personally got into Drake’s music relatively late. I only really came around to listening to him in the latter half of this decade, around the time when “Hotline Bling” became a ubiquitous meme.
Admittedly, I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed listening to a Drake song as much as “Nice For What”. In the song, Drake takes the focus off himself to pay respects to the hard-working women in the world, in the face of many misogynistic aspects of society. All of that reinforced by the many celebrity cameos in the music video, including Olivia Wilde, Tiffany Haddish and Rashida Jones, amongst others. And the production of the track is just so crisp, too. There’s something rather catchy about taking an old Lauryn Hill sample and flipping it with a New Orleans bounce-inspired beat.
3. 5 Seconds of Summer – “Youngblood”
If you had told me a few years ago that someday I would like a 5 Seconds Of Summer song, let alone put one in my top 5 songs of the year, I would've laughed at you. Much to the chagrin to my cousin, who is a massive 5SOS fan, I once irrationally hated 5SOS for a few years, which I could only really narrow down to them believing that they were nothing more than a squeaky-clean watered down version of the pop punk bands I loved and grew up with.
But after a 3-year break (which by the looks of it, seemed like quite a long time for some fans) saw them go through some stylistic changes and embrace the pop side of their sound, the band came back with a banger of a track in 2018. It would also eclipse “She Looks So Perfect” and be their most commercially successful track to date. Somehow their choice to fully give in to pop was what got me to give them a second chance, and boy, did this track win me over.
"Youngblood" has an instantly recognisable shuffling beat that calls back from many other familiar songs. Rock And Roll Part 2. Personal Jesus. The Beautiful People. But the song that "Youngblood" reminds me the most of is Goldfrapp's "Strict Machine", in the way that it has this pulsing electronic baseline, mixed with glam-rock influenced elements, synthpop flourishes and a touch of whispering falsetto to top it all off. Well done, 5SOS. You win this time. Looking forward to see where you go from here.
2. Janelle Monáe - “Make Me Feel”
For me, one of the most unexpectedly exciting events in pop music in 2018 was the release of Janelle Monae’s epic album Dirty Computer; but especially the release of the 40-minute science-fiction “emotion picture” of the same name on the eve of the release, in which Janelle played a rebel captured by a futuristic society, forced to be re-programmed to conform with the society’s ideals. As it turns out, Twenty One Pilots weren’t the only artists this year that wanted to tell the story of a person escaping the clutches of an evil society. But where Tyler Joseph focused on building a world which was an elaborate metaphor for the struggles of mental health, Janelle had a different take on the concept; aiming for even bigger ideas that are especially relevant in today’s political climate. Just the way the album marries science fiction concepts with themes of real-world issues feels like a game-changer to me.
The vignettes presented in the film come together to represent a celebration of Janelle’s existence as a black, queer woman in a society which was built on a history ruled by the exact diametric opposite of that. And because of that, the journey that Janelle’s character takes feels liberating. She is a free spirit. She knows what she is, she’s proud of it and she will not be silenced. At the middle of the album is the funky centrepiece “Make Me Feel”. It’s sexy, but empowering. Seductive, but defiant. At first listen, it would be apparent that the track’s stylings are a homage to the late Prince, especially his classic 1986 track “Kiss”. So perhaps it came as a surprise to nobody when Janelle revealed that Prince himself had actually worked on the track with her before his untimely passing in 2016.
Admittedly, I had a tough time choosing my #1 song of the year, and “Make Me Feel” was a definite contender. But it just narrowly lost out. To what song, you ask?
1. Amy Shark – “I Said Hi”
I actually had a bit of a tough time choosing my #1 song this year. There was a lot of competition. Indeed, it was a big year due to many big events happening around the world. Surely “This Is America” or “Love It If We Made It” would’ve been a contender, right? No album struck me the same way as Dirty Computer did. Surely Janelle would be at #1? I finally got to see Twenty One Pilots – one of my favourite bands - live a couple of weeks ago, surely a track off Trench would top this list?
But I’m not that obvious. When it all comes down to the wire, what really matters in the end is the music that I truly feel reflects my life in this past year. If Lorde’s “Green Light” in 2017 was a reflection of the point in my life where I was ready to change, then Amy Shark’s “I Said Hi” reflects 2018, in which I actually made that change and pushed through life despite all the difficulties I may face along the way.
2018 has felt like one of the longest years of my life. I personally measure the significance of a year in my life to how many memorable events I had in that year, and I feel as if 2018 was a year of three distinct movements. The early months, which I mostly spent travelling with my family around the world, the middle months, where I moved out of home for the first time to work and live up in a small town where I knew nobody, and the later months which saw me move back and get a new job closer to home. It wasn’t exactly my “happiest” year, but it felt like a very significant year for a reason. For the first time in a long time, I felt like I was starting to get back on my journey of personal growth.
To me, “I Said Hi” signifies the feeling of waking up every morning and being preparing to face whatever will come your way during the day. It’s the feeling of the morning sun creeping through the blinds as I got ready for my new job. It’s the feeling of exceeding expectations set by either other people, or even your own doubts. And it’s something like this that Amy had in mind when she wrote this. “It's an anthem for anyone who is waking up everyday fighting for what they believe in and challenging the universe!”, she said of the song.
Amy's journey to her first album was a long one. For many years, she was playing many gigs around the Gold Coast and releasing music independently on the Internet, all the while being constantly rejected by many record labels. But in 2016, things turned around when her single "Adore" started getting traction on Australian radio, and eventually broke her out into the mainstream. Amy wrote “I Said Hi” as a sardonic response to many people. The labelheads that came flocking to her after her breakthrough success, despite her many years trying to break into the industry. The family and friends who wrote her attempts at a musical career off. Now she’s touring the world and making songs with Mark Hoppus and Jack Antonoff. She won the Album of the Year in the ARIAs, and she’s even beginning to get a bit of traction in the US. Who’s laughing now?
In this world, you could wait and try your hardest for a long time before you see even the slightest glimmer of success. And when you’re finally there, it could start to feel like life’s thrown everything at you and everything’s happening so fast. Every morning you could wake up, and you might not know what you’ll face that day. But the most important thing is that you’ve got to keep pushing on, and keep fighting for what you need in life, no matter the circumstances. Who knows? Maybe you’ll end up somewhere great. That’s how 2018 as a whole felt for me, and that’s why Amy Shark’s “I Said Hi” is my favourite song of 2018.
Lying on my side, watching time fly by, and I bet the whole world thought that I would give up today.#100 to #81 | #80 to #61 | #60 to #41 | #40 to #21 | #20 to #1 | Full List
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