Songs are impossible to rank, and it’s much more fun to get a personal perspective of it anyway. Here’s a list of each of our favorite songs of 2018 and a handy Spotify playlist to listen to all of them.
Hop Along, “Prior Things”
so soothing and yet so disorienting
–Jeremy Stanley
Silk City (Diplo & Mark Ronson) feat. Dua Lipa, “Electricity”
If in January you told me Diplo would be involved in my favorite song this year, I would have blocked you. But such was 2018: confusing and unexpected. Yet, this track – with an electrifying vocal performance from Dua Lipa, production work from Diplo and Mark Ronson (of Uptown Funk fame), and a songwriting credit from the XX’s Romy – stayed in heavy rotation. “Even if I could, I wouldn’t turn on you,” Lipa sings, providing a promise of purity, compassion, and loyalty in this age where those values often come at a permium. The track even got a banging remix from dancefloor titan the Black Madonna. Def will be blasting this at 11:59 PM on December 31st.
–Harry Gustafson
King Tuff, “Psycho Star”
King Tuff had already proven himself more than capable of melting faces but this track is my favorite off of his fantastic new album, The Other. 2018 saw Kyle “King Tuff” Thomas get a little more personal and a lot more psychadelic and I was all about the ride he decided to take us on.
–Corwin Wickersham IV
Sharon Van Etten, “Comeback Kid”
Miss Van Etten released a “Hey I’m coming in HOT next year!” track on October 2nd, and I still haven’t shut up about it!! “Comeback Kid” is just a good ass time and the perfect teaser for Van Etten’s upcoming album Remind Me Tomorrow. In my opinion, so much of Van Etten’s discography has this somber smolder to it and “Comeback Kid” steps out of that realm. It has this spicy smolder to it; with Van Etten’s vocals, the heavy percussion presence and the bright keyboard part underneath like…how could anyone not enjoy this song?? And to top it all off, this song has such good “training montage” energy. If I was into marathons, I’d train for a marathon to this song ONLY. Remind Me Tomorrow comes out Jan 18th, 2019 so reminder to mute me on Instagram stories on Jan 18th sweeties!
–Lindsey Anderson
Free Cake For Every Creature, “Around You”
you ever have a crush
–Christine Varriale
Cloud Nothings, “Dissolution”
When I was in middle school, I thought Jung’s writings on dream symbols and analysis were cool. He wrote at one point that houses/buildings typically represented the self or psyche. Were Jung’s analysis of dreams and theory of the collective unconscious right? Probably not. But I was reminded of that association while listening to Last Building Burning, an album that sounds more like the combustion of a human than a nondescript structure.
Nowhere is that more felt than on “Dissolution,” the album’s eleven-minute-long catharsis. Dylan Baldi seems to return to the subject matter of single “Leave Him Now,” only his pleas for the subject to get out of a toxic relationship sound even more helpless. The refrain, a despairing scream of “You have more time” backed up by particularly aggressive guitar chords, is, I think, the most intense line in Cloud Nothing’s discography.
–Alyx Zauderer
Prior Panic, “Backseat Driver”
This is a late-comer for song of the year considering it was only released in September, but since it came out, I can’t stop listening. Between the confessional lyrics and the driving, sludgy instrumentals, the song perfectly captures the not-so-glamourous aspects of healing from trauma.
–Catherine Conley
Father John Misty, “Please Don’t Die”
I know, I know. Father John Misty is a lot. It can be exhausting to detangle where the character of FJM ends and the real Josh Tillman starts – especially when he’s on a press junket. But this year’s God’s Favorite Customer is probably the closest we’ve gotten to a real peak behind the curtain. Gone is the ayahuasca-fueled creation myth of Fear Fun, the irony-tinged love letter of I Love You, Honeybear, and the grand-scale freak-out of Pure Comedy. God’s Favorite Customer is Tillman laid bare, and there’s no better example of that than “Please Don’t Die.” It’s Tillman’s best vocal and lyrical performance yet. It’s a love song suffused with sadness and unspoken heartbreak. There are hints of his past catching up with him: “All these pointless benders / With reptilian strangers.” It’s Tillman coming to terms with himself, and his relationship, and his career. It’s a simple request: “You’re all that I have / So please don’t die / Wherever you are tonight.” It’s the best song I heard this year.
–Matt Ellis
Haley Heynderickx, “Oom Sha La La”
Haley Heynderickx is as lovely a human as her sweet voice and deft guitar-playing would have you imagine. Yet that doesn’t stop her poignant, gentle vocals from devolving into screaming when the situation warrants, like the need to express her intense desire to start a garden. “Oom Sha La La” is advocacy for self-care, an affirmation of your inner strength, and an expression of the near-impossibility of those tasks, all in one.
–Katie Ouellette
Squitch, “Fruit Punch”
With nostalgic lyrics, off-kilter rhythms, and a good “woo!” here and there, this song is just fun. That’s all there is to it. Squitch’s Uncle Steve in Spirit was my go-to summer album, and I think “Fruit Punch” will always sound like sweating on the steering wheel to me.
–Kaera Wyse
Lucy Dacus, “Timefighter”
It’s the slow build, the genre-bending, the you-know-everything-about-me-and-nothing-at-all style of mystic lyricism that Lucy Dacus does best in this gem off 2018’s album Historian. Dacus’ warm, rooted vocals and the exploding energy of “Timefighter” stayed with me for the better part of this year. Definitely my most replayed song of 2018.
–Lex Nappa
Them Are Us Too, “Grey Water”
With their lush shoegaze-tinged guitars and cavernous drum machines, Them Are Us Too was an ever-growing dream pop favorite until a tragic fire at Oakland’s Ghost Ship (a DIY space) killed Cash Askew, one beloved half of the group. Remaining member Kennedy Ashlyn released Amends this year as a haunting eulogy in the signature sound the duo had come to cultivate with “Grey Water” as lead single. With Ashlyn’s soaring soprano wails over ghostly sYNTH arpeggiations, the chorus and outro fills every inch of sonic space with reverence for Cash and her legacy, like hugging a loved one goodbye for the final time in a dream.
–Lea Jaffe