When Drake dropped two new songs in the middle of the night back in January, we suddenly had a glimmer of hope that would be the year we all needed. That pipe dream quickly faded, but at least we had some great music! From the bangers to the sad songs to the pop hits in-between, we've rounded up the best music this year had to offer. Grab your wireless speaker, incessantly blast the playlist below, and proceed to ignore your passive-aggressive neighbors. You deserve this. Lady Gaga has always been incredible, but her performance in this movie affirms her status as one of the best artists not just of our time, but of all time. Didn't see the movie? Give "Shallow" one listen and you'll see why. Three MarieClaire. The California sad girl vibes continue in this painfully good single from her upcoming album, Norman Fucking Rockwell , to be released early next year.
The 100 Best Songs of 2018
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When talking about so far at Billboard , it's hard to avoid the fact that the chart year has only had 24 editions of the Hot , and Drake has been No. It's the most that any one artist has dominated the listing's top spot in a year's first six months this decade -- though shout-out to Macklemore and Ryan Lewis' combined 11 weeks on top in the first half of -- and it essentially leaves the non-Drake part of the field wide open when it comes to discussing the year's best and biggest singles. But that's fine. Beyond the Drakening, has been a year of pleasant surprises on the charts: All-Star teamups we didn't see coming, previously unknown artists coming out with left-field hits, and a handful of big-name comebacks taking us to unexpected new places, all of which made the predictability at pop's highest level forgivable. And besides, those two Drake songs are pretty great too: You'll see them both below as we recount our 50 favorite songs of so far, with a Spotify playlist of all 50 at the bottom. The moment fans have been waiting for since Timberlake and Stapleton collaborated at the CMA Awards finally came in , and it's as special as that instant-classic performance.
The 50 Best Albums of 2018
In , it felt hard to reach consensus on anything—including music. The heavy-hitters of pop and hip-hop returned, but many disappointed; in fact, sometimes, they were just confounding cough Kanye cough. More than ever, music felt like a playing field where new, exciting artists were sharing the discussion with the veterans, if not taking it over outright. A sea change was underway, the borders eroded—and music was better for it. December 11 December 10
Guardian music writers have picked their favourite songs of the year — from UK drill breakthroughs to pure pop anthems — and put them all on a giant playlist. Mon 3 Dec K icking off our roundups of the best music of , polled from votes by more than 50 Guardian music writers, we count down our favourite tracks of the year — topped by a man who managed to unpick US racial politics, launch a thousand thinkpieces and reach No 1 in the US charts, all with a single track. Read about the top 20 below, and hear the whole top in playlists on Spotify and Apple Music. There are only two bands in this top 20, showing how the cultural dial at least among Guardian critics has continued to drift away from indie and rock. But this Melbourne quintet show that jangling guitars will never, ever stop being a joy, no matter how much tastes change. Mainland has a scrappy garage chug, tempered with the sweet breeziness of chillwave indie like Real Estate, and vocal harmonies that cock an ear to Teenage Fanclub — plus bags and bags of melody. She got cosmic on her fourth album, Golden Hour, yet her effortlessly pop songwriting remained grounded. More fool them. She brought electronic minimalism to flamenco and coupled it with a ravishing aesthetic more complete than that of many cinematic auteurs: a star was born.
