#there's a shirt that's just fucking dr light that says 'best papa' or something like that I think it would be funny to put x in that

[lofthousezzz]

[thecelestialjukebox]

Best of 2017: 30-21

30. Future - Incredible:

 The first Future song I ever heard was “Turn On The Lights,” and so I’ve always associated him more with autotune balladry than the trap exercises he’s achieved greatest success with. So I was pleasantly surprised when he followed up FUTURE, a decent-enough collection of bangers, with HNDRXX, which showcased exactly that balladry, a week later. “Incredible” is the obvious standout of the more than two hours of music Future released this year, a track that’s charming, boastful, and vulnerable in turn, with all these moods undergirded by a minimalist, reggae-tinged beat and some of Future’s most insistent melodies.

29. Vagabon - Cold Apartment: 

I saw Vagabon live and Lætitia Tamko is the smallest person with the most concentrated power within her. You can somehow tell that just from the studio recording of “Cold Apartment,” both that smallness and the potency, in how she has utter control of the song’s build— it roars around her but she roars back.

28. Kendrick Lamar - PRIDE./The Heart Part 4: 

These two songs— linked by that strange, eerie sample that ends “PRIDE.” and begins “The Heart” — demonstrate one of the many contradictions of Kendrick Lamar, Greatest Rapper Alive™. He’s simultaneously a grand enough philosopher to capture your attention on “PRIDE.,” a track that’s pretty much just Kendrick talking about ethical dilemmas in plain, unadorned speech, and a daring enough stylist to captivate you on “The Heart,” which is mostly just an excuse for Kendrick to show off all of his most writerly flourishes, tying together webs of allusion and assonance. Either version of Kendrick would be a top tier rapper— we get both together at once.

27. LCD Soundsystem - oh baby: 

“oh baby” invokes dreams in its first few lines, but even if it wasn’t made explicit in the text the song would still sound dreamy, its intro lulling and looping you into a trance and James Murphy’s lyrics, which are more impressionist and elemental than the normal neurotic specificity of most LCD songs, acting as some sort of lullaby.

26. Migos - T-Shirt / Big On Big: 

The thing about Migos’ Culture is that a full length Migos album should not be good. They’re a singles act, first and foremost, and their prior full lengths have been scattered at best. Culture succeeded by embracing that scattered nature and transforming it into a cloak of eclectic taste— just witness the production difference between the smoky sonic mirages of Nard & B’s synth work on “T-Shirt” and the gospel-tinged virtuosity of Zaytoven’s piano on “Big on Big.” Yet both songs sound thrilling, and they provide perfect canvases for the three Migos.

25. Kesha - Praying:

 First things first, Fuck Dr. Luke. But even if you didn’t know the spirit of real and powerful justice that informs “Praying,” the track would still hit like some cosmic and beautiful thing. Some have read the invocation of prayer here as ironic or purely vengeful, but the anger that suffuses Kesha’s vocal performance is a cleansing one: she wishes, more than anything, for the one who wronged her to be eradicated cleanly, both from history and from his own diseased self. To do so requires the divine, or at least a song that invokes the divine with as much grace as “Praying” does.

24. Tyler, The Creator, Frank Ocean, Steve Lacy - 911/Mr. Lonely:

 fucked up that either half of 911/Mr. Lonely would make this list tbh

23. Deathless Gods with Human Bods - Tfwhollow / Jiggle:

 “Tfwhollow” embraces sterility and artificiality and makes it into a thing of beauty, with Jade Matias Bell’s (who, full disclosure, I am very much in love with) vocal performance lending life to Davis Avila’s stark, clipped beat. It’s a song about isolation and being taken advantage of, and it sounds like it, sounds like trying to embrace something cold and unwelcome. On the other hand, “Jiggle” contains the lines “I SAW A MAN GETTING PUNCHED OUTSIDE A PAPA JOHNS/HAPPY BIRTHDAY,” so who can really say which is better.

22. Vince Staples - BagBak:

 Vince Staples is a man of profound clarity and precision— in his interviews, in his public persona, both most of all in his music. On “Bagbak,” even as the futuristic beat burbles and intensifies, he barely raises his voice, plainly stating his vision for societal change like it’s self evident.

21. Marika Hackman - Boyfriend: 

I know that every queer artist is required to make a song called “Boyfriend,” but Marika Hackman’s take is the best, a smoky mix of quivering guitars and perfectly deployed percussion that dance around her coy delivery of a witty set of lyrics.