What is the Message of the Song Above

2019 was one for the tape books. New acts like Male monarch Princess, Billie Eilish and Lil Nas X hit the airwaves and dominated the cultural zeitgeist. It’s almost baroque to remember how many other zeitgeisty artists like Drake, Madonna and The Raconteurs released albums this yr.

We could’ve sworn Tool had a reunion. And Vampire Weekend got back together, too. Simply all nosotros tin call back near the last few months is that we couldn’t escape “Onetime Town Road” and Lizzo is in charge of everything now. Before another twelvemonth comes to a close, permit’s look dorsum at the best music to come out of 2019.

Aqueduct Tres – “Sexy Black Timberlake”

Channel Tres is chop-chop evolving into one of the about prolific names in dance music. Later steadily releasing songs with syrupy vocals and hip-firm beats for 2 years, “Sexy Blackness Timberlake” is his best tease for what’s notwithstanding to come.

“Sexy Black Timberlake” is the get-go single from
Black Moses,
his latest EP. While fans await his debut album, early adopters tin still catch him on tour in smaller venues earlier he starts selling out stadiums. Trust us on this one — Channel Tres’ SoCal sensuality and Barry-White-on-Xanax vocals are going to delight many a dance floor in 2020.

Sorry, Lil Nas X, but the Song of the Summer wasn’t your nautical chart-topping “One-time Town Road.” No summer jam gave us ’90s reggaeton throwback vibes at a thirty,000-human foot altitude quite like “Con Altura.” We’re in a post-“Despacito” world, and Latin and Spanish music accept
finally
found a much larger fanbase. El Guincho has been making incredible dance music since 2007’s
Alegranza, so it’s all the more exciting to see these 3 take over the world afterward all this time.

You only accept to check out the video’s ane.1 billion views on YouTube to recognize how much of a following these three have thanks to their massive hit. El Guincho, Rosalía and J Balvin have earned their mode into heavy rotation at every beach political party’s playlist for years to come.

FKA Twigs – “Cellophane”

Information technology was only April, but FKA Twigs released the best ballad of the yr with “Cellophane,” the first unmarried from her second studio album
Magdalene.
It’s heavy on the melodrama, and y’all can hear her guttural hurting with each crescendo, but at that place’s a hint of irony wrapped up in the song.

The song appears to exist about her relationship with
Twilight
heartthrob Robert Pattinson. Carrying the emotional weight of the relationship while battling the public’s far-from-positive approval of their dearest appears to take soured what could have been. Merely we wouldn’t worry about FKA Twigs —she’ll find something else to store in plastic wrap shortly plenty.

Lizzo featuring Missy Elliott – “Tempo”

Lizzo has had an explosive year, to say the to the lowest degree. The popular star made a major splash in 2019 with the release of her debut album
Cuz I Love You.
Out of all of her releases to striking it big on the radio, no song gets the dance floor moving like “Tempo,” her collaboration with Missy Elliott.

It gives Lizzo the take chances to spit playful confined to her next conquest, but if they weren’t sold however, she offers a flute solo at the end to seal the deal. And allow’south be real — if an lift released music and said it was “featuring Missy Elliott,” nosotros’d be in that elevator allllll 24-hour interval.

Perfume Genius – “Heart in the Wall”

Perfume Genius’ Mike Hadreas sings several songs nigh his relationship with his trunk. On 2017’s
No Shape, he gorgeously examined his gender confusion and challenges living with Crohn’s disease. “Middle in the Wall,” his collaboration with Seattle-based choreographer Kate Wallich, sees Hadreas giving in to his body’s desire to movement.

The ix-minute psychedelic rush takes him exterior of the confines of his torso and brings all of u.s. with him onto a cosmic dance floor eons abroad. It’south a beautiful, trippy opus that begs you lot to explore your ain internal rhythms.

Tyler, the Creator – “What’s Practiced”

Tyler, the Creator has a very clear message for his enemies on “What’south Good” —
bring information technology. His latest anthology
Igor
was a creative blend of rap and R&B that claimed the top spot on
Billboard’southward Pinnacle 200
Albums
chart. “What’s Practiced” is his most ambitious and dizzying diss track that apace jumps from buzzing beats to synthesized and polish R&B.

As each verse gets more than intense, relaxing ’70s synths are used as a distraction to cool y’all downward earlier hitting you with another verse. After comparison himself to a god, a vampire and a crocodile with an eye for Steve Irwin, we’re left speechless, which makes the soft piano outro feel all the more than unsettling.

James Blake – “Presume Grade”

The title rails from Blake’southward fourth studio album is a frail commitment to go along himself from giving in to depression. In the last yr, the musician publicly acknowledged he sought handling for having suicidal thoughts.

It was a powerful confession from the musician who wanted to use his story to help remove the stigma surrounding mental illness. “Assume Form” is a cute piano-and-cord-fueled quantum moment for Blake and a gentle reminder for all of u.s. to alive more in the moment.

Lana Del Rey – “The greatest”

“The greatest” is like the last item you pack in the auto before driving off into the dusk. It’s also a weep to escape from times when an unabridged generation wasn’t completely burned out. Or when Los Angeles wasn’t literally up in flames. Together with producer Jack Antonoff, Lana Del Rey created the perfect song for the existential crisis all of us had at some betoken in 2019.

She calls for simpler times, like 1970s Fifty.A.’s Laurel Canyon when information technology was frequented by bands similar The Doors and The Mamas and The Papas. Hell, she’d even settle to go back to the rock resurgence of the late 2000s in New York City. Like the cover fine art for her 2019 album
Norman F—— Rockwell!,
“The greatest” reaches out for our hand so we tin sentry the end of the globe together.

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