the top ten best hit songs of 2019

So I’ve said in the past that this is the list I look forward to making the most - it’s populist, it’s where I get to highlight the stuff that I like that everyone else has actually heard… but this year feels different. I wanted to chalk it up to the knowledge that I was bucking the general critical consensus, but I’ve been doing that for years, that shouldn’t bug me. Maybe it’s the feeling that I’m going on a limb to defend certain songs that in the past I wouldn’t have touched, or that seem more notably flawed, but again, I’ve been doing that for years too.

Or maybe it’s nothing and I’m just second guessing myself because again, I’m not buying that 2019 was an especially great year for the Hot 100. Not the worst by any means, but in comparison with years like 2015 and 2012 that were overflowing with greatness, or years like 2011 and 2017 when the best hits were amazingly strong, 2019 feels… smaller, and a fair bit darker too. It was also a year that like the worst hits, a fair few of the best required a little bit of time to truly grow for me, or where I might have acknowledged their flaws when I first covered them on Billboard BREAKDOWN but their quality shone through beyond that initial harsh assessment. So friendly warning, while there are certain songs you’ll obviously expect because I’ve been praising them all year, there are surprises spanning from every crevasse of pop music, from streaming titans to songs that frankly have no business anywhere near the charts, that of course had to debut on this year-end Hot 100 and starting in our Honourable Mentions with…

Barely a hit and a blatant retread that’s riding on P!nk’s charisma and a compositional structure left over from the 2012 indie boom - which makes sense given that Nate Ruess of fun. cowrote it and man, you can tell. That said, it’s probably P!nk’s best charting single since the beginning of the decade, bringing a genuine sense of anthemic swell that this year seemed allergic to embracing off the autotuned backing vocals, marching groove, and booming percussion that balances off guitars with a bit of meaty impact. Furthermore, it’s a shot of hope, a song that sees a world enveloped in darkness and tries to find a flicker of camaraderie within it - again, for as bleak and small-feeling as the hits in 2019 felt, this is the welcome counterbalance.

Okay fine, it grew on me. But it also came with ‘getting’ a different side of Post Malone - the cantankerous, spiteful, miserable side of him that made songs like ‘Better Now’ and ‘Take What You Want’, less whiny and more angry and contemptuous. And as much as the production feels swamped out - because it is - and Post Malone’s yodel still annoys me, and Young Thug can’t stay on topic or tone to save his life, ‘Goodbyes’ works because it hits the precise note of bitterness that comes with staying a bad relationship too long because the sex might have been good, but it sure as hell isn’t anymore. And what I like is that Post Malone doesn’t pull any punches: he knows he’s a screw-up as often as I’ve told him, he needs to work on his shit, and now he’s got the dejected moment of not even being able to break up right. Factor in some solid atmosphere, one hell of a hook, and framing that doesn’t require Post Malone to be remotely sympathetic… yeah, this works.

Another song with questionable mixing that could do with a little more coherence in its lyrical structure that I wound up liking anyway because they hit upon one inspired melodic shift and basically worked every element of the song to feed into it. And while there are some for which that gets distracting or tiresome, to me it works because it reflects the dumb blinkered shallowness that runs through the entire song. This is a snapshot of the contentious “relationship” where there’s near-constant conflict and probably a fair bit of cheating, but everyone involved is too committed to the bad idea to stop it. Set that within the humid bassy murk of smothered guitars and Diplo’s squealing keys, and give it to two singers who actually handle the groove pretty well, even if there’s no real interplay…look, it’s far from Ellie Goulding’s best, but I’ll take it.

I’m still a little irked that this was the Billie Eilish song that ruled 2019 in comparison to some of her other hits… but I get it. The coursing low groove, the razor-sharp balance between being kind of dangerous or just taking the piss out of everyone that seems custom-built for meme culture… but I’ve always ascribed to the adage that what people say ironically they’ll ultimately believe unironically, and I kind of like that Billie can revel shamelessly in being a little sinister and offkilter while daring you to really judge her. Granted, I think the drop makes that pivot a little obvious - and I can definitely see people being a little unsettled by how much an underage girl is propositioning and goading guys who should know better… but that’s the snide clue to this song, because she’s always in control, at least with this. Not her best this year - we’ll get to more of that - but still good.

Look, if the mainstream isn’t ready for Emotional Oranges yet, I’ll take the lightweight version instead. And yet even outside of that comparison, this is a good song: a duet with real interplay and chemistry, a legit guitar-backed groove, some emotional complexity from both Sam Smith and Normani as clearly not being over their partners and playing for jealousy… or insecurity, or even a bit of smolder between them, the ambiguity is what gives this song its punch! But I appreciate the spirit of blunt melodrama that makes the song interesting, and backing it with some slinky, organic R&B is a really great touch. And while we’re on that subject…

Again, not Khalid’s best song this year, but ‘Better’ is everything I want to hear from him, with enough fine details that add a lot of texture. I like the half-drunken giggling that kicks off the song, I like the heavier vocoders introduced on the outro that put me in mind of Daft Punk, I like the fact that even though the percussion is still programmed it feels a little more organic against the ebbing pianos thanks to the more developed knock of the looser bass beat, all against a little more distant smolder in the background that fits Khalid’s half-slurred delivery. It’s a song that’s all about vibe and atmosphere, but going further into the lyrics and the gentle embers of chemistry he has with this girl that’s gone mostly unspoken and just feels nice. He almost seems a little surprised that she’s feeling more, as if he wanted it but didn’t really expect it, and that’s a nice touch. Again, the more Khalid leans into propulsive, liquid, organic grooves, the more I like the guy, so more along this line would be good!

Okay, it should be no surprise this is here, because this is the other side of Post Malone that works for me: either completely miserable and angry… or making the sort of dumb, lightweight song where he’s actually having fun against a real groove, which is the big reason I loved ‘Candy Paint’ so much last year. And make no mistake, ‘Wow.’ is impressively stupid, from the out of nowhere Fall Out Boy shout-out to how your grandmother probably knows him, to the Dallas Cowboys fandom - and yet for once Post Malone sounds like he’s having fun with his party flex, even a little surprised that it’s happening against that spare but undeniable bassline. And yes, Post, it absolutely pissed me off to see you winning, as I’ve said at length for years now… but since the writing and hooks have gotten a little better and you haven’t been that stupid recently, I’ll willing to play live and let live, especially if you keep making songs that are actually fun.

I’ll say three things: it does exactly what it’s designed to do; it’s better produced and arranged than it has any right to be, and the Washington Nationals won the World Series. And who said I can’t appreciate a good meme…

Okay, so I’ll give you a second to type out a exclamation of bewilderment. Your second is now up, onto our list proper with…

10. I’ll admit the whole idea of a ‘sleeper hit’ for making one of these lists is kind of questionable - just because the song snuck up on me doesn’t mean it wasn’t ubiquitous. And I’d even struggle to call this a great song. But going back to it now… it’s the sort of song that does more with less, small stakes but carrying more weight. And thus…

I’ll be honest, watching benny blanco go from where he was at the start of this decade in the club boom to this is a little startling, especially as it seems like his framing has gotten a lot more narrow and focused. If anything, it reminds me a lot of The Chainsmokers’ ‘Closer’ but done a lot better, pulling out the curdled and mostly stupid posturing for more streamlined romanticism, a reflection from two people who had a genuine fling and yet never really got out of their small town and now are wondering what might have been… or what can still happen. And Khalid and Halsey are great choices to play off each other: besides vocal chemistry, Khalid has always positioned himself as that melancholic but realist Gen Z kid who is honest enough to reflect on a scene like this, and Halsey… hell, she’s played this role before, both on ‘Closer’ and with all the Romeo & Juliet themes she unsuccessfully crowbarred into hopeless fountain kingdom. And the production is great for it too - washed out guitars and another Sting interpolation of ‘Shape Of My Heart’, the cheap rattling percussion, the spare pulsing beat, and nothing close to histrionics, which emphasize that small scale story. The vibe I get is closer to Tracy Chapman’s ‘Fast Car’, and while it’s not better than that song, the vibe connects - I dig it.

9. And here I thought originally this wasn’t going to stick around… instead if became one of the biggest charting hits of all time.

At this point, I’ve talked about ‘Old Town Road’ so much both on my own platforms and on others that there just isn’t much left to say, and even today it’s feels bizarre that so much hype was generated over a low-key trap country meme song that was riding a Nine Inch Nails sample and featured some of the most inspired marketing and chart manipulation in history. But all of that kind of obscured the fact that ‘Old Town Road’ - specifically the credited remix with Billy Ray Cyrus - is legit pretty great on its own. I like the juxtaposition between Lil Nas X leaning into the country side while Billy Ray’s flex is more stereotypically hip-hop, I like that the song has more twang than the majority of the gunk Nashville shovels out, I like how the song kind of leans into its cheap, hardscrabble vibe where the painfully flimsy trap snares don’t actually bug me, and I’m still impressed by how many hooks and ridiculous quotable lines are wedged into every corner of the song, especially the Marlboro Man line that adds the sort of heavier, gunslinger posture that a song this disposable does not deserve! And even while I’m of the opinion both the hype and construction of this is far less homegrown than it might appear, it kind of stuck the landing regardless, where even through all the overplay I never got sick of it. Yeah, I haven’t been impressed by much of anything else Lil Nas X has released, but ‘Old Town Road’ is a singular, unique entity, and given so much of pop music… yeah, I’m happy we have this. Great stuff.

8. And on the topic of overexposed ridiculousness that somehow managed to work regardless…

I think for as ubiquitous as Migos have been these past couple of years, you might be surprised to realize they weren’t really active in 2019 - hell, with so many imitators you could be forgiven for missing that, but in comparison with the oversaturation of Culture I & II, this was damn near silent. And yet in their collaboration with Mustard - who had a banner year himself in dropping the DJ part of his name and buying himself out of every contract to ensure full independence, they put out one of their best songs! And the funny thing is that it’s still very much a Migos song, all hyperbolic bragging and ridiculousness, but it goes way more effectively opposite Mustard’s West Coast production. Part of this is that Mustard has developed his bassy grooves beyond the rote basics while preserving the sheer catchiness of the blurred over woodwinds before dropping the gang vocals for the outro, but he also knows how to chop it up to drive emphasis to some of the more memorable lines here, like that flagrantly embarrassing ‘tings’ line from Quavo, or Offset referencing Talledega Nights, or the fact that this song really is an extended flex both on you with even a line about subbing in your girl. But unlike the colourless, drab trap production Migos has gotten in the past, this has groove and momentum and feels generally sharper overall, maybe not quite as slyly textured as ‘Stir Fry’ was but just as catchy. Hell, you’d think Migos would have chased this momentum, but it does leave me wanting more going into 2020… which is very strange to feel indeed.

7. So now we’re heading into the portion of this list that will be the most contentious, songs that I would describe as obviously flawed but stick the landing regardless. And this… hell, it’s arguably the most questionable but basic pop hit of 2019, I even dropped many of the same criticisms on it. And yet…

So I don’t expect Ava Max to have much in the way of a career - that debut album is long-overdue, and ‘Sweet But Psycho’ is not really the strongest foundation, because trying to flip late 2000s electro-pop by way of Dua Lipa by playing for the cheapest sort of melodrama on the chord structure of ‘Down’ by Jay Sean does not scream of sustainability. And yeah, conflation of ‘crazy’ and ‘psycho’ with cutesy capriciousness is dicey, but it’s more middle-of-the-road teenage melodrama than any sort of question about mental health; anyone seriously trying to mine this for controversy is playing the game of Ava Max’s promotional department rather than any real cancellation. And yet for all of that… ‘Sweet But Psycho’ is a pretty terrific pop song that revels shamelessly in its shallowness and is just coy enough in its back-and-forth by highlighting the guy is just as into it; and when you pair it with the echoing claps off the bassy swells, the flickers of brighter synth, a trap breakdown that’s actually tolerable, and production that can actually sound huge in a year where everything was going small… I dunno, maybe it’s my fondness for this era of Cherrytree Records that pumped out this brand of pop throughout the club boom, but for me, it’s just sweet enough to work. Good luck on that follow-up that’ll never happen!

6. And now here’s the big one… ironic that we’re following Ava Max where any of ‘the discourse’ about mental health implications felt grasping, whereas here… yeah, punches weren’t being pulled, and for damn good reason.

First off, let’s clear up a few misconceptions: this song was written and released well before the grisly murders for which YNW Melly is facing charges, and yet I’d put money that thanks to his label strip-mining the controversy and questions of his mental health, this song’s success has been driven most out of gawking at what many would consider true crime. And indeed, that’s a bit of what makes this song so unsettling with any degree of thought: not only is the blend of melancholic pianos, messy trap crooning, and especially the percussion sound downright cheap and lo-fi, but the level of blunt, detailed, and unapologetic storytelling gives the track a layer of sick, street-level reality that accentuates its reality, especially opposite the alarmingly catchy hook. And that’s just setting the mood: YNW Melly then asks you to sympathize with his paranoia and loneliness and relatively mundane complaints about women before the shockingly brutal murder described on the second verse as the sirens howl over the hook and the horns echo over the verse. Now normally this would be where I would criticize the tonal shift on the final verse - ditching the melody for pretty by-the-numbers flexing, broken up by fractured cackles, where the tragedy of it all is undercut… and then when you hear the diagnosis of bipolar schizophrenia, in a sick way it actually makes sense. If anything, the dark reality of his state of mind in the whiplash transition connects exactly how he might see the world, deepening and complicating how we engage with those with mental illness and the art they might create. It’s not an easy song by any means, and as much of an anomaly in sound and presentation as any on the Hot 100… but I’m okay with it all the same. Powerful stuff.

5. And now for something a little more simplistic, still dark as hell, but there isn’t much of a revel here - indeed, its odd bleakness in comparison with its release might be the reason it never really took off like his other hits. And the third of my controversial picks, half because of my long history with these artists but also because it’s not exactly well-liked… I mean -

I’ve long observed that paranoia in the face of unmatched success has been a running theme in Drake’s music for years, especially coming after his greatest moment of exposure in rap last year. And while you argue he came out unscathed and still cranking out hits, it’s telling that in the aftermath of the Toronto Raptors winning the NBA Championship, he released one of his darkest and bleakest singles, the sort of song churning in misery and contempt for everyone and everything, even his own position at the top. And paradoxically it’s a Drake song that I actually wound up liking a lot as a result… which might say more about the year I had than anything, but there’s a curt honesty in all of it that seems entirely aware of how ugly the entire song is and is just owning it, instead of the questionable and mixed framing of previous hits that always felt a bit more self-serving or frustrating than they should be. ‘Money In The Grave’ is explicitly self-serving, almost businesslike opposite its funereal synths, west coast knock, and Rick Ross’ gruff flexes. Again, pretty far from celebratory on a song released to commemorate unparalleled playoff success, and it’s the most nakedly greedy song I think I’ve ever put on a year-end list… but for a moment of pitch-black ruthless success and embracing the heel turn, Drake just killed it.

4. And while we’re on the topic of graves and pitch-black nightmares exploring them…

The fact that Billie Eilish turned this into a hit still shocks me, and might be a sign that the pop charts are now equipped to handle material that’s a lot less traditionally safe. Because ‘bury a friend’ isn’t safe or even conventional, half from the perspective of a monster lurking under her bed unnerved that she doesn’t seem scared of it, half from Billie facing demons both internal and external with dead-eyed acceptance, both an industry that would exploit her but is not truly aware of what they’re getting and her own mind which will turn against her or even consume her whole. And a song like this could often be framed as more obviously bleak and imposing, but Billie instead doubles down on close overdubs, nothing close to a defined melody, clicking sound effects, fractured screams, and a mix that’s all tense pulsating bass and nightmare fuel the deeper you drill in - and that’s before the video! This is production and a command of atmosphere I’m more accustomed to hearing from an act like clipping. than a pop star… but Billie embraces it with a commitment to haunted atmosphere that’s almost unparalleled, especially in the mainstream. Its success also gives me confidence she’ll have some staying power in pop, so wherever she takes us next… well, where will we go?

3. Oh, this feels weird - this is wrong, none of this makes any sense, how in the Nine Hells did this happen? Hell, why did this happen, it wasn’t even tied to a proper album, it almost seemed like on a whim - did he just wake up and say, ‘I’m going to make the most out-of-character song of my entire career and it’ll wind up being among my best’?!

The fact that Blake Shelton cut ‘God’s Country’ is utterly mystifying and the sort of one-off song that I can almost guarantee we’ll never see again. I said this on Billboard BREAKDOWN how it barely sounds like a Blake Shelton song in comparison with one from maybe Eric Church or even a stab into blues rock - and it’s still distracting just how much its hook reminds me of ‘Brand New Man’ by Brooks & Dunn - but the reason this grew on me so much comes back to that grim firepower that carries southern evangelical firepower but none of the opulence or aspiration. And that might be the trick of why this song works - it reminds me a lot of ‘Take Me To Church’ by Hozier in framing the darker underbelly of devotion, where the metaphors are more wrapped in gothic damnation and death, with cavernous bells, brittle acoustics, percussion groaning and sputtering under its own weight, sizzling distortion, the sound of barking cemetery hounds across the bridge, and Blake Shelton giving the fiery performance of his career. He’s always been a naturally expressive and charismatic singer, but flipping the switch to a much darker mold without forcing any affection is a different mold for him. Now the big caveat here is that I do get how a song like this can be taken very differently, where all of this is sold straight with no subtext and this becomes nightmare fuel that’s even bleaker than even Billie Eilish for those trapped in this world… but I had the distance to have this work for me, paradoxically with the knowledge that Shelton is never going to double down and make more of this with darker intentions. In the mean time… maybe it comes from my natural affinity for this sort of gothic material, but I saw the light with this one - terrific song.

2. It feels odd that I’m talking about this song now - its moment was more last year than here, and it only got chart success in 2019 thanks to award show hype that has rarely felt this deserved. It’s also the sort of song that absolutely nobody will be surprised is this high on my list, especially given its pedigree. But I won’t deny that this is already becoming a staple hit of the 2010s… and deservedly so.

By all accounts, ‘Shallow’ is the sort of easy critic bait where it should be no surprise it walked away with an Oscar - Gaga has been gunning for that level of success for years now, especially in her long-running transition towards rootsier material, it’s a slow-building power ballad that earns its dramatic payoff with terrific chemistry between the leads, and then embodying the give-and-take of the thematic core of the film: the old roots rock of the past versus the pop of the future, coded masculine and feminine in turn to show how they can meet in the middle. And I have to give a ton of props to Bradley Cooper for sounding very credible opposite Gaga but still allowing himself to get blown out of the goddamn water, by the time she opens up on the bridge the song seals both the danger of the deep but the risk required to get there. Now even with that pathos - and the fact the crescendo is extremely well-executed and enough pseudo-live elements double down on the fantastic scene from the film - there are a few nitpicks I’ll still make, in how a third verse or more developed bridge might give this a little more, and how a few of the guitar tones don’t quite have the body I love of truly spectacular power ballads, and how the reverb feels a bit high on Gaga’s singing on the hook. But in all other counts… look, if there’s a song I can see having staying power in the cultural memory into the 2020s, it’ll be this one. Although what it might mean for Gaga’s career going forward… hate to be so cheesy to directly quote the song, but we might be far from the shallow now.

1. And now we’ve got the #1 - an obvious pick for me, I’d argue, but I think on a list full of surprises I’m allowed one that makes sense, the sort of ballad that could easily make my favourite songs of 2019 thanks to its stunning beauty and complexity. But more importantly, when you have a flicker of hope for the future this striking, it’s best to nurture it… even when the party’s over.

It’s funny, ‘when the party’s over’ might be the most obviously conventional song on WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO, but it’s a moment so emblematic of Billie Eilish’s talent and poise that I have to praise it regardless of how poorly it was placed in the Riverdale Season 3 finale! No, what makes this song so striking is its command of emotion and tension - despite what might be perceived as a more melancholic cut, Billie has always described this song as more ‘angry’ than explicitly sad, which makes a lot of sense when you consider how much this song balances. The delicate vocals and fluttery pianos that know precisely the right moment to ascend balances against quaking layers of bass that slide precisely beneath them, and words where she knows she’s on the cusp of shredding this person who is treating her like shit even despite what she’s giving him… but the genuine tragedy is that she knows any fight she puts up will feel never fully satiate that sense of frustrated loneliness, but she’s lost the ability to fully lie about it. There’s a feeling she genuinely cares for this person that’s given just enough air and space to realize the tragedy, and that level of understanding of emotional drama with such fine control while still feeling raw… there are precious few artists who can deliver that convincingly, and Billie Eilish did it. And while I can never guarantee if her moment of success will herald a decade of success or a flicker for a year or two, this is her best song to date, and easily the best hit of 2019. Let’s see where 2020 takes us all.