The music critics of The New York Times share their picks for the best songs of the year.
Jon Pareles
1. Rihanna featuring Drake“Work” (Roc Nation/Westbury Road) The year’s ultimate earworm: nagging, insinuating and then irresistible, with a chorus for an era that demands relentless productivity.
Future Hendrix aka Nayvadius DeMun Wilburn just dropped his latest album which is a self titled project “Future” which has 17 brand new songs on the album. The album has a number of hit singles like “Poppin Tags”, “Mask Off”, “Super Trapper”, “High Demand” & “POA”. Listen and download Future’s new “FUTURE” album here.
2. Paul Simon“Wristband” (Concord) A backstage anecdote swings its way toward thoughts of privilege and income inequality.
3. Alicia Keys“In Common” (RCA) Taking her voice down to a near-whisper, Ms. Keys rides a programmed Latin beat into a “messed-up” romance.
4. Bonnie Raitt“The Ones We Couldn’t Be” (Redwing) In a plainspoken ballad that goes straight to the heart, Ms. Raitt distills an essence of grown-up regret.
5. Solange featuring Sampha“Don’t Touch My Hair” (Saint/Columbia) Quiet and steely, Solange patiently explains how a look is a statement.
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6. Anderson.Paak“Celebrate” (Steel Wool/Obe) A pep talk for modest expectations grounds itself in 1960s soul.
7. John Legend featuring Brittany Howard“Darkness and Light” (Columbia) Opposites explode in a ballad about unstoppable desire.
8. Blood Orange“Augustine” (Domino) A determined beat and an uplifting melody carry thoughts of faith, family, martyrdom and loss.
Future New Songs 2016 Download Youtube
9. iLe“Caníbal” (Sony Music Latin) Ileana Cabra, who has sung with Calle 13, goes dramatically retro, complete with string section, to equate unrequited love and cannibalism.
10. Kanye West featuring The-Dream, Kelly Price, Kirk Franklin and Chance the Rapper“Ultralight Beam” (Def Jam) Mr. West and guests offer up prayers and affirmations in a track that compresses a gospel service for hip-hop impact.
11. Mitski“Fireworks” (Dead Oceans) Wishful thinking, about getting over painful memories, takes form with a ticking drum machine, hazy chords, a big hopeful buildup and then an unresolved ending; it’s not over yet.
12. Xenia Rubinos“Mexican Chef” (Anti-) Open the kitchen and taxi doors of the service economy and there they are: “brown” faces, as Ms. Rubinos sings in this snappy, funky, pointed lesson in demographics.
13. Car Seat Headrest“Vincent” (Matador) Nearly eight minutes long, “Vincent” starts with 2½ minutes of gathering guitar Minimalism, adding a motor beat; then Will Toledo’s voice arrives, with bipolar confessions of self-doubt and excess, as the music just keeps building.
14. Iggy Pop“Gardenia” (Loma Vista) Iggy Pop’s collaboration with Josh Homme yielded this absurd character study — or is it a love song? — full of odd-angled melodies.
15. Lucy Dacus“I Don’t Wanna Be Funny Anymore” (Matador) Roles are confining; Ms. Dacus wants to change hers — maybe cute or smart — and while her voice keeps its lush croon, her guitar gets pushy.
16. Norah Jones“Flipside” (Blue Note) An insistent four-note riff underlines the newfound self-assertion Ms. Jones sings about in “Flipside”; while she worked with jazz musicians and delves into some abstruse chords, she didn’t leave her pop instincts behind.
17. Loretta Lynn featuring Elvis Costello“Everything It Takes” (Sony Legacy) The wordplay, the sighing pedal-steel guitar and Ms. Lynn’s deep twang reach back to classic honky-tonk, in a new song pulled from her old notebooks.
18. Esperanza Spalding“Unconditional Love” (Concord) Meter shifts and melodic twists reflect the prodigious technique Ms. Spalding brings as songwriter, singer and bassist, but it’s not all acrobatics; there’s a merry spirit behind the music.
19. Weaves“One More” (Kanine) “Watch out!” Jasmyn Burke warns, and no wonder: “One More” is a burst of zigzagging, guitar-crazed indie-rock with a wild slapstick momentum.
20. Lori McKenna“Wreck You” (CN) The longtime country songwriter Lori McKenna analyzes a breakup in progress, with homely details and an aching melody.
21. GoGo Penguin“Unspeakable World” (Blue Note) The piano-bass-drums trio GoGo Penguin bridges jazz, Minimalism and (even with acoustic instruments) the strategies of dance music, stacking up elaborate ostinatos and seeing how, with a little guidance, they can evolve.
22. Emeli Sandé“Hurts” (Capitol) In some ways the song is as blunt as its title and chorus — “Loving you the way I do, it hurts” — but its fierce handclapping beat, tempestuous orchestral buildups and rush of accusations mean that Ms. Sandé vents as much as she suffers.
23. Angel Olsen“Shut Up Kiss Me” (Jagjaguwar) Some fundamental things apply — a chord progression out of doo-wop, a plea to get back together — but Ms. Olsen cranks them up to the point of obsession, from her distorted guitar to the rising frenzy in her voice.
24. Sylvan Esso“Radio” (Partisan) Very meta: a perky synth-pop single about the 21st-century single, from optimum length to marketing requirements: “Faking the truth in a new pop song/Don’t you want to sing along?”
25. Pearson Sound“XLB” (Hessle Audio) David Kennedy, who records as Pearson Sound, pushes minimal dance music toward brilliant disorientation by setting up drum-machine patterns and melting them down in stereo.
Jon Caramanica
1. Desiigner“Timmy Turner” freestyle (youtube.com/XXLMagazine) The essential original, where he resists the beat instead of capitulating to it.
2. Future featuring the Weeknd“Low Life” (A1/Freebandz/Epic) The most alluring grotesquerie, with both artists at their dirtbag finest.
3. Young M.A“OOOUUU” (M.A Music) One roundhouse punch after the next on this instant Brooklyn anthem.
4. Rihanna“Needed Me” (Westbury Road/Roc Nation) There is no Rihanna better than icy, dismissive, unfeeling Rihanna.
5. gnash featuring Olivia O’Brien“i hate u, i love u (Deepend remix)” (:):/Atlantic) A lush death march of a duet injected with growth hormone for the dance floor.
6. Ayo Jay“Your Number” (One Nation/RCA) This Nigerian-raised singer had the song of the summer that wasn’t.
7. Joey Purp featuring Chance the Rapper“Girls @” (soundcloud.com/joey-purp) High-energy, hyperkinetic verses from two Chicago cheerleaders.
8. Shawn Mendes“Treat You Better” (Island) A boy who strums his guitar aggressively as a stand-in for lust.
9. The Chainsmokers featuring Daya“Don’t Let Me Down” (Disruptor/Columbia) If you must pick one dopey 2016 dance anthem, let it be this thumper.
10. Young Thug and Travis Scott featuring Quavo“Pick Up the Phone” (300/Atlantic/Grand Hustle/Epic) Like listening to old hip-hop protocols dissolve in real time.
11. Rae Sremmurd featuring Gucci Mane“Black Beatles” (EarDrummers/Interscope) An arena-size ambient rap masterpiece.
12. French Montana featuring Kodak Black“Lockjaw” (Coke Boys/Bad Boy/Epic) Two of rap’s premier word swallowers go toe to toe.
13. Randy Houser“Song Number 7” (Stoney Creek) This country burner is a love song about a love song.
14. Fat Joe and Remy Ma featuring Jay Z, French Montana and Infared“All the Way Up (remix)” (RNG/Empire) New York rap comeback, senior division.
15. serpentwithfeet“blisters” (Tri Angle) Volcanic, ominous art-soul with a gospel heart.
16. Hey Violet“Guys My Age” (Caroline) Teen-pop’s revenge: an urgent, dark song about sexual rebellion.
17. Bruno Mars“Versace on the Floor” (Atlantic) Mr. Mars does his best early New Edition impression.
18. 2 Chainz featuring Lil Wayne“Bounce” (Def Jam) Lil Wayne woke up from slumber this year, and it was beautiful.
19. Lil Uzi Vert“Do What I Want” (Atlantic) Peak millennial petulance.
20. Uncle Murda“Panda (remix),”“All the Way Up (remix),”“OOOUUU (remix)” For every 2016 Brooklyn anthem, Uncle Murda had an acidic, gravelly remix verse to offer.
21. MattyB featuring Gracie Haschak“Friend Zone” (youtube.com/MattyBRaps) Don’t @ me.
Nate Chinen
1. Kanye West featuring The-Dream, Kelly Price, Kirk Franklin and Chance the Rapper“Ultralight Beam” (Def Jam) The most brilliant stroke on an album that wobbles just shy of greatness, this unhurried procession has klieg-light cameos by the gospel star Kirk Franklin, the R&B siren Kelly Price and, indelibly, an exultant Chance the Rapper.
2. Beyoncé“Freedom” (Parkwood/Columbia) The searing moral umbrage on Beyoncé’s “Lemonade” often skews personal, but the scope here is as wide as the water, and the singing as urgent as Kendrick Lamar’s ingenious guest verse.
3. Frank Ocean“Ivy” (Boys Don’t Cry) Mr. Ocean’s nod to heartbreak is analytical and calm, but not cold — a wilting aria bathed in watery guitar reverb. “The feeling still deep down is good,” he insists, shouting the last word as if to persuade himself.
4. A Tribe Called Quest“We the People” (Epic) “Who can come back years later, still hit the shot?” Phife Dawg knew the answer before he posed the question, on a comeback anthem that’s also a stinging indictment, a rallying cry and a bittersweet triumph that Phife himself, who died in March, would have savored.
5. Drive-By Truckers“Surrender Under Protest” (ATO) A great Southern band in unbeatable form, jabbing at received wisdom and curdled traditions. “If the victims and aggressors/Just remain each other’s others,” Mike Cooley sings against revving distortion. “And the instigators never fight their own.”
6. Rihanna“Work” (Westbury Road/Roc Nation) The word, as she sings it, is so pliable it almost achieves liquid state: “work” as a challenge, a taunt, a chant, a complaint. When Drake pops in, it’s strictly as nonessential personnel, waxy and oblivious.
7. Bonnie Raitt“The Ones We Couldn’t Be” (Redwing) Ms. Raitt, who knows her way around a lovesick piano ballad, wrote this one from a place of grown-up disillusionment: cleareyed in her sadness, sharing the blame as well as the pain.
8. Solange“Cranes in the Sky” (Saint/Columbia) Sometimes there’s no evading heavy emotions, as Solange poetically admits over an impeccable, low-simmering funk groove.
9. Miranda Lambert“Vice” (Vanner/RCA Nashville) Ms. Lambert girds this rueful anthem with steely fatalism, rooted in the belief that every mistake is yours to own, however many times.
10. Aoife O’Donovan“The King of All Birds” (Yep Roc) “Who am I to you?” Ms. O’Donovan asks evenly against a samba beat, in this song full of wary admonitions. It’s a trick question she wields like a set of talons.
New Music 2016 Free Download
The Best in Culture 2016
More highlights from the year, as chosen by our critics:
Movies, Television, Pop Albums, Classical Music, Dance, Theater, Art, Podcasts and Performances