And you may find yourself looking at this 2021 retrospective, dated four months into the year 2022. And you may ask yourself, “Is this moron serious?” And he may tell yourself, “Yes, he is.”
April Fools!!!
I love all sorts of interests and media, but music has always been the thing that I loved most of all. Thus, it’s always been my instinct to factor it into my writing somehow. Thus, for the last four years going before this one, I always made a point to write something at the beginning of the year about the music I took in throughout the year just gone by. I, in fact, did so last year—twice!–on TAY’s new home!
The plan was to do the same this year, in commemoration of 2021. The amount of advance prep was very much real: Maintaining the Spotify playlist throughout the whole year holding all of the newly-discovered songs that caught my attention, repeatedly poring over a notes file on my phone with all of the possible song selections as January 2022 drew closer. Then with all of that, I come into the new year…
…and end up just plain not writing the thing.
It is a towering shame. I could perhaps expend much thinking, soul-searching, and writing to interrogate the reasons for a total creative shutdown, but none of that would truly erase the shame; it would merely be my attempt at coping with it.
Thing is, though, “trying to cope” may have well been my strategy with everything going on in the past year or two, and at this point I’m just sick of taking that approach. I don’t want to coexist with this shame! I want it GONE.
And the best way to do that, as best as I can tell, is to write the thing that I want to write, once and for all. So, here we go!!
I split the music into two categories: The hit songs of 2021 according to the American pop charts, and everything else. We’ll begin with the hits, and cover the “everything else” category at a later date.
If a song had enough staying power on Billboard’s weekly Hot 100 charts (being on there for around, let’s say, eight weeks), made it onto the 2021 year-end Hot 100 Songs chart, or had enough staying power on popular radio, that counted as a “hit song” to me. I further did my best to focus on songs that I specifically heard first in 2021.
It was surprisingly hard to scrounge together a list of ten hit songs this time around. However, with it all put together, I do think there are some true gems in the mix–not just being quality music, but also happy surprises–especially near the upper end of this list. Thus, as a relatively easy man to please, I’d say the year was a decent success.
Maybe you’ll agree? Hahaha nahh, most likely not.
But so what? It’s my list!
10. Doja Cat feat. SZA – “Kiss Me More”
“Make ‘Say So’ again” would be an understandable, though arguably lazy, strategy. “Make ‘Say So’ again, but be slightly melancholic about it,” however, proved to be just enough of an interesting swerve to make this whole retread an interesting endeavor. The weepy guitars are the sound of someone left wanting for affection; the singing and rapping are a suggestion and an invitation for what to do to make them feel better. So what are you going to do about it, when it’s all laid out how their happiness is all in your hands?
“Kiss Me More” gave up the gauzy J-pop dreaminess of “Say So”, but gained warmth, heart, and intimacy in return. That’s a worthwhile trade in my book.
9. NEIKED feat. Mae Muller and Polo G – “Better Days”
It’s a good piece of disco/dance pop with solid vocal turns from Polo G and a Bebe Rexha-alike that’s backed by an effective, great-sounding beat beat. And although the “Better Days” refer literally to a pre-breakup period of time, the song takes on the symbolic meaning of “Better Days” in the wider existential sense of longing for a period of time in one’s life that was simpler, more innocent, that didn’t outright suck and then constantly announce its suckiness every damn day. Especially when a pandemic that was supposed to be in our rearview mirror by last summer, once upon a time, is instead still with us because we as a species are just incapable of getting our damn act together.
All of which is to say that this track is filling the a similar role in the pop charts as BENEE’s “Supalonely” back in 2020 at the very start of the COVID-19 malaise. The mood at play by now, however, is sheer exhaustion. I can see many people finding this breezy trifle as the delivery mechanism for such a sentiment to be grating and offensive, but I’ve personally found that very thing to be that touch of sweetness that makes the medicine go down easier.
8. Meghan The Stallion – “Thot Shit”
Meghan Thee Stallion, after decisively conquering 2020, plants her flag right into the ground she’s claimed with a demonstration of sheer prowess and personality, “Rap God” style. It’s mesmerizing; a flow like that could easily sustain a song twice as long as the “Thot Shit” she gave us.
Certainly helping matters, in an unexpected way, is that it also has unreservedly good vibes going for it. Meghan bragged about how she was “finna graduate college” in 2021, and lo and behold, she did!! I’ve got nothing but the happiest of well wishes towards her for that.
7. Justin Bieber feat. Daniel Caesar and Giveon – “Peaches”
“Peaches” is a unique case where casually stumbling on it while half-listening to the radio actively worked against it. Catch it during the chorus while having the blurriest perception of it, and it seems like a dead ringer for Justin Bieber’s “Holy”, which is a terrible first impression to have in my case because “Holy” is all sorts of lamely corny.
Then I saw the music video for a version of “Peaches” that had such a nocturnally vibey beat, awash in sumptuous electric pianos, and included these two other verses from singers named Daniel Caesar and Giveon who ridiculously outclassed the main artist’s parts. This was a revelation; “Holy shit, this remix is amazing!” I said.
Later on, much to my embarrassment, I found out that I didn’t stumble upon a clearly superior remix of “Peaches”; it turned that that’s what the actual song had sounded like this entire time. I had merely given it a full proper listen for the first time, meaning that I was catching all of these nuances and the guest artists’ contributions which I had been missing when skipping through radio stations and peacing out that the first split seconds of the Biebz. And–what do you know!–taken in full, it turns out this is pretty great. It has thus come to be, where I am now officially an unabashed fan of a second Justin Bieber song.
6. Silk Sonic – “Leave the Door Open”
Being lamely corny is going to shut me down most of the time. Being somehow awesomely corny, on the other hand? I’ve got a much stronger stomach for that; bring it on.
Bruno Mars–a full decade, as of this year, into his job as a throwback showman–along with Anderson .Paak, brought it on. Bless ’em.
It’s not just that they’re brought the sounds of 1970’s soul and R&B into the 2020’s. What really got me was how they specifically invoked a cheesier, more kitschy strain of that style, and then went all in on some ultimate loverman e.g. Barry White persona with the full awareness–and, crucially, an embrace–of the fact that they were going to look more than a little silly at points.
It adds up to a sort of comedy song that still manages to be genuinely romantic when it’s all said and done. During the moments when they don’t stick the landing–“If you’re hungry, girl, I’ve got filets”? Seriously?–it’s funny and charming. But in those occasions where Bruno and Anderson fully sell the act? Like Bruno’s killer chorus? It’s sheer sublime purity.
5. Billie Eilish – “Happier Than Ever”
Consider this my penance for not giving Kesha’s “Praying” its due as one of the best hit songs of its year back at that time.
I’m trying to be far less meta and “let’s reference other music reviewers!!” here than in years past, but Diamond Axe Studios Music’s Sean Fay-Wolfe coined a term far too useful to pass up, so I’m using it here. In several videos, he talks about the “wounded dog song” or “wounded dog single.” A song that is loudly, emotionally raw–sometimes even downright ugly–as a result of laying it all out there (so to speak) on account of a deep, deep wound.
2021 somehow ended up as the year where too many premier female musical icons–Billie Eilish, Kacey Musgraves, Adele, and Olivia Rodrigo among them; Grimes meanwhile seemed to have missed that time period by a few months–were let down by their relationships and felt the need to process it all through their music. Billie, however, may have been the only one who approached that from the angle of going full wounded dog in a single-song burst; Olivia may very well have tried as well, for sure, but there’s no way in hell she could match the absolute scorching severity of “Happier Than Ever”.
This song is, to put it simply, a fucking awesome work of art. Granted, not so much “awesome” as in the positive “hell yes!” sense of the word, but “awesome” moreso in the “awesome God” sense, i.e. the more literal definition of “leaving you in awe”…whether that takes the form of wonder or terror.
A classical, archetypical tell-off like “You Oughta Know” or “Praying” comes from a sense of righteousness, bitter or otherwise. But “Happier Than Ever” is not righteous. Oh, sure! It certainly tries at the beginning, when Billie plays and sings with a sense of control! But that ship sails the instant the gloves come off, and she starts unloading a cataclysmic run-on barrage of fury, misery, and sadness.
The lasting impression Billie ultimately leaves is the depths her anguish. It’s heartbreaking. Most tell-offs are about making everyone go “Yeah!! Tell it like it is, sister!”
When I hear this, though, I just want her to feel better. She’s the one, in this case, whose peace I hope she finds.
4. Lil Nas X feat. Jack Harlow – “INDUSTRY BABY”
I’m stylizing the all-caps song title based on the official Lil Nas X posting of the music video, for the record. I’d say it’s pretty appropriate in this case; “INDUSTRY BABY” goes goddamn hard. Also, I guess I should leave a very very prominent NSFW content warning for pixelated full frontal nudity for anyone who clicks the video link. That’s how Lil Nas X rolls, what can I say.
This has that classic type of brass-backed rap beat that’ll bring you right back to the 2000’s–sharing spiritual space with the likes of “Never Scared”, “Bring Em Out”, “Hard in da Paint”, and who knows how many Mannie Fresh beats. It is fertile soil for “INDUSTRY BABY” to plant itself into, and the beat further ups the ante by being powered by a marching band’s worth of instrumental muscle. I’m not sure if that’s got Kanye “All of the Lights” West’s fingerprints all over it or not…Oh, yeah! Did you know that he apparently had a hand in producing the song?!
All of which is in service of Lil Nas X’s defiant proclamation of victory, by being, among other things, the single where he does some actual rapping for a change. And rocks it!! Alongside singing two of his best, most transcendent hooks yet. And benevolently setting the stage for Jack Harlow to come through with quite possibly one of 2021’s defining guest verses. Pop rap jock jam perfection. Fuuuuuck yeahh!!!
3. THE ANXIETY – “Meet Me At Our Spot”
One benefit of ruminating on best-songs lists for way too long is that this song had the chance to seriously grow on me as the new months of 2022 passed on by. I already liked “Meet Me At Our Spot” the first time I heard it, but it turns out that it’s a slow burn to end all slow burns. I’m thankfully to have finally caught up on its greatness, though.
Willow is a compelling artist with several songs I really like under her belt, but one consistent point of semi-contention for me has been her distinctive but also highly blunt-impact singing. Even on a song like “transparent soul” (no I’m not going to space out every letter) where I think it fully works, it’s on account of the likely-unintentional touchstone of channeling a RWBY theme song-esque sense of sheer vocal force.
On “Meet Me At Our Spot”, however? On this minimalistic piece of funk-pop where the singer is going to take up so much of the space on the track? Willow’s performance is beautiful! It absolutely owns, and also seems like a sign that there’s more in her repertoire than just going full wrecking ball all of the time. Her voice also happens to be a lovely complement to her partner (singing and otherwise) Tyler Cole, who–it must be mentioned–is also astonishingly great. The song puts the two of them front and center, and it is on both of their shoulders that the song soars.
2. Kali Uchis – “telepatía”
I am already primed to love virtually any song subsumed by luxurious synth-Jacuzzi soundscapes most days of the week, just on sheer principle, whether it’s a hit song or not. Yet somehow, one especially fine example of the form by an artist who I’d largely known as bubbling under the mainstream managed to become a legitimate hit. It’s a case where I’m filled with the joy of knowing that great swaths of people have been exposed to such glory.
I cannot properly analyze this song; how could one fully explain what it’s like to experience aesthetic nirvana? Here is all that I can offer: The hit songs of most given days tend to be thoroughly terrestrial in both sound and content. “telepatía”, meanwhile, is truly otherworldly. I hear the beat start, and I just want to vibe. I then hear Kali Uchis’ gorgeous voice, switching between Spanish and English on a dime, and I’ve got nothing more than a fervent desire to completely lose myself in a moment of ascendance, cleansing all anxieties for a brief three minutes.
A moment of zen.
How the hell was this not the best hit song of the year?
1. Olivia Rodrigo – “deja vu”
Ah, yeah. This is why.
It is genuinely shocking to me that this song–this panoramically psychedelic slice of slow-burn rock built atop a distorted, fractured backbeat–became a hit single. Someone, somewhere–I thought it was Pitchfork, but it looks like I was mistaken, and now I don’t know where the hell I really saw it–compared it to Radiohead’s “No Surprises”, of all things, which I thought was as big of a fit of ridiculous exaggeration as I’d have ever read…similar somehow to a great deep cut from one of my longtime favorite bands, give me a break…yet “deja vu” and its twinkling introduction, against all odds, somehow comes close to earning the comparison.
Making a listcicle of snippets from a relationship since ended, especially when peppered with pop culture touchstones like Glee or Billy Joel, ought to come off as hackneyed. Here, though, it takes on considerable imbued poignancy and tragedy when it’s set against a hazy backdrop that sounds like a harried trip through the back alleys of memory lane. Those moments, sure sting all the more as Olivia sees reflections of them in her ex’s new relationship. It’s bad enough to feel that she’s being left behind, but to then have the meaning of all those precious memories, shared together, stripped away in real time as those moments get repurposed for the person who’s essentially the replacement? The only logical response must be betrayed resentment, surely!
None of this is to suggest that “deja vu” is mature or any less teenager-y compared to Olivia’s other songs, because no, it’s just as teenager-y as the rest of the lot. What is different, though, is whatever influences got brought to the table as appropriate conduits for channeling all of that raw angst. Radiohead was already invoked earlier, but this reminds me even more strongly of stuff from Portishead’s Third–not even in their trip hop heyday! THIRD!!–and you know what? Why wouldn’t they do that?? I sure as hell was listening to Radiohead and other artsy left-of-the-dial shit when I was a teen; what’s to stop Olivia or her collaborators from doing the same, and then invoking it in their work?
Regardless of how this concept came into being, though, the important part is that they then subsequently knocked it clean out of the park. And then someone else somehow had the idea that this is definitely the hit single that shall follow the titanic “driver’s license”. And they were proven…right? An actual American mainstream audience took to this shit??
I respect it, and I admire it, but most of all, I love it. Best hit of the year.
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