the best hit songs of the 2010s

This list… might have actually been harder to assemble than the worst hits of the decade.

And you wouldn’t think that because, on some level, it’s way simpler: you’ve got a clear idea of what you think the best hits are, you don’t care about cultural longevity in the same way because good trends are just a happy accident surrounding music you love and I find it harder to blame songs for not starting great trends in comparison with bad ones sustaining them, and overall the music is better so it’s an easier task to go through them all.

But this is where things get complicated because again, we’re talking about a decade’s worth of time and personal resonance changes - some songs you predict would stick with you for months or years fall out of your mind’s eye, whereas sometimes songs will last far longer than you expect. And while overplay stops being an issue given how I don’t really listen to the radio or playlists outside my own curated ones, the passage of time matters too. Yes, it kind of sucks that because a song might have dropped in the first half of the decade it’s got that much more time to fade on me… but it also has that much more time to rise in nostalgia. Yeah, songs in the latter half of this decade might have recency bias… but that absolutely can cut both ways. And yes, this means that the order in which songs appeared on my year-end lists throughout the 2010s is effectively out the window, but I’d argue order rather than song choices is more indicative of the time, as if you’ve seen all of my best hits of the 2010s, you can probably predict the majority of this list.

But one thing I do want to mention is the impact and opinion I’ve taken on trends, because as I’ve grown as a music critic, I’ve paradoxically found less to automatically praise in what I’d call critic-bait - there was a time I’d be all over the indie pop and rock crossovers in comparison with the more obvious ‘commercial’ trends, and while I’ve always praised country and that’s put me outside of that establishment, there have been trends that haven’t really aged well. And the most notable, in my opinion, is the retro craze across the middle of the decade, which means there will be some notable songs that’ll miss the cut where paradoxically I got onboard with certain trends and sounds just a bit late and they might have higher placements than you’d expect. But more than that, there’s always been a bit of pressure to at least acknowledge the mainstream music that is considered ‘cool’ at the time, and that has meant certain songs that were a little more ‘basic’ for lack of better words got elbowed back - that’s not going to happen with this, this is my top 50 list that I love, and I’m not about to chasing validation. And fair warning, the order of this list has fluctuated wildly over the past month in which I’ve been thinking it through, so I urge you not to take it all that seriously, especially outside of the top ten.

But yes, I said this is a top 50 - no honourable mentions, so strap in folks, we’re going to keep the first 25 short and sweet before getting longer for the second half, let’s go!

50. ‘Burn’ by Ellie Goulding

You know, a lot of folks tend to miss Ellie Goulding’s early years with songs like ‘Lights’ and the ethereal oddness that used to characterize a few songs of that era. But ‘Burn’ was always the hit that captivated me the most: a huge, bells-accented slice of electro-pop that’s as basic and straightforward as you can get! But it’s a song that feels so much bigger than that: Ellie’s vocals layered off the sandy flutters and the crescendos keep some of that same sense of wonder but then amplify it, leaning into the sense of scale that was the true hidden weapon of her greatest hits. And as pop has trended smaller, Ellie Goulding has struggled to capture that same weight - but ‘Burn’ remains the thunderclap to set it off.

49. ‘Same Love’ by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis ft. Mary Lambert

Look, the decay of Macklemore’s reputation across the 2010s has been one of the most disappointing career flameouts I’ve seen in hip-hop - I pin some of it on not working with Ryan Lewis, some on an inability to recapture the magic, some on a media climate looking to tear him down for trying to be conscious, and some on his inability to expand beyond platitudes when on songs like this, he proved he could. A lot got overshadowed in the backlash to this song - which has always felt overblown: this was released as a single months before he blew up, and while the initial bars centers his straight self-doubt, it very quickly doesn’t stay there and Mary Lambert’s heartwrenching hook is exactly what is needed to add an emotional core to his critique, a lot of which especially around the religious right can still feel valid especially in how the struggle feels far from over - if you know, you know. A lot of well-meaning liberals have thrown Macklemore and this song aside as an assumption the battle was won, which in a way can date the song… but if you were there in the moment or are there now, I think this has more power and forethought than will be given credit. Shame he couldn’t keep it up, but in an era where Taylor Swift will release ‘You Need To Calm Down’ to actively center her narrative, I reckon this feels more real.

48. ‘Remind Me’ by Brad Paisley & Carrie Underwood

Okay, this snuck up on me - neither artists’ best song this decade and we’ll get to one of those later on, but I’m not surprised it required time for this to work. It plays to an older audience who have had relationships end amicably where the weight of years allow the memories to soften into nostalgia, and I like how the spark llingers just enough in the frame to maybe imply just great friendship or maybe a bit more. And you can there’s a naturalistic chemistry between Paisley and Underwood that not only leads to great interplay, but also the sense of detail in the writing that comes from a lived-in relationship. All amidst a rich and warm country backdrop where Paisley can get one of his better solos off that doesn’t need to be showy, it’s a more mature cut that hasn’t gotten a lot of attention, but as time passes, I think it will.

47. ‘Die Young’ by Ke$ha

My god, the Warrior era of Ke$ha was so great - where ‘Die Young’ is midtier on the album and still one of the best hits of the decade! The hard acoustic strumming, that perferct kickdrum hit, Ke$ha nailing the balance between coy and fiery off the coarsing synth waves, and a bright enough vibe that makes the underlying sadness of the song hit well - he or she came with someone else, odds are Ke$ha’s not going to make more out of it, so savor the hard moment while she still can, especially riding into that final crescendo. Look, it’s the closest thing we’re going to get on this list to Robyn’s ‘Dancing On My Own’, and Ke$ha has a raw hunger that gives it a distinctive edge. Also, as I always like to mention, she did a downtempo version on her Deconstructed EP that unlike any attempt to slow down ‘Dancing On My Own’ is actually fantastic, so yeah, this holds up!

46. ‘Beachin’ by Jake Owen

Oh, I’m sorry, did you think there wasn’t going to be bro-country on this list? Yeah, I’ll repeat what I’ve been saying for years now: there’s a spectrum of quality in the subgenre, and Jake Owen’s ‘Beachin’ is near the top of it, a ridiculously fun blissed out cut that luxuriates in raw charisma for the most lightweight of flirtatious moments. There’s so much natural warmth that cuts through even more synthetic production from Joey Moi that I’m always a little stunned how well it’s held up, where even the white boy rapping on the verses has enough thrown together structure to work. What I find amusing is that so many people have misheard the hook to say ‘cocaine’ instead of ‘cold can’, and honestly, I don’t mind either interpretation: it’s either wholesome fun or there’s a bit more white powder on the sands to set the vibe! Either way, this song is so fun and relaxed while feeling warm and organic that it’s probably one of the more surprising locks on this list, but absolutely worth it… and while we’re on that subject…

45. ‘Young, Wild & Free’ by Snoop Dogg & Wiz Khalifa ft. Bruno Mars

The fact this song still feels so one-of-a-kind in its hangout vibe kind of blows my mind, especially given how much darker and trap-inflected rap would become in the 2010s. And yet the vibe clicks miraculously: both Wiz Khalifa and Snoop Dogg are on point with their interplay and flows, Bruno Mars exhibits one of his last moments of personality that’s distinctly his own before spending the rest of the decade imitating other people, and the Smeezingtons production has wound up feeling remarkably timeless - the padded drum kicks off the piano and subtle touches of bass that’s the perfect accent to the ridiculously sticky hook. For a decade that struggled to pin down great fun chill anthems - which is bizarre given how in recent years that seems to be the goal of so many streaming playlists - ‘Young, Wild & Free’ captured the magic to blaze away.

44. ‘Nice For What’ by Drake

This one surprised me in how well it’s stuck around, especially given the empty void of headaches and frustration that was Scorpion. And it’s exasperating because I can see the science in how Drake built this to reinforce his appeal to women in a kissoff that might well be thrown in his face… but the more I think about it, that might be the biggest secret weapon: you present your throat willingly and they might not drive a spiked heel into it. Also the bounce flip of Lauryn Hill is inspired, Drake can play off it ridiculously well, and as I’ve said before, the fact he doesn’t play for the obvious hookup instead highlighting how he understands keeps his motivations protected, just allowing the song to go off! And in a decade where he’s been chasing the pop dance crossover hit multiple times, this is easily his best - and that’s about as nice as I’m comfortable being with Drake, so let’s keep moving.

43. ‘All Of The Lights’ by Kanye West

And speaking of people I’m under no obligation to be nice to… again, I’ve got a weird and complicated relationship with My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy - spoilers, when I put out my list of my favourite albums of the decade it’s not on it - but what this song gets absolutely right is frenetic, grief-stricken panic, where all of one’s insecurities and failures and missteps are thrown into the harshest relief and you can either self-destruct like how Kanye plays it, or the dead-eyed control that allows you to stare into that sun courtesy of Rihanna. Pair it with the blaring horns, jagged percussion, massive crescendo of voices that makes the song as cacaphonous and wild as it is… it may not be my favourite cut from the album, but even as everything seemed to fly off the rails, Kanye did find gold, at least here.

42. ‘Mama’s Broken Heart’ by Miranda Lambert

Granted, if I want the song where panic gives way to a far deeper, barely contained sense of tearful rage, Miranda Lambert is one of the best women working in country to deliver it. It might be just a break-up on the surface, but the greater source of tension comes from Lambert having to knuckle all of that fury back in the face of the expectations to be a proper lady as she’s already acting out… and she’s about a few minutes from killing people. What I love about this song isn’t just the acknowledgement of how that self-destruction is curdling inwards into numbness, but also that Kennedy reference that highlight not just the stakes but how systemic this repression of emotion is. Cowritten by Brandy Clark and Kacey Musgraves and then backed by seething, sparking guitars that match the loud-soft dynamic of the content even as the darker groove picks up, it’s a killer song - possibly quite literally!

41. ‘Never Forget You’ by Zara Larsson & MNEK

I can imagine this is the first really big surprise on this list, but in truth, while I still think it’s a little overcompressed, it’s the sort of tropical EDM pop cut that has only picked up more punch for me. Zara Larsson and MNEK have great chemistry, the separation narrative is well-balanced in a true duet that has real give-and-take, and the crescendos are just goddamn stunning playing off the pianos and clattering percussion. How in the Nine Hells this duo managed to make a handclap sound this huge is baffling to me, where even the skittering, fractured drop wound up working after a fashion to amplify the discordant space between. It’s a shame that neither artist has ever really followed it up well, especially stateside, but in one of a few EDM songs that have only grown with time for me, this was a welcome shot that I won’t forget.

40. ‘Mirrors’ by Justin Timberlake

What, you thought my picks weren’t going to be ‘problematic’ for this list - so a guy can’t appreciate a self-love anthem here either? Granted, it’s the framing of ‘Mirrors’ that has always made it a little hard to swallow for some: Justin Timberlake is so enamoured with his partner because he sees so much of himself reflected back in it, but isn’t there something to the notion of couples making each other better and helping ourselves become more secure? Sure, it’s absolutely self-indulgent… but it’s also really damn good at it: the coursing guitars and strings breaking off the burbling percussion anchored to the handclap, just enough opulence to feel big but also a lot more earnest than Timberlake normally is, and that works for the go-for-broke bridge and final hook. Also, it should be noted we are talking about the radio edit here so the song doesn’t fizzle out by the end, which does cut back on the indulgence a fair bit… but overall, it’s just a terrific aspirational pop song. But if we want to go back to the obvious feel good material…

39. ‘Good Time’ by Owl City & Carly Rae Jepsen

Who would have thought at the end of the decade, the artist would come out all the more praised and critically acclaimed of these two would be Carly Rae Jepsen, pushing herself into vibrant synthpop with all the more flair and potency… and yet it’s the second hit with Owl City that kicked off the push. So sugary and wholesome it actually flips all of it into pure strength where Owl City referencing Prince feels ridiculous, but not to the point where I want to discount it, especially given that Carly Rae Jepsen can sound sensual and loving it without even trying! It’s pure summer fun buoyancy bouncing off chipper gummy keyboards and great interplay, especially on that prechorus, that we so rarely get anymore, I’m going to hold onto this good time for as long as I can - and I’ll be better for it.

38. ‘Someone Like You’ by Adele

Honestly, this is the sort of song where the review or recap writes itself, because at this point the majority of people have already written Adele into the canon of great mainstream acts of this era and this is one of her crowning jewels. Which I’ll admit is a little fascinating when you consider how stripped back it is: just a spare piano where Adele confronts an ex mid-breakdown and the entire ream of emotions she goes through is genuinely impressive. Like so many of Adele’s best cuts, it’s a song that carries the gravitas of age and history that is literally beyond her years, but the fact she sells it so well helps make the song feel timeless, especially as the framing courtesy of Dan Wilson’s spare production gives her no quarter. As a soulful cut, it’s already been canonized as a classic and deservingly so, unlike…

37. ‘Honey, I’m Good’ by Andy Grammer

You know, I’m not going to apologize for loving this song, especially as I’m thoroughly convinced the majority of folks never clued in to the vibe for it in the first place - yes, I’ll admit the video didn’t help. What works about ‘Honey, I’m Good’ is, again, the framing - Andy Grammer, like Owl City and Carly Rae on ‘Good Time’, is way too goddamn chipper and wholesome for his own good, so when he’s confronted with a girl coming onto him that he has to blow off to save face, the entire song feels like a vintage screwball comedy that’s just as much of a throwback. And I’ll admit there’s some charm to that given how damn bouncy the song is before flipping into the organ-inflected prechorus which is where he has to let her down gently, which is by far the best subtle piece of the song and feeds into the assertion that this girl is going to find someone who’ll blow her mind… just not him. Again, maybe I just appreciate sharp construction that makes the wholesome corniness not bug me - one of the reasons I appreciate the great fast-paced writing in those old comedies - but while we’re on the subject of controversial picks…

36. ‘Naturally’ by Selena Gomez & The Scene

I’m going to posit the theory that Selena Gomez has only really made good or great music with other people, where doesn’t have to be the sole focal point of the song - kind of similar to Britney Spears in that way, where her limited personality augments a strong foundation. And that’s very true with ‘Naturally’, featuring her old backing band The Scene that is very much missed on an oft-overlooked but genuinely excellent pop song. The groove has a ton of pulsating sleekness with a bit of low guitar smolder that builds into the gallop of the hook that makes the best of the cheap, overmixed production emblematic of the era, and for once Selena sounds like she’s enjoying herself! My favourite line of the song is ‘you know who you are and to me that’s exciting’, which is just a great little sentiment that comes from both acknowledging your partner’s sense of self-worth and how you want to learn more about it, and with the tempo this giddy, it captures that exuberance effectively. So Selena… ever think about going back to this instead of burning toast, because in 2020, songs this tight and fun are a lot more rare… just saying!

35. ‘bury a friend’ by Billie Eilish

I remember being shocked that this became a hit. It felt impossible, the sort of nightmare fuel that was too dark, too subtly twisted, too reliant on horror-movie creaks and atmospherics to really work for pop. But Billie pulled it off - the warped, nursery rhyme cadence of her hook, how much tension is buried beneath every sound-effect off the low patter of the groove, lyrics that can feel surprisingly graphic on their surface that even still imply a lot more danger in what must be surrendered to morph her into something that even perturbs the monster under her bed and in her dreams - yeah, the music industry will do that to someone! And I kind of love how the mask never drops - Billie often will cut the mood with a snide wink at the audience, but this song doesn’t, and that makes it way more haunting and surreal. It’s a masterclass in subtlety and mood building, in just how much emotion is buried to let you feel distinctly uncomfortable - and man, I can’t wait for more!

34. ‘Style’ by Taylor Swift

The most poignant observation I’ve had with Taylor Swift the past several years and where some of her recent music has fallen flat is spotting the calculation and machine behind her - it’s always been there, but when the stylism and writing burrowed into real human emotion and intimacy, that machine falls to the background. And when a song like ‘Style’ highlights its own calculation and artificiality and still feels as tight and potent as it is, that speaks volumes and tends to have a lot of staying power in comparison with any other hit from 1989. The minor-key groove that picks up great rollicking presence, enough pop gloss to surround Taylor leaning more into her sensual side than ever - she’s credible in this lane, I’m a little shocked she doesn’t claim this agency more often - and still deliver enough complicated introspection about her messy relationship with Harry Styles that’s framed to give neither of them quarter. The relationship is doomed beyond the hookup, but there’s a magnetism to being hot together that amplifies everything, and it’s a place where Swift’s pull on classic Americana matches the glamour. We’ll come back to Taylor Swift more later on, but for her in pop… this is near her best.

33. ‘God’s Country’ by Blake Shelton

I’ve been feeling disconcerted about praising this song for months now, even beyond the Brooks n’ Dunn interpolation that seemingly I’m the only one who notices! For one, it’s the kind of heavy, grim-faced country that leans into southern blues and gospel and that pulls up an apocalyptics side that can be very questionable in these current times, made all the worse coming from Blake Shelton, who has no interest in expanding or exploring this sound further! But at the same time… my god, maybe it’s long-buried Catholic angst but this has a smolder and firepower to its delivery and weight that places it in a different ballpark, and I have to think that some of the bleakness is sardonic commentary in and of itself - in desiccated lands, a prayer in god’s country is the only thing that provides hope as the hounds and vultures circle. Again, it’s dark as hell and genuinely implacable, especially with the brittle acoustics and echoing bells, but if you’re going for a rumble of bluesy country that is unlike anything getting mainstream play… yeah, this clicks more than I’d ever expect.

32. “Yoü and I” by Lady Gaga

Granted, if you want to take some of that southern-fried rock swagger and flip it to something even rougher, Lady Gaga knows exactly how to knock this out of the park, mostly because this has exactly the sort of trashy, barroom swagger that works for a country/glam rock stomper that has Brian May of Queen providing a guitar solo! And I know that it’s the easy critic-bait choice for me to pick Gaga at her most rock and beholden to her influences - spoilers, that’s going to come again later on this list - but the hidden truth is that she’s great at it! The pop songs I love from Lady Gaga tend to be deep cuts that will never be hits - hell, my favourite song of hers is ‘Teeth’ from The Fame Monster - but there’ll always be an easy audience for trashy, barroom belting that fits the real grit in her delivery, and there’s something that runs hot in the sense of detail she gives these songs, even if she can’t put her finger on what’s so damn attractive about it all. But maybe I just love it because it has that sweaty, tryhard piano bar theatricality with real classic rock oomph matched with the theatricality Gaga can always work… while still clicking all the same. But while we’re talking about theatricality…

31. ‘Some Nights’ by fun.

It blows my mind to this day that we haven’t gotten more music from fun. - Nate Ruess has written songs behind the scenes and Jack Antonoff has become a producer/songwriter/star in his own right, but there was a huge, climatic magic about fun. in its arena rock worship and huge hooks and indie rock pretensions to blow everything to the stratosphere. ‘We Are Young’ might have set the stage, but ‘Some Nights’ was the song that lasted and mattered, and just the memories of 2012 and the hope this quarter-life crisis represented with the huge coursing drums and millennial whoops before even they became a thing, with autotune to boot… again, lightning in a bottle. It’s also the second major case of classic rock worship, in this case being Queen but with a little more sincere earnestness filling in for the pomp and circumstance - my god, there was so much potential, but while we’re on that subject…

30. ‘Sign of the Times’ by Harry Styles

I remember what seemed like the music world losing their minds when they heard this song - out of nowhere a teen pop act decided he was going to make the closest thing to a David Bowie imitation in its structure and delivery and sound stunningly credible doing so, and suddenly everyone realized they had to start caring about what came out of One Direction! Again, part of this song’s power is how timeless it sounds, but there’s something only feels more intensely relevant to it with every passing year - it’s apocalyptic and staring straight into that fire in the hope that some escape can be found as history repeats itself, and it has the massive size and grandeur of instrumentation and production to match it. And I’ll admit, a big problem I’ve had with Styles ever since is that he’s never seemed to have this level of ambition, to craft music this grand… but he’s got a career ahead, maybe we’ve got time…

29. ‘Shallow’ by Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper

Okay, I promise we’re almost out of the classic rock worship here… but come on, can you blame me here? The soundtrack and signature song of A Star Is Born has already outgrown the movie - for good reason - and it once again proves that Gaga can sell classic rock as well as Bradley Cooper doing his best heartland rock star impression. And what I love here is the obvious metatext in the song, a back and forth between the old rocker daring the pop star to believe in her roots and the retort from the pop star who sees a similar emptiness, which leads to the uncertain dread in stepping out of their comfort zone. It’s a fantastic moment, another song already canonized as a potential classic… so let’s talk about one that even I overlooked…

28. ‘#Beautiful’ by Mariah Carey & Miguel

The next two songs on this list are both from 2013, and both I didn’t give nearly enough credit at the time. And this one I’m so happy I’ve found an appreciation, half because I’ve listened to a lot more classic soul and R&B and familiarized myself with the back catalogs of both Mariah and Miguel, but also because this is a song that plays to both of their strengths so effectively. It’s warm, supple, wonderfully organic, both artists sound comfortable and loving every moment in the duet, reveling in sheer beauty but having just enough low-key charm to not oversell it - it’s just so remarkably understated and loose but still having just enough control of the groove to flow well… yeah, they both knocked it out of the park, and the fact that neither of them have rarely been this good since is a little exasperating, I’ll just say that.

27. ‘Counting Stars’ by OneRepublic

And on the topic of an act that has not been this good since - hell, I could make the argument this is the best song they’ve ever made - we’ve got a song that I liked and appreciated coming out of 2013 but just wasn’t quite there to get onboard. I thought it was a fluke, that it wouldn’t stick around, that the percussive buildup and real sense of danger to ramp up the gospel swell wouldn’t persist… and yet even if the song is a fluke, it’s stuck around. Ironically OneRepublic and Ryan Tedder specifically made their best work all about self-awareness in dreaming bigger… and then they never did it again! Regardless, I’m a little stunned how much longevity this has had, but it’s been so worth it, folks - you can take a chance again any time now, OneRepublic, that’d be cool!

26. ‘Into You’ by Ariana Grande

We started this section with a pure, straightforward pop song that sounds huge and leans into it with spectacular effect, and we’re ending it with one too - and in the aftermath of thank u, next, going back to Ariana’s work with production that sounds full and potent is just thrilling, especially nailing that balance between cooing and belting that she’s gradually hone even further. And while I’d argue the synth touched swell allows the song to hit with some growling impact, it’s the sparkling blast of the bridge that’s always sent this to the stratosphere. Again, Ariana, any time you want to go back to this stuff, I’d be onboard in a heartbreat.

But that was the first half of our list… now onto our top 25, a pretty meaty selection here where I’ll go into a little more detail, starting with…

25. One song that’ll be missing from this list altogether is Adele’s ‘Rolling In The Deep’ - it was one of the last to be cut, arguably still her signature song, and many would argue it’s a classic to this day. And I’m not going to say that overplay kept it off my list - when you’re picking across a decade, overplay stops mattering - but I will say if I was looking for a leadoff single from Adele that has persisted for me even more than I expected… well…

25. ‘Hello’ by Adele

It’s often highlighted how autobiographical the arc of Adele’s albums have been - she ended 21 with ‘Someone Like You’, she started 25 with this, and it’s hard not to see this as a continuation - except now it’s years later and this is her reaching across the emptiness with unfulfilled questions. As I said before, the weight of history - enhanced even further here by the suffocatingly huge production and gothic tinged bells - has always given Adele’s writing and delivery a lot more weight, but what I like about ‘Hello’ is that it does reveal youthful naivete and how the weight of years can’t quite stifle old feelings as much as she might want… sometimes healing can take even longer, especially when you’re alone. And again, the framing is still not painting her well - there’s real bitterness and grief here, as well as self-awareness in how all of this looks… but she’s still calling into the breach, even as that forces her hand - time she has to grow up. Don’t worry, we’ll come back to that.

24. I can imagine that the placement of certain songs with respect to others will surprise people, and this is one of those for sure. Now again, the order of these sorts of lists, I don’t reckon you should take it all that seriously - I’ve shifted things around a dozen plus times - but if I was looking for the cut that held onto its power more than any I expected, it was this one.

24. ‘Carry On’ by fun.

This is one of those hits that never seems to get the attention it deserves - not just for all the potential that we were looking to see from fun., but also how it’s just a goddamn fantastic power ballad complete with a great slow build and a huge guitar solo, anchored in a great subtle piano melody and Nate Ruess at his most expressive, both low-key at the beginning and when he has to belt his lungs out. And there’s a real populism to his sentiments here - it opens trying to comfort a friend who is encountering the reality that they aren’t as big or important as they think… but amidst that and real angst, it’s a song that resolves to try and comfort and elevate everyone to more, being able to keep on going - not so much a self-esteem anthem as weary acceptance and a desire to make the most of it for as long as you can. Again, maybe it’s just the climate that this is hitting more powerfully, but for another shining moment, fun. delivered one of their most straightforward but anthemic cuts. Fantastic stuff… again, any time we could get a reunion to get more of this, I’d love to see it.

23. If there’s a song for which I’ve had more ups and down with qualifying, it might be this one. It came at precisely the time to strike a chord and I thought my emotional response wasn’t making me ‘objective’ - this was back in 2012 when I still believed objective art criticism is worth a damn - and then I went back to it and realized it was still great but maybe not worth a ton of attention because the production was a bit played out and it’s not like the artist garnered a ton of attention as this is easily his best song in playing a very safe subgenre… and then I just said screw it and put him on this list, and by now you should know what this is.

23. ‘Not Over You’ by Gavin Degraw

I just know this won’t make anyone else’s list of the best hits of the decade, but by this point you know I don’t really care, because Gavin DeGraw wrote arguably the best adult alternative hit of the 2010s… not saying much, because this genre effectively vanished, but it’s still true. Ryan Tedder’s airy production clashing with the sharp keyboards to amplify the frustrated dissonance and soothe the nasal squawk of DeGraw’s delivery, but what I’d argue is the most subtly ingenious part of this song is how the lyrics are structured. Because there’s at least a little more stately poetry and construction to the verses, it’s clear he’s trying to work through it all and assemble that new worldview… but the hook flows so well that it reflects a truer emotive reality where no matter how much he’s lying to himself, he needs to dejectedly face reality. It’s just a great, criminally underrated little song that’s fallen between the cracks of history… worth revisiting if you’re curious.

22. Look, I’m not the sort of critic who’ll lean on being on the ‘right side of history’ - it’s nice when it happens, but come on, you’ve all seen this list already, and some of you can guess what’s going to come. But when I say I’m pleasantly surprised that this song not only held up but got better with the passage of time, and a lot of folks seem to agree…

22. ‘I Love It’ by Icona Pop ft. Charli XCX

The demented party of music of 2013 - where the club boom was a few years past its expiration date and EDM was sliding in - there really isn’t an easy comparison to how overstuffed that year felt in terms of trends and sounds, and seemingly at the whirling intersection of it all is the blaring, grinding banger of ‘I Love It’, the first real mainstream introduction of Charli XCX and a song stuffed with reckless quotables; hell, replace the exhausted exasperation of ‘ok, boomer’ with gleeful exuberance and you effectively have this song! I’d almost say it’s kind of punk in its ethos - nothing matters, I’m burning it down and loving every second of it, you might as well get fucked. But for me what I’ve always loved is that subtle deep shudder that quakes the song midway through - it already sounds huge and goes off, but that’s the foundation, and it doesn’t feel like anything else that was charting at that time. It was abrasive in a way that kind of reflects where Charli XCX is right now - different tones overall, but still a focus on huge, reckless pop of which the mainstream could use more. In other words, kickass!

21. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: some of the best country songs have a body count, and this artist at her peak was always good at racking them up. But murder ballads have been made for decades… why not strive for uniqueness and make nature itself her weapon…

21. ‘Blown Away’ by Carrie Underwood

Am I the only one when thinking about it realizes there’s something kind of transgressive about Carrie Underwood using the weather itself as her tool of revenge, especially in an era where climate change is amplifying such phenonema and the song might just slip into a weird space of bad taste? Granted, maybe I’m just overthinking a song that seems to pull more of its cues from a pitch-black flip of The Wizard Of Oz - or more correctly, Wicked - in its gleaming keys and strings as the guitar seethes, but that fits the theatrical swell that’s always been one of Underwood’s greatest weapons, where the tornado takes on the role of the purifying finger of god - all against a song that’s literally about a daughter killing her abusive, alcoholic father! Again, Carrie Underwood got away with a lot of murder ballads at her peak - I kind of wish she was still making them because she was great at it - but I’ll say it again: there’s nothing quite like ‘Blown Away’ in country, it’s a singular entity in and of itself, and that deserved real recognition.

20. Meanwhile… okay, surely this isn’t that unique, right? It’s another song where a hip-hop artist lavishes his girl with tokens of his success, there are hundreds if not thousands of those! And yet, why does this remain so special to me, to this day…

20. ‘So Good’ by B.o.B.

Well, the obvious answer to that is how ‘So Good’ is actually more unique especially in the 2010s than many people originally thought. Granted, a lot of folks thought B.o.B. would have staying power throughout the decade and I’d rather not talk about how that went, but ‘So Good’ works because it feels like an anomaly but could make sense given the artists involved. Only B.o.B. would want to make a gloriously huge pop rap song riding piano chords talking about travel and taking his girl all around the world, and only Ryan Tedder would give him the production to make that make sense in 2012 - sure, it’s bragging, but it’s of a very different stripe and one that’s honestly more fit for my generation that flexes less and enjoys the ‘experience’ that much more. Factor in great construction - because B.o.B used to have a ton of talent in constructing his bars - and the sheer uplifting exuberance of the track… look, this is another song that I’m not sure could have ever happened outside of a narrow window in 2012, but this is the blissed out flex that actually works so well for me, that emphasizes worldliness and an attempt to absorb cutlure while sounding inviting as all hell. And you can bet once this lockdown ends, this is going to be blasting at top volume.

19. Not gonna lie, I really struggled where to place this song, and of the entries on this list, it’s the one where I’m least sure of, at least for now, because I’m not sure how it’ll age with respect to how close we were to the last year. And that’s the tricky thing about songs that are this small and intimate - the question of whether they’re built to last is tough to ascertain, especially if you might be just out of its demographic. That being said…

19. ‘when the party’s over’ by Billie Eilish

Another artist for which I could say I was earlier than most to hop on-board, but I and a lot of other critics have realized this girl has so much potential to come that making statements on her cultural impact now feels shortsighted - there’s a part of me just certain the best is yet to come. That said, while ‘you should see me in a crown’ intrigued me, this was the song that won me over completely, mostly because it took the consistent sense of subtlety in the aching production from the shuddering bass and precisely placed multi-tracking that’s often used to shock and show how it can translate undercurrents of rage and frustration and genuine heartbreak. That’s a command of atmosphere and emotional nuance that’s so damn rare to see this refined and yet still very grounded in human emotion… and she nailed it. In my opinion the best part of the song is how the vocal line shifts across octaves, just the perfect note to match fragile dejection. Again, so much raw potential here… and I can’t wait to hear more.

18. I’m still a little shocked in conversations about ‘hits’, this does not come up more - it’s one of two songs that fit this category on this list where I can ask, “you all do realize this was a hit, right, and so utterly unique that it would have been worth conversation anyway?” Well, let’s make sure this is on the record now, shall we…

18. ‘Come With Me Now’ by KONGOS

This song is so utterly unique and demented I’m still a little amazed that in the listless frustration of 2014 this actually got enough sporadic traction - I should stress it was way bigger in Canada and thus I got more actual exposure to it, but still, if critics were hunting for a side of indie rock that was flipped the script with its accordion, pedal steel, and reversed guitar leads, on a song where he tries to sell his soul to the devil who rejects him because there’s been so much of his life wasted so he just needs to stumble further into debauchery… how is that not so cool in concept alone that everyone didn’t get onboard? And yet this South African band with its warped, high-concept ideas and impeccable command of atmosphere that just nails the pit-in-your-stomach feeling of everything flying out of control… again, as a hit it’s damn near one of a kind! Granted, it also screams novelty, but this band was legit and I really wish that 1929 two-part experiment had worked… Still we have this and their excellent 2016 album Egomaniac - I’ll keep that.

17. …hey, I did say Taylor Swift was going to make this list again - and it’s with her best hit.

17. ‘Back To December’ by Taylor Swift

It kind of saddens me that I don’t think we’ll get this era of Taylor Swift again - at least not for a while unitl her pop star fades and she makes the ‘back to roots’ country project in her mid-to-late 30s and it gets all the critical acclaim thanks to stripped down production and no other songwriters. The funny thing is that ‘Back To December’ is somewhat in that stripe but also a lot more - her instrumentation is as ragged as it’ll ever be, even with the bells and strings, and again, the core of her best songs have been when we see genuine, confessional vulnerability, and in the wake of the music she’s later release, this has only felt more unique and poignant, a song where she admits she blew the relationship, desperately tries to make the play to win him back… and has to accept it’s not going to work. For Taylor Swift to make and perform that song… there’s a gravitas to that for which I’ll always have some respect. Still her best hit from her best album too - if ‘The Archer’ had been a hit, it’d be close, but I’m still leaning on this.

16. If I’m looking at a hit that grew on me the most this decade, one that I placed on my year-end list at the time but even then thought it should receive more attention even as I was still looking to contextualize my odd feelings towards EDM at the time… even as a grand send-off to its trio, it couldn’t be that great, right?

16. ‘Don’t You Worry Child’ by Swedish House Mafia

I’ve been waiting to add more praise to this song for years now, and here we have it, a finale cut featuring the husky vocals of John Martin against a mix where the bass simmers behind the swells of staccato keys that explode across impeccable crescendos… and sure, it might be cliche as fuck to break into an acoustic guitar for the second hook, especially at the time, but for adding that perfect organic touch to match the melodic switchup and add that trace of warmth to the father figure in the song looking to impart wisdom and hope before departing… it’s a song that looks to capture childlike awe against the balance of real world anticipation, and it knocks out of the goddamn park. The group may have reunited a few years back - kind of, the scattered tour and mix of cancellations hasn’t boded well - but this is the last new music we got from them, and if you’re looking for a note to go out on… damn, what a way to go.

15. You know, looking back on it now, I’m a little embarrassed by my earliest One Direction commentary - they never really made a ‘worst of’ list, but I’ll admit I was looking for every reason to dislike them, and outside of songs that were just untouchable - ‘Diana’ being the big one - and especially compared to the fuckboys I see these days, they were effectively harmless. And while I’m not going to go out on a ledge and say some of their albums didn’t feel kind of manipulative and sloppily produced - thank you Syco Music - I have to give credit where it’s justly due. And thus…

15. ‘Night Changes’ by One Direction

I’m not going to mince words: this is One Direction at their absolute best, it kills me a little this has not gotten the critical reappraisal it deserves, and the blend of genuine melancholy at seeing an old flame move on and get older and you might not be part of the picture but you savor the piece of it you have - because again, it’s never implied she’s actually with any of them, note the ‘he’ in the pronouns on the second verse, where most of the song is in the first person! It’s a subtle detail but it works so damn well in accentuating the lovestruck longing that makes the best boy band songs. Hell, you could almost see some metatext now in how the band was nearing their breakup and fans were moving on - well, until you see flickers of a reunion and everyone goes crazy for it, guess it never changes that much. Match it up with the gleaming keys and soft guitar to emphasize the soft-focus romance and each band member actually getting a voice in the harmonies… yeah, if I’m taking any hit from this band, it’s this one.

14. Look, I’m stubborn, you all know that - and I can’t tell you how annoyed I am that this artist made this song. Every critic loves their narratives, they love the comforting boxes in which they can categorize art if only just for their own reference… and then songs like this are released and fuck your precious narratives because this is one of the best pop country hits of the decade!

14. ‘Marry Me’ by Thomas Rhett

This is the sort of song that made me have to recontextualize all of my opinions about an artist, because you can’t just say he sucks unilaterally if he makes this, because ‘Marry Me’ is so stunningly well-written it still kind of shocks me. Again, the elegant soft focus around the acoustics, the strings that slide in to ramp up the bombast at precisely the right moment for the climax, the piano that slides in for the final hook, the fact that Thomas Rhett is smart enough to underplay his delivery to pull off two genuine bait-and-switches. And the writing - again, you get set up that this is going to be your average pop country love song… and then you realize Rhett is not the guy who she’s marrying, he blew his chance. And then you get prepped for the big romantic film moment at the wedding where where he’s going to say something and win and… that doesn’t happen either. It’s an internal journey entirely from the sidelines, one that forces our frontman to confront maturity that has never been part of his wheelhouse up until that point… but here, it clicks, and it’s believable. I dunno, maybe Thomas Rhett getting married so young actually helped him grow up a bit, and while the majority of his brand of boyfriend country is overproduced and kind of one-note and boring, this is the best thing he’s ever done, and I have to salute that.

13. Granted, if we were looking for a more obvious example of my stubbornness, it’d likely come in my defense of something everyone else has already branded a failure - seriously, I’m expecting video essays chronicling the disaster that was the release of the album behind this song, a career killer if there ever was one. And yet, there’s one song for which I’m going to stand up to defend, guess I’m going to go there…

13. ‘Say Something’ by Justin Timberlake ft. Chris Stapleton

If I was looking for a song to highlight how Justin Timberlake’s blend of R&B and country could have worked in a modern context, this is it - granted, a bit part of it is him ceding ground to Chris Stapleton to belt and deliver his huge voice to a larger audience, but I even really love the production here. The bubbling bass, the more textured percussion that accents the groove rather than clash with it, the choppy acoustics, the shimmering sense of atmosphere that give the song the feel of a torch song, the blending and balance of it all is impeccable! And as for the content… for as goddamn self-righteous as it can feel, it’s also self-aware enough to know when it should shut the hell up… and when the emotions will bowl right past that instinct, which is the dramatic core of the entire song! And look, I’m among the very few people who don’t think Man of the Woods is as much of a failure as so many do, but if Justin Timberlake was looking to salvage something of that era instead of the lifeless commercial crap he’s making now, it should be this. A song where the metatext argues both for and against its own existance… yeah, I was on a ledge praising this two years ago… and I’m still there. Can’t help myself.

12. …okay, if I just say this has become a karaoke staple of mine ever since it dropped and it’s absolutely glorious when it goes off, will that be enough?

12. ‘Can’t Hold Us’ by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis ft. Ray Dalton

‘Thrift Shop’ was the song that broke Macklemore, ‘Same Love’ drew the media attention and likely painted him into a corner that broke his career, but ‘Can’t Hold Us’ was the goddamn banger that could not be denied. The gallop of the textured percussion, the sharp staccato keys, the blasts of horns, Ray Dalton’s soulful hook that hits at precisely the right moment, and Macklemore dropping the sort of razor-sharp flow that showed how much he was a force to be reckoned with! His punchlines connected, his double-time was on point, but more powerfully was, again, how the song was framed: this was power-to-the-people fists in the air populism that if it was going to elevate him he was going to take everyone else with him. When this actually surged to become a genuine hit I was convinced that we were on the cusp of a sea change, especially sliding away from the boring opulent flexing that had overrun the genre - all the more true now - and while that didn’t happen, even the people who find Macklemore embarrassing these days can’t deny this track - and for good reason!

11. It’s funny, I remember when this single dropped from the album late, and I didn’t think it would be a hit - the smolder and the double entendre wasn’t quite where the lead artist wanted to be just yet coming off her earlier singles that year. But I still loved it, it was one of my favourite songs of that year, not counting hits… and while it’s cooled on me since, it’s kind of fascinating going back to this now and recognizing what really exploded from this moment…

11. ‘Love Me Harder’ by Ariana Grande & The Weeknd

I mean, we could focus on the obvious here: the song is sexy as hell with Ariana finally learning to lean into her cooing, sultry delivery as she coaxes in The Weeknd, who is clearly used to being dominant in this situation and is now a little thrown by a presence who can play in his world and yet he can’t quite match yet, and that tension along with the coursing wells of keyboards and pulsating groove and real interplay between them… it’s genuinely stunning how well this worked, and relatively early in their careers too this decade! Hell, of the singles Ariana released from My Everything, it’s probably the only one that has had consistent staying power and not have to contend with acts who have completely - and in the case of Iggy Azalea, justifiably - fallen off the radar! And yes, The Weeknd had hits like ‘Often’ and ‘Wicked Games’ to get him on the radar, but this was his breakthrough, and it would remain his best hit this decade - ‘False Alarm’ wasn’t big enough, I’m not happy about it either. Hell, if rumor is to be believed The Weeknd spun that connection with Ariana into ‘The Hills’, which to many people is one of his iconic hits! In other words, I haven’t really brought up cultural impact when it comes to this list… but when it just becomes another piece to stack in net positives, I think we can call this something special indeed!

But before we move on to the top ten, I’m going to do something a little different. See, I was pulling these hits from the United States year-end Billboard Hot 100 charts… but I’m not American. I’m Canadian, and we have a different ecosystem of hits up here, which means there were songs that were huge in this country and really should have been hits stateside… but weren’t. So pulling from the Canadian year-end Hot 100 lists, here’s some without context in alphabetical order that could have had a shot to get on this list - and spoilers, you’re about to hear a bunch of Marianas Trench, starting with..

‘Body’ by Loud Luxury ft. Brando

‘Celebrity Status’ by Marianas Trench

‘Closer’ by Tegan & Sara

‘Desperate Measures’ by Marianas Trench

‘Galway Girl’ by Ed Sheeran

‘Give Me Back My Hometown’ by Eric Church

‘Green Light’ by Lorde

‘Haven’t Had Enough’ by Marianas Trench

‘Higher Love’ by Kygo & Whitney Houston

‘I Really Like You’ by Carly Rae Jepsen

‘I Was A Fool’ by Tegan & Sara

‘I’m An Albatraoz’ by AronChupa

‘Nothing Breaks Like A Heart’ by Mark Ronson ft. Miley Cyrus

‘Symphony’ by Clean Bandit ft. Zara Larsson

This Afternoon’ by Nickelback

Yes, that just happened. You’re welcome. And when ‘SUGAR’ by BROCKHAMPTON inevitably makes our 2020 year-end list… well, I’ll say it again for those in the back, THE CANADIAN CHARTS ARE ALWAYS BETTER!

Anyway, back to the list proper…

10. I mean, at this point, you should all be able to guess what’s in my top ten: hell, I can argue I telegraphed the majority of it in this list already! But this is the one for which I know I’m on a ledge and I know nobody else is standing with me… but fuck it, Kygo and Selena Gomez made one of the best electronic hits of the decade and I’m sticking by it!

10. ‘It Ain’t Me’ by Kygo & Selena Gomez

It always feels like I’m kind of on a ledge defending Kygo as much as I do, as it seems like the popular consensus is that his tropical sound had its moment and he’s now kind of played out chasing that vibe. And my response is… sure, to some extent that’s true, but he’s also way better at it than so many others! There’s an organic bounce to how he structures his grooves and more textured percussion off his keyboards and guitars in a way that doesn’t feel choppy or abortive or thin within the mix - there’s a balanced smoothness that he only fractures with chopped up vocal samples or a more standard EDM beat when he has to, and the melodic breakdowns stick because of that contrast. And Selena… I’ll say it, this song was the kissoff to Justin Bieber we all needed and frankly renders all of your last album redundant! The hook on this song is massive, it takes her reaching the breaking point and throwing her hands in the air in more ways than one, the multi-tracked exasperation is her most dynamic and anthemic moment in her career! And let’s face it: this is 2020, as if we needed another excuse to tell Justin Bieber to go the fuck away when he spirals again, this is what I’m blasting. I’m not sure either of them are ever going to match this song, but on the dark side of the morning, I’ll take it all the way.

9. There’s been a conspicuous absence on this list for a while… and considering how ubiquitous he’s been on the charts, especially in recent years, you’d think he’d get something here beyond my little Canadian misadventure. But the truth is that a lot of his best songs are not hits, or if they are they aren’t in the states. Nor do they seem designed for the States - after all, it’s not his home, that’s where and to whom you can tell he targets a lot of his best songs and they don’t really crossover… with one big exception…

9. ‘Castle On The Hill’ by Ed Sheeran

Discovering that I’ve got the raw vocal range to sing this at karaoke earlier this year was a personal highlight of mine, but moving beyond that, I’ve loved this since it was released effectively as the b-side to ‘Shape Of You’. I like both songs, but you can tell ‘Castle On The Hill’ was a hit by organic accident, not targeting… and yet it’s Ed Sheeran’s best hit by a mile. The guitar timbre sounds like a vintage U2 song - only reinforced by the homespun details of the friends he left behind that helped shape him, and with enough fine details to reinforce how at his core, Ed Sheeran does pop because it’s his job; he writes folk and rock and grime songs because that’s where his passion is, and it bleeds through in how he opens up and howls on that hook. He’s got a rawness to his timbre that I’m honestly stunned he doesn’t make more songs like this that are borderline old-school heartland rock… the firepower is unmistakable and maybe you can call this just another classic rock throwback - it is - but in twenty years, where a lot of the bigger hits Sheeran had will be dated and fading, this’ll stick around just like that castle. Just watch.

8. You ever hear a song that’s so fucking great that you just know they’ve already earned themselves a career, especially when ten years later it’s still as phenomenal as it was?

8. ‘Need You Now’ by Lady Antebellum

Look, I’ve fallen in and out of love with Lady Antebellum a lot in the 2010s - they’ve made a lot of boring albums and always seem to be underachieving… and then they pull something like this, or Charles Kelley makes a solo record and it features some of the best songs of 2016, and it makes me wonder what sort of cattle prod do we need to hit them with to get something that lives up to all of this potential consistently! But what do I need to add to talk about ‘Need You Now’ - it’s a crossover-country classic, a downbeat duet full of heartbreak, regret, desperation, alcohol abuse, and bad decisions, and the interplay between Charles Kelley and Hilary Scott is phenomenal. The subtle bassline is stellar off the guitar interplay with the piano, with pickups that sound of the time in 2009-2010 - as does the subject matter, which in a year of clubbing hits the precise note underpinning its emptiness - but it’s a song that’s stuck around, basically holding the torch for whatever’s left of adult-alternative even if it’s grounded in Nashville, and I think its power comes most on the bridge, ‘cause I’d rather hurt than feel nothing at all’. There doesn’t need to be any more reasons why this is here, it’s a classic.

7. So the more astute among you might have realized there aren’t a ton of rap song on this list. A few, sure, but given how much the genre dominated, especially in the latter half of the decade, it’s a conspicuous absense. And… look, I dunno what to tell you, the rap I tend to like most has focus and sharp flows and more of a topic beyond flexing and taking your girl, and as such a lot of the rap I really love doesn’t chart in the same way. Which makes this anomaly still shocking to this day.

7. ‘DNA.’ by Kendrick Lamar

I said this at the time, and I’ll say it again: songs like this don’t chart - hell, outside of the nascent streaming era, I don’t think they would ever chart! It has no hook, it features a beat switch into a more immediately abrasive second half where the heavy bass gets heavier and the swamped out melody gets sliced off the guitar into echoing vocal fragments. And amidst all of it Kendrick is just flowing his goddamn ass off, giving a giant middle finger to larger media organizations that would dare place him in a box and stigmatize his genre… even with the acknowledgement there is very real darkness within him! But he contains multitudes and they explore forth from every pore, especially expanding upon the Biblical framing of his coming amidst a fracturing world… or just a continuous reality, as he references Kurtis Blow’s ‘breaks’ and show how despite hip-hop’s evolution, it and black men are still being treated in a similar way, no many how many accolades he piles up. It’s a bleak, punishing song that only ramps up in intensity with every bar, and again, nobody could have conceived this as a hit… but it is one, and Kendrick is such a force of personality that it made this list. And while his best songs still are not his hits - if only ‘King Kunta’ had been as big as it should have - this kicked all amounts of ass, and that new Kendrick album better be coming soon.

6. This is higher on the list than I expected. Hell, if you had told me at the beginning of the decade this guy would have made my list at all I would have called you nuts… but call me that and call this the most obvious piece of critic bait there is, sometimes it works.

6. ‘I Took A Pill In Ibiza’ by Mike Posner (SeeB Remix)

I’m still amazed to this day how Mike Posner of all people managed to capture the existential emptiness and dread that seemed to permeate 2016 in an tropical house remix of an only okay acoustic folk song! It’s a song that was built for pop nerds who remembered or slightly cared about ‘Cooler Than Me’, took note of its failure, and then watched a career revival that sputtered out just as quickly as it started, mostly likely because the revival was built on a song finding poignancy out of failure. There are so many cutting lines that can only come from someone hitting rock bottom, and I don’t think any of us were prepared for the added layer that comes with realizing he was trying to impress Avicii by taking a pill to prove some veneer of coolness… yikes. And as so many have stressed, it’s the dance remix that gives this song its weight and heaviness, not only proof the genre can carry it to the shock and dismay of a certain old guard of critics, but also deepening its emotional appeal. I have no clue if Mike Posner can sustain any more of a career - he walked across the United States in promotion of his next album, the sort of misguided stunt that may have been way more pain than it was worth, which gives me the impression he won’t capture this sort of magic again… but again, it was magic, and a bitter pill we had to swallow but ride out all the way.

5. And on the topic of artists that I really wish would recapture some of that magic again…

5. ‘Cool For The Summer’ by Demi Lovato

I remember how shocked everyone was when I placed this as my #1 hit in 2015. From what I could tell, some people thought this came out of nowhere, which served as a good reminder that less people care about the oblique opinions you throw out than you think - but to me, Demi Lovato had finally realized the potential she had always had; I remember liking ‘Heart Attack’ off of 2013’s DEMI but this was a different monster. She had honed in on subtlety and smolder and leaned into her bicurious side and it worked, mostly because she backed up that smolder with ragged but explosive guitars and enough space to belt when she absolutely needed to. I’ve said in the past that this was probably the most obviously flawed song to ever top one of my lists, and that’s mostly because it can be read as queer-baiting in an era where a lot of pop stars did it around the turn of the decade and Demi Lovato hasn’t really discussed her sexuality openly… but does she need to, when she doesn’t pull punches in trying to learn more about herself, and hasn’t her entire career especially in recent years been about reclaiming the lens in which she’s seen - what’s wrong with being confident? But at the end of the day… I’m not sure how much attention it’s received since, but to me this is Demi’s peak… I love to see her get close to it again.

4. So remember when I said there were two songs that were offbeat hits from the indie sphere that nevertheless were forgotten at the time but really have persisted to getting even better as the years have passed? Yeah, it’s about time we talk about the other one.

4. ‘Little Talks’ by Of Monsters And Men

I think I understand why people missed ‘Little Talks’ - the song was from a weird Icelandic band that had made waves with the excellent My Head Is An Animal if you were in the know, but it was never a “critical darling” by the mainstream because it played broader and wilder with its tones while still seeming accessible enough in the early 2010s folk to be categorized and then ignored by a lot of people. But it remains a force unto itself, with the blazing horns riding the cushion of acoustics and surprisingly tight drumwork with the supple touches of reverb to accentuate the distance between the partners - another great example of leaning into that interplay of the duet, take notes mixed-gender bands! And while the band has always been coy surrounding what the message really is, it’s more about the acceptance of distance, be it from a partner who has long broken up and faded into memory… or someone who has passed on and where the whispers make you question your own sanity. And I like despite how much one partner might want to reunite with the other, it’s a gulf they don’t dare cross - ‘don’t listen to a word I say, the screams all sound the same’. In short, it’s got the mystique and feel of an old folk song that’s trying to evoke something primal in its writing and structure… and when the tune is this goddamn good, they nailed it. I still contend the group is underrated - and they had a few absolutely stellar cuts on their album from last year that once again went overlooked - but this is a forgetten gem worth digging up.

3. And yet funnily enough, in a distance between partners, the most insurmountable one is time… and when you have an artist who has made her name making songs that might as well timeless but always seem to carry a weight beyond their years…

3. ‘When We Were Young’ by Adele

This is Adele’s best song. And again, she wrote this in her mid-20s and it’ll serve her the rest of her career - the soulful pianos textured with just enough weight around the bass and backing mix to imply an older glamour to paint the scene, where she sees the lover years past and remembers enough of the allure to be drawn in… and she wants to preserve that moment and that last bit of lingering affection however she can, that might just capture the impossible moment long past. She hates that she’s getting old and those times are slipping further, she hates that she still cares, she knows she should be better than this… but it’s a song with the finality to allow the transgression, allowing the memory before she continues on. It’s a song that makes you question what time has already taken, but that’s inevitable - the song works damn near perfectly to capture what is and what might have been, and given the bar Adele set for herself yet again, I can only wait to hear where she’ll dare to soar. Again, modern classic, but you already knew that.

2. I mean, I’ve been praising this song consistently for years. It’s barely a hit, I know for a fact there’s a swathe of critics who’ll never talk about nor consider this… but at the end of the day, I have to appreciate the best country hit of the decade rose above the chaos in country this decade, and given the tragic collapse of the band… it stands alone.

2. ‘Colder Weather’ by Zac Brown Band

I’m not sure if I can call this the Zac Brown Band’s best song - there are cuts on Uncaged that put that album among the best of 2012, and there’s even competition on You Get What You Give. But again, I look to ‘Colder Weather’ and I hear a singular entity - taking the tropical beach parties the band likes to languish in and gives them melancholy and missed connections in the frigid winter of Colorado, when he has to take to the road so many times but dearly wants to make the dangerous trek home. And I like how despite the fact there’s a real understanding between the partners on the song, the pianos and rich vocal harmonies, the wells of pedal steel and fiddle to flesh out enough organic warmth even before the song kicks into its bridge and even bigger final hook, where the cymbals and guitars crash to pick up some of that sweep of the weather, only helped further by the spare emptiness that’s allowed to hang before the final lines. But really, the song is so melodically robust and rich that the Zac Brown Band themselves have been cribbing from it for years now - as have a lot of Nashviille songwriters! And I get it - the song is sweeping and beautiful and has such a striking command of its dynamics and organic presence, all the while feeling country to the bone… there’s only one hit that could be better.

1. I mean, I don’t thiink this is going to be a surprise. If you know me, you know what’s coming. And yet, I’m not sure it could have been anything else for me. I mean, by this point I had been a fan for years, I’d seen her live, I’d been a defender of work that many critics until this moment were not giving the time of day. And if the content was lightweight or she was just doing what she was always doing in previous hits, that would be one thing… but that’s not what this is either. Instead it captured what some of us knew had been between the lines for years, an arc that picked up its gravitas and societal weight from everyone else when we knew this wasn’t new: it was a culmination. And not that I care that much about this sort of thing, but for her sake, she deserved the Grammy, even though deep down that’d be a level of holding themselves accountable that organization has never dared do. But at the end, we have the art, and this song stands alone.

1. ‘Praying’ by Kesha

The funny thing is that it’s not even the best song from Rainbow, and I’d argue it’s not even her best album, but 2017 was a year where critical narratives blew apart, first with Harry Styles and then with Kesha, but hers carried so much more weight. Her image was so defined, she was so instantly recognizable as a pop star, she had the personality and firepower to carve a niche so deeply that even if you recognized her influences in punk and psychedelia and classic rock, she was never beholden to them. And ‘Praying’ was the moment she finally took control of it all, and suddenly everyone else saw what I did - a phenomenal songwriter who knew how to deliver a huge crescendo and massive hook, the emotional expressiveness that never needed autotune but used it to augment her personality, and writing that was both able to bear her truth to the world and bring down a brand of ‘forgiveness’ that might as well be purifying. There are songs on this list that feel biblical but this is the one where that scope doesn’t define her, she defines it. And given who it was targeting, the risk taken by pushing this as the lead-off single, setting the moment in her story where she could move on for whatever might come next, all amidst a world and industry never inclined to believe her - and in 2017 of all years, before the #MeToo movement fully exploded months later in the mainstream, where that ray of light was desperately sought… or maybe it was just the whistle note that blew everyone’s mind, who knows. Either way, even though I didn’t love High Road this year, Kesha remains the pop star of the 2010s to me, and this song represents the hope of freedom found. Best hit of the decade, folks, take that as you will.