The Music Scalpel

          Well, thank God the worst list is done. They are the hardest to write. It is tough to be critically negative about music a majority of people like. Most of the songs have a minimal quality bar, leading to few easy targets. Especially this year. Pop music has been the best for a while. We found many great breakthrough artists that I hope can stick around. Many favorites also came back with quality material. Now let's rank the best. Honorable Mentions: Million Dollar Baby by Tommy Richman (#8): I returned to this song more than I am proud of.  Something about the old-school synthesizers and his falsetto makes it a super fun listen.  Wanna Be by GloRilla feat. Megan Thee Stallion (#40): These MCs run this song with clever lyrics and interesting flows.  Pretty Little Poison by Warren Zeiders (#60): Warren Zeiders did not need to go this hard. He really sells this toxic relationship with all of his might.  Too Sweet by Hozier (#10): I am...

       2024: the year pop music came back to life. This was a solid year for the genre, so this list was hard to make. There are more "dislikes" than true "hates." Yet there are still some "hates" and I found a new list this year. As I write this, Billboard has not released its year-end list, so I paid a couple bucks to a chart predictor on Twitter, Talk of the Charts, to use their list. With this list, I actually get 100 new songs. Billboard's year-end is 25% Christmas songs and music from last year that stayed on the chart for a long time. So this list goes up to 118. Now that that's settled. let's start with the dishonorable mentions. FE!N by Travis Scott feat. Playboi Carti (#97): This unessential song has an obnoxious repetition of "fiend," a synth line that sounds offkey, and a pair of boring verses from Travis and Carti, where the latter sounds awful. act ii: date @8 (Remix) by 4Batz feat. Drake (#80): I hate everything that 4B...

     Here is the next post for the important years in my music-listening life. Before 2010, I did not have a music taste. I liked some of the old music my parents loved, and I had some knowledge of modern music from my older sister. Then, in 2010, I paid more attention. I stole my parents' satellite radio receiver and enjoyed AltNation. I read some music blogs, such as Stereogum and Spin Magazine. I bought CDs from bands like The National, the Black Keys, and Vampire Weekend. By the end of the year, I was into the alternative/ indie-rock scene.     To celebrate this year, I will look back at the best critically acclaimed tracks of 2010. I will use the site acclaimedmusic.net again. Here is the list . This time I listened to all 120 tracks instead of the top 100 like I did with the 1992 list. Without much further ado, here are the honorable mentions: Nightcall by Kavinsky feat.Lovefoxxx (#43): Here is a charming synthwave track co-produced and co-written by a mem...

 This year had good music too. Let's talk about it.  Here's the chart I used: Link Honorable Mentions: Princess Diana (Remix) by Ice Spice & Nicki Minaj (Year-end rank:#69): I like how these two rappers contrast. Neither girl says anything special, but I can't get that plucky beat out of my mind. I've listened to this song many times just because of that beat. wait in the truck by HARDY feat. Lainey Wilson (#54): I am not a fan of country music, but I like the storytelling in the song about a man getting revenge for a domestic violence victim by killing the abuser (Don't try this at home.). The gospel choir is also a nice touch. Chemical by Post Malone (#57): Post Malone may be a mediocre rapper, but he is a decent pop star. Here, Posty sings about his tumultuous relationship with his partner with the happiest-sounding tune behind him.  Cupid by FIFTY FIFTY (#44): A cute love song made by cute Korean girls. At least, I think it is. It's mostly in Korean. Tom...

  Another year, another new list of songs for the year thanks to Billboard. This year has the country boom. A lot more country has hit the charts than I can ever remember. Nashville learned how to use streaming to promote its artists. In addition, the regional Mexican scene significantly impacted the Billboard charts. I wish I could get into either of these genres. I have never gotten into country music. This doesn't mean I hate the genre; I am mostly indifferent. Regional Mexican music is not in English, so I can't care about it either. The genres alternative, rock, and rap had a down year on the charts. That being said, let's go over my least favorite hits of the year. Dishonorable Mentions: Creepin' by Metro Boomin', the Weeknd & 21 Savage (Year-end Spot: #5): This is an example of soulless sampling. The producer, Metro Boomin', had Weeknd sing "I Don't Wanna Know" by Mario Winans (The Weekend sounds great, by the way.) and forgot to put in ...

       1992. I was born this year in a hospital in Connecticut. This year is significant to me for that reason and that reason alone. I also recently found a website that lists the most critically acclaimed songs by year. A Swedish statistician combed through many top 10 song lists compiled by Rolling Stone, NME, and other music publications from all over the world. With this data, he found the most acclaimed songs and separated them by genre, year, and country. For fun, I decided to see what the most critically-loved songs of my birth year were, listen to the top 100, and rank my favorites.       To see the list and complain about my choices click here . Honorable Mentions: Sheela-na-gig by PJ Harvey (#23): For those who don't know, a sheela-na-gig is a crude carving of a woman exposing her lady parts found in Europe in the 11th century. In the song, PJ Harvey uses her body to get the attention of a man. In return, she gets slut shamed by the man...