Selection from Rolling Stone's 50 Best Songs of 2016
Van Morrison - Going Down to Bangor 5:18
The Celtic blues king wanders down some ancient roads – the corner of Wales where the Fab Four first went on retreat with the Maharishi – to hear harmonicas in the wind and meditate on the power of Caledonia soul.
Sturgill Simpson - Keep It Between the Lines 4:01
Having won his crown as the king of outlaw country, Simpson leaves that pigeonhole behind. He lays out advice for his newborn son ("Don't turn mailboxes into baseballs/Don't get busted selling at 17") with the R&B horns of Sharon Jones' band the Dap-Kings.
Free Cake for Every Creature - All You Gotta Be When You're 23 Is Yourself 2:26
Drifting to a new town, turning 23 without a birthday cake to show for it, calling yourself an artist while working part-time at Whole Foods – indie newcomer Katie Bennett brings an uncommonly funny approach to the slack-ass lifestyle, with a guitar to match.
Bob Mould - Voices in My Head 3:54
What a roll this guy is on. This masterful highlight from Patch the Sky has the firestorm guitar attack he defined with Hüsker Dü and Sugar, yet it's anything but kid stuff. Mould snarls about reoccurring dreams that dog him all the way through adult life, facing the real-world future with zero fear.
Yohuna - The Moon Hangs in the Sky Like Nothing Hangs in the Sky 4:06
An enigmatic yet irresistible ballad from synth dream-weaver Johanne Swanson's stellar debut Patientness. She sings in a breathy murmur that hints at intimate heartache, yet refuses to give any of her secrets away.
Tacocat - Night Swimming 2:26
The Seattle grrrl-punk band offers a maddeningly catchy escape from city malaise – cruising to the lake for a late-night skinny dip. Bring your boombox, but there's only one rule: You can't play R.E.M.
Drive-By Truckers - Ever South 5:44
Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley wrote an album of political post-Skynyrd rockers for American Band, but Hood really drives it home here, tracing his family roots from Ellis Island to Appalachia, only to end up "a blue-eyed Southern devil" who doesn't feel at home anywhere.
Japanese Breakfast - Everybody Wants to Love You 2:12
Michelle Zauner vents about grief, sex and food ("Will you lend me your toothbrush?/Will you make me breakfast in bed?") with Cure-worthy guitars and a vocal assist from a kindred spirit, Radiator Hospital's Sam Cook-Parrott. Psychopomp isn't just her album title – it's her way of life.
Miranda Lambert - Vice 4:00
Miranda doesn't make nice in her first hit since her high-profile split with Blake Shelton. She's in fighting spirits, an unrepentant Nashville bad girl ready to steal your man then hit the next town to do it all over again tomorrow night.
Leonard Cohen - Treaty 4:02
The ultimate Zen sage was still writing songs on his deathbed, offering this poetic goodbye to the battlefield and the bedroom. Farewell, old friend.
The Monkees - Me & Magdalena 3:33
Who could have expected a comeback this great? Mike Nesmith gets to show off all the mileage on his country-fried pipes in this superb road-weary ballad, written to order by a lifelong Monkees fan, Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard.
Danny Brown feat. Kendrick Lamar, Ab-Soul, Earl Sweatshirt - Really Doe 5:19
His hard-stomping posse cut with Detroit producer Black Milk, passing the mic to Kendrick Lamar, Ab-Soul and Earl Sweatshirt in a virtuoso battle rhyme. Earl has the funniest line: "I'm at your house like, 'Why you got your couch on my Chucks?'"
Lucy Dacus - I Don't Wanna Be Funny Anymore 2:35
Barely into her twenties but already a major talent, the Virginia songwriter gets lost in mixed-up identity confusion with some Johnny Ramone in her guitar and a voice that leaps straight to your heart.
Kendrick Lamar - Untitled 05 | 09.21.2014.
K-Dot debuted this as part of his epochal Grammys performance in March, tapping into spiritual doubts – "I'm living with anxiety/Ducking the sobriety /Fucking up the system, I ain't fucking with society" – with a sax sample from jazz legend Eric Dolphy and a heavenly R&B hook sung by Anna Wise.
Mannequin Pussy - Romantic 2:39
The gloriously snotty Philly punks celebrate modern romance as a hellhole, blasting out their shoegaze guitar fuzz. "You would sleep with me if you could do it comfortably" is one very special valentine.
Wilco - If I Ever Was a Child 2:55
Jeff Tweedy at his most low-key and likeable, a three-minute acoustic memory of growing up miserable in the Midwestern suburbs, with a taste of Nels Cline twang to make the pain go down smooth.
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Dark Necessities 5:02
Their big comeback hit collabo with Danger Mouse, with Anthony Kiedis getting personal about his darkest, druggiest memories over a Flea bassline full of blood, sugar, sex and magic.
Lvl Up - Pain 5:35
The year's most heart-shredding air-guitar jam. The Brooklyn indie upstarts deliver a hate song that feels so real because it's also a love song, rocking out with a touch of Elliott Smith in the vocals and a climactic guitar outburst that reaches back to Dinosaur Jr. and Neil Young.
Solange - Cranes in the Sky 4:10
Solange drops a song that can always stop you dead in your tracks, no matter where or when you hear it – describing the kind of sadness she can't escape by crying, drinking, sexing or shopping it away. The music builds from quiet meditation – that Raphael Saadiq bass – into towering soul.
Pwr Bttm - Projection 2:45
The glitter-punk bravados sing about growing up queer and scared and lonesome, staring out the window at the other kids, lamenting, "My skin isn't made for the weather." It gets to the heart of how this whole year felt.
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