#50 Terror Jr. “Sugar”
The headline for Terror Jr. this year was whether or not Kylie Jenner is their lead singer. What gets lost is how great their music is. Their single “Sugar” combined bubbly vocal cuts with sexy deep house production and Grimes-style autotuned vocals. It’s beautiful future pop regardless of who is singing “Sugar.” – Adam Morgan
#49 Woods “Creature Comfort”
An introduction isn’t necessary for the experimental kings known as Woods. Their reputation is forever expanding throughout many different cultures in the music world, and it is simply because they are amazing at what they do. “Creature Comfort” off of their newest album, City Sun Eater In The River Of Light, is a testament to their growth as experimental musicians since their inception. One might recall their crunchy lo-fi folk classics from 2005 and 2007, but this track is more a jazz-influence freak-folk rock song with a sunny pop sense to it. It is much more polished up than their other releases, but it still holds their original ambience they created with How to Survive In + In The Woods and so on. – Jay Gostynski
#48 Mt. Marcy “We Are Simply Sums”
“We Are Simply Sums” is a chill-hop beat spanning the full-length of a track off of Mt. Marcy’s new EP, Naked Lunch. Still within the realms of the underground, this beat-maker from Pittsburgh, PA is obviously in the perfect environment for them to make such a masterpiece of beats as this. An organic beat style with tape-hiss, keyboards, simple drum beats, on a lo-fi loop ensures for a unique head-bobbing listen. This track doesn’t need any “rappers” for the listener to feel its flow. In fact, vocals would most likely take away from its natural purity. Put it on any playlist, and it will capture your entire focus for the moment each time, and remind you to just chill. – Jay Gostynski
#47 Nicolas Jaar “The Governor”
Nicolas Jaar’s nearly seven-and-a-half-minute mostly electronic composition “The Governor” from his critically acclaimed album Sirens hits all the right conspiratorial buttons. Whether interpreted as a foreboding premonition of a doomed future or a post-apocalyptic reality we’re already existing in, “The Governor’s” echoing, skittering beats and skronky, jarring saxophone perfectly exacerbate the paranoiac themes running through this nightmarish track. As each verse of horror-filled imagery ends with the words, “It’s alright,” one can’t help but wonder if Jaar is being sincere or sarcastic, and you hope to God it’s the former. – Andy Mascola
#46 Parquet Courts “Two Dead Cops”
Not since their 2013 debut “Light Up Gold” has their been as good an album from Andrew Savage and company. The LP artwork and design are equally top notch. Greg Scranton
#45 Tobacco “Human Om”
Tobacco’s track “Human Om” has an overall chilled out groove to it, but still blasts the pure raw energy that one expects to hear. Robotic voices layered over distorted synths, this track is another classic to add to Tobacco’s armada, but it has a different sort of order mixed with chaos that is a fresh twist to the twisted experience that is Tobacco. “Human Om” is banger for sure to be put on repeat several times throughout the next year. – Jay Gostynski
#44 Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein “Kids”
Seriously, how can anyone leave off the guys from S U R V I V E who rocketed to fame with the success of their soundtrack for the instant cult classic Stranger Things on Netflix. Greg Scranton
#43 LVL UP “Pain”
LVL UP’s “Pain” is old-fashioned lo-fi-indie-pop in all of its glory. Simple instrumentation, simple lyrics, and simple catchy melodies add up to create a wonderful jam that is simple for anyone to groove with. It sounds like all of the top tier bands of this style from the 90’s, and made me feel as I did the first time I listened to Pavement. None of the stuffy pretentious characteristics that have plagued this style of music in recent years, just straightforward down to Earth low-fidelity noise pop. – Jay Gostynski
#42 Beck “Wow”
Returning to a style more in line with his now twenty-year-old hip-hop influenced album Odelay, Beck’s single “Wow” finds the singer shouting wonderfully absurd rhymes like, “Standing on the lawn, doin’ jiu-jitsu, girl in a bikini with the Lamborghini Shih Tzu” over a country-esque loop and a trap beat. Beck hadn’t intended to release the track but was thankfully encouraged by his children. “Wow” is a refreshing return to form and a promising prognostication of what his next full-length may have in store. – Andy Mascola
#41 The Shins “Dead Alive”
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