What’s this, a best list before the worst list? Well yeah, there is no worst list. Part of this is because the monthly format of Billboard Roundup means that I’ve already talked about literally every song on the year-end chart so I don’t especially feel the need to recap the worst as well as the best. And the other part is that really bad hits have been kinda dying out these past few years. 2016-18 was a real goldmine, but ever since I started this blog we haven’t really had more than a couple of terrible hits per year, and talking about songs that are just regular bad for a second time doesn’t really seem worth it.
For the record, the two worst hits of the year are Bang! and Fancy Like, and it isn’t particularly close. Beyond that, well I don’t much like Doja Cat, and there were at least half a dozen crappy pop-country hits, but like I say that stuff isn’t that interesting to dunk on so let’s move straight on to the quality stuff.
How to reflect on 2021 as a whole? Well on the surface it seemed to be pretty good. The year-end top ten makes for remarkably strong reading, with every single song being a well-regarded smash. Even going further down, things seem to stay pretty solid, with Fancy Like being the first real turd all the way down at #27. However, I’m not sure that this tells the whole story, because whilst the biggest hits of the year are all pretty solid, I’m not sure how exciting they really are. I mean artists like The Weeknd, Dua Lipa and Bruno Mars making retro hits is fine and all, but it’s something we’re well-used to at this point and I don’t think any of said artists really topped themselves in 2021.
Furthermore, as soon as we go beyond the biggest hits, the inconsistency soon creeps in as I’m not sure any genre had a particularly great year. Pop music probably did the best both in terms of quality and quantity, but a great deal of the dominant 80s-inspired material fell into “good not great” territory for me, not the sort of stuff that had me actively coming back to it. Rap had its weakest year in ages with Drake being as ever-present and frustrating as ever, but weirdly few male rappers backing him up as we instead had Doja Cat and Megan Thee Stallion as his major challengers, neither of whom did much to win me over. The two “indie” hits of the year were provided by AJR and Glass Animals so that was a fucking disaster, Latin music had a decent showing but provided no banner songs that really grabbed me, and as for country music the less said the better.
The result? Still enough smatterings of quality that I wouldn’t call 2021 precisely a bad year, but it feels like step back to 2019 after the uplift of 2020, with a dozen or so strong hits with little in common saving an otherwise unremarkable crop. Oh and spoiler alert, if it weren’t for a certain teenage pop sensation single-handedly reviving a great deal of my interest in the pop charts, then this year would’ve been considerably worse as a whole. Speaking of which…
HM #1
Olivia Rodrigo – traitor
Peak #9, Year-end #38
I’ll have more to say on Olivia Rodrigo’s incredibly strong run of singles later on, but for now it’s fair to say that her deep cut ballads are also pretty damn good. She has such excellent phrasing and vocal technique that are both well beyond her years, and it really makes you hang on her every word. That’s why this song, which could otherwise be kind of embarrassing and melodramatic in its teenage bitterness, is actually very compelling. Plus the melody has a great, captivating swing to it and the production is lo-fi enough so as not to overpower Olivia, but also with enough texture to give the song some gothic swell and atmosphere. Not a song I’ve sought out all that often to be honest, but when you’re in the right mood it really hits.
HM #2
Dua Lipa ft. DaBaby – Levitating
Peak #2, Year-end #1
Well alright, it grew on me a bit. I still don’t think this song is that interesting in terms of the composition, the lyrics or Dua’s performance but sometimes those deficiencies can be made up for by sheer volume, and this is certainly a track that sounds full and vibrant. The clap beat snaps along in a very satisfying rhythm, bright walls of synth explode across the chorus and the much-maligned Dababy provides the sorely-needed variation in his verse to break up what was otherwise quite a flat song. Not quite sure why this was as overplayed as it was or how some people really think this is “best of the year” material but call it Stockholm Syndrome if you like, this is a pretty stellar party song, I can admit that.
HM #3
The Weeknd – Save Your Tears
Peak #1, Year-end #2
This is another song that doesn’t reinvent the wheel but still strikes a chord with me when the mood is right. It’s a little derivative, a little predictable in both its sound and structure, but Abel passionately crooning about a girl he hurt over a descending synth-pop melody is a formula that still has a few miles left in it. Diminishing returns from his following sequence of singles suggests that he might be best served to move on from this style sometime soon, but this song is a welcome addition to his stash of 80s-inspired hits.
HM #4
Ava Max – Kings & Queens
Peak #13, Year-end #73
Until assembling this list I forgot that this one was an actual hit. I think a part of me just assumed that Ava Max pushing a US follow-up to Sweet But Psycho had ten week chart-run with a peak of #53 written all over it, but alas Kings and Queens proved too hooky to resist. In an era of minor chords, minimalist production and hushed vocals, Ava Max’s over-the-top metaphors, huge choruses, and banging instrumentation make for such a welcome shake-up, and this track has all those characteristics in abundance. Additionally, the guitar break is way more powerful than it needed to be and the opening lines are one of the best and most recognizable group vocals I’ve heard in ages. Superb pop song.
HM #5
Internet Money ft. Gunna, Don Toliver & NAV – Lemonade
Peak #6, Year-end #51
As I said in the intro, 2021 wasn’t exactly a banner year for trap music and in fact this song was only a week or two away from making 2020’s year-end list, so we’re really having to dip back in time for this one. But this collab really provided something that we didn’t get enough of this year, a melodic rap song with a brilliant hook courtesy of Don Toliver, crisp production with a beautiful guitar-laden beat thanks to the Internet Money team, and both Gunna and Nav punching above their usual standards to keep things going in their verses. I’m not sure why this sort of sparky collaboration didn’t occur so much in 2021 compared to previous years, but this one was definitely a highlight.
HM #6
Luke Combs – Forever After All
Peak #2, Year-end #18
Yes OK, it’s the same song that Luke Combs has made at least a dozen times at this point, but I’ll be damned if he doesn’t still win me over nearly every time. Fantastic vocal, rich instrumentation, great lyrical detailing in the verses, and of course a textbook Luke Combs chorus to tie it all together. Will soundtrack many a wedding in the years to come, and on this occasion it’s deserved. Not to mention, this was a bloody #2 hit on the Hot 100, how mental was that?
HM #7
Luke Combs – Better Together
Peak #15, Year-end #57
And here we have proof that if Luke Combs ever does change things up and strip it all back to just him and piano, he’s more than capable of knocking that out the park as well. This was a welcome change of pace from the man which, like Forever After All, never lost its charm over the course of a full year for me. Every time I hear that bridge and the smooth “If I’m being honest, your first and my last name…” slide in, it still makes me smile. Too slick.
And with that, on to the list proper starting with number ten…
So as I said in the intro, quite a number of this year’s hits, particularly the bigger ones, although I liked many of them they struck me as a bit safe and didn’t really excite me all that much (It’s for this reason that Leave the Door Open will not be making an appearance here). The result of this is that any songs that did take risks or just do something a bit different went up in my estimation in comparison, even if I didn’t think they were perhaps quite as well formed. For example…
10. Billie Eilish – Happier Than Ever
Peak #11, Year-end #94
So no, I don’t think that this is a perfect song. I still maintain that the first half is unnecessarily dreary and overlong, as is most of the album of the same name, and I was never completely won over by all the guitar distortion once the song explodes into life as I would’ve preferred a cripser sound overall.
That being said, I don’t think there’s a single more cathartic moment in pop music from the last twelve months than Billie belting out “JUST FUCKING LEAVE ME ALONE” as the instrumentation explodes around her, so I’ll allow the comparatively minor quibbles that I have with it. That’s all there is to it really, hearing Billie tell this manipulative wanker to fuck off is what makes the song great, and whilst I don’t find all the buildup particularly enjoyable to listen to, the payoff certainly is. Rock is still alive baby.
Number nine…
With Lemonade waving the flag for the blissful, melodic side of trap, I was still left looking for a song to scratch my itch for a dark, menacing trap song to loop late at night and end up memorizing every word to without even trying. But as with the more melodic stuff, there wasn’t really a lot of choice here, at least not in comparison to the last few years. However we did manage one hit that hit all the right notes.
9. Pooh Shiesty ft. Lil Durk – Back in Blood
Peak #13, Year-end #39
A lot of these rap collaborations that make my best list each year tend to be very short term things. I’ll play the song to death for a few months and then as soon as we arrive at a new year I’ll move on to something else. And similarly these collaborations tend to pop up randomly, and whether or not they propel the artists involved to greater success seems to be complete pot luck. In the case of Lil Durk, he went on to have something of a breakthrough year continuing the momentum he built up at the back end of 2020. I can’t say the same for Pooh Shiesty who has been held pending trial for an alleged shooting since the middle of the year, so I won’t be surprised if this song is the first and last we hear from him.
Regardless, Back in Blood was the icy, cutthroat banger that 2021 was otherwise lacking, and easily one of my most replayed songs of the year. It’s basically Look Alive by BlocBoy JB and Drake, that underrated 2018 hit that people didn’t care much about at the time and nobody has listened to since, but with a more ominous piano loop, a sharper hi-hat rhythm, and a far better command of atmosphere overall. This might be slightly morbid to say, but the real life criminal histories of both rappers does add a certain edge to proceedings and they’re both in ruthless form with tight bar construction and venomous deliveries.
Throw in one of the year’s best hooks and you’ve got everything you need for a perfect trap banger. I can’t move on without also mentioning one of the year’s most memeable lines, “Pooh Shiesty, that’s my dawg, but Pooh you know I’m really shiesty”. Still makes me laugh every time.
Number eight…
No this isn’t right, it doesn’t make any sense, this can’t be happening to me…
8. Doja Cat ft. SZA – Kiss Me More
Peak #3, Year-end #6
Two of the things I have found to among the most overrated aspects of popular music in 2021:
- 80s pastiches – Unoriginal, follow a basic formula, and tend to be edgeless and not that interesting.
- Doja Cat – I don’t like a single other one of her hits from this year and actively dislike at least three of them.
Yet if you put these two things together you get……. Say So, a hit I didn’t like that much from 2020. But if you put them together again you get this song which, despite everything, just works on me and I cannot deny it. I think the explanation for why this combination works for me second time around is actually quite simple. Generally I find Doja Cat to be quite an annoying presence as she doesn’t have a great singing voice and tends to really over-perform a lot of her material in a way that I find quite grating. A lot of these nu-disco songs are very sanitized and sand off rough edges which can definitely be a negative, but in the case of Doja Cat it actually balances her out nicely and we get the best of both worlds. The reason Say So didn’t work for the same reasons was because of how inert her performance was on that song, particularly on the hook, which made the whole track quite unengaging, but on Kiss Me More she sacrifices none of her personality and the results are simply great!
Both her and Sza’s zany inflections bounce perfectly off the bouncy drum groove and sharp guitar accents, and that hook is a pure pleasure every time. All the rampant horniness and questionable lines just add to the fun here and “All on my tongue I want it!” is such an amazing extra that I can’t believe they pulled off and it actually sounded good. So yeah, for me this is Doja Cat at her best. I’m sure that makes me uncool among her fans who will probably gravitate more towards a song like Woman or Need to Know, and picking this song over those probably makes me look basic as hell. But whatever, as somebody who isn’t a Doja fan, this is her best for me. Sound of the summer and deservingly so.
Number seven…
This was the most difficult song to place within the context of this list. Partly this is since its sound is so other-worldly that it simply sounds out of place in 2021’s hit parade. But it’s also because it brings up a difficult question of ranking, when you have a song that’s from a pair of albums that are so far above 99% of popular music these past two years, but the song itself is probably in the bottom third of quality from said albums. By now you can probably see where this is heading.
7. Taylor Swift – willow
Peak #1, Year-end #55
Obvious point out the way first of all, yes there’s at least twenty songs across Evermore and Folklore that are better than this one, including songs with more obvious pop appeal like Gold Rush and August. In fact I’m pretty bemused how Willow was a pretty comfortable year-end hit whilst Cardigan fell short in 2020, despite both songs debuting at #1, Folklore being the considerably bigger selling album, and Cardigan being possibly the best song on that record (FWIW, Cardigan would’ve easily topped my best list for either 2020 or 2021 had it stuck around a little longer, I fucking adore that song).
But putting that aside, Willow is still a great song and feels like a real portal into the Folkmore universe. The plucked guitars are equal parts enchanting and hypnotic, as are Taylor’s vocals which reach out to the listener and offer a hand to follow her in. The metaphor in the song and video is of her being drawn to her lover, but the feeling I always get when listening to it is as though it is we the listeners who are being drawn in, and that’s what makes it such a great opener for Evermore. For those of us who did dive further into the land of Folkmore, there were far greater and more elaborate tracks to follow, but whilst Willow may have been just the opening invitation, it’s no less magical.
Number six…
Well, this was a grower.
6. Eric Church – Hell of a View
Peak #28, Year-end #91
Count on Eric Church to inject some rare quality into country radio this year. Initially I liked this song but didn’t think it was that interesting considering what Eric is capable of, but the more 2021 wore on, the more this stood out as a real rose among thorns. I don’t live in America so normally the country music that I listen to is by choice, but this year I acquired a Bluetooth radio and soon the American station Kickin’ Country became a staple in my kitchen. Soon after this I realized that I don’t actually like most of the music on country radio, and also how similar almost all of it is in the song construction. Damn near every chorus is the same length, has the same structure and is built up to in the same way. The result is a lot of tedious songs that you’ve basically heard all of once you’ve heard the first forty seconds.
What I appreciate about Hell of a View is that it’s more of a slow-burner. It doesn’t slap you around the face with an obvious chorus immediately, it takes it’s time building momentum with a fantastic bass and drum groove, resisting the temptation to explode until that final, emphatic chorus. And even then, the song still takes the time to wind down again afterwards instead of having to end on some big dramatic note like every pop and country song seems to these days.
The song can afford to take it’s time to build because the production has some real bite to it, Eric Church sells the hell out of it, and the tale of rebellious on-the-road love is so much more gripping than your usual boyfriend-country garbage. The most underrated aspect is the perfectly balanced female backing vocals from Joanna Cotten which compliment Eric perfectly and make the song into such a couples’ anthem. By the time that final chorus rolls around with impeccable swell off the bridge, it’s impossible not to be swept up into singing “We ain’t for everybody! Toes hanging off the edge”. Seems like a song made for Eric Church and his partner more than anyone else, but it connects for me too. A real charmer.
Number five…
OK, can’t put off going back to 2021’s main character any longer…
5. Olivia Rodrigo – deja vu
Peak #3, Year-end #13
Although this is narrowly my “least favourite” of Olivia Rodrigo’s three big hits this year, it’s arguably the most interesting and the most exciting going forwards. Whilst the runaway success of her two #1 hits did take me by surprise, it also kinda made sense. They’re straightforward and immediately accessible songs, so sure they don’t sound much like other modern hits but once you get past that it’s no surprise that they connect with a wide audience. But for Olivia to make this song the follow-up to Drivers License, and for it then to have the chart run that it did, few things delighted me like that in 2021.
The whole “you’re doing stuff with your new girl that you did with me” idea can be really horrible to listen to when done wrong, but Deja Vu doesn’t come off so much as petty and nasty as it does wounded and angry. She also uses enough lyrical motifs that it makes for a fully-fledged story, not just some little kiss-off. Olivia’s soft tones that open up the track against the beautiful twinkling melody set up such a perfect scene, before that weird, cycling drum loop and distorted sound crashes in, one of the absolute best moments of the year. Single number two of your teenage pop career and you’re using oddly syncopated drum rhythms and distortion to build the right atmosphere, it’s just crazy stuff.
I was slightly disappointed that none of the other tracks on Sour did anything particularly unusual like this, but nonetheless this song demonstrates that the imagination is there, and even more excitingly its success demonstrates that the interest for this type of stuff is there as well. I can’t wait to see where that leads us next.
Number four…
OK, next one…
4. Olivia Rodrigo – good 4 u
Peak #1, Year-end #5
Deja Vu is probably the cool pick for Olivia’s best hit this year, Pitchfork certainly think so, but at the end of the day I’m ranking these songs as a human being not a music critic, and sometimes a less interesting song can be more enjoyable if the execution is spot on, and here the execution is flawless. The menacing bass riff that soundtracks the verses; the shrill backing vocals that add a layer of creeping dread; the explosion of drums into the chorus; the fantastic sing-along structure of the chorus itself; the terrific post-chorus riff; the energy-building transition from second chorus to the bridge, which is so amazingly well timed; the impeccable build-up from the bridge to the final chorus and then that acoustic pull-back for the mic drop “like a damn sociopath” line; and finally choosing to end on the riff rather than the chorus.
“It sounds like Misery Business”, “It’s just a basic pop-punk song”. Yeah, nobody cares. Misery Business was fourteen fucking years ago, we’ve had basically zero pop-punk hits since then but you’re going to cry because the two songs sound somewhat similar? OK nerd, I think I’ll just keep listening to both songs, because they both kick ass. Also, the fact that Olivia was forced into crediting the writers of Misery Business as writers on Good 4 U was absolutely ridiculous, and also very regressive for women in rock. “Oh so you’re a girl who’s made a pop-punk song, looks like you must be a Paramore rip-off!”. Yeah fuck off outta here with that bullshit, let’s just enjoy the music. This rocks.
Number three…
In the dead year that country music has had, it fell to familiar names to save the day. We’ve already talked about Luke Combs and Eric Church putting out the sort of solid work we’ve come to expect from them, but there is a third man stepping in. A huge force in the genre since 2015 but never achieving a year-end hit until now, and unlike Luke and Eric, it’s arguably with his best song.
3. Chris Stapleton – Starting Over
Peak #25, Year-end #53
If there’s one word I’d use to describe Starting Over by Chris Stapleton, it would be “timeless”. Of course neo-traditional country music is a bit of a cheat code in that sense because it’s never going to sound dated, but even putting that aside, this just screams instant classic; the sort of career highlight that will demand to be in every one of Chris’ set-lists for the rest of time.
As with Hell of a View, there’s something about the melodic strucutre of the track that makes it stand out so much among its contemporaries. It’s a weird chorus, modulating up and down and not really building to anything, but that is so much more effective than a flashy chorus that hits you over the head once and then has nothing else to offer. The incredibly rich instrumentation with the subtle bass and warm acoustic guitars creates a feeling like you’re sitting around a camp fire listening to this story of hope and optimism, and what better storyteller to have than Chris Stapleton with his incredible, soulful tenor.
Due to songs being caught between years and a few other near misses it’s taken a while for Chris to land this first eligible entry, but now that he has I look forward to a career of airplay hits, no reason why it shouldn’t happen. Amazing song from a great album that solidified his place in country’s A-list, here’s to many more hits to come.
Number two…
Well, part three…
2. Olivia Rodrigo – drivers license
Peak #1, Year-end #8
After all that Olivia Rodrigo achieved in 2021, there seems to be a real possibility that Drivers License ends up being somewhat overlooked down the line, especially in favour of Good 4 U. Even now at the end of the year, I’ve seen this song show up far lower and in far fewer lists than it really should have, I guess it’s already not the “cool” pick. I mean it’s just a ballad with pop touches, just some 17 year-old being sad over a breakup, it can’t be that good right?
I’m not sure I can fully articulate why, but there is something about this song that is just so special to me. Every time I hear it I’m transported back to that incredible week in January where the Spotify numbers kept going up every day, and an unknown artist at the start of the week had the biggest song in the world by the end of it, something I honestly doubt whether it could ever occur again. And the amazing thing was that the song didn’t blow up because of memes or drama (Sorry but you cannot convince me that anyone actually cares about Joshua Bassett despite his weird victimization attitude), it blew up simply because millions of people heard this at once and were simultaneously blown away by it, and that’s just an amazing thing to happen.
I’ve heard plenty of songs try to straddle the line between ballad and full-on pop song before, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard it executed this well. To start with there’s nothing other than piano and quiet claps required, confident in the strength of the melody, performance and songwriting. The extra drum beat kicks in at the start of the second verse to add more weight and that then leads into one of my absolute favourite moments of the year as the beat stutters perfectly into the second chorus, giving just the right level of additional pace.
And then we’ve got the bridge. I mean do I really need to say anything here, everybody identified this as the standout moment immediately and it’s not without good reason. Just an amazing bolt from the blue that always hits like a ton of bricks no matter how many times you hear it, and with the year’s best-timed f-bomb as well, reaching the perfect emotional as well as musical climax. What always flawed me about this song was that it wasn’t some diamond in the rough, it was the finished product. Not just great song construction and songwriting, but also the quality of performance and production was absurdly high for a debut single. Olivia clearly spent seventeen years absorbing the best music from her favourite artists and when the time came to make her own first strides she spat out perfection right from the go.
Like I say, this might not be the cool pick among Olivia’s 2021 hits for now, but I hope that ultimately superior song craft will win out and this will be perceived as the modern classic that it undoubtedly deserves to be. I’m reminded strongly of her idol Taylor Swift’s 2008 breakthrough and the huge hits of Love Story and You Belong With Me which were similarly dismissed by all too many at the time for being too teenagery and fictitious, only for them to be two of the best remembered hits from that time years later. You don’t need to be a Lorde or a Billie Eilish with some kind of wisdom beyond your years to be a young superstar worth praising. Sometimes, when the song craft is just that good and the hits are just that memorable, teenage girls pouring their feelings out can be the best music in the world. Like Taylor before her, Olivia is proof of that, and I have to salute it.
And finally, number one…
When it comes to ordering these lists, there is a certain type of song that tends to rise towards the top, which is songs that create some sort of a deeper feeling and that I can carry with me beyond the year in which they were released. Now this isn’t an absolute rule because sometimes songs with a narrower scope can be so effective that they win out regardless, and it’s for this reason that Drivers License placed above Starting Over.
But I can’t lie, my number one pick is the sort of song that seemed like an obvious list-topper from the moment it was released, and in a year such as 2021 with the pandemic hopefully moving into the rear view window, this song was never seriously challenged as my favourite.
1. SZA – Good Days
Peak #9, Year-end #52
This was one of those moments for me where a singular song was so strong that it raises my expectations for everything the artist will drop afterwards, I’ll always be hoping that this kind of potential can be recaptured. I’d generally quite liked Sza’s music previously, but it had often fallen into the same traps that prevent me from getting on with R&B as a genre. Dry production, tediously slow pace, lyrics that are way too on the nose and relentlessly relationship-focused; she had some songs that I thought were good but I couldn’t call myself a fan on the whole.
But then, on Christmas Day of all days, she released Good Days and suddenly all the mythical hype surrounding her upcoming album, whenever that may arrive, seemed justified. Teaming up with Jacob Collier of all people proved to be a masterstroke as this backing track is simply stunning. It’s so dense and colourful with so many layers and different moving parts. There’s rhythm to it undoubtedly but it doesn’t sound like set notes being played by instruments, it sounds like a living, breathing thing in the way it cascades up and down. This provides Sza with the foundation to deliver one of her most impressive, sprawling vocal performances as her vocals dance across the track, she’s never sounded better.
Good Days is a song of frustration, but also one of optimism. The whole track feels like a giant exhale, a last recounting of grievances and anxieties before letting them all out and moving on. That’s why I love the extended outro so much, not dwelling on the nervous energy of the verses but instead sitting back and letting the blissful paradise set in. For a song that’s nearly five minutes long and proves yet again in 2021 that for all the talk of genre homogenization and shortened song lengths, if the music is good enough people will stream the hell out of it regardless.
Good Days isn’t just the most beautiful and inspiring hit of 2021, but it’s also one of the most inventive. I didn’t hear anything on the charts that sounded like this all year, a futuristic, psychedelic-R&B sound that doesn’t just dream of better days to come, it also sounds like it; a portal into a vibrant world of sound largely unexplored so far, at least not in the realm of legit popular music and charting hits. Time will tell if this was a one-off for Sza or if that potential will actually be fully realized, but either way this song feels like a landmark moment for this sound in the mainstream, and it just happens to be amazingly enjoyable as well. Pure magic.
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