#10

Coldplay, "Trouble In Town"

This cut from Coldplay's ambitious new double-album Everyday Life is a good, hard look at the rapid increase in police brutality against people of color. Its first half is very sparse, consisting of not much else but piano and electronic drums; at its second half, it explodes into a fiery brass-led crescendo that echoes the very feeling of the madness we're currently living in.













#9

Lizzo, "Juice"

Much of Lizzo's latest record Cuz I Love You preaches the vital message of self-love, one with which "Juice" falls perfectly in line. This is undoubtedly among the most genuinely fun tracks I've heard all year. Over an 80's-inspired funk/pop instrumental, she delivers empowering lyrics that reassure the listener of one thing; the only validation you need, if any, is your own.













#8

Billie Eilish, "wish you were gay"

There are a few things that make this song as great as it is. One of them is the ability of its meaning to go over my head at first; I assumed the song was about Billie Eilish having feelings for a girl and wishing she reciprocated, when it turned out to be the exact opposite: Having feelings for a boy and wishing he reciprocated, or that at least he were gay, so to soften the blow and give Billie the comfort of a reason why he doesn't feel the same way about her. Another is the clever usage of countdown in the lyrics, which adds an immense amount of character to them. ("Ten fingers tearing out my hair / Nine times you never made it there / I ate alone at 7 / You were six minutes away").













#7

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, "Planet B"

The underlying lesson of this track is quite simple, and it's best stated in the actual lyrics: There is no Planet B. Sure, it's part of a fictional story line, but it also applies directly to real life at the current moment. We don't know how much remaining time we have to come together and work toward solving the fast-growing problems plaguing Earth. We may never know, until it's already too late.













#6

Bring Me The Horizon, "MANTRA"

My love of this track is due partly to the fact that it touches on a pretty topical subject which I haven't seen many artists look into, and partly to the fact that it hits so hard. The subject, of course, is the tendency of some people to blindly follow others without considering their real intentions; particularly religious officials, or therapists. One line in the second verse may be an allusion to the way a therapist will end a session, even when a patient is in the middle of recounting a traumatic experience ("Now you're sinking, what were you thinking? / That's all the time we have this week"), thus forcing the patient to schedule another session, keeping the therapist in demand and bringing in more money.













#5

Wallows, "Treacherous Doctor"

We all have moments where there's a lot on our minds that we want to talk about, but we let our fear of judgment from those we confide in get in the way ("Could I trust you with my thoughts? / Or would you use them all against me?"). Wallows understand these moments well, using this track from their debut album Nothing Happens to give their own two cents on them.













#4

PUP, "Scorpion Hill"

By God, you simply have to hear this song if you haven't yet. Hell, you have to hear this entire record if you haven't yet. PUP vocalist/songwriter Stefan Babcock tells a tragic tale of a man whose life goes careening into a downward spiral; struggling with alcoholism, debt, and the inability to see and care for his child before ultimately taking his own life at the end of the song.













#3

Tyler, The Creator, "A BOY IS A GUN*"

Throughout this track from IGOR, Tyler, The Creator gender-flips the popular feminist phrase "A girl is a gun", one that alludes to how females can be more empowered than they appear. In this context, it's used to describe how the boy Igor is in love with might be capable of hurting him worse than expected. "A BOY IS A GUN*" is perhaps the best overall summary of what its corresponding album is about.













#2

The 1975, "People"

I won't soon forget the reaction I had upon my first time hearing this song. The 1975 have never shied away from political warnings, but this track from their upcoming record Notes On A Conditional Form is a less of a warning and more of a command, right from the get-go ("WAKE UP! WAKE UP! WAKE UP! / It's Monday morning / And we've only got a thousand of them left"). These blunt words are backed by a rock-steady pattern of brash, bold, in-your-face guitars and drums that really just make you wanna fuck shit up. I never, in a million years, thought I was going to hear The 1975 make a track that sounded anything like this one. It's so incredibly ballsy. Cheers.













#1

The National, "Not In Kansas"

As we arrive at the top of the list, it should be fairly plain to see that a lot of amazing tracks saw release this year. But above all else, I couldn't resist giving special props to this one by Ohio indie heroes The National, from their newest album I Am Easy To Find.





"Not In Kansas" is a breathtakingly gorgeous 6-minute venture that tackles current real-world issues in a manner more fascinating and original than most any other track that has scratched the surface of the subject in 2019.





Perhaps the most important thing to note is that the song wasn't even necessarily supposed to happen. It began as an instrumental track that Aaron Dessner sent to Matt Berninger, who ended up letting it run on repeat and writing 'stream of consciousness' lyrics over it until it began to shape itself into a song. His first draft included 17 more stanzas than the finished product. After sending it over to producer Mike Mills, Berninger got back a version where the additional stanzas had been removed and replaced with an excerpt of "Noble Experiment", a 1994 song by indie rock band Thinking Fellers Local Union 282, which had been re-imagined as a choral arrangement featuring the vocals of Gail Ann Dorsey, Kate Stables and Lisa Hannigan. Berninger said in an interview with Pitchfork:





It was an example of [Mike Mills] listening and understanding what I wanted and then having a better idea.

Aside from the intriguing timeline of the track's production, its lyricism is another huge selling point. In the first verse, Berninger illustrates the feeling of waking up in a place you don't recognize, and longing for things to go back to the way they once were. ("My bedroom is a stranger's gun room / Ohio's in a downward spiral / Can't go back there anymore / Since alt-right opium went viral").





In the second verse, he also offers rather cheeky takes on religion ("You even get to wear a dress / And feed his flesh to wayward daughters"), and the Bible ("First Testament was really great / The sequel was incredible / Like the Godfathers or the first two Strokes / Every document's indelible").





Trump Administration's policy of separating immigrant children from their parents upon arrival at the U.S.-Mexico border ("My shadow's getting shorter / I am a child at the border / Oh Godmother, you can't ignore us / There isn't anybody else left to love us"), and the fear of being unprepared for a cruel, hateful world ("My mother needs an army / But I'm leaving home / And I'm scared that I won't have the balls to punch a Nazi / Father, what is wrong with me?"). The fourth verse focuses on both a takedown of the's), and the fear of being unprepared for a cruel, hateful world ().





The bottom line is this: Any artist out there can make it a point to address topical issues with their music. But when it comes down to possessing the ability to do so in an incredibly compelling, unique fashion, The National are a truly rare gem ... and they more than prove it in these 6 minutes alone.









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