Class of 2019 – The 100 Greatest Songs of the Year!

My friend Daniel, the editor-in-chief at GAFFA Magazine, often repeats one word as some kind of recurring mantra: context. And he’s right. Music is very much about context. Maybe not in all cases, because there should also be some room for the listener to do their own math, give a song a little afterthought or leave it open for interpretation. Maybe there’s simply not much to tell.

Either way, certain songs admittedly come out in a different light when given some background. Hence the theme of this year-end list, where almost 40 artists once again have been kind enough to share their personal stories behind their songs, both musically and lyrically.  All of them exclusively for the Songs for Whoever Class of 2019 list.

A tradition held since 2013. Let’s keep it going into the new decade, shall we?

Spotify playlist at the bottom of each page.

Class of 2019 – The 100 greatest songs of the year!:
#100-#81 | #80-#61 | #60-#41 | #40-#21 | #20-#2 | #1

100. Priests “The Seduction Of Kansas”
(from The Seduction Of Kansas)

99. Mikal Cronin “Fire”
(from Seeker)

98. Hand Habits “can’t calm down”
(from placeholder)

97. Boogie “Silent Ride”
(from Everythings For Sale)

96. Freddie Gibbs & Madlib feat. Yasiin Bey & Black Thought “Education”
(from Bandana)

95. Tempers “Peace Of Mind”
(from Private Life)

94. Miguel “Funeral”
(Single)

93. Drab Majesty “The Other Side”
(from Modern Mirror)

92. Kindness feat. Robyn “Cry Everything”
(from Something Like A War)

“The song is written about a run in with an old friend who I had a falling out with, and my frustration with the fact that they acted like nothing was wrong…”

91. Briston Maroney “Small Talk”
(from Indiana)

“The song is written about a run in with an old friend who I had a falling out with, and my frustration with the fact that they acted like nothing was wrong. They listed off their achievements, newfound health routines, and peace found in sobriety like it was a competition, and that growth was something that was easy, clean, and fun. It made me pretty mad. Like dumb mad. I went to my friend Lexi’s house and wrote it all down and out came this song.”

– Briston Maroney

“People are constantly tied down to money, materialistic things, jobs and more. It was a song that helped me release and realize that it’s okay to not have a job…”

90. GRMLN “Skeleton”
(Single)

“I wrote and recorded ‘Skeleton’ in my garage by myself. It was a song about being free in this life. People are constantly tied down to money, materialistic things, jobs and more. It was a song that helped me release and realize that it’s okay to not have a job, to not make a lot of money. Just as long as you’re happy with yourself.”

– Yoodoo Park

89. Stats “Lose It”
(from Other People’s Lives)

88. Ex Hex “Tough Enough”
(from It’s Real)

87. Judah & The Lion feat. Kacey Musgraves “Pictures”
(from Pep Talk)

86. SOAK “Knocks Me Off My Feet”
(from Grim Town)

85. Heather Woods Broderick “White Tail”
(from Invitation)

“…it wasn’t really an idea for us to release that first, it wasn’t like we felt this was the best song or anything like that. Lee had an idea to do the video in Algiers because he thought it was best suited…”

84. Algiers “Dispossession”
(Single)

Franklin: ”Music wise it’s more akin to The Underside Of Power, it’s about a year and a half old. Sometimes you get in the zone and want to write a song and this was the result of that. Sonically and how it was recorded, that’s a whole other story.”

Ryan: “It was recorded basically by Franklin and Randall, it wasn’t really the rest of the band. This record is really the first record we’ve done that’s actually been produced in traditional terms where they set the schedule. We brought the songs but they said what they wanted to work on and set the entire sonic framework. Normally we do that. Of course we fed into it, there wasn’t ‘get out of our way’, but it was definitely their plan and that song is most indicative of our limited interaction with it. So it wasn’t really an idea for us to release that first, it wasn’t like we felt this was the best song or anything like that. Lee had an idea to do the video in Algiers because he thought that song was best suited to have a video shot there, and then we ended up switching and doing it in Paris. He was much more interested in the visual accompaniment than anything else about the importance of the song.”

– Franklin James Fisher and Ryan Mahan

83. Pedro The Lion “Clean Up”
(from Phoenix)

82. Calexico and Iron & Wine “What Heaven’s Left”
(from Years To Burn)

81. Sheer Mag “Hardly To Blame”
(from A Distant Call)

#100-#81 | #80-#61 | #60-#41 | #40-#21 | #20-#2 | #1

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