This one's going to be even more arbitrary than the albums one I did last week, so hold onto your hats!
2021 wasn't a stellar year for pop. There was something of a cruel irony in last year producing excellent singles and albums from the likes of Dua Lipa, Lady Gaga, Kylie Minogue, Jessie Ware and Grimes that deserved to have their hits pulsing through sweaty nightclubs, where the only risk of contamination came in the bathroom stalls. This year... sure, there were some gems, but nowhere near on the same scale. Introspection seemed to dominate this year, with Adele and ABBA spearheading the biggest pop moments. Comebacks were often disappointing: Normani's hit with Cardi B might prove popular with some but I found it to be a monotonous waste of time, Shakira's Don't Wait Up was inanely catchy for a brief period but had no right being a lead single, and there were similar damp squibs for Camila Cabello, Demi Lovato and Rita Ora.
Contrary to all this preamble, I do actually listen to other things than pop music... it's just, usually in binges. If I'm out on the go and just picking up some shit from the shops, I want to be humming away to a Jax Jones or Joel Corry hit. I don't have time for the intensity of Lingua Ignota or the clever wordplay of Dry Cleaning most times. That said... both feature in this list.
The order of these hundred might be baffling and that's understandable; I'm not sure of it, myself. I only really feel safe with my top 5 placements. Anyway, let's jump in.
#100 - "One More" by SG Lewis and Nile RodgersA highlight from Lewis' album Times that has definitely caught my ear every time it's come up on shuffle. Featuring that inimitable guitarwork from the god of disco.
#99 - "John Hughes Movie" by Maisie Peters
Peters' debut album was released in 2021 and there were a handful of fine singles that hyped it up to be better than it turns out, but the stand-out for me is this poppy nod to those 1980s teen romcoms that continue to tug at our culture and heartstrings.
#98 - "I am not a woman, I'm a god" by Halsey
Teaming up with Nine Inch Nails and... god knows how many movie soundtracks now... icon Trent Reznor, Halsey turned out this incredible industrial-pop moment that should probably have Grimes looking over her shoulder a little bit.
#97 - "Shoreditch" by Deyah
I have to be honest: I know next to nothing about Deyah. This was a discovery purely by accident, leaving a New Music Friday playlist running into the territory that's usually forgettable nonsense. This stood out; almost cinematic in its production, featuring all sorts of vocal hooks, jazzy riffs, and wordplay that will definitely make me keep an eye out for her in future.
#96 - "Tell Me Something Good" by Ewan McVicar
I'm sure it's a sample of some other hit that I should be aware of, but Google is giving me nothing. This sleeper hit might still be climbing, I'm not sure... but it's one of those rare UK Charts moments where a dance hit actually makes me want to dance.
#95 - "Games" by Ray BLK and Giggs
Giggs' voice is probably the most engaging to me in the current UK grime scene and possesses this honey-like richness that just makes others sound like little boys. Teaming up with someone who I'll forever champion was always going to find its way onto this list; this is slickly produced and immaculate.
#94 - "My Heart Goes (La Di Da)" by Becky Hill and Topic
When the German DJ Topic dropped 'Breaking Me' with A7S back in 2019 it became a massive hit, and his skills loaned the UK queen of dance another top ten hit this year. She might've had more success with David Guetta but this one stood out as the year's catchiest.
#93 - "Cherry" by FLETCHER and Hayley Kiyoko
She snuck into the tail end of 2020's review with the excellent single 'Shh... Don't Say It' and returns this year with a higher production value. Following up on her Katy Perry rework of 'girls girls girls', this just about wins out as her best WLW anthem of the year.
#92 - "Hope" by Arlo Parks
Not that the year 2021 was really worth anything, but it probably belonged to Parks with the amount of awards she's picked up (and probably is still yet to). Collapsed in Sunbeams contained a whole bunch of soul-affirming moments and the easy jazz-piano riff in the framework of this just tipped it over the edge for me.
#91 - "Coastin'" by Victoria Monét
I'm still seething with rage that Experience wasn't as astronomical a hit in 2020 as the likes of Doja Cat or The Weeknd's 80s-Miami references were. Not to be deterred, Monét dropped this summery drivetime anthem in August and won my heart all over again.
Having mildly enjoyed their debut album and been eternally bored by the one that followed it, my hopes for the group weren't high this year. This final single from Californian Soil is the band at their most innovative, giving Hannah Reid something interesting to let her commanding voice flourish.
#89 - "Friendly Fire" by Holly HumberstoneThe newest recipient of the BRIT award for British breakthrough artist might not really strike anyone as that exciting or interesting, but her mini-album released this year promises good things. Sort of screams "the BRIT academy are desperate to replicate Phoebe Bridgers or Billie Eilish". There are worse artists to emulate.
#88 - "Dip" by Stefflon Don and Ms Banks
Two female giants of the current hip hop scene teaming up for a raunchy single with a three letter title (ending in P)... it sounds familiar. Unlike Cardi, this didn't really take off in the charts but is just as catchy and action-packed.
#87 - "Thot Shit" by Megan Thee Stallion
Speaking of that collaboration... Megan's output in 2021 was limited to a compilation for Thee Hotties after a stellar 2020 but contained this career high for her. "Got a real hot box but a bitch don't smoke". Quite!
#86 - "Glam!" by Allie X
Always dependable to put out something for the gays to lap up, the Canadian teamed up with Drag Race winner Violet Chachki this year for a fetish anthem, but before that came Glam!, this gorgeous 80s party moment.
#85 - "Mirror" by Sigrid
The Norwegian struggled to match the chart success of her debut album's hits (like Strangers and Don't Feel Like Crying), but we're a fickle little country of incredibly limited taste when it comes to pop, aren't we? The quality didn't dip on this hairbrush-karaoke moment.
#84 - "Sad Song" by GRACEY
The production powerhouse Xenomania might not have the same grip on our collective throats as they did when churning out every Girls Aloud and Sugababes hit imaginable in the 2000s, but they've been quietly chipping away since then with a whole range of artists. Singer GRACEY has a perfect voice for pop and has been steadily releasing great singles all year; this was my favourite.
#83 - "Good Girls" by CHVRCHES
I mentioned in my album countdown that the Scots had rediscovered their knack for this stadium-filling euphoria and majestic singles this year after a little dip in form, and whilst I've got another yet to come in this particular ranking, 'Good Girls' is a fantastic song that stands right up there with
Recover and
The Mother We Share.
#82 - "Stand Up" by Tierra Whack
Tierra Whack's obvious talent is simultaneously exciting for its promise and frustrating for the limited ways in which she releases her material: her debut album in 2018 with its one-minute tracks and this year's three EPs teasing at her confusion over which genre she's defined as (Rap? Pop? R&B? were all released this December). The thundering beat on Stand Up serves just enough energy to match her own flows.
#81 - "Too Late Now" by Wet Leg
This female duo are tipped for great things in 2022 and have only released four songs in 2021 to build up the hype; my favourite, this, only dropped two weeks ago at time of writing. Whether they go stratospheric or not, they've got this bedroom-pop aesthetic that's always dependable and charming, and an ear for a great hook.
All of Dacus' album is rich with this mixture of nostalgia and regret and that's probably best encapsulates on its opener, Hot and Heavy. "When I went away it was the only option/ couldn't trust myself to proceed with caution," she reflects, with a weary maturity and tenderness, and a thunderous melody.
Only just released, what may be the first taste of Grimes' next project is already ripe for parody and the subject of ridicule from those who've enjoyed her (ex?)husband's very public year. Lyrically, this is a bizarre euphemism for a failing relationship... but it's the music behind it that's keeping me hooked at first: who would have thought that early 2000s trance was her next step? In hindsight, it makes sense that a time that was rife with The Matrix, cold silver and metallic aesthetics and narcotic hedonism would fit in so closely with Grimes' signature sound.
#78 - "For Free" by Lana del Rey, Zella Day and Weyes Blood
Most of the Chemtrails record was monotonous dirge bookended by some of her best moments. Front-loaded with its four early releases, all of which are fine, my favourite instead came as the album closes, in the form of a Joni Mitchell cover. Admittedly, this only really stood out for Weyes Blood's verse.
#77 - "Crush" by Ethel Cain
Cain's EP Inbred was a promising sign of things to come and its biggest success was this song; packed with beachy new-wave guitars, a heavily distorted and semi-conscious vocal, and all sorts of visceral white-trash damage that can be so fun to unpack.
Her record may be made fun of for its ridiculously brief track lengths but there's a formula that seems to work (even if it's just for the Tiktok audience). Of her many breakthrough hits this year, the catchiest and most gorgeous is Just For Me, with its playful vocal delivery and early 2000s, garage-meets-grunge vibe.
For some reason, of the 500 or so songs that I added to my Spotify playlist this year, this one kept coming up first whenever I listened by shuffle. Whether it's fate or just its genuine strengths that earns its placement here is yet to be discovered, I guess, but those guitar riffs at the start feel like a jolt of adrenaline. Surrounded by the pop sensuality of an early-days Britney Spears, it's an unusual but catchy listen.
Hopping right aboard the Tame Impala train this year was the release of Templeman's debut, packed with incredibly catchy psychedelic-80s rock and a punchy, yearning voice. The song is so brimmed with hooks it's even found its way into Fortnite.
Wildly theatrical and set with the same gravity as a Tarantino desert fight scene, Musgraves tackles the fallout of her recent divorce with this taste of the album of the same name. My only complaint about the song is that I needed it to be double the length, because it builds so slowly and dramatically only to bow out so soon.
aka. the music video event of the year. Whilst "Montero (Call Me By Your Name)" was another fine candidate for the list, something about the insanity of this prison breakout video, or me just plain thirsting over Jack Harlow, made it stick out ahead of its competitor. Marketed perfectly to tackle his many legal dramas this year, the song feels like the biggest "fuck you" to his critics.
#71 - "Skin" by Joy Crookes
Feeling almost like a letter to herself, this ballad from the album of the same name serves as a wondrously beautiful defiance to her struggles with mental health and low self-esteem. "Don't you know that the skin that you're given was made to be lived in?" she assures us, and maybe herself, with a tenderness and affirmation, whilst this delightfully simple piano and strings arrangement weaves a bewitching web.
After the disappointment of It Was Good Until It Wasn't, I was fearing the worst, but this dropped in September and won me back all over again. Apparently the first glimpse of a record called Blue Water Road to be released in 2022, this is Kehlani at their finest. The single - according to a tweet issued by Kehlani - is "full of understanding death. full of growing through grief. full of elevation and honor".
I am quite comfortable in the knowledge that I am now a Kim Petras stan. Drown the Eiffel Tower! Sod it!
I always thought her surname was Stryke. Weird. Even weirder is the heavily 70s ABBA-inspired music video for what is a song that borrows heavily from the 80s. Whatever the anachronism is, it's devilishly catchy and bound to get your feet tapping.
I'm still reeling a little from the last sample of Montell Jordan's
Get It On Tonite (Azealia Banks' fantastic
Esta Noche). This isn't quite as explosive as Banks' electroclash moment, but is instead a gorgeous, seductive jam and a fine reimagining of a classic.
Another person likely destined for a pretty big 2022 is Baby Queen, whose singles have been picking up steam this year and were strong enough to earn her a spot on the BBC Sound of 2022 list. This was my favourite, a sort of-nod to Beck's Loser in the sense that it's heavily indebted to 1995 and full of self-deprecation and cool.
One of the fierier moments on her biggest album to date, Simz asserts her greatness here ("I've got royalty in my blood, I was born great/ don't allow anyone to undermine your fate") and makes a pretty compelling argument.
Good 4 U might have been the biggest hit of the year but whilst everyone blathers on about whether or not it's a Paramore ripoff, I'll settle in with what was actually Rodrigo's best single of the year. Building up with its deceptive lullabying innocence, it gets sneery and brimming with rage and jealousy towards the end.
At the other end of the breakup-bitterness scale sit Wolf Alice and this cheerier outlook. Namedropping the king of all breakup anthems, Amy Winehouse's Love is a Losing Game, the track bounces along with a maturity and a kindness: "the threads that kept us together were already wearing thin", they muse before closing the album off.
The Springsteeniest of Springsteeny moments on this list, the War on Drugs returned in late October with a much-needed winter respite. Layered with so many energising and emotional moments.
This completely passed me by on its release, probably due to the confusion I felt at the difference between my total nonchalance and the rest of the critical world's idolation of her Pang album. So when it was named Pitchfork's song of the year, I felt that same sense of "...really?" I felt when Jazmine Sullivan was named supposedly the best album. It's admittedly a very catchy track but come on, Pitchfork. What you smoking?
#60 - "Say What You Will" by James Blake
#59 - "Taste Test" by Cakes da Killa
#58 - "Let Them Know" by Mabel
#57 - "You" by Regard, Troye Sivan and Tate McRae
#56 - "The Feels" by TWICE
#55 - "I Go" by Peggy Gou
#54 - "Call Me A Saint" by YONAKA
#53 - "Take My Breath" by The Weeknd
#52 - "Fuck Him All Night" by Azealia Banks
#51 - "Zitti e Buoni" by Maneskin
#50 - "Louie Bag" by Yebba and Smino
#49 - "I Still Have Faith in You" by ABBA
#48 - "Senorita" by Arca
#47 - "Mood Ring" by Lorde
#46 - "I Hate U" by SZA
#45 - "24Hrs" by Agnes
#44 - "Oxytocin" by Billie Eilish
#43 - "Kiss Me More" by Doja Cat & SZA
#42 - "Harbor" by Clairo
#41 - "Jesus Lord" by Kanye West
#40 - "Woman" by Nao & Lianne La Havas
#39 - "Call On Me" by RAYE
#38 - "Hot N Heavy" by Jessie Ware
#37 - "Hot Hot" by Bree Runway
#36 - "Don't Judge Me" by fka twigs & Headie One
#35 - "Coconuts" by Kim Petras
#34 - "When You Were Mine" by Joy Crookes
#33 - "Church Girl" by Laura Mvula
#32 - "Pretty Pictures" by Indigo de Souza
#31 - "Black Hole" by Griff
#30 - "Good Ones" by Charli XCX
#29 - "Undo (Back to My Heart)" by Tinashe
#28 - "Silver Lines" by IAMDDB
#27 - "Intimidated" by KAYTRANADA & H.E.R.
#26 - "Cleo" by Shygirl
#25 - "Hall of Mirrors" by Let's Eat Grandma
#24 - "Strong Feelings" by Dry Cleaning
#23 - "LUMBERJACK" by Tyler, the Creator
#22 - "Over You" by Ray BLK & Stefflon Don
#21 - "Shum" by Go_A
#20 - "Introvert" by Little Simz
#19 - "Cure for Me" by AURORA
#18 - "Suck Teeth" by L'Rain
#17 - "Pennsylvania Furnace" by Lingua Ignota
#16 - "Sister Ray" by Foxes
#15 - "Silk Chiffon" by MUNA & Phoebe Bridgers
#14 - "rom com 2004" by Soccer Mommy
#13 - "How Not to Drown" by CHVRCHES & Robert Smith
#12 - "To Be Loved" by Adele
#11 - "Seventeen Going Under" by Sam Fender
#10 - "The Last Man on Earth" by Wolf Alice
#9 - "Wilshire" by Tyler, the Creator
#8 - "Valentine" by Snail Mail
#7 - "The Chase" by Tinashe
#6 - "Be Sweet" by Japanese Breakfast
#5 - "The Only Heartbreaker" by Mitski
#4 - "Real Pain" by Indigo de Souza
#3 - "Got Me" by Laura Mvula
#2 - "In the Fire" by Dave
#1 - "Happier Than Ever" by Billie Eilish
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