(All week, we’re counting down our favorite songs of 2012. If you missed any previous entries, you can catch up here. Enjoy the music).
20. Kendrick Lamar – “Backseat Freestyle”
The hardest rap song of the year is also the most fabricated, proof we need more self-aware rappers and fewer self-conscious ones. -PTL
19. TNGHT – “Higher Ground”
While this song may, for me, forever be inseparable from the moment I first heard it at FlyLo’s P4K set this summer, its handclaps, repetitive vocal sample, and heavy bass make it the centerpiece of Hudson Mohawke and Lunice’s brilliant self-titled EP. -JM
18. Killer Mike – “Reagan”
The best track on Killer Mike’s landmark R.A.P. Music, “Reagan” uses the aforementioned former president as a metaphor to argue that the black community’s hypocrisy is, in addition to politicians’ discriminatory drug and economic policy, also responsible for the plight of African-Americans. -JM
17. Twin Shadow – “Beg For The Night”
“I want all the words/Sung from your lips/I know it’s absurd/To shake when we kiss.” Yeah, you’re right: it’s absurd. But we love it. -LVL
16. Titus Andronicus – “In a Big City”
The punk rock theme song for Berkshire Hathaway. -PTL
15. King Krule – “Rock Bottom”
If this song wasn’t SO outstanding I’d have no choice but to take a gigantic gulp of Haterade because damn, this kid is eighteen years old!!! Do you understand what I’m saying? You know the generation that has so much difficulty calling someone up for a date and asking ‘em out proper, and permanently leaving their parents’ nests? Well, King Krule is part of that generation, so I wouldn’t write them off just yet. -TH
14. Frank Ocean – “Pyramids”
Ocean stretches out on this gauzy eight-minute epic, which features an infectious minor key melody, a tasty bluesy guitar solo by John Mayer, and a coda where Ocean cryptically sings “Our daughters and our sons/Are just candles in the sun.” And obviously, the woman who works at the Pyramid (club) is named Cleopatra. –KLM
13. Beach House – “Myth”
Anybody tired of hearing Victoria Legrand’s unearthly voice soar over the most gorgeous, plaintive melodies? Me neither. -TH
12. Japandroids – “Fire’s Highway”
I dare you to listen to this song without playing air guitar. -LVL
11. Kanye West feat. Pusha T, Big Sean & 2 Chainz – “Mercy”
Not even Big Sean can ruin a beat this good. -PTL
Check back tomorrow for the Top 10.