Straight-up pop music, but goddam is it just catchy as shit. Her production skills are beyond reproach.

Some others, in no particular order (and acknowledging that "SOB" is the fucking kingslayer and the one song of 2015 that I know I'll still be playing and screaming along to 20 years from now)...

Savages, "The Answer"

Jamie xx, "I Know There's Gonna Be (Good Times)"

Donnie Trumpet & the Social Experiment, "Sunday Candy"

Metz, "Spit You Out"

Alabama Shakes, "The Greatest"

Big Grams, "Born To Shine"

Hot Chip, "Huarache Lights"

Desaparecedos, "Backsell"

Hudson Mohawke, "Very First Breath"

Courtney Barnett, "Small Poppies"

In case anyone's interested. I think I got all of them (and added a couple more of my favorites).

https://open.spotify.com/user/bshore/playlist/7HgDBYG1oBXpv8KN8FCu1F

Jesus Christ people.

and just for grins, from the same Chem Bros album, featuring not only Q-Tip but Michel Gondry behind the camera:

Field Report - Home

"And the body remembers what the mind forgets / Archives every heartbreak and cigarette."

Royal Headache - Need You

I've only done one or two posts on WYMA this year, but not because I haven't fallen deeply in love with a dozen or more records. My favorite one might be the new Beach Slang. I saw them at the Cat's Cradle a few months ago and they were on fire:

Beach Slang - Noisy Heaven

Kowloon Walled City is from San Francisco and put out a phenomenal album called "Grievances" in October or November. They get pegged as metal because their earlier stuff was, in fact, metal. But this new one is weirdly, beautifully, something else.

Kowloon Walled City - Daughters and Sons

Best song title of the year is, predictably, from an aggressive hardcore band. This is a disturbing video.

Mercy Ties - You Have the Right to Remain Violent

Icarus Line should go to prison for the crimes against nature they commit upon their amplifiers. If anyone's seedier than Nick Cave, it's Joe Cardamone.

The Icarus Line - El Sereno

Right before we went to see Protomartyr live, I jokingly texted Slainte Joe that if he were living his perfect life, he'd be the beer-swilling, self-doubting Irish poet Joe Casey, who is also Protomartyr's frontman. Slainte Joe took it as a compliment.

Protomartyr - Why Does It Shake?

but it changes frequently. Really loved a lot of albums this year, so tough to pick a single song from many of them. But here's a few:

Car Seat Headrest - Something Soon

Courtney Barnett - No one really cares if you go to the party

Tame Impala - Let It Happen

Viet Cong - Silhouettes

The Stammer - Last Bus
https://thestammer.bandcamp.com/track/last-bus

Kurt Vile - Wheelhouse

Sufjan Stevens - Eugene

This live version is fire-emoji fire-emoji 100-emoji:

Oh, and everything on the newest Cleavon Stephens album is great as always.

"Timothy"

Other options:
Beck, "Dreams"
Florence+The Machine, "What Kind of Man"
ASTR, "Activate Me"
Lord Huron, "Fool for Love"
Ryan Adams, "Bad Blood"

Not so hot take:
And if I wanted to pick the best "pop" song, it would probably be something off of Carly Rae Jepsen's Emotion which is in my opinion a better pop album than 1989. Total Grammy snub.

It took a while for me to appreciate Florence's new album, but I came around. We're going to Hangout this year, in large part, because she's headlining.

If we're talking pop songs, the list will include "Style" and "Blank Space", as performed by either Taylor Swift or Ryan Adams.

And "Wildest Dreams" as performed by Ryan Adams.

My early pick for "Worst Popular Song of 2015" is "Exes and Ohs" by Elle King.

But back to Cold War Kids "First" - I know it's fashionable to hate on them for writing Black-Keys-style Arena Dad Rock, but I still think this song is really special.

It's a first-person account of the aftermath of a divorce, right? It's a fictional song - Willett is happily married.

But there's a whole lot there - retracing steps and anger at the past, exhilaration and trepidation about the next relationship. Maybe he was able to tap into all that through his parents' divorce. Those lyrics are really, really good.

How am I the lucky one?/I do not deserve/To wait around forever/when you were there first

Which of course brings to mind this non-2015 DBT's gem

Some others in no particular order:

delicious nostalgia

i'll probably hate this song in a year

we're so old that homages to bands from our 10 year college reunion days (The National) are arriving

i would drink damon albarn's bathwater, i think

"Young Moses," and Richard Thompson's "Guitar Heroes." And I'm not sure if it counts, since it was recorded in 1968, but the Long Version of "Slim Slow Slider" on the expanded edition of Astral Weeks is pretty incredible. It would've completely changed that album.

Primarily because it irritates the crap out of my 12yo daughter, but she is coming around. She actually asks me to play it when she has a friend in the truck.

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