10 Best Songs of 2019...So Far

2019 is over halfway done...and the time is at hand for a roundup of the best songs of the year...so far!

Here are my picks for the Top Ten.

This has been a strong year for powerful songs. There were a lot of close runner-ups...but lists are arbitrary, so here are my choices:.

Intense both musically and lyrically and just a great crank it song...from their Polaris Prize nominated album:

#10: PUP - Morbid Stuff



Exceptional piece from an exceptional band. Has a brilliant, political use of voice over.

#9) A Tribe Called Red Ft. Black Bear - The OG



Lovely song that makes the most of its guest vocalist, the simply stunning Jessie Reyez.

Just let this one carry you away...

#8) SonReal - Healing (Feat. Jessie Reyez)



There are so many songs to love off of Carly Rae Jepsen's new pop mini-masterpiece of an album Dedicated, but the largely overlooked No Drug is just about as good as anything she has ever done. Marvelously produced and atmospheric.

#7: Carly Rae Jepsen - No Drug Like Me



Off the By Blood album Mississippi Nuthin' is about working-class dreams gone wrong and lives derailed. Moving along at a breathtaking pace it draws you into the lives of two people in a way both involving and sad. One has had their life go a very different way than the other.

#6: Shovels & Rope - "Mississippi Nuthin'"



Hozier is back with this marvelously charming song...an homage to music, jazz and love.

#5) Hozier - Almost (Sweet Music)



A reflection on growing older and the impossible wish that you could send your wisdom now to that more free and reckless version of you all those years ago, this song hits it on every level.

#4) Sharon Van Etten - Seventeen



Lyrically stunning and infused with an almost aching, haunting sadness, this is a song that stays with you through repeated listening.

#3: Dizzy -- Heavy



A difficult, emotional, raw song that is completely brilliant in its execution, Amanda Palmer lays herself bare in this powerful reflection on miscarriage, abortion and the terrible judgement and silences that women have to endure.

#2: Amanda Palmer - Voicemail For Jill



An anthem of rage and a call for justice. A "Three Penny" Opera style rejection that is so richly deserved to a social order and patriarchy that has to end.

#1: Kesha - Rich, White, Straight, Men