Best Songs by 21st Century Women+

[poorpete]

Skipping ahead to next loser's round. Here's who have been ousted:

Icona Pop - I Love It (feat. Charli XCX) (lost to Soy Yo)
Don't know how to desribe how much I enjoy this song without just writing out all the lyrics to it, because it's how I feel about it. There might be some issues with the song, it might be just one verse and one chorus, it might encourage bad behavior, it might have been overplayed (though I missed that era, this song was completely new to me this year) but... "I don't care, I love it."


Lady Gaga - Bad Romance (lost to The Story)
Gaga, ooo la la! It's great. Does it sound like Madonna half the time? Sure, but what's wrong with wanting to be Madonna. And just like the best of Madonna, this song is full of attitude and hooks. Hooks here, hooks everywhere!
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=StVN2 ... ture=share

Corinne Bailey Rae - Put Your Records On (lost to Let it Go)
Cool and breezy, calm and sweet. Pop and soul. Fits perfectly in top 40 at any point in the last 40 years, or on any wedding CD. Surprised that 1. this song isn't from the 90s and 2. that it was a one-hit wonder. Corinne has assembled all the elements of a long career- beautiful voice, great lyrics, top-notch backing band - but maybe she's still out there making great music. I should probably check some out...
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=20WaV ... ture=share

Margo Price - Hands of Time (lost to Paper Planes)
A wonderful epic song, sung in the Loretta/Dolly autobiographical style, though I'm not so sure if every line is true. If so, it adds more, but even if it's a fictionalized version of the Life of Margo, it's still great. Many of these finalists are in the pop genre, and pride themselves on being quick little jam-packed songs, and this features endless verses and a slick but cool instrumentation. It's a wonder.


Beyoncé - Formation (lost to Back in Black)
When you put a banger as the last song on your album, instead of something inspirational or whimsical or relaxing, you gotta know what you're doing, and she did. The thematic conclusion to the Lemonade saga features the Queen back and better than ever, with super strength and purpose. Every little line here could be endlessly commented on. I bet the genius article is a gazillion lines long. A lot have been mentioned elsewhere -- "I take his ass to Red Lobster" "I got hot sauce in my bag", though I'm disappointed that that I a line I thought I heard in it actually isn't. "Beyon-slay" is never said.
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=sj9q5 ... ture=share

Carly Rae Jepsen - Call Me Maybe (lost to Royals)
Super silly. Super catchy. Wikipedia calls it "bubblegum pop" but that's usually a derisive term, and this song is much smarter than what that implies. Sure there's sillyness, sure there's "ripped jeans skin was showing", but this is more a singer-songwriter in the Taylor Swift mode hitting pure gold on her first try. It's super-produced, but it's not soulless, it's an earworm, but it's not malicious.
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=jmV9Q ... ture=share

First Aid Kit - My Silver Lining (lost to Blue Lights)
If Abba went country this may have been their sound. High production values, sure, but a country soul feel that I eat up. The lyrics are very good too, epecially "ooo ooo o o o ooooo oooo oooo, oh oh"


Kesha - Praying (lost to Cranes in the Sky)
Praying is one of those songs that makes me cry MORE the more I hear it. It didn't really hit me hard until listen 10. I mean I got it, it's about the producer-who-shall-not-be-named-here-because-that's-the-point-of-the-song, and about her overcoming it all and becoming more powerful than ever. A lot of songs on here is about coming out the other-side with the strength of a super hero....... okay most might be by Beyonce.
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=Hk5p3 ... ture=share

[poorpete]

And onto the next 4 eliminated (leaving 12 remaining)

Bomba Es

Jorja Smith - Blue Lights (lost to Let it Go)
A fantastic modern soul story song that is about the complicated relationship between youth (and race and poverty) and the police, with the narrator calming the main character in the first section, look, no need to run from the police because you did nothing wrong, to the end, where either the character got in with the wrong crowd (or he's just to the age where is face makes him a target) and he's gotta run. Or maybe I didn't get it at all. Seems the lyrics are unsure whether he did something wrong or not. But either way, he's gotta run. It's important, it's clever, it's endlessly listenable. Endlessly listenable is a plus that "Let it Go" doesn't always have, and just like "Let it Go" was woefully underrated in the 180s. Jorja went from here to being featured on the great Black Panther soundtrack, so I hope her success is just getting started.

Amy Winehouse - Back To Black (lost to Royals)
No song starts out so naughty (kept what wet?) and ends so achingly heartbroken. It's an apt centerpiece to the album, and sadly mirrors her fun to tragic life. This song is literally the outline to her eventual biopic, loving heart, breaking hard, livign hard, dying hard. And just like "Rehab" it kinda makes me mad that we didn't get rehabbed and level-headed Amy. Amy the comeback album. The comeback albums.

MIA - Paper Planes
This is where I'd put what NPR put at #1. Every reason that NPR put it at #1 is things I love about it. It's happy mix of rock and hip hop. It's international attitude (both in the sound and the lyrics and the influence). It has the best shot-gun sounds in any song --- though I still think any shot-gun sounds in song are distracting and unneccessary, I wonder how i'd be if she says "all I wanna do is pasheww pasheww pasheww and chachaching take a your money"

Bomba Estéreo - Soy Yo (lost to Cranes in the Sky)
So joyous and invigorating, a song I quickly grew to love. I wanted to share with my kids, but I was worried the actual lyrics wouldn't reflect its joy, but was happy to see it does. Soy yo -- I'm me. I was worried the music video wouldn't be appropriate but it's like the perfect music video for kids. So I showed my kids and they watched it over and over a half dozen times.

[Phoebe]

OMG the recorder!!! That's awesome.
I generally agree with the list in the post above that - some hard calls at this stage but they have to be made. I have become sort of disenchanted with Paper Planes, which didn't age well for me, but I do really like other things she has done, like this one which has so much happening:

[poorpete]

Let it Go (lost to "Hold On")

In 2099, if people still care about lists, and popular music, and if it's anything like 1999, there will be lists of the greatest songs of the century. There might be some, like the Rolling Stone, that focuses mainly on songs in the Gleepglorp genre, pretending no good music existed before 2064, but others like the RIAA and NPR that will take the long view. And of all these songs, which one are they most likely to pick to be among the best songs of the century, it's this one.

Only existing for six years now, but already the the soundtrack (and future nostalgic soundtrack) of the lives of millions of children. That seed will grow, like "Over the Rainbow" did 80 (80???) years ago. And that's all just influence, ignoring the fact that this is a pretty great song, with exciting vocals and orchestral work, and lyrics that play to the power of self-love.

So why is it not #1 (or #2, or #3, or... ). Well because of all the songs remaining, this one I'm most likely to skip. Sometimes I'm just not in the mood for it. And I don't have to listen to it for the 343rd time. I got it. I know it, it's overplayed.......... It's also kinda cheesy. There's probably a reason why NPR put it in the 180s and not in the top 20, because enough of them are sick of hearing it.

100 Days, 100 Nights (lost to "Cranes in the Sky")

I love Sharon Jones. She is a hero, a great vocalist, and her band is all over this list, and one the prime artists who kept classic R&B vocalists goin into the 21st century. She will always be important to me. Saw her perform live, which I'll always cherish, with my wife, many months pregnant (I still like to call it my daughter's first concert). Sharon had a stroke watching the results on election day 2016, the first casualty of this administration, directly leading me to going deep into these musical education projects and advocacy. I miss her and I'm very happy NPR put a song of hers on the list, as well as in their top 10.

I preferred a dozen of her other songs over this one. Better Things might be my fav, and her jaw-dropping version of "This Land is Your Land" will probably be her biggest legacy. But this song, which I already enjoyed, grew on me and might now be one of my favs. The lyrics, the music, is top-notch. The James-Brown-esque breakdown, in particular, is stellar. I think the few songs that remain are better, but that's hardly a put down to this song. Not a bad run.



Single Ladies (lost to "The Story")
10 years ago I was not a fan of Single Ladies, so the fact that it's so high on my list is high praise. A decade ago, me and my wife were talking with our wedding DJ. We disappointed her a few times with our selections, but probably the most when she said "oh, obviously you'll want me to play Single Ladies" and we were like "Nah." and that remains the biggest/only regret of that day. Haha. The DJ was right. This song is a banger. It's the banger of all bangers. It's not by Timmy, but has Timbaland's influence all over it. It's silly. It's sassy. It's even kinda serious (before I knew that by-default we should always take her serious). Most importantly, it's fun. This is a good spot for it to be.

Dog Days are Over (lost to "Royals")
I can't think of a more danceable song that regularly features a harp. This song is right-up-my-alley, an endlessly listenable, danceable, epic. I don't have much of a history with it, I'm surprised this is a decade old yet I've never heard it (or of Florence) until this list came out. It warms my heart that, at least based on this live version, this beautiful tune found a big audience, that moshes and sings along to ever bit of it.

[poorpete]

Hold On (lost to "The Story")
Another where I think I still like some of her other songs better, but it's a powerful song and I love it so.

Royals (lost to "Tightrope")
She had no business being so young and writing such a clear attack on the vapidness and trappings of superstardom that inevitably led to her becoming a superstar and being caught in those trappings. No business writing and singing something so perfect.

Cranes in the Sky (lost to "The Story")
The best song about working through depression. I don't think we'd talk much about whether Solange is better than Beyonce if not for this song. Otherwise I'd be more Serena vs. Sharapova than anything. I know the focus is on the women, but Raphael Saadiq handed Solange an amazing soundscape to work with too. Props to Solange for realizing its power and writing powerful lyrics to enhance it.

The Story (lost to "Fallin")
This is the top-ranked song on my list, where this list introduced me to it. It's a beautiful song about love and growing old. It is a spiritual successor to Bonnie Raitt's "Nick of Time" and if they were played back to back I think I'd run out of tears.

I also like how I originally viewed it as a country-ish song, then as a folk-ish song, but now I hear it as a song that'd work on Radiohead's The Bends album. It's very "High and Dry / Fake Plastic Trees" and very "Creep" in its acoustic quiet-loud-quiet-loud movement. Check it out.



Tightrope (lost to "Fallin")
Janelle is the best. I don't think I need to say more. OK some more. I first heard this on Just Dance 4, and I gotta say, the "Just Dance" games are great. Whoever is curating the music does a fantastic job of picking great songs from different eras and genres and languages. It's also a great way to introduce my kids to some of my fav music (as well as introducing me to some great music like this).


This leaves three at the top:

Adele - Rolling in the Deep
Alicia Keys - Fallin'
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Maps

https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list ... XBkZnNkJom

[Phoebe]

Hmmm this is where it gets the hardest. I would keep Single Ladies and Dog Days in there, probably. As much as I like the Chrissy Hynde vibes I get from Karen O, I don't like the Maps song overall well enough to put it among this company. It does feature on my old version of Rock Band so I guess it is beloved by many. I wish we still had an Amy Winehouse in the mix. It's difficult to rank! You have done an outstanding project, absorbing and spreading around the joy of all this music by women.

[poorpete]

I'll nix Maps, sounds good.

My history with Maps is loving it from day 1 (I was working at a radio station then, and I think I listened before the release date, so I loved it from even before day 1). There's been a few times where I listen to an album, where I glom onto a song, and wonder why it's not a single and hope and hope that it will be. This was one. Hmm. Jimmy Eat World's "The Middle" was another -- Basement Jaxx's "Do Your Thing" -- even Solange's "Cranes in the Sky" although it was already a Grammy winner before I first heard it, the fact that it drew me in on my first album listen makes me feel smart and the song extra-special. So yeah. Memories of 2003 listening and relistening to the song, learning it on guitar, in college, are good memories. The fact this song became the template for Swedish producers who integrated pop and alternative rock (see "Since U Been Gone") shows its influence. Also has that quiet-loud-quiet-loud format that I love. But yeah.

The final two, for me, "Fallin'" and "Rolling in the Deep", I started honing in as my favs probably a few months ago. I remember when I first heard about this list, I guessed "Rolling" was going to be the top song. It's perfect, and still is probably my fav. Fallin' I hadn't thought of much since the early 00s where it was everywhere. I always liked it, but I love it now. I think it's helpful that I got so into R&B since then so I was able to appreciate it more. Rolling, for all it's perfection, was not Adele's first hit. Fallin' has the added greatness of being written and performed by at-that-point an unknown. Something special about not being fully sure of your gifts, and knocking it out of the park, creating your signature song, one that has overshadowed the rest of your career, in a kinda good way, on your first-ish try.

[poorpete]

Here's my ranking broken up by my previous knowledge of the songs.


Yes, three Beyonce songs I kinda knew I now really really like.