Here are forty of my favorite songs from 2017, ten of which are ranked and 30 listed alphabetically. The top 10 all have little descriptors with them similar to my 2017 So Far :: 30 Albums list I posted earlier. It went over well and I like writing like that, so here we are again. I hope I don’t wear out my welcome. At this point in the year, my favorite song is Playboi Carti’s “Magnolia,” which is also my ‘song of the summer.’ Listen to all of these songs and more on my Spotify playlist.

1. PLAYBOI CARTI – “MAGNOLIA”
Pi’erre Bourne is the royal architect for King Playboi Carti’s perfect castle. Here He keeps His whips, His watch pieces, and His Ashanti doppelgängers. He debuts this song, booming out of the giant turret speakers, at His royal summer festival to the peasants and everyone goes wild. Picture a bunch of feudal serfs bopping around to this track.

2. DANNY L HARLE – “1UL”
An android who has been programmed with the ability to love fabulously rebels against their selfish creators by burning down their lab and becoming the life of the party in another star system.

3. CHINO AMOBI – “PARADISO”
That moment of an ensemble film where all of the separate storylines intersect in one bloody, vicious altercation. In this case it sounds like the sheer collision of these individual entities causes the concept of time and space to evaporate, spawning small vignettes in a vacuum of chaos.

4. JACASZEK – “SOFT MUSIC”
You find yourself in a windowless room of white marble and time has been significantly slowed down. You turn and watch a bust of yourself crack and crumble into dust. Rose petals float down from the ceiling and vaporize at your feet. You turn back around to see the woman in red that you’ve seen once before walking towards you, unaffected by slow motion. She walks through you, like a ghost, and disappears through the wall behind you. You turn once more to now see yourself, who is staring back at you, and you feel a great schism cut across your face. Stone dust billows out of your nose and mouth as you fall to the floor, piece by piece.

5. CARLY RAE JEPSEN – “CUT TO THE FEELING”
A cloudless day, towering skyscrapers, boundless adoration, a parade of blimps, people skydiving, fish hopping out of the water, brilliant flashes of color across the sky. A deep pop euphoria.

6. KENDRICK LAMAR – “HUMBLE.”
A grand piano and an active drum machine fall down a lavish, well-carpeted staircase as a team of anxious photographers take high-speed shutter photos. Following the tumbling instruments is Kendrick, admiring his work and stepping over the splayed-out photographers.

7. HUNDRED WATERS – “CURRENCY”
The spirit of the waterfall awakens at night and holds a dance recital under the full moon for the other forest spirits.

8. WEED – “LEASH”
A satellite launched into space to orbit the Earth burns up in the atmosphere during its unexpected descent, cascading superhot debris over the ocean.

9. KEDR LIVANSKIY – “ARIADNA”
The power’s out in the big city and after a late night of partying you’re searching for a lost friend with only your phone flashlight. You encounter a cast of interesting characters throughout your search and find out that your friend is somehow connected to all of them in different ways. You never end up finding your friend that night, but you’re certain they’ll appear in your life again some day.

10. MIGOS – “SLIPPERY (FT. GUCCI MANE)”
The sun is out and it’s raining on a bouncy castle full of sharp objects with no chaperone.

:: 30 MORE SONGS, ALPHABETIZED ::

1. Aldous Harding – “Swell Does The Skull”
2. Arca – “Reverie”
3. Beach Fossils – “Down The Line”
4. Big Thief – “Mary”
5. Colin Stetson – “Spindrift”
6. First Hate – “The One”
7. Hand Habits – “Actress”
8. Hoops – “Burden”
9. Hurray For The Riff Raff – “Nothing’s Gonna Change That Girl”
10. Jens Lekman – “How We Met, The Long Version”
11. J Hus – “Did You See”
12. Julie Byrne – “I Live Now As A Singer”
13. Kirin J Callinan – “S. A. D.”
14. Land Of Talk – “This Time”
15. Laurel Halo – “Moontalk”
16. Molly Burch – “Please Be Mine”
17. Natalia Lafourcade – “Tú Sí Sabes Quererme”
18. Nite Jewel – “Had To Let Me Go”
19. Palm – “Two Toes”
20. Pile – “Dogs”
21. Pond – “Paint Me Silver”
22. Priests – “Lelia 20”
23. Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever – “French Press”
24. Sam Amidon – “Juma Mountain”
25. Sampha – “Under”
26. (Sandy) Alex G – “Bobby”
27. Sneaks – “Look Like That”
28. TOPS – “Dayglow Bimbo”
29. Yaeji – “Passionfruit”
30. Yves Tumor – “Limerence”