The multicultural, London-based indie quintet Vanishing Twin opens the third part of our favourite songs of 2019 (50-26), which also features classically trained R&B singers; Brazilian electronic DJs teaming up with some of Today´s biggest urban Latin stars; math rock revivalists; songwriters’ collaborative projects; the only three artists with more than a song in our list; the American superstar recently awarded as artist of the decade and a rather enigmatic musician whose songs were scheduled for a 2013 release, but did not see the light of day until now.
The second quarter of our favourite songs of the year (75-51) features a 90´s legendary rock band remixed by a noughties legendary solo artist; transgender pop stars; acclaimed americana songwriters; top-notch hip-hop collaborations; the second singer off a popular R&B girl band starting her own career; jaunty indie numbers; a curious mix of Galician folkore and electronica plus a track from what´s perhaps the best rock band alive.
After the albums of the year, it’s time to look back at the 100 songs that we enjoyed the most during the last twelve months, following the tradition of beginning with the symbolic number 101; one of the year´s guilty pleasure of sorts that also represents the state of mainstream music in 2019. K-Pop quartet BLACKPINK with its infectious, R&B-filled ‘Kill This Love’ is the chosen one this time. It indicates two clear trends in Today´s pop, the fading predominance of the fatigued-looking Anglo-Saxon music industry, with both Asian and Latin American artists taking an increasingly biggest share of the world´s interest in pop.
It is also a symbol of what the latest edition of Primavera Sound festival, with its bold, gender-balanced bill, named “the new normal”, in which the industry is achieving a fairer parity between male and female musicians. In our case, 2019 is the year when female artists almost outnumbered the male ones, with for the first time ever a full Top 10 made of female solo artists or female-fronted bands. In the best albums, the 50/50 parity is also an historical one.
Although not a particularly innovative year, other trends our tracks of 2019 point at are the return or consolidation of both folk-rock and jazz, present behind some of the most creative music released. In the first quarter of our Top 100 tracks of the year recap you’ll find good examples of that jazz and folk-rock “comebacks” plus groundbreaking rising latin artists in surprise collaborations with mainstream superstars; electronica favourites; African idols; dance anthems and a teaser from the next album of the act who most critics have deemed responsible for the album of the decade. Check The Top 100-76 here:
