My Favorite 50 Songs of 2019
My 2019 began with waking up in LA and will end falling asleep in Tokyo. In between, so much happened that it doesn’t feel like it’s only been a year.
I took weekend trips to Houston, Memphis, Nashville, Boulder, West Virginia, Miami, and Mexico City to celebrate and catch up with friends. My sister and I rented a car and drove through northern Spain and saw where Dali lived. My best friend had a daughter. I left IDEO and joined Bungalow, and got back to building mobile products and tackling really interesting human problems with an awesome team.
I took a couple trips each to LA, New York, Toronto, and Chicago. Life360 went public. I flew to an island off Kenya and later to Mallorca and then drove through the south of France and went to one of my favorite places I’ve ever been; a vineyard with great wine, food, and atmosphere, and a who’s who of modern artists’ works scattered throughout.
I DJed a yoga class and had the opportunity to curate music for a very different vibe. Rufus moved down to LA and I still wake up most mornings and spend a few seconds wondering where he is. I didn’t make as much music, art, or do as much writing as I hoped I would. I spent a lot of time intentionally investing in my physical and mental well-being. I learned a lot about myself and appreciate my friends more than ever. I’m a lot happier today than I was midway through 2019.
Selecting my favorite end-of-year music is always a kind of interesting reflection on the year that past, both self-reflecting and then also through the lens of music as a reflection of the larger cultural mood of the year.
Similar to my self-reflection, the music I loved this year and the cultural moods it reflects varies pretty widely. There’s a lot of newer, weird, polarizing artists who I really loved, like hobo johnson and 100 gecs. There were a handful of British hip-hop artists who pushed the creative bounds of the genre and also put on some of my favorite shows I saw this year between little simz and slowthai. And the layered, ethereal textures definitely showed up, with healthy doses of james blake, fka twigs, travis scott and bon iver.
It feels like we reached peak one-off releases and song packs over albums as artists continued to lean into doling out music in drip form for all of our new music friday’s and release radars. despite this, when you look back at total output in 2019, frank ocean, pusha-t, and the weeknd never released more than a track or two at a time, and yet still put together really strong collections of music over the course of the year.
Anyway, enough with the reflecting — it always happens at the end of the year, that compulsion to wax nostalgic and the trying to chronicle it all. Here are my fifty favorite songs of 2019:
Listen to the Spotify Playlist
50. tycho — stress
49. katy perry — never really over
48. charli xcx — next level charli
47. drake ft rick ross — money in the grave
46. toro y moi ft wet — monte carlo
45. chance the rapper ft taylor bennett — roo
44. benny the butcher ft pusha t — 18 wheeler
43. billie eilish — you should see me in a crown
42. future ft doe boy, meek mill — 100 shooters
41. amine — places & faces
40. gnash — forgive
39. tegan & sara — i’ll be back someday
38. young thug, j cole, travis scott — the london
37. vince staples — so what episode 01
36. freddie gibbs — palmolive ft pusha t & killer mike
35. bon iver — naeem
34. ellie goulding ft juice wrld — hate me
33. big sean ft asap ferg — bezerk
32. jessie ware — adore you
31. slowthai — nothing great about britain
30. dj shadow ft run the jewels — kings & queens
29. jontha links — cadence
28. k.flay — i like myself most of the time
27. russ ft bia — best on earth
26. mark ronson ft lykke li — late night feelings
25. marshmello ft chvrches — here with me
24. say hi — windsor knots and ruffles
23. madeintyo — new wip
22. 100 gecs — ringtone
21. hobo johnson — happiness
20. tyler — running out of time
19. fabolous — B.O.M.B.S.
18. frank ocean — in my room
17. james blake ft andre 3000 — where’s the catch
16. ybn cordae ft anderson.paak — rnp
15. girl in red — dead girl in the pool
14. tones and i — dance monkey
13. vampire weekend — 2021
12. the weeknd — heartless
11. 2 chainz — money in the way
10. denzel curry — speedboat
9. role model — that’s just how it goes
8. fka twigs ft future — holy terrain
7. vampire weekend — unbearably white
6. travis scott — highest in the room
5. hobo johnson — i want a dog
4. virginia to vegas — just friends (tep no remix)
3. james blake ft rosalia — barefoot in the park
2. gesaffelstein ft the weeknd — lost in the fire
1. kygo ft whitney houston — higher love
Let me know what I missed or what I really should be listening to: [ckubal // gmail or twitter]. I keep a running playlist on Spotify, too, if you want to follow as 2020 progresses. Have a great year 🎉🎶🔥
