For those of you who follow me on Snapchat, this list will be of little/no surprise to you. So here goes. The top three are in order and the remaining seven are all even with a couple of super fucking honourable mentions at the bottom.

1. Lana Del Rey – High By The Beach

From the moment this leaked in HQ to this day, the track has resonated with me, for a number of reasons (cc Teddy Sinclair, Illyse Singer, Willy Moon and a beach in New York about two weeks before the track came out). But also, the video and the message behind it – the strength of lyrical message making somewhat of a change from Ultraviolence, the past reference to “lights, camera, accion”, the rebellion, honesty and openness opening us up to a new era from Lana – something almost more tech-experimentative which fits with where she is at culturally right now. Oh and if I was doing an album list then Honeymoon would be at the top along with Grimes’ Art Angels.

2. Future – Thought It Was A Drought

Angel Haze introduced me to this track from Future, the week that the album dropped. Again, we were in New York at her apartment and we consistently play it on loop. Sonically, the thickness and depth of the track, again coupled with totally rebellious lyrics nailed if for me. It’s been a staple both through meme value and personally with my friends ever since. Literally cannot wait for the video to drop which is co-directed by A$AP Ferg.

3. Travis Scott – 3500

Current Rihanna controversy aside (this is not a speculation site!), from the entire Rodeo album (and Deluxe) this is 100% my favourite track. No explanation as to why – I mean it is produced by Metro Boomin, Zaytoven, Mike Dean, Million $ Mano and Allen Ritter (Metro and Allen also produced Thought It Was A Drought) so sonically it is completely in line with what I fell in love with this year.

Here’s my Spotify playlist for the full list of ten which also features REALiTI from Grimes (after it had been reworked from the demo), The Hills from The Weeknd, Music To Watch Boys To by Lana Del Rey, King Kunta by Kendrick Lamar, Hands To Myself by Selena Gomez (she had one of the best albums of the year and the first three singles are beyond compare), All Day by Kanye West (duh) and Bitch Better Have My Money by Rihanna.

On an equally interesting note, onto the honourable mentions. It was really hard because I wanted to include two Grimes tracks on the original list but REALiTI trumped this by a traction because I think it has more longevity and slower burnout, but Venus Fly featuring Janelle Monae is where Grimes goes the hardest on Art Angels. What she delivers is pretty fucking unparalleled – harder than any EDM track out there right now and also more beautifully executed than anything I have ever heard on a dance level in the last ten years.

Second honourable mention to my girl Alo Lee – for her entire EP Twice Burned and the full three-track produced by Liam Howe (Adele, FKA, Lana) and Exmoor Emperor, plus all of the SoundCloud content which has been incredibly strong – from covers of The Weeknd, Rihanna and Drake to original content like Blindsight with Lox Chatterbox and Blood with Su Na. Enjoy!

https://soundcloud.com/sunabeats/blood-feat-alo-lee

https://soundcloud.com/alolee/sets/twiceburnedep

https://soundcloud.com/alolee/sets/videos-3track

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