Adele produced one of the biggest crossover hits of all time in 2011 when she released Rolling In The Deep. The song was a highlight of the production quality behind her work and her stunning vocal talents, becoming her first number-one hit in the US and one of the best-selling singles of all time.
Purple Haze was the second single the Jimi Hendrix Experience released and it used a unique blend of the Hendrix chord, the blues, and Eastern music styles to create one of the most iconic psychedelic rock songs of all time. It has always been one of his most popular tracks, but the guitar chords and progressions have made it one of the best songs for the guitar in music history.
Gasolina is one of the most important songs in Latin music history. It was the first reggaeton track to ever be nominated for the Latin Grammy Award for Record of the Year and has always remained a popular song. In 2005, it became a worldwide international hit and it eventually found a place in the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress for its cultural and historical relevance.
There are plenty of Bob Marley tracks that could have been considered for this list, but Redemption Song added such a deep personal layer that it becomes hard to argue against it for one of the best songs of all time. He had already been diagnosed with cancer when the track was recorded, and it clearly was meant to deal with the way he grappled with his own mortality. It was eventually released as a single in the UK and France after appearing on his album Uprising.
All Along The Watchtower was actually a famous Bob Dylan song before Jimi Hendrix picked it up, but it took on new life when it was played by the Jimi Hendrix Experience. His version became the best-known one of the tracks, finding a spot on his third studio album Electric Ladyland. After adapting it to his own style, he produced one of the most incredible singles of all time.
However, the best-known version of the track today belongs to Israel Kamakawiwoʻole. His ukulele-laced medley of the song has appeared on charts several times and is one of the most-used tracks in film media. You can hear it in 50 First Dates, Snakes On A Plane, Charmed, Son Of Mask, and several other pieces of media today.
It fundamentally made record labels rethink the bands they signed and what sounds were popular, leading to a massive surge in alternative rock groups being given opportunities. It helped drive the Nevermind album to become one of the best-selling albums of all time and became one of the most important songs of the 1990s.
Bohemian Rhapsody is often regarded as a masterpiece from Queen, but it was a song that almost never came to be. Rather than a single track, this one is an amalgamation of several tracks that they were working on at the time. After stringing them together with perfect bridges and several rewrites, we wound up with what is undeniably one of the best songs of all time and one that will forever go down in history as a legendary single.
Imagine is often remembered as one of the best songs of the Vietnam War era, if not ever. It asks us to simply imagine a world without materialism, borders, or religion. In this scenario, the things that divide people are gone and we live in peace. It was named one of the most-performed tracks of the 20th century, as over 200 artists have performed or covered the song.
2023 has been a strange year of ups and downs, but there\\u2019s always been good music to get us through. We said hello to exciting new artists around the world, welcomed fresh tracks from mainstays, and bid a fond farewell to some trailblazers (most notably Camp Cope in Australia, who challenged and changed the local music landscape). From big-screen soundtracks and household names to a few lesser-known artists, here are 10 of our critic\\u2019s top picks for songs of the year.
They might have made listeners wait five long years since their debut EP was released for a full-length, but ask anyone in the know \\u2013 boygenius\\u2019 full-length debut was worth it. The supergroup, made up of American singer-songwriters Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus, combined their gorgeous harmonies and razor-sharp observations on the album, simply titled The Record. Not Strong Enough is classic boygenius, spotlighting the best of each songwriter\\u2019s abilities and styles, all while referencing a classic Sheryl Crow song. This is modern indie at its very best \\u2013 the future is bright for \\u201Cthe boys\\u201D.
Love it or hate it, you have to hand it to her \\u2013 Greta Gerwig truly dominated the culture in 2023 with Barbie, and the film had a star-studded soundtrack to boot. While many of the songs on that soundtrack might not stand the test of time, Charli XCX\\u2019s contribution is buckets of memorable fun, perfectly capturing the manic, weirdo energy of the film while also slotting comfortably into the English pop star\\u2019s canon alongside songs like Vroom Vroom. Its cheeky interpolation of Toni Basil\\u2019s 80s hit Hey Mickey makes it an earworm that\\u2019s impossible to shake off.
If you haven\\u2019t yet heard of RVG, what are you waiting for? The post-punk band has been one of Melbourne\\u2019s best-kept secrets for years, and their latest album, Brain Worms, is their most daring yet. Squid is its sprawling, enigmatic centrepiece \\u2013 in the thundering, synth-soaked song, singer Romy Vager describes stepping on a squid and then becoming one herself. Turns out that being a cephalopod doesn\\u2019t save you from the existential despair of modern life. Adventurous, compelling and strange, this is one of the best local releases of the year that shows a songwriter at the peak of her powers.
This track from Indigenous singer-songwriter Tia Gostelow snuck into my most played for the year, according to Spotify Wrapped \\u2013 and it\\u2019s not too hard to see why. The Queensland musician seamlessly melds contemporary and 80s influences on the first single from her third album, Head Noise. It\\u2019s a slice of pop perfection, ruminating on the yearning and overthinking that often comes with the experience of love in one\\u2019s younger years. Saxophone flourishes dot the tune before an extended outro, bringing to mind the best of the previous decades while also pushing Australian pop music forward into a new sphere.
But, even putting aside metal's love for masks and theatricality (Slipknot, Ghost, GWAR - there's plenty of precedent for it), Sleep Token's music is a fascinating mixture of soul, R&B, djent and tech metal elements that makes them unlike just about anybody else. Now with over 1 million monthly listeners on Spotify, we figured it high time to pick out the ten best Sleep Token songs - so far...
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