Sometimes I delay putting a song in this space because it feels like I might need to give it the #1 spot but I’m not sure or totally ready yet, and I’ve been doing that with this song for a while so it feels like it’s been out forever, even though it’s just now peaking on national charts. Just a tremendous record, obviously, but what’s cool is that the verses have seeped in and become as indispensable as the hook. I love how at the end of the song, all the really memorably ad libs from the verse come back, played out like a highlight reel: “I know you do! Don’t look like that! Thank you lord! Leggo leggo!” Pretty much all the songs from these posts every month this year are on my favorite 2013 singles Spotify playlist, by the way. 

I tend not to be a huge fan of funny viral videos birthing chart hits, the whole “Harlem Shake” thing was awful, “Gangnam Style” was not bad but wore out its welcome pretty quickly, lot of other stuff was just kinda dumb. But I kinda love “The Fox,” most of all because it’s pretty much a full-on pop song that happens to be comedic without being an overt parody of dance pop – like, it’s amazing that Stargate produced, it might actually be the best thing they’ve done in two or three years. I’ve just watched this so many times, and I still love it. I’ve also been going back and playing the hell out of the handful of previous Ylvis songs that were in English, particularly “Someone Like Me,” “Stonehenge” and “Jan Egeland.” I also like that "The Fox" kind of reminds me of "Bring In The Katz." 

I always look at the new Billboard charts every Thursday, and lately one of my favorite things has been to see two songs slowly climb up the Pop Songs chart that were released months and months ago and made only a brief blip on the Alternative charts, so I figured they already missed their chance to be big radio hits: this, and Paramore’s “Still Into You.” I already put the Paramore song in this space a few months ago, but never did with this when it was new because the Tegan And Sara album had just come out and it kinda felt like one of many equally great songs. Hearing it on its own, though, it really is powerful and singular. And it’s fun seeing them sing it with Taylor Swift in the live YouTube that is probably what kickstarted the song’s chart revival. 

For twenty years now, I’ve been eagerly anticipating lead singles from Pearl Jam albums, sometimes thrilled with what I hear but just as often confounded or disappointed. One of those songs that I didn’t know what to make of at first, but have since come to love, is “Spin The Black Circle,” which is what “Mind Your Manners” has frequently been compared to. But what I actually like best about “Mind Your Manners” is the big melodic refrain that kinda comes out of nowhere and sounds nothing like “Spin,” which more and more feels like the payoff for a song that would otherwise feel like a lame retread. I remember the second or third time I heard it on the radio, I couldn’t place the intro right away and thought it was one of the songs off the last Soundgarden album, which is funny just because of how rarely a Pearl Jam song could be mistaken for a Soundgarden song, despite all their common ground. 

I wouldn’t put this on the level of Sevyn’s first hit, the super underappreciate “I Like It,” but it’s pretty great, one of those handful of mainstream productions the last few years that has made me a little lenient on my long held ‘Diplo is the worst’ stance – I actually like it more than Usher’s “Climax,” which this clearly uses as kind of a template while having a much warmer, less histrionic overall sound. I’m annoyed that there’s now a remix with Chris Brown that has supplanted the original on a lot of radio playlists, but oh well, hopefully it gets her album released. 

It’s probably too little too late to redeem the project’s rep as a commercial bomb, but I’m glad that Kanye has finally released one of the more accessible songs off of Yeezus as a single. It was probably in part just done because his kid had just been born, but I feel like the lack of a conventional singles campaign was almost like a cop-out, like he made this album about challenging his audience, and then made no effort to put any songs on the radio where a huge amount of his audience has always connected with his audience. And I don’t buy that this song is almost like an apologetically traditional Kanye soul beat track at the end of an otherwise forward-thinking album, the whole thing is just put together in a cool and unique way, with abrupt cuts like the “uh huh honey” sample in keeping with the rest of the album. And Charlie Wilson belting “just grind somebody, no leavin’ this party with nobody to love” over a seasick fuzz bass hum is just the greatest.

What has really helped raise my opinion of Yeezus over the course of the summer has been the abundance of Diet Kanye albums by J. Cole and Wale and especially Big Sean, who literally got a lot of beats that were probably meant for Yeezus but passed on for being too Kanye-by-numbers, including this song. I do like this song a lot, though, it’s pretty close to an ideal Big Sean song, with such a huge-sounding production from DJ Camper, trying on a different sound than the near-identical tracks he did for big R&B singles earlier in the year (Tamar Braxton’s “Love And War” and Keyshia Cole’s “Trust And Believe”). I realize this isn't a radio single yet, but it seems like it really should be, really is a clear highlight of Hall of Fame, which is pretty short on both hits and highlights. 

I feel like a lot of people just completely shit on everything new from Prince, and while a lot of it deserves to be dismissed, I think it’s pretty easy to find the really enjoyable stuff he still turns out pretty regularly. This song, when it initially leaked earlier this year, instantly struck me as one of the best things he’s done in a while, so I was really happy when it was officially released as a single last month, definitely deserves to be in the small canon of really awesome later singles like “Call My Name” and “Black Sweat.”

9. Beware of Darkness - "Howl"

There’s been some nice heavy bluesy songs on rock radio lately like this and Nico Vega’s “Beast,” not as exciting as, say, Dead Sara, but a lot better than that turgid Black Keys bullshit. 

10. Atlas Genius - "If So"

Atlas Genius’s first big single, “Trojans,” was one of the worst of the ubiquitous songs on alt-rock radio this year by interchangeable mealy-mouthed new bands. So I didn’t expect to like the follow-up so much, which isn’t hugely different but just has a good solid hook and an instrumental bridge that feels so massive that it probably could’ve been the foundation of its own hit song. 

Worst Single of the Month: Eminem - "Berzerk"
Eminem dropping a Rick Rubin-produced Beastie Boys-sampling single, for an album that will reportedly feature Macklemore and Iggy Azalea, is some creepy white rap supremacy wagon circling, in a year when we've kinda had enough of that, if you ask me. But the real reason that this song sucks is that his voice still goes into that high whiny register that he never really used before "Not Afraid," and despite the sound of the track breaking with Eminem lead single tradition, it's still basically another song loaded up with corny pop culture jokes about the Kardashians and incredibly dated references to K-Fed, of all people.