1. Eric Church - "Give Me Back My Hometown"

Most of the time, Eric Church seems like kind of a pompous tough guy, but in light of “Springsteen” and this song, I like him as a balladeer. His voice trembles beautifully on the high notes, he builds to the big singalong moments well, and even the goofy shoutout to Pizza Hut works (also -- "this year's team is stout"? Is that a real thing anyone would say about a football team?). And the song resonates with some experience I’ve had, watching someone feel like their hometown is being ruined by an ex who had the gall to stick around after the split. Here is my running Spotify playlist of favorite 2014 singles btw. 

2. Beyonce - "Partition"

Beyonce’s self-titled album was an experiment in, among other things, democracy. Which is to say, releasing an album all at once, with no advance single and a video for each song, puts pretty much every track on a level playing field to become a radio hit, even if certain songs were official singles from the jump. And one of the results already in evidence is that people have chosen the filthy sex songs: “Drunk In Love” instantly eclipsed “XO” between the two initial official singles, and “Partition” jumped out pretty quickly as the first single choice spurred by popular demand (and I’m pretty certain the two most likely future R&B radio hits are “Rocket” and “Blow,” the two other most sexually explicit tracks on the album). Much as I lament the failure of “XO,” this generally doesn’t strike me as a bad thing, especially in the case of “Partition,” which is a pretty amazing song. The beat, which B said reminded her of Too $hort in the making-of doc, falls into the current West coast rap radio zeitgeist without being an overly obvious DJ Mustard bandwagon jump, and the melodic twist on the chorus take it to an entirely different place. It's also pretty badass that some stations play it with the "Yonce" part of the track intact. 

3. Sevyn Streeter - "nEXt"

I've been a little annoyed at Sevyn Streeter only blanketing the airwaves with the Chris Brown remix of "It Won't Stop" for months on end when it was better as a solo track to begin with and the record it's on, only a piddly EP, is full of really good songs also deserving of airplay. So I was pretty excited when the standout track from Call Me Crazy, But... starting to get played on the radio in the last week or two. She really has a way with these kind of gentle, lilting melodies that are a little warmer and more luxurious than some of the less subtle or talented Aaliyah disciples out there right now. 

4. Ellie Goulding - "Burn"

Ellie Goulding seems to have these weird, inconveniently timed waves of success in America. After her first album was a success in the U.K. and was re-released as a deluxe edition with a new single, that song, "Lights," took an entire year to slowly climb the Hot 100 and become a huge U.S. hit, just before her second album was released. And when that second album didn't quite benefit from the momentum of "Lights" and none of the singles did well, it was re-released with a new single, "Burn," last summer, but at that time it got completely outshined by Goulding's Calvin Harris collaboration, "I Need Your Love," which was blowing up at the time. And now that "Burn" is over 6 months old, it's finally become a big hit, and has really grown on me in that time. The opening lyric is awful ("We, we don't have to worry 'bout nothing/ 'cause we got the fire, and we're burning one hell of a something") and someone with Goulding's weird old-timey British orphanage movie voice shouldn't be able to sing a vaguely dancehall-influenced fake Rihanna song with lyrics about "getting loco." But hey, it's a catchy song.

5. Yo Gotti f/ Meek Mill - "F-U"

I must acknowledge that it's totally weird, but pretty much accidental, that the #2 song here is Beyonce and the #5 song is Yo Gotti, just like last month. But I gotta say again, as totally unremarkable and permanently C-list as Yo Gotti is, I Am really is full of bangers. And it's annoying that after "Act Right," his label decided to push a weak J. Cole feature as the follow-up single -- reminds me of how somebody thought Juicy J needed Wale on his single. Meanwhile, DJs have been rightfully latching onto "I Know" and "F-U" instead. It's unfortunate that the other single right now with Meek and Yo Gotti, "Know No Better," totally sucks. 

6. DJ Snake & Lil Jon - "Turn Down For What"

Lil Jon's wave has been over for almost a decade. Even his little revival wave of songs with dance pop douches like LMFAO and 3OH!3 is a few years past now (although "Shots" is strangely one of his most enduring songs). And even having a song called "turn down for what" feels a little late and trend-hopping by now. But as stupid and semi-depressing at this song's very existence is, it kinda bangs, I can't say I don't enjoy it. 

7. Jason Derulo f/ 2 Chainz - "Talk Dirty"

Another totally ridiculous, stupid song that I totally enjoy, although "stupid but enjoyable" is pretty much the entire 2 Chainz m.o., so he's a big part of it working for me. I don't know much of anything about Balkan Beat Box other than that I've seen a couple members play with Firewater in a tiny club, so it's surprising that they're sampled on a gigantic pop hit. 

8. Miley Cyrus - "Adore You"

This was the only song on Bangerz that I enjoyed at all, so I'm glad that it's a single now. Although, since the video is only mildly obnoxious and not, like, her farting onto a Koopa Troopa while wearing a diamond-encrusted grill, it hasn't gotten her much attention and is pretty much the least successful thing out of this whole album cycle. 

9. Jason Aldean - "When She Says Baby"

I've always been pretty indifferent to Jason Aldean, aside from the Kelly Clarkson duet, but I like this song. And it amused me that it was out at the moment my paper had a little censorship controversy around another writer's review of his concert (funny, with all the unnecessarily mean crap I've written for them in hundreds of live reviews and concert listings, I would've expected something like this to happen to me, not this newer guy). 

10. Zendaya - "My Baby"

 I'm gonna pat myself on the back for being ahead of the curve on "Replay," a few months before it became a decent-sized sleeper hit on pop radio. Her album's got some jams, too, happy that she's getting a follow-up single out there. 

Worst Single of the Month: Chris Brown f/ Lil Wayne and French Montana - "Loyal (East Coast Version)"

So it was just announced the other day that Chris Brown got kicked out of rehab and is now going to jail (and also, what diagnosed with PTSD? Punching people is traumatic to your fists, I guess). And I was already thinking about writing about how awful this song is, and luckily, I have no problem with kicking that fucker while he's down. Funny how Mr. "is there such a thing as loving two people?" is now Mr. "these hoes ain't loyal," that's so weird. Don't get me wrong, this hateful misogynist invective has some cool keyboard sounds, but what a fucking awful record. And as a bonus, French Montana continues his shameless plundering of 1997 (note that he does a Life After Death hook and the "Luchini" hook on the new Rick Ross album), cobbling together his verse from lines from that Biggie verse that Jay quoted on a hit and that Ma$e verse that Drake quoted on a hit. Bites on bites on bites.