Deep Album Cuts Vol. 182: John Prine

Thursday, April 30, 2020





John Prine passed away lthree weeks ago, after testing positive for COVID-19. And as I said after posting my Fountains Of Wayne playlist and my Joe Diffie playlist, I'm going pay tribute to every musician who's taken from us by this damn virus that it makes sense to in this column, whether there are many other tributes or not (I'd really like to do a Bohannon one, but most of his catalog isn't on streaming services). In this case, a lot of people who know Prine's catalog better than I do have already written beautiful pieces, but I still wanted to take the opportunity to drink it in a bit, to appreciate his talent.

John Prine deep album cuts (Spotify playlist):

1. Pretty Good
2. Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore
3. The Torch Singer
4. Often Is A Word I Seldom Use
5. The Accident (Things Could Be Worse)
6. Middle Man
7. If You Don't Want My Love
8. That's The Way The World Goes Round
9. How Lucky
10. Shop Talk
11. Maureen, Maureen
12. Somewhere Someone's Falling In Love
13. I Just Want To Dance With You
14. Speed Of The Sound Of Loneliness
15. Take A Look At My Heart with Bruce Springsteen
16. Jesus, The Missing Years
17. This Love Is Real with Marianne Faithfull
18. Milwaukee, Here I Come with Melba Montgomery
19. Til A Tear Becomes A Rose with Fiona Prine
20. Safety Joe
21. Clay Pigeons
22. Who's Gonna Take The Garbage Out with Iris DeMent
23. No Ordinary Blue
24. Knockin' On Your Screen Door

Tracks 1 and 2 from John Prine (1971)
Track 3 from Diamonds In The Rough (1972)
Tracks 4 and 5 from Sweet Revenge (1973)
Track 6 from Common Sense (1975)
Tracks 7 and 8 from Bruised Orange (1978)
Track 9 from Pink Cadillac (1979)
Track 10 from Storm Windows (1980)
Tracks 11 and 12 from Aimless Love (1984)
Tracks 13 and 14 from German Afternoons (1986)
Tracks 15 and 16 from The Missing Years (1991)
Track 17 from Lost Dogs And Mixed Blessings (1995)
Tracks 18 and 19 from In Spite Of Ourselves (1999)
Tracks 20 and 21 from Fair & Square (2005)
Track 22 from For Better, Or Worse (2016)
Tracks 23 and 24 from The Tree Of Forgiveness (2018)

Obviously, John Prine was not someone who had hits on the singles charts and was consumed as an album artist, so in some ways everything is a deep cut, or nothing is. In any event, I avoided songs that were released as singles, had videos, or appeared on best-of compilations, with maybe one or two exceptions. "Angel From Montgomery" was the first song everybody talked about after he passed so things like that, I stayed away from even though it was never a single.

I didn't hear a lot of John Prine in his lifetime, I had more of a passing familiarity with his reputation than his actual music, so getting familiar with his catalog has been one of the more enjoyable things I've done to pass the time at home this month. I only recently learned after Prine died that my mom saw him at the Stompin 76 festival in Galax, Virginia in 1976.

One thing that really impressed me that I didn't realize is that while John Prine started his career with Atlantic Records, by the mid-'80s he didn't have a record deal and started his own label, Oh Boy Records. So he went indie before a lot of his generation even thought about doing that, and self-released all his albums for the last 35 years of his career, including both of his Grammy wins, and all but one of his Grammy nominations. His self-titled debut was, for a long time, his highest charting album, hitting #55 on the Billboard 200. But he reached #55 again three decades later with Fair & Square, and then his last two solo albums charted even higher, going out on a high note with the #5 debut of The Tree Of Forgiveness less than 2 years before his death.

As John Prine's career grew longer and more respected, his albums attracted more starpower. I thought it was interesting that Prine wrote "Take A Look At My Heart" with John Mellencamp, and then got Bruce Springsteen to sing with him on it, since Springsteen and Mellencamp get compared to each other a lot but have otherwise never really collaborated.

Two of his most popular late period albums, 1999's In Spite Of Ourselves and 2016's For Better, Or Worse were full of Prine's favorite songs covered as duets with female singers, from big names to Prine's own wife Fiona, who sounds lovely on "Til A Tear Becomes A Rose." A lot of the songs on those two albums, including "Milwaukee, Here I Come," were first recorded by George Jones, who Prine was a big fan of and namechecked on his own songs "Jesus, The Missing Years" and "Knockin' On Your Screen Door."

Many of these songs were covered notably. "That's The Way The World Goes Round" was kind of my gateway to Prine after first hearing Miranda Lambert's cover. "I Just Wanna Dance With You" was made into a #1 country hit by George Strait in 1998. "Speed Of The Sound Of Loneliness" was covered by everyone from Amos Lee to The Lemonheads. "Pretty Good" was covered by Paul Anka, who was at one point Prine's manager and an early champion of his music.

Of all the guys who were labeled 'the new Dylan' in the '70s, John Prine is the one who actually sounds the most like Bob Dylan, especially as the years went on and his voice got craggier, but it's a testament to Prine's talent that the comparison didn't seem to follow him around too much, and Dylan himself was a fan who had kind words upon his passing. And Prine very much has a songwriting sensibility that is all his own, from the wry wit of "Pretty Good" and "Jesus, The Missing Years" to the darker gallows humor of "Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore" and "The Accident" and the moving heartache of "If You Don't Want My Love" and "Speed Of The Sound Of Loneliness."

Previous playlists in the Deep Album Cuts series:
Vol. 1: Brandy
Vol. 2: Whitney Houston
Vol. 3: Madonna
Vol. 4: My Chemical Romance
Vol. 5: Brad Paisley
Vol. 6: George Jones
Vol. 7: The Doors
Vol. 8: Jay-Z
Vol. 9: Robin Thicke
Vol. 10: R. Kelly
Vol. 11: Fall Out Boy
Vol. 12: TLC
Vol. 13: Pink
Vol. 14: Queen
Vol. 15: Steely Dan
Vol. 16: Trick Daddy
Vol. 17: Paramore
Vol. 18: Elton John
Vol. 19: Missy Elliott
Vol. 20: Mariah Carey
Vol. 21: The Pretenders
Vol. 22: "Weird Al" Yankovic
Vol. 23: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Vol. 24: Foo Fighters
Vol. 25: Counting Crows
Vol. 26: T.I.
Vol. 27: Jackson Browne
Vol. 28: Usher
Vol. 29: Mary J. Blige
Vol. 30: The Black Crowes
Vol. 31: Ne-Yo
Vol. 32: Blink-182
Vol. 33: One Direction
Vol. 34: Kelly Clarkson
Vol. 35: The B-52's
Vol. 36: Ludacris
Vol. 37: They Might Be Giants
Vol. 38: T-Pain
Vol. 39: Snoop Dogg
Vol. 40: Ciara
Vol. 41: Creedence Clearwater Revival
Vol. 42: Dwight Yoakam
Vol. 43: Demi Lovato
Vol. 44: Prince
Vol. 45: Duran Duran
Vol. 46: Rihanna
Vol. 47: Janet Jackson
Vol. 48: Sara Bareilles
Vol. 49: Motley Crue
Vol. 50: The Who
Vol. 51: Coldplay
Vol. 52: Alicia Keys
Vol. 53: Stone Temple Pilots
Vol. 54: David Bowie
Vol. 55: The Eagles
Vol. 56: The Beatles
Vol. 57: Beyonce
Vol. 58: Beanie Sigel
Vol. 59: A Tribe Called Quest
Vol. 60: Cheap Trick
Vol. 61: Guns N' Roses
Vol. 62: The Posies
Vol. 63: The Time
Vol. 64: Gucci Mane
Vol. 65: Violent Femmes
Vol. 66: Red Hot Chili Peppers
Vol. 67: Maxwell
Vol. 68: Parliament-Funkadelic
Vol. 69: Chevelle
Vol. 70: Ray Parker Jr. and Raydio
Vol. 71: Fantasia
Vol. 72: Heart
Vol. 73: Pitbull
Vol. 74: Nas
Vol. 75: Monica
Vol. 76: The Cars
Vol. 77: 112
Vol. 78: 2Pac
Vol. 79: Nelly
Vol. 80: Meat Loaf
Vol. 81: AC/DC
Vol. 82: Bruce Springsteen
Vol. 83: Pearl Jam
Vol. 84: Green Day
Vol. 85: George Michael and Wham!
Vol. 86: New Edition
Vol. 87: Chuck Berry
Vol. 88: Electric Light Orchestra
Vol. 89: Chic
Vol. 90: Journey
Vol. 91: Yes
Vol. 92: Soundgarden
Vol. 93: The Allman Brothers Band
Vol. 94: Mobb Deep
Vol. 95: Linkin Park
Vol. 96: Shania Twain
Vol. 97: Squeeze
Vol. 98: Taylor Swift
Vol. 99: INXS
Vol. 100: Stevie Wonder
Vol. 101: The Cranberries
Vol. 102: Def Leppard
Vol. 103: Bon Jovi
Vol. 104: Dire Straits
Vol. 105: The Police
Vol. 106: Sloan
Vol. 107: Peter Gabriel
Vol. 108: Led Zeppelin
Vol. 109: Dave Matthews Band
Vol. 110: Nine Inch Nails
Vol. 111: Talking Heads
Vol. 112: Smashing Pumpkins
Vol. 113: System Of A Down
Vol. 114: Aretha Franklin
Vol. 115: Michael Jackson
Vol. 116: Alice In Chains
Vol. 117: Paul Simon
Vol. 118: Lil Wayne
Vol. 119: Nirvana
Vol. 120: Kix
Vol. 121: Phil Collins
Vol. 122: Elvis Costello & The Attractions
Vol. 123: Sonic Youth
Vol. 124: Bob Seger
Vol. 125: Radiohead
Vol. 126: Eric Church
Vol. 127: Neil Young
Vol. 128: Future
Vol. 129: Say Anything
Vol. 130: Maroon 5
Vol. 131: Kiss
Vol. 132: Dinosaur Jr.
Vol. 133: Stevie Nicks
Vol. 134: Talk Talk
Vol. 135: Ariana Grande
Vol. 136: Roxy Music
Vol. 137: The Cure
Vol. 138: 2 Chainz
Vol. 139: Kelis
Vol. 140: Ben Folds Five
Vol. 141: DJ Khaled
Vol. 142: Little Feat
Vol. 143: Brendan Benson
Vol. 144: Chance The Rapper
Vol. 145: Miguel
Vol. 146: The Geto Boys
Vol. 147: Meek Mill
Vol. 148: Tool
Vol. 149: Jeezy
Vol. 150: Lady Gaga
Vol. 151: Eddie Money
Vol. 152: LL Cool J
Vol. 153: Cream
Vol. 154: Pavement
Vol. 155: Miranda Lambert
Vol. 156: Gang Starr
Vol. 157: Little Big Town
Vol. 158: Thin Lizzy
Vol. 159: Pat Benatar
Vol. 160: Depeche Mode
Vol. 161: Rush
Vol. 162: Three 6 Mafia
Vol. 163: Jennifer Lopez
Vol. 164: Rage Against The Machine
Vol. 165: Huey Lewis and the News
Vol. 166: Dru Hill
Vol. 167: The Strokes
Vol. 168: The Notorious B.I.G.
Vol. 169: Sparklehorse
Vol. 170: Kendrick Lamar
Vol. 171: Mazzy Star
Vol. 172: Erykah Badu
Vol. 173: The Smiths
Vol. 174: Kenny Rogers & The First Edition
Vol. 175: Fountains Of Wayne
Vol. 176: Joe Diffie
Vol. 177: Morphine
Vol. 178: Dr. Dre
Vol. 179: The Rolling Stones
Vol. 180: Superchunk
Vol. 181: The Replacements

Deep Album Cuts Vol. 181: The Replacements

Wednesday, April 29, 2020






















I recently read Bob Mehr's excellent 2016 book Trouble Boys: The True Story of The Replacements and it's set me off on a big tear of listening to the band more than ever before, so I figured I'd put together a playlist while I was jamming this stuff a lot.

The Replacements deep album cuts (Spotify playlist):

1. I Hate Music
2. Somethin' To Dü
3. I Bought A Headache
4. God Damn Job
5. Within Your Reach
6. Run It
7. Treatment Bound
8. Favorite Thing
9. Black Diamond
10. Androgynous
11. Unsatisfied
12. Seen Your Video
13. Left Of The Dial
14. Here Comes A Regular
15. Waitress In The Sky
16. Hold My Life
17. Swingin Party
18. Valentine
19. Red Red Wine
20. Never Mind
21. I.O.U.
22. Talent Show
23. Anywhere's Better Than Here
24. Darlin' One
25. Sadly Beautiful
26. Nobody

Tracks 1, 2 and 3 from Sorry Ma, Forgot To Take Out The Trash (1981)
Track 4 from the Stink EP (1982)
Tracks 5, 6 and 7 from Hootenanny (1983)
Tracks 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 from Let It Be (1984)
Tracks 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17 from Tim (1985)
Tracks 18, 19, 20 and 21 from Pleased To Meet Me (1987)
Tracks 22, 23 and 24 from Don't Tell A Soul (1989)
Tracks 25 and 26 from All Shook Down (1990)

I didn't hear a lot of Replacements growing up -- they had already started to kind of recede into alternative rock's established canon by the time I was really up on things in the grunge era, I just thought of Paul Westerberg as this guy who seemed a little out of place on the Singles soundtrack. So I didn't hear much of the band until the late '90s when someone made me a 'Mats mixtape. In my nascent days of being nerdy about music online, I'd participate in mixtape swaps with people on mailing lists and newsgroups -- I'd make someone a tape of my favorite Elvis Costello or Sonic Youth songs, and they'd make me a tape of their favorite Devo or Replacements songs. I don't remember which person out of that group made me that 'Mats tape, but it was a perfect introduction to the band at the perfect time, hearing those songs at 17 and feeling like they were written for the exact place I was at in life.

For a long time that tape was my only frame of reference for those songs, because it was a few years before I picked up a CD of Let It Be and a few more years before I started to listen to the other albums. 14 of the 26 tracks on this playlist were on that tape. Side 1 of the tape ended with "Kiss Me On The Bus," and the tape cut off right before Westerberg says "stop" at 1:49. So in my mind for years that was just how the song ended and there was no guitar solo or final chorus.

I also stuck with chronological order, much like that mixtape did, because really the only way to make sense of The Replacements' career arc is to hear it in real time, the breakneck punk songs being periodically interrupted by experiments like the drum machine on "Within Your Reach" and the piano-driven "Androgynous" as the band's overall output gradually slowed down to midtempo anthems and vulnerable ballads. Lots of bands start fast and punky and get more mellow over the years, but few did it as dramatically as the 'Mats, or improved their songwriting as quickly as Paul Westerberg did. I do love the attitude on those early songs, though, and Tommy was just a kickass bass player from the jump.

One of the things that entertained me about reading Trouble Boys was learning that things I'd kind of assumed were scripted, like the bit at the top of "I Hate Music" ("tape's rolling," "so what?") was a real, unrehearsed exchange. "I hate music, it's got too many notes" is a great punk rallying cry, but like a lot of punk bands, The Replacements grew up on classic rock and kind of feigned distaste for it when it was fashionable to do so, and ultimately embraced those influences pretty unabashedly. But it still surprised me how big a Yes fan Bob Stinson was, how his drunken spontaneous guitar solos were probably as good as they were because he'd spent hours hunched over a record player studying everything Steve Howe played.

Listening to Replacements live recordings, I'm impressed by how controlled their chaos was, how one guy could start playing a song and the band would fall in right behind them after a beat or two, even if it was some random cover they were playing to antagonize an audience who wanted to hear their hits. That takes a level of musicianship that a lot of good bands don't possess. I remember the one time I was onstage with one of my bands and somebody started playing a cover we'd jokingly played in practice a couple times months earlier, and I wish I'd rolled with it instead of kind of freezing up in indecision until they stopped.

Westerberg more or less says that most of the lyrics on "Unsatisfied" and "Hold My Life" were ad libbed and improvised in the vocal booth, which makes sense listening to them, but it's still remarkable how well those songs work. I was surprised, however, that "Valentine" was an unfinished song that was quickly completed and thrown onto Pleased To Meet Me at the last minute because the label thought the album was too short, that's a total highlight of the record. I was also interested to learn that "Waitress In The Sky," often taken as kind of an ugly broadside at flight attendants, was actually based on the experiences of Westerberg's sister, who was one.

Since The Replacements were critical darlings who never quite became consistent hitmakers, a lot of their most beloved songs have always been album cuts, and there's a pretty well established canon of fan favorites like "Unsatisfied" or "Here Comes A Regular." But in 2020, the two most streamed Replacements songs on Spotify are "Androgynous" and "Swingin' Party," which is not something that I think would've been easily predicted back in the day even if the songs were always well regarded -- neither song appeared on either of the band's best-of compilations released in 1997 and 2006. "Swingin' Party"'s popularity is I guess primarily derived from Lorde's 2013 cover, and it's kind of cool that one of their songs was covered by a pop star born 5 years after the band broke up.

"Androgynous" is a song that's been covered a lot (most notably a 2015 cover by Joan Jett, Laura Jane Grace, and Miley Cyrus) that I think that has really resonated more and more over the years. Hearing it back in the '90s, I found it really moving and kind of impressive how Paul Westerberg, this tough guy straight midwestern rocker dude, presented such an empathetic and open-minded view of sexuality and gender in such a sweet and playful and touching song way back in 1984, and I feel that way even moreso now.

Another song that's now among their most streamed songs is the Don't Tell A Soul outtake "Portland" that was featured on last year's collection of alternate mixes and demos from that album, Dead Man's Pop. But I still much prefer the song that cannibalized the "Portland" chorus and became Soul's opening track, "Talent Show." Apparently at one point it was slated to be a single, and was performed in the band's only live TV appearance other than the infamous "Saturday Night Live" episode, at a short-lived annual gala called the International Rock Awards. Lately I've really gotten into "Darlin' One," which I was happy to see Tommy Stinson single out as a favorite. All Shook Down has its moments, too, "Nobody" is still one of the most indelible songs I heard on that cassette a couple decades ago.

Let It Be is obviously their defining album, though. It was hard not to put practically the whole album after "I Will Dare" on here. I had to include the cover of Kiss's "Black Diamond," because I always like being able to put the same song on different artists' deep cuts playlists. I've been getting more into "Favorite Thing" lately too, my family was driving through rural Virginia the week I was reading Trouble Boys and randomly we happened upon this station's Sunday morning block of '80s alternative and they were playing "Favorite Thing." And "Seen Your Video" feels like part of the band's mythology, making a song that mocked the whole idea of music videos and then signing a major label video and kind of compromising by making these cool minimalist anti-videos. And of course, their major label debut featured a timeless ode to college radio, "Left Of The Dial."

The Top 100 R&B Singles of the 2010s

Tuesday, April 28, 2020













10 years ago, I did lists of my favorite R&B singles and rap/R&B crossover singles of the 2000s, but this time I'm just putting both categories into one big list. Here's a Spotify playlist of all 100 songs. 

1. Miguel - "Adorn" (2012) 

#1 R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, #17 Hot 100
Miguel was already a few hits into his run as one of the more promising new R&B stars of the early 2010s when he released the first Art Dealer Chic mini-EP at the top of 2012.  But I wasn't as immediately taken with the 2-minute self-produced "Adorn" as some other people were. But Miguel added a third minute to the song for its official commercial release, and the bridge and extra chorus with beautiful vocal ad libs really made the charming miniature into a monster song -- the label tried to gild the lily additionally with a Wiz Khalifa remix but perfection had already been achieved. My favorite R&B single of the decade, from my favorite album of the decade

2. Tinashe f/ ScHoolboy Q - "2 On" (2014)

#5 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #24 Hot 100
I don't think I'm a staunch R&B traditionalist in a lot of ways, but I was never really on board with the crunk & B sound of the mid-2000's -- I just never thought sung vocals sounded as good over those brittle Lil Jon beats as rapped vocals. A decade later, DJ Mustard crossed over with a west coast sound that relied on a lot of the same 808s and synths as Lil Jon, and I braced myself to be annoyed by his inevitable transition to R&B. But I'll give Mustard a lot of credit: a lot of his R&B productions either switched up his sound entirely (Rihanna's "Needed Me," Ella Mai's "Boo'd Up") or married his post-hyphy signature drums to some more textured and melodic sounds as on "2 On," co-produced by Redwine and DJ Marley Waters. 

3. Beyonce - "Love On Top" (2012)

#1 R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, #20 Hot 100
4 was the first Beyonce album after Top 40 radio turned a corner and started to leave R&B behind, and it was the album that affirmed that she'd continue ruling R&B radio for the foreseeable future with or without crossover hits. "Love On Top" came in the middle of the album's singles campaign, months after an immortal VMA's performance that culminated in B revealing a baby bump at the end of the song, a moment that I think has retroactively imbued "Love On Top" with even more joy and love than the song was already bursting at the seams with, that you felt with every climactic key change. 

4. SZA - "The Weekend" (2017)

#6 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #37 Hot 100
Sometimes artists know when they've made a great career-defining song, and some don't. After the success of "The Weekend," SZA said "I made that song in two seconds. That was like a throwaway." But it struck a chord, a clever and compact song that puts a complicated romantic arrangement into an elegantly direct chorus, and I feel like it's got the most staying power of all the hits CTRL spun off. If she thinks she's capable of much better music than "The Weekend," I'm looking forward to hearing it. 

5. Ciara - "Body Party" (2013)
#2 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #22 Hot 100
A good number of contemporary R&B singles have sampled or interpolated hits of yesteryear since the '90s, when hip hop-style sampling changed the sound of soul music. But in the 2010s, it really started to feel like the snake was eating its own tail when so much of R&B radio recycled songs still in rotation from the '90s and early 2000s. When Ciara and Future's brief but infamous relationship produced the biggest hit of the second half of her career, "Body Party," I was a little a skeptical of the idea to slow down Ghost Town DJs' "My Boo" to slow jam tempo. After all, as Rodney Terry of Ghost Town DJs told Billboard's Natalie Weiner a few years ago, "The whole key of the record was it was an R&B record over a fast beat. The music and the vocals couldn't have anything to do with the beat." But "Body Party" grew on me, and in retrospect it's one of the greatest moments of '90s nostalgia in the 2010s. 

6. Jeremih f/ J. Cole - "Planes" (2015)

#1 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #44 Hot 100
Jeremih became a star practically overnight in 2009, but he spent the next decade coming into his own creatively while constantly being underestimated by the industry and fighting for every victory. And that struggle is best epitomized by "Planes," a song that took a year to come out after a live performance of the song with its original guest MC, Chance The Rapper, went viral. When Def Jam finally deigned to release the song, well after the momentum of "Don't Tell 'Em" had dissipated, with the more bankable J. Cole adding a legendarily mediocre verse to it, it showed up on Spotify, then disappeared, then came back, with the official title arbitrarily changing from "Planes" to "Planez" at some point in the process. And yet, the song was still a #1 hit, and deservingly so. 

7. Rihanna - “Rude Boy” (2010)
#2 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #1 Hot 100
"Rude Boy" was released on Rated R in late 2009, but it didn't debut on the charts until the following year, so it's one of a handful of 2009 songs getting grandfathered into my 2010s lists. 6 of Rihanna's last 7 albums launched with a huge lead single that went to #1 on the Hot 100, and the exception of Rated R, which came out at the end of the tumultuous year that Chris Brown assaulted Rihanna. The album's first two singles, "Russian Roulette" and "Hard," represented a darker sound than people had heard from Rihanna at that point. But with the release of "Rude Boy" as the third single, it felt like she was ready to give the world the sexy uptempo bangers that she's served consistently before and since then, and "Rude Boy" really might be my favorite Rihanna song, it just utilizes every unique quality of her voice perfectly. 

8. Fantasia f/ Kelly Rowland and Missy Elliott - "Without Me" (2013)
#6 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #74 Hot 100
One of my highlights of the past year was interviewing Fantasia Barrino, one of the great R&B vocalists of her generation. Early in her career, she'd manage to give a powerhouse performance even over a crisp minimal track like the modern classic "When I See U." But Fantasia really showed her range on my favorite track from the 2010s by scaling down and giving a subtle, muted performance that simmered with indignation and disgust on "Without Me." 

9. Elle Varner - "Refill" (2012)
#10 R&B/Hip-Hop Songs
Elle Varner's performance on "Refill" veers on over-the-top, but that beautifully manic violin loop filling every available space in the beat manages to provide the perfect back drop for her animated vocal. Pop Wanswel and DJ Camper have both separately been behind a lot of my favorite R&B tracks of the past decade, but this is one of just a couple co-productions they have together (along with Big Sean's "Marvin and Chardonnay"). 

10. Khalid - "Location" (2017)
#2 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #16 Hot 100
Khalid's career arc reminds me of Akon's -- starting out with a hit or two on R&B radio, and then crossing over to the Top 40 world and staying there with increasingly pop/EDM beats and collaborators. But the first time I heard "Location" it just grabbed me and I had a pretty strong hunch that it was gonna be a hit, months before it charted nationally, not know anything about this teenage army brat with the oddly worldly voice other than that I'd be hearing more from him. 





















11. Bruno Mars - "That's What I Like" (2017)
#1 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #1 Hot 100
The first time I heard Bruno Mars's voice was on an R&B station, on that B.o.B song that rocketed to #1 out of nowhere and was most of America's introduction to Pete Hernandez. But he seemed immediately destined for pop stardom, and it was a mild surprise when his polymath flair for studying and mastering different styles of popular music led him to the retro funk of his third album 24K Magic. But regardless of whether he stays there for album #4, album #3 made R&B radio his home, and my favorite hit from the record is the one that was the least tied to any particular past decade style. It sounded a little like it could've come out in the early 2000s but for the most part it sounded right on time. 

12. Miguel - "Sure Thing" (2011)
#1 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #36 Hot 100
"Sure Thing" was a song that sounded a little left-of-center and ahead of its time when it blanketed the airwaves in 2011. But by that point it had been almost 4 years since the same track helped Miguel land a manager and a deal with Jive, and 7 years since he first glimpsed fame with a brief appearance on the hilariously named reality show "Blowin' Up!: Fatty Koo." The air conditioning in my car was busted in the summer of 2011, and hearing "Sure Thing" now just makes me think of how much I was sweating with the windows open while hearing that song every hour of every day that I was in the car. 

13. DJ Khaled f/ Chris Brown, August Alsina, Future and Jeremih - "Hold You Down" (2014)
#1 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #39 Hot 100
Although I liked early DJ Khaled's early singles like "We Takin' Over" and he had plenty of hits in the last decade, his triumphant rap anthem formula really wore thin for me in the 2010s. So after thinking about it, I realize that my favorite Khaled song from the past 10 years was his first single that put a few male R&B stars (and Honest-era Future at his most melodic) into the posse cut format, something of a modern update of "The Secret Garden" by Quincy Jones. 

14. Kelly Rowland f/ Lil Wayne - "Motivation" (2010)
#1 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #17 Hot 100
Kelly Rowland's got such a gorgeous voice, I miss the harmonies and the blend of voices in Destiny's Child, and I wish she released solo albums more often. But "Motivation" was the one moment where she really got her due as a solo artist, another song I heard on the radio much for a few months that just hearing it puts me back in that time and place.

15. Usher - "Good Kisser" (2014)

#1 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #65 Hot 100
Usher's post-Confessions career has been pretty damn good, a little inconsistent and at times lacking direction, but he's amassed a nice run of singles and albums that's still better than the majority of his contemporaries and would-be successors. But it's hard to come down from that kind of height of stardom without showing signs of strain, and I think he got judged too harshly in the 2010s, to the point that he ended up never releasing the album, UR, that was set to feature "Good Kisser" or the other R&B #1 that followed soon after, "I Don't Mind." And those songs weren't fiascos like "Pop Ya Collar," the 2001 single that prompted the title change and delay of his 4th album, "Good Kisser" in particular was just an outstanding record. The lyric is a little over-the-top but the Pop & Oak production and the vocal performance are just killer. . 

16. Beyonce - "Formation" (2016)
#4 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #10 Hot 100
I'm moderately bored of Beyonce's more hip hop-leaning material, but she really got the perfect recipe for that side of her sound with Mike Will and Swae Lee here. Almost any Beyonce song with brass in it goes off, and the part where she harmonizes with the horns at 2:17 is one of my favorite moments in her whole catalog. 

17. Daniel Caesar f/ H.E.R. - "Best Part" (2018)

#11 R&B R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #75 Hot 100
After years of the more young and hip end of R&B leaning into trap drums and rap flows, one of the more interesting developments of the last couple years was a new generation of quiet storm R&B. Daniel Caesar and H.E.R. both led the way on that trend, and their acoustic duet is my favorite thing either of them has one to date. 

18. Frank Ocean - "Thinkin Bout You" (2012)

#4 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #35 Hot 100
At this point, Frank Ocean is an independent artist who does whatever he wants and may sell limited edition vinyl singles to his dedicated fanbase and never make another radio hit for the rest of his career, and he's still continue to headline festivals and get rave reviews. But for a moment, he was everywhere, and "Thinkin Bout You" was that huge ballad that got him to that level. 

19. Ella Mai - "Boo'd Up" (2018)

#1 R&B R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #5 Hot 100
When I hear "Boo'd Up" and its warm, jazzy piano chords, I think of how much it contrasts with those early DJ Mustard productions with 3-note piano riffs that inspired the "DJ Mustard's piano" memes. Once Mustard hooked up with co-producer and pianist Larrance Dopson, songwriter Joelle James, and a young British singer going by the name Ella Mai, we got a whole different sound from him that ruled the summer of 2018.

20. Tamar Braxton - "Love And War" (2013)
#2 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #57 Hot 100
When I turned on the radio one afternoon and heard the DJ interviewing Tamar Braxton and playing her new single, I kind of figured they were just giving her a courtesy spin since she's from a famous musical family and "Braxton Family Values" was a hit reality show. But the song was surprisingly good, sultry and full of drama. And it kept coming on the radio soon after, not exactly raising Tamar to the career heights of her big sister Toni but definitely putting her on the map in a way she wasn't before. 

















21. K. Michelle - "V.S.O.P." (2013)
#7 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #89 Hot 100
Like Tamar Braxton, K. Michelle was a singer-turned-reality TV star whose chance at a music career was, I assumed, years in the rearview when she dropped a huge single in 2013. And she really emerged as one of my favorite R&B album acts of the decade, Rebellious Soul is a classic but all of her albums are solid, she's got so much #histray. 

22. Sade - “Soldier Of Love” (2010)
#6 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #52 Hot 100
Sade emerged as more revered and influential than ever in the 2010s. But nobody really sings like Sade Adu or makes records that sound like the band she shares a name with, something that was underscored when they returned with their first album in 9 years and "Soldier Love" was a hit that sounded both contemporary and utterly unlike it was being played alongside. 

23. Rihanna f/ Future - "Loveeeeeee Song" (2013)

#4 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #55 Hot 100
Two of the greatest and most distinctive voices of 2010s popular music, coming together for the first time. Rihanna's song with Future on Unapologetic never got a video, and seemed to briefly compete with her song on with Future producer Mike Will Made It, "Pour It Up," to be the focus of the album's R&B radio promotion, with the latter ultimately being a bigger hit. But "Loveeeeeee Song" was always special to me, such a singular and hypnotic song. Jay-Z's great contribution to music in the 2010s may be his suggestion to add extra E's in the title of "Loveeeeeee Song." 

24. Trey Songz f/ Nicki Minaj - “Bottoms Up” (2010)
#2 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #6 Hot 100
I remember interviewing Trey Songz right after "Bottoms Up" came out, when he was at the pinnacle of his popularity, my favorite part was when I referred to his "c'mere" ad lib and he was quick to correct me that he was actually saying "c'mon." Nicki Minaj was one of the only rappers who put an effort into their guest spots on R&B songs in the 2010s, and her "Bottoms Up" verse is just deranged, I put up there with "Monster" as one of her best features. 

25. Erykah Badu - “Window Seat” (2010)
#16 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #95 Hot 100
Erykah Badu peaked commercially in the '90s, but she has a knack for still making an impact every time she comes out with an album no matter how far she's drifted into her own world. And I thought it was cool that at Rick Ross liked this track enough to do the remix and rap over a James Poyser/Thundercat/Questlove groove. 

26. Beyonce - "Countdown" (2011)
#12 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #71 Hot 100
Cainon Lamb is a really talented producer that doesn't get enough credit (Jazmine Sullivan's "Need U Bad," Brianna's "Marilyn Monroe," Monica's "Everything To Me," a lot of later Missy Elliott stuff). And "Countdown" is his masterpiece, just an incredible amount of stuff going on in this track, the crazy snares and horns and the Boyz II Men sample, and Beyonce's voice tying it all together. People like to say that Beyonce is a skilled rapper, but I think that sells short the fact that she's great at singing, really singing, in much faster cadences than most singers can handle. 

27. Robin Thicke - "Love After War" (2012)
#14 R&B/Hip-Hop Songs
Robin Thicke had a really good run there before the big crossover hit kind of changed everything and eventually stalled his career entirely. The whole Love After War album holds up and I always thought the title track should've been a bigger hit. 

28. Keri Hilson - “Pretty Girl Rock” (2010)
#4 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #24 Hot 100
There's a weird thing on social media now where people are just obsessed with Keri Hilson and Ashanti, in a way that they weren't back when they had hit songs out. So oddly Keri Hilson is more of a sex symbol now than when she made "Pretty Girl Rock," but I always had a crush on her and thought this song was a charming, well produced little saccharine self esteem anthem. 

29. Mary J. Blige - "Thick Of It" (2016)
#6 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay
People can kind of be vultures about Mary J. Blige's unhappiness. Yes, she sings sad songs better than almost anyone, yes some of her best material came out of her own life's real turmoil, but let's not be gross about being happy that she's sad. That said, the first thing Mary J. did after divorcing Kendu Isaacs was release her best single and best album in nearly a decade and declare the now-legendary #DuDeadDay

30. Kem - "Share My Life" (2011)
#25 Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs
Kim "Kem" Owens isn't really well known outside R&B fans over 45, and even the younger people that do know his music tend to make fun of his crisp enunciation and corny "hey girl" ad libs in every song. But "Share My Life" has always been my go-to Kem jam, I really love the slow burn arrangement, which opens with a lovely acoustic guitar riff, hits the first "hey girl" at almost the exact halfway point of the song, and builds to this big climax and abrupt stop. 

















31. Ro James - "Permission" (2016)
#9 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay
"Brother's Gonna Work It Out" from Willie Hutch's score for the 1973 Blaxploitation classic The Mack has been sampled memorably many times, including on Dr. Dre's The Chronic and Chance The Rapper's Acid Rap. But now when I hear that smooth guitar/flute loop, I tend to think of Ro James's biggest hit. 

32. Marsha Ambrosius - "Far Away" (2011) 
#3 R&B R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #74 Hot 100
After a decade of making hits with Floetry and working on a number of blockbuster albums as a songwriter or hook singer, Marsha Ambrosius finally released her solo debut in 2011. And the biggest and most memorable hit from the album, "Far Away," was a touching 7-minute ballad, produced by Just Blaze and dedicated to a friend of Ambrosius who committed suicide. And Ambrosius, who wrote the last R&B radio hit Michael Jackson had in his lifetime ("Butterflies"), recently tweeted a picture of her iTunes library that appeared to confirm the existence of an unreleased version of "Far Away" featuring MJ. 

33. The-Dream - “Love King” (2010)
#26 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #92 Hot 100
Terius "The-Dream" Nash continued to stay pretty busy as a songwriter and guest vocalist on huge records throughout the 2010s, but his brief window of success as a solo artist started to close pretty quickly after 2010's Love King. I think most of the singles he released directly before and after "Love King" were weak and contributed to his commercial decline, but "Love King" itself was a jam, wish it had done better. 

34. Sevyn Streeter - "I Like It" (2013)
#19 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay
After starting out in the group RichGirl, Sevyn Streeter made a transition over the course of the 2010s from group member to songwriter to solo artist. She co-wrote several hits for Chris Brown ("Strip," "Yeah 3X," "Fine China," "Wet The Bed"), and then her biggest solo hit, "It Won't Stop," kind of got overshadowed by the remix featuring Brown. So I feel like she never really got her due as a singer, but I love her voice and most of her music, especially her bombastic Harmony Samuels-produced debut single, "I Like It." 

35. Usher - "Climax" (2012)
#1 R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, #17 Hot 100
There was a weird prolonged controversy recently about this 8-year-old song when The Weeknd proclaimed that he thought "that's a Weeknd song" when he heard it. I don't think "Climax" really sounds specifically like The Weeknd in any meaningful way, and in any case Usher's falsetto puts Abel's to shame. But "Climax" inarguably was a moment when Usher was trying to step back from his formula of club bangers and EDM crossover songs and make something a little more leftfield and contemporary, and did so to great effect. 

36. Maxwell - "Lake By The Ocean" (2016)
#12 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay
Maxwell continued on a relaxed release schedule even after announcing an album trilogy in 2009 that has yet to be completed. And the second album in the series didn't feature a hit as big as "Pretty Wings," but I still really adored "Lake By The Ocean." Just a really gorgeous and serene song with heartbreak floating just beneath the surface the way it often does in his songs, and some kind of really weird effect on the hi-hats that I'm still trying to figure out how to rip off. 

37. Jacquees - "You"  (2018)

#19 R&B R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #90 Hot 100
"You" and Jacquees's career in general were on the rise when the Cash Money singer declared himself "the king of R&B right now, for this generation." Regardless of how ambitious that claim is, I liked "You" and the 4275 album a lot and I don't really care if the kid isn't humble. But he's not, like, an amazing vocalist, so people roasted him pretty hard about that, and I don't know if his career took a permanent hit from all the fallout that followed. 

38. Tory Lanez - "Say It" (2015)

#3 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #30 Hot 100
If "Body Party" was by far my favorite 2010s R&B hit that cannibalized a '90s R&B hit, #2 is the Tory Lanez take on Brownstone's 1994 hit "If You Love Me" that helped inject some sorely missing girl group harmonies into modern R&B. Unfortunately, Tory Lanez has kind of taken this aesthetic and run it into the ground as he, Ty Dolla Sign, and producer Hitmaka

39. Robin Thicke f/ T.I. and Pharrell - "Blurred Lines" (2013)
#1 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #1 Hot 100
The discourse around "Blurred Lines" got insufferable about a month after the song came out and has been ever since. I don't know how a song full of phrases that nod toward consent, reciprocity, and mutual attraction ("get at me," "you grab me," "lemme be the one," "I'm watchin' and waitin' for you") became commonly described as 'rapey.' And I still argue that it was extremely bad and dangerous for the entire musical community that a Marvin Gaye pastiche, one of thousands that abound in the R&B genre, triggered a $7 million legal decision despite using the aesthetic of a Gaye song but not the melody or lyrics. But despite all my bittersweet associations with this song and the way it kind of sidelined Robin Thicke's once prolific and enjoyable career, it's still pretty damn fun to listen to when it comes on. 

40. Beyonce - "Partition" (2014)
#3 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #23 Hot 100
I love the idea that Beyonce was possibly watching The Big Lebowski one night and realized that she should have Julianne Moore's monologue about coitus translated into French and recited on her new song about car sex. Shout out to the D.C. station WKYS that always played the full album track with "Yonce," probably my favorite Timbaland beat of the past decade, preceding "Partition." 


















41. Ari Lennox - "BMO" (2019) 
#17 R&B/Hip-Hop Aiplay
My favorite R&B song from the last year of the decade, it manages to not sample or directly ape any particular '90s song but gives me this vague 1998 feeling that makes me visualize twitchy choreography in a Hype Williams fisheye lens. Really think it should have been a bigger hit than it was. 

42. Keyshia Cole f/ Lil Wayne - "Enough Of No Love" (2012)
#7 Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, #84 Hot 100
Keyshia Cole's run of hits started to dry up by the end of the 2000's, but this, her only Hot 100 entry of the 2010s, really holds up. Great cascading strings and thumping Harmony Samuels beat, great Keyshia harmonies on the hook, one of Wayne's best R&B features. 

43. Solange - "Cranes In The Sky" (2016)
#23 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #74 Hot 100
I was never too into that EP that Solange did with Dev Hynes, but when she came back on the full-length with Raphael Saadiq, that was some good shit. This song has such a simple gorgeous sound, like you could just play it over and over without it getting old. 

44. D'Angelo And The Vanguard - "Really Love" (2015)
#24 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay
Raphael Saadiq was the secret weapon of D'Angelo's first two albums, co-writing and co-producing the biggest hit on each of them. And I suspect that if D'Angelo had called up Saadiq to work on a track on Black Messiah, it would've been a smash too. But he didn't, and the album was still pretty excellent, with the lovely, understated "Really Love" becoming a minor hit 7 years after Questlove previewed the song on Triple J Radio in Australia. 

45. The Weeknd - "The Hills" (2015)
#1 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #1 Hot 100
The Weeknd's early mixtapes were indisputably a major moment in 2010s R&B, I just never liked them and never will, and think the guy's entire style of singing and songwriting is kind of schticky and dumb. When he abandoned that sound to become a pop star, I started to like his music a little more. But a funny thing happened after "Earned It" and "Can't Feel My Face" crossed him over: the darker, more characteristic The Weeknd, whining about 'the friendzone' on "The Hills," also blew up, becoming the longest running #1 of his career. 

46. Chris Brown - "Fine China" (2013)
#8 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #31 Hot 100
At the dawn of the 2010s, "I Can Transform Ya" had just flopped and it appeared that Chris Brown's career might really be over as a consequence of his assault of Rihanna. And then "Deuces" and a bunch of other garbage songs got Chris back on the radio, and he continued showing himself to be a terrible person while also becoming probably the most consistent R&B radio presence of the 2010s. And the most frustrating thing is most of those singles were not even very good, just the most generic crap, while his fans insisted that he deserved to be as big as Michael Jackson. But if Chris Brown ever got his shit together and made a pretty excellent song that actually reminded me of MJ in the past decade, it was "Fine China," even if his falsetto still sounded pretty strained on it.  

47. Trey Songz - "Slow Motion" (2015)
#2 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #26 Hot 100
I don't much care for Charlie Puth's voice. But he's a decent writer, and has enough of the same vocal range as Trey Songz that he was able to pen one of Trey's best singles, maybe he should do more R&B writing if his solo career doesn't pan out. 

48. Diddy-Dirty Money f/ Drake - “Loving You No More” (2010)
#20 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #91 Hot 100
Last Train To Paris is one of my favorite kind-of-R&B albums of the 2010s, and it spun off several singles, but I kind of feel like there's no one song people know that really captures the appeal and the range of the album. "Loving You No More" was a nice little radio jam that made great use of Dawn Richard's voice though. And it's funny to hear two rap superstars on this track together in happier times, 4 years before Diddy would beat Drake up over not giving him "0 to 100." 

49. Guordan Banks - "Keep You In Mind" (2016)
#15 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay
Philly songwriter Guordan Banks got interest from stars like Mary J. Blige and Chris Brown about releasing his song "Keep You In Mind," but when they ultimately passed on the track, Banks released it as his own sleeper hit independent single, eventually hitting #1 on the Adult R&B chart.

50. Charlie Wilson - "Turn Off The Lights" (2013)
#32 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #31 Hot 100
R&B isn't as youth-obsessed as some other sectors of popular music, but real longevity is rare. But Charlie Wilson has enjoyed a pretty great second chapter as a solo artist after Snoop Dogg started working with the former Gap Band singer regularly in the '90s, as everyone from Justin Timberlake and Kanye West to Tyler, The Creator and Bruno Mars wanted to make music with Uncle Charlie. I really enjoyed interviewing Charlie Wilson a few years ago and hearing about how he got this era of his career going. He released "Turn Off The Lights" right before his 60th birthday, and has continued racking up hits well into his 60s, even older than Ronald Isley was when he had his last run of radio singles.  



























51. Jazmine Sullivan - "Holding You Down (Goin' In Circles)" (2010)
52. Miguel - "Quickie" (2011)
53. Eric Benet - "News For You" (2013)
54. Jeremih - "Oui" (2016)
55. Rihanna - "Sex With Me" (2016)
56. Rico Love - "They Don't Know" (2014)
57. Monica - “Love All Over Me” (2010)
58. Jennifer Hudson - "No One Gonna Love You" (2011)
59. Mila J - "Smoke, Drink, Break-Up" (2014)
60. Bruno Mars - "24K Magic" (2016) 
61. Sevyn Streeter - "Before I Do" (2017)
62. Khalid f/ Disclosure - "Talk" (2019) 
63. Diddy-Dirty Money f/ Trey Songz - "Your Love" (2011)
64. Mariah Carey f/ Miguel - "#Beautiful" (2013)
65. Usher f/ Juicy J - "I Don't Mind" (2015)
66. Daniel Caesar f/ Kali Uchis - "Get You" (2017)
67. Beyonce - "Dance For You" (2012)
68. Raphael Saadiq f/ Rob Bacon - "Something Keeps Calling" (2019)  
69. Alicia Keys f/ Maxwell - "Fire We Make" (2013)
70. Kiana Lede - "Ex" (2019)  
71. Cee-Lo Green f/ Melanie Fiona and Philip Bailey - "Fool For You" (2010) 
72. Janet Jackson - "No Sleeep" (2015)
73. Miguel - "Do You..." (2012)
74. Jeremih f/ YG - "Don't Tell 'Em" (2014)
75. Michael Jackson f/ Justin Timberlake - "Love Never Felt So Good" (2014)
76. Babyface and Toni Braxton - "Hurt You" (2014)
77. K. Michelle - "Can't Raise A Man" (2014)
78. Trey Songz f/ Drake - "Unusual" (2011)
79. Melanie Fiona - "4A.M." (2012)
80. Estelle - "Thank You" (2012)
81. Rihanna f/ Chris Brown - "Birthday Cake (Remix)" (2012)
82. Kehlani - "CRZY" (2016)
83. Beyonce - "Before I Let Go" (2019) 
84. Miguel f/ Kendrick Lamar - "How Many Drinks? (Remix)" (2013)
85. Lloyd - "Tru" (2016)
86. Avery*Sunshine - "Call My Name" (2015)
87. Ella Mai - "Shot Clock" (2019) 
88. The Bonfyre - "Automatic" (2019)
89. Summer Walker f/ Drake - "Girls Need Love (Remix)" (2019)    
90. Anthony Hamilton - "Pray For Me" (2012)
91. Trey Songz f/ T.I. - "2 Reasons" (2012)
92. Melanie Fiona - "Gone & Never Coming Back" (2011)
93. Fantasia - "Enough" (2019) 
94. Bruno Mars f/ Cardi B - "Finesse (Remix)" (2018)
95. Kelly Rowland - "Kisses Down Low" (2013)
96. Mack Wilds - "Own It" (2013)
96. Miguel - "Coffee" (2015)
98. Beyonce "Sorry" (2016)
99. Gallant - "Doesn't Matter" (2018)
100. Queen Naija - "Medicine" (2018)