Best and Worst Songs of the Year

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

I usually don't release until year-end, but I guess I could give a sneak peak. Note this does not include Lindi Ortega's release or Kasey Chambers' full album (just the single) or George Strait's release this week. I still have a lot of work to do.

1. "Sedona" by Houndmouth
2. "Somebody to Love" by Kacey Musgraves
3. "Speed Trap Town" by Jason Isbell
4. "Say It" by Houndmouth"
5. "Flagship" by Jason Isbell
6. "Girl Crush" by Little Big Town*
7. "Dress Blues" by Zac Brown Band (cover)
8. "Thanksgiving 1985" by Darrell Scott
9. "Is God Real?" by Kasey Chambers
10. "Me Oh My" by The Honeycutters

*technically on a 2014 album, but it was a 2015 single.

I suspect those last two will drop off giving an incredibly strong top 10 after last year being pretty terrible.

Weird not to have any Sufjan Stevens in the top 10 considering the greatness of the album, but he has several songs in the top 25. Gretchen Peters was the only other highly ranked album without a representative on that list. But Sufjan is really odd because he is neck-and-neck with Houndmouth for #1 album for me. Both albums are pretty complete projects though Sufjan's arguably more consistent.

And if you don't want to count the single, then #11 is yet another Isbell song in "24 Frames". Truly a fantastic writer. Absolutely enchanting.

These are not the next songs on the list, but they have been rising for me lately and deserve recognition as they are very catchy by artists I wasn't overly familiar with before: "Home With You" by The Delta Routine, "Ghost Town" by Sam Outlaw, "Stay A Little Longer" by Brothers Osborne.. Not lyrical masterpieces (maybe GT is) but really fun.