The Good & The Ugly: 2017

2017 was outstanding year for hit songs, the Billboard charts borrowing from the best new arrivals from the 3rd and 4th quarters of 2016 and adding a few energizing cuts from 2017 itself. My relationship with this list is complicated in that manner because a lot of my favorites were from those cherished memories of summer ’16 and some comfort tunes in 2017. It was a year that was a bit rougher on my psyche due to a variety of factors. Nevertheless, even in a rough year for me, the music was always the warm, inviting hug I always needed to press on with life. Mainstream and otherwise, music came in the clutch in that regard. However, there is no shortage of egregious, unlistenable goop on this list, the musical equivalents to Hungry Man TV dinners.

Before I dive into the list, here are (a lot) of honorable mentions: Bruno Mars- “That’s What I Like”, Migos- “Bad & Boujee”/“T-Shirt”, The Weeknd- “I Feel It Coming”, French Montana- “Unforgettable”, DJ Khaled- “Wild Thoughts”, Ed Sheeran- “Castle On The Hill”, 21 Savage- “Bank Account”, Amine- “Caroline”, Kendrick Lamar- “DNA”, Calvin Harris- “Slide”/“Feels”, Playboi Carti- “Magnolia”, SZA- “Love Galore”, Gucci Mane- “I Get The Bag”, Kesha- “Praying”, Rae Sremmurd- “Black Beatles”/“Swang”, and Harry Styles- “Sign of The Times”. Almost 20 songs I listed! A lot of these would make a top 5 in any other year but 2017 had some stiff competition. The first…