Welcome to Stereogum’s inaugural Best Songs Of The Year list. Typically in December, our staff members share 10 personal favorite tracks each — which we will still be doing, don’t worry — but after 23 years, we felt it was time to do a collective countdown. This year was stacked with memorable releases: legendary rappers dropped exciting records fueled by heated feuds, beloved bands returned with game-changing singles, and once-underrated pop singers became cultural fixtures with irresistible earworms. We had opinions and, since we kept track of the the best songs every week, we were prepared.

The death of the album has been proclaimed many times, and after decades of piracy and point-and-click listening, cohesive bodies of work have indeed lost some of their cultural stature. Yet the long player remains a meaningful art form, the gold standard breathlessly anticipated by fan bases across the genre spectrum. Even the most brainless stans are always screaming at their idols to “drop the album.”