Music that moved me in 2018

Top Song
Foster the People claims the most-played song trophy with the sublime "Sit Next to Me," which has a really appealing, dreamy quality. This rekindled my interest in earlier single "Doing It for the Money," which lands at #21 in my year-end recap of most-played songs, new and old, as tallied by Last FM. The runners-up for songs released in or near 2018: "My My My!" by Troye Sivan and "Your Song," Lady Gaga's outstanding Elton John cover.

A year without scorchers
It was a cycle lacking in artist and album breakouts. My core artists didn't have new albums, and things that could have blown up, like Thompson Twin Tom Bailey's solo debut Science Fiction, failed to fully ignite. My most played "current" artist was Troye Sivan ("My My My!" #3, "Strawberries & Cigarettes," #51 and "Better Now," #83 for the year and currently in my top 10).

Double A-side
I loved that Paul McCartney called the lead single from his 2018 album a double A-side, as if that kind of thing still exists. Both excellent tunes, "Come on to Me" and "I Don't Know" (love that piano intro on the latter), finish in my top 50, along with one of his oldies, "Say Say Say." It's a tad surprising to find him thrice in my top 50.

What's so hot about the Hot 100?
Last year, my non-mainstream tastes yielded only two instances of crossover between my music of the year and that of popular consumption. Not to be outdone, 2018 has literally no crossover at all. It's not surprising, considering the Billboard Hot 100 of the year is a chart heavily infested with songs by Drake and Imagine Dragons. A close call, though, is Bruno Mars' "Finesse," finishing at #14 in Billboard and a bit outside my top 100 in the non-Cardi B version. Mars has become a bit boring, but I loved the overt musical references to Bell Biv DeVoe's "Poison" in that jam. Also worth mentioning is Troye Sivan's cover of Post Malone's "Better Now," which is currently charting in my top 10, while Malone's original finished at #13 for the year in Billboard.

// Go here for recaps from 2017 and prior years.