Top Ten Best Hit Songs of 2017 - Part 1 10-6

 

10.

So you know how Shape Of You was the 3rd biggest hit of the entire 2010s, and in the top 10 of the most recent Billboard All Time update? Wouldn't it have been nice if this song released alongside it had had that success instead? 

10. Castle On The Hill - Ed Sheeran (Peak #6, Billboard Year End: #40, Jan-Dec Year End: #43) 

There was a time where this would have probably topped this list. It was the summer between 8th grade and high school, and autistic, socially awkward me, was worried about leaving behind all my friends from my school and starting over. Because of this, I was a bit depressed early in the summer, but then I discovered this song, and it helped me through the depression, and I proceeded to have a great summer that year, one I'm very nostalgic for in fact. So this song will always have a spot in my heart for that, but it has also cooled on me over the years. It's still fantastic though. I mean these days there is something in the production that does hold it back for me and I'm not sure what it is, but outside of that I love Ed's vocal performance selling the reminiscing of the lyrics very well, and said lyrics. I love all the little details that paint a very vivid picture of what Ed's childhood was like. The best part though is the bridge, where the pace suddenly slows down just to a calm acoustic guitar and he talks about what all his child friends are doing now, before saying they raised him and he can't wait to go home and then it thrusts right back into the final chorus. 

With the resurgence of Die For You on the charts right now let's go back and remember a fantastic big single from the same album that had more success on original release. No not just Starboy, although that song's also great (it wasn't eligible anyway, since it made the 2016 Year End lists). No this gem that's even better if you ask me. 

9. I Feel It Coming - The Weeknd, Daft Punk(Peak #4, Billboard Year End: #34, Jan-Dec Year End: #39)

At first glance this is just another pop song. A really good pop song with fantastic throwback production from Daft Punk, fantastic vocals from The Weeknd, a great Daft Punk robotic voice section, and a really catchy hook. But take this in the context of The Weeknd's discography and it becomes something even more powerful. A lot of Abel's music before (and after) this had been songs about how he's a horrible person who can't treat women well. This song, similarly to his collab with Ariana Grande from 2014, Love Me Harder, is a song where he is finally in a relationship that's working, with a girl who's also been where he has with heartbreak, and he's finally feeling a real connection. 

And now for the opposite. 

8. It Ain't Me - Kygo, Selena Gomez (Peak #10, Billboard Year End: #27, Jan-Dec Year End: #24)

This is a fantastic EDM song that feels very silky, the way Kygo produced it, and mixed that with Selena's vocals. And I love the silkiness of it. And also Selena sounds amazing. This is a song about the moment when Selena finally gets up and leaves this cheating man, telling him she's not gonna be there to support him anymore. And her performance really sells this. This song managed to never really get old for me despite lots of overplay, and it still holds up very well. 

And back to a similar topic to I Feel It Coming. 

7. Water Under The Bridge - Adele (Peak #26, Billboard Year End: #88, Jan-Dec Year End: N/A)

This is one of my favorite Adele songs. Adele is an artist who I respect a lot, but these days don't listen to very much. But this song is one I do return to sometimes, and it's fantastic. The fantastic instrumental of guitar and snare drums really conveys the water metaphor, and Adele delivers one of her best performances I've ever heard. But the real power of this song comes in the lyrics, specifically in the context of Adele's discography. Adele as you are probably familiar, has been through a lot of relationships that ended in heartbreak, as reflected in her album 21, one of the biggest albums of the century so far. But this is an album later, and in this song we see her with a guy who is the one for her, and it's so cathartic given what she's been through. I do think Easy On Me and Someone Like You are better songs, but this is probably her third best song I've heard. 

I'm gonna get some flack for this one, but yeah Castle On The Hill is not my favorite Ed Sheeran song that was eligible for this list. No, that one is the other massively overplayed hit from Divide, that also hit #1 for several weeks, was in the top 15 of the decade end list, is on the Billboard all time list. 

6. Perfect - Ed Sheeran (Peak #1, Billboard Year End: N/A, Jan-Dec Year End: #49)

Yes this song was massively overplayed, and I admittedly did get sick of this for a while, but I'm over it, and now that I can control how often I hear it, yeah I love this song again. It's honestly the worst kind of song to get overplayed, as a simple love song that is amazing as a thing you hear on occasion, but loses its magic when you hear it all the time. The magic of this song is in it's simplicity, and how real and honest it feels to me. It's just Ed Sheeran singing a song for his girl to tell her how much he loves him. Combined with the beautiful strings and fantastic buildup, it's hard not to love. Yes there's some lyrical slip ups, like the line "I found a love... to carry love" but honestly they add to the honest feeling of the song. Adds to the feeling of this being a song he wrote on the spot to his girlfriend rather than a song he spent hours working on to word perfectly. And you can just hear his love for this girl in his voice. If you haven't heard this song in a while, I ask you to give it another chance. You might just like what you hear now that you aren't hearing it twenty times a day.