Urtar Reviews

I bet all of you are shocked this next song is as low as it is, and I mean, I get why, given how much I love the artist and this being the new version of one of her most beloved songs. But let me explain.. 10. All Too Well (Taylor's Version) - Taylor Swift (Peak: #1, Billboard Year End: #76, Jan-Dec Year End: N/A) For the record the one I am counting for this is the 5 minute long rerecording of the song as it was originally recorded for the original Red album, not the 10 minute version, as that's the version I prefer personally, and this is my list. While the 10 minute version is still really good, I feel like a lot of the lines she cut from it aren't really necessary, there's a reason they were cut out, and also I have a really small attention span for long songs. I think the song works better as a condensed 5 minute experience. However, the reason it isn't higher is that, I prefer the original version of the song from 2012. By a lot. If the original version of All...

  Hey everyone, Drake, known online as Urtar Reviews here, and it's time for the unfortunately inevitably less popular of my lists, the one where I get to gush about hit songs from this year that I love. And while this year was boring to follow the charts for reasons that I mentioned in the worst list, the quality of a lot of the music was very good, at least to me. The entire top half of this list I would consider a 10/10. As usual, songs are eligible for this list if they made either the Billboard Year End for 2022 or an alternate year end chart that uses a January-December chart window. See my worst list for links to Spotify playlists of the lists I use for eligibility. And songs that previously made the Jan-Dec list for 2021 are not eligible, as they were eligible for last year's list. Finally, this is all just my opinion, if you disagree with any of these picks, that is fine, music is subjective and I will respect your opinion if you do mine. Without any further ado, my pi...

 Happy New Year everyone! The Jan-Dec Year End came out, so let's get into my yearly worst list for 2022! How was 2022 for popular music? Well my answer is complicated. The year was very boring to follow the charts, particularly the first half where there were hardly any big new releases, and a lot of late 2021 hits refusing to leave. New releases did happen more in the second half, but we still had to deal with songs lasting way too long on the charts. However, despite this, I actually thought on a quality level this year was pretty good, not as good as 2021 but I might put it above 2020, partly because, this year there were not that many songs I hated, or any I hated on the level of the worst of the last two years. Nothing here is as bad as Without You by The Kid Laroi or I Hope by Gabby Barrett, or even like The Good Ones or If The World Was Ending. And also this year had a lot of songs I enjoyed, not as many as 2021, but still a good selection of great songs, and even a decent ...

  5. Slide - Calvin Harris, Frank Ocean, Migos (Peak #25, Billboard Year End: #71, Jan-Dec Year End: #74) This one doesn't require much explanation, it's just a massive summer bop. Frank Ocean's pitchshifted vocals over calm piano open up the song very well, before we go into a fantastic tropical house drop, then we have the hook from Frank that is really catchy and fun, before a verse from him, and then amazing verses from Quavo and Offset with several quotable lines. Just a really fun song. Heatstroke would be even higher on this list if it had been big by the way.  4. Swang - Rae Sremmurd (Peak #26, Billboard Year End: #64, Jan-Dec Year End: #67) Okay I know a lot of people in this community hate this song, and I get it. I was once there with you. This song is in a similar vein to a lot of Young Thug songs where they take some getting used to for some people. For others they might not need to, and for others they might never get there. I'm of course talking about the...

  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 ...

 4. Issues - Julia Michaels (Peak #11, Billboard Year End: #29, Jan-Dec Year End: #29) Honestly, I don't mind the lyrics or instrumental to this song at all. Neither is anything special, but they're fine enough. What isn't fine enough is Julia Michael's singing! She sounds like she's singing with a very bad cold, and she turns what would be a fine pop song into a painful listening experience. Not more to say really.  There was a time where this next song would have topped my list easily, but I grew to dislike two songs more, and the artist who made it did grow on me a fair amount. Still hate this song a lot, and it also happens to also be probably the most widely hated song on this Year End list in this community.  3. Tunnel Vision - Kodak Black (Peak #6, Billboard Year End:: #55, Jan-Dec Year End: #53) I don't hate Kodak Black like I used to. I mean sure he's a bad person, but in a lot of songs I've heard from him like ZEZE or Super Gremlin it's eas...