From new Wilco to 50 Cent's ballsy return, listen to what the month had to offer. Plus: Listen to all the best songs of the year on Esquire Spotify.
Ashley Monroe, "Dixie"
SOUNDS LIKE: The year's rawest/realest meditation on Southern living.
WHY WE LIKE IT: As far as Nashville still needs to go, it wasn't long ago that you had to be one of the Highwaymen to get away with a verse like this: "It was the mines that killed my daddy/It was the law that killed my man/It was the Bible belt that whipped me/When I broke the Fifth Command."
Public Enemy, "Man Plans God Laughs"
SOUNDS LIKE: Public Enemy, the way AC/DC sounds like AC/DC, only in an urgent, not nostalgic, way.
WHY WE LIKE IT: It's a beautiful thing to hear Chuck D fully re-entrenched in no-surrender mode. And make no mistake, the furious twist he puts here on "Let It Be" ("Let it be, speaking words, no wisdom") isn't just classic Chuck D wordplay, but a parable for our times.
50 Cent, "Drama Never Ends" from the Southpaw Soundtrack
SOUNDS LIKE: Drugs, guns, and violence. And not much in the way of remorse.
WHY WE LIKE IT: Timing is everything, and right after he's been turned into a meme and a punchline, he's hitting back with nothing to laugh at—three minutes of swagger (and moral bankruptcy) that's equal turns authoritative and terrifying.
Galactic (featuring Brushy One String), "Chicken in the Corn"
SOUNDS LIKE: Like R.L. Burnside meets Paul's Boutique, this is a sinewy stop-in-your-tracks funk throwdown.
WHY WE LIKE IT: From Cheeky Blakk to Katey Red and David Shaw and Maggie Koerner, our Google search history is ripe with discoveries Galactic tipped us off to. Brushy One String—a Jamaican infamous for his lone-string guitar and a rowdy blooze howl—is our latest, greatest find. Thankfully, Spotify has a pair of his records online you'll find impossible not to immediately search out.
Jason Isbell, "Speed Trap Town"
SOUNDS LIKE: The moment you realize "There's nothing here that can't be left behind."
WHY WE LIKE IT: There's not a singer-songwriter around right now half as mindful of plot and character motivation. And because it's the antithesis of Johnny Cougar's "Small Town."
Iron and Wine and Ben Bridwell, "This Must Be the Place"
SOUNDS LIKE: A transformative cover.
WHY WE LIKE IT: It's hard to imagine even the most devoted Talking Heads fan hearing past the synths and realizing the potential for something this creaky and plaintive. A reminder that sometimes excising everything quirky about the source material can be a ballsy play with a big payoff.
Wilco, "Pickled Ginger"
SOUNDS LIKE: Queens of the Stone Age. Really. It does.
WHY WE LIKE IT: Nels Cline.
Little Boots, "Better in the Morning"
SOUNDS LIKE: tUnE-yArDs meets Lykke Li.
WHY WE LIKE IT: That the morning after doesn't have to be filled with regret is a relief. Also: Sing-along electro-pop, even with all the obligatory blips, bloops, and do-do-do's, doesn't necessarily mean putting style ahead of substance.
PigPen Theatre Co., "We Won't"
SOUNDS LIKE: A perfect booking for next year's Newport Folk Festival.
WHY WE LIKE IT: The piano solo. And maybe because we wouldn't have guessed an Off-Broadway theater troupe would revive our waning interest in Americana?
Tame Impala, "'Cause I'm a Man"
SOUNDS LIKE: Jim James channeling the Weeknd in full-on falsetto mode.
WHY WE LIKE IT: Gorgeous and vulnerable is a new, and bold, look for Tame Impala. And because real men know we're not actually the ones wearing the pants around here.
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