1. Ellie Goulding, “Love Me Like You Do”
Say what you will about the Fifty Shades of Grey movie — the soundtrack is great. Like, really, truly, Beyoncé-is-on-this-thing great! But, while most of the film’s music paints in ~shades of lust~, Ellie Goulding’s contribution, “Love Me Like You Do,” is pure bliss. Built like a cathedral of synths, the song is toweringly romantic and unapologetically sweet.
Swoonworthy lyric: “You’re the light, you’re the night / You’re the color of my blood / You’re the cure, you’re the pain / You’re the only thing I wanna touch”
2. Selena Gomez, “Good for You”
Selena Gomez transitioned into adult pop stardom this year with a whisper, not a shout. Literally. Her first post-Disney single — the hushed, R&B-inspired “Good for You” — is sung in a sexy, vowel-breaking whisper. The result is like pillow talk, only catchier.
Swoonworthy lyric: “Let me show you how proud I am to be yours / Leave this dress a mess on the floor / And still look good for you, good for you”
3. Fetty Wap, “My Way (feat. Monty)”
On “My Way” time slows to a syrupy wooze as the rapper tries to impress the object of his affection with come-on after come-on. It’s equal parts charming and desperate. It’s charmingly desperate. There’s something about Fetty Wap’s Auto-Tuned warbling that sounds like the way infatuation feels — uncontrollable and ecstatic.
Swoonworthy lyric: “I spotted you, you had that glow / Watch me pull out all this dough / Take you where you want to go”
4. Carly Rae Jepsen, “Run Away With Me”
Nobody crushes like Carly Rae Jepsen crushes. Fluttery feelings of romantic possibility take on cosmic shadings and become something grander in her hands. Three years ago, she made giving your phone number to a stranger sound fated on her bubblegum masterpiece, “Call Me Maybe,” and, this year, she’s imbued her best new song, “Run Away With Me,” a sax-inflected, end-of-the-night anthem, with a real sense of destiny.
Swoonworthy lyric: “Oh baby, take me to the feeling / I’ll be your sinner, in secret / When the lights go out / Run away with me”
5. 5 Seconds of Summer, “Vapor”
Young love and teen angst collide on 5 Seconds of Summer’s “Vapor,” a pop-punk ballad about an intoxicatingly uncertain relationship. The track is full of drums, strings, and capital-F Feelings. The kind of big, bright, painful feelings that make adolescence feel so techno-colored and 5SOS so unbelievably popular.
Swoonworthy lyric: “I want to breathe you in like a vapor / I want to be the one you remember / I want to feel your love like the weather / All over me, all over me”
6. Blake Shelton, “Sangria”
Blake Shelton’s “Sangria” is a sexy song. A sexy country song. Country music doesn’t usually excel as “sexy,” but “Sangria” does. There’s some racy electric guitar and Shelton dials down his swagger to an intimate come-on as he sings lines like “Your skin is begging to be kissed by a little more than the sun” and “Only thing I want to do tonight is drink you like a Spanish wine.” It’s a buzzed Mexican honeymoon in song form.
Swoonworthy lyric: “Wrecking-ball dancing down the hallway / You’re holding your shoes, wearing my shades / We fall against the door / We fall into a wild, warm kiss”
7. Melanie Martinez, “Training Wheels”
Don’t be fooled by the juvenile title: Melanie Martinez’s “Training Wheels” is loaded with grown-up ideas about love and trust. The 20-year-old pop singer quietly levels with her lover — “It’s not like I’m asking to be your wife / Wanna make you mine, but that’s hard to say” — over twinkly, music box–like production.
Swoonworthy lyric: “I love everything you do / When you call me fucking dumb for the stupid shit I do / Wanna ride my bike with you / Fully undressed, no training wheels left for you”
8. Troye Sivan, “for him. (feat. Allday)”
Is it any surprise that Troye Sivan’s songwriting made Taylor Swift lose her chill earlier this year? “For him.” is exactly the kind of diaristic love song that she loves (and is so good at). Bouncy, laid-back, and chock-full of super-specific details, “for him.” is, in a lot of ways, a downright Swiftian portrait of young love.
Swoonworthy lyric: “You don’t have to say I love you to say I love you / Forget all the shooting stars and all the silver moons / We’ve been making shades of purple out of red and blue”
9. Meek Mill, “All Eyes on You (feat. Chris Brown and Nicki Minaj)”
Look, I’m not gonna lie: Chris Brown almost ruins this song. It’s a testament to Nicki Minaj and Meek Mill’s chemistry that he doesn’t. Instead of being a certified mess, “All Eyes on You” is actually pretty romantic! It’s fun to listen to an actual, real-life couple trade verses about their actual, real-life relationship.
Swoonworthy lyric: “I got him in the back of that ‘bach, I think he catchin’ feelings / Now it’s all eyes on us, and this all lies on trust / And if them bitches wanna trip, tell ‘em they tour guides on us”
10. Jazmine Sullivan, “Let It Burn”
If you lost your shit over Adele and her perfect voice this year, you should really make room in your playlists for Jazmine Sullivan. The chronically slept-on R&B singer has an equally impressive set of pipes and she really lets loose on “Let It Burn,” a velvety throwback jam that features some truly spectacular wailing and a ‘90s-era Babyface sample. All-consuming passion has never sounded cooler.
Swoonworthy lyric: “When it comes, you never wanna give it up / And, baby, I’m caught in the light and I ain’t gonna fight it / There’s no use in tryin’, I’m yours”
11. Pentatonix, “Rose Gold”
While “Rose Gold” seems ridiculous on paper — it’s Haylor fanfiction, loaded with allusions to 1989 — the song is, in practice, a sparse, surprisingly mature bit of a cappella. The Petatonix have been subverting expectations all year and “Rose Gold” is no exception.
Swoonworthy lyric: “Like a myth, the story of our lives / Couldn’t fit in only black and white / If it’s true that legends never die / Me and you could stand the test of time”
12. Miguel, “Coffee (Fucking)”
This is a song called “Coffee (Fucking)” from certified R&B sex god Miguel. What more could you want? What more could you possibly need? Assurances that the song lives up to its sexy and affectionate title? Well, OK, here they are: “Coffee (Fucking)” does, in fact, live up to its excellent title. It’s a sultry ode to nights when “pillow talk turns into sweet dreams” and “sweet dreams turns into fucking in the morning.” Would that we could all be so lucky!
Swoonworthy lyric: “I don’t wanna wake you / I just wanna watch you sleep / It’s the smell of your hair / And it’s the way that we feel / I’ve never felt comfortable like this”
“I Want You to Know,” co-written by Zedd, Ryan Tedder and KDrew, dropped last month, but now we’ve got this trippy video.
If you didn’t want to punch Justin Bieber in the face, this video will make you.
Good Music. Good Life. 