So we are at the very last Friday of the year and there’s not much new happening in the music world, so I thought I would use this final New Music Friday post to talk about a few songs that for whatever reason were not the subject of a previous New Music Friday post and didn’t rise to the level of getting a nod in my forthcoming most memorable pop culture of 2019 post but which I very much enjoyed this year.

Something Keeps Calling by Raphael Saadiq

“Something Keeps Calling” by Raphael Saadiq is quite possibly the song I heard the most in 2019. I listen to WXPN at work most days and I feel like they played this song more than any other. It is a really good song off of Saadiq’s album Jimmie Lee, which is all about his older brother who died of a drug overdose.

Coming Down for You by Joan Shelley

The fine people at NPR Music have been raving about Joan Shelley for years and how her music is just a calming balm for the soul. I for whatever reason could just never find a way into it and it never did a whole lot for me. “Coming Down for You” finally gave me a Joan Shelley song that I could get into. It turns out it was not an entré into her music as a whole as when I tried to listen to the whole album I still didn’t care for it. This will apparently be my Joan Shelley song.

 

Bags by Clairo

“Bags” is off of Clairo’s debut album, Immunity. The 21 year old whose real name is Claire Cottrill has already put out some excellent music. She began putting out music on YouTube at the age of 14 and garnered a lot of attention there. I just really like this song. She also has an excellent episode on the Song Exploder podcast about her song  “Alewife”

 

Tip of Tongue by Kenny Chesney

I get the sentiment of this song, but ultimately I don’t think the lyrics make much sense. Nevermind though because I love the way it sounds and it’s one of my favorite country songs of 2019.

 

Dance Monkey by Tones & I

I like a good fun pop dance song and this certainly is one. Luckily so far I haven’t heard it enough to find it grating. It’s definitely the kind of song that has the potential to eventually tip that way, but for now I’m digging it.