Rated by The Face: end of year special
From underground club tracks, to pop bangers and memeable viral hits – listen to 100 songs which soundtracked our 2019.
As 2019 crawls towards the finish line, it’s hard not to feel absolutely knackered by recent political events. But let’s not forget that good times were had. As a reminder, we’ve compiled 100 tunes from 2019 which have made considerable a cultural impact, or were in regular rotation on The Face’s office stereo, at least.
So here are a bunch of bangers from The Face cover stars Dua Lipa, Tyler, the Creator, Rosalía, Harry Styles and Naira Marley alongside big tunes by 2019 breakthrough stars like Billie Eilish, Aitch, Normani and club tracks from Shanti Celeste & Hodge, Octo Octa and K‑Lone. Listen to top tracks and refresh your memory with a list of 19 weird and/or fun musical things that happened this year.
- Dua Lipa came back a banger.
- Everyone loved Normani’s basketball trick.
- After the Mooo! meme, Doja Cat proved she’s actually really good.
- Naira Marley’s smutty Soapy dance became a wedding disco staple in Nigeria.
- Harry blew our minds with his massive trousers.
- Kanye really got stuck into the Conservative Christian thing.
- UK drill duo Skengdo & AM persevered after being given a suspended sentence for… performing music.
- Post Malone put out an album with some great rock songs on it. It won the Best Rap Album award at the Grammys.
- slowthai held up the decapitated dummy head of Boris Johnson at the BRITs to make a political statement (and to promote a merch drop).
- In New York City, Pop Smoke had the song of the summer.
- Theon Cross made jazz that hit harder than a grime beat.
- Aitch got famous and we all had a right laugh.
- OFB, the Tottenham crew featuring Mark Duggan’s son Bandokay, became the most hyped new act in UK drill.
- Saweetie had a hit thanks to TikTok.
- Tyler “stitched together’80s British jazz-funk to Studio 54 disco to glimmering Impala-cruising soul to bullfrog-larynx rap”.
- Summer Walker became the hottest new artist in R&B and kind of hated it.
- Jai Paul briefly emerged from the shadows.
- Moodymann quietly snuck out an album and it was amazing.
- Lewis Capaldi said loads of things which were funny, released music which wasn’t funny.
