Song Of The Year 2017: The Top Three

Hi, long story short, I essentially had a breakdown and I've remembered I absolutely loathe writing, which has why it's taken me so long to finish this saga but here we are, please, read on.

3. Dua Lipa - New Rules

I remember vividly listening through to Dua Lipa's many-a-time delayed debut self-titled album, finally getting past all of the singles that had been released before the summer and reaching track ten. I had so many questions but the most prominent ones were "why is this buried in the thick of this album?" and "why on earth hasn't this been a single already?" It's honestly an instant hit. As discussed at number seven of this countdown, counting in songs is very fun because it's something everybody knows how to do. And here lies the ingenious of Dua and the 'New Rules'. The other incredible aspect of this song is that it is right up there with the greatest Anti Fuck Boy Anthems of all time, and it truly is a message that everybody on the planet of dating age really needs to hear.  The writing team for 'New Rules' features the insanely talented pop hero Emily Warren alongside Caroline Alin and Ian Kirkpatrick. Finally, 'New Rules' served us up one of the greatest music videos of 2017 with its rainbow of pastels and slick choreography.

2. CNCO and Little Mix - Reggaetón Lento (Remix)

Honestly, the fucking state of CNCO's 'Reggaetón Lento (Bailemos)' pre-remix. Vocally it's absolutely fine but in terms of instrumentation it leaves a hell of a lot to be desired. Thank God for who ever at Syco picked this out and gave it the treatment it was in dire need of. The Little Mix remix is, as remixes usually are, far more club ready than the original but also contains a hell load more chart and mainstream appeal; not to mention everything production-wise just sounds so much cleaner. The most impressive aspect of 'Reggaetón Lento (Remix)' comes thanks to whomstever handpicked which lyrical/vocal aspects of the original song to keep to the extent where anyone could be fooled into thinking this was the original track. Vocally all four of Little Mix are absolutely perfect for this song and I don't have another word to say on that matter. The video... I can't decide if Little Mix and CNCO filmed at different times (on different locations?) but even if that's not true I'm not a fan of videos that look like it could be the case.

1. French Montana feat Swae Lee - Unforgettable

Yes, so my song of the year. My favourite three minutes released in 2017 comes from a man who I think is one of the lamest rappers to break into pop music of recent. To be fair to Mr Montana, 'Unforgettable' definitely features his most bearable verses of the year, and even his random ad libs are alright. What really got me about 'Unforgettable' is that the instrumentation gets the faux-dancehall/dancehall pandering just right, and it doesn't try too hard, which is interesting considering that the beat was originally put forward for Drake's Views. Swae Lee, one half of Rae Sremmurd is who this song went to first (post-Views contention obviously) and I honestly can't fathom why this wasn't kept for the duo because at no point does it not sound like Swae's song. I guess that we can just be grateful that so much of his vocal has remained on the final version because he's honestly perfect for it. Genius have a 'The Making Of' series on YouTube and the video for 'Unforgettable' truly got me invested in production - and fuck, how nerdy are producers!