Follow Billboard. All rights reserved. When talking about so far at Billboard , it's hard to avoid the fact that the chart year has only had 24 editions of the Hot , and Drake has been No. It's the most that any one artist has dominated the listing's top spot in a year's first six months this decade -- though shout-out to Macklemore and Ryan Lewis' combined 11 weeks on top in the first half of -- and it essentially leaves the non-Drake part of the field wide open when it comes to discussing the year's best and biggest singles.

Critics Pick the Best Songs of 2018 (So Far) | Billboard News

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Whatever your taste, has been a great year for music. Pop goddess Robyn returned from an eight year break with an instant classic in Honey and St Vincent flipped her excellent album to give each track a more melancholy sound. The German musician's ninth solo album mixes classical and electronic music in a way that is both arresting and soothing. Skip to: 'All Melody' - The title track unfolds around a throbbing central force which expands and shrinks away inviting in different instruments to slowly melt into one. Three years since their slightly disappointing second album and the London-based pop-rock-indie-psychedelic band are back.
Janelle Monáe – Dirty Computer
Genre lines continued to blur and the definition of album shifted further in another year of upheaval in pop music. Her asymmetrical songs are still trying to make sense of lust, love, life as a performer and countless contradictory impulses. But she has grown ever bolder musically, moving well beyond the confines of indie rock and chamber pop to try synthesizers, disco beats, country and more, while savoring the sweep of her voice. On her larger canvas, her dilemmas just sound more immediate.
Follow Billboard. All rights reserved. Luckily, that also made this one of the most exciting years for singles on the charts and in our own personal playlists in recent memory -- one in which the biggest hits were also some of the most challenging and rewarding, and in which the more conventional pop songs that did break through on a massive scale felt fresher than they have in a long time. From the "Shallow" to "The Middle" to the highest of "High Hopes," music was captivating at all levels in Here are the Billboard staff's favorite songs of the year. An obvious Hot chart topper and delightful fixture on pop radio. Jessie Reyez, "Body Count". Young Fathers, "In My View".