Former Pitchfork critic Tom Breihan described the song as follows: “On paper, 'Emotions' is a love song. In practice, it’s just about feeling like your heart is exploding.” As listeners, your hearts do the same. This song is especially good on repeat, simply due to pure mastery Mariah Carey has over her voice. On the first listen, her whistles blow you out of the water, leaving you stunned and making you put it on repeat. Yet, being familiar with the song only makes you enjoy it so much more. Having memorized the song structure, you know what to expect and increase your expectations of it. Mariah delivers every single time, never letting the audience down. You just keep feeling emotions that get higher, higher and higher.

2. Just A Cloud Away - Pharrell

“Happy” was inescapable during the height of its popularity, but “Just A Cloud Away '' only started to receive its fair share of love recently. TikTok has been credited with not only blowing up songs from artists that have not been in the spotlight for too long, but also reigniting our love for songs from the past. While some of the famous songs may have been a product of marketing, some are really really good, like this one. Pharrell’s signature four count kicks in, and you know you are going to be in for a good time. As Pharrell goes on with his relentless optimism, the songs feel like taking a walk during a beautiful day and just getting to feel the breeze gently caressing your skin. 

3. Red Flavor - Red Velvet

I know it's not summer yet, but I feel like it would be inadequate to not mention the queen of having songs that are a trip and a half. Red Flavor was THE song of 2017 summer in Korea, crowning Red Velvet as the new queen of the summer after the sad disband of SISTAR (gone but never forgotten). Like all summer songs, the five members of Red Velvet sing about having a youthful summer with their first love, the taste of a kiss sweet like candy. But in true Red Velvet fashion, that experience was told as a weird voice modulation keeps chanting in the background. Watching the music video was even weirder, as the girls took turns interviewing themselves, occasionally transforming into fruits. Maybe that is what first love feels like: frantic, manic and sweet like spilled ice cream. The song truly soars during the bridge, like all good SM Entertainment-produced songs do, with the lyrics urging their loves to say it like it is. Fun fact: this is one of Wendy’s most iconic bridges, and you might want to check out the other famous one. One rarely forgets their first love, and you will not forget this song either. 

4. Papi bones - FKA Twigs ft. Shygirl

“Magdalene” by FKA Twigs was a gut punch, just pure devastation with the backing of choir and orchestral music. The album landed on Pitchfork best of the decade list, boasting a proud 9.4. If I were Twigs, I would just keep doing that for the rest of my life. But there is a reason you truly are spending time obsessing over this South London all-rounder and not making a life-changing record. Twigs constantly innovates herself, and eternal confinement to a genre would be death to her genius. Caprisong was born out of Twigs’ efforts to fall back in love with life again, and naturally the mixtape emphasizes the use of voicemails or recordings of conversations, drawing us closer to the inner workings of an ever-evolving mind. Papi bones is pure “capri-sun energy," the kind of songs you play to hype yourself up as you get ready for a night out.

5.  Perfect Places - Lorde

Melodrama never really gets old, and probably was the gate opener to many more “mainstream pop-girl albums produced by Jack Antonoff.” Lorde shared with you her own attempt to navigate the labyrinth of adulthood with such a sincerity that solidifies her status as one of the new faces of the new generation. The closer of the album, the music video features Lorde in various locations, probably searching for the location that will culminate in her happy ending. But inevitably, Lorde still has yet to find one such place even as the song comes to an end. No matter how hard she tries, no matter how poppy the beat is, the destination she seeks simply is not there. From start to finish, "Perfect Places" tells the story of uncertainty and the non-stop fruitless pursuit for our own happiness, fitting squarely into the overall theme of Melodrama.