Our take: The 10 best songs of 2016

Which songs captivated critics in 2016? USA TODAY's Maeve McDermott and Patrick Ryan share their 10 best tracks of the year, from mega-hits to more obscure favorites.

Cranes in the Sky, Solange

A highlight from her astounding A Seat at the Table, Cranes in the Sky sees Solange grappling with social justice much differently than her older sister Beyoncé’s chain-swinging, torch-carrying Lemonade track Freedom. Instead of lashing out, Solange looks inward, detailing her tiny struggles against a force that consumes her time and again. She may be singing about skylines marred by ugly machinery, but her light-as-air vocals and delicate instrumentals invoke a different kind of crane, stretching its wings and elegantly taking flight. – M.M. 

Lazarus, David Bowie

Did David Bowie know that he’d be dead by the time many listeners would hear Lazarus’ opening words, “Look up here, I'm in heaven”? At the time of its release, the song’s gloomily peculiar lyrics just sounded like classic Bowie theatrics, complete with his particularly dramatic vocal turn. Now, we know Bowie was knowingly writing his own epitaph on his final album, Blackstar, and Lazarus reads like one: “Just like that bluebird / Oh, I'll be free.” – M.M. 

Love on the Brain, Rihanna

Work may be the theme song of Rihanna’s slightly-unhinged, wickedly-fun ANTI era, but it’s Love on the Brain where she achieves her peak-diva moment. Slipping in and out of an Erykah Badu impression, Rih spends the song alternately slurring, cursing and belting her face off over high-drama orchestral arrangements, as she honors the decidedly-unhealthy relationship she can’t seem to quit. – M.M.

Pick Up The Phone, Travis Scott feat. Young Thug, Quavo

Over a symphony of bloops seemingly recorded underwater, Pick Up The Phone features a dream team of iconoclastic young rappers — Travis Scott, Young Thug, and Migos’ Quavo. An ode to calling girls on landline phones, Pick Up The Phone has an old-timey sweetness about it, hilariously juxtaposed with its more explicit content. – M.M. 

Pink + White, Frank Ocean

For many fans, Ocean's long-awaited return on albums Endless and Blond(e) couldn't live up to the astronomically high expectations they had set for them. But no one can deny the sheer beauty of Blond(e)'s third track Pink + White, a lyrically vivid guitar-and-piano ballad that manages the seemingly impossible task of recruiting Beyoncé for heavenly backup vocals. – P.R. 

Prima Donna, Vince Staples

Hip hop's most formidable up-and-comer released another stellar project, Prima Donna, this summer, accentuated by this thunderous title track featuring A$AP Rocky. Like the rest of the EP, Prima Donna is boisterous and boastful, but also harnesses a haunting power in its final coda, as Staples laments in spoken word, "Fed up with the gun violence, fed up with the old rules / fed up with the youth dyin', I just wanna live forever." It's a bleak but resonant message that makes it one of the most important songs of the year. – P.R. 

Real Love Baby, Father John Misty

Before making headlines for his anti-Trump declarations and profanity-laced walk-off at XPoNential festival in July, Misty quietly released this feel-good summer anthem on SoundCloud, with the unassuming caption, "Why not." Equal parts schmaltzy and sincere, it's a folk-rock rumination on love that's bound to be a hipster wedding staple for years to come. – P.R. 

Redbone, Childish Gambino

Gambino's 360 turn away from rap on psychedelic album Awaken, My Love! wasn't an entirely successful experiment, but it was all worth it for yielding this electrifying soul jam. "Stay woke," he reminds us in piercing falsetto on the chorus, backed by a gospel choir and oozing bass line. It's six minutes of vintage '70s groove that isn't nearly long enough. – P.R. 

Sneakin', Drake

No one artist had a bigger year than Drake, who became the most-streamed artist of all time on Spotify thanks to his latest album Views, whose lead single One Dance has amassed more than 1 billion plays on the service. But his 2016 highlight actually isn't on Views at all — it's Sneakin', which he dropped online in October with a handful of other new songs. Harking back to his mixtape days, the woozy diss track is both pugnacious and playful, brimming with Dreezy's cringey signature puns ("She texting purple hearts 'cause she know that we at war") that'll make you either love or hate him more. – P.R. 

Sorry, Beyoncé

After the grown-woman meditations on marital bliss that filled her previous two albums, petty Beyoncé makes her grand return on Sorry, middle fingers aloft. With a loaded backstory involving a maybe-unfaithful Jay Z and the infamous “Becky With The Good Hair,” Sorry’s misbehaving villain joins the bad boyfriends of Say My Name and Irreplaceable in the dog pound of Beyoncé catalog. – M.M.