DonkDonkDonkDonk with C.C. Rider by Mississippi John Hurt

I'm sure this is a lolbinkles, but I don't much love the acoustic strumming bluesy thing in general, and this just doesn't stick out to me at all. It's nice enough to just listen to I guess, but I just find the whole thing to be lacking in depth and dynamism. And while there are plenty of 'simple' songs I really like, usually they have at least one powerful element that I can't really find here.

Nick Royale with Story 4: Sleeplessly Embracing by Clipping.

Speaking of powerful, wow. Everything about this is incredibly powerful. Fantastic brass instrumental highlights a very evocative piece of hip-hop story-telling with a very dark storyline. I do love my dark stories, and I think this one, uhh, fits the bill. This is a great mix of lyricism and flow, all over the top of a great instrumental. The elements of noise/electronica are a great touch I think.

My own question is whether this will have the staying power of other songs near the top. But that's future Binkles' problem.

I think you're certainly on the money that it's not 'traditional' hip-hop, although it's probably not the most out there in terms of implementing noise either. I really like Handsome Boy Modelling School but something like Megaton B-boy 2000 was a little too much for me.

Tchaz with Eléonore by Serge Remion et ses Bois Sirop

I found this an upbeat and fun, kind of quirky listen for the first part of the song. The problem I had in the end was that the novelty wore off quite quickly for me, and while that probably makes light of what is a strong genre (for which I apologise), it became all a bit repetitive for me and lacked the staying power to keep my attention, despite being a fairly short piece.

Vginaman with Hate It Here by Wilco

Sort by Wilco become music expert, clearly. I had a super hard time deciding if this would finish first or second. And in the end I had to partly write up both of the top two songs before deciding which one I liked more right this moment. Despite this being on the same album as Impossible Germany, a song I hyped up quite a lot earlier, I'd never heard this before, and it's really great.

It certainly feels like one of the more approachable Wilco tracks, the lyrics are reasonably straightforward, and the whole thing has a very open and warm vibe. It really lets the melody shine through, and it's a really listenable song. It has that element of Eagles-y rock that I enjoy more than most seem to (cue the Big Lebowski picture), but also mixes things up incredibly well. When everything stops at around 1:45 before suddenly getting much louder and then transitioning into a great guitar solo, it really does a great job reflecting the mood of the whole piece. It's really what helps catapult this song from good to elite imo. The whole 'two guitars playing counterpoint to one another' might be the new 'sort by piano' for me, but it sure does sound great here.

Quarrrr with Daddy's Gone by Glasvegas

There were bits of this I liked. His voice worked over the top of the rest of the song quite well I thought, and most of the chorus was really strong, particularly hand in hand with his accent. My big struggle with this song was how samey it was throughout. The monotonic strumming and the tambourine gave everything a very minimalist/build-up vibe, and in general I'm not a huge fan of that, particularly when it never really goes anywhere. Add in all the repeats of "he's gone he's gone he's gone" during the chorus and most of the second half of the song feels almost superfluous to me.

RAORoman with Come Unto Me by The Mavericks

This is really awesome. The whole song just grabs you from the first note and doesn't let go until the end. It's very high energy, his voice works so incredibly well with this style of song, and it's just an absolute blast to listen to. It also has some fantastic use of the piano accordion, an instrument I generally am not a fan of. And then we also have the Roy Orbison-esque vocals, and the trumpet, and the whole musical journey that is this latin rock and roll tango thing. Everything you could possibly want from this sort of song, it delivers, and then some.