Breakup song: Solange “Losing You”
The often-overlooked Knowles sister wowed the world with a heaven-sent slice of soul. The sound of a star being (re)born.
Pop single: Carly Rae Jepsen “Call me maybe”
I’m still not sick of it — not bad for a year in which it drenched the landscape like nothing else. It says something that the memes it inspired — from Jimmy Fallon and the Roots backing her on toy instruments to a teen-pop panoply (led by Justin Bieber) boogieing in the living room — were as exuberant as the record itself.
Hip-hop album: Frank Ocean “Channel orange”
The best album of 2012 by some distance, “Channel Orange” saw Ocean’s exquisite R&B croon draped over a kaleidoscope of beats and sounds to create not just an album but an entire world. Phenomenal.
Rock album: The Dirty Projectors “Swing Lo Magellan”
Usually, this Brooklyn indie band, led by self-described musical “dictator” David Longstreth, has dealt in arm’s-length concept albums. But this is an album of songs — the boldest, warmest and most human he’s ever written.