Here are my favorite tracks from May 2019, the month we all celebrated the 10th anniversary of the movie Angels & Demons. We savored Ron Howard’s direction of Tom Hanks’s wig in The Da Vinci Code. But Howsie & Hanksie took us even higher in ’09. Angels & Demons, available now in 4K Blu-Ray.

1. Denzel Curry – “Ricky”

Conflicting parental advice has never slapped like this.

2. Carly Rae Jepsen – “Everything He Needs”

Harry Nilsson’s “He Needs Me,” as sung by Shelley Duvall in Popeye, is sacred ground, one of the greatest songs ever written about how love can translate into self-worth. So there’s only one way to explain how Carly Rae Jepsen has been able to interpolate “He Needs Me” into a breezy, sex-positive, lite-disco jaunt, without jettisoning its emotional weight – she is a pop music magician.

3. Jamila Woods – “Giovanni”

Jamila Woods kicks off her Nikki Giovanni tribute song with an appropriately bad-ass couplet – “You might want to hold my comb / When you find out what I’m made of.” Her voice floats just behind the beat, smirking with its collar popped.

4. Megan Thee Stallion – “Realer”

Right now, nobody on earth is rapping with more authority than Houston emcee Megan Thee Stallion. On “Realer,” she wields syllables like free weights, knocking us out at the end of every couplet, while only getting stronger for the next one.

5. Flying Lotus – “Say Something”

Nestled in the back half of electro-visionary Flying Lotus’s sprawling new LP lies this weird-ass piano instrumental, which could soundtrack a quirky British crime procedural. I would watch the shit out of that show.

6. Bill Callahan – “Morning Is My Godmother”

Bill Callahan, one of our finest living songwriters, has a new album out in June – his first in six years. His voice still sounds like whiskey aged in a hickory barrel, and he’s still writing about nature like Thoreau with better weed.

7. Tyler, the Creator – “Earfquake”

Ever since he rode a tired shock-rap provocateur act to fame in 2009, I’ve actively avoided Tyler, the Creator’s music. I’ve clearly missed one hell of an evolution. He’s moved on, both sonically and self-consciously, sounding vulnerable, and inspired, and free.

8. Vampire Weekend – “Sympathy”

Like many a classic double LP, Vampire Weekend’s Father of the Bride is designed to reveal its riches over time. One of these growers has been the mid-album spazz-out “Sympathy,” which pairs a four-on-the-floor groove with acoustic flourishes, megaphone-feedback-drenched breakdowns, and references to Diego Garcia and “arrogant mosquitoes.”

9. Idle Hands – “Nightfall”

If you like your Satan worshipping with a spoonful of sugar, don’t sleep on these Portland, OR, occult rockers. “Nightfall” has hooks to rival The Cure and Blue Oyster Cult, along with an irresistible dark energy all its own. So grab your sacrificial daggers – and dance!

10. Ider – “Wu Baby”

Religious imagery will always be a compelling way to talk about romantic obsession. So when this London duo sings “I prayed all of my love to you / Can you feel it?” over a moody electro-pop synthscape, it feels like more than a crush. This is faith, in all its intoxicating, terrifying vulnerability.

11. Goldlink (feat. Maleek Berry & Bibi Bourelly) – “Zulu Screams”

Over an unrelenting, percussive Afropop beat, Goldlink doesn’t drop rhymes. He pours them, his preternatural flow a tributary to oceans of hooks, rhythms, and overwhelmingly good vibes.

12. Lana Del Rey – “Doin’ Time”

For the first time in a long time, it feels good to be a Sublime fan. Lana Del Rey’s cover of Bradley Nowell’s dreamy, Gershwin-meets-Snoop toxic relationship fable is a summer playlist no-brainer.