The 100 Best Songs Of 2017
80. Gracie and Rachel
"Only a Child"
There's a tension in the sound of Gracie Coates and Rachel Ruggles — classical versus pop, baroque versus modern — with Rachel's mysterious violin set against Gracie's poppish keyboard. This "friends since high school" duo writes songs of hope, but in the spirit of their musical duality, "Only A Child" is also about doubt. It's about the desire to cease suppressing anxiety and celebrate it — to remember that we are all just growing and learning, that we're all just children who don't have it all figured out, and so we all need to be more forgiving. —Bob Boilen
79. Karizma
"Work It Out"
It was a good year for gospel-house, and not just because the past year revealed a lot more sinners in need of saving. Baltimore house legend Kris Klayton's stomper for Holland's Lumberjacks In Hell label was Exhibit A, simplicity and electricity personified: looping the Cosmopolitan Church of Prayer Choir's voices-piano-stomp breakdown over a muted bass drum and a hi-hat two-step, then shifting the rug under The One. Many people who heard it (on dance floors, yes — but by late 2017, in ads as well) pulled up Shazam wanting to know, "What's that song?" You're welcome — praise
