"Hello" by Adele

Chart peak: No. 1 on Billboard's Hot 100 for 10 weeks.

Our take: Hello, it's Adele. Do power ballads get any bigger than Adele singing about regrets and apologies?

"Formation" by Beyoncé

Chart peak: No. 10.

Our take: Performed at the Super Bowl halftime, this song is a fiery embrace of one's blackness.

"7 Years" by Lukas Graham

Chart peak: No. 2.

Our take: A young man's dreams go from childhood until he's 60. Is this a modern-day pop answer to the Beatles' "When I'm 64"?

"Work" by Rihanna

Chart peak: No. 1 (9 weeks).

Our take: With its mix of pop, reggae and R&B, this spare, burbling track celebrates working for a living. Its many co-writers include Rihanna, Drake and Minneapolis' own Monte Moir, of the Time.

"Stressed Out" by Twenty One Pilots

Chart peak: No. 2.

Our take: A mix of pop and Top 40 hip-hop, this song talks about the stresses and insecurities of adulthood and gets all nostalgic for youth and adolescence — "the good old days."

Jon Bream