“Bad Habit” by Steve Lacy

"Bad Habit" landed on June 29, 2022, as the second single from Steve Lacy's second album Gemini Rights, and it's a woozy, psychedelic slice of lo-fi R&B and bedroom pop that he produced himself. The whole thing hangs on a slightly warped guitar riff, with a funky bassline, drums and synths wobbling around it. Lacy started writing it after signing with RCA in 2021, cut a first version that year, and kept reworking it, with Foushée and Diana Gordon adding to the writing, until it barely resembled where it began.

The song is about kicking yourself over a chance you never took with a crush, before the final breakdown flips the shyness into swagger. TikTok caught on that July, sped-up versions and all, and it went on to top the Hot 100 in October. Billboard, The Guardian and The Ringer all named it the best song of 2022, and it earned Grammy nominations for Record of the Year and Song of the Year.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.