Bop until the bitter end

It’s the season for thin tempers and toy aisle tantrums. Adults are tired, kids are tired, and a strange push/pull between Christmas cheer and pure exhaustion emerges.

The long-awaited annual leave is in sight, and the desire to throw the towel in on absolutely everything is very real.

For times when you’re tempted to irrationally snap in the heat of the moment – at a colleague, loved one, friend or foe – hold in the rage and hit play on one of these bops instead.

If you’re fed up with an external contact, Kiwi group LA Women’s new single Don’t Call Me Back has barely been out a week, and it has already topped the New Zealand Singles Chart.

This seems a clear sign that nobody’s ringing anybody back.

The moody, brush-it-off R&B number can easily be translated to any person causing you bother. Make like LA Women – if they are ‘‘bad for your health’’ say thank you, next.

If you just need to get through, the end feels too far away and you’re swimming in deadlines, rapper Meek Mill’s triumphant new album Championships will put things in perspective.

Mill rises above a very public period of personal hardship and struggle on a multi-layered, autobiographical album that’ll kick your A into G faster than any TEDx talk or self-help book.

Managers take note: The perpetual urgency in his voice could hype up even the most stagnant, uninspired employee.

If you’re fighting the urge to be petty, Little Mix are the queens of rising above other people’s nonsense.

They know when to hold their tongues and when to deliver a mic drop retaliation.

LM5 is so loaded with empowerment it would make any normal person woozy in any other month, but in December it hits the spot.

Walk away from drama then shake it out in your own time.