When we weren’t busy watching sports contests, we listened to some stuff. Here are the best things we heard this year. “Perfect Places,” by Lorde I became a cliché this summer. I did the thing where I graduated college in the Midwest and moved to New York. And honestly, it was kind of overwhelming at first. I wanted the city to be a new home, filled with everything I could ever want, but if you’re not used to avoiding eye contact and walking super briskly, it’s going to be stressful. I’m lucky, though, that Lorde’s Melodrama came out right around the time I arrived, because then I could walk around lower Manhattan with “Perfect Places” on repeat. “Perfect Places” is sonically great, an anthemic, sleek fusion of rock and pop and ‘80s aesthetics that’s captained…