Top 50 Songs of 2014 (10-1)

Like I said in Part 1, "no one list, no matter how massive, could do the year justice." While that may be true, I'd like to think this countdown has done a service to the year that was. 2014 in music was an unwieldy year and this has been an unwieldy list. Joyous Britpop, devastating dance, apocalyptic post rock, emo and serene ambient music have all made appearances and there's still room left. This list factored in commercial success, critical reception, replayability and listener resonance, and you see that in the final 10 songs. But before we get to the best 2014 had to offer, let's seen where we've been so far.


50. "Picture Me Gone"- Ariel Pink (pom pom)
49. "Blank Space"- Taylor Swift (1989)
48. "I'm Coming Home"- Lil Boosie (Life After Deathrow)
47. "Say You Love Me"- Jessie Ware (Tough Love)
46. "Man of the Year"- ScHoolboy Q (Oxymoron)
45. "New York Kiss"- Spoon (They Want My Soul)
44. "I Love You All"- The Soronprfbs (Frank soundtrack)
43. "Interference Fits"- Perfect Pussy (Say Yes to Love)
42. "Webbie Flow (U Like)"- Isaiah Rashad (Cilvia Demo)
41. "And I Am Nervous"- Shy Boys (Shy Boys)
40. "Never Catch Me" ft. Kendrick Lamar- Flying Lotus (You're Dead!)
39. "Tearing Down Posters"- Jawbreaker Reunion (Lutheran Sisterhood Gun Club)
38. "Try Me"- DeJ Loaf (single)
37. "Queen"- Perfume Genius (Too Bright)
36. "No More"- Jeremih & Shlohmo (No More EP)
35. "Jackson"- Cymbals Eat Guitars (LOSE)
34. "Fancy" ft. Charli XCX- Iggy Azalea (The New Classic)
33. "Holding on for Life"- Broken Bells (After the Disco)
32. "Who Do You Love?" ft. Drake- YG (My Krazy Life)
31. "Have a Party"- MBE (DJ Moondawg's: We Invented the Bop 2)
30. "Call Across Rooms"- Grouper (Ruins)
29. "A Little God in My Hands"- Swans (To Be Kind)
28. "One Time For"- Rome Fortune (Prod. Four Tet) (Small VVorld)
27. "Magic"- Coldplay (Ghost Stories)
26. "Benz Friendz (Whatchutola)" ft. André 3000- Future (Honest)
25. "Silver Line"- Lykke Li (I Never Learn)
24. "Attachment"- Hannah Diamond (single)
23. "i"- Kendrick Lamar (single)
22. "Unf***theworld"- Angel Olsen (Burn Your Fire for No Witness)
21. "Digital Witness"- St. Vincent (St. Vincent) 
20. "Lookin' Ass N****"- Nicki Minaj (Young Money: Rise of an Empire)
19. "Kitchen Song"- Oscar (single)
18. "Can't Do Without You"- Caribou (Our Love)
17. "0-100/The Catch Up"- Drake (single)
16. "Words I Don't Remember"- How to Dress Well (What Is This Heart?)
15. "Talking Backwards"- Real Estate (Atlas)
14. "Close Your Eyes (And Count to F***)"- Run the Jewels (Run the Jewels 2)
13. "Water Fountain"- tUnE-yArDs (Nikki Nack)
12. "Eyes to the Wind"- The War on Drugs (Lost in the Dream)
11. "Aisatsana"- Aphex Twin (Syro)



10. "Move That Dope" ft. Pusha T, Pharrell & Casino- Future (Honest)

Cue the longest, loudest, most obnoxious Ric Flair "WOOOOOOO" imaginable. Plain and simple "Move That Dope" from Future's Honest is inspirational. Sitting through 6 minutes of Mike Will Made It's futuristic burbles, you're bound to chortle or nod your head to the track at least once.

More important than the hypnotic beat is the effort of Future's collaborators, who're all hell-bent on offering up better dope-game advice than the dude who just wrapped up. A surprisingly lucid (read: no Auto-tune) Future bounces from "beating that China like Kunta Kinte" to splashing scales with "baking soda water." Pusha T, never one to shy away from dope dealings, is stuck in a helpless dealer dichotomy "young enough to still sell dope, old enough to know better." As he admits near the end of his snarled verse, the only thing growing at the same rate as his age is his ego.

Ferocious as he is, King Push is mere table-setting for the final two. Pharrell comes alive with the sort of rapping he's rarely delivered since In My Mind: Mixtape. He fields questions about his Grammy outfit and squeezes in a session of naked yoga. 2014 ended up being a plentiful year for Pharrell and "Move That Dope" was the start of the harvest.

What the grizzled Casino reaps is the closest any of the rappers come to being "honest." Future's cousin is unrelenting in his approach, he bulldozes through "purp and zan" with Spartan intensity. And while "keep a 45 in my coat while I'm serving dope" scans as boilerplate gun-talk, when it comes in a weathered yowl it crosses from idle threat to guarantee. It's the one reality in a room full of vibrant fictions.

9. "West Coast"- Lana Del Rey (Ultraviolence)

There's no better way to describe Lana Del Rey's first single from sophomore LP Ultraviolence than "sensual." That said its sensuality is a better fit for the midnight hour. Black Keys-guitarist Dan Auerbach's hypnotic island groove to open "West Coast" turns a shade darker as Del Rey launches into her graveyard whisper. "Down on the West Coast, they got a sayin, if you're not drinkin', then you're not playin," she eerily philosophizes.

"Live fast and die young" has been an ideology of Del Rey's music since the beginning, but with the exception of the elegiac "Carmen" the dark-end of the tunnel has never seemed so close. Del Rey steps out onto balconies of rippling guitars and stuttering drum fills in the hook of "West Coast", but instead of stopping to enjoy the scenery she wildly proclaims "I'm in love." She's far too preoccupied with Golden-Age Cinema and "Rock N Roll groupies" to notice the flames climbing higher by the minute. By the time the vague chopped-and-screwed outro enters with a gloomy synth in hand, her fate is sealed. Living for the moment is fine until the future becomes the present.

8. "Do It Again"- Robyn & Röyksopp (Do It Again EP)

Not since Daft Punk's iconic "One More Time" has the desire to keep losing control been so perfectly captured within a pop framework. I want more of "Do It Again" before the dancefloor burner can wrap up. Hit me again with Röyksopp's pliable bass. Let those synthesizers forever wobble back and forth like a house on a cliff. Don't lose sight of the thudding metronomes. Never stop the beat that pulsates like a nervous heart. Whatever Robyn coolly hits you with, have her say it again. Whenever one massive buildup collapses, wait around for the next one. If it feels like an eternity, have patience. If you stay around, we'll just do it again and again and again.

7. "Micheline"- Sun Kil Moon (Benji)

Mark Kozelek's sixth studio album as Sun Kil Moon, Benji, is a towering and exhausting record. For much of the record's 62 minute run time death is the topic of conversation. We hear about the deaths of cousins and uncles from trashcan fire explosions. In "Pray for Newtown" Kozelek meditates on mass shootings in Newtown, Aurora, San Ysidro, Portland, and Oslo. Serial killer Richard Ramirez is the subject of an entire song. A husband is lead to mercy kill his wife and spends the rest of his life in prison. When you listen through Benji it's nearly impossible not to get teary-eyed because there's so much death. Loss of life is rarely easy to accept.

The album's most affecting story though has nothing to do with death. Tenderly picking a nylon-stringed guitar Kozelek tells us all about his childhood admirer "Micheline" who "wore thick-rimmed glasses" and had a brain that "worked a little slower than the others." When she felt particularly brave, Micheline would knock on Kozelek's door and ask his father "Can I take a bath with Mark?" He would politely respond that his son wasn't home and shut the door to send Micheline on her way. There's no judgment in the way Kozelek tells the story, just an unlimited reserve of empathy. "She wanted love like anyone else," he warbles. He doesn’t stop at a simplistic reduction of someone who is mentally challenged being “different,” he dares to include her by singing "she had dreams like anyone else."

While Kozelek goes on to tell of a friend who suffered an aneurysm during band practice and a cancer-stricken grandmother, it's that first tale of the sparse number that hits the hardest. In that same story Kozelek fast-forwards to the time a neighborhood thug moved in with Micheline to took her welfare payments and life savings. You can hear him inhale when he recounts that journalistically specific detail and in that quietude a breakdown inevitably comes. We're trained to believe that the most "defenseless" among us will be protected, but "Micheline"'s story says otherwise. Those who have no real voice are taken advantage of. When that happens we need to do what Kozelek does and give them a voice. Ensure that their dreams matter as much as anyone else's.

6. "I'm Not Part of Me"- Cloud Nothings (Here and Nowhere Else)

The memories we make are as a part of us as anything else. That's the central tension of "I'm Not Part of Me," 2014's greatest "RAWKER" by a mile. Lead-singer Dylan Baldi's gnarled plan to "leave all the memories of what we did when we were young," is doomed to fail because we are our recollections. We can't forget painful events at our convenience, try as we might. Our best chance to survive is to move towards new experiences, barreling forward with the power of Jayson Gerycz's drums. To rip out those troublesome parts we need nails as sharp as Baldi's shouted choruses: "I'm not, I'm not you, you're a part of," "I'm not telling you all I'm going through, I feel fine." We can move on from the way we were before, we just need to forget the past and focus on what we can control. More than an expertly made rock song, "I'm Not Part of Me" is a therapy session with expert hooks.

  

5. "Sanctified" ft. Betty Wright, Big Sean  Kanye West- Rick Ross (Mastermind)

We could all be forgiven for thinking 2014 was going to be another year of musical dominance for Kanye West. He'd been a major part of a record release every year since the decade started, so when the gorgeous "gospel rap" track "Sanctified" appeared in early February there was every reason to believe it was business as usual. That wasn't the case. In reality "Sanctified" was the shimmering oasis in a desertous year. Our one morsel while we wait for "another Yeezus."

It doesn't really matter though because "Sanctified" is such a towering, opulent single. Big Sean raps about wanting "$100 million" in the infectious hook and it sounds like that amount went into the West/DJ Mustard/Mike Dean production. Rather than sample Betty Wright, the trio brought the R&B singer in to soulfully howl about being "sanctified" as a church organ cleanly pipes away. Underneath her you can hear every drum kick and bass thunk; the saved holding hands with the sinners.

So it is with the verses, particularly 'Ye's where he's "wildin' out" and washing his sins "in the blood of Jesus." He outright jacks the "Migos flow" at one point and it's impossible to complain because he sounds so good going into double-time atop a plinking grand piano. "I don't sweat it, wipe my forehead with a handkerchief" he raps on the other side, intentionally butchering the word "handkerchief" to the point of being unrecognizable. Rick Ross can have his "grilled cheese" as much as he wants; this is all about Mr. West. He's continually inventing his own language and I can't wait to hear what he says next.

4. "Seasons (Waiting On You)"- Future Islands (Singles)

 

As memeable and GIF-worthy as vocalist Samuel T. Herring of Future Islands dancing around The Late Show was, the success of "Seasons (Waiting On You)" doesn't happen if it isn't a flat-out incredible song. The strutting is an oddity story for a day or two, the song is one of those undefinable, indescribable works that people perpetually return to to figure out. Are we dealing with dance music? Does Gerrit Welmers' restrained, yet wonky, keyboard playing make this synthpop? William Cashion's chugging bass brings to mind vintage-Strokes, so maybe garage rock's the comparison?

Fine then, we've figured the music out? What about Herring's singing? There are the guttural hollers of Tom Waits in his voice, but also the operatic clarion of Antony Hegarty as he wails "As it breaks the summer will wake, but the winter will wash what is left of the taste." What he's saying is abundantly clear, we'll have to wait indefinitely for some people because humans don't naturally change their minds or hearts the way seasons turn over. Holding a torch for someone for too long can burn. How Herring is saying all of that though is the real mystery and it won't be solved anytime soon, so we'll keep hanging on.

3. "Do You"- Spoon (They Want My Soul)

 

One of the best measures of greatness for a band is their ability to make the difficult look easy, to have listeners vacillating between "I could do that" and "how did they do that?" Using that standard, Spoon are America's greatest rock band. Just listen to the "do do do's" that open up They Want My Soul's catchy anchor "Do You." That's a simple little "gimmick" that's been in popular music since the beginning, but the way Spoon does it defies reproduction. Each one bounces and echoes around every corner of the speaker, buried under gobs of reverb and delay effects. Jim Eno plays maybe one drum fill the entire song and it still stands feels like a commanding performance because of the way he hammers at his kit. The brief little electric guitar solo that Britt Daniel's performs would take forever to tab because of the way it interlocks with the shuffling acoustics. The way they play is a perfect fit for a song that centers around romantic understanding. Spoon know who they are and what they're doing. 

2. "Two Weeks"- FKA twigs (LP1)

 

Darkly sexual or sexually dark. Take your pick with FKA twigs' druggy trip-hop/R&B hybrid "Two Weeks" because either is accurate. Even before twigs delivers the year's most overt come-on with "my thighs are apart for when you're ready to breathe in," it's never clear if you should be terrified or turned on. The hairs that stand up on the back of your neck could be from the line or the decaying electronics that undergird it. It could be a vibrant dream or a bleak nightmare. The way twigs' material can go either way is impressive, but not as much as her ability to take control while being so utterly calm. It recalls no less than Aaliyah, but R&B's "baby girl" never sounded this liberated or skin crawling. Twigs is in another lane altogether, she owns it and she owns you. So get you're mouth open.

 

 

1. "Tuesday" ft. Drake- iLoveMakonnen (I Love Makonnen)

 



















"Put the world on a sound," that's precisely what Drake the tastemaker did when he hopped on iLoveMakonnen's "Club Goin' Up on a Tuesday" in August. It's impossible to overstate how important Drizzy hopping on this joint was. The original was already catchy, those constantly rewinding synths and inebriated synths are hard not to sway to, but the initial song was one of those cult pieces that only music nerds are talking about five years later. Drake's cosign let everyone know it was okay to like this something inherently weird and helped launch it into the stratosphere. He turned us on to an Atlanta eccentric who counts Adele and Lil B as inspirations. We were given a guy who croons like the Smiths' Morrissey if he got his start 20 years later and listened to 808s & Heartbreak nonstop. Here was someone so committed to having a good time that he was going to celebrate on the most ho-hum day of the week. His infectious attitude was something everyone within reach was going to catch. Sure his eyes were bloodshot from graveyard shifts and slinging molly, but that wasn't going to stop him. When we look back on 2014 we're going to think how unstoppable "Tuesday" was.

(Regular features on the blog return tomorrow. If you love the songs included, say so in the comments. If you hate them and have nothing but righteous indignation for the countdown, express that to.)

Top 50 Songs of 2014 (20-11)

Round 3 of the "Top 50 Songs of 2014" ping-ponged from apocalyptic funk to skeletal piano rock and world conquering hip hop. Round 4 is no different in its far-flung nature, but before we get to it let's see where we've been so far.

50. "Picture Me Gone"- Ariel Pink (pom pom)
49. "Blank Space"- Taylor Swift (1989)
48. "I'm Coming Home"- Lil Boosie (Life After Deathrow)
47. "Say You Love Me"- Jessie Ware (Tough Love)
46. "Man of the Year"- ScHoolboy Q (Oxymoron)
45. "New York Kiss"- Spoon (They Want My Soul)
44. "I Love You All"- The Soronprfbs (Frank soundtrack)
43. "Interference Fits"- Perfect Pussy (Say Yes to Love)
42. "Webbie Flow (U Like)"- Isaiah Rashad (Cilvia Demo)
41. "And I Am Nervous"- Shy Boys (Shy Boys)
40. "Never Catch Me" ft. Kendrick Lamar- Flying Lotus (You're Dead!)
39. "Tearing Down Posters"- Jawbreaker Reunion (Lutheran Sisterhood Gun Club)
38. "Try Me"- DeJ Loaf (single)
37. "Queen"- Perfume Genius (Too Bright)
36. "No More"- Jeremih & Shlohmo (No More EP)
35. "Jackson"- Cymbals Eat Guitars (LOSE)
34. "Fancy" ft. Charli XCX- Iggy Azalea (The New Classic)
33. "Holding on for Life"- Broken Bells (After the Disco)
32. "Who Do You Love?" ft. Drake- YG (My Krazy Life)
31. "Have a Party"- MBE (DJ Moondawg's: We Invented the Bop 2)
30. "Call Across Rooms"- Grouper (Ruins)
29. "A Little God in My Hands"- Swans (To Be Kind)
28. "One Time For"- Rome Fortune (Prod. Four Tet) (Small VVorld)
27. "Magic"- Coldplay (Ghost Stories)
26. "Benz Friendz (Whatchutola)" ft. André 3000- Future (Honest)
25. "Silver Line"- Lykke Li (I Never Learn)
24. "Attachment"- Hannah Diamond (single)
23. "i"- Kendrick Lamar (single)
22. "Unf***theworld"- Angel Olsen (Burn Your Fire for No Witness)
21. "Digital Witness"- St. Vincent (St. Vincent)  



20. "Lookin Ass N****"- Nicki Minaj (Young Money: Rise of an Empire)

  


















Call the fight now for anyone who keeps insisting Nicki Minaj can't actually rap, that "Monster" was a fluke. Put a towel over the lifeless corpses of all the "not havin' game ass n*****" that Minaj eviscerates during "Lookin Ass N****"'s slowly moving electro-storm. Once the faded drum machine sounds, anyone that's said a mumbling word about Nicki going to be buried in that barren wasteland. There's nothing you can do to stop the onslaught. 2 Chainz isn't coming in as comic relief. Beyoncé can't be bothered. No amount of crooning from Drake can suture these wounds. Forget "Mixtape Nicki," this is Minaj out for blood and no one is safe.  

19. "Kitchen Song"- Oscar (single)

One of the biggest takeaways from a conversation I had with the mononymous British pop artist Oscar was that the self-described "musical schizophrenic" was "quite late with guitar music." His earliest songs were cheesy teenage pop ballads that reflected a steady diet of Alicia Keys. Until he hit 17, it was mostly R&B, hip hop, and whatever he could swipe from his sister or listen to on the mixes his mom gave him for school. The hushed guitar intimacy of shoegaze was light years from his mind.

Which is amazing then when you hear how carefully structured "Kitchen Song" is as a piece of guitar-driven music. The sweet din of a guitar kicks off the track and continues throughout the song's scant 2:29 runtime. When it needs to, it fades into the background to clear space for noisier chords and thumping drums, but it never stops humming.

In that interview Oscar mentioned his mom showed him some Buddy Holly on guitar, something that makes total sense. Holly could rock with the best of them, but was more at home singing tender love songs. So it is with Oscar. Guitar is ever present in "Kitchen Song," but so is nervous "love," the kind you have after forming an instant connection with someone at a party. "I know I will find you maybe now or one day soon," Oscar insists in the chorus. Come to think of it, those "cheesy pop songs" haven't disappeared either. They've grown up.

18. "Can't Do Without You"- Caribou (Our Love)

For all intents and purposes there's nothing to the desperate, muted-disco of Caribou's "Can't Do Without You." A chopped up, not slopped up, sample of Marvin Gaye's "Ain't That Peculiar" plays ad infinitum. Caribou's Dan Snaith completes Gaye's cries of "I can't do with," in an echoing falsetto. Drum machines clap from both sides. A synthesizer sounds like its slowly being liquefied. Eventually the song mutates into a muscular psych-groove. Snaith admits "You’re the only thing I think about/ It’s all that I can still do," as the song surges one final time and that's it; noting more to be seen.

"Can't Do Without You" is greater than the sum of its "meager" parts though. Snaith finishing Gaye's lines is heart-wrenching, a tacit admission that the loneliness Gaye could describe on record wasn't contained to him. Those dancefloor deluges of sound bring welcome relief. Snaith's final admission is something that makes me softly exhale and wish for the best. Listing off all of this song's ingredients is easy, explaining why it's so impactful isn't.

17. "0 to 100/The Catch Up"- Drake (single)

 

Hip hop villainy will have been rewarded if Drake wins a Grammy in February for the bifurcated "0 to 100/The Catch Up." I'm not even considering his chest-puffing in the song's rumbling first half, which elevates douchebaggery to an art form when he mentions "I'm on some Raptors pay my bills s***." Forget that. I'm talking about the fact that he dusted his hands off and uploaded "0 to 100" to Soundcloud free of charge. Burgeoning rappers everywhere would kill to make a song like "0 to 100," and if they did you can bet they wouldn't release it with no strings attached. It'd be their livelihood, to Drizzy Drake it's another song to toss off. He's the cinematic bad-guy who would off someone out of boredom. 

Continuing the villain analogy, everyone has an origin story and so it is with Drake. In his case, he's a kid from Toronto who spent countless nights in the studio, worrying he was overworking his producer friend with multiple sclerosis. He's a son with a father who would float in and out of his childhood, forced to grow up when his dad didn't show.

With that painful memory, the song goes from 100 to a dead halt. Crisp drum strikes dial down to quiet sizzles and jittery guitars come unplugged. In their place comes the "The Catch Up," a slice of ethereal dream-rap which sees Drake shifting in his chair at the idea of "unconditional love." When he parses the idea out, it sounds alien to him; not surprising for someone who spends a majority of their time separated from the world at large. Considering "0 to 100/The Catch Up" and "knowing" Drake, it's impossible to pin him as hero or villain. He's forever floating in the muddy middle.

16. "Words I Don't Remember"- How to Dress Well (What Is This Heart?)

 

Testimonial time: How to Dress Well's R&B abstraction "Words I Don't Remember" means more to me than any other song in 2014. Without getting too personal, Tom Krell's shivering line "So what is trust but knowing when to let you have your silence?" is something I had to repeatedly ask myself in 2014. Any time I asked myself that question or heard Krell posing it over that sproingy synthesizer; I struggled to find an answer. Truth be told I still do, because there's no easy answer. No harmonious balance exists between giving someone their space and smothering them. It's a line you learn how to toe over time, with constant communication. Finding the right answer becomes more difficult when those connecting lines fray. Krell's resolves "I won't tell you how to live out your life" before everything crests into a soulful cacophony. It's unclear though if he can keep his promise. "Words I Don't Remember" doesn't answer tough questions, it only poses them. 

15. "Talking Backwards"- Real Estate (Atlas)

 

The painfully shy and communication challenged in 2014 had something resembling an anthem with Real Estate's chiming pop cut "Talking Backwards." The first single from the more mature Atlas, "Talking Backwards" finds Martin Courtney struggling to make sense while chatting with a long-distance girlfriend. For Courtney a walk home verges on the terrifying because it forces him to make small talk. Like his and Matt Mondanile's guitars, every memory is crystal clear; his dumb mouth is just obscuring them. Then with wonderfully sad irony, he manages to get one lyric out with no stammer: "the only thing that really matters is the one thing I can't seem to do." Identifying with that line isn't necessary to enjoy the band's melancholy-tinged approach, but it does help.

14. "Close Your Eyes (And Count to F***)" ft. Zack de la Rocha- Run the Jewels (Run the Jewels 2)

 

 

Find me bars in hip hop from 2014 that better summed up a tragic year than: "where the f*** the warden? When you find him, we don't kill him, we just waterboard him. We killin' them for freedom cause they tortured us for boredom, and even if some good ones die f*** it the Lord'll sort 'em." No matter how hard you look, those bars don't exist. What Killer Mike snarls in a dystopian hellscape perfectly paints the picture of a year that saw the nation take a tragic step backwards in race relations.  

In at least four separate cities, African American deaths caused by police officers had more people than ever wondering if law enforcement could appropriately protect the rights of minorities. Some endlessly debated this on television; others took to the streets to exercise their civil rights. In one chillingly tragic case, a desperate man with depression (and possible "political motivations") killed two officers on the same New York City streets that Eric Garner died. What had been bubbling up for years boiled over into abject violence.

It would be easy to say "f*** it" with everything that happened, that's not what Killer Mike, El-P and a reinvigorated Zack de la Rocha do. They dare to challenge the entire court system and question how the church is helping solve any of this. De la Rocha traces a line from urban decay to corporate greed, "the only thing closing faster than the coffins be the factories." With the anvil percussion and staticky programming it sounds deeply cynical, it's not. Mike's impassioned speech to RTJ fans in St. Louis the day of the Michael Brown decision confirms as much. What you're hearing are three men who care. Human beings that want all of this to "stop today."

13. "Water Fountain"- tUnE-yArDs (Nikki Nack)

 

Gather Busta Rhymes, Pee-wee Herman and "Iko Iko" artists the Dixie Cups together. Trade in those hard-earned pennies and bloodstained bills for a warm cherry pie and a two-pound chicken. Go through your Rolodex and call up everyone you know for a rally. Perfect your handclaps and learn how to clang away on the drums. Soak in the warm rays of bass guitar. Strut your stuff even if there's "no side on the sidewalk, no water in the water fountain." Belt along with Merrill Garbus' incomparable voice. Whatever you do be ready to celebrate. tUnE-yArDs are throwing the world's biggest party and everyone from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe is invited. WOOHA WOOHA.

12. "Eyes to the Wind"- The War on Drugs (Lost in the Dream)

 

Unless they're the true originator of a genre some artists are never going to escape the comparison game, their peer will always be out there as a point of reference. So it is with Philly shoegaze/psych-pop outfit the War on Drugs. As long as Adam Granduciel and company keep making music, names like: Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, Big Star, My Bloody Valentine and Sonic Youth. In fact, I think any writer that hears Granduciel's nasally whine is contractually obligated to namecheck Petty. 

 

The War on Drugs won't ever escape comparisons to their influences and that doesn't matter. What matters is how they amalgamate what they've heard into something original and in that respect, "Eyes to the Wind" and the entire Lost in the Dream album was one of 2014's most unique efforts. Saxophone's nothing new to this style of music, its almost expected that a sax will roar awake from the song's suspended animation. It doesn't though. It quietly bleats away in the background, buried under mountains of fragmented piano, drifting synthesizer, swirling Wurlitzer and post-rock guitar angling. Like Granduciel singing about his depression in the musical haze, it is one element among many that's "living in darkness," sounding "a bit run down here at the moment." While Granduciel spends much of Lost in the Dream struggling to find himself, his band has clearly found its sound. 

 

11. "Aisatsana"- Aphex Twin (Syro)

  

Is there a more important popular music figure that we know less about than Richard D. James, the trickster genius behind Aphex Twin? In the 90s when his ambient albums and self-titled IDM masterpiece were changing the way people perceived electronic music, a new rumor about him seemed to spring up daily. Bits of his first album, the landmark Selected Ambient Works 85-92, were recorded when he was 14 years young. He was writing sound programs for computers at age 11. The "Twin" in the moniker references a stillborn older brother.He drove around a tank and lived in a bank. He'd play you're wedding if you were in London. There was an industry for Aphex myths and more than enough suckers to support it.

In the 13 years since the last Aphex album, not much seems to have changed and Syro closer "Aisatsana" offers the ultimate proof of James' enduring enigma. Initial reviews of the comeback record bought into the idea that the tribute to his wife Anastasia was a sparse piece recorded "on a creaky upright with birds chirping away in the background." And why not? When you listen to the track that's exactly what it sounds like, a restless innovator calming himself and crafting a serene number. You picture James pressing record and then getting lost in the sustained piano chords.

That couldn't be further from the truth though. For all of its domestic beauty, "Aisatsana" was made at the Barbican in London in 2012 where music was "produced from a suspended, swinging piano." Those lovely bird songs were added in later to create the natural effect. Which shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who's kept tabs on Richard D. James. Even when he's at his most relaxed, he's working harder than everyone else.

(To finally close out 2014 look for the conclusion of the "Top 50 Songs of 2014" to pop up right above this one tomorrow. If you love the songs included, say so in the comments. If you hate them and have nothing but righteous indignation for the countdown, express that to.)