20. Bear In Heaven
"Autumn"
Bear In Heaven is one of my all-time favorite bands. It's unfortunate that their newest album, Time Is Over One Day Old, couldn't hold up to the quality of "Autumn," the album's opener. But while the album itself is full of flaws, "Autumn" is near-perfect, a silly sounding song with deep themes hidden among swirling synths and reverberating guitars.
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19. Iggy Azalea
"Fancy"
I would say "Fancy" is a token pop inclusion, but that's just not the case. This song is awesome and everyone knows it. The hook is ultra-simplistic, and so catchy that everyone recognizes it in four notes. This song brings the party and brings the bass. What more can you ask for?
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18. Vince Staples
"Blue Suede"
Normally, I don't go for west-coast rap. The over-the-top machismo is beneath the intelligence of many rappers spouting it, and many of the rhymes are too steeped in gang lexicon. "Blue Suede" makes up for all of that with an amazing beat and a sample hook that matches the best in hip-hop.
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17. Parquet Courts
"Sunbathing Animal"
Parquet Courts know how to bring the punk when they need to. And in the middle of a plodding second effort, "Sunbathing Animal" comes in to break-up the boredom at exactly the right time. With bitingly sarcastic lyrics and a guitar break-down that even Neil Young would call "uninspired," the group hits every trope without getting repetitive.
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16. Cloud Nothings
"I'm Not a Part of Me"
While much of Cloud Nothings Here and Nowhere Else was just a rehash of their last album, "I'm Not a Part of Me" shows just why that's not such a bad thing. The guitars are crashing and the beat is working while lead singer Dylan Baldi exclaims his independence in the most emo way possible. This band has a lot to offer, and "I'm Not a Part of Me" is a great place to start digging in.
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15. Ex Hex
"Don't Wanna Lose"
If you were looking for the Runaways, I found them...well, their reincarnates anyway. Ex Hex are pure, classic rock-and-roll. A Joan Jett-esque lead singer and post-punk guitar straight from a Soiuxshie and the Banshees catalog. This is a song you can play at a summer pool party or driving home from your first high school break-up.
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14. Run the Jewels
"Close Your Eyes (And Count to Fuck)"
Run the Jewels may be the most talented duo in hip-hop. El-P can make a sample out of nearly anything and Killer Mike can find a way to rhyme over it. With a guest spot from the always-on-fire Zack de la Rocha, spitting his political rap with all the gusto we've grown accustomed to, "Close Your Eyes..." may be the most hardcore rap song of the year.
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13. TV On the Radio
"Happy Idiot"
If Tunde Adebimpe can't tell you something awful while making you feel good about it, no one can. "Happy Idiot" is the first single off TV On the Radio's triumphant Seeds. It calls back the memory of 2008's brilliant "Dancing Choose," only faster, much faster. If the Yeah Yeah Yeahs made a dance album it would sound like this.
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12. St. Vincent
"Regret"
St. Vincent has morphed her sound a great deal since those early days of jangling guitars and multi-layered vocals. "Regret" is as close as you'll find to Marry Me-era Annie Clark, but it's still nothing like you remember. There are haunting organs and poppy solos, making this properly-named song one of her all-time best. After a performance like this, St. Vincent should regret nothing.
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11. Protomartyr
"Pagans"
Short and sweet. That's how punk was intended. But instead of "sweet," put in "punching you in the face." THAT's how punk was intended. The song is so short that I can't write this entire review without putting it on repeat. That said, the composition is so remarkable that the guitar textures will stay with you well after it's 1:11 run time ends, and Joe Casey's strangely soothing monotone will lull you into full rage.
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10. EMA
"When She Comes"
Two-thirds through EMA's brilliant The Future's Void, you need a break. There has been naught but intense, brooding industrial rock decrying the end of civilization as we know it. Then, on comes a song, so simple, so light-hearted, it is exactly what the album needs at exactly the right time. "When She Comes" is a pleasant little ditty, that might be just as dark as the rest of EMA's material, but it seems uplifting enough. This should get you through the apocalypse just fine.
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9. A Sunny Day in Glasgow
"Byebye, Big Ocean (The End)"
A Sunny Day in Glasgow is trying it's best to wash you out with guitar noise and a wall of sound. "Byebye..." sounds like a surprise wave, the kind that hits you just after you surface from the last swell. Appropriate, considering the name of the song...and the album it comes from. With the best noise-rock you'll hear since My Bloody Valentine stopped trying, "Byebye..." is gleefully loud, and happy to be so.
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8. Swans
"Oxygen"
Swans are insane. This song is insane. The album it comes from is even more insane. To listen to "Oxygen" is to follow frontman Michael Gira down a Carollian rabbit hole where up is down, left is right, and geometry in non-Euclidean. To sing along to "Oxygen" is to call forth the high priest Cthulhu. To be hypnotized by the masterful guitar work, throbbing bass line, and brilliant use of horns is to pierce the space of the Old Ones. You have entered the court of the Yellow King. Time is a flat circle.
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7. Fear of Men
"Alta/Waterfall"
Technically, "Alta" and "Waterfall" are two different songs, but they are so sonically linked that they cannot be considered separate. And you wouldn't want to anyway, the beautiful flow from one to the next is so mesmerizing, breaking them apart would be like destroying a Faberge egg. The gorgeous lyrics and sumptuous production suck you into a whirlpool of sound and harmony from which there is no escape. Where other bands fear to tread, Fear of Men take the plunge.
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6. Run the Jewels
"Oh My Darling Don't Cry"
The experience of seeing a milky, white guy rap like a west side gangster is jarring, to say the least. But looks aside, El-P knows what he's doing on the mic, and his production and composition credentials are already well-vetted from over a decade in the hip-hop scene. And when it comes to pure skill, does anything need to be said about Killer Mike? I've never heard anyone rap this hard in my life and we are all the better for it. If this duo stick together, they will be a powerhouse the music world has never seen. I cannot wait for their next release.
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5. Protomartyr
"Ain't So Simple"
"Ain't So Simple" is surprisingly uplifting for a post-punk, Joy Division cover band, but don't let that distract you from the spectacular music. Fuzzed out guitars try to outdo Joe Casey's emotional pleas. A song that, like everything on Under Color of Official Right, is too short to enjoy without listening over and over. Don't worry though, you won't be able to stop yourself.
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4. TV On the Radio
"Careful You"
If there's one thing TV On the Radio has been great at, it's taking an emotional ballad and making you want to dance to it. "Careful You" was our first glimpse of what Seeds would be, and my god, is it gorgeous. Tunde Adebimpe delivers a stunning (as always) rendition of this group's best love/break-up/make-up song, and gets you to believe in the invisible couple as well as if you were watching a rom-com. All this over the most tecno beats TVOtR has ever produced--a wedding in a nightclub.
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3. St. Vincent
"Digital Witness"
Annie Clark clearly spent a lot of time with David Byrne--all those horns. But something else has come from her study as well: taking a depressing topic, like the death of culture at the hands of an always-online society, and make it dance-able. St. Vincent has abandoned all traces of her time with Sufjan Stevens, and has left only the "cult leader" visage from the album art. If what Clark has said in interviews is true, that THIS is what "herself" sounds like, her most introverted music is by a wide margin the most catchy she's ever created.
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2. Future Islands
"Seasons (Waiting On You)"
I would be remiss if I didn't include at least one hometown song on my list every year. However, there is no year where a Baltimore-based act has produced a song this very, very good. Unlike hometown anti-heroes Animal Collective, Future Islands' sound is mainstream. Unlike hipster favorites Beach House, their sound is far more upbeat. But just because Future Islands isn't hitting the indie-rock notes, doesn't mean their brash guitars, glinting synths, and Samuel T. Herring's gravely vocals don't combine for some of the finest music Mobtown has ever produced. This is truly a band I'm proud to say comes from my hometown, and "Seasons" is a song, I'm proud to say, with the ability to bring me tears of joy.
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1. EMA
"So Blonde"
EMA's graphically intense The Future's Void opens with a somewhat uplifting sound. But it quickly turns sour. Her ode to the death of privacy, the rise of the Age of the Machine, the insanity caused by the loss of identity in a culture where sharing absolutely everything is the norm, starts off with a theme rock listeners might find more familiar: the downside of being famous. "So Blonde" isn't the anti-tech anthem that marks the rest of the album it comes from, as much as it is a story about drugs, phony-hangers-on, and the loss of family and friends to addiction and time. What makes the song so remarkable is EMA's ability to make you think everything is going to be alright through it all. The upbeat acoustic guitar, the major-chord vocals, even the scream-backed chorus, all add to the idea that maybe, just maybe, we're all okay. The future may be void, but that just means there is so much to look forward to.
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ADDENDUM
Unfortunately, not every song can be heard in time for publication of these amazing awesome lists. Bearing that in mind, I just heard "Queen" by Perfume Genius and, my god is it amazing. So, unnumbered, it shall be added here. Thanks for understanding...
#. Perfume Genius
"Queen"
Perfume Genius is a musical name I've heard thrown around for a while. I never realized just how brilliant that person is, or how the simplest sound can be turned into a beautiful chorus the likes of which I have never heard before. "Queen" is one of the few perfect songs in existence, with Mike Hadreas' gorgeous voice soaring gently over an expertly produced, nihilistic tech-riff straight from a Cliff Martinez film score. Listen to this immediately.
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See this year's other lists... Top 10 Albums of 2014 Top 10 Movies of the Decade (So Far) Top 25 Albums of the Decade (So Far)
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