2014 faves | The Pun Is Sure

The songs on this list are as cool as this doge. Well, almost.

Around this time, it starts to get really hard to place songs. I like all of these tunes — a lot. My Top 100 Songs of 2014 (80-61):

80. Vance Joy – Riptide/Mess Is Mine

79. Dum Dum Girls – Too True To Be Good

Favourite track from their really sexy last album.

78. Schoolboy Q – Man Of The Year

77. La Roux – Kiss And Not Tell/Sexotheque

These songs deserve waaaaaay more views.

Bonus: Omar Souleyman – Wenu Wenu (from 2013)

76. Lykke Li – No Rest For The Wicked

75. Foster The People – Best Friend

Best song on their latest LP.

74. Aphex Twin – Minipops 67 (120.2) (Source Field Mix)

Welcome back Richard. You were missed.

73. Marina and The Diamonds – Froot

72. ILOVEMAKKONEN f. Drake – Tuesday

So random. So fresh. So 2014.

71. Charli XCX – Boom Clap

Bonus: Kongos – I’m Only Joking (From 2011)

70. Bombay Bicycle Club – Luna/Home By Now

Two really, really good songs. Two good videos, especially the one for “Luna”.

69. Ex Cops – Black Soap

Heard this one late in 2014, but it grabbed me right away.

68. Interpol – All The Rage Back Home

El Pintor raging here, home, and anywhere else is always comforting.

67. One Direction – Story Of My Life

66. Hedley – Crazy For You

Methinks it’s the best song these canucks have ever done.

65. Ask Embla – Legion

64. A.G. Cook – Beautiful

Reminiscent of Happy Hardcore, yet still on the cutting edge of pop. Banger.

63. Sam Smith – Stay With Me/Stay With Me (Rainer & Grimm Remix)

I’d previously mentioned the Rainer & Grimm Remix of this tune in my Top Remixes of 2014 list, but I had to link it again. Both it and the original are fantastic, though I do prefer the remix.

62. Paloma Faith – Only Love Can Hurt Like This

Big, brassy, bombastic pop.

61. Ed Sheeran – Sing/One

It took me a while to get into “Sing”, but when I did, I was hooked. “One” is simply gorgeous.

This is what I thought of 2014.

I typically write a lengthy preamble when I issue my Top 100 Songs of The Year list. This year’s won’t be an extended or hyperbolic one.

2014 was fucked up in all manner of ways. One giant ray of light that helps pierce the omnipresent darkness of the world, at least for me, is music. 2014 was no different. My love for and of music is as strong as ever. I continue to zestfully seek out good music, as there’s a bounty of good new music around every corner, if you know where to look.

“Genres” and “types” of music are harder than ever to distinguish and designate, though if I had to isolate one type that resonated the strongest with me in 2014, it’d be pop music. It’s not that pop music ever went away, it’s just that pop has become such a versatile and shifty chameleon — it seems with every passing year, more types of music get sucked into the massive “pop” black hole, and “pop” infiltrates other genres with gusto and stealth. A tip of the cap to “pop” in 2014; a handful of brilliant pop songs made an indelible mark on the year in music (more than I can recall in recent years).

Music does so much to and for me; I won’t go into that though, as I mentioned at the outset of this piece that I’d practice brevity. So instead of me spitting game at music, I’ll end this introduction with some light, but ever true words, from the one of a kind one hit wonder, Cansei de Ser Sexy…

“Music is my boyfriend, music is my girlfriend, music is my daddy. Music’s my imaginary friend. Music is my brother. Music is my great grand-daughter, music is my sister, music is my favourite mistress…my music is where I’d like you to touch…”