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Top 50 Remixes of 2014 (25-1)

This truism has no expire date.

This truism has no expiry date.

Here are the heavyweights, my top 25 remixes of the year…

25. Britney Spears – Alien (Nick and Country Club Martini Crew Remix)

Brit Brit’s been remixed a kajillion times over the years, and this reboot is one of the best.

 

24. Maximo Park – Leave This Island (Mogwai Remix)

Mogwai completely change the amazing source material, yet it remains eminently listenable.

 

23. Future Islands – Doves (Vince Clarke Remix)

Remixes of Future Islands songs tend to be a little obtuse; this track is not that. It’s a slick, straightforward dance remix of a great tune. Refreshing.

 

22. Paris Suit Yourself – Won’t K (Sophie Remix)

Sophie’s sound is unmistakable. This remix is too.

 

21. Noel Gallagher – In The Heat Of The Moment (Andrew Weatherall Remix)

Awesome remix that all but erases Noel’s vocal, but electrifies the melody in stark, crisp ways.

 

20. Oasis – Wonderwall (Sava and Razz Remix)

Don’t think I’ve ever heard Liam’s voice attached to something so overtly happy. Obviously nothing will ever touch the original, but 20 years later, it’s cool to hear a new take on one of the best tracks of the last 30 years.

 

19. Bombay Bicycle Club – Luna (Karl G Remix)

An ethereal, space-filling remix of one the two best songs on BBC’s latest record. This track is at peace with calm, an aural balm.

 

18. Moby – Almost Home (Sound Remedy Remix)

My favourite Sound Remedy remix of the year. His output the last two years has been incredible. There’s something about his sound that greases the emotional wheel, in the process producing all the feels.

 

17. Tove Styrke – Even If I’m Loud It Doesn’t Mean I’m Talking To You (White Sea Remix)

White Sea construct a complete face-lift of the original, turning an unabashed pop smash into a chilly Scandinavian exploration track. Snow falls in cascading crystals upon this quiet, lonesome white sea.

 

16. Beyonce f. Kanye, The Weeknd, Jay-Z – Drunk In Love (Remix)

Yeezy and The Weeknd lead and kill this remix.

 

15. Lilly Wood and The Prick – Prayer In C (Robin Schulz Remix)

One of the more popular remixes of the year. Deservedly so.

 

14. Tove Lo – Habits (Hippie Sabotage Remix)

Nothing can touch the source material, but this down-tempo remix is a brooding, pulsating banger in its own right.

 

13. Charli XCX – Boom Clap (Cahill Edit)

Nothing more and nothing less than complete dance-pop decadence.

 

12. John Legend – All Of Me (De Hofnar Remix)/(Tiesto Remix)

Still can’t decide which remix of the two I prefer. I’ll take both and call it a win.

 

11. Lykke Li – No Rest For The Wicked (Klangkarussell Remix)

Bangin’ and Klangin’ up and down and all around. A sweaty Swedish night to melt all the ice.

 

10. Little Daylight – Overdose (Future Islands Remix)

Not only did Future Islands release one of the albums of the year and drop probably the best live tv performance of the year, but they had a few minutes of spare time, dabbled in the remix trade, and nailed the shit out of that too. So the great fire they wrote about for On The Water was an autobiographical prophesy?

 

9. Royksopp and Robyn – Monument (The Inevitable End Remix)

This will be a beacon when they’re gone, that much is sure. This remix is a monument of considerable light and size, a prize fight throwdown by 3 Scandinavian EDM/Pop stalwarts.

 

8. Lily Allen – Air Balloon (Digital Farm Animals Remix)

A massive, otherworldly earworm of a remix.

 

7. Banks – Beggin For Thread (Gryffin & Hotel Garuda Remix)

If Hotel Garuda is as pleasant a stay as this remix sounds, I booked a vacay there yesterday.

 

The following six remixes are on another level from everything else in 2014.

6. Jose Gonzalez – Heartbeats (Filous & Mount Remix)

The core song that is “Heartbeats” can thrive in any condition. The original version by The Knife is a weird, warbly, synth-pop hit. Jose Gonzalez’s cover is a complete makeover; it’s vulnerable, striking, and rife with a sad beauty. Now several years after “Heartbeats” and its cover were released, this wonderful dance remix drops. Where the cover lives in its sadness, this remix merely alludes to it. No matter which heart it occupies, the lyrics and melody that comprise this tune beat uninterrupted.

 

5. La Roux – Let Me Down Gently (Sailors Remix)

Simply irresistible. This song is a boat with legs navigating its course by dancing on water. It’s not the most direct way to get from point a to b, but to be a romancer on this level requires one take a tropical chancer.

 

4. Ed Sheeran – I See Fire (Kygo Remix)

The sound of serenity. Kygo put in a lot of work in 2014, but no remix of his was better (or bigger) than this one. Ed Sheeran’s warm, pleading vocals are married perfectly with the pop-indebted track. Kygo insulates the vocals with gorgeous sounds at every turn. If Ed Sheeran is the creator and seer of this fire, Kygo is its protector, its guardian in a galaxy where streaks of red-orange heat are strewn across every conceivable world, a place where life must be hot in order to unfurl.

 

3. Jessie Ware – Tough Love (Cyril Hahn Remix)

I wrote this at the beginning of October and not a damn thing has changed:

“Sourcing an impossibly sexy and slow-tempo’d original, Hahn takes this remix somewhere else entirely. He makes the song scoot in its boots, turns the pensive vibe of the original into a celebration of hard work. He makes tough love seem like a joy. What an accomplishment.”

This remix was, is, and will remain an incredible track. Only one or two remixes per year achieve this level of brilliance. Cyril Hahn should be forever proud he’s done that with his “Tough Love”.

 

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

Sam Smith has a voice that can do anything. That said, I think his incredible talent is best suited in ballads and dance songs. He’s delivered tremendous moments with both types already; his “Nirvana” and “Stay With Me” prove his mettle with ballads, while his power to make people dance was proven on Naughty Boy’s “La La La” and Disclosure’s “Latch”. We can add the Rainer & Grimm remix of “Stay With Me” to that list straight away.

The Toronto duo take the heart-wrestling ballad and turn it into a slinky, sexy, dance-pop gem of the highest order. Hands down, one of the catchiest remixes of the year.

 

1. Sufjan Stevens vs. Signalrunners – Chicago (Club Mix)

Something kind of odd happened as I was working on this list; I realized my favourite remix of the year was not from 2014.

I’m not exactly sure what year this remix is from, though a cursory search on Youtube seems to suggest its from 2007. For as much as I love “Chicago”, I didn’t hear this remix in 2007, or any other year, until this one. And my non-denominational deity, what a mark it left in 2014. When I say I love Sufjan Stevens’ original, I really mean it; when I think about compiling a list of the best songs from 2000-2009, “Chicago” would be near the top. Its tenderness is incomparable, its melody is indefatigable, and its heart is bigger than the sun.

When I first heard this Signalrunners remix some weeks ago, I was immediately walloped by a searing sense of nostalgia, taken back to a time when I first heard Stevens’ masterpiece, to my life at the time. The direct train to Nostalgia Land that certain songs give us free tickets to is one of the very best things about music.

Make no mistake though, this track’s brilliance does not begin and end with the fact that it brought me back to the original, and to another time in my life. This remix is absolutely sensational musically. The flourishes are fantastically timed, the build-up is a bonanza, and the entire offering is an escape to elation. It’s like gliding weightlessly and without worry through clouds, oscillating between being taken on a tantalizing trip and becoming a cloud itself. This atlas is entirely comforting, shrugging off any concern that the flightpath is wrong.

I’ve made a lot of mistakes, but going to Chicago — remix, original, or any other suburban destination, interpretation — was not one of them.

On a whim, we’ll sell our clothes to the state, drive all night, revel in the passionate spontaneity. We might fall in love. We’ll probably fall out of it. But in the end, we’ll come back. To Chicago — whether we’re from there or not. We made our minds up. You had to find it. All things go, all things go.

 

I couldn’t help but link the original:

Top 20 Songs of October 2014

October was a bloody brilliant month for music.

There was one particular album, released in September, that came to my ears in October and punched me square in the temple. It kicked in my teeth and proceeded to slide down my throat and take residence, frenetically, violently, yet doused in serenity, in my heart, or at least the space in my body that used to contain the organ. (That album has my heart now, and frankly, as much as I liked having it, it’s in a better place.)

Which album did this to me? Scroll down to number 1 if you’d like to see the several songs that enveloped my aural attention, or read the list in order. Whatever’s clever Trevor.

Make no mistake, my favourite songs of the month reach beyond that one stunning record — the month was rife with a number of spectacular songs. Here are my favourite twenty (give or take) songs of October 2014.

Bonus:

Not from 2014, but still one of my favourite songs of the past 5 years, and the best song ever called “October”.

 

20. A.G. Cook – Beautiful

A distant relative of Happy Hardcore, with a nod to Grimes, Sophie, and other electro pop mainstays.

 

19. Jose Gonzalez – Heartbeats (Filous and Mount Remix)

Terrific remix of a magnificent cover of an incredible song. That’s a lot of awesome.

 

18. Kongos – I’m Only Joking

I’m not kidding, this song is a menace.

 

17. Guster – Long Night/Simple Machine

I’m so happy Guster is back. Everything they do is marvellous.

Long Night:

Simple Machine:

 

16. Take That – These Days

Welcome back lads. Two short, but a solid, fun comeback song and video nevertheless.

 

15. Cold War Kids – All This Could Be Yours

Another welcome back is in order for Cold War Kids! “All This Could Be Yours” is a very solid lead single.

 

14. The Tea Party – The Ocean At The End

I already welcomed The Tea Party back last month with their incredible cover of Daniel Lanois’ “The Maker”. So this is more of a cap tip to this epic sprawl of a tune, eight-and-a-half minutes of changing dynamics, multiple instruments, and waves of guitars.

 

13. Broncho – Class Historian

Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do til infinity. Fantastic earworm factor here.

 

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

13 years in between records for Richard James, and he comes back with something only he could’ve done. It’s weird, catchy, and utterly unique.

 

11. Sir Sly – You Haunt Me

I think this, the 3rd single from Sir Sly’s debut album is the best of their releases to date. Love the bridge at 2:29.

 

10. Jack White – Would You Fight For My Love

This is one of the most grandiose tracks Jack White’s ever done. It’s also one of my favourites.

 

9. Sleeper Agent – Waves

This song is pure happiness. Such appeal. So friend to ear. Many dance. Doge luvs Waves. Just not bath.

 

8. The Black Keys – Gotta Get Away

Best song on Turn Blue. Straightforward but oh so sing-a-long-able.

 

7. Banks – Beggin For Thread

When I first heard Banks, I thought, I like this girl’s voice, I like her style. She listed her phone number on her Facebook page for heaven’s sake. She just needed a hit. She’s got one now. Sultry, juicy, “Beggin For Thread” has clothes for days.

 

6. The Griswolds – Beware The Dog

Sing-a-long choruses don’t get much more fun than this one. This is the sound of summer, the sound of adventure, the sound of dancing naked on top of your car in a busy intersection.

 

5. Milky Chance – Flashed Junk Mind

So, so catchy. I know everyone in the world has heard and likes “Stolen Dance”, but I think “Flashed Junk Mind” is equally as good if not better.

 

4. alt-J – Nara/The Gospel of John Hurt

More aural beauty from possibly the best band on the planet.

Nara:

The Gospel of John Hurt:

 

3. Lorde – Yellow Flicker Beat

First listen: cool track. Third listen: yeah, I can get down with this. Sixth listen: she did it again that Kiwi pixie. Tenth listen: this is so criminally catchy it’s been banned in Australia. Sits right along side the best Lorde has done in her short yet remarkable career. Also, her dance moves, in this video, and frankly at all times, are a wonder of spastic, convulsive joy. We’ve found the lone graduate of the Elaine Benes School of Dance. Lorde is real and she’s fantastic.

 

2. Taylor Swift – Out Of The Woods

I can’t find a quality recorded version of “Out Of The Woods”, so this live version will have to suffice. The studio version is a wicked beast. It’s been hit after hit after hit for Ms. Swift in recent years. The pre-eminent popstar of this generation. Hands down, the one with the best set of songs.

 

1. Manchester Orchestra (Hope) – Trees; See It Again; The Ocean; The Mansion; Indentions; All That I Really Wanted; Top Notch

Hope snuck up on me. Doesn’t it always? I’d still been revelling in Manchester Orchestra’s amazing Cope from earlier in the year, a rich rock record full of reds, blacks, and sonic attacks. Cope shows the Georgia band at the peak of their considerable, voluminous powers. And then they dropped Hope. Reimagining every single track from Cope, Hope is quieter, more intimate, more dynamic, and impossibly, more traumatic than Cope. Manchester Orchestra, led by incomparable frontman Andy Hull, altered the lyrics, melodies, and echoes of Cope‘s songs, and the result is a shining beacon of grace, something beyond beautiful. This isn’t just a collection of songs. This isn’t just music. This is art of the highest fucking quality, a gargantuan, varied expression that massages, messages, unloads, codes, and ultimately reflects the human experience.

This record is a talisman for me. It’s why I still search out new music so zestfully. It’s why, from time to time, music gives me goosebumps almighty. It’s why every so often, this type of art makes me shed tears. This is why we live. At least it’s why I do. That’s Hope.

Trees:

See It Again:

The Ocean:

The Mansion:

 

Indentions:

All That I Really Wanted:

Top Notch: