This is my last Songs of the Month list for 2014, so I’m making it a super-sized one. November definitely deserves it. A lot of new releases hit the airwaves, and a bunch of them happened to be fantastic. Here are 30 really, really good tunes that had my aural attention in the month of November.
30. Meg Myers – Desire
29. Avid Dancer – I Want To See You Dance
28. Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – In The Heat Of The Moment
27. Tove Styrke – Borderline
26. Jessie Ware – Keep On Lying
25. Shabazz Palaces – Forerunner Foray
24. Glass Animals -Gooey
23. Walk The Moon – Shut Up And Dance
22. Imagine Dragons – I Bet My Life
21. Schoolboy Q – Man Of The Year
20. Foo Fighters – I Am A River
19. Robert De Long – Long Way Down
18. Gerard Way – No Shows
17. Joywave – Tongues
16. Ryn Weaver – Octahate
15. Royal Blood – Figure It Out
14. Stromae f. Lorde, Q-Tip, Pusha T, Haim – Meltdown
13. Interpol – All The Rage Back Home
12. Vance Joy – Mess Is Mine
11. Marina and The Diamonds – Froot
10. Kendrick Lamar – I
9. Grace Mitchell – Runaway
8. Cold War Kids – First
7. Night Terrors of 1927 f. Tegan and Sara – When You Were Mine
Recipe: mash up with down, left with right, off the wall with no way that’ll work and enjoy.
The proliferation and popularity of mashups has exploded over the past few years. The technology to meld songs together is accessible and the appetite for the style is voracious. Music in general has become more accessible, and as people become exposed to new sounds, artists, and songs, it only follows that they become more and more curious to hear what songs, disparate or otherwise, would sound like when thrown together in a blender. Luckily, for those who dig mashups, there are a tonne of musicians, knob fiddlers, and computer/audio wizards who are seeking to serve such sonic smoothies.
Yeah, there are a million and one mashups out there in the ether. Are they all good? Of course not. For me, the best mashups must: a) be technically proficient, (ideally, technically superb); and b) make the listener say, “Merlin’s beard, these songs fit perfectly together,” or “Son of a snitch, if I didn’t know this was a mashup, I’d have sworn that vocal was created with and for that music.” Does this happen? Not all the time, but when it does, it’s pure magic.
Lastly, as a music fan, I’m appreciative of the gamut mashups can run because there really are no rules when it comes to picking source materials. 1960’s music can be fused with stuff from the 2000’s. Heavy metal can meld with piano pop. Dance can mix with television theme songs. When the mashup is done right, it feels real (and it’s spectacular).
Here then, are my favourite 30 mashups of 2013:
30. The Beatles x Macklemore – Eleanor Rigby Can’t Hold Me Down (The Melker Project)
29. System Of A Down x. Daft Punk – Bring Your Own Luck (Lobsterdust)
It seems like 46,733 mashups involving Daft Punk were released in 2013. This is one of the better ones.
28. The Little Mermaid x Bubba Sparxxx – Under The Booty
From 2012 I think, this clever mashup made it big in 2013. Bubba’s getting royalties from this right?
27. Frank Ocean x Purity Ring – Pyramidspeak (The Hood Internet)
The Pun Is Sure 