sailors

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 June 2014

The month that popped. As much as I love pop music, I seemed to listen to an inordinate amount of it June. This is only because some awesome pop tunes were released or came to my ears in June. This is a good thing. Here’s the list of my Top 20 Songs of June.

20. jj – All White Everything

All white indeed. Glad to hear them back with new material. They have a way with breezy electronica unlike any other act.

 

19. Kylie Minogue – Crystallize

Best Kylie song in years.

 

18. Kyla La Grange – Fly/Get It

I’ve heard a lot from Kyla La Grange this year, being exposed to her for the first time with the immaculate smashes “Cut Your Teeth” and “The Knife”. She just dropped a new album, and there a bunch of super-catchy electro-pop ditties on it. Her lilting falsetto works well with the dark-meets-light synth tracks. This is evidenced best on “Get It” and “Fly”.

Get It:

Fly:

 

17. Omar Souleyman – Wenu Wenu

Love this track, and was very fortunate to have seen Omar perform at NXNE’s Vice Island (with Le1f and Future Islands). Not the most demonstrative character, but this song is gitchy galore.

 

16. Lil Jon – Turn Down For What

Waaaay late to this party. Still, a massive pop/hop/club banger that I couldn’t turn down, no matter what.

 

BONUS VIDEO: Hilarious video of Star Trek set to “Turn Down For What”.

 

15. Charli XCX – Boom Clap

One of the best poppers around. Charli’s new single is a winner.

 

14. Le1f – Boom

“Boom” is hella catchy, and Le1f is really good live. An engaging showman.

 

13. Royksopp & Robyn – Monument

I think I may have been too quick to anoint “Every Little Thing” the far-and-away best track Royksopp and Robyn’s recently released EP. “Monument” definitely gives ELT a run for its money. Both are dynamic, slithering, pulsating electro-pop gems. “Monument” is even more of a slow-burn, an ode to shooting for the moon, a thriller of a pillar, a huge hoarder of brick and mortar. Royksopp and Robyn are a lethal combination.

 

12. Sia – Chandelier

I do believe Sia is the best pop songwriter of the past several years. Her touch has lifted so many huge pop singles to glory. She’s kept a massive hook for herself here, and “Chandelier” borders on the outermost limits of the atmosphere.

 

11. Tove Styrke – Even If I’m Loud If Doesn’t Mean I’m Talking To You

What’s with amazing pop stars from Sweden named Tove?! Tove Styrke has been away for a few minutes, but she’s burst back onto the scene with a hulking and dizzying dancer of a tune.

 

10. Foster The People – Best Friend

At present, I don’t love Foster The People’s second record. I quite like two songs from it, “Coming of Age” and the follow-up single, “Best Friend”. This is the song that most harkens back to the wonderfully catchy gaiety of their indomitable debut album.

 

9. The Griswolds – Red Tuxedo

Short, pretty, and unusually sweet, “Red Tuxedo” is a warm, sunny ballad that possesses just the right amount of nostalgia-laced ache.

 

8. Wye Oak – Glory

Best song I’ve ever heard from Wye Oak. “Glory” is wickedly catchy.

 

7. The Alternate Routes – Nothing More

What a fantastic melody. Thanks to TC for the heads up on this band!

 

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

One of my favourite remixes of the year. Sailors have done an exceptional job retaining the hooks and upping the playfulness quotient, contrasting the brooding original with this reflective yet skip-to-my-louing banger.

 

5. Ed Sheeran – Sing

It took me a little while to come around on “Sing”. A couple months actually. I was so in love with several of the songs from Ed’s debut record + (“The A Team”, “Drunk”, “Small Bump”, and “Lego House”) that I think I held whatever he released next to an unreasonable standard. And it’s not that “Sing” is necessarily an inferior song to those other tracks. It’s just different, a cocksure pop song designed for radio domination. Perhaps I just like it best when Ed Sheeran lets his voice, guitar, and preternatural way with melody shine through. “Sing” is not that simple, with its knife-sharp sheen and flawless Pharrell production, that it took a while for me to fall for its charms. Fallen I have. It’s just a song mate, and it’s a bloody catchy one at that.

 

4. 5 Seconds Of Summer – She Looks So Perfect

Completely chock-full of hooks in every fathomable nook and cranny. This is a perfect pop/alt song.

 

3. Tove Lo – Over

On repeat throughout June, “Over” is a marvellous pop song. Tove Lo’s impassioned vocal dips and soars and prods and pleas in this gem of a tune. Sweden strikes again. (When isn’t that apt? Never.)

 

2. La Roux – Tropical Chancer

So many layers of pop genius here. This marks the third song that La Roux has released from her brand-new album, and it’s the third monumental track. “Tropical Chancer” sounds like a juggernaut now, and I believe it will hold up as one just like so many of the songs on La Roux’s debut have five years later. What an ear for absolutely perfect melodies and layers Elly Jackson has. The track earns bonus points with me for the subtle but amazing flute (flutish?) flourishes at 2:48. I’ve not an iota of doubt that “Tropical Chancer”, both the song and the album, will be among the best of the year in both categories.

 

1. Jessie Ware – Tough Love

For the longest time, I had La Roux’s “Tropical Chancer” as my favourite song of June. I listened to it a tonne, and found so many great layers to bask in. It’s a commanding, multi-layered pop masterstroke.

But I felt something different for “Tough Love”. I felt, after only a couple listens, like I was experiencing one of the songs of the year — a new school soul-electro-pop smash supported by shimmering, pristine, jaw-droppingly gorgeous production. I felt like I could see a part of Jessie Ware’s essence floating in, around, below, and above “Tough Love”. I felt like I could hear her spirit — decimated but unfathomably resilient in the hea(r)t of a tumultuous fire — crawling all over this sultry, sizzling, sexy track. Maybe more importantly than that, I think the power of this song tattooed something on me: a reflection, a foil, a consideration, a commiseration.

I can’t quite put my finger on it, and I’m not sure when or if I’ll be able to. That’s called “Tough Love”.