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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”.

 

Top 100 Songs of 2013 (40-26)

Continuing along with my Top 100 Songs of 2013, here are songs 40-26:

40. Biffy Clyro – The Thaw/Biblical/Opposite/Accident Without Emergency

Biffy Clyro brought the heat on their sprawling double LP, Opposites. All four of the songs listed below are massive. The Biff have continued to expand the scope and reach of their sound with each passing album, and the result here is a record that sees them pushing to be arena-conquerors the world over.

The Thaw:

The change in dynamic that follows the second time Simon Neil utters, “the secrets in the snow, will always come out in the thaw” is a shot of adrenaline to the heart.

Biblical:

Choruses don’t get any bigger than the one in “Biblical”. Deservedly, a massive hit.

Opposite:

“Baby I’m leaving here, you need to be with somebody else…”

Accident Without Emergency:

Two brothers and a bad, bad man rocking their Scots off.

 

39. Jacques Lu Cont f. Alex Metric & Malin – Safe With You

Whether he goes by Jacques Lu Cont, The Thin White Duke, or Stuart Price, he’s a peerless electro/dance/pop wizard. “Safe With You” is one of his finest efforts.

 

38. Tame Impala – Elephant

I missed this in 2012. As I began to hear it on the radio in 2013, it kept burrowing deeper and deeper into my brain. By the second half of the year, “Elephant” was bellowing like a beast. One Youtube comment nailed the song’s appeal bang on: “Elephant” sounds like John Lennon singing over Pink Floyd. But with a modern twist. I love the lyric, “But he feels like an elephant, shaking his big, grey trunk for the hell of it,” and could listen to it over and over. I have.

 

37. ASAP Rocky f. 2 Chainz, Drake, Kendrick Lamar – Fuckin’ Problems

That beat. Man, oh man, that beat. This is as catchy as hip-(p)hop gets. It’s the short and ubiquitous contribution from 2 Chainz. It’s Kendrick Lamar’s verse. Maybe most of all though, it’s Drake’s verse and tag-in on the chorus. From the second the beat drops, the track is reeling in its hook.

 

36. HAIM – The Wire

It’s interesting that HAIM chose to cover Sheryl Crow(‘s “Strong Enough) in 2013 because I think if Crow were still at the fore of pop music in 2013, this is what she’d sound like. The Bangles’ and Fleetwood Mac’s influence is also palpable. I’m of the mind that HAIM were a bit overrated before they released “The Wire”. Since, their success makes sense — this track is fantastic.

 

35. Mariah Carey & Miguel – #Beautiful

Mariah’s best track since 2005’s “We Belong Together”. An interestingly structured pop ditty, as Mariah doesn’t appear in earnest until 1:31 into the track. Not a bad thing, as Miguel’s smooth vocal paves a red carpet of silk for Mariah, who, when she finally does appear, sounds resplendent and invigorated.

 

34. Panic! At The Disco – Far Too Young To Die

The best song on Panic! At The Disco’s super strong and enjoyable LP, Too Weird To Live, Too Rare To Die!. Brendon Urie and company have crafted a nice career for themselves, and over their past few records, have proven they have a genuine knack for melody and pop songcraft.

 

33. David Guetta f. Sia – She Wolf (Falling To Pieces)

I can’t get over how moving Sia’s vocal is. The music is the best Guetta’s made in ten years, but it’s the heartbreaking way Sia croons each and every syllable that carries this staggering dance-pop gem above so many of its contemporaries. Sia has magic in her voice, and it’s never been more powerful than it is here.

 

32. Queens Of The Stone Age – My God Is The Sun/I Appear Missing/I Sat By The Ocean

It took me a while to get into QOTSA’s …Like Clockwork, but when I finally did, I fell in love. There just isn’t anyone else making this kind of (rock) music right now. It’s QOTSA’s most cohesive and best sounding album. Josh Homme enlisted several of his friends, Dave Grohl and Alex Turner among them, to help mould this record, and the collaborative nature of the songs is apparent. Homme sounds inspired, and wait for it, like he’s having fun. Recording must’ve been a wild ride. This is vital music.

My God Is The Sun:

I Appear Missing:

I Sat By The Ocean:

 

31. The Dream f. Fabolous – Slow It Down

This is a brilliant mid-tempo pop/r’n’b song. It’s the clever lyric. It’s Fabolous’ sick, no sweat verse. But most of all, it’s the way The Dream pouts, “Enough with the mother f***in’ dance songs, you gotta slow it down…” Radio killa indeed.

 

Quick aside: The best and most prevalent lyrical theme of 2013 was, without question, Demons…

 

30. Surfer Blood – Demon Dance

The riff at the beginning of the song slays for days. My favourite Soundcloud comment about this song says it’s “as if The Pixies and Weezer had a baby.” The motion is seconded. There are definite Britpop tendencies here as well, and so much more. I can’t count high enough to put on a number on the amount of hooks in this song.

 

29. Wavves – Demon To Lean On

If the previous song was parented by The Pixies + Weezer + a dip and dash of Britpop, this song sounds like the offspring of Weezer + Nirvana + a splash of Green Day. “Demon To Lean On” sounds like an effortless joy of a pop-rock song, as if it were conceived of and sung whilst skateboarding down a steep California street in the summer. A helmet wasn’t needed, just as long as there was a demon to lean on.

 

28.  Imagine Dragons – Demons

The third offering in the Demon Trilogy. I think this is far and away Imagine Dragons’ best song. The more I listened to it, the more I loved it, and the more the many subtle musical strokes (designed to make it hit) became apparent. This song was everywhere in 2013, and I’ve heard it a tonne, yet I’m nowhere near sick of it.

 

27. Foals – My Number/Inhaler

My Number:

Count on Foals to issue a tune with a relatively unorthodox structure and still have it be hellaciously catchy.

Inhaler:

This must be inhaled to be believed. Foals are a force of nature and a fantastic, unique band.

 

26. Shad – Stylin’ f. Saukrates/Love Means f. Eternia/Intro: Lost f. Lisa Lobsinger, Ian Kamau, K-OS

Stylin’:

This is what thoughtful, effortless obliteration of the microphone sounds like. Shad is absolutely on fire here, from his lyrics to his cadence to his apparent ease, comfort, and joy on the mic.

Love Means:

Love means reflections like this. Love is so often conveyed in such banal, superficial ways in popular music. This is not that. Shad’s thoughts on love are deep and considered, as are Eternia’s, who kills it in her time on the track.

Intro: Lost:

There’s something magical about this tune. It’s at once an old soul, yet as fresh (to death) as anything out there now. It’s the first song on, and sets up, Shad’s wildly impressive Flying Colours LP, and it also sums it up: adventurous, original, and razor sharp lyrically.