the alternate routes

Top 100 Songs of 2014 (60-41)

When you're trying to tell your friends something but they're not listening.

When you’re trying to tell your friends something but they’re not listening.

Getting warmer and warmer… Some may view a song ranked 60th or 53rd and not think much of it — I don’t see it like that. All the songs I’ve listed here are impressive. It’s not easy to rank songs when they’re this good, but hey, I give ‘er anyway. Fun fun fun ’til your daddy takes the T-bird away. Top 100 Songs of 2014 (60-41):

60. Grace Mitchell – Runaway

Slow-tempo’d power pop with a fantastic chorus.

 

59. Banks – Beggin For Thread

When I first heard Banks a while back, I thought, nice voice and vibe, but she doesn’t have anything I’d call a good song. That’s since been rectified. “Beggin For Thread” is a beast.

 

58. Merely – Princess Hervor

So chilly. So atmospheric. So good.

 

57. Bleachers – I Wanna Get Better

Insanely catchy. Great debut single.

 

Bonus: Naughty Boy f. Sam Smith – La La La (from 2013)

 

56. Alvvays – Archie, Marry Me

Took me a little while to get into it. A fantastic song, lyrically, melodically, Canadianally.

 

55. Perfume Genius – Queen

Harder than anything Mike Hadreas had done previously. One of his best. Sensational chorus.

 

54. Royal Blood – Figure It Out

Rock ‘n Roll bliss.

 

53. Ed Sheeran – Thinking Out Loud

Soulful, sunny, and downright addictive. Isn’t everything the Ginger King does golden though? Or would his jewels be rubies? Either way.

 

52. Eternal Death – Head

One of my favourites from early 2014.

 

51. Rita Ora – I Will Never Let You Down

Best song she’s yet done.

 

50. Grimes – Go

Took a couple listens before I truly appreciated this masterpiece of a jam. What a jam it is. For some reason, it didn’t connect with the masses like “Genesis” or “Oblivion”, but “Go” is a tune on that level. Blood Diamonds’ production is downright filthy. Love the cymbal work in the chorus.

 

49. The Madden Brothers – We Are Done

When I first heard this track, I had no idea which 70’s band sung it. All I could do was hum and be impressed at the massive chorus. I wondered who it was by for some time. Then one day, I found out the song wasn’t 40 years old, but brand frickin new, and by Benji and Joel from Good Charlotte?! I was floored. Good Charlotte had some decent tunes, but this is by far the best thing the Cali bros have ever released.

 

Bonus: One Republic – I Lived (On my HM list in 2013, left a huge mark in 2014 also.)

 

48. Tei Shi – Bassically

It builds and builds and builds and builds. One of the sexiest pop songs of the year.

 

47. 5 Seconds of Summer – She Looks So Perfect

No escaping a chorus that huge.

 

46. Tove Lo – Over

Oh Sweden. How many times do you win me over in a given year with your mastery of pop music? I can’t count that high.

 

45. Hozier – Like Real People Do

Full discl-hozier, this is my favourite song from the Irish lad. Great lyrics. Fantastic melody.

 

44. The Griswolds – Beware The Dog

So sunny. So gitchy. So good. One of the best sing-a-long songs of the year.

 

Bonus: The Griswolds – Red Tuxedo

 

43. Rudimental f. Emeli Sande – Free

Rudimental lays down a pulsating beat, over which Emeli Sande shines. This song never gets old.

 

42. Enrique Iglesias f. Descemer Bueno, Gente De Zona – Bailando

Best song Enrique’s done in at least 10 years, if not ever. I had no reason to believe he’d ever be associated with a song of such quality. This tune is pure bliss. I can feel the warmth of summer when I listen to this song. That’s an amazing quality to possess.

 

41. The Alternate Routes – Nothing More

Gorgeous song in all manner of ways.

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”.