Top 50 Songs of 2014

10. St. Vincent
“Digital Witness”
from St. Vincent (Loma Vista)

Annie Clark prayed at the altars of minor AAA-radio deities for this one, folks. Remember “Who,” the breakout single from St. Vincent’s 2012 collaborative album with David Byrne, Love This Giant? The punchy bleating of that song’s signature horns screamed “Luaka Bop,” yet the decision to include them came not from worldbeat ambassador Byrne but from Miss St. V herself. Clarke revisits that funky formula on this cut, but it’s only one reason why this may be her most accessible and pop-leaning song yet. The cascading notes in her pre-choruses (“People turn the TV on and throw it out the window, yeah“), the vocal gymnastics to cleanly jump octaves between syllables, and a densely packed arrangement suggest that St. Vincent’s critique of voyeuristic mass-media culture could pass for the best Tori Amos track in close to 20 years. – AB

9. Run the Jewels
“Blockbuster Night Pt. 1”
from Run the Jewels 2 (Mass Appeal)

In a way, El-P chose the perfect moment to sample the Doctor Who theme. After all, BBC just replaced the quirky, youthful Matt Smith with Peter Capaldi’s reincarnation, who is older, snarkier and — by comparison — a whole lot more relentless. Run The Jewels tackle this track like two professionals who have finally grabbed the spotlight they deserve, and know it. Flexing the skills they’ve developed over decades in the business, Killer Mike and El-P attack their rhymes on “Blockbuster Night Pt. 1” like two cats toying with mice at dinner time. Their lines are resonate with a palpable harshness, but Run The Jewels aren’t threatening or flicking their tongues with dark intention. Instead, they approach each line with self-aware reverence, bringing hip-hop fans old and new in on the fun. It’s that clever embrace that puts Run the Jewels square on the path to becoming hip-hop legends. It’s one thing to stampede towards a crowd — it’s another to bring the masses along with you. – ATB

8. Aphex Twin
“minipops 67 [120.2][source field mix]”
from Syro (Warp)

There’s a charm in mystery, and Aphex Twin is electronic music’s most fascinating enigma. Thirteen years after Richard D. James’ last album as Aphex Twin, the first bizarre hint of his return came on a blimp flying above London, which was only the beginning of the most mystifying album announcement this year. The leadoff track of the highly anticipated Syro, “minipops 67[120.2][source field mix],” is the satisfying answer to all those years of questioning what would be James’ next move. The genius in this song is how fluidity is not affected by complex textures. It’s accessible, beautiful and cathartic. There couldn’t be a more perfect way to begin the journey through the best electronic album of the year. – DP

7. Spoon
“Do You”
from They Want My Soul (Loma Vista)

That wordless vocal harmony that leads into “Do You,” the best song on They Want My Soul, teeters on the edge of dissonance, Britt Daniel’s voice warping like an old Polaroid. It’s a fitting start to a song that’s essentially a gentle rebuke of a failed summer fling, a disarmingly sweet tune that maintains the album’s disdain for phonies while empathizing with them (“Do you want one thing or are you looking for sainthood?”). But it’s also a prime example of what make Spoon so damn great even after almost twenty years and eight albums: they can churn out earworms in their sleep at this point, and “Do You” is perhaps their catchiest song yet. – SP

6. St. Vincent
“Birth In Reverse”
from St. Vincent (Loma Vista)

The year’s most iconoclastic pop album yielded a bunch of stunners, but “Birth in Reverse” was the leanest and clearest example of Annie Clark’s mastery of theme. Sensing that the rapid acceleration of convenience and technology isn’t making our lives as full as was promised, Clark takes it upon herself to reanimate her stark assessment with a firm but shaking voice, a pulsing beat that turns the red flower pots right-side up, and a crackling funk guitar riff that can barely keep itself inside your left Logitech speaker. The blasé to-do list “Take out the garbage, masturbate” is perhaps the most perfect, concise statement of what our lives have come down to. Well… um, some of our lives. Not necessarily mine, of course, but… well, I’ll just be leaving now. – PP

5. Swans
“A Little God In My Hands”
from To Be Kind (Young God)

After all the strange, varied and invariably intense ground that Michael Gira has covered with Swans over several decades, To Be Kind comes across like the group’s weirdly heavy take on a funk album. And “A Little God In My Hands” is perhaps the easiest groove of the bunch. Neither the gentlest song on the triple-LP behemoth nor the most abrasive, “A Little God” is what happens when avant garde noise-rock titans nestle into the pocket and just jam. For his part, Gira even channels the late, great James Brown in his own peculiar way, his howls of “What’s my name?!” and “Oh! Yeaahhh!” punctuating the gothic blues session where you might expect him to grunt or drop a “Hit me!” The rhythm keeps rolling, the layers keep stacking up, and eventually St. Vincent’s Annie Clark enters the picture with backing vocals that add both levity and a slightly off feeling to the whole thing. But for a band that pretty much lives in that slightly off feeling, “A Little God In My Hands” is totally fucking on. – JT

4. FKA twigs
“Two Weeks”
from LP1 (XL)

In what is arguably one of the best music videos of 2014, FKA twigs, dressed in regal gold, sits with a commanding presence as miniature twigs (also clad in gold) dance around her, drinking her milk. Shot with a slow zoom out by director Nabil, the video for “Two Weeks” is an exercise in restraint but not without a proper dose of weirdness. While arguably a more straightforward R&B song than her other songs, “Two Weeks” is unlike those from Ciara, Mariah, or Aaliyah. There is a raw sexuality here, one that is empowered and violently hungry. In the face of a culture that is increasingly timid about female sexuality, “Two Weeks” is engrossing with its frank visual imagery (“feel your body closing, I can rip it open,” “my thighs are apart for when you’re ready to breathe in”). With its slithery and silky music, “Two Weeks” is sonically restrained but possesses an assured presence, embodying fierce, feminine sexual power. – JI

photo by Candice Eley

3. Flying Lotus
“Never Catch Me” [feat. Kendrick Lamar] from You’re Dead! (Warp)

I re-watched the powerful video for Flying Lotus’ “Never Catch Me,” directed by Hiro Murai, on the day a Grand Jury in New York chose not to indict an NYPD Officer for the killing of Eric Garner. It comes at the heels of a Missouri Grand Jury’s decision to not indict Darren Wilson for the killing of Michael Brown. It’s a raw moment, and as I watched the video, I felt an ache watching two children jump out of their caskets and dance. You’re Dead! is Steven Ellison’s ruminations on death and dying. Yes, there is sadness and confusion, but there is also bliss. The glittering “Never Catch Me” (arguably the album’s centerpiece), with a tour de force performance by Kendrick Lamar, has an undeniable ebullience, though delightfully skittering at times – in the way that we’re all anxious and fearful of death. Marrying jazz and hip-hop, “Never Catch Me” is exhilarating in its ability to embody fear, anxiety, and acceptance: “Ain’t no blood pumpin’ no fear, I got hope inside of my bones.” As I listen to it again and again, as the world seems so tenuous and lives seem to not matter, “Never Catch Me” is a defiant affirmation that all lives matter. – JI

photo by Candice Eley

2. Future Islands
“Seasons (Waiting on You)”
from Singles (4AD)

In 2014, no one did more with four minutes of television airtime than Samuel T. Herring. Future Islands’ network TV debut on Letterman immediately vaulted the band into stardom, thanks to the sheer intensity of Herring’s wild-eyed, chest-beating performance. Magnetic and unpredictable, Herring effortlessly steered the soaring synth-pop of “Seasons (Waiting on You)” into darker territory (even veering into screamo for a line or two) and the result was one of the defining musical moments of the year. And that infectious song at the center of it all — a churning, emotional odyssey through nostalgia — was a piece of pop perfection even before Herring’s theatricality propelled it into our consciousness. – SP

1. The War on Drugs
“Red Eyes”
from Lost In the Dream (Secretly Canadian)

“Red Eyes” is as blistering as it is blissed out; like much of their fantastic 2014 full-length Lost in the Dream, the song’s waves and washes of ambiance rub up against the electric charge of the band and the results are dazzling. Sure, the lyrical message put forth by singer Adam Granduciel is a bit ambiguous, but the urgency of his delivery conveys the message loud and clear. The song’s description of running in the dark is the perfect metaphor; this is the sound of a band in need of an escape route. Utilizing the best tricks Springsteen once had up his sleeve to an often breathtaking affect, “Red Eyes” is the cinematic result of The War on Drugs finding that way out through its own joyous craft. 2014 was a turbulent year on a global scale and with “Red Eyes,” The War on Drugs provided us with our own escape, if even for just five minutes. – CK