Friday 19 December 2014

Songs of the year 2014

It is the end of the year and time for those of a certain disposition to put together meaningless lists. I am of that disposition and this is my list of ten of the songs I have had on repeat in 2014, in no particular order.

Chromeo – Jealous (I Ain’t With It)

I can only take too much Chromeo, but when he is good he is making the sort of 80s hit singles that were never made. This is one of them. 


I only just discovered Angel Olson this year and really enjoyed her album, Burn You Fire For No Witness. This is my favourite track, probably because it sounds like early Leonard Cohen. Her cover of Richard and Linda Thompson’s Withered and Died (with Marissa Nadler) is also worth listening to.


I could have picked any track from Real Estate’s album Atlas, but this is the first one I heard so is the one I’m picking.


My friend Mischa put me onto Pup. He said their album was like Weezer’s Blue Album so I took note. Reservoir is probably my favourite track from the album and Mischa’s brief review of the album can be read here.


I haven’t enjoyed anything by Pains of Being Pure at Heart as much as their eponymous record. Kelly was certainly the stand-out track from Days of Abandon and I’ve listened to this song more than the album. This is one of those songs that give you a sad feeling of nostalgia for something you probably don’t remember.


I was lucky enough to catch St Vincent at The Roundhouse this year. Again, I could have picked any song of her
eponymous album this year, but this is the one I come back to most often. I also enjoyed the Hood Internet mash-up as well.


It may be tokenistic to include The Men given that I felt that Tomorrow’s Hits was not quite as good as the fantastic New Moon from last year. Different Days has appeared on loads of my mixtapes this year, so it’s staying in the top ten.

Avi Buffalo – Memories of You
More nostalgia. I loved the new Avi Buffalo record. It makes me sad and happy at the same time and Memories of You is the best example of this.


This may be my favourite track of all. This year The War on Drugs released the album my Dad played in the car on summer holidays growing up. Obviously Lost in the Dream wasn’t the exact same album, but it sounded a lot like it. Burning is a particularly good track to turn up load in the car. Sometimes when it is on, I imagine I am running down the motorway.


I hadn’t realized how nostalgic my music taste had become. I enjoyed enjoying Ryan Adams again this year, after a long time of turning my nose up. This track contains the best things about Tom Petty’s Refugee and Bryan Adams’ Run To You. A goo year for cars songs. A bad year for concentration.



2 comments:

  1. Interesting reading, Tom. Nowt wrong with an end-of-year list or two!

    Love the Angel Olson album - the best I've heard this year, I think (though, for a change, that's not saying much - I've heard very little). Had no idea she'd duetted with Marissa Nadler - that's definitely a great tip-off...

    St Vincent I like and admire but just can't seem to love in the same way that everyone else does. Oh well.

    I only have the first Pains Of Being Pure At Heart album - are the others worth getting, then?

    I've got The Men's Leave Home (very noisy and messy) and also the follow-up Open Your Heart, which is very good in places but which left me feeling I couldn't quite trust them (it sounded as though they were aping a whole range of disparate influences - even if doing it well). When I heard they'd gone a bit country rock for New Moon, I decided not to bother - my mistake, would you say?

    Quite like that PUP track, though must confess I can't hear much Weezer - perhaps more Pinkerton than Blue Album. In a similar vein, I've been loving the Cloud Nothings album Here And Nowhere Else. You might like the track 'Caught In A Dream' by FF too.

    I wasn't very keen on the last War On Drugs album I heard, but must give this new one a chance given the strength of all the reviews. Likewise Real Estate.

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  2. If you're interested, I'll probably be posting my end-of-year album lists on my own blog: http://www.silentwordsspeakloudest.blogspot.co.uk/ That said, it took me until August to do the one for 2013 (i.e. to feel as though I'd listened to enough to be able to make some judgement calls), and I've listened to way less this year... Also I'm about three years behind with live reviews, as illustrated by the fact that I've only just finished writing about an ATP from December 2011... Still, there might be some stuff of interest on there (and apologies for the unsubtle plug, especially if I've already plugged it before).

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