favorite songs of 2014

More songs exist right now at the end of 2014 than have ever existed before. The same can be said of film, rubbish, and human remains. Time functions in this manner. New songs pour into the anonymous abyss of iTunes at a rate faster than ears will ever hear them. While we sleep, the bowels of Spotify churn, its unloved songs playing back for each other in desperate corners of the database as an auditory Toy Story scenario sparked into being by the absence of human attention. With infinite songs at the ready to reach us and to never reach us, curious listeners can experience the true freedom of selection and the true bliss of discovery, as they patrol year end lists such as the one I contributed to the Best Rap Songs. 

Click here to see that list.

After pinpointing the sources of 2014’s most obvious euphoria in Hip-Hop (which remains my favorite genre of music), the prospect of a rap only list seemed to unnaturally confine and limit my pleasures from music in 2014. So, instead, I've made my own personal list of favorite 50 songs of 2014, also including quite a few rappers along with other genres, all are united by loose thematic moods that sketch out my most interesting and unique listening experiences. 

30. Taylor Swift

“Shake It Off”
[Big Machine]

Is “Shake it Off,” as advice, good or bad? Is it advice, even? A command, maybe? Is there an option? Is the “it” that’s shaking off always and necessarily by definition not “me,” and if so, once off, where does it go? If I shake myself down to the very, very, very bottom, and off, off, off “it” comes, what then is left? No blank-space for answers, I guess, but I will say that I’ve heard this song probably at least a milion times this year (intentionally and unintentionally), and I’m not irritated when it comes on. I guess that means I must like it... right?

29. YG
“Who Do You Love? (feat. Drake)”
[Def Jam]

Apparently, living “the good life” comes packaged alongside the heavy pressure to flex. We know this well — hip-hop’s Xanax need to proclaim sexual and political “freedom” via cash money. But, somehow, “Who Do You Love?” came across as a gift that alleviated the angst of male gaze from turning everything stone cold. Mustard was in peak form here; a four-bar minor-phrase, the kick, and the “hey” were all perfectly designed and ready-to-please. Perhaps more than any other rap track this year, the piece showed us the benefits of “lightness.” The Mustard/YG axis even coaxed Champagne Papi to deliver a tightly-packaged party drop instead of his typical meandering, self-referential corny bullshit. All-in-all, the “gift” of Mustard’s production allowed for an indulgent pleasure-ride in a lane wide enough for YG and Drake to joyfully flex those six figures. They easily cruised from 0 to 100 to $100,000.

28. SOPHIE
“HARD”
[Numbers]

I like the music that SOPHIE makes. Last year, I thought that “BIPP” and “ELLE” were very good songs. This year, I thought that “LEMONADE” and “HARD” were very good songs. “HARD” was special, because it made me think about catwalks, liquorice, hairspray, and parties. I listened to it a lot of times because it was short and it made me dance. I hope that SOPHIE will make another song that I like soon. 

27. Chief Keef
“Shooters” [original version]
[Self-Released]

While we get a lot of copy cats these days ripping off Chief Keef’s older drill sounds, the Chicago rapper has been paving newer, weirder, and delightfully mixed-bag paths ever since parting ways with Interscope a couple months ago, even getting in the beat game with his own productions. But on “Shooters,” 12 Hunna was on the boards, providing Sosa a provocatively minimal banger to stage his exaggerated brutality and simplified, repetitious rhyme schemes. The official DJ-free version could be heard on Hustlenomic’s Clout Part 1 mixtape, but it was the disruptive drops and disgustingly violent sound effects of the “original” release that added a surreal component to the proceedings, with a machine gun at one point even metaphorically killing the song. These intrusions were obnoxious, three times as loud as they should’ve been, and humorous in an otherwise studied claustrophobia. They were perfect.

26. Lorenzo Senni
“Forever Headline”
[Boomkat Editions]

“Pointillistic trance” was the phrase used by critics to describe Lorenzo Senni’s 2014 album, Superimpositions, and while the record more than explored “pointillism” in the form of sharp synths, frequently stabbing, there was one track in particular for me that excelled at sending me off into a pure mental whirlwind. “Forever Headline” was the longest track on the album, and with that, its potential for my minds envelopment exceeded that of the others. However in this respect, track length was secondary to the song itself, which was thoroughly disruptive by virtue of how brimming, uptempo, and relentless it was. Try focusing on a component for its duration. Try and have a wonderfully difficult time at it.

25. Steve Gunn
“Way Out Weather”
[Paradise of Bachelors]

With the many rap music that passes from my desk through my ears when drawing, sometimes it’s old comfort from acoustic music that causes the biggest surprises. Yet “Way Out Weather” may have been my most far-out song of the year, considering I found Gunn’s previous guitar meltdowns too constructed — and dare I say poppy? That didn’t preclude a few psychedelic washes and spontaneous moments, but the warm cuddle of what one may deem traditional was more of a gamble on the pop-experimental spectrum than synth oscillations or arse gyrations. The soulful voice, breezy twang, and sincerity… it made me blush.

24. OG Maco
“U Guessed It”
[Quality Control]

“U Guessed It” came out of nowhere. Atlanta was calling itself weird, pots were calling kettles black, and we were four years removed from Flockaveli. FOUR YEARS. We were dying of thirst out there. OG Maco’s energy was only amplified by the video of OGG and Rome Fortune falling through a hotel, mobbing in the elevator, yelling “HWAH,” making the world a better place for everyone.

23. DJ K-Duecez ft. Kuddie J
“T-Shirt & Panties”
[Self-Released]

One of my favorite grimy club sounds this year was from Jersey producer K-Duecez (featuring Kuddie J), who reworked Adina Howard’s ultra sexy but sadly forgotten “T-Shirt & Panties” into a hard-hitting dance song. While the track didn’t reinvent the genre, it proved that, when done well, dance music could provide an experience that was much more than about dancing. The main (almost only) lyric was endlessly sexy in an innocent way, so much so that it transformed into something meditative, even melancholic. Astonishingly though, the emo feel did not once sacrifice the danceability of the track.

22. Death Grips
“Have a Sad Cum”
[Third Worlds]

What We DON’T Talk About When We Talk About Love. Not a tearjerker but a tear jerking. Also: tear (v.1; to pull or rip [something] apart or to pieces with force) + jerk (n.2/informal; a contemptibly obnoxious person). Fuck my friends’ music. All the Health Goth kids screaming in the club. Seven tabs of porn open in my browser. Punch a waste man in the head. Fall asleep with pizza in your bed. Delete? History. Call your dad and cuss him out. Apologize and cry. Death Grips called it quits earlier this year, but not before releasing the first half of their final(?) double(!) album, which included this triumphant ode to morose masturbation. So don’t blow your load just yet, ‘cause these fuckers still got another half of an album cumming.

21. Yung Lean
“Leanworld”
[Self-Released]

Yung Lean’s always had a certain “haha, come here and look at this little Swedish kid rapping” quality about him. Even those who would seriously defend his work (like me) could probably admit there’s something strangely viral or disposableabout his music. Well, all of it except for “Leanworld.” Like some of his best tracks, the lyrics barely needed to register for its ocean of promethazine-laced melancholy to wash over you. But unlike those others, it never “dropped” and certainly didn’t “bang.” It was weightless, and it was sad. Between Lean’s chant-like delivery and that descending square lead that damn near destroys me every time, it was pure sad boy concentrate, seemed to be designed only for my many long and lonely nights.

20. Mumdance
“Take Time (feat. Novelist)”
[Rinse]

It took exactly thirty-three seconds to realize that “Take Time” is a great grime song. Mumdance’s instrumental was as punishing and spartan as it was pure fun. Constructed from just a 909, some clangy samples, and a bass blast, it was like someone had dragged French dance music through the alley and taught it how to make grime. However, unlike many of the best tunes to come out of the new wave of grime, it only got better with the addition of the 17-year-old MC Novelist. Suddenly, the empty space was filled in with perfectly pissed off bars, and an exercise in avant-garde dance composition became a definite basement banger.

19. Jenny Hval and Susanna
“Black Lake”
[SusannaSonata]

When I think about Jenny Hval and Susanna’s burnished sound tapestry Meshes of Voice, I focus on its form and structure, asserting that how it moved through space with weight and grace begged some kind of external response (in my case, a high recommendation to anyone who would listen to me). When I actually immerse myself in “Black Lake,” though (volume so loud it floods my senses), I realize my own lack of meaningful words in this paragraph and even noises (ah!) that strike me. Irrupting from its unfathomable yet innate source, “Black Lake” is altogether arresting, beautiful, awful, and awe inspiring, its sheer emotional resonance — sent into perpetual vibration by a mesh of voices — evidence that our deepest, darkest, blackest feelings were our most ineffable, unqualifiable, unimaginable. 

18. Beyoncé
”***Flawless (feat. Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche)”
[Columbia]

If there were a good way of describing how women ALSO practice in stunting, it’d be the lyrics to Beyoncé’s “***Flawless (feat. Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche)” [original version Bow Down]. And of course, it’d be in the most exhaustive tone, ‘cause having to explain yo-self ONE MORE TIME, gurrl; I ain’t sticking around for the war cloud. I’m a m.a.n. in his mid-twenties, so tracks like “***Flawless (feat. Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche)” typically get me dancing secretly in my head, but in all honesty, it’s a good outlet into a plethora of mindsets I’m not typically used to. Although, some girl at work told me she didn’t like “the weird sounds” in Beyoncé’s latest album, so she never really listened to it. Power to being alive, and “Fuck it!”

17. copeland
“Advice to Young Girls (feat. Actress)”
[Self-Released]

What I love about copeland is that, despite her ironically cold, steel expression, she doesn’t mess around on her music. So while it might’ve only felt appropriate (given what little I knew) situating copeland’s dry, monotone voice within some non-threateningly non-sequitur in-joke, her words couldn’t have been more barbed and stimulating. On a surface level, there was nothing ironic or sardonic or insincere about her “advice to young girls,” which was (despite my doubt) exactly why this cut was simultaneously infectious and scary to me. Like girls makeup applied sloppily in the kitchen, it didn’t conceal imagined faults, exposing instead that “together, you’re strong,” that you can “face the city,” “face the night.” What was most affecting about “Advice to Young Girls” wasn’t that it induced anxiety about these situations (which it did), but that it even left me, a six foot male, vulnerable and, most critically, EMPOWERED as a result. So while aggregators kept painting a detached portrait of copeland as an enigma, perhaps a better comparison would’ve been Aretha Franklin; copeland’s “Advice to Young Girls” could certainly anyone feel like someone who mattered, with a frightening rise in self-esteem. 

16. Swans
“Screen Shot”
[Young God]

I really hope in the near future, teenagers in music classes across the world that are learning techniques of song composition will be sat down and made to listen to “Screen Shot,” the students’ minds slowly being crushed by the overlaying intensity of instrumentation, squeezing them tighter and tighter like a slowly closing vice over the course of the seven minute build up, until the final wailing guitars kick off and the drums double up and the head of each pupil in the class explodes while the teacher looks on joyously at the massacre and sneers: “that’s the definition of a crescendo, you little shits!” 

15. 100s
“Fuckin Around”
[Fool’s Gold]

Now filed under “should’ve been a radio hit,” 100s’s “Fuckin Around” was much more than just a breakup song from a “pimp” to his “ho.” It was a personal empowerment anthem driving an Iggy Azalea-favored synth line into actually enjoyable territory while flipping the gender politics of rappers like her and Nicki Minaj on their arses. Where they sell sex as a supposed tool for feminine empowerment, 100s sold sex for material wealth, not only by “pimping hoes” but also by offering his own physical affection in exchange for furs, dinners at Chez Panisse, and rooms at the Claremont Hotel. And when that didn’t work out, oh well. “She said 100s but I love your ass, but that ain’t gon’ get my hair done.” Man’s got a point.

14. Pure X
“Valley of Tears”
[Fat Possum]

I dunno if it’s because I’ll one day die listening to Pure X’s “Valley of Tears,” but every time I listen to it, I want to cry all the water out my body. Or that it reminds me of… the best bits of my last relationship. Hanging out with friends I once had. Fumes of weed: windows drawn, kisses on cheeks, and strained singing. Going to the seaside in July and sitting on the sand. Everyone playing Super Smash Bro’s. Mama’s making homemade burgers. It’s been a good fucking life, y’all!

13. Freddie Gibbs & Madlib
“Thuggin’”
[Madlib Invazion]

Is Freddie Gibbs actually thuggin’? That boring question has loomed over Gibbs’s career for the past half-decade, actually culminating with him being shot at in a white neighborhood in Williamsburg and, thus, not really offering any kind of answer to the argument. Alas, I, Idris Kenain, encourage amaurotic conviction over inconsequential debates, so don’t worry about Gibbs’s cred; instead, ponder how good Gibbs and Madlib’s “Thuggin’” is. One of many standouts from the duo’s phenomenal collaborative album Cocaine Piñata, the track found Madlib meshing Rubba’s “Way Star” into an incredibly dynamic beat, while Gibbs juxtaposed a smooth delivery against the grit of growing up in Gary. Please don’t attempt to murder him again guys. 

12. Hannah Diamond
“Attachment”
[PC Music]

Like my phones latest OS upgrade, “Attachment” swiped the foundations underlying my regular mental interactions with the what and the why of earworm pop and replaced them with a more attractive (and initially, I must admit, irritating) version of the same thing, quickly wiping all memory of how this stuff used to operate. A creation of both the bedroom and the factory, PC Music’s beveled bass drops and blushing synth-puffs nestled close to Hannah Diamond’s slightly-off recitations of sweetness, gliding along serenely but trapped in a complex melancholy, daydreaming about horizontal intimacy in the flattened future.

11. Dean Blunt
“Forever”
[Rough Trade]

Dean Blunt’s talent for producing infectious music out of thin air, without the artifice of a musical “identity,” makes hell of busywork for his audience’s ears, but his refreshingly amateur approach to art-making reaffirmed an essential adage of the creative spirit: Don’t Try. Or in Blunt’s case: Just Do It. “Forever,” like the album it came from, was a monument to Blunt’s fuckless life force flow: too curious to categorize, all soft moans and saxophones and beats slashed apart with vague and endless desire. Uncompromising but unfolding with intuitive grace, it was a reassuring creation, a conduit of an everlasting art within. 

10. Bobby Shmurda
“Hot Nigga”
[Epic]

It seems Crows have had a hell of a year. 18+ released a 7-inch that featured “Crow” as the A-side and several underground trap beats featured the squawk numerous times. Meanwhile, Jahlil Beats sent a WAV file via carrier crow over to Bobby Shmurda who then sent “Hot Nigga” over to Vine and the rest of New York, then WHAM! hip-hop went crazy: the crow sound is now flying in a jet to work with Kanye on his next project while being named #2 on COMPLEX’s must-have feature of 2014 behind that “Hey” sample DJ Mustard puts in every one of his productions. AYYY, Crow caught a body ‘bout a week agoooo! #FREESHMURDA

9. Andy Stott
“Violence”
[Modern Love]

I have been immensely enjoying the violent-chaotic-orgy presentation of the latest Call of Duty. Whatever story they may slap on these kind of games, the key selling point is the compulsive glory of lustful destruction. This has only gotten strangely sexual for society, though our legs buckle under the sheer weight of life and death. “Violence” is the song Kevin Spacey’s character in the game should be rattling the windows of his compound with while he plays his war crime games. The song worked as a muscled objectification of rage electrifying a steadily creeping fog of pure evil. When the pulverizing wordless chorus finally broke through, I was fused with that spark of gleeful devastation, and it stung a bit. “Violence” wanted to wake up from itself, but was deadly comfortable and only reclined back into its own ether. I did likewise. 

8. Future Islands
“Seasons (Waiting on You)”
[4AD]

I’m somewhat perplexed about Future Islands’ Twitter bio: “too noisy for new wave, too pussy for punk.” On the one hand, the band’s infamous late-night talk-show performance of the dad rock isn’t “too noisy” for anything, really. On the other, what does it even mean to be “too pussy for punk?” Frontman Samuel T. Herring’s total emotional and physical investment in this essential adult-alternative jam (see the Late Show version) was one of the most “punk” things I’ve experienced in 2014, in which “punk” meant less than ever before. Considering the decline of punk music recently, I think Herring might’ve been the most punkiest pussy of them all. Great song also.

7. FKA Twigs
“Two Weeks”
[Young Turks]

FKA Twigs’s most popular song was once “Water Me,” in which she sang of seeking love and affection over an Arca production so frail a single bump could smash it into a thousand pieces. Those days are over, you idiot! That girl may have pleaded for TLC, but the Twigs on “Two Weeks” thrived into the force and size of a fucking supernova. “You say you want me/ I say you’ll live without it,” she taunted, a sly power grab at the center of a song requesting “you” to be sexually consumed by her. If “Two Weeks” seemed straightforward on a production standpoint, it’s because those tightly-sequenced blasts of synth and percussion were forced to fall in line with her command. “You know you’re mine,” she shouted, and yes, I know. I know.

6. Future
“Move That Dope”
[A1/Freebandz/Epic]

Movement is right there in the title: Future wasn’t selling dope, he was moving it. And movement has more than one possible meaning, especially describing this particular versatile robot vocalist rapper from Atlanta. Future usually switches between an array of moods and tones, but on this track, he was uncharacteristically a low-key presence. While Pharrell got most of the attention for his out-of-the-norm good rapping, he still sounded like he was trying. Future, on the other hand, rapped with infectious enthusiasm with a bare minimum of effort. I mean, he took a song about working hard at whatever your grind is and turned it into one of the best songs of the year. All apologies to King Push, but Future’s the one who was pushing things forward here. Without him, this song would’ve been just another super-sized cypher about selling drugs instead of this monumental work of motivation and spirit.

5. Amen Dunes
“Splits Are Parted”
[Sacred Bones]

Sometimes I wish it could be this simple: “Splits Are Parted,” from Amen Dunes’s dazzling Love album, was a ragged, breathtaking song with few embellishments,  a simple song offering a simple statement: “I could love you/ I could make it easy.” With two guitars emitting sonic waves of ambient gloom, a simple yet powerful hook, and a talented drummer, Damon McMahon created a spiritually rich experience with a pitiless sentiment. It was poetic in its way of conveying a painful infatuation,  sounding desperate but not possessive, and even through repeat listens, the song’s structure became familiar and its movements more fated, it was always a new sensation, making a hopeless person like me hoping to fall in love again.

4. Grouper
“Clearing”
[Kranky]

Then again “Have you ever been in love?” I can’t say I have. What does that even mean? To be in love? I don’t know. I can’t know. It’s as unfamiliar to me as latin is to you. I know it exists, I know people get it and have it, but that doesn’t make it fathomable. What is clear is this: Everyone I know, I care for; they just disappear and become someone else when it happens. I lose them. It never seemed right to me. In the end, it’s always the same: I end up alone, and the world turns inward. But maybe it’s better this way. Otherwise, I’d lose me and just end up hurting someone the wrong way. You don’t want that. Nobody does. 

3. iLoveMakonnen
“Club Goin’ Up on a Tuesday”
[Self-Released]

I used to be terrible at singing along to lyrics — especially rapping. I mean I couldn’t even get through the first line of the Fresh Prince of Bel Air theme song. That was before iLoveMakonnen. I have now sung along to every word of “Club Goin’ Up On A Tuesday” about three billion times, just in my room alone. But it wasn’t just the accessibility or simplicity that made “Tuesday” so beautiful. It was the rawness, the realness, the intimacy; the pure, confident, gentle delivery of a message and style that was both comforting and unfamiliar. But mostly it was for giving nerds like me some rap we can finally sing along to. 

2. QT
“Hey QT”
[XL]

In 2014, I found myself facing the abyss. The ominous void of space in my life suddenly enveloped me while on the bus one night, the darkness showing itself as manifestations of my deepest and darkest thoughts. I stared out the window, and saw nothing, and then soft candy floss clouds, shiny bubblegum balls, pink puddles, glossy plastic legs, tits, arms, hair, the moistness of sweat and grease and tons of gallons of canned fizzy drinks. Reality dematerialized in the vast nothingness, reforming into new shapes and abandoning structures altogether. It was the sheer awe of the landscape of imagination, complete with secret fears and perversions. The sound of a high voice crawled out from the mouth of the abyss, screaming: “Hey QT!!!” I quivered, and sat still, unsure, seeming almost to fall inside, to become swallowed. After some minutes, I finally stammered in response: “Yeah?” 

1. Rich Gang
“Lifestyle”
[Self-Released]

Rap purists hate Young Thug. Haaaate him. From the jump, the "empirical lyrical miracle" crowd have taken this young stoner—who has adopted Lil’ Wayne as his God MC and yells, sings(?) and spits weird lyrics about hubbies and actors from Lethal Weapon instead of, I dunno, his Adidas—as the anti-christ of the rap apocalypse. But when's the last time anybody in the backpacker crowd coughed up a chorus as incredible as "Lifestyle."

If not the anti-christ, Thug definitely feels like an end point. Every few years a new artist completely alters the gravitational pull of hip-hop, and in 2014 that person was Thugger Thugger. It’s difficult not to bring his name up when talking about the current landscape of rap, the eccentric ATLien’s vocal manipulation and disregard for basic rules of hip-hop makes Wayne at his most weird seem boring. Young Thug songs in 2014 have been released in such quick succession from numerous locations on the internet it’s hard not feeling like being hit by an endless tidal wave. It’s important to note the quality of these tunes also; Stoner, Danny Glover, Every Morning, Cash Talk, Old English, Givenchy, About the Money, Flava... so on and so on. “Lifestyle” may not be the best Young Thug song of 2014 (that accolade might go to I Just Might) however it is a perfect representation to his approach which has never been as polished and effective as it sounds on this particular hit. Even though it’s still tough to figure out what Thug is talking about—”I’m on the top of the mountain puffin’ on clouds... something...SOMETHIIING” he yells on the hook, both passionate and unintelligible you can’t help but to sing along with pure gusto—never has not understanding someone sounded so cathartic. 

A victory lap single released before their excellent Tha Tour: Part 1 mixtape, Rich Gang’s “Lifestyle” coasted over London on da Track’s lush piano chords, G-funk synthlines, and bumping trap percussion into its pole position as the consummate summer jam for cruising in the coupe (or the yacht) with all your (rich) homies. Not forgetting Rich Homie Quan’s bouncy Andre 3000-core flow (“trouble trouble” […] “fist knuckle knuckle”), but it’s Young Thug who shines on this anthem of celebration by populating his double verses with the stream of freewheeling flows and upper-register volleys that I’ve learnt to love from Atlanta’s most consistently unpredictable MC. Those who are still unsure about Young Thug and continue to say “You can’t even understand what that weirdo’s saying, it’s just gibberish!” fail to see the point. The goal isn’t to get you to bob your head and recite bars; it’s to jump, flex, and swing every way your body allows, trying to sing along to the hook as it opens a new dimension. It’s not just gibberish — it’s sublime.