I put together this Top 20 plus songs of 2014 list while putting up holiday decorations -- thinking over the year and culling the songs that meant so much to me (while finding the best order of presentation of course!) If I had to pick a Song of the Year, I'd add my vote to others that chose Future Islands' "Seasons Waiting on You." Along with the breakout performance by frontman Samuel Herring on David Letterman that was so crazy passionate and borderline creepy, the tune encapsulated all three genres listed on their Wikipedia page with gusto: synthpop, alternative rock and indie pop. It's simply a great song that doesn't get old with repeated listens.
Yet the song that yielded the most meaning for me this year would have to be Field Report's "Home (Leave the Lights On)." As I wrote about in a post back in October, hearing this song in a different context gave this sublime tune a personal resonance that cut to my core. It's going to be one of those many songs that will take me back to that time and place in the fall of 2014.
Listen via the YouTube playlist below or on Spotify at the link here. Here's to another fine year of new music!
1. "Inspector Norse" − Todd Terje
2. "Can't Do With Without You" − Caribou
3. "Dangerous" − Big Data
4. "Red Eyes" − The War On Drugs
5. "Seasons Waiting On You" − Future Islands
6. "Come a Little Closer" − Cage the Elephant
7. "Digital Witness" − St. Vincent
8. "Fall In Love" − Phantogram
9. "Do You" − Spoon
10. "Home (Leave the Lights On)" − Field Report
11. "Step Out" − José González
12. "Past Life" − Lost In the Trees
13. "The Tower" − Wye Oak
14. "Alexandra" − Hamilton Leithauser
15. "Handreds of Ways" − Conor Oberst
16. "Blue Moon" − Beck
17. "Summer Noon" − Tweedy
18. "Woke Up To the Light" − Strand of Oaks
19. "Lonely Press Play" − Damon Albarn
20. "New York Morning" − Elbow
21. "Moving To the Left" − Woods
22. "Divisionary (Do the Right Thing)" − Ages And Ages