My TOP 50 SONGS IN 2014 PLAYLIST
I base this list not on new music for 2014, but on songs that I discovered this past year. That’s why there are new up-and-coming artists, as well as some that go as far back as the 80s. It’s been a really great year of discovery for me, but something tells me that there is much, much more good shit that I’ve yet to get my hands on. Too much good music out there, and with so little time to discover it all. This is a good thing. Peace!
Fuck Was I — Jenny Owen Youngs
From the 2005 album Batten the Hatches.
Two years ago, my music junkie friend Michelle handed me four CDs filled with what seemed like a ton of music she had burned for me. There was so much music on these CDs that at first I felt overwhelmed by it all. I am grateful that my friend had gifted me with so much music, but I literally felt like a kid in a super-candy store. All I could do was randomly select songs and add them to my daily playlist in order to get a feel for each artist. It’s been a long yet fun process and I am still going through those CDs even now. My point in all of this is that Jenny Owen Youngs was one of those artists who Michelle had included on those CDs and Fuck Was I was a song I randomly selected to listen to. It starts off nicely but the vibe felt a bit too “pretty” in sound for my taste. However, there is a certain irony in the way she sings the chorus, “What the fuck was I thinking?” quite frankly while never straying from that all-too-sugary melody. With this, it’s as if Owen Youngs is able to remove a smidgen of that overly-sweet caramel flavored creamer from a morning Cup of Joe. I do like to add the stuff to my coffee, but not to the extent that it completely overwhelms it. Fuck Was I has just the right amount of sweetener that my musical palate can tolerate without feeling the urge to puke up all that is too sugary about it. Did I mention how much I dig it?
Greens and Blues — Pixies
From the 2014 album Indie Cindy.
I had lost interest in the Pixies over the years, although they’ve always remained one of my all-time favorite bands. After their release of 1990’s Bossanova everything else that followed didn’t seem on par with their previous stuff. I still continue to listen to their first three albums, Surfer Rosa, Doolittle (my favorite and how I discovered them), and Bossanova religiously. My passion for the band ended years ago, but there was a renewed interest in them when they began touring again recently. What little enthusiasm I was gaining at the time, my interest was quickly doused when a concert-going friend of mine declared, “but there’s no Kim Deal!” when I brought up the idea of us going to one of their shows. We both agreed it just wouldn’t be the same without Deal in the lineup and that was the end of that. I heard Greens and Blues on KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic earlier in 2014 and I recognized right away that it was Frank Black, er, I mean Black Francis behind the voice. The song didn’t blow me away but it had good energy about it and it put me in a gay (no pun intended) and feel good mood. When I realized that it was in fact new Pixies, I was apprehensive to download it at first. It wasn’t until I was going through past tagged songs that I came across it and then decided to add it to my collection. I make no apology for enjoying it as much as I did and I played the hell out of it all summer long. Man, I wasn’t even going to include Greens and Blues on this list because there isn’t anything remotely inventive or memorable about its sound. In all honesty, Greens and Blues is a rather ordinary mid-tempo kinda surf-pop rock sound that I’ve heard from hundreds of other wanna-be-the-Pixies bands over the years. However, when I went back to it and played it again recently I realized at one point I had kept it in my daily playlist for months because I genuinely liked it. Even now if it gets randomly played I don’t get the urge to skip over it. For me, that’s always a sure sign that I think a song is good and, well, my opinion is all that matters when it comes to my music collection. 😃
Whenever You’re On My Mind — Marshall Crenshaw
From the 1983 album Field Day.
I had always heard of Marshall Crenshaw, but never owned any of his music until I purchased Whenever You’re On My Mind this past November. I was unfamiliar with this song and in fact, there is only one other song from Crenshaw that I recognize — the 1982 hit Someday, Someway. When I first heard Whenever You’re On My Mind I was at Home Depot and it was playing in the background. I admit it’s a bit hokey and cheesy 80s, but there was just something endearing about it that grabbed my attention. I Shazamed-it, holding my phone up high enough for the app to get a tag on it, and instantly purchased and added it to my daily playlist. I’m a sucker for cheesy 80s pop-rock songs that aren’t always well-known by the mainstream, but not just any song though. There has to be some quality about it that attracts me to it. For me, it was the opening riffs that first caught my attention but I also really liked the sound of the melody as simple as it is. There isn’t much substance to Whenever You’re On My Mind and I won’t be blasting it out my car window anytime soon. It’s just this happy-go-lucky sounding tune that gives me this guilty pleasure whenever I play it. It’s as if I’m being unfaithful to anything remotely cool, but I don’t care because it just feels so good to my senses.
From the 2013 compilation 1991-2001.
Automatics have been around since the early 90s, but I didn’t discover this band from Spain until earlier in 2014. I was on a quest to find some cool, obscure international music to add to my already sweltering collection. I found Automatics (not to be confused with the London punk band The Automatics), from an e-flier I came across announcing them as one of the headliners for the 2014 Spanish music festival Sonorama Ribera. Needless to say, I only found one other band listed on that flier that I thought was interesting enough to listen to and that was the band Los Planetas. 1991-2001 is a 20-song compilation spanning the bands 10-year career and I could’ve selected any number of tunes from it to include on this list. However, I can’t seem to be able to cut TV Preacher (originally released on the 1999 album Duty) from my daily playlist and it’s the only one from the album still in it. I even use it in my Nike+ Running App playlist because of its steady melodic vocals and consistent rolling-like electric guitar sounds that keeps my running even. I specifically get inspired around the 2:35 mark when it takes a dip into these lazy reverbed vocals and flow that for some odd reason makes me want to climb the top of some stairs and do my best Rocky impersonation. Like most of their songs, the vocals and lyrics on TV Preacher are languid and obscure, similar to that of their biggest influence The Jesus and Mary Chain. Listening to Automatics has inspired me to rediscover songs by The Jesus and Mary Chain (<—Just like this one) that I’ve not heard in more than a decade. Even with all the new good music I’ve been finding lately I’m still not ready to delete TV Preacher from my daily playlist.
From the 2014 EP Lost in the Night.
Palace is one of those bands that when I first took a listen, the songs didn’t immediately blow me away. However, after I came across their Daytrotter session this past December, I was intrigued enough by their sound to download the four-song set. The alternative-blues sound Palace creates isn’t completely original, but that’s OK. Veins is a beautifully arranged and powerful song with steady drum beats, twangy, bluesy electric guitar sounds and smooth vocals by lead singer Leo Wyndham. I had less than a month to get into this London based band before 2014 was up, but after only a few listens Veins quickly became one of my go-to songs whenever I wanted to chill. One morning, after a long night of rain and where everything seemed clean, crisp and clear, I took my dog Klhoe for a walk. I was in a contemplative mood enjoying the peacefulness of the moment and listening to my music when the guitar intro to Veins began streaming through my headphones. As the song continued to build, especially during the guitar solos, it was then that I realized just how amazing this song is. I fell instantly in love with it and needed to hear it again, so I continued to hit replay each time it ended. If I had found this earlier in the year, it would’ve made a strong case to be my favorite in 2014. I almost feel guilty that it isn’t and I keep thinking that it should be in at least the top 10. But I have so many favorites from the past year and any one of them I could make a case for in the same way. I have a feeling this one may remain in my daily playlist for a long, long time.
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