Songs of the Year 2014

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For the last couple of years I’ve managed to come up with a top 100 songs of the year, but (disturbingly), I couldn’t find 100 I really like this year. To be fair, with three weeks of the year to go, I may still discover more good stuff, especially when playing through the various critics’ charts. But with Rolling Stone declaring the best albums of the year to be by Bruce Springsteen and U2, I think we may have to accept it just wasn’t a good year. The redeeming features (and what redeeming features!) were the expected release of an album by Half Man Half Biscuit, and the very unexpected release of an album by Pink Floyd. I could probably have picked out half a dozen songs from each of those albums to fillout this top 20, but as ever, I’ve limited myself to no more than one song from any one act. I’ve allowed some others into the full 70 though.

Anyway, here are my top 20 songs, and for the full list of new songs I really liked, scroll past the number one at the bottom. There are individual Spotify links for the full list, and it’s available as a playlist here. If you find something new, enjoy!

20. Torrent – Ásgeir

19. Market Town – Echo And The Bunnymen

18. Luna – Fear of Men

17. Happy – Pharrell Williams

16. Kqu – Pat Metheny

15. Waking Light – Beck

14. New York Morning – Elbow

13. Amelia – snowbird

12. Black Tambourine – Withered Hand

11. Anonymous – Weezer

10. Perturbator’s Theme – Perturbator

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iTBzQY4OUk

9. Reach Out – Rumer

8. Angela – Allo Darlin’

http://allodarlin.bandcamp.com/track/angela

7. Giorgio’s Theme – Giorgio Moroder

https://soundcloud.com/wmstrecs/giorgios-theme

6. Magnolia – Eric Clapton

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJe0lJsniRY

5. I Ain’t Waiting – Chris Forsyth & The Solar Motel Band

4. Matthew Arnold’s Field – Ben Watt

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KSThSVxBPg

3. Family Tree – Meadowlark

2. The Unfortunate Gwatkin – Half Man Half Biscuit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_bJNghKcWI

1. It’s What We Do – Pink Floyd

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jb4CHveIS50

Here’s the full list of 70 songs with Spotify links: