As is tradition for [An Avenue] going on a full decade now, we here at company headquarters have compiled our list of the 101 Best Tracks of 2014 between remnants of the shittiest office party treats and room temp bites of leftover Christmas Eve prime rib. There has also been much beer consumed over the course of re-engaging all 400 songs of the master list, which, for the most part, has been utter shit, so several dozens gallons of Stout and winter IPAs were a requisite.
Nope, it was not a great year in music, at least comparative to the last several years, where long awaited albums by perennially engaging artists were total triumphs. But this year -- a year in which legendary acts like The Pixies, Morrissey, The Black Keys and about a dozen others promoted feckless albums that registered absolutely no amplitude on the musical magnitude scale. Other recently alluring artists like Fanfarlo, Alt-J, and Foxygen for example were equally stodgy.
Look, the ass-end of this list isn't a musical masterpiece, but we at [AA] invite you to check in over the next four posts to see if there is at least a little bit of musical litter for you to scavenge from 2014.
PART I of IV | #101 - #76
101 - Sleeper Agent | Waves from About Last Night: decent edge-of-Alt-radio-but-mostly-Mix-radio artist who gave the boys at Draught Punk a nice tweener show during Friday of SXSW.
100 - Charlie XCX | Boom Clap from SUCKER: Charlie XCX slayed at SXSW, this being her show closer despite "You - Ha Ha Ha" still in her back pocket (where it remained). We gave her benefit of the doubt here.
99 - Jenny Lewis | Slippery Slopes from The Voyager: A legacy pick, but its not totally horrible.
98 - Eagulls | Possessed from s/t: A Draught Punk favorite from our March show with Matthew Young of Song, By Toad
97 - Saint Pepsi | Fiona Coyne from Fiona Coyne: Summer anthem, inescapable on XMU
96 - Avery Tare's Slasher Flicks | Little Fang from Enter the Slasher House: In the same vein as of Montreal and Ariel Pink, so mood music.
95 - Alt-J | Every Other Freckle from This is All Yours: Least offensive song from the sewage that was their 2014 album.
94 - Grimes | Go ft. Blood Diamonds from Go: Grimes is the shit. And Canadian. Which slid her up our scales.
93 - Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks | Lariat from Wig Out at Jagbags: Quite a very Pavement-y jam; plus he's a dad that drinks craft beer. Relatable. A Draught Punk fav from our February show.
92 - Chromeo | Hard to Say No from White Women: Goofy, schlocky electro-funk from Montreal. How is this not #1?
91 - Wye Oak | Schools of Eyes from Shriek: Folksy-indie isn't exactly our thing except when it sounds like how Wye Oak does. Entrancing.
90 - Blood Orange | Champagne Coast from Palo Alto OST: We missed the Blood Orange bandwagon last year, but making amends as best we can with this pick.
89 - BRONCHO | Class Historian from Just Enough Hip to Be Woman: A total latecomer to the list, and it still hasn't registered whether this would have been higher if heard earlier in the year, or fell off the list altogether for monotony? A Top 90 slot, it'll likely stay.
88 - We Were Promised Jetpacks | Peace of Mind from Unravelling: When [AA] are the executive producers of a network TV drama about Texas high school football, this will be its theme song.
87 - Mac Demarco | Let Her Go from Salad Days: People lost their minds over this shit, but this was the best it got for us.
86 - HAERTS | Hemiplegia from s/t: Nothing pioneering, but its less aggravating than CHVRCHES.
85 - You'll Never Get to Heaven | Caught in Time So Far Away from Adorn: The lone nod to our emo readers. We swear that there is a Supremes song embedded in there somewhere, but we can't put our finger on it.
84 - Courtney Barnett | History Eraser from A Sea of Split Peas*: Another song that pinged our radars too late to move up significantly. Her next album might likely be in our Top 10s at this rate. *note: This '13 release hit America in '14 so it totally counts.
83 - The Notwist - Kong from Close to the Glass: Now and then, there is a fantastic song from a band who've you gave less than a half a shit about before. We expect that trend will continue, but very nice melody reminiscent of when The Postal Service and Dashboard were listenable.
82 - Shakey Graves | Only Son from And the War Came: Its folksy, but its hipster folksy and sung an Austinite so that makes it awesome.
81 - Fyfe | For You from For You: Submitted for our enjoyment by our great pal Carlos, who is a very chillwave kind of soul and has an ear for this sad shit.
80 - Lykke Li | Love Me Like I'm Not Made of Stone from I Never Learn: Admittedly this dropped further than we thought because we didn't want you to think we were slipping on the surly scale. We are tender at times.
79 - Elbow | This Blue World from The Take Off and Landing of Everything: The best song from the perfect album for pairing Blakkr by Real Ale.
78 - Kevin Drew | Mexican Aftershow Party from Darlings: Kevin Drew would probably be our singer-songwriter role model if we were into that sort of thing. We are. So he is. These are the themes we would sing about too.
77 - Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. | James Dean from James Dean: Auto-tune our hearts.
76 - Hamilton Leithauser | Alexandra from Black Hours: The worst is that The Walkmen are on extreme hiatus, but then, if Leithauser is releasing solo stuff that sounds like The Walkmen anyway, we don't mind too much at all.
... to be continued.
1 comment:
It is important to ask for the advice and input of other folks while organizing an office party. This way you'll avoid resentment down the road from people who didn't get to see the office party they wanted.
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