Saturday, December 27, 2014

[AA]'s 10th Annual: Best 101 Tracks of 2014 | PART II of IV | #75 - #51

Read Part I of IV here.


This year, Weezer came back reincarnated as … Weezer, which my some of my buddies thinks is awesome, despite all of the schlock they've released since The Green Album -- which in of itself is still pretty debatable as properly vintage Weezer album (I say, "sorta").  Regardless, its hard to deny that they've gave it a "good job, good effort" Los Angeles try.  

That is the basic premise of Part II.   Here are a number of
 decent Tuesday afternoon office jams, and a smattering of Friday night boozing ones.  We are confident that you will be able to tell the difference between the two.  We hope you like it, although you have to understand that sometimes we make a Pinkerton, and sometimes we make a Hurley.


PART II of IV | #75 - #51


75 - Weezer | Go Away from Everything Will Be Alright in the End: Heavy guitars, griping lyrics, and love themes.  We'll take it.

74 - Kasabian | Eez-Eh from 48:13: Some of the lyrics are trite, but its anthem-y and British and makes you want to take your shirt off like you're in 1996 Ibiza.

73 - Work Drugs | Time from Insurgents: Is retro-synth still a genre?  Dunno, we think it is, so it made our list.

72 - Generationals | Gold Silver Diamond from Alix: Retro-synth with added drum track.

71 - Sam Smith | Money On My Mind from In the Lonely Hour:  Took me a long time to accept that people on Facebook were crazy about Sam Smith because literally nothing breaks on Facebook.

70 - The Drums | I Can't Pretend from Encyclopedia: Still waiting for another jam like "Money", but we've always dug their sound nonetheless.

69 - Tokyo Police Club | Hot Tonight from Forcefield: This album wasn't TPC's tightest effort, but there are some great songs on there that sound like [AA] guilty pleasure '3rd Eye Blind' if they were a junior high band.

68 - Spoon | They Want My Soul from They Want My Soul: Finally getting into some serious face music.  The whole list is littered with Spoon, but we wouldn't allow more than three on it.

67 - The Fresh & Onlys | Who Let the Devil from House of Spirits: In a year without a BRMC album, this filled the gap nicely.

66 - Foxygen | How Can You Really from … And Star Power:  Honestly, we're shocked that Foxygen still were on friendly enough terms with one another to even record a second album.  Even though its mostly a complete mess of a record, there are still some interesting songs like this one.

65 - Kendrick Lamar | i from i: We must have been in a weird mood when making this list, as this is the most likely track on the list to have a Santana credit -- who is also on our list of Top 3 most overrated things ever, along with Reggie Bush and Tex Mex.

64 - Sharon Van Etten | Every Time the Sun Comes Up from Are We There: This track would be a nice theme song for a writer on a port wine bender.

63 - Bishop Allen | Start Again from Lights Out: Every damn year, there is an album that we are immediately giddy about, then come to our senses.  That was Biship Allen's 2014 effort.  Still, its a nice Brooklyn-y sounding track that we're sure someone in their early 20s relates to.

62 - Fanfarlo | Cell Song from Let's Go Extinct: Each time we re-listen to this song, we are reminded how 1) disappointing Fanfarlo's latest album was, and 2) how we've disrespected this song by being low on the list because its pretty great.

61 - Wild Cub | Thunder Clatter from Youth: This year we saw Wild Cub open for Vampire Weekend at Stubb's and they were literally the most appreciative band in history.  The band acts exactly like their music, and so we think its genuine.  And good.

60 - Wye Oak | Before from Shriek: The first band with a multiple spot on our list.  This album surprised us with how intense it was.  Definitely one of those drinking songs were were talking about.

59 - Paws | Erreur Humaine from Youth Culture Forever:  One of my pals in Scotland produced this track and it is fucking excellent, as one in Scotland might say.

58 - Sisyphus | Rhythm of Devotion from S/t: A Draught Punk selection from Episode 11 with our friend Jacob of Austin Sessions; its a strangely addictive hip hop collab by Sufjan Stevens, Serengeti, and Son Lux.

57 - Dum Dum Girls | Too True to Be Good from Too True: One of the indelible hits of SXSW 2014. We fell in love many, many times during this gig at Mellow Johnny's.

56 - Robert Schwartzman | It's You from Palo Alto OST:  Robert Schwartzman is the former lead singer of Rooney, which is a band with close ties to both Sofia Coppola and The O.C., which is everything this blog wants to be about. 

55 - Ages and AgesDivisionary (Do The Right Thing) from Divisionary: Draws the fine line between naively monotonous and overwhelmingly cheerful.  Why not both?

54 - Jamie T | Limits Lie from Carry on the Grudge: Jamie T sure does sound different than the last time we heard 'im!

53 - Stars | Turn it Up from No One is Lost: Every single album Stars makes is crappy except for one song.

52 - Los Angeles Police Department | Cave from S/t: We don't know who this band is either, but just try to resist the gravitas of this song.  Us too.

51 - Alvvays
 | Adult Diversion from S/t: Totally Camera Obscura-lite, but their themes, melodies, and vox are completely on-point.


... to be continued.

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