2014: the songs (10-1)

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Previously: 100-91, 90-81, 80-71, 70-61, 60-51, 50-41, 40-31, 30-21, 20-11

Briefly: thanks again to everyone who read these posts as they came out. This is the third year I've been writing this list out on these pages, and while it's mostly because I love trying to put in words what these songs make me feel, it's also because I enjoy sharing that I keep doing this. My hope is, as always, that even if you disagree with things on here (and chances are you do), you find one or two new things that you enjoy. So, here we go.

10. The War On Drugs - Red Eyes

You heard the Springsteen comparisons in the previous track grouping with "Burning," and you'll probably get the same vibe here. What elevates this track above all others on Lost in the Dream and, thereby, other tracks on the album that channel Bruce, is how beautifully paced everything feels. Over the course of the song's five minutes, you never feel either rushed or slogging, thanks in part to unwavering drums that never stray far from the center line. Gentle echo applied both to piano and Adam Granduciel's voice - far gentler than the application on Slave Ambient - gives the track that leather jacket edge. Things really take off shortly before the two-minute mark, when the guitar goes full electric and the band's sound expands to fill a stadium.

9. Adult Jazz - Spook

"Spook" is a song that will put your taste in music to a new test. It's long (nearly 10 minutes), will never approach a form that could be considered "radio-ready" and, quite frankly, might confuse you as you listen. Unlike "Red Eyes" above, "Spook" has no set pace, no center line of beat to travel throughout its near-epic length. It takes different forms, moving in rollercoaster fashion with gentle, teasing, gradual builds and gentle drops for the first few minutes. Then, just before you've reached six minutes of listening, an energy enters the track. It won't bowl you over or make you jump out of your chair and dance, but it's palpable just the same. It pulses with the beat of the bass drum like a heartbeat. There's a Japandroids-reminiscent line in the midst of the lilt of a falsetto ("With your northern soul and southern hands / Will you feel full but not much else?"), and there's more than one opportunity in that moment for your heart to break. There's pain and vulnerability in these words, and just as those caught in the throes of emotional anguish sometimes wonder to themselves, the closing lyrics wonder, "But did you ask for it? / Really ask for it?"

8. Diarrhea Planet - Heat Wave

Yeah, I know. Look past the ridiculous name for a second, though. Focus on the music. This song is the closest thing we got to new Japandroids this year, an out-and-out rocker that tosses aside the idea of a chorus to instead go: A verse, B verse, solo. And that's it, but that's all it needs. It's relegated to an EP mainly because it does feel a bit like an incomplete thought, but in a rare exception, I feel like that plays into its favor here. It's almost freeform, with no single binding melody or chorus to constrain it. With no time to waste, it just sort of barrels through your ears, culminating in a manic, dueling guitars breakdown. It's a wild and frenetic ride, even in its relative brevity.


7. Tokyo Police Club - Argentina (Parts I, II, III)

A three-song suite presented as one single track, "Argentina" present Tokyo Police Club at their most mature and restrained. Having built a reputation on erratically catchy tunes prior to this year's Forcefield, TPC kicked the year off with this massive-sounding opus whose only major fault lies in its position on the album (track one instead of the finale). The three "parts" have their distinctions, but blend together in such a way that the seams aren't jarringly audible. It's got lyrics that lovingly pine ("Oh what a girl, I want you wearing my t-shirt / XL / Yeah, you wear it well") about some never-will-be fling. One of the song's best moments is the recognition of this, when part two builds into a hurricane around the lyrics "I don't want to want you like I want you," a feeling that arrives when presented with the impossibility of a relationship. But, not to be downtrodden, the song instead remembers everything in a pristine way, acknowledging fault ("'Cause If I had known that you were only here for the weekend...I would've been so much nicer") but not brooding, a key distinction. Feelings are complicated, and dealing with their complications can be...well, complicated, but the mature approach of this song makes it endearing instead of clingy.

6. Bombay Bicycle Club - It's Alright Now

"Made a plan to be someone / Mess it up when the moment comes." Been there? Felt that? Sure you have. At some point in our lives, we will all doubt ourselves, all have moments of weakness where we question our mettle. A lot of those come with relationships, especially in their early stages. Nothing can make you feel more open and vulnerable than learning to completely trust someone new, and your inner monologue can tug your both ways; the metaphorical angel and devil on the shoulders. There's talk of patience and impatience - "I can wait" and "I don't wanna wait" are sung atop one another at times - and the merging of individual point of views while still trying to maintain individuality ("I step onto your side / you never did see mine"). The sounds of the song itself are powerful and enveloping, led by Jamie Steadman's dreamlike-yet-full-bodied vocals and a marching drum pattern that gently hurt the heart. It's moving in a way few other songs from this year can match.

5. The New Pornographers - Brill Bruisers

The impact is immediate: the instant you start the song, you're met with the choral "boh-bah" that instantly transports you back to the era of Twin Cinema, when TNP were making power pop at a level above everybody else. Part of that's been forgotten in the era of Challengers and Together, albums that muted the sense of exuberance that the New Pornographers name had previously been associated with. Carl Newman even said himself that Brill Bruisers writing found him in a better place mentally and emotionally than before, and the results are evident of just that. Everything about this song feels happier than what came from those previous two albums, a return to that joyful feeling that oozed from every corner of Twin Cinema and parts of Electric Version and Mass Romantic. Even if the pleasant return to form isn't something you feel you can relate to, the chipper mood of this track works well enough without any help.

4. Future Islands - Seasons (Waiting On You)

Samuel Herring's voice is a weapon. The triumphant synths and chugging bass line are his ammunition. Your ears are the target, and his sights are trained. No one sounds like this guy, and his impressive, sometimes unpredictable range will often leave you awed. It's not that he can sing 12 octaves, but that he can change personality within a song so deftly as to make any given track one of the richest you'll hear all year. The best example of that? Right here. The range isn't as grand as you'll hear on some of the other tracks off Singles, but neither does it sound as perfectly hones as it does here. Every bit of personality and emotion is placed in a note-perfect fashion, filled with ache and fuming at the passage of time. It's a masterful performance, one given its due thanks to Herring showing his stuff during a performance of the song on Letterman and one certain to make you remember this group and this voice.

3. Fear of Men - Descent

At a certain point, if you have been or are currently in a long-term relationship, your two selves begin to overlap. You share characteristics, borrow turns of phrase, mannerisms, points of view. The Venn diagram of your independent lives begins to broaden its shared area. What happens when the foundation of that shared life begins to crumble? What happens when, at its core, the life you've begun to share finds its flaws widening, a chasm opening beneath? The struggle to preserve what was once a steady constant becomes an emotional war, and weighing the risks of waging said war is at the heart of "Descent," a sadly gorgeous song about the unraveling of such a life. How do we realize what's worth keeping and when to abandon the pursuit? How much of ourselves is lost in the fight, and can what's left at the end truly be salvaged? You can realize that what was once good will always stay good in memory ("I can't hide what I don't regret / Spending half my life next to you"), even in a poison present. That optimism struggles upstream in this song, though, and hope is nearing the breaking point. The end of anything is often a difficult time to arrive at, but the process of expiration can be much more painful.

2. Alvvays - Adult Diversion

It may lack the emotional punch of the songs behind it on this list, but "Adult Diversion" has a hooky, catchy quality unrivaled by any other song this year. The melody bounces along with ease, DIIV-esque guitars jangling beneath the airy vocals of Molly Rankin. The addition of deep brass for verse two is subtle but essential, and the contrast between relaxed vocals and uptempo groove help produce a strangely relaxing track. It feels like this wonderful combination of surf-rock with an almost industrial twinge, even though there's no grime to be heard on its musical edges. The percussion feels like the soundtrack to a factory floor whose assembly line is responsible for just cranking out the hooks. Maybe no one single part of this track stands out to you, but don't be surprised to look up after a while and find you're on you're fifth or sixth consecutive listen. It's an unassuming, surprising earworm that works on every level and layer.

1. Sharon Van Etten - Your Love is Killing Me

Sometimes I wonder if the human heart was built to withstand songs like this. Songs of this breed of emotion are certainly no anomaly in Sharon Van Etten's discography, but nothing before has hit with this kind of punch. How can you comprehend the emotions of realizing your feelings for someone are damaging? How can you come to grips with the punishment associated with living your life that way? Van Etten's performance here is breathtaking, and I mean that near-literally. There are times I listen to this song and feel my chest become so heavy I have to remember to inhale. The pain is so real, so visceral as to become inescapable, an emotional prison from which escape comes at no small cost. Van Etten urges you to listen as she devolves to last-resort status, aware of the pain that has been and is to come but realizing there's just no avoiding it any longer. More than just being a six-plus-minute heartache, "Your Love is Killing Me" can sometimes prove difficult to listen to. Obviously, that's not because it's grating at any point or poorly composed, but because the gravity of the emotions within it can be too much to take. Its raw power is unlike anything I've heard in a long time, a tour de force that will swing into you like a sledgehammer and make you ache. I don't know if I could ever call this song "enjoyable," but I could certainly call it "marvelous" and "jaw-dropping," among hundreds of other adjectives. Let it leave its mark on you.

Previously: 100-91, 90-81, 80-71, 70-61, 60-51, 50-41, 40-31, 30-21, 20-11