In the first year of the Lorde, it was hard to
ignore her, especially living in New Zealand. Hard to ignore her as she became the first solo New Zealand artist to top the US
charts. Hard to ignore her as mass saturation of her every move, every lunch
she shared, every comment she made was news. Mention of her youth, her canny sense of
riding the wave of a backlash against capitalism. Everything she did was
acknowledged to the point where I was bored of Lorde. I tried to not like her
songs but Royals was something that I couldn’t shake so it made this list.
Looking down the list, I noticed that there were quite a few songs by artists who I would describe as post-grunge-the likes of Coliseum and Roomrunner. Fitting in that this year saw both the 20th anniversary reissue of In Utero and Nirvana’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. There’s also an appearance by Pearl Jam, who released another pretty underwhelming album with one decent in Mind Your Manners.
Kanye West and Vampire Weekend were the only two acts to have two songs to feature on the list. In Modern Vampires of the City, Vampire Weekend made my year’s favourite album. I’ve always been a Vampire Weekend fan-boy and I’ve been a bit bemused by some of the backlash directed against them. Modern Vampires of the City doesn’t have any immediate songs but it has a collection of great songs, signaling a more mature but not more boring album. Yeesus by Kanye West has left me divided-I like a number of songs on it but as a whole, I can’t say it’s a great album, certainly not in the league of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Kanye has never been a great lyricist or even a great rapper but he does make interesting compelling music. He might be impatient for croissants but he remains music’s most vital artist
Looking down the list, I noticed that there were quite a few songs by artists who I would describe as post-grunge-the likes of Coliseum and Roomrunner. Fitting in that this year saw both the 20th anniversary reissue of In Utero and Nirvana’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. There’s also an appearance by Pearl Jam, who released another pretty underwhelming album with one decent in Mind Your Manners.
Kanye West and Vampire Weekend were the only two acts to have two songs to feature on the list. In Modern Vampires of the City, Vampire Weekend made my year’s favourite album. I’ve always been a Vampire Weekend fan-boy and I’ve been a bit bemused by some of the backlash directed against them. Modern Vampires of the City doesn’t have any immediate songs but it has a collection of great songs, signaling a more mature but not more boring album. Yeesus by Kanye West has left me divided-I like a number of songs on it but as a whole, I can’t say it’s a great album, certainly not in the league of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Kanye has never been a great lyricist or even a great rapper but he does make interesting compelling music. He might be impatient for croissants but he remains music’s most vital artist
Shabba- A$AP Ferg feat A$AP Rocky
The Way We Fall-Alela Diane
Invisible-Annie
Reflecktor- Arcade Fire
Do I Wanna Know?- Arctic Mondays
Control- Big Sean
You're Not Good Enough- Blood Orange
New Seeds- Boards of Canada
Fuzzbang- Coliseum
Avant Gardener- Courtney
Barrett
Get Lucky ft. Pharrell Williams-Daft
Punk
Lonely- Danny
Brown
Love is Lost-James Murphy remix- David
Bowie
Sunday (ft Frank Ocean)- Earl
Sweatshop
No Religion (ft.The Underachievers)- Flatbush
Zombies
Primetime (feat. Miguel)- Janelle
Monáe
Open Eye Signal- Jon
Hopkins
Black Skinhead- Kanye
West
New Slaves- Kanye
West
Banana Clipper feat. Big Boi- Killer
Mike/El-P
Full Of Fire- The
Knife
Wakin On A Pretty Day- Kurt
Vile
Royals- Lorde
Weight- Mikal
Cronin
Only Tomorrow- My
Bloody Valentine
Graceless- The
National
Higgs Boson Blues- Nick
Cave & The Bad Seeds
Tide Waits for No Man- Nikita
the Spooky and a Circus of Men
Stoned and Starving- Parquet
Courts
Mind Your Manners- Pearl
Jam
Entertainment- Phoenix
The Captain- The
Phoenix Foundation
Song for Zula- Phosphorescent
Nosetalgia (ft. Kendrick Lamar)- Pusha
T
Cat & Mouse- Radkey
Blurred Lines ft. T.I., Pharrell-Robin
Thicke
Weird- Roomrunner
She Will- Savages
Tiger Tank- Speedy
Ortiz
Toe Cutter-Thumb Buster- Thee
Oh Sees
Strandbar (Disko Version)- Todd
Terje
South Paw-Tomahawk
Does It- Tricky
Mercy- TV
On The Radio
So Good At Being In Trouble- Unknown
Mortal Orchestra
Diane Young- Vampire
Weekend
Ya Hey- Vampire
Weekend
Harlem Roses- Vinny
Cha$e
Byegone- Volcano
Choir
One- Yamantaka/Sonic
Titan
