My 2014 Mixtape

It's that time of the year, where I go through all of the music from 2014 and narrow it down to my top 20 songs of the year. First, some notes:
1. Only one song per artist
2. song had to be released in 2014, no late 2013 entries.
3. I had to discover the song in 2014.
4. 2014, for me, was an off year for music. I don't remember the last time I had to try so hard to find 20 songs worth putting on this list. Maybe I didn't look hard enough, but I found myself very underwhelmed with the quality of music last year.

With that said, let's get to the music:

Album of the Year: Aloe Blacc - Lift your Spirit. This was pretty much the only album that I was inspired to listen to on a repeat basis this year, but it's still a damn good R&B album.

Honorable mention -

Cover song of the year: "They're Coming to Take Me Away" by Butcher Babies. A heavy metal cover of one of the creepiest novelty songs of all time? Yes please!

AND NOW, IN PLAYLIST ORDER, THE 2014 MIXTAPE:

1 - Title - Meghan Trainor : Her debut album is quickly becoming one of my favorite albums of 2015, but this track of her 2014 EP is catchy as hell and is ideal for dancing around the house.

2 - Uptown Funk - Mark Ronson feat. Bruno Mars : Ummm, this is the best Prince song in years, too bad he didn't record it. In any case, this is an absolute gem of a song, one that is sadly destined to be played to death before the end of February. Might as well enjoy it while I can though.

3 - Bang Bang - Jessie J, Ariana Grande, and Nicki Minaj : Jessie J is my favorite pop singer right now, and she can sing her face off. Nicki Minaj is a master at the guest rap verse, and I don't understand all the hate towards Ariana Grande, she seems perfectly adequate to me. This is like a "Lady Marmalade" for 2014.

4 - Classic - MKTO : You may be noticing a throwback theme here. That's because I was raised on music from the 60s and 70s, when they played instruments. So I'm a sucker for a hook played on piano or horns, or even ukelele. If you can't enjoy the simple pleasures of this song, then you and I just don't understand each other.

5 - Stay Gold - First Aid Kit : Shifting gears a bit, I had to throw in a track from my second favorite album of the year. This Swedish duo does Americana folk rock better than anyone. A gorgeous song from a gorgeous album.

6 - No Rest for the Wicked - Lykke Li : I really like the empty space in this song, it's a nice palette cleanser, especially after listening to a lot of Top 40 style music. Also, I have no idea how to pronounce her name.

7 - When We're Fire - Lo-Fang : This was the last song to make the list, and that's mostly because I didn't like it for most of the year. This was one of those weird songs for me where I hated it, hated it, hated it, and then all of a sudden something clicked and I realised I loved it. I also need to give a shout out to my wife for introducing this song to me.

8 - Riptide - Vance Joy : It's a pretty standard indie pop song, but it's just so damn catchy, I can't stop tapping my feet.

9 - Can You do This - Aloe Blacc : I've just decided that Aloe Blacc is Bruno Mars for Grownups. This is the most fun song on a stellar album, but I had a really hard time picking which Aloe Blacc song would make this list. I went with this one because I reminds me of "Do You Love Me" by The Contours.

10 - Love Runs Out - OneRepublic : Remember when I said that this was a bad year for music? Yeah, you know it's a down year when not only do I enjoy a OneRepublic song, but nobody has the decency to write enough good songs to keep it off my end of year list....I'm so ashamed, but I'm still dancing to it.

11 - The Miracle (of Joey Ramone) - U2 : I wasn't too upset when I got a free U2 album. I didn't get what all the fuss was about. I mean, I would never intentionally spend money on a U2 song in the first place, so I appreciated the way they admitted to us all that what they do is essentially worthless. But for the second time this year, I was pleasantly surprised to enjoy a song by one of my least favorite bands of all time. To put this in perspective, I normally consider U2 and OneRepublic to be of the same quality as Creed or Nickelback. I don't know how they both overachieved so wildly this year, but I guess even a crappy band can write a good song from time to time.

12 - Birth in Reverse - St. Vincent : I need to spend more time with this album, but St. Vincent has always been one of those sleeper artists for me. I never look out for her music, but I always enjoy it when I hear it.

13 - Water Fountain - tUnE yArDs : This is the happiest song about living in poverty ever! Seriously, try to find me another song about living without potable water that makes you want to dance around in your socks.

14 - KONGOS - Come With Me Now : This album was released in the US for the first time in 2014, so it qualifies for the list. It also has the distinction of being one of the few hard rock songs that features an accordion, and was the theme song for a WWE pay-per view event months before all the hipster radio stations picked it up and decided it was cool. That's right, wrestling fans discovered something cool before the hipsters did. Stick that in your ironic pipe and smoke it!

15 - Back to the Shack - Weezer : Frankly, I've enjoyed almost every Weezer album, but I do appreciate any song where a band apologizes to its fans for being to gimmicky. It also helps when that song is a great rock song by itself.

16 - Follow Me Down - The Pretty Reckless : At a time when most of the male hard rock bands are pretty toothless and boring, it's nice to see the ladies rock with a little emotion and attitude. Try to keep up fellas.

17 - Break the Fall - Laura Welsh : I'm not even sure how I ended up with this song, but I sure do like it. It's like a better version of Boom Clap by Charli XCX.

18 - Rather Be - Clean Bandit : Somehow, they made early 90s dance music sound fresh again. I don't know how they did it, but it is delightful.

19 - Am I Wrong - Nico and Vinz : As I was finalizing this list, I opted to give the last two spots to songs that I had a personal connection two. I turned 30 this year, and it just so happened that I was at the Mall of America on my birthday and Nico and Vinz were putting on a free concert. They also get bonus points for being from Norway (one of them anyway). It was a great free show on what was a great birthday.

20 - Back Home - Andy Grammer : I get to meet a lot of cool people at my job, and I had a lot of great memories from last year. But it's always fun when a client introduces me to a new song and I get to see them shout out all the words while they celebrate with their closest friends and family. It's seeing people create those kinds of memories that helps get me through the days when my job is more stressful. Also, it's a great end song if you put this list on repeat, because it blends back into the first song on the list very well.

So that's my top 20 for this year. They're all good songs, but I wish I had more truly great songs to put on this list. If you discovered something awesome in 2014, let me know in the comments.