Hello folks! 2014 has gone by and I haven't summed it up musically yet, so I decided to do this directly on the blog, to share my best picks of this past year with you all in case you overlooked them or missed them altogether!
So, let's begin!
First there is the most difficult category, that is the best song of 2014, meaning the song that has been most meaningful for me last year. I will build a quadrumvirate, yet even if I don't feel comfortable picking one of them over the others, I dare say that Elastic heart would be the first pick.
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Best songs 2014 |
Hey now is the first song I ever listened of London Grammar (goodness bless KEXP and their live recordings) and it started my path of love with them. London Grammar have been, probably together with Imagine Dragons, my "best new band" of 2014, and that gives you a measure of how much I grew to like them in less than one year. The story of America is very similar, I remember falling in love with it one time it was playing in the office early last year, in the period when I was listening to Imagine Dragons and getting to know them myself. Beautiful combo, which brought it to be my alarm call song for quite a long time!
Elastic heart is the representation of great soundtrack music: I obsessed over Catching Fire's soundtrack (as you might have noticed) and this is my favourite song out of it, together with Shooting arrows at the sky. I picked this one because it made me curious about Sia, and brought me to listen to her latest album, which I loved so much!
Lastly, in chronological order, Every other freckle has become kind of an obsession soon after Alt-J's sophomore album came out, it stood out immediately as my favourite in an album that I utterly loved and still love. The cat of the video has become highly representative for me (just check the cover image of the blog's Google+ page)!!
Moving on to albums, I am once again in a difficult position, as many great CDs have seen the light in 2014: U2, Tori Amos, Hozier, Lykke Li, Hundred waters and more have released awesome albums that found their way deep into my heart. Yet I decided to pick three albums that made it a step deeper than the others.
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Best albums 2014 |
After scoring my favourite song of the year, Sia didn't disappoint me with her album either: it took me a while to appreciate Chandelier, which then went on to have a (deserved) huge success. I didn't fall in love with the other songs immediately either, but after a few listens the album pierces through your heart and won't ever leave. Great, awesome pick. Don't make the mistake to overlook it or to just stick to Chandelier. There are many other great(er) songs in there!
Same line of reasoning goes for Alt-J's This is all yours, a highly expected album by me (and many others) which, I am confident to say, didn't disappoint. I am still not sure whether the level is as high as An awesome wave's, but their debut album is so, so great that even being slightly less awesome than it, would make their sophomore one of the albums absolutely not to miss in 2014!
The last one of the three is the one that didn't score any song in my top ranking, maybe because they are all so good that none of them really stood out (if I were to choose I'd probably pick Florida kilos, one of the deluxe edition bonus tracks)! When West coast first came out I kind of hated it, as I did with practically all Lana songs. In this case, I didn't grow an utmost love for it, as I still think it's one of the weakest songs of the album, but let's say I don't dislike it. West coast aside, the rest of the album is... just wow! Just go give it 5 to 10 listens, it's gonna become your favourite album of 2014, as it did for me!!
Well, here it is! 2014 is gone, but its great music will stay! Now I'm hoping for a great 2015 in music, as I'm waiting for new albums by my favourite artists, mainly Florence + the Machine and PJ Harvey, both of whom have not released any albums since 2011! Don't keep us waiting too long girls!