Best Songs of 2014

I have two simple rules when making my "Best of" song lists. First, an artist can't appear more than once. Second, I will not rank my lists. The first rule makes the list-making harder, and the second makes it easier. This paradox creates a happy medium.

In conjunction with this list, in 2014 I published Best Of lists representing 30, 25, 20, 15, 10, and 5 years ago. The weird thing about making those lists after the fact is the use of hindsight, for I have discovered new artists and new songs in the interim years and, in some cases, during this process of trying to fill out a 100-song list.

Just like last year, making my 2014 list in the moment was hard. My too-large running list of nominee tracks was whittled down over the course of the past month, finally putting together the 100 songs featured here, just a matter of days ago.

For these year-end lists, I like to undertake the seemingly impossibly task of creating an hours-long mix. The order you see below represents that effort, which you can listen to via Spotify and Rdio. Sadly all 100 tracks aren't available—Taylor Swift and The Black Keys, I’m looking at you—but you get the general idea. Ten years from now, or maybe never, I may finally post individual blurbs for each track.

Show Grid

Sugar Free Jazz

Mike Doughty

Live at Ken’s House

Megaforce

Notes
Springful

Adult Jazz

Gist Is

Spare Thought

Notes
Time of Dark

tUnE-yArDs

Nikki Nack

4AD

Notes
Kong

The Notwist

Close to the Glass

Sub Pop

Notes
Bright Eyes

Allo Darlin’

We Come From the Same Place

Slumberland

Notes
11 O’Clock Friday Night

Hamilton Leithauser

Black Hours

Ribbon Music

Notes
Do You

Spoon

They Want My Soul

Loma Vista

Notes
Brill Bruisers

The New Pornographers

Brill Bruisers

Matador

Notes
Congregation

Foo Fighters

Sonic Highways

RCA

Notes
Another Night

The Men

Tomorrow’s Hits

Sacred Bones

Notes
Shut In

Strand of Oaks

HEAL

Dead Oceans

Notes
Gimme Something Good

Ryan Adams

Ryan Adams

Pax Am

Notes
Turn Blue

The Black Keys

Turn Blue

Nonesuch

Notes
Rita Mae Young

The Record Company

Rita Mae Young

self-released

Notes
Turn Your Lights Down Low

Jim James

Sweetheart 2014

Hear Music

Notes
Coming Home

Leon Bridges

Coming Home

self-released

Notes
Standing By Your Side

Lee Fields & The Expressions

Emma Jean

Truth & Soul

Notes
We Get Along

Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings

Give the People What They Want

Daptone

Notes
Dilla Plugged In

De La Soul

Smell the D.A.I.S.Y.

self-released

Notes
Till It’s Done (Tutu)

D’Angelo and the Vanguard

Black Messiah

RCA

Notes
Talk Is Cheap

Chet Faker

Built on Glass

Downtown

Notes
Good Kisser

Usher

Good Kisser

self-released

Notes
Brand New

Pharrell Williams featuring Justin Timberlake

G I R L

Columbia

Notes
Come Alive

Chromeo featuring Toro y Moi

White Women

Big Beat

Notes
Fiona Coyne

Saint Pepsi

Fiona Coyne

Carpark

Notes
Love Sublime

Tensnake featuring Fiora & Nile Rodgers

Glow

Astralwerks

Notes
Love Neve Felt So Good

Michael Jackson featuring Justin Timberlake

Xscape

Epic

Notes
After the Disco

Broken Bells

After the Disco

Columbia

Notes
Lover

WKND featuring Chet Faker

W/K/N/D

self-released

Notes
Hesitation

Beat Connection

Hesitation

self-released

Notes
Sun Models

Odesza featuring Madelyn Grant

In Return

Counter

Notes
VIP Pass to My Heart

Riff Raff

Neon Icon

Mad Decent

Notes
Lost

Tomas Barfod featuring Pell

Love Me

Secretly Canadian

Notes
Red Planet

Alvvays

Alvvays

Polyvinyl

Notes
Standing in the Sun

Jessica Lea Mayfield

Make My Head Sing…

ATO

Notes
Heavenly Father

Bon Iver

Wish I Was Here

Columbia

Notes
Queen

Perfume Genius

Too Bright

Matador

Notes
Logging Off

Sondre Lerche

Please

Yep Roc

Notes
Regret

St. Vincent

St. Vincent

4AD

Notes
Hi-Five

Angel Olsen

Burn Your Fire for No Witness

Jagjaguwar

Notes
It Ain’t All Flowers

Sturgill Simpson

Metamodern Sounds in Country Music

High Top Mountain

Notes
Pauline Hawkins

Drive-By Truckers

English Oceans

ATO

Notes
Believer

Kris Orlowski

Believer

self-released

Notes
Low Key

Tweedy

Sukirae

Anti-

Notes
Head Underwater

Jenny Lewis

The Voyager

Warner Bros

Notes
Slow Motion

Phox

Phox

Partisan

Notes
Moving to the Left

Woods

With Light and With Love

Woodsist

Notes
Salad Days

Mac DeMarco

Salad Days

Captured Tracks

Notes
Tarifa

Sharon Van Etten

Are We There

Jagjaguwar

Notes
Parade

The Antlers

Familiars

Anti-

Notes
Owl

She Keeps Bees featuring Sharon Van Etten

Eight Houses

Future Gods

Notes
Outside, Digging

James Vincent McMorrow

Post Tropical

Vagrant

Notes
Rapt

Karen O

Crush Songs

Cult

Notes
Are You OK?

Dum Dum Girls

Too True

Sub Pop

Notes
Glory

Wye Oak

Shriek

Merge

Notes
Happy Idiot

TV on the Radio

Seeds

Harvest

Notes
Cruel

Operators

EP 1

self-released

Notes
I’m Not Part of Me

Cloud Nothings

Here and Nowhere Else

Carpark

Notes
Lipton Witch

Sunny Day Real Estate

Sunny Day Real Estate / Circa Survive Split 7"

Record Store Day exclusive

Notes
How Do You Do It

Yellow Ostrich

Cosmos

Barsuk

Notes
Red Hand

Owl John

Owl John

Atlantic

Notes
My Sad Captains

Elbow

The Take Off and Landing of Everything

Concord

Notes
Blue Moon

Beck

Morning Phase

Capitol

Notes
Clear the Sky

Ryley Walker

All Kinds of You

Tompkins Square

Notes
Talking Backwards

Real Estate

Atlas

Domino

Notes
Wide Awake

J. Mascis

Tied to a Star

Sub Pop

Notes
Oh! Whiskey

Jimi Goodwin

Odludek

Heavenly

Notes
Valley of the Sun

U.S. Royalty

Blue Sunshine

self-released

Notes
Almost Everything

The Hold Steady

Teeth Dreams

Washington Square

Notes
Red Eyes

The War on Drugs

Lost in the Dream

Secretly Canadian

Notes
Seasons (Waiting on You)

Future Islands

Singles

4AD

Notes
I Miss Your Bones

Hospitality

Trouble

Merge

Notes
West Coast

Lana Del Rey

Ultraviolence

Interscope

Notes
Bill Murray

Phantogram

Voices

Republic

Notes
Spectre (Bibio Remix)

Tycho

Spectre

Ghostly International

Notes
Ilsa Drown

Death Vessel featuring Jonsi

Island Intervals

Sub Pop

Notes
Wildwood

Steve Gunn

Way Out Weather

Paradise of Bachelors

Notes
Violently Wild

Horse Feathers

So It Is With Us

Kill Rock Stars

Notes
My Silver Lining

First Aid Kit

Stay Gold

Columbia

Notes
Down by the River (Live)

Puss N Boots

No Fools, No Fun

Blue Note

Notes
The Pieces

Slow Club

Complete Surrender

Wichita

Notes
I’m Callin’

Tennis

Ritual in Repeat

Communion

Notes
Change Your Ticket

One Direction

Four (Deluxe)

Syco

Notes
Shake It Off

Taylor Swift

1989

Big Machine

Notes
Talking Body

Tove Lo

Queen of the Clouds

Island

Notes
Silver and Gold

Kele

Trick

Lilac

Notes
Can’t Do Without You

Caribou

Our Love

Merge

Notes
How We Be

Sinkane

Mean Love

DFA

Notes
Wave 1

Com Truise

Wave 1

Ghostly International

Notes
So Long, See You Tomorrow

Bombay Bicycle Club

So Long, See You Tomorrow

Vagrant

Notes
Thunder Clatter

Wild Cub

Youth

Mom and Pop

Notes
Shadow

Bleachers

Strange Desire

RCA

Notes
Compliment Your Soul

Dan Croll

Sweet Disarray

Capitol

Notes
Say Enough

Hooray for Earth

RACY

Dovecote

Notes
Do It Again

Röyksopp & Robyn

Do It Again

Interscope

Notes
Paris

Little Dragon

Nabuma Rubberband

Republic

Notes
Play It Right

Sylvan Esso

Sylvan Esso

Partisan

Notes
The Trouble

Pogo

The Trouble

self-released

Notes
Magic

Coldplay

Ghost Stories

Capitol

Notes
Metallic Cloud

Damien Jurado & Sisters of the Eternal Sun

Brothers and Sisters of the Eternal Sun

Secretly Canadian

Notes