ILM's Top 77 Tracks of 2014

Instead, I voted for one of the outliers.

Dunno why I'm being so coy. It's never been a secret my favorite track on 1989 is All You Had to Do Was Stay.

Xp, me too.,Clean was my highest placed swift vote iirc

feel pretty comfortable predicting "style" will be the highest placing t-swift track by some distance

Still think a top five place could be in the cards for Two Week by Twigsy. Which would be awesome.

I noticed around the holiday that "Blank Space" had become the default hey-Taylor-Swift-isn't-so-bad track among people who avoid her and pop.

would wager that most votes for "shake it off" either had another swift track on the ballot or were from people that did not hear the album

Rooting for SviiB

"style" will suffer because its not on youtube or spotify but the ppl that like it *really* like it.

I don't think SKM will place.

What is that, btw?

would wager that most votes for "shake it off" either had another swift track on the ballot or were from people that did not hear the album

― bae sremmurd (monotony), Wednesday, January 21, 2015 12:16 AM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol this logic pops up every year. (i know i'm guilty of it too but)

sometimes people just like songs

131 people voted in the tracks poll, and there have not been 131 people commenting in this thread, so I have no idea what the lurkers are into.

SKM is sun kil moon

oh right, duh me

Tracks poll won by an album track would be...different, although I guess 'Style' is a future single.

"shake it off" is still in the itunes top 10 in the uk and us close to 6 months after its release. loads of people dig it.

who the devil is taylor swift

my best friend

there has been a near-maddening debate in australia this past week over "shake it off" and whether or not it ought to be allowed in competition for a poll conducted by a publicly-funded alternative radio station

sorry end of the day brain. well for whatever reason, Carissa wasn't nominated was it?
I can just see Benji having 10 different tracks voted for (I would have voted for Pray For Newtown), and without Carissa I think the vote splits.

I was too concerned with nominating Alvvays.

great 20 today
first 17 were def more up my street but the couple of tracks i hadn't heard before (gately and migos) - five thumbs up

hey qt was too low, I was hoping for top 20 for the meltdowns alone.
anyway glad to see my #1 wasn't wasted.

All the pc music fans should have got behind Beautiful.

starting to worry Stara Rzeka won't pull this off after all

or in front of the artillery xp

threw some pts to beautiful
my #1 was a pc music track which I'm guessing won't place but hey ho

Responses right after Hey QT placing are the best thing on this thread so far tbh

I noticed around the holiday that "Blank Space" had become the default hey-Taylor-Swift-isn't-so-bad track among people who avoid her and pop.

curious about the sample size of this study

600 people interviewed b/w Dec. 23 and 31.

"Blank Space" is the one that sounds like Don Henley "Heart of the Matter" right?

well, yeah

nah it's the one whose intro sounds like Club Nouveau's "Why You Treat Me So Bad."

I'm back! Best discovery of the day by FAR is Shamir! :D So exuberant and entertaining! His aesthetic is flippant without losing its groove - it makes for a very engaging play. The critiques of preciousness and irksomeness make some sense, but I am both precious and irksome, so fuck you all ;)

who the devil is taylor swift

― LIKE If you are against racism (omar little), Tuesday, January 20, 2015 4:25 PM Bookmark

Becky.

Shamir was my number 2. I don't really get some of the comparisons, I totally love his voice so much and if you'd speculated to me I'd like a song of his more than 'If It Wasn't True' in the middle of the year I'd have whutted you out of the county.

"212" seems like an incredibly reductive point of reference for the Shamir track. "212" is an aggressive and declaratory punch, whereas "On The Regular" is basically a curtsy.

If we're talking structure then yes, they both feature raps and a sung breakdown, but don't tonnes of songs?

When I first heard "Blank Space", I thought it was the first TS song I'd ever hated. Somehow it managed to grow on me; pretty sure I love it by now.

I still think it sounds like Avril Lavigne and, therefore, I can't stand it.

She always sounded a bit like Avril tbh. I was surprised when I found out she wasn't Canadian.

gonna be livid if sun kil moon places

― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Tuesday, January 20, 2015 4:01 PM

with you on this

I totally do not understand how people can dislike Shamir. That song has been on rewind for me so much.

Most of the other stuff since I left earlier has been pretty poor - yesterday was a much cooler mix of things.

FYI Dark Horse rules hardcore, I was the #1 vote and there isn't a single song I listened to more this year

Between the deafening bass, the Moments of Love synths and the escalating chorus (do not listen to people who say it has a repeating bridge because they do not know what they are talking about), it's a singularly fascinating piece of music that flips into overdrive about five times during its running time that also is features the best usage of Perry's idiosyncratic voice outside of "Teenage Dream"

Also Taylor hasn't placed yet but my biggest beef with her is that she's a woman in her mid-20s who still sounds like a pitch- and support-challenged teenager, which makes the delivery of her material read to me as wholly disingenuous

Ha, I always thought that her pitch- and support-challenged delivery was 100% genuine!

Still think a top five place could be in the cards for Two Week by Twigsy. Which would be awesome.

― a pleasant little psychedelic detour in the elevator (Amory Blaine), Tuesday, January 20, 2015 7:15 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

I'm with you on this and I'm gonna call Two Weeks for #1 overall

I'm back! Best discovery of the day by FAR is Shamir! :D So exuberant and entertaining! His aesthetic is flippant without losing its groove - it makes for a very engaging play. The critiques of preciousness and irksomeness make some sense, but I am both precious and irksome, so fuck you all ;)

― telling like hot takes (imago), Tuesday, January 20, 2015 7:56 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

Hated Shamir and this cements my hate, my second favorite discovery of this poll outside of saer is finding out that you love AM!, finally we share something in common

can i catch up a bit?

77 NICKI MINAJ "Lookin Ass"
i'm suspecting one's love for all these nicki songs may rest on how one feels about her in general? because i don't hear anything new/different with this, it's just nicki doing her thing which i'm pretty much over.

76 OWEN PALLETT "Song for Five & Six”
i wouldn't have plucked a song other than "the riverbed" off of this album but this is great and i'm very into the layered arpeggios at the end.

75 TUNE-YARDS "Water Fountain"
even beyond the general embarrassment level of the lyrics and beyond the appropriation stuff, it's such a drag to listen to, all the percussion is super clipped and sounds like garbage.

74 NINOS DU BRASIL "Sombra da Lua"
agree w/everyone, this is very cool.

73 KING "Mister Chameleon"
just sort of floats by, not unpleasant but not memorable either.

72 KATIE GATELY "Pivot"
i listened to this early this morning, it intermittently held my interest. doubt i will listen to it again.

71 ANA TIJOUX Ft. Shadia Mansour "Somos Sur"
i'm probably challenged in general by foreign-language rapping, but this is very maximal and kind of fatiguing.

70 USHER "Good Kisser"
this is ok, i'm just going to listen to "climax" 8 more times tho.

69 NICKI MINAJ "Anaconda"
see above

68 DAVIDO "Tchelete" Ft. Mafikizolo
not bad? it sounds thin, like i could use one more thing going on.

67 RÖYKSOPP & ROBYN "Do It Again"
very bored listening to this.

66 SHAKIRA "Empire"
someone said 90s tori? that's not quite right but this thing is really tacky.

65 ST. VINCENT "Prince Johnny"
still don't get it.

64 DUKE DUMONT "I Got U" Ft. Jax Jones
endearing in a greeting-card sort of way, ftr i'm a sap.

63 CARIBOU "Silver"
more or less unassailable. dude's music is thoughtful, detailed, and beautiful a lot of the time.

62 AGAINST ME! "FUCKMYLIFE666"
obv don't want to just dismiss this completely but the music is so basic and uninteresting it can't hold my attention.

61 HOLLY HERNDON "Chorus"
really liked this, will track more down i guess.

60 MARK RONSON "Uptown Funk" Ft Bruno Mars
smug, self-congratulatory garbage.

59 JENNIFER LOPEZ "I Luh Ya Papi" Ft French Montana
prob way better than 2014 j-lo has any business being. love the arpeggios.

58 AGAINST ME! "Transgender Dysphoria Blues"
see above.

57 NICKI MINAJ "Boss Ass Bitch" ft. PTAF
see above

56 HAIM "If I Could Change Your Mind"
love this song, much more of a 2013 in my mind but no issues with it placing.

55 MIGOS "YRN" Ft. Young Thug
this is so fun.

54 ALVVAYS "Archie, Marry Me"
complained about this already. we've identified the forebears and i definitely never need to hear anything like this again, but her voice grates more than the average one of these songs.

53 SPOON "Inside Out"
funny to see the reactions to this--i like the song and feel strongly that the vocal deserves a ton of love, but spoon is such an albums band that pulling out this song is odd. it's so much better as track 2, following "rent i pay."

52 D'ANGELO AND THE VANGUARD "Sugah Daddy"
i haven't really formed a position on the whole d'angelo album yet, i think there are songs i like more but would prob not argue with any of them placing.

51 FKA TWIGS "Pendulum"
again i wouldn't have pulled a song off the twigs record other than two weeks but i do like this one.

50 QT "Hey QT"
lol

49 KATY PERRY "Dark Horse" Ft. Juicy J
love this song, did nothing to me for months and then finally clicked.

48 JESSIE WARE "Champagne Kisses"
she tends to leave me cold, like i see the talent and appeal but don't have any response to it.

47 ILOVEMAKONNEN "Club Going Up On A Tuesday"
like i said it's cute but wears thin so fast. it's weird enough that i can't totally hate it.

46 RITA ORA "I Will Never Let You Down"
this is ok! there's a weird moment in the chorus, not exactly a stutter but just like a one-beat delay, that i really like.

45 APHEX TWIN "Minipops 67 [120.2] (source field mix)"
not going to listen to this, no chance i'll feel anything at all toward it.

44 TODD TERJE "Delorean Dynamite"
i never choose to listen to stuff like this but am always reasonably happy when i run into it.

43 KATY B "Crying For No Reason"
i don't think katy is enough of a singer to carry this.

42 SHAMIR "On The Regular"
feels like a novelty song, and like this dude has the potential to do a whole lot better.

41 JAVIERA MENA "Otra Era"
sure! i'm down for the annual javiera appearance.

Have honestly never heard of QT or PC music before. On first listen, this is close to my reaction:

Not sure why it solicits so much reaction from either side.
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Tuesday, 20 January 2015 13:49 (8 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Since then, I have apparently gotten hooked on this song. I just played it a couple of times in a row.

43 KATY B "Crying For No Reason"
i don't think katy is enough of a singer to carry this.

I just played it a couple of times in a row.

7 and counting.