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User
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Last Active 07-10-16 10:28 am
Joined 06-14-14
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| 2014: Top 10 Songs from the Billboard Hot 100 Year-End Chart
A rundown of the songs that I found to be rather enjoyable from Billboard's 2014 year-end chart. Believe it or not, this was a difficult list to make. Lots of rubbish to sift through, but there are some gems buried beneath all of the dreck. Some runners-up include: "TURN DOWN FOR WHAT?!" by DJ Snake & Lil Jon, "The Monster" by Eminem & Rihanna, "Team" by Lorde, "Wake Me Up" by Avicii, "0 to 100/The Catch Up" by Drake, "Come With Me Now" by KONGOS and "Can't Remember to Forget You" by Shakira & Rihanna (largely for that unforgettably sexy music video). | | 10 |  | Macklemore and Ryan Lewis
The Heist
#92: "White Walls" (feat. ScHoolboy Q and Hollis) - A surprising entry to say the least, but a great one to see all the same. The Heist was released all the way back in 2012 and it's still making a mark on the Billboard charts to this day. The beats are extremely gritty throughout, especially at the beginning, but the chorus is absolutely gorgeous, with Hollis adding a layer of soul to this track's somewhat typical lyrical structure about Cadillacs and haters. The low point of the song is easily ScHoolboy Q's pedestrian guest verse, which fades incompetently into the track's excellent chorus, but thankfully his verse is glossed over quickly enough to
still be able to enjoy the track for what it is: a catchy, summertime anthem. | | 9 |  | Dierks Bentley
Riser
#79: "Drunk on a Plane" - Usually I find myself skipping over country tracks like nobody's business. This year was riddled with "country" music from the likes of posers such as Florida Georgia Line, forever tainting the genre with their corporate sell-out personas and unbelievably lame songs. Surprisingly though, I was able to find one fun country song out of a huge steaming pile of rubbish. The song is "Drunk on a Plane" and, right from the title of the track alone, I was sold on it, but what sold me even further on it was the tongue-in-cheek music video, as well as the extremely catchy chorus that hilariously utilizes an already out-dated line from a previous Hot 100 hit: "buying drinks for everybody / but the pilot, it's a party / got this 737 rockin' like a G6". Though the song is incredibly cheesy, there's something extremely redeeming about it, it's not pretentious like most of the charted songs are, but a track that simply means to be enjoyed and it is enjoyable in pretty much every way. I'd highly recommend it if you've been aiming to ease back into the country music genre, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this song. | | 8 |  | Avicii
True
#60: "Hey Brother" - Hey look, another country song! While this song mixes in some electronic/house beats throughout, it is undeniably a modern country song in style and structure. Though I don't quite like this song as much as "Drunk on a Plane", I do love the charming lyrics: "what if I'm far from home / oh brother, I will hear you call / what if I lose it all / oh sister, I will help you out / oh, if the sky comes falling down / for you, there's nothing in this world I wouldn't do". A delightful song to listen to, with enough bass to blow the roof off of a club's dance floor as well. | | 7 |  | Aloe Blacc
Lift Your Spirit
#48: "The Man" - A wonderfully uplifting soul song. As soon as I heard the chorus for this one, I was hooked in immediately. My only gripe with the song is how slow-moving it is. While it's still a very enjoyable track as it is, the song could have used for a bit of a faster tempo to give it more of an energetic kick; similar to "Wake Me Up" by Avicii, which featured Aloe Blacc on vocals. Even in the music video, the man's shown in slow motion singing to the song at the perfect speed. Despite that minor gripe, this is a thoroughly enjoyable song from 2014. | | 6 |  | Clean Bandit
New Eyes
#41: "Rather Be" (feat. Jess Glynne) - Speaking of thoroughly enjoyable, here's a song that I wish I heard more on the radio last year. So charming and happy throughout, I have no earthly idea what the hell the lyrics mean: "with every step we take / Kyoto to The Bay / strolling so casually / we're different and the same / get you another name / switch up the batteries". Thankfully the chorus more than makes up for the fact that the lyrics are somewhat odd. Jess Glynne is outstanding on vocal duty here, giving this electro/house/pop track an added oomph that makes it stand out from the crowd; plus, the instrumentals buried in the background throughout make it a fun song to revisit. | | 5 |  | Ariana Grande
My Everything
#37: "Break Free" (feat. Zedd) - Here's a song that had me hooked in almost immediately. While I did have a few problems with "Problem", "Break Free" completely sold me on my love for Ariana Grande. She's fantastic on vocals here, Zedd's beats are toe-tap worthy throughout and the music video is a pure (and cheesy) joy (for any sci-fi fan in particular). I just love this song. A rare pop song where I have nothing bad to say about it, as it's just too darned catchy to resist. | | 4 |  | Charli XCX
Sucker
#34: "Boom Clap" - Moving on to yet another song that's too darned catchy to resist. "Boom Clap", alike "Break Free", hooked me in immediately with an amazing chorus, stunning beats (or "CLAP!"s in this case) and Charli XCX proving that she's got quite the range to play with. Her vocals here have a real, genuine cattiness to them that makes this song utterly irresistible in every way. It's just so bouncy and fun, not sure why "Fancy" gets more air-play than this; that song got annoying fast, especially those dreadful "duh duh duh" beats repetitively used throughout. This is an engagingly positive track that isn't self-promoting or pretentious in anyway (and it oddly makes me want to watch The Fault in Our Stars thanks to the music video, something about the clips shown, along with the music itself, makes it seem like a very charming movie). | | 3 |  | Disclosure
Settle
#28: "Latch" (feat. Sam Smith) - What a voice. Such a shame that he has yet to use it well enough in his solo career because the two hit singles he did guest vocals for last year (this and "La La La") were much better than his entire debut album (which, of course, cleaned house at the Grammies thanks to obviously out-of-touch voters). My dislike of Sam Smith's debut album aside, he truly is a marvellous up-and-coming vocalist who proves that he has the goods to deliver the catchiest of tunes with this slick effort from Disclosure. Smith has a lot of soul in his voice and it gives this song an added feeling of euphoria throughout. Quite easily one of my favourite singles from 2014. | | 2 |  | Sia
1000 Forms of Fear
#25: "Chandelier" - But this is easily the best song that charted onto the Hot 100. At first, I didn't know what to think of this song. In fact, I kind of hated it when I first listened to it. The music video was kind of creepy, her guest verse on Eminem's "Guts Over Fear" was way too much for me to handle and her piercing delivery on "Chandelier" made me wonder: what's the big deal? Why is this such a successful single? It's that bloody chorus. Having given this song over a dozen listens since my initial disliking of it, I must say that every time I hear this song now, I get shivers crawling up-and-down my spine, especially when she erupts during that phenomenal chorus. This definitely feels like the "Just Dance" of this year, a song that has a feeling of dread when it comes to partying, but an overall positive outlook in lines such as "won't look down" and "holding on for the night". This song is haunting in the best way possible, it sticks with you when you really listen to it, it seeps into your bones and stays with you, and I adore it in every possible way (even though the music video is still kind of creepy and weird). | | 1 |  | Nico and Vinz
Black Star Elephant
#14: "Am I Wrong?" - Seeing this song so far up on the Billboard list brought a big smile to my face. I was not expecting to see it be so high up there, but it was, and I'm happy to see that it connected with listeners as much as it did with me. I genuinely loved this song ever since day one of hearing it. Of all the songs on this list, this is the song that will stick with me the most over the course of my life. It's extraordinarily uplifting, leaving you fired-up and feeling full of life by the close. An amazing song, would have been perfect as the World Cup theme song too (but we got an annoyingly loud and obnoxious song from Shakira instead). "So am I wrong?" | |
riffariffic7
02.17.15 | What a pleasant surprise... 100% album art! Had a lot of fun putting this list together, a lot of these Hot 100 songs are terrible, but it's always a pleasure to see some good mixed in with the god-awful, 2013 may be a different story though... but we shall see. 1, 2, 4, 5 and 9 are my favourites of the 10. | iamamanfromspace
02.17.15 | You said The Heist came out 'way back in 2014' but obv. you meant 2012 | iamamanfromspace
02.17.15 | agreed White Walls is a cool song, The Man is ok, don't know any of the rest | Pangea
02.17.15 | Chandelier, Rather be and latch are fantastic, so good job on that. Hey brother is fucking horrible though | wtferrothorn
02.17.15 | Uptown Funk gonna be No.1 of 2015 tho. | Cygnatti
02.17.15 | 1 is the same goddamned thing over and over and yet I dig it so | CK
02.17.15 | Latch is fantastic and I can't stand Hey Brother either, Pangea | riffariffic7
02.17.15 | @iamamanfromspace - Thanks for pointing that out to me, man. I'm usually pretty good with my proofreading, but I was doing this late at night which is why that escaped me. Plus, those annoying "r"s in the summary are getting on my nerves. I've edited that down 3 times now and they still pop up. So annoying.
@Pangea - Yeah, those 3 songs you mentioned are definitely fantastic. "Hey Brother" seemed kind of boring to me initially, but a friend of mine really sold me on it and "Wake Me Up". Sold me so much on it that I actually listened to the whole album... and that was a mistake. I hated that "True" album so much that it almost ruined those two singles for me. Thankfully, on their own, they're still good in my ears, just not as great as I may have once thought they were.
@wtferrothorn - "Uptown Funk" is an amazing song. When Bruno Mars gets a song right, he absolutely kills it. I really wanted to include the track on this list, I thought that it would have edged its way onto the chart somehow, but it didn't, next year it will for sure though. Also, I was hoping to see "Blank Space" by Taylor Swift up there too, but that didn't end up charting, instead "Shake it Off" made it up there... and I despise almost everything about that song.
@Cynatti - I know. Me too. :D
@CK - Happy we can agree on "Latch" at least. :D | ArsMoriendi
02.17.15 | 8 is awful. 3 is catchy though. | granitenotebook
02.17.15 | great taste + explanations. a lot of people who like pop (and other genres, but particularly pop fans.) are really subjective/focus way too much on stereotypes, but you actually talk about why you think each song is good. also instant +1 for "Am I Wrong" which everyone seemed to hate for some reason (maybe it was just too much like "Rude" for most people) | riffariffic7
02.17.15 | @ArsMoriendi - That seems to be unanimous around here thus far.
@musicallychallenged - I appreciate that, man. Never understood the hate for "Am I Wrong". Though I did kind of enjoy "Rude" the first couple of times I heard it, the song soon wore out its welcome for me. I don't mind the song, I just wish that it was more daring and explicit; for instance, I always imagine the lyrics going "why you gotta be so rude / &@#$!n' don't you know I'm human too / why you gotta be so rude / &@#$ it, I'm gonna marry her anyway", that could have given the song a bit more of an edge and lasting appeal, the song's just too tame to be taken seriously. | Let
02.17.15 | 3 is great, but Defeated no More is still my fav off the album. No Dark Horse tho mang | riffariffic7
02.17.15 | @Let - I didn't mind "Dark Horse" actually. Probably should have named it as an honourable mention at least. I really like that chorus and Juicy J's verse, except for the line "she gonna be my Sleeping Beauty / I'm gonna put her in a coma" which is really eerie and off-putting. I don't know, maybe I overlooked it because I really hated "Roar", that song annoyed the hell out of me, but "Birthday" was pretty enjoyable. Both "Birthday" and "Dark Horse" are sweet little pop songs. | brandontaylor
02.18.15 | yeah I like most of these (4 was almost my SOTY) but 7 and 8 kinda suck | HalfManHalfAmazing
02.22.15 | i love Latch | Cygnatti
02.22.15 | love me harder is by far my fav ariana single tho. | riffariffic7
02.22.15 | I really enjoyed "Love Me Harder", but The Weeknd's part was rather weaksauce IMO. Her part is great, but his whiny performance pushed me ever so slightly away from putting it on this list. "Break Free" is a song that, no matter how much I listen to it, I always love every single minute of it. It's just a really fun track. | ChoccyPhilly
03.01.15 | Fuck Hey brother so much. The vocals are just too damn cringeworthy | CalculatingInfinity
03.01.15 | Uptown Funk gonna be No.1 of 2015 tho. [2]
Boom Clap was definately my fav from this year, awesome list man. | Emyay
03.05.15 | i hate "The Man" so much. Derivative, unoriginal, bland, soul sucking, brand worshiping muzak |
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