HM1) Song: Bang Bang
Artist: Jessie J, Ariana Grande, and Nicki Minaj
Year-End Position: 27
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What can I say about this one? The beat to this one is highly energetic and fun to listen to, each performer brings their A-game (yes, even Nicki), and the lyrics, while they are the typical cliché of saying "I'm better at sex than her," kinda do something pretty unique with it by playing with the good girl/bad girl dichotomy and sorta makes it sound like Jessie and Ariana are competing for the guy in question. I don't know why I find so much enjoyment in that, I just do. I do wish it had a bit more staying power, but this is still a really fun and catchy pop tune that I really dig.
HM2) Song: Story Of My Life
Artist: One Direction
Year-End Position: 24
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HM3) Song: Shake If Off
Artist: Taylor Swift
Year-End Position: 13
HM4) Song: Trumpets
Artist: Jason DeRulo
Year-End Position: 61
HM5) Song: Bailando
Artist: Enrique Iglesias feat. Sean Paul, Descember Bueno, & Gente de Sona
Year-End Position: 38
HM6) Song: She Looks So Perfect
Artist: 5 Seconds Of Summer
Year-End Position: 93
HM7) Song: I Don't Dance
Artist: Lee Brice
Year-End Position: 98
HM8) Song: Chandelier
Artist: Sia
Year-End Position: 25
Wow, this song has really grown on me over time. I can't believe this used to be a dishonorable mention on my worst list. It's awesome as heck. Everything that Chandelier has to offer just screams sheer power and desperation in the best ways possible. The production is epic, bombastic, and full of energy, not to mention how sweeping and moving it is. Sia is just throwing herself into her performance with just such raw intensity and emotion that it's hard to be mad at. That's not even touching on the lyrics that describe the struggle of a woman who's trapped by alcoholism and having nothing left in her life but a vapid, endless cycle of partying. While I'm still not a big fan of Sia absolutely shredding her vocal cords or how the percussion crushes the mix in to this sort of slurry mess, and while I do wish there was just a tiny bit more to the lyrics and much prefer a similar song that came out later in the year (trust me, we'll get to it), this is still DAMN good.
HM9) Song: Let It Go
Artist: Idina Menzel
Year-End Position: 21
The instrumentation starts off a soft, beautiful piano ballad, but as the song progresses, transforms in to this grandiose, sweeping mass of strings and piano chords that combine with Menzel's strident vocals wonderfully for a piece of music that's just absolutely marvelous. But the real star of the show is the lyrics, and even without the context of Frozen's main character, Elsa, coming to terms with everything that's happened to her, they still do a magnificent job of conveying a message of not letting one's shortcomings hold him/her back anymore and being himself/herself and honest about who he/she really is. It's a great message spoken with such poetic lyricism that I just couldn't help but love and respect it. Disney, you are geniuses. As long as we don't get anymore Cars or Chicken Little, you will always continue to be amazing.
HM10) Song: All Of Me
Artist: John Legend
Year-End Position: 3
Yes, I love All Of Me for John Legend. Now, before you grab your pitchforks, allow me to explain. First off, John Legend has a voice of pure gold. He just has a lot of smoothness and raw, unbridled texture that it's just hard to deny. Second, although the melody isn't very complex and only uses the standard 4 chords of pop, it's what it does with those chords that's truly magnificent and adds a lot of class and elegance to the backing instrumentation, which is very important for a song of this caliber. Finally, I know a lot of people have complained about how he points out the negative things about the woman in question and says that he loves them as well as the positive things about her, but honestly, if you ask me, that actually works in this song's favor. It's a celebration of not only her more favorable features, but also her flaws, both of which are also things he points out in himself as well. Ultimately, what this is is an acknowledgement that both of them are human and that while they may have their flaws and mess up from time to time, they still love each other and are willing to stay faithful no matter what, and I have no idea how anyone could scoff at that. It's just a really beautiful song.
Okay, now that that's out of the way, let's move on to the really awesome stuff. Let's go.
10) Song: Talk Dirty
Artist: Jason DeRulo feat. 2 Chainz
Year-End Position: 6
Surprised to see this here? Yeah, well, so am I. Y'know what, though? Screw it. Talk Dirty is a fun song, and there is no and I mean NO denying that. The sample of Hermetico by Balkan Beat Box fits in flawlessly and offers a variety of melodic buildups and one hell of a crescendo with textured bongo percussion and just a ton of energy behind it. Jason's vocals mixed wonderfully with this production, and he sounds like he's really enjoying himself, which he should, so thumbs up there. As far as lyrical content goes, it's all pretty stupid, but I'd argue that very little of it actually comes off as offensive, and even then, not very. I'd argue that it handles the subject of going around the world and hooking up with different international chicks fairly well as very little actual disrespect is shown. Mainly what's shown is DeRulo (as well as 2 Chainz) and these various foreign women having a good time together (mainly through sex, but still). Hell, even 2 Chainz is riding this song fairly well with a good level of wordplay, decent flow, and actually sounding enthused about what he's rapping about. It would've been higher on the list, but......."her pussy so good, I bought her a pet".........yeah, I'd be lying if I said that there weren't at least *some* lyrics that weren't so good on here. Still, damn great song.
9) Song: White Walls
Artist: Macklemore & Ryan Lewis feat. ScHoolboy Q & Hollis
Year-End: 92
8) Song: Leave The Night On
Artist: Sam Hunt
Year-End Position: 76
7) Song: The Monster
Artist: Eminem feat. Rihanna
Year-End Position: 16
6) Song: Ain't It Fun
Artist: Paramore
Year-End Position: 47
5) Song: Don't
Artist: Ed Sheeran
Year-End Position: 52
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4) Song: Birthday
Artist: Katy Perry
Year-End Position: 80
Has anyone else noticed that pop songs about birthdays generally suck? Birthday Sex by Jeremih, Birthday Song by 2 Chainz, Birthday by Selena Gomez, Birthday Cake by Rihanna, all of those songs blow. Why is it so hard to make a birthday themed pop song? It doesn't seem that hard. All you really have to do is get the mood right. Thankfully for us, we finally got a good one this year: this awesome tune. Everything about this song just works, from its disco inspired instrumentation in the vein of Last Friday Night (TGIF), Katy's high energy vocals, and let's not forget about the lyrics. Why is it that every birthday themed pop song always has to do with sex? Well, not this one (not all of it, anyway). Sure, there are some......less than subtle innuendos ("it's time to bring out the big balloons"), but I can easily forgive them because the main point of the song isn't sex, but rather that a guy is feeling down and that she just wants to brighten up his day up. I defy you if you're able to scoff at that. Do I really need to say anything else? It's just a really bouncy song that's a hell of a lot of fun to listen to.
3) Song: Demons
Artist: Imagine Dragons
Year-End Position: 23
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I love everything about this song. It is easily, in my opinion, Imagine Dragons' best song to date. The instrumentation starts off soft and calm to keep Dan Reynolds' sad sounding (and amazing) vocals in the central spotlight. then all of a sudden we have a punch of energy from the chorus hitting you at full force, and the way it alternates between the two really works for me. All of these elements suit the lyrics of a guy facing his demons and taking on his personal problems head on perfectly as they are dark, somber, and serious, which is exactly how it's supposed to sound. I loved this song from the first time I heard it last summer, and I still love it and play it on my iPod to this day. It is that awesome.
2) Song: Habits (Stay High)
Artist: Tove Lo
Year-End Position: 32
1) Song(s): Best Day Of My Life/Come With Me Now/Pompeii
Artist(s): American Authors/KONGOS/Bastille
Year-End Position: 31/88/12
Let's start with Best Day Of My Life, the most joyous of the three. Now, If there's one thing I know about music, it's that if a song is going to put you in a mood, it really has to get the tone right, especially a song about being extremely happy, and while I do like Happy by Pharrell Williams (the song that wound up being the #1 song on the year-end chart this year), it wore off on me as it kinda felt more like it was trying to force me in to being happy rather than letting it happen on its own. Don't get me wrong, I do still enjoy Happy, but I feel like if you're gonna create a song like that that'll stay with the listener, you gotta let the process naturally. Fortunately for us, this awesome piece of Indie Rock was here to solve that. Everything about this song works, from its feel good lyrics, the plucky banjo, the high energy vocals and instrumentation, everything.
Then we have Come With Me Now, the most energetic of the three, and man, what isn't there to enjoy about this song? This is the closest we've come to having a metal song on the charts in a long time, and I can't really think that's a bad thing, mostly because to say that the song is damn awesome would be an understatement. Everything about this song is just near perfection from the stomping energy, the awesome sound of the accordion and guitars with that really driving percussion, the way the instrumentation and rough, loud vocals blend in to this cacophonous explosion that's just extremely powerful and works like gangbusters, the lyrics describing a man leaning towards his own demise and just getting that one final burst of craziness and insanity in before he tumbles in to the dark pits of Hell, not to mention the little sprinkles of agnosticism throughout, is it really any wonder why this song is so highly praised by critics and is topping nearly everyone's best list? Honestly, I think if I was only allowed to pick one song from the group to top this list, it most likely would be this one.
Finally, we have Pompeii, the most interesting of the three. This was one of the first hits of 2014, and really, I can't be happier that this song got so popular. Something darker than what we're used to seeing on the charts, Pompeii is an excellent track that takes an interesting concept and turns it in to something absolutely mind-blowing. The song is about two corpses frozen in their ashy demise by the destruction and annihilation of the city of Pompeii caused by Mt. Vesuvius' eruption of 79 AD, essentially boiling down to them left wondering where to go after the chaos and wondering what should be dealt with first, the physical mess and rubble left behind or one's spirituality, mortality, and confession of one's sins. That's really deep, man. Oh, and you bet your ass the backing instrumentation aids the tone of the song and really helps it out. Seriously, it's amazing with its hollow feel, tribal chanting in the background, melodic synths, driving percussion, seriously, it's excellent. Lastly, let's not forget the main star of the show, Dan Smith's vocals. He just has more than enough raw emotion and charisma that you need to pull this type of thing off. In the hands of a less charismatic performer, this song would've been placed at probably #3 or #4 on this list, but Smith just really has enough of an emotive presence to really push this thing over the top.
So yeah, a song about the feeling of elation that doesn't just say happy over and over, a dark, twisted rock song that just screams of going crazy, and a dark, macabre song about the destruction of an ancient city. Who could ask for anything more? Hope you guys liked the lists. I'll check back you all in 2015. Until then, Merry Christmas, happy holidays, and a very happy new year.
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