TOP 100 OF 2014

The end of another year.   Looking back at the memories.  How was 2014 for you?  For me it was nothing to write home about and I am glad it's done.   And it takes a lot for me to say that because I have had some good times in many a year that others were glad it was history.    So for me, this year was better off buried.  But then there was the music which is what this blog is all about, right?  Wellll.....

I am not saying 2014 was a bad year for music; it, like many others was rather non-nondescript, with fluffy pop songs continuing to dominate the charts and some great, obscure talent confined to the sidelines.    Sure, some fun, catchy songs like "Happy", "All About that Bass" and "Shake It Off" permeated our minds during this calendar year, but with the exception of just a scant few, alternative rock (or rock of any kind) continued to be ignored by the masses this year gone by.

In April of this year, my 13-year old SUV broke down for good; in its place was a new, 2014 Subaru Outback.   It included a free three-month trial subscription to Sirius XM Radio.    Let's just say after the three months, I gladly renewed it.    There is a multitude of music channels to listen to.   Of course my favorite was Alt Nation as well as Sirius XM U.   Whereas before I often purchased songs for download just by looking at radio station playlists, or Billboard charts, or at best, friend's posts on Facebook, I can now actually hear the entire songs beforehand.   To me, Alt-Nation could very well have been a top 40 station with music that I like.

Then there's my blog itself.   Because of some of the other year's issues, I only wrote half as many as I normally to.   It is very time consuming, and as my workload increased, less time for the music interests.   In fact for the first month and a half, I blogged just twice and put my SNS 100 list on hold for three weeks.    It was then every two weeks through March and April and by May, I stopped completely.   After reaching a July work deadline, I tried to play catch up with blogs several times in a few weeks, covering two week intervals, until I almost caught up in late August.   Thus, summertime really didn't represent what music I was actually listening to.    Then another deadline on October 1 caused another suspension of my blog.   I lost my job shortly thereafter but still put off the blog until well in November.    

By then it was a difficult decision:  trying to once again catch up, or just jump ahead to the present and act like the ensuing twelve weeks didn't exist, with songs I was listening to the summer still on my playlist in mid November.     That's what I did and was happy to report that I finally kept a weekly schedule until the end of the year.

All that means that my annual Top 100, which I've been doing since 1974 (with the exception from 2004-2008) is a bit skewed since my chart was frozen (thus the songs gathering a large amount of points and staying on the list for a long, long time), and therefore favoring songs from the beginning of the year (and, in many cases, last year with several songs that made the 2013 list also present on this one.   The other side of that was that there were less "big" songs on the list; some songs that barely made the top 40 of my weekly blog list, did make the year-end list.

STILL PUMPED UP:   Foster the People's follow-up to their hugely successful 2011 full-length debut Torches, Supermodel was released early in the year and had produced my number one song for 2014, "Coming of Age".  It's sort of a restitution for their huge rock and pop hit "Pumped Up Kicks" settling for the #2 slot in 2011.  Although Supermodel didn't produce a huge pop hit nationwide, it did make the top five on the alternative chart in the spring and spent five weeks on the summit on my SNS chart.  Its follow up, "Best Friend" also topped my chart for three weeks and comes in at #23.

Fitz & the Tantrums, whose lead single from their sophomore effort More Than Just A Dream, "Out of My League" hit my top year end spot in 2013, come right back with their second single, "The Walker" coming in at #2 for this year.    It was another huge year for the neo-soul outfit:   "League" stayed on my list for 63 weeks and didn't fall off my chart until May of this year.  Both songs were #1 alternative hits.   The third single, "Fool's Gold" which is currently #2 on my list, was a late entry at #79.   Two album tracks that I featured, "Keeping Our Eyes Out" (an SNS #1 left over from last year) and "6 AM" also made my list this year for a total of four songs on the list.  No other artist had more than two.

Also notable is The Black Keys' release of their Turn Blue set, which featured "Fever" coming in at #5, set a record for eight weeks at the top spot during much of the summer.  New and/or developing artists artists making their mark on my chart include Young the Giant (#3), Tired Pony (#4) , MS MR (#8), Caveman (#9) and Haim (#10).

Straight-pop music still found a home in 2014 headed by Pharrell Williams with "Happy" at #6 and a late entry into the top 100, "All About That Bass" by Meghan Trainor at #96.  "Royals" by Lorde, one of the few songs that topped both Billboard's Hot 100 and SNS, is a holdover from last year at #90.   Zedd had two entries on the list, with "Clarity" (#28) and "Stay The Night" (#40).

"Local" artists also made an impact this year, with The Hounds of Winter's "Amy's World", produced by Tom Corea making the #7 position and two more entries from Rachel Allyn, who, along with the Eli Young Band, held up the country music banner on the list this year.    Local artist Paul Czekaj also made the list again this year with his tribute to the King, "Elvis in Heaven".   Finally a local artist of sorts--one who has been around for forty years, Bruce Springsteen released "High Hopes" which came in at #50.  Ireland's U2 was the only other artist around before 1990 to make the list.


 Finally, two artists met at festivals I went to were present also:   The Shannon Marsyada Trio from 2013's Jim Thorpe Fall Festival, at #11 with "What You Do To Me" and from this summer's Rosendale Street Festival, "Children of the Rhythm" by reggae outfit The Big Takeover, at #60.

Here is the list for 2014:

SCENES N' SOUNDWAVES TOP 100 OF 2014:

1		FOSTER THE PEOPLE "Coming of Age" Album: Supermodel
2		Fitz and the Tantrums - The Walker
3		Young the Giant - It's About Time
4		Tired Pony - All Things All At Once
5		The Black Keys - Fever
6		Pharrell Williams - Happy
7		The Hounds of Winter - Amy's World
8		MS MR - Think of You
9		Caveman - Shut You Down
10		Haim - Forever
11		Shannon Marsyada Trio - What You Do To Me
12		Kings of Leon - Temple
13		Capital Cities - Kangaroo Court
14		Phantogram - Fall in Love
15		SomeKindaWonderful - Reverse
16		Lucius - Turn It Around
17		Mac DeMarco - Chamber of Reflection
18		Broken Bells - Holding On For Life
19		Hozier - Take Me To Church
20		Broken Bells - No Matter What You're Told
21		Junior Prom - Sheila Put the Knife Down
22		Terraplane Sun - You Never Know
23		Foster the People - Best Friend
24		Cage the Elephant - Take It or Leave It
25		Fitz and the Tantrums - 6AM
26		Vivian Girls - Take It As It Comes
27		Kongos - Come With Me Now
28		Zedd f. Hayley Williams - Stay the Night
29		Brick + Mortar - Locked In A Cage
30		Lily Allen - Hard Out Here
31		Rachel Allyn- Triggerman
32		Jack White - Lazeretto
33		Wild Belle - Backslider
34		Arctic Monkeys - Do I Wanna Know
35		Hospitality - Going Out
36		Dum Dum Girls - Lost Boys and Girls Club
37		Calvin Harris - Summer
38		Man Man - Pyramids
39		Field Mouse - How Do You Know
40		Zedd f. Foxes - Clarity
41		Hellogoodbye - Everything Is Debatable
42		Wild Belle - It's Too Late
43		Avi Buffalo - So What
44		Afghan Whigs - Algiers
45		Lykke Li - No Rest of the Wicked
46		Paul Czekaj - Elvis in Heaven
47		Tacocat - Bridge to Hawaii
48		Eminem f. Rihanna - The Monster
49		Anna Calvi - Eliza
50		Bruce Springsteen - High Hopes
51		Temples - Shelter Song
52		Boyce Avenue - I'll Be the One
53		Young the Giant - Crystallized
54		Lorde - Team
55		Silversun Pickups - Cannibal
56		Katy Perry - Unconditionally
57		King Tuff - Sun Medallion
58		San Cisco - Fred Astaire
59		Arctic Monkeys - Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High
60		The Big Takeover - Children of the Rhythm
61		Cate Le Bon - Are You With Me Now
62		Lana Del Rey - West Coast
63		Capital Cities - Safe and Sound
64		The Fresh & Onlys - Animal of One
65		The Fray - Love Don't Die
66		Damien Jurado - Silver Timothy
67		Alt J - Tesselate
68		Wild Cub - Thunder Clatter
69		Foxygen - How Can You Really?
70		Cold War Kids - Lost That Easy
71		Jessica Lea Mayfield - I Wanna Love You
72		Avicii - Hey Brother
73		Maroon 5 - Maps
74		Beck - Blue Moon
75		Those Darlins - In the Wilderness
76		Ylvis - The Fox (What Does the Fox Say?)
77		New Politics - Tonight You're Perfect
78		No - Leave the Door Wide Open
79		Fitz and the Tantrums - Fools Gold
80		Vampire Weekend - Step
81		Eli Young Band - Drunk Last Night
82		Emiliana Torrini -Speed of Dark
83		Of Monsters and Men - Dirty Paws
84		Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - Lariat
85		The Black Keys - Turn Blue
86		Strand of Oaks - Goshen '97
87		Portugal. the Man - Modern Jesus
88		Sleeper Agent - Waves
89		Fitz and the Tantrums - Keeping Our Eyes Out
90		Lorde - Royals
91		Vance Joy - Riptide
92		Rachel Allyn - Restless Times Call for Reckless Measures
93		U2 - Invisible
94		Terraplane Sun - Get Me Golden
95		The Orwells - Who Needs You
96		Meghan Trainor - All About that Bass
97		White Fence - Like That
98		Phoenix - SOS in Belaire
99		Temples - Keep In the Dark
100		Mind Spiders - The Steady