Npr Music's Favorite Songs Of 2014 : Npr

Felix Contreras Gina Chavez, "Miles De Millas" A voice that commands attention, lyrics even more. Felix Contreras Jarina De Marco, "El Venao" A classic merengue gets reimagined with dark electronic undertones. Jasmine Garsd Kali Uchis, "Real" The Colombian pastel princess of social media intrigue goes the sweet route on this spaced-out, funk-laced tune. Kiana Fitzgerald Karol Conka, "Boa Noite" This was my discovery of the year. I'm thrilled to explore the dense layers of Brazilian and hip-hop funkiness on the entire album. Felix Contreras La Dame Blanche, "Overdosi" One of the best kept secrets of Latin hip-hop, this song is thick, slow and hallucinogenic. Jasmine Garsd La Santa Cecilia, "Strawberry Fields Forever" The only remake that works for this song, recast here from the persepctive of workers picking strawberries Felix Contreras Las Acevedo, "She Bangs" Best cover of the year, period. The Dominican duo gives Ricky Martin the klezmer makeover he so badly needed. Jasmine Garsd Viento Callejero feat. Eddika Organista, "La Burrita" Cumbia and wah wah guitar? What's not to like from this young band? Felix Contreras The 2 Bears, "Not This Time" A near-perfect pop song that's destined to become a cult classic. Bonus points for the Michael McDonald coda. Otis Hart 5 Seconds Of Summer, "She Looks So Perfect" There's nothing like seeing your first sweetheart partially disrobed and ready to take your future by storm. The teen anthem of the year. Ann Powers Adanowsky, "Dancing To The Radio" Danceable and unabashedly hip Mexican disco. Jasmine Garsd Ariana Grande (feat. Zedd), "Break Free" Pop's ruling ingenue goes positively glossolalic on the glowstick-waving EDM song of the year. Ann Powers Beyonce feat. Nicki Minaj, "Flawless (Remix)" This is the sound of pop-driven feminism in 2014: smooth, hard, 100 proof. Ann Powers The Top 40 equivalent of a bedazzled Trapper Keeper sharpie'd with arrow-struck red hearts. Lars Gotrich Chris Brown feat. Usher, "New Flame" Two of R&B's high-energy performers slow it down for a feel-good confection of a jam about new possibilities in love. Kiana Fitzgerald A bubblicious bit of electro-pop that offered some needed sweetness in a heavy year. Ann Powers FKA twigs, "Two Weeks" The music wobbles unsteadily, shrouded in smoke. But the voice couldn't be surer in its libidinous, hungry intent. Stephen Thompson Ingrid Michaelson, "Girls Chase Boys" The smartest, coolest, most irresistible pop kiss-off of the year. Jacob Ganz Jeremih, "Don't Tell 'Em" The interpolation of Snap!'s 1992 hit "Rhythm is a Dancer" catches the ear, but the hauntingly spare production and the singer's impeccable flow keep you listening to this sultry hit. Ann Powers Jessie Ware, "Tough Love" The way Ware sings it, she'll convince you that real love is never anything but tough love. Jacob Ganz Otis Hart Michael Jackson, "A Place with No Name" Updated by StarGate for the King of Pop's posthumous album Xscape, this reworking of America's "Horse With No Name" is suprisingly fresh. Ann Powers He was always the JoBro with the most potential. Ann Powers Nico & Vinz, "Am I Wrong" Pan-African rhythms meet Scandinavian pop on this bit of summer dreaming from two ambitious polyglots. Ann Powers Pharrell Williams, "Gush" Pharrell shows no mercy as he seduces on the dirtiest, funkiest track we've heard from him in a while. More of this, please. Kiana Fitzgerald In a better world, this would have been the song of the summer. Otis Hart I, for one, welcome our sugar-smacked, alien-pop music overlords. Lars Gotrich Royksopp & Robyn, "Do It Again" The Scandinavian dance-pop dream team craft an ode to club life's endless night that's glowstick bright but tinged with melancholy. Ann Powers Sam Smith, "Leave Your Lover" The English wunderkind is this year's breakthrough vocalist, and this spare ballad his "Someone Like You" gives him room to show the color and lushness of that extraordinary voice. Ann Powers Sam Smith, "Stay With Me" Ubiquitous now because of that stop-everything voice and gospel booster shot, but listen again and feel how that slowed-down drumbeat matches the heart that's pounding in your throat. Jacob Ganz Shash'U, "Loyal (PWRFNK Remix)" The Montreal remix extraordinaire improves the biggest R&B song of the year, which feels like an accomplishment. Otis Hart Sia, "Chandelier" A very tricky song about the grind of alcoholism that manages to also capture the giddy swirl of self-obliteration that makes people drink in the first place. Ann Powers Taylor Swift, "Blank Space" In the year's most quotable pop smash (okay, after Beyonce's "Flawless"), Swift steers into the skid that is her endlessly dissected public persona. Stephen Thompson Taylor Swift, "Out Of The Woods" It's so exciting to see the most accomplished current songwriter in the teen-vernacular vein grow up and figure out how to really use music to express all those emotions, too. Ann Powers Tove Lo, "Habits (Stay High)" This percolating pop hit from Sweden's latest pop auteur wins in the venerable category of happy songs about miserable realities. Ann Powers Usher, "Good Kisser" As Mr. Raymond circles back to his roots, he coos over a heavy drum loop, complete with a bottle xylophone. By the time you get to the bridge, you're grooving too hard to be offended. Bobby Carter Zeds Dead feat. Twin Shadow & D'Angelo Lacy, "Lost You" Like you, Zeds Dead and Twin Shadow often want to make late night phone calls they probably shouldn't. Unlike you, they write great songs with killer beats about it. Jasmine Garsd ALTA, "Wash It Down" With an opening like a playground rhyme, this sounds like something you've heard before until it turns into something else entirely. Kiana Fitzgerald Andrew Ashong, "Love The Way" Ashong, a British-Ghanaian soul singer, doesn't waste any words on this sweet, simple and incredibly catchy song. Otis Hart Ben Khan, "Youth" Ethereal production and sultry vocal crying for society's attention; the winner by a nose on the London native's debut EP. Bobby Carter Bernhoft, "Come Around With Me" Try not to move as the multifaceted Norwegian singer flexes his falsetto on this funk-fueled, yacht-rock jam. Bobby Carter BJ The Chicago Kid, "Soul Of A Woman" A laid-back groove, the distant crackle of spinning vinyl and BJ's voice, supple as ever, in this tribute to a woman's beauty. Kiana Fitzgerald Christian Rich feat. Angela McCluskey, "Real Love" Bewitching murmurs from the Wild Colonials vocalist enhance this chill-out room seduction by the twin-brother team known for its work with Drake and J. Cole. Ann Powers Disclosure feat. Mary J. Blige, "F For You" News of this collaboration blew people's minds. Looking back, we should have seen it for what it was: a natural fit. Otis Hart FYFE, "For You" Paul Dixon, a British experimental musician, flirts with rhythm & blues on this heart-palpitating journey through the trials of commitment. Kiana Fitzgerald Funky discombobulations and titillating, heart-pounding desire. Kiana Fitzgerald J. Cole, "Be Free" A stunning, raw response to the national crisis that's arisen after the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, this song from North Carolina rapper Cole is this year's "Strange Fruit." Ann Powers Kelis, "Bless The Telephone" This calm take on Labi Siffre's simple love song is the sweet center the soul singer's adventurous collaboration with TV on the Radio's Dave Sitek. Ann Powers Kelis revs up a soul revue with some perspective on love lost and lessons learned. Lars Gotrich Little Dragon, "Pretty Girls" A non-single in the middle of an album on which Yukimi and the gang continue their quest for musical identity, "Pretty Girls" is a bona fide mid-tempo R&B gem. Bobby Carter Low Leaf, "Set Me Free" The genre-bending, Filipina, one-woman-band packs a lifetime of sounds and epiphanies into 2 minutes and 12 seconds of bliss. Kiana Fitzgerald Mary J. Blige, "Therapy" The Queen of Hip-Hop Soul takes a detour across the pond on her new album. The result, heard here, is the refreshing sound of liberation. Kiana Fitzgerald Meshell Ndegeocello, "Comet, Come To Me" Grounded in a truly tidal reggae rhythm, this meditation on erotic longing from the eclectic boss of the bass is a masterpiece of pop minimalism. Ann Powers Mick Jenkins feat. NoName Gypsy, "Comfortable" Mick and No Name toss impressive bars back and forth on a track that feels like two friends trying to one-up each other on a late summer night. Kiana Fitzgerald Melat x Jansport J, "L.I.P.S." Melat is a newcomer, but her style brings back memories of the lush '90s R&B so many of us fell in love to. Kiana Fitzgerald Nick Hakim, "I Don't Know" Consider yourself lucky if you make it to the end of "I Don't Know" without dropping everything and curling up in the fetal position. Kiana Fitzgerald Niia, "Body" This song feels like sea mist on a hot day: New York chanteuse Niia sings with the ease of Sade as Robin Hannibal, on break from Rhye and Quadron, forms arching sonic waves around her. Ann Powers Prince feat. Lianne La Havas, "Clouds" "Oh, you kids think you know how to do electrofunk? Step aside and let me school you in Afro-futurism, sex talk and slap bass." Ann Powers Shamir, "On The Regular" Cowbells bounce, syths do the worm and a newcomer with something to say throws cartoon shade. Hi, hi, howdy, howdy, hi, hi. Jacob Ganz Tiffany Gouche, "Fantasy" Alongside lazy horns and slightly-off keys, Gouche recalls the sting of relationships just out of our reach, the ones we often want most. Kiana Fitzgerald Ty Dolla $ign feat. French Montana & Trey Songz, "Paranoid (Remix)" French Montana tags along as R&B's resident bad boys trade verses on the remix for the raunchiest song about the fear of discovery ever made. Kiana Fitzgerald The #1s, "Heartsmash" In under two minutes, the Dublin power-pop band yelps "I've got a heartsmash for you" 16 times with the reckless abandon of The Buzzcocks and The Undertones. Give us 16 more. Lars Gotrich Afternoons, "Say Yes" "Yes" may be the most powerful word in any language. Here, it's a joyful, hand-clapping mantra to live by. Robin Hilton alt-J, "Hunger Of The Pine" This song of longing and desire, with a sample of Miley Cyrus singing, "I'm a female rebel," is jarring and catchy at the same time. Bob Boilen alt-J, "Left Hand Free" Swaggering wordplay and funk guitar so brilliantly produced it leaves you wondering how they did it. Robin Hilton The Toronto band issues a jangly ode to full-throated, full-hearted commitment.



Fuente http://www.npr.org/2014/12/10/369652480/npr-musics-favorite-songs-of-2014?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=music