Your SONGS of 2014 - both new and old!!

[H. P. L.]

All the interwebz world is going crazy with year-end lists, best ofs and all that stuff, but the more I get old, the more I realise it's a funny excercise but, in the end, pointless.

Our lives are not defined by year's end or year's beginning, our feelings and moods shift like tides, in my case taking up months, they can't be holed up in the cells of "album of the month" or "album of the year".

 

That said, this year I'd like to try something new and ask everyone: could you spare a moment and share the songs that were more meaningful to you this year? They don't have to be new songs. Just the songs that somehow defined your 2014.

 

Of course, I'll start.

 

This year I finally decided to explore the works of the great Townes Van Zandt. I got up my a$$ and went through all his discography. I found many many wonderful songs. The one that proved more precious to me was Our Mother the Mountain.

 

Summer was totally dominated by Trova, traditional Cuban music. My favourite song is by Trio Matamoros and is called Lagrimas Negras. Everyone in Cuba can play that song.

 

Think you want about Cat Stevens/Yusuf, but his last album is phenomenal. The song Tell 'em I'm gone is my current hymn.

 

I feel a little like a moron for having neglected for so many years the brilliant Blue Oyster Cult. I mean, I started listening to them when I was 18, but then I swapped them under the rug, considering them just Black Sabbath posers, and badly recorded too. The bad recording is true for their 2 first albums, but the song that brought me back to them is the awesome Veteran of the psychic wars. In our world and age, we are all veterans of psychic wars. This song is about us!!

 

Of course I listened to a lot more stuff, but these are the ones that really stand out.

 

Now, what are yours? Narpsky, you have no excuses now!! :lol:

[Narps]

:sigh: Nothing even remotely new of course. I would however like to thank the members here for encouraging me to listen to some music that was released after 1985. I had never heard any of Rush's music beyond that year with the exception of CA. I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know HYF and Presto in particular. I have also gotten into some later Yes that I wouldn't have otherwise if it were not for this forum. That's about all I got to be honest..... :) Edited December 16, 2014 by Narpski

[Segue Myles]

Lacuna Coil- Nothing Stands In Our Way

 

Ariana Grande- Problem

 

Ella Henderson- Ghost

 

Otherwise i spent the year hooked in dad rock.

[Mr. Not]

Here's how it'll work

Band > Album > Song (meaning, since I've listen TMV as my band, it'd be superfluous to list any of their albums, songs, etc. Since I've listened Sonata Arctica's Pariah's Child album, it'd also be unnecessary for me to list any individual songs from that album)

 

Band discovery of the year is:

The Mars Volta

 

My album discoveries of the year are (order of preference):

Radiohead's OK Computer

Billy Talent III

Kate Bush's Never for Ever

 

Albums released this year are (order of preference):

Sonata Arctica - Pariahs's Child

The Bad Plus - Inevitable Western

Pinnick Gales Pridgen - PGP2

Weezer - Everything Will Be Alright in the End

 

Song discoveries this year are:

Alice Cooper - Elected

The Bad Plus - I Want to Feel Good Pt 2

Angra - Hunters and Prey

 

Songs released this year are:

Angra - Newborn Me

Angra - Storm of Emotions

Blind Guardian - Twilight of the Gods

(all three of these songs are singles, hyping their upcoming albums later in early 2015)

Edited December 16, 2014 by Mr. Not

[Mr. Not]

I guess this would have to be my defining song of the year though...

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPLEbAVjiLA

[H. P. L.]

I guess this would have to be my defining song of the year though...

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPLEbAVjiLA

Great song and great video! It's my favourite Radiohead song ever. I sometimes use the video in my classes. It's interesting to see the reactions of young kids that never saw it before.

[H. P. L.]

:sigh: Nothing even remotely new of course. I would however like to thank the members here for encouraging me to listen to some music that was released after 1985. I had never heard any of Rush's music beyond that year with the exception of CA. I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know HYF and Presto in particular. I have also gotten into some later Yes that I wouldn't have otherwise if it were not for this forum. That's about all I got to be honest..... :)

It's all good my friend!! Somehow I knew I could bet 10.000 $ that there would be "Yes" in your answer!! :lol:

What about the new AC/DC? Sounds good to my ears. Any classic AC/DC that you particularly enjoyed this year?

[Segue Myles]

The musical highlights of my year:

 

1) Discovering Yes. Bought the recent mammoth studio album box set, and am floored.

 

2) Kansas- best discovery this year (Yes was last year)

 

3) Lacuna Coil's BCH. Restored my faith in them 150%.

 

4) A carry over from last year, but the continuation of my Rush journey.

 

Individual songs? Too many. My above post is crud.

[Mr. Not]

I guess this would have to be my defining song of the year though...

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPLEbAVjiLA

Great song and great video! It's my favourite Radiohead song ever. I sometimes use the video in my classes. It's interesting to see the reactions of young kids that never saw it before.

 

It seems to be my favorite as well. And cool! I love teachers :cheers:

[H. P. L.]

I guess this would have to be my defining song of the year though...

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPLEbAVjiLA

Great song and great video! It's my favourite Radiohead song ever. I sometimes use the video in my classes. It's interesting to see the reactions of young kids that never saw it before.

 

It seems to be my favorite as well. And cool! I love teachers :cheers:

A couple of years back, after playing this video, I said to the class: bring me a video YOU like. This beardo freak alternative-chic hip-hop kinda guy, very creative, very committed, came up with a - if I'm not wrong - Nicky Minaj video. It was shot in a pool during a party, it's all I remember. It was terrible. But this kid was totally into it. I mean, really. He was like: look at the shooting, the coreography (what coreography?), the editing, the colors, is all top notch! To me, it looked like something shot with a phone. Oh well, he'll grow out of it.

[Narps]

:sigh: Nothing even remotely new of course. I would however like to thank the members here for encouraging me to listen to some music that was released after 1985. I had never heard any of Rush's music beyond that year with the exception of CA. I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know HYF and Presto in particular. I have also gotten into some later Yes that I wouldn't have otherwise if it were not for this forum. That's about all I got to be honest..... :)

It's all good my friend!! Somehow I knew I could bet 10.000 $ that there would be "Yes" in your answer!! :lol:

What about the new AC/DC? Sounds good to my ears. Any classic AC/DC that you particularly enjoyed this year?

To be frank its probably a combo of this forum and some kind of midlife crisis but I am really just getting reacquainted with the music I once loved as a youth and young man. It still sounds as great as always to me and I haven't listened to most of it for almost 35 years now. As far as AC/DC goes I have listened to all of their music (70's only) quite often these days. I know its close minded but they died as far as I am concerned February 19, 1980. I have had no interest in them since. Not a Johnson fan....

[Stormtron]

I'll combine 'em. My favorite new song that sounds like an old song: High Spirits - When the Lights Go Down. The whole album is cool though...a fun 80s rock throwback.

[RushBoingo]

Best Artists I Discovered This Year:

Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks

The Postal Service

Sharon Van Etten

Phoenix

Lindsey Stirling

Paramore

Muse

 

Best Albums I Picked Up This Year: (* denotes a 2014 release)

Centipede Hz-Animal Collective

Strawberry Jam-Animal Collective

Feels-Animal Collective

Sung Tongs-Animal Collective

Fall Be Kind-Animal Collective

Water Curses-Animal Collective

Person Pitch-Panda Bear

Mr Noah EP-Panda Bear *

Enter The Slasher House-Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks *

Apollo 18-They Might Be Giants

Lincoln (Australian bonus tracks release)-They Might Be Giants

Mink Car-They Might Be Giants

Odelay-Beck

Lindsey Stirling-Lindsey Stirling

Shatter Me-Lindsey Stirling *

Black Holes And Revelations-Muse

Ultraviolet EP-Owl City

Paramore-Paramore

Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix-Phoenix

Give Up-The Postal Service

Kid A-Radio Head

Are We There-Sharon Van Etten *

Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness-Smashing Pumpkins

Mandnatory Fun-Weird Al*

Drama-Yes

 

Notable songs not included on an album listed above:

Honeycomb-Animal Collective

Loser-Beck

Blue Moon-Beck

No Rain-Blind Mellon

Tones Of Home-Blind Mellon

Feel The Lightning-Dan Deacon

Wham City-Dan Deacon

True Thrush-Dan Deacon

Seasons (Waiting On You)-Future Islands

74 Is The New 24-Giorgio Moroder

Let My Love Open The Door-Pete Townshend

Psychic City(Voodoo City)-YACHT

I Walked Alone-YACHT

 

Anticipated Albums next year

Panda Bear Meets The Grim Reaper-Panda Bear (along with the remainder of Animal Collective and Avey Tare's Back Catalogue in the same shipment)

Gliss Riffer-Dan Deacon

They Might Be Giant's Dial A Song Project

Unknown Owl City Album Title

Edited December 16, 2014 by RushBoingo

[Narps]

Dang..... :codger:

[Rutlefan]

Not so much a re-discovery but a renewed appreciation for Red Barchetta. I love that song on so many levels. Now shares the spotlight with Xanadu for favorite Rush/nostalgia track.

 

Best new song that defines 2014 for me, though it came out in 2013 (the album has legs) is "Adore Your Island" from Wire's Change Becomes Us.

 

Edited December 16, 2014 by Rutlefan

[Rutlefan]

I guess this would have to be my defining song of the year though...

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPLEbAVjiLA

Great song and great video! It's my favourite Radiohead song ever. I sometimes use the video in my classes. It's interesting to see the reactions of young kids that never saw it before.

 

My favorite video ever is by Radiohead:

 

[Lorraine]

Since you included old, discovering Rush's bootlegs has been heaven. What a goldmine!

[Rutlefan]

^ I had recorded "The Spirit of St. Louis" show when it was originally broadcast on the radio, giving me a foretaste of ESL. Really, that might have been Rush's live peak for me, the post-Pew/pre-MP playlists. Fell asleep so many nights to By-Tor/Xanadu. I love listening to A Desert Passage now; I've got a fever and the only cure is more live Hemispheres!

[Narps]

Since you included old, discovering Rush's bootlegs has been heaven. What a goldmine!

Don't forget the awesomeness that is Snakes & Arrows or had you already discovered that before calender year 2014?... :)

[Lorraine]

Since you included old, discovering Rush's bootlegs has been heaven. What a goldmine!

Don't forget the awesomeness that is Snakes & Arrows or had you already discovered that before calender year 2014?... :)

Well, er, I wouldn't go so far as to say that it's awesome. Listenable. Not awesome. :)

[custom55]

1. The Who Live at Leeds IS my favorite album and will never be taken away.
   
2. Robert Plant's new album is very good and gave it many many listens the last few months.
   
3. Led Zep's remasters II-HOTH ( expanded discs ) are great
   
4. My top bootleg Rush this year: The Fifth Order of Angels
   
5. Best Concert I attended this year: Black Sabbath Brooklyn March 2014
   
6. Favorite instrumental song I discovered this year:
   

 

For 2015

 

Rush tour ? Please

Seeing The Who in October

[Blue J]

I can't possibly cite individual songs as the best discoveries of this year- I can't possibly type that much in a day. And I'd rather be talking about full albums anyway- and still, there have been a fookin' boatload of them.

 

Genesis

In order of discovery: Foxtrot, Nursery Cryme, Selling England By the Pound, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, and Trespass.

 

Yes

In order of discovery: Yes (1st album), Going For the One, Closer to the Edge, The Yes Album, Relayer, Tales From Topographic Oceans (which I owned on vinyl years and years ago, and- would you believe- never listened to it!), Time and a Word, Tormato.

 

Also Jon Anderson solo- In the City of Angels, and Olias of Sunhillow

 

Rick Wakeman- The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table

 

Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, and Howe

 

Lacuna Coil

In order of discovery: Broken Crown Halo, Comalies, Karmacode

 

Duncan Browne- Give Me Take You

 

 

Those are all that I can recall, off the top of my head. There may be more.

 

All of the albums listed above- seven months ago, I had never heard any of them. What a wonderful experience this year has been!

[Segue Myles]

I can't possibly cite individual songs as the best discoveries of this year- I can't possibly type that much in a day. And I'd rather be talking about full albums anyway- and still, there have been a fookin' boatload of them.

 

Genesis

In order of discovery: Foxtrot, Nursery Cryme, Selling England By the Pound, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, and Trespass.

 

Yes

In order of discovery: Yes (1st album), Going For the One, Closer to the Edge, The Yes Album, Relayer, Tales From Topographic Oceans (which I owned on vinyl years and years ago, and- would you believe- never listened to it!), Time and a Word, Tormato.

 

Also Jon Anderson solo- In the City of Angels, and Olias of Sunhillow

 

Rick Wakeman- The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table

 

Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, and Howe

 

Lacuna Coil

In order of discovery: Broken Crown Halo, Comalies, Karmacode

 

Duncan Browne- Give Me Take You

 

 

Those are all that I can recall, off the top of my head. There may be more.

 

All of the albums listed above- seven months ago, I had never heard any of them. What a wonderful experience this year has been!

 

Yay!

 

Yes and Lacuna Coil on two lists!

 

I need to nake Genesis happen for me soon...

[Union 5-3992]

Band discoveries of the year is:

Devin Townsend

Frank Sinatra

Scorpions

Judas Priest (never really broke through with them until this year)

Peter Gabriel

 

My album discoveries of the year are:

David Bowie - Young Americans

Anneke Van Giersbergen - Drive

Bruce Dickinson - Accident of Birth

Electric Wizard - Dopethrone

Isis - Panopticon

 

Albums released this year are:

Casualties of Cool - Casualties of Cool

Devin Townsend Project - Z²

Opeth - Pale Communion

Judas Priest - Redeemer of Souls

Truckfighters - Universe

John Wesley - Disconnect

 

Song discoveries this year are:

Devin Townsend Project - Kingdom

Devin Townsend - Deadhead

Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer

Gary Clark Jr - Bright Lights

Billy Joel – Prelude/Angry Young Man

Frank Zappa - You Are What You Is

 

Songs released this year are:

Blind Guardian - Twilight of the Gods

Foo Fighters - Something From Nothing

Robert Plant - Rainbow

Anathema - Anathema

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - Shadow People

 

Live Act of the Year:

Judas Priest/Steel Panther

Edited December 20, 2014 by Union 5-3992

[cygnify]

I can't say I really "discovered" a new band this year, but a couple great discs came out. I also can't really single out songs, but albums that dominated my listening for the year:

 

1.) Opeth - Pale Communion (in addition to continuing with prior catalog)

2.) Anathema - Distant Satellites (in addition to continuing with prior catalog)

3.) The Aristocrats - Culture Clash and Boing! (carry over from 2013...)

4.) King Crimson - The Elements of, Red 5.1

 

to somewhat lesser extent:

 

5.) Steven Wilson - Raven (the honeymoon is over, but I still love this disc! Can't wait for HCE)

6.) Led Zep Remasters (sorta nostalgic for me)

 

I had a couple runs of listening to Rush, Yes, Floyd, Kings X, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Dream Theater, Porcupine Tree, Zappa, Genesis, Dixie Dregs, Grateful Dead, Tool - all of whom I have listened to for ages....

 

I was disappointed, but not at all surprised, by the "new" Floyd.

 

I already know of a few highly anticipated discs for 2015 (Krim, Aristocrats, Steven Wilson, ?) but I hope that I fall in love with another new band. It's just getting harder for me in my life to devote the time needed to find it!