The 50 Best Songs of 2014 So Far
Owen Pallett – “The Riverbed”
Almost suffocating in its building despair, this is pretty heavy for a guy with a reputation as a fussy, semi-twee perfectionist. (Featuring Brian Eno, no big deal.)
A Sunny Day in Glasgow – “In Love With Useless (The Timeless Geometry in the Tradition of Passing)”
Ben Daniels’ can execute his singularly strange vision for indie-pop with a slightly cleaner sound, it seems. By God, you’ll never make him give a killer song a sensible title, though.
Hospitality – “I Miss Your Bones”
Amber Papini and Co. went a little too far trying to banish the band’s previous cuteness, maybe, but like donning a leather jacket and lighting a cigarette, copping slinky Tom Verlaine guitar is a smart-kid-acts-tough maneuver that’s become an endearing classic.
Frankie Cosmos – “Buses Splash with Rain”
“We are not young, and this isn’t a party,” she says, super wrong about both. At this point, sure, the subject matter of young Greta Kline’s songs isn’t so far removed from “homework stinks!”, but the economy and effortless melody with which he gets her ideas across is deceptively sophisticated.
Angel Olsen – “Forgiven/Forgotten”
For once sounding semi-recent rather than totally timeless, Olsen blows the dust from her creased Leonard Cohen LP cover, does a two-step through an 120 Minutes episode.