The 50 Best Songs of 2014 So Far
Sharon Van Etten – “Every Time the Sun Comes Up”
Van Etten has a great talent for delivering intimate detail with epic sweep, and this one, with its roughed-up Phil Spector beat, hypnotically controlled cadence, and swooning chorus repetition, makes big pop moves out of shudders of private doubt.
St. Vincent – “Regret”
In which Annie Clark, guitar hero from a clinical distance, gets as close to a cocky strut as she’ll let herself.
EMA – “Satellites”
Erika Anderson’s second solo record couldn’t quite live up to its lead-off track, which delivers the half-lucid paranoia of a scummy sci-fi paperback through a sick fax machine squeal.
Dum Dum Girls – “The Cult of Love”
A warm thank you to this song, for providing the goth twist on turn-of-the-century Belle and Sebastian deeps cuts I didn’t know I needed so desperately.
Zola Jesus – “Dangerous Days”
Nika Danilova, former opera brat/current goth diva, always sounds big, but the first single from her forthcoming record sounds almost smooth, keeping industrial gloom out of her way.