Hello! We're already 12 days into 2015, but I've just now had a minute to sit down and think about my favorite songs of 2014. Last year when I shared my favorite songs, I cut it down to 10. Honestly, this year I just didn't want to try to cut it down. 2014 was an incredible year for music overall, and the older I get the more I truly love the songs that I like. The more music I listen to the easier it is to recognize songs that I'm going to love. I listened to most of the songs on this list on repeat for weeks or in constant rotation for months on end. iTunes has a function allowing you to view the date you added a song to it, so that is how I chose the songs for this year. Some of them came out before 2014, but I didn't find them until then. Anyways, there are 50 songs below that I just loved last year in a Spotify playlist.
The albums I loved most this year seemed to be few and far between. The albums I loved last year continued to be in constant rotation, so I didn't find myself searching for new music as much. I'm a person who still buys physical CDs which seems to be pretty rare in today's world. In an article that Taylor Swift wrote for the Wall Street Journal earlier this year (read here), she spoke about how young people today haven't stopped buying albums, we just only buy the one's that prove their value to us in some way. I couldn't agree more. I've spent plenty of money on albums over the years, and I've come to regret a few of those purchases. If I'm buying an entire album, I want to feel some emotional connection to it as a whole. That may sound stupid, but viewing it this way has led me to make better musical decisions overall. The albums that you feel a connection to are the ones that you'll still love years later. Again with this list, they didn't all come out last year, but I personally loved them in 2014.
- 1989 - Taylor Swift; I consider her the soundtrack of my life so far. She can do no wrong. Add every song on this album to the list above. I highly suggest you read that article linked above because this woman very obviously understands the industry. That is why she dominates it and does it so well.
- X - Ed Sheeran; While I don't know that I actually like this album better than + as a whole, I do know that I love some of the individual songs on this album more than most every other song I've ever heard. I'll be hearing Thinking Out Loud, Tenerife Sea, and a few others and for many years to come (full review here).
- Vessel - Twenty One Pilots; Mark 2014 as the year I finally discovered Twenty One Pilots. My biggest regret from Music Midtown was not spending more time at their show because I had no idea how incredible they were then. Don't let the masks fool you into thinking you won't love them like they fooled me.
- In the Lonely Hour - Sam Smith; Remember that thing I said about emotional connection, this album right here nails that. Plus, that voice is to die for (full review here).
- The 20/20 Experience Part 1 and 2 - Justin Timberlake; I realize that neither of these albums came out in 2014, but my appreciation for them grew so much this year. I never spent the time I should have listening to these albums top to bottom. In preparation for his show in December, I took that time, and holy crap I had been missing a lot.
I also still loved all of the albums I included in last year's album favorites which you can see here. I realize now that I have overwhelmed you with music, but I just had to share.
What were your favorite songs and albums in 2014?
