Can you point me towards some 2014 "best-of" musical playlists?
January 1, 2015 3:40 PM   Subscribe

I'm old enough to be sort of out of touch with new music, so when I have a little downtime at the end of the year one of the things I try to do is seek out some of what I've missed over the year. Ideally, what I'd like is some way to listen to to some "best of" from 2014 while I do other things, like trying to clean up or cook, for example, so without having to click each track one at a time.

I don't want to be that old person who says "Iggy who?" or who missed seeing the Sia Chandelier video, but I also don't want to be stopping what I'm doing to change tracks. So, while I'm aware that say, Spin, has some best-of lists up, and I expect Pitchfork will soon, I'm not so much looking for a list where I have to click each track to play (you can see how that would be sort of a pain while I was cooking, for example.). My ideal would be something like a Spotify (or YouTube) playlist, where I start it going, and it plays all 40, or 50, or 100 without further action from me. I don't mind if I have to listen to a few ads along the way. Open to lists from individual critics, I suppose, but prefer lists that come closer to "what people were listening to" than "this one guy's taste." My personal leanings are towards alt-rock and indie pop, but don't want to limit myself to that.
posted by tyllwin to Media & Arts (16 answers total) 72 users marked this as a favorite
 
This YouTube playlist claims to have the top Billboard songs of 2014. (I have not verified its veracity.)
posted by Shmuel510 at 3:51 PM on January 1, 2015


Best answer: This interests me too so I searched on Spotify itself.

Songpickr: 2014/15 Best Songs of the Year ... 'beyond the top 100 charts' (290 songs)

Best of 2014 - Digster UK (270 songs)

Mega Hits Best of 2014 differs from the above two - HITS! (100 songs)

I can't vouch for any of these in terms of 'what people were listening to' though. Except the last one cuz they pretty much say that.

Here's a link to "best of 2014" playlist search results on spotify where you can find many genre-specific ones.
posted by sylvanshine at 4:00 PM on January 1, 2015 [1 favorite]




Songza is my go-to for this kind of listening, and for discovering new music year-round.

Right now the "Concierge" has a Best of 2014 category.

You might like:
- Cool New Music: Best of 2014
- Songza's Best of 2014
- Pitchfork's Best New Music (not calendar-year specific)
posted by ista at 4:15 PM on January 1, 2015


My goto for this sort of thing is Hype Machine.
posted by eponym at 4:42 PM on January 1, 2015


NPR Songs We Love 2014!
A great mix of 300 songs. You can listen to all of them or pick a genre.
posted by gemutlichkeit at 4:44 PM on January 1, 2015 [1 favorite]


Grantland has a Spotify playlist at the bottom of its best songs of the year post.
posted by asterix at 4:47 PM on January 1, 2015


Best answer: I love going through these lists and go through about 30 or so every Dec / Jan.

Here are two comprehensive lists of lists.

One / Two

I've been through these so far... X's mean I didn't care for them, ** mean I found good new stuff.

Popmatters - best songs
Popmatters - best albums XX
Pretty Much Amazing - best albums
Pretty Much Amazing - best EPs
Pretty Much Amazing - best songs **
Gorilla vs bear - best songs **
Pitchfork - best songs **
Billboard - best songs
Rolling Stone - best songs
CoS - best albums
Dummy - best songs **
Dummy - best albums **
MOJO - best albums XX
Paste Magazine - best songs **
The 405 - best albums XX

Hope that helps!
posted by kdern at 5:24 PM on January 1, 2015 [2 favorites]




Largehearted Boy has a pretty good compendium of such lists.
posted by HillbillyInBC at 6:27 PM on January 1, 2015


Response by poster: Lots of great answers! Thank you very much!
posted by tyllwin at 11:15 PM on January 1, 2015


I'd add Spotify's playlist: Best songs of 2014 you haven't heard...yet
posted by doctordrey at 12:33 PM on January 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


/r/listentothis best of 2014 or you can look a the charts only which has best of listentothis for each month of the year.
posted by aeighty at 7:12 PM on January 2, 2015


I know this probably counts as self-promotion, and the question has already been marked as resolved, but I made a best-of-2014 playlist (71 songs, 6 hours, 818.7 MB) that's a mix of pop, indie, hip-hop/R&B, classical-crossover, jazz, and whatever "avant-garde" still means).
posted by mirepoix at 11:15 PM on January 2, 2015


I found this playlist where they collected all songs used in the yearly DJ Earworm playlist: http://open.spotify.com/user/asharachal/playlist/1U8ivfnHosw0t57oHX9lnk really scratching my 2014-pop itch.
posted by Marcc at 1:08 PM on January 5, 2015


For future readers - here's my complete list of lists I looked at this year. Favorites marked with **.

Done:

Popmatters - best songs
Popmatters - best albums XX
Pretty Much Amazing - best albums
Pretty Much Amazing - best EPs
Pretty Much Amazing - best songs **
Pretty Much Amazing - staff lists
Gorilla vs bear - best songs **
Gorilla vs bear - best albums **
Pitchfork - best songs **
Pitchfork - staff lists ***
Billboard - best songs
Rolling Stone - best songs
CoS - best albums
Dummy - best songs **
Dummy - best albums **
MOJO - best albums XX
Paste Magazine - best songs **
The 405 - best albums XX
Paste - best albums
Stereogum - best albums XX
Stereogum - staff best songs **
Stereogum - readers best songs and albums
Under the Radar - best albums
Drowned in Sound - best albums ***
Drowned in Sound - staff's top 3
Drowned in Sound - top songs
Luddite Stereo - best music
The Guardian - best albums
The Guardian - staff lists *
posted by kdern at 4:37 PM on January 10, 2015


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