NPR Music - Our no. 1 songs: 2014

Episode Date: October 20, 2025

A new synth-pop duo comes out of the gate with a perfect song and country gets metaphysical, but a surprise drop from the tail end of 2013 dominates the year.Note: This is a recurring series in celebration of All Songs Considered’s 25th anniversary. A shorter version of this episode ran earlier in the year.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

It's All Songs Considered. I'm Robin Hilton, Stephen Thompson here to talk about our number one songs from 2014, our ongoing series and celebration of the show's 25th anniversary. Welcome back, Stephen. Thanks for having me, Robin. You know, we're up to 2014, and one of the things that we've been doing along the way as we look back at each year is we've been trying to stump the chump. We've been playing a song for each other and seeing if the other person can remember it.

In this case, I'm willing to guess what you're going to pick. I think I already know what it's going to be. That you do. Do you want to hit it and I'll tell you if I'm right or do you want me to do it for you? Tell you what. You will say what it is as I'm pushing play. Right. Three.

One. This is radio, Steve. When do you go, one, two, three. No, I'm going to count to 15. What's wrong? All right. Well, wait. Three, two, one.

Coffee. My Sylvanesso. Two, it's a dance we know the move about the two. Though the words are true. The state is. So this was from their self-titled album, 2014. Was this their debut as well?

This was their debut album. Who has a song like this? It's right out the gate. We talk about this sometimes where an artist will put out, will kind of come out of the gates with a perfect song. And then you're like, well, I don't need to hear anything else. Yeah. And then the band or the artist or the musician spends the entire rest of their career

trying to match the dizzying high of their one perfect song. Right. Sylvan Esso just kept putting out amazing songs and amazing albums continues to be, I'm ready for another Sylvan Esso record any day now. Amelia Meath and Nick Sanborn have gone on to work with a lot of other artists. They built it like kind of a home studio where they've become a hub of this whole scene of other fantastic musicians in North Carolina. So they've continued to just be vital forces in the world of music.

But my God, this first song out of the game, gate, this was one of those songs. I could play that song for anyone. Yeah. And they'd be like, oh, this is my new favorite. Yeah. This is my new favorite song. I'll never for, easiest pick maybe of any year we've talked about. We've talked about South by Southwest a lot on these years as we've looked back at our favorite songs because we've had so many memorable moments at South by related to these artists. And I'll never forget seeing Sylvan Esso after the song came out, but it hadn't quite taken off yet. And people still weren't really sure who Sylvanessa was, and it was this little itty-bitty venue. They came, they were a little late.

It was just the two of them, and they came in carting all their gear with them, including a table, like a folding table to set it all on, and they're kind of working their way through the crowd to get to where they needed to be to perform. And, I mean, my how things have changed for that band, and they ended up playing one of our showcases years later. Yeah. Incredible band. Incredible song. Incredible people, too, too. Oh, and two of the nicest people in the music business. Yeah, absolutely. All right, well, let's see if you can figure out what this song is. This is my pick for 2014. I've seen Jesus play with flames in a lake of fire. Oh, is this Sturgle Simpson?

Yeah. Is this like turtles all the way down? Turtles all the way down. Met the devil in Seattle. Sped nine months inside the lion. Then met booty yet another time. He showed me going like within. But I swear that God is there

The time I go to the eyes of my best friend Says my son, it's all been done Someday show and wants to everyone From MetaModern Sounds and Country Music This song and this whole album is, I mean, well, MetaModern Sounds and Country Music, you know, this was one of those songs that I also got very deep into and just started, you know, like,

wow, it's so existential, and there's so many questions about, what it means to be a human being on this planet and it's, you know, it's cosmic. And then he came in for a tiny desk and I tried to talk with him about it. And he said, it's just about drinking and doing drugs. But it's so good. Just like one of the most kind of expansive minds in music. Yeah, really.

Just like somebody who you never know what you're going to get from one album to another. You know, he's had these albums of like kind of bluegrass and like, really stripped down roots music. But then he had an album that was like all this like Zizi top style. Right. Like the big guitar rock that was like the soundtrack to a piece of anime. Yeah. He's such a searcher.

He loves to Zig when you think he's going to zag. But, you know, just like a seeker. Yeah. And I love a musical seeker. Yeah. Super chill dude too. And this song and this whole album has, I know you love classic country music. And this just has such, it's like right out of seven.

You know, late 60s. We're country and singer-songwriterly music, kind of Laurel Canyon pop music, kind of all coexist in this world of just like plain spoken, really deeply catchy music. Yeah. Love it. Yeah. All right. Let's just take a quick break here and then we can talk about some of the other stuff that takes us back to 2014. Okay, Stephen, 2014 is the year we're on this week.

What are some of the other songs that make you think of that year? Well, I just want to, I want to, like, this will be really, really quick, but this absolute unimpeachable banger dropped in 2014. New pornographers. New pornographers, for sure. He doesn't say the song title, so you're going to sit here stumped for a while. It's called Brillbrusers. Oh, right, right, right, right.

And it's just like, for a band well into their second decade to put out one of their absolute towering best songs. I remember thinking about this song when it came out, that this is one. It's a song like it's shot out of a canon. Oh my God, perfectly. You know, like they are at 10 from the first note. The very first second, it's a what? Yeah, exactly.

And you're 100% into it. All right, what else you got? Well, and I also want to mention Beyonce's self-titled album came out at the very, very, very tail end of 2013. Right, yeah, I was going to say. But its impact was felt almost entirely in 2014. and sometimes these things are fungible. Like, oh, the first single technically dropped in November, so it's from 2013.

I'm saying this album is from 2014. And the song that I picked from it that I definitely jammed through the entirety of 2014 is Exo. Your love is bright as ever. Even in the shadows. Baby kiss me

before I turn the lights out. Your heart is glowing. Crash into you Baby kiss me Before I turn the lights out Before I turn the lights out And this album is like credited with among many other things

Completely changing the way The music industry releases music Right I mean new music always came out on Tuesday Right And dropped with no That's right No fanfare

It like her team was able to keep This album's existence The Secret And all of a sudden it just it came out in an instant, and that definitely changed a lot of release patterns. I mean, she obviously was already a big deal, but I remember that that was the time when I thought, oh, she's not just a mega pop star, like, she's got serious pull. Oh, and I think she upped her game.

I mean, a lot of Beyonce super fans will be like, what are you talking about? Crazy in Love, all these amazing songs. But it felt like she became a true mega titan. Well, if I hadn't gone with the Sturgel Simpson song, I was going to play one from Ty Siegel, the song Feel. Oh, there's no other word for it. The fuzz and the noise in that guitar, it is so glorious. And I have, you know, of course, continued to follow and love Ty Siegel over the years.

Just had him in for a tiny desk that went up in August. If you haven't watched that, the story I think I mentioned in the copy that I wrote for that tiny desk was, I told Ty and a call leading up to him coming in, I said, I have brought in so many rock bands, and every time I want them to really, really rock, and they always think, no, this is the time. This is our chance to whisper. Yeah, we want to do an acoustic set,

and I got one note back from him, and it said, we shall rock. And they did. They really tore it up. The latest album for Ty Siegel, it came out this year, Possession. They played a lot from that, and they played some older stuff.

The whole set is so incredible. Another one I thought of for 2014 is from Chris Staples, another country folk singer, songwriter, and his song, Dark Side of the Moon. Not to be confused with Chris Stapleton. Right. Exactly, not Chris Stapleton, Chris Staples. And then there was a song called Him to the Pillery by the band Nothing. I will never forget seeing nothing

at South by Southwest. Another South by Southwest memory. I went to see nothing. And I was just standing there kind of innocently watching the show, lost in the music, and completely blindsided by this mosh pit that suddenly erupted.

And I got caught up in it, got knocked to the ground, and I ended up crawling out on my hands and knees. And it really tweaked my back, and it took me months to recover from it. But totally worth it. We could just keep going here. Stephen, what's one more that you can take us out on here? Let's do FCA Twigs.

You know, 2014 she put out LP1, really helped put her on the map as a superstar, but also a source of music that is very strange and haunting and deeply catchy and sexy. let's go with two weeks. Yeah, I guess she'd had a couple of EPs before this, but this was her debut album. And this record, I was completely awestruck by this whole record. I think you talked about just how strange and weird and wild all the sounds were. I mean, she was clearly someone who was looking at the world and music

with kind of a singular perspective, so hard to have an original voice, and then someone like this comes along. Yeah, it's intimate and alien at the same time. Yeah, perfect. All right, well, we'll go out on this until next time when we do 2015. Thanks, Stephen. Thank you, Robin. And for NPR music, I'm Robin Hilton.

It's all songs considered.