Friday Playlist - Favourite songs of 2014

Hello, tis the flowers! As we enter into the new year we though this would be the obvious choice for the Friday Playlist - saying a fond wave goodbye to 2014 by counting down some of our favourite music of the year.

Daisy

Now as most of my friends know, I generally favour old music but I am no music snob! I'm not going to be a nob head and say 'oh the modern music business is just terrrrrible blah blah blah', because there are loads and loads of songs and albums I've genuinely really enjoyed this year. While most of my favourite music is still dated before 1980 I'm always partial to something fresh and new as well.
Here are my top picks...

1. Bombay Bicycle Club - Luna

This whole album So Long, See You Tomorrow has been on repeat in my room all year - I love it - so it was really hard just pick just one track. The whole thing is so rich and varied and I think its the richness of Luna that made me eventually pick it out as my favourite. Everything about it is so full and so bursting at the seams with life and amazingness! As rule you have to have it on as loud as possible and ideally be alone in your room so you can dance about like a fool and shout 'I'M READY FOR YOU TO FIND OUUUUTTT' really loudly. High on my list of life goals: perform a syncronised swimming routine to this song.

2. Lykke Li - Gunshot

Another one that needs to be on full volume to be properly enjoyed Gunshot is another one of my obsessions this year. While I think the video is trying a little to hard to be 'artsy' the song completely makes up for it. Its powerful and dramatic and melodic and her voice is suuuper dreamy and ethereal. Don't go thinking I'm too cool though - I found this song not because I'm a top indie music aficionado and Lykke Li fan, but because of the Peugeot 108 advert.

3. Hozier - Take Me To Church

Powerful, dramatic, ethereal? I sense a pattern emerging, perhaps I've been feeling especially brooding this year! While this song is stirring and dark and everything it is also ridiculously catchy, I've had it going round and round for days. In all seriousness this song has a really strong message about acceptance and the role of religion in discrimination against LBGT people that particularly resonated with me with the news of transgender teen Leelah Alcorn's suicide, which you can read more about here. The song is beautiful and addictive however I would not recommend watching the video too many times because it is totally heartbreaking!

4. Nico & Vinz - Am I Wrong?

Something a bit more upbeat, thank god! I first heard this song in summer at work on BBC Radio Two and the more I heard it the more I loved it. Its not heavy or pretentious, its just a really chilled, upbeat, summery song with luuurvely vocals that never fails to make me smile.

5. George Ezra - Blame It On Me

The tinkly bit in the background of this songs chorus makes me so happy I could probably just listen to that for three and a half minutes! George Ezra has such an earthy and soulful deep voice that really make his songs stand out and I think would be very well applied to a cover version of Chocolate Rain. Ezra's songs are pretty simple in theory but in reality pack a huge punch and Blame It On Me  in particular is another song I can have a cracking bedroom dance along to - which is really the test of quality for any upbeat song I encounter. 

Honourable mentions: Tayor Swift - Blank Space, One Direction -Night Changes (Can't help it I love them), Arctic Monkeys - Do I Wanna Know?, Lana Del Rey - Westcoast, Route 94 - My Love, Paloma Faith - Only Love Can Hurt Like This, 5SOS - Don't Stop

My delightful friend and fellow blogging person Lindsay has also compiled a similar list that you can find here! 

Lily

1.George Ezra - Drawing Board

One of my most recent obsessions surprisingly is George Ezra, I have been listening to his new album non-stop the past few weeks. I think at the minute drawing board does have to be my favourite as well as our brother max’s, who recommended George Ezra to me. I like this song because I love his damn sexy voice, but also because the lyrics are really clever and funny.

2. Marmozets - Hit The Wave

 As I found from my year music overview from Spotify, marmozets were my top album this year, as I did listen to it on repeat. I found it difficult to choose one song from the album as my favourite, but I think this song just pipped it to the post. I am sooo jealous of Becca’s voice, which just make the song so much more epic.

3.The Pretty reckless – Going To Hell

Okay so I already wrote a bit about this song in my favourite albums post, but I love it, so it deserves a place on my favourites. This is the title track from the album Going To Hell, and it was the first song released. I was instantly in love with it as soon as I heard it, and the video is really cool – which also increased my love for Taylor Momsen.

4.Slash – beneath the savage sun

I think out of all these songs this has to my all-time favourite song of 2014, I was so excited for slash’s new album release, and this song was instantly my favourite. The song is about elephant poaching and the way it’s written is really clever. The anger conveyed in the song also gets you so much more pumped up when listening to it. They performed this when I went to see slash a few weeks ago and it was awesome!

5.Lana Del Ray – Westcoast

Me and dad were both obsessed with this song at the same time so we used to listen to it incessantly in his car on the way to school/work. It’s just such a cool song, and a good song to chill out to.

Honourable mentions: Tonight alive – the edge, Royal blood – out of the black, Slash – The Unholy, Lower than Atlantis – here we go, 5sos – Rejects, The Pretty Reckless – Sweet Things, George Ezra – blame it on me, Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars - Uptown Funk (This is my jam!), Paloma Faith - Only Love Can Hurt Like This (Off the Cuff)

Cheers for listening, hope your ears were satisfied by our choices!
Byeeee.

Dais and Lil.