Blank Space
2014 · From 1989
Swift plays her own tabloid caricature, a clicking pen for percussion, and she replaced herself at number one.
★ 7.5
Browse by time · year
2014
Showing 43 songs from 2014
Uptown Funk
2014
Six studios, eighty-two takes at the guitar part, Ronson collapsing in the studio, and fourteen weeks at number one.
★ 7.5
Chandelier
2014
Written first for Rihanna, kept by Sia instead, and given a video where an eleven-year-old dancer did the acting.
★ 7.4
Two Weeks (FKA Twigs)
2014
Emile Haynie and Arca build a slow cathedral of bass, and Twigs sings desire in a whisper.
★ 6.5
Seasons (Waiting on You)
2014
One Letterman performance in March 2014, Herring's angular dancing, and Pitchfork, NME and Spin named it the year's best.
★ 6.5
i
2014 · From To Pimp a Butterfly
Rahki built it on the Isley Brothers' That Lady, and Lamar turned self-love into two Grammys.
★ 6.4
Step
2014 · From Modern Vampires of the City
Rostam's harpsichord reharmonizes a melody that traveled from Bread through Grover Washington Jr. to Souls of Mischief, then here.
★ 6.2
Shake it Off
2014 · From 1989
Martin and Shellback stomped the drum pattern on a wooden floor, and Swift turned tabloid noise into fifty weeks charting.
★ 6.2
Thinking Out Loud
2014
Wadge was playing chords while Sheeran showered; twenty minutes later they had a Song of the Year.
★ 6.0
Close Your Eyes (And Count to Fuck)
2014 · From Run the Jewels 2
El-P's beat, de la Rocha recruited a day after a chance encounter, and the fiercest track on the album.
★ 6.0
West Coast
2014
Verses at 123 beats a minute collapsing to 65 in the chorus, cut live with Auerbach's band in Nashville.
★ 5.9
Red Eyes
2014 · From Lost in the Dream
Granduciel spent two years second-guessing these sessions, and the song still turns on one yelp before the chorus.
★ 5.8
Queen
2014
Adrian Utley of Portishead helped build the noise, and Hadreas answers a lifetime of stares with pure swagger.
★ 5.7
Archie, Marry Me
2014
Snowed into a Prince Edward Island farmhouse, Rankin wrote a proposal song; VanGaalen cut it in Calgary.
★ 5.7
Flawless (Remix)
Beyonce and Nicki Minaj
2014
Dropped without warning on a Saturday in August, an Outkast sample underneath, Minaj arriving to claim the rap crown.
★ 5.6
0 to 100/The Catch Up
2014
Boi-1da, Vinylz and Frank Dukes built the boast; Nineteen85 and 40 flip a James Blake sample for the reckoning.
★ 5.6
Do You
2014 · From They Want My Soul
Spoon's eighth album brought in Dave Fridmann and Alex Fischel, and Daniel spends the chorus asking to be understood.
★ 5.4
Stay With Me
2014
One voice layered roughly twenty times into a choir, and a settlement that added Petty and Lynne.
★ 5.3
Brooklyn Baby
2014
Del Rey wrote it with Lou Reed in mind, then sang the Brooklyn hipster caricature straight, deadpan and unbothered.
★ 5.3
Earned It
2014
Stephan Moccio's piano under strings that swing in six-eight, and Tesfaye's first Hot 100 top five.
★ 5.2