30 Most Frequently Played Songs of 2014

It’s the time of year when everyone is making end-of-year lists of various things. I decided to make a list of the top songs I’ve listened to in 2014. Now a few things went into this and there should be some things stated up front.

First — I almost always listen to music on random. Usually it’s a playlist I’ve created and there are a couple playlists I have in iTunes that have been my go-to work music this year. But what that means is that for any single song to appear multiple times it means I was probably listening to that artist a lot.

Second — Since I listen to so much stuff on random, and since that “random” list often comes out of a playlist with a bunch of stuff by a bunch of specific artists, a lot of songs cropped up from the same artist or album. So, in compiling this list, I made an effort to select songs by unique artists so it wasn’t all clogged up by Chromeo and M83 and nothing else.

Third — The way I ranked items was based on a combination of Last.fm stats for the year and iTunes # of plays. Now, iTunes doesn’t reset the number of plays each year, so its’ numbers are cumulative . And Last.fm wasn’t working 100% through the whole year, and regardless, the numbers were very different from Last.fm to iTunes so I really don’t know how these things compare.

The stuff from this list, therefore, has a fair bit of fudging around specific tracks and artists to be a more accurate representation of what has been playing through my speakers this year. Since each artist on the list could be taken as an entry into “most listened-to album“, I also pared this list down based on artists I played more frequently.

Pharrel Williams

Happy
Single – 2013

Washed Out

Eyes Be Closed
Within and Without – 2011

NONONO

Pumpin Blood
Single – 2013

M83

Steve McQueen
Hurry Up We’re Dreaming – 2011

Chromeo

Old 45’s
White Women – 2014

Gotye

Eyes Wide Open
Making Mirrors – 2011

Radiohead

Separator
The King of Limbs – 2011

TV on the Radio

Golden Age
Dear Science – 2008

Beirut

Santa Fe
The Rip Tide – 2011

Of Monsters and Men

Little Talks
My Head is an Animal – 2012

LCD Soundsystem

Yr City’s a Sucker
LCD Soundsystem – 2005

AlunaGeorge

Put Up Your Hands
You Know You Like It – 2013

Grimes

Genesis
Visions – 2012

SOHN

The Wheel
Tremors – 2014

The Asteroids Galaxy Tour

Out of Frequency
Out of Frequency – 2012

Bat for Lashes

All Your Gold
The Haunted Man – 2012

PJ Harvey

This Mess We’re In (with Thom Yorke)
Stories from the City, Stories From the Sea – 2000

The Black Keys

Fever
Turn Blue – 2014

Daft Punk

Get Lucky (featuring Pharrel Williams)
Random Access Memories – 2013

Florence and the Machine

Cosmic Love
Lungs – 2009

Marina and the Diamonds

Mowgli’s Road
The Family Jewels – 2010

HAIM

Falling
Days are Gone – 2013

Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Dull Life
It’s Blitz! – 2009

Mike Doughty

Change
Stellar Motel – 2014

Pretty Lights

Fly Away Another Day
Passing By Behind Your Eyes – 2009

The Arctic Monkeys

Crying Lightning
Crying Lightning – 2009

Ellie Goulding

Only You
Halcyon – 2012

Little Dragon

Only One
Nabuma Rubberband – 2014

David Guetta

Baby When the Light
Best of David Guetta – 2007

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds

Jubilee Street
Push the Sky Away – 2013