The Top 10 Best Hit Songs of 2014 REDUX

 

The Top 10 Best Hit Songs of 2014 REDUX

So as I highlighted in both my original and redux worst list for this year and even in my original best list, 2014 is comfortably below the rest of the 2010s in quality for pop music. In fact I’d genuinely call it the worst year for pop music of the 21st century so far.

But I suppose that’s not entirely fair; 2014 did have a surprising number of real gems and I had to make more than a few pretty painful cuts from this list. However, it is likely that some of these songs are only on this list because they stick out in a great way from the blandness of 2014’s pop music scene. 2013 and 2014 were both very transitional years for pop music, where the club boom of the early 2010s had died out but trap had not taken over the musical landscape yet. But as I said in my worst list redux, “if 2013 was the wild wild West in the middle of a tornado, 2014 was the devastation after the storm, where in pop, it seemed like radio stations defaulted to the blandest pop songs to clog up the airways that became arguably the most annoyingly overplayed hits of the 2010s. Hip hop was dominated by DJ Mustard beats during a period where DJ Mustard only knew about 3 notes on his keyboard and overused them into the dirt. And then there was country music...holy shit it was ROUGH, where the vapid party lyrics of the club boom sneaked into country songs and country artists desperately wanted to make hip hop music for people afraid of black people in bro-country. And yet, none of those artists even had the personality or charisma to make those songs fun!!”

But even with all that, I noticed that when assembling my best list redux that every single major genre managed to have gems strong enough to garner representation on this list, we got hip hop, pop, EDM, and even country here!! And I’ll say it, my #1 pick here is one of my personal favorite songs of all time.

So let’s see what my criteria for this list is, the songs had to debut on the year-end list for 2014, but if a 2013 repeat finished higher on this year-end than in 2013, it’s also eligible. But if the repeat finished in the top 20, it can be eligible whether or not it’s higher here than in 2013, BUT, if the top 20 is lower, the repeat had to have hit a higher peak OR matched its peak in the previous year this year, which means that while something like OneRepublic’s “Counting Stars” is eligible, “Royals” by Lorde is not. So let’s kick this off with viewing my original best list…

HMS:

American Authors - Best Day Of My Life

Eminem f/Rihanna - The Monster

5 Seconds Of Summer - She Looks So Perfect

DJ Snake f/Lil Jon - Turn Down For What

5 Seconds Of Summer - Amnesia

Rixton - Me And My Broken Heart

Tinashe f/Schoolboy Q - 2 On

10. A Great Big World & Christina Aguilera - Say Something

9. Katy Perry f/Juicy J - Dark Horse

8. Nico & Vinz - Am I Wrong

7. Bastille - Pompeii

6. Idina Menzel - Let It Go

5. Sia - Chandelier

4. Zedd f/Hayley Williams - Stay The Night

3. Becky G - Shower

2. One Direction - Story Of My Life

1. Ellie Goulding - Burn

Woooow, this list has really not aged well. Hell, one of the honorable mentions here was a dishonorable mention on my worst list redux!! As for which takes have aged well, well let’s start with our expanded honorable mentions list, why don’t we? Specifically, with a song that I didn’t expect to like so much at all...

HM #1: Dierks Bentley - Drunk On A Plane (YE: #79, PEAK: #27)

I’m still utterly stunned by how much I really liked this song when revisiting the 2014 year-end list. Don’t get me wrong, I never hated this song at all, but I thought it was just decent with the missed potential to be good because of that very hangover-feeling guitar riff on the verses. But damn, this genuinely slaps. The chorus has tons of momentum and helps it feel incredibly anthemic. And you can’t help but appreciate that Dierks Bentley specifies that he’s buying drinks for everybody BUT the pilot. After all, safety first, right? Not to mention, this song is the most fun I’ve had singing a song in a really long time so that probably contributes a little to my enjoyment of this song haha. If more bro-country was as fun as this, I don’t think the genre would have such a bad rap.

HM #2: Ariana Grande f/Zedd - Break Free (YE: #37, PEAK: #4)

Oh, this brings back an interesting memory haha, my teacher in 6th grade was playing this song and my crush at the time was an Arianator and I tried to impress her by liking this song haha (idk, it might’ve actually worked because I noticed after I did that whenever we were in the same class and there was free seating, she always seemed to sit next to me lol). But that anecdote doesn’t really have anything to do with why I really like “Break Free” - that would be the production which is definitely standard electro-house production that hits all my weak spots. And I do think Ariana Grande’s vocal performance here is doing a great job of not making her feel anonymous like some generic EDM songs can do. I’ll certainly take this over “Problem”, which really hasn’t aged well. It’s not Ariana’s best song, it’s no “One Last Time” or “Into You”, but I do still think this is pretty great. Nice work Ari and Zedd!! Now Zedd, can you just ditch the ticking clocks and go back to making gems like this? But on the topic of house music...

HM #3: Disclosure f/Sam Smith - Latch (YE: #28, PEAK: #7)

Yes, Sam Smith didn’t have a very good year in 2014, with one terrible song (“Stay With Me”) and one atrocity (“La La La”), but they did deliver one legitimately great song with “Latch”. Sam’s vocals really work well here, for a lot of the reasons that a lot of people seemed to like “Diamonds”. The darker house production from Disclosure is really tight and sexy, enabling Sam Smith’s vocals to seamlessly fit themselves in. It’s to the point where even when Sam Smith goes into their admittedly grating higher register, I think they sound good there too!! Yeah, this song is awesome. Great stuff!!

HM #4: Jeremih f/YG - Don't Tell 'Em (YE: #42, PEAK: #6)

Yes, even 2014 DJ Mustard has some quality here (and spoiler: this won’t be the last time we see one of his productions here)! That said, I find “Don’t Tell ‘Em” great because this is easily one of DJ Mustard’s better produced beats of 2014. Also that “Rhythm Is A Dancer” interpolation sounds way better than it has any right to. Yes, the song can probably be perceived as unlikeable as hell with the lyrical content being about Jeremih enticing girls to cheat on their boyfriends with him. It’s the same lyrical conceit as “Loyal” by Chris Brown. So why does this work while that song didn’t? Well honestly, I think I could attribute that to it not being Chris Brown singing “Don’t Tell ‘Em”, plus, Jeremih may be enticing these girls to cheat on their boyfriends, but at least he isn’t faulting them for it like Chris Brown was on “Loyal”. And Jeremih’s presence is rather fun here probably thanks to this beat being very above average from 2014 DJ Mustard haha. Great little song.

HM #5: Pitbull f/Kesha - Timber (YE: #11, PEAK: #1)

This is just a nostalgic banger, with the effortless blending of country (though maybe the only “country” part of this song is the harmonica lol) and the electropop era and Kesha genuinely blowing Pitbull out of the water with her rather impressive vocals here. Sure, Pitbull referencing Miley Cyrus twerking does date this song considerably, but he has a ton of personality here and does contribute to this song feeling really fun. And hell, I’ll say it: this country appropriation is unironically better than most of the actual country hits in 2014. Can we just have Pitbull back?

HM #6: Avicii - Hey Brother (YE: #60, PEAK: #16)

Let me get this out of the way: this is not better than or even as good as “Wake Me Up!”. But “Hey Brother” is genuinely great in its own right. I really like Dan Tyminski’s vocals here (even if Aloe Blacc outsold on “Wake Me Up!”). Avicii’s hits in the early to mid 2010s feels like the transition from the indie boom into the EDM sound that would come to define much of the mid 2010s pop music scene. Yes, this is a festival progressive house song that hits all my weak spots for like the 3rd time, but for what this is, an attempt to blend stomp clap and EDM, I think this succeeds pretty well.

HM #7: OneRepublic - Counting Stars (YE: #5, PEAK: #2)

I don’t really know how to explain it, but this song is both overrated and overhated at the same time. And while I’ve always liked this song, for the longest time I was leaning more towards this song being overrated. But this grew on me a lot over the years. Sure, the lyrics can at points feel somewhat pretentious and/or cryptic (as with a lot of the indie rock that managed to become hits in the early to mid 2010s, in hindsight) - for the life of me I still can’t figure out the significance of the bridge (“Make that money, watch it burn, sink in the river the lessons I learned), but “Counting Stars” takes that pretentiousness and pairs it with huge-sounding, sweeping production; from the pianos to that flute(?). And yes, I did say the lyrics could at points be pretentious or cryptic, but from what I can decipher, it’s about Ryan Tedder longing for innocence where he didn’t have to worry about making the smallest amount of money, he doesn’t want to count dollars anymore, he wants to be innocent again and just count the stars in the sky. This isn’t my favorite song that delves into this territory, since 2016’s “Stressed Out” by Twenty One Pilots exists, but I do still think this is pretty great.

HM #8: DJ Snake f/Lil Jon - Turn Down for What (YE: #15, PEAK: #4)

There are literally only 12 different words in this song but it still goes so hard. I absolutely get why one might find this grating but between Lil Jon’s passionate and energetic yelling and the drops that continue to evolve and change over the course of the song, and you get a song that might not be “objectively” the best constructed, but still utterly slaps in a similar way to how much of the crunk from the 2000s slapped as well. No, this isn’t as good as “Get Low” or “Yeah!”, but this is still great.

HM #9: Tinashe f/ScHoolboy Q - 2 On (YE: #55, PEAK: #24)

The best DJ Mustard beat of 2014. Tinashe sounds incredible here, she really sells the sensual vibe this needs. And that fits the content really well too, which is about getting faded at the club. Tinashe has a flirtatious energy here that really works for me. I don’t know if I could call this Tinashe’s best song I’ve heard from her - this is no “Pasadena” or “All Hands On Deck”, but this is still a great song.

HM #10: Bastille - Pompeii (YE: #5, PEAK: #12)

I’m a bit shocked this missed the list proper, but yeah, that “eh eh oh eh oh” bit can grate on you a bit fast. That said, aside from that, this is still a really great song. It sounds so larger than life, which matches the admittedly bizarre content, which is apparently written from the perspective of two corpses of victims of the Pompeii eruption talking to each other. Which does admittedly feel a bit confused here given this is not a duet. But I don’t give a shit, this song made my honorable mentions purely for its sound. Frontman Dan Smith has a tone of urgency and wonder here to contribute to the larger-than-life vibe of this song. Also:

But if you close your eyes...

...Does it almost feel like nothing’s changed at all?

That’s a really strong start, now for the gems on the list proper!

10...Don’t you just appreciate songs where the title alone can explain its quality?...

10. A Great Big World & Christina Aguilera - Say Something Paramore - Ain't It Fun (YE: #47, PEAK: #10)

I mean, the song’s title perfectly describes why this song is incredible. It’s just tons of fun with an utterly euphoric chorus and Hayley Williams’s delivery making it abundantly clear she’s having such a great time here. This works for much of the reasons I still genuinely adore “Good Time” by Owl City and Carly Rae Jepsen. Kickass song! And yeah, ain’t it fun?

9......

9. Katy Perry f/Juicy J - Dark Horse Charli XCX - Boom Clap (YE: #34, PEAK: #8)

So, very random story with this one; in 5th grade, my teacher made us choreograph our own jumproping dance numbers in groups and my crush at the time’s group did it with this song...and it honestly blew everyone out of the water. It handedly put my group’s already terrible number to fucking “Sugar” by Maroon 5 to shame haha. But “Boom Clap” has aged remarkably well as a pretty fun dance pop track. Charli XCX’s more restrained delivery in the verses sets the tone for a genuine lovestruck vibe. And it transitions pretty smoothly into the chorus, where she starts shouting and makes it so anthemic. I’d struggle to call this my favorite Charli XCX song - even in terms of just her very poppy songs, “Speed Drive” is far better - but I do still love this song.

8...So as I said in the intro, 2013 and 2014 were both transitional years for pop music, where many genres were sort of having a free-for-all for what’s the next big trend in mainstream music. It was more chaotic in 2013, but we saw some of that in 2014, too. We had pretty bad bro country, some remnants of the 2012 indie boom, and even the strongest showing for pop punk in the mainstream post-2010 until 2021...

8. Nico & Vinz - Am I Wrong 5 Seconds Of Summer - She Looks So Perfect (YE: #93, PEAK: #24)

Well yeah, granted, maybe I’m being generous by saying pop punk had its “strongest” showing post-2010 until 2021, because this was literally the only pop punk song on the 2014 year-end list and it was in the bottom 10 of that list. And I totally get why people don’t seem to like this. It’s not like this isn’t just diet “The Great Escape” by Boys Like Girls with an added really cringey lyric about the girl looking so perfect standing there in his American Apparel underwear. But hey, I think “The Great Escape” is a fantastic song so a diet version of it is a song I still love. The guitars are incredibly high energy and Luke Hemmings’s vocals are similarly high energy and fun to match it. Even when he goes into his really thin falsetto, I don’t really mind! But like “The Great Escape”, there is a weird fun vibe to this that makes this feel oddly huge to rise above some of its banal and ridiculous sentiments. And I think that’s the main reason I love this song so much haha. And yet it’s not even my hottest take regarding 5 Seconds Of Summer on this list...

7...My intro for the previous song was honestly just a way of me trying to deviate from the stale “flaming hot take incoming”. But here, yeah, there’s no other way for me to introduce this. Flaming hot take incoming...

7. Bastille - Pompeii 5 Seconds Of Summer - Amnesia (YE: #86, PEAK: #16)

I completely get why this song gets so much hate. It’s a song that can definitely be read as pretty toxic or even as “Hey There Delilah” meets Simple Plan. But screw it, I genuinely love “Amnesia”. What makes it work is that it clearly comes from a place of innocence. Luke Hemmings seems to know that this song could be seen as “baby’s first breakup”. But that’s what makes this work for me. It’s obviously the inner dialogue of an angsty teenage boy experiencing his first breakup. And that can slightly excuse the admittedly questionable lyric about it hurting to know his ex is happy. It reminds me a little of why “Lucid Dreams” by Juice WRLD worked so well for me. Yes, the girl has moved on from the relationship, but this guy hasn’t  moved on, so how is she fine? When you experience your first breakup, I imagine it can be really difficult to see your ex having moved on while you’re very much still not over it (I say imagine because I’ve never been in a relationship lol). Yes, it’s really dramatic - this guy saying that this breakup hurts so much that he wants to get amnesia in order to move on from it is a bit extreme. So fuck it, even if this is “Hey There Delilah” meets Simple Plan, I’ll certainly take it over any of the whiny shit I’ve heard from Simple Plan (seriously, my toxic ex-friend in middle school constantly screaming that meme “Untitled” probably singlehandedly killed that song for me)

6...I feel so old, Frozen, that iconic Disney movie that every little girl back then was obsessed with back in 2013-14 is over a decade old now. And I’ll say it, the soundtrack is honestly underrated/overhated...

6. Idina Menzel - Let It Go (YE: #21, PEAK: #5)

Yes, this song was overplayed so much back in 2014. But a decade away from it all, this is honestly a modern Disney classic. Idina Menzel’s performance here is nothing but iconic here. (Spoilers if you somehow still haven’t seen Frozen yet lol) this is the point where Elsa is done with trying to conceal her powers and Idina sells this like she literally is Elsa and not just her voice. In this song, you believe Menzel IS this digitally animated queen who’s had enough trying to conceal her powers and is now ready to break free. Coupled with orchestral work that is arranged way better than it has any right to be, and you get an, again, modern Disney classic that definitely served as the anthem that defined every <=9 year old girl’s 2014. I may have hated this song at the time for how overplayed it was, but I think now I’m ready to, well...let it go.

5...So in my worst list redux for 2016, I criticized ZAYN’s “Pilowtalk” for its production being weirdly minimalist and as a result, putting way too much focus on ZAYN’s grating belting. I compared it to two songs there to demonstrate how you make vocals alone carry a song and make it work. One being an utter classic in “Take On Me” by a-ha, the other being this...

5. Sia - Chandelier (YE: #25, PEAK: #8)

Fuck Sia. Just needed to get that out of the way because regardless of Sia’s terrible personality IRL, “Chandelier” is utterly incredible and again, demonstrates how vocals alone can carry a song properly. When Sia starts belting in the chorus, the production ramps up quickly to support Sia and prevent her straining here from getting really hard to listen to. In my worst list for 2000, I said this about “I Wanna Love You Forever” by Jessica Simpson - “she’s straining her voice so much to get there that my vocal chords actively hurt for her”. And while there that was obviously more negative, I express that same sentence here in a positive way. Incredible song. As Chase Holfelder said, “Sia’s a vocal powerhouse” (and then that got followed up by Roomie saying “plus she’s a woman” lol).

4...I said in my original 2014 best list that this was an “oh, this song” moment for me. And while I’ll admit there’s a weird sense of familiarity when I hear this, I think in hindsight it was a case of false memories because I literally have no concrete memory of me hearing this song in 2014, doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate an excellent song when I hear it, though!...

4. Zedd f/Hayley Williams - Stay The Night (YE: #94, PEAK: #18)

Maybe this is just “Clarity” at home, but this song easily taps into a formula that works for me and short-circuits any real critiques I have of it; really awesome electro-house production with a strong as hell melody and Hayley Williams, like Ariana Grande on “Break Free” putting so much effort into being a commanding presence so she isn’t anonymous here. In some of Williams’ inflections, you can hear her distinct voice come through and it really works on here to the point where I don’t really think anyone else could do this song better. Yeah, fuck you, I love this song and it’s MY list of songs I love and sometimes I can’t explain why I love the songs properly. As Todd In The Shadows said, “This isn't a dog show. You make me a judge for a dog show, each and every time the winner is going to be my dog, be damned if she can do tricks or not. You wanna know who the best dog is? Mine.” You wanna know what my 4th favorite hit of 2014 is? This.

3...I...Okay, I still love this song obviously, but why did it nearly top my original best list?...

3. Becky G - Shower One Direction - Story Of My Life (YE: #24, PEAK: #6)

I’m definitely a One Direction apologist, and while I no longer consider this their best song, I still think this is incredible. And yeah, I think I like “Night Changes” more than this now, but I do still think this is an underrated point of maturity for them prior to “Night Changes”. Is it just for how it sounds less upbeat than their previous hits? Probably. But I do like how every member of One Direction gets a part to sing. So what’s this song about? Well, from what I can read, it’s a song about the guys here trying to get a girl who’s playing hard to get - and I think it’s worth pointing out that they never actually get the girl here. The “story of [their] life” here is meant to be sarcastic or exasperated. Where they imply they keep trying to chase after girls and they constantly fail - “And I've been waiting for this time to come around/But, baby, running after you/Is like chasing the clouds”. And there isn’t really a happy ending to this song. It’s never implied that they ever get the girl here, which is a nice deviation from their usual formula prior to this song where it’s nonstop partying and happiness where they get the girls in the end. And sure, I do like a lot of those other songs (I literally don’t get the hate for “Live While We’re Young” at all), but even the best tricks can get stale if overused. And I think this is a really awesome song to boot. Love this!!

2...Don’t act shocked this song is so high here, it was a lock for this list from the get go...

2. One Direction - Story Of My Life Becky G - Shower (YE: #69, PEAK: #16)

“Shower” is teen pop perfection. It’s obviously pretty childish, but that’s what makes this song work so well. The song is just about being deeply in love with someone. Becky G sells this so well. It quickly becomes a song you can relate to if you have a crush on someone. And that’s even before we get to how masterfully produced this is, the strings sound outright heavenly and contribute a lovestruck tone to this song that sounds close to perfect here, if not outright perfect. Yeah, this is adorable. But still not my #1 here, so which song is better?

1...It wasn’t gonna be anything else...

1. Ellie Goulding - Burn (YE: #39, PEAK: #13)

I’ve adored this song for as long as I’ve known it. My original review was for years my favorite ever review I wrote and I still stand by a lot of what I said in that review. It’s one of my top 5 favorite songs ever, and it’s not a spoiler for me to say that it’s my favorite hit song of the 2010s (I don’t think I’m redoing my decade-end lists lol). The production on “Burn” is huge and sweeping without overpowering Ellie Goulding and allowing her to utilize what I’ve always found to be her biggest strength; her more understated vocals slotting in nicely with huge, thunderous production while still feeling super potent in their own right. This song in particular, is just an absolute adrenaline rush of a song, from the opening muted synths that slowly start to build up as the pre-chorus foreshadows the excitement you’re in for, like you’re at the top of a rollercoaster right before a big drop, “we got the fire fire fire” lets you know that you’re in for a firestorm of a track in the best way possible, every repetition of the word “burn” here fills your body with more and more adrenaline. And then there’s that bridge, where it feels for a brief moment like you’re at the calm after the storm, like you’ve peaked already, but that “we can light it up up up so they can’t put it out out out” as the bells come in foreshadowing that you’re in for one more loop-de-loop on that roller coaster and then you are hit with that final chorus where for one last moment you are filled with a bunch of happiness that has been building up throughout the song inside you. Then the bells ring again on the outro, calling you to listen to this song again. So what was I trying to say in that whole ass pretentious essay? Well, the song in its essence is just a straightforward party jam about feeling like you’re on top of the world, and that’s exactly how I feel when I listen to this song, like I’m on top of the world, like I can do anything, even at my lowest moments. After all, there’s always an inner fire burning inside you as long as you’re alive, and no one can extinguish it as long as you live. So you might as well let that fire burn as big and bright as you possibly can. Transcendent song, “Burn” by Ellie Goulding, without question the absolute best hit song of 2014. It was the case in 2021, and I knew going into relistening to the year-end that that wasn’t gonna change. To paraphrase what I said in my original review of this song, this fire is still burning strong a decade later.

And that’s another list redux done!! Next up for redoing is 2011!! Stay tuned for that, and in the meantime, this list’s Spotify playlist is just below the article. And until the next list, keep it Fire!!

Spotify Playlist