In 2014, strange days have found us. I toyed with the idea of creating a Best of 2014 playlist for sad chicks, but then was all, “Cut the crap Sophie.” If you’ve gone out and gotten laid rather than cried after a break-up, if you don’t have an office job and are poor but happier for it, and if you’ve decided to make friends with the voices inside your head, these songs are for you.
The majority of the artists involved in this list are chicks, but not for the sake of grouping vaginas together, in this, dare I say, male-dominated industry perhaps I’m just being rebellious.
10. Perfect Pussy “Interference Fits”
Perfect Pussy’s “Interference Fits” is so wham, bam, thank you m’am perfect for the anthem to rebellious women everywhere I could embed this track ten times on this page and we’d be good to go. Setting aside the fact that simply with a name the Syracuse noise-punk band forced an array of bloggers still scared of the word “pussy” to get over it, no song captures the tumultuous inner-dialogue of the nearing-30 years than “Interference Fits.” “Since when do we say yes to love?” questions Meredith Graves, in a hard to make out (and empathetically, a hard to figure out) inner female dialogue.
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9. Banks – “Goddess”
The title tune off Jillian Banks’ debut studio album, “Goddess” ebbs and flows with such beautiful scolding you could die to it. “She’s a goddess, you never got this.” The scorned lover thing has been done of course, as Banks seems warily aware of based on the traces of boredom found in her voice. If you close your eyes and allow the lyrics to dissipate the song is rather seductive in nature, like what a praying mantis would put on to make love to before biting her mate’s head off.
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8. Copeland feat. Actress – “Advice to Young Girls”
“Pretend to go to sleep, while your parents argue in the kitchen. Put on some makeup and dress up, you sneak out of the window…” encourages Hype Williams’ Inga Copeland off her new LP Because I’m Worth It. “The city is yours” she promises on this disjointed spiny track. A desolate ravaged urban future is imagined, perhaps one we’re already living in, awaiting the rise of our heroines from the ashes.
7. Bets – “Don’t Give A Fuck”
This delightful tune off of BETS upcoming 2015 debut LP Days, Hours, Nights had the honor of being our very own Track of the Week. Brooklyn’s own, she makes warning about potentially sociopathic tendencies (“Everybody knows, I never fall in love”) seem down right adorable. I said it once and I’ll say it again, not giving a fuck is a crucial part of the path to enlightenment.
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6.FKA twigs – “Two Weeks”
The best word I can think to describe FKA twigs is mesmerizing. If the year 2014 means we’ve made it to the future, she is our poster child. The self-proclaimed ex “Video Girl” evolved into an icon this year, different in a manner that challenges the current pop star quo but rings true to FKA twigs. Her weirdness never seems staged, yet more of like she’s been this way all along and now only letting in an audience. See: This Queen of the Damned-themed video. A virtual high five for the lyrics “Motherfucker get your mouth open know your mine.”
5. Pharmakon – “Bestial Burden”
A little more noise, please! In this tense, minimalist, creepy track Margaret Chardiet entices and bewitches, keeping you looking over your shoulder for a looming attack that never comes. Like a great horror flick, the art of the title track of Bestial Burden lies in the anticipation rather than the reveal.
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4. Azealia Banks – “Heavy Metal And Reflective”
What is rebellion if not controversial? Azealia Banks silently dropped the anticipated Broke With Expensive Taste with slurs, beef, and tears, but in a landscape of processed foods she remains apologetically, perhaps brutally, raw. The forever banger “212” continues to be hard to live up to but “Heavy Metal And Reflective” sure gets me going.
3. Tove Lo – “Habits (Stay High)”
There’s two paths one can go down after a break up, crying in bed watching sappy chick flicks with a pint of ice cream, or getting fucked up and fucked. Well, I suppose one could responsibly process their emotions and exhibit gratitude for their time spent with their respected ex-partner before accepting life has taken them down different roads, but what are we, adults? (Editor’s note: This song was originally released in 2013 as a single off the Swedish darling’s debut 2014 album Truth Serum but the sleeper took a bit to blow up). This song’s the one we can all sing along to, and you know I’d have to include anything with the lyrics “I eat my dinner in my bathtub/Then I go to sex clubs watching freaky people gettin’ it on.”
2. White Lung – “Face Down”
Captivating in the VHS-shot video, Mish Way is a goddess per usual in this perfectly titled track off Vancouver punk White Lung’s debut album with Domino. “All the world’s pretend,” she reminds us, sneering in leopard stockings whilst burning scarecrows on a beach. It’s brash, it’s feminist, it’s frenzied rebellion by nature of simply being.
1. Childbirth – “I Only Fucked You As A Joke”
I’m going to be real with y’all, at first I had Jessie Ware at this spot and then I was all, “Why so serious…!” 2014 was the year of the anti-needy-chick “I don’t want to be your girlfriend” anthem, summed up hilariously with Childbirth’s (Chastity Belt/Tacocat/Pony Time supergroup) “I Only Fucked You As A Joke.” Whatever gender pronoun you identify with and no matter how 2014 sat for you on the rebellion spectrum, I think we can all relate to the line “I can’t make good decisions every day!” Let’s bring in the New Year with that.
SST out.
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