10. Sharon Jones – “Stranger to My Happiness”
A bout with cancer delayed the release of Sharon Jones’ Give the People What They Want, but when she made her return in January (just weeks after her last chemo session), she didn’t miss a beat. “Stranger to My Happiness” is a deceptively upbeat tale of jilted lovers, with Jones playing narrator and offering bemused warnings (“now if you think that’s a thing that only evil men can bring, let me skin this cat another way”). Despite the song’s title and subject matter, like anything Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings do, it’ll leave you grinning and feeling pretty great.—Bonnie Stiernberg

  

9. Parker Millsap – “Truck Stop Gospel”
It seems that every year a new, young voice emerges in music that demands our attention. For the Americana world, that voice in 2014 is Parker Millsap. Only 21, Millsap is already on his second record, a self-titled collection of ten songs that sounds like something an artist years his senior should have put out. Not a kid that was just given the privilege to sit at a bar. “Truck Stop Gospel” is one of many gems on the album, but easily the most fun with a consistent groove that drives forward and Millsap’s voice that absolutely burns.—Eric Walters

  

8. Temples – “Shelter Song”
Kettering, Northamptonshire. It sounds like the perfect place for two lads named James Edward Bagshaw and Thomas Edison Warmsley to start a home-studio project channeling the psychadelic prog-rock of ages past. But the band’s buzz didn’t come out of nowhere—Bagshaw had a modest hit in 2006 with his former band Sukie. “Shelter Song” was released as a single in 2012, but it’s new to us, a perfect little swirling love song to kick off the band’s 2014 debut, Sun Structures. East Midlands never sounded so good.—Josh Jackson

  

7. Saintseneca – “Blood Bath”
Columbus folk upstarts Saintseneca hinted at greatness with 2011’s Last, a disarming cascade of finger-plucked Appalachian hymns anchored by Zac Little’s singular croons, but new LP Dark Arc surpasses any and all expectations. Opener “Blood Bath” paints a manifesto of the ornate, challenging journey ahead as Little remarks the “flesh of god is flayed for you to eat.” This promise peaks a verse later as multi-instrumentalist Maryn Jones and Little volley into a pulsing chorus laced with a tribal snare beat and hook that could mobilize an army. The track shows that folk has a weirder, wider future than the shiny confections of Mumford & Sons or The Lumineers, and it’s about damn time.—Sean Edgar

 

6. Lydia Loveless – “Really Want To See You”
Lydia Loveless straddles a tightrope of vintage honky-tonk nostalgia with modern grrrl power, and new album Somewhere Else adds a new level of polish to the bottom-shelf heartbreak she’s refined with each album. Opener “Really Want To See You” lives up to the artist’s namesake, as Loveless pines after a former flame who’s recently tied the knot. Loveless may actually be married to bassist Ben Lamb IRL, but she’s a master storyteller with a voice that goes down like honey and lyrics that bite like a hangover. With tones of Loretta Lynn and early Neko Case, the track turns the most tragic of circumstances into a delicious, upbeat confession worthy of infinite listens.—Sean Edgar

 

5. Against Me! – Transgender Dysphoria Blues
The title track of Against Me!’s Transgender Dysphoria Blues cuts right to the chase after Laura Jane Grace’s highly publicized tale of coming out as transgendered in 2012. Here, the songwriter gives every bit of grit she’s been known for with heartbreaking line after line: “You want them to notice/ The ragged ends of your summer dress/ You want them to see you like they see any other girl/ They just see a faggot/ They hold their breath not to catch the sick.” With an inbox stacked with albums retelling tales of lost love, sometimes recorded in cabins; or musings on the human condition; or on weirder days, food, Grace’s gutting honesty on this not-so-universal experience is the realest thing I’ve heard in…I really couldn’t tell you how long.—Tyler Kane

  

4. Sylvan Esso – “Hey Mami”
If anything has the capability of getting my folk-friendly, pop-loving ears to perk up to something a little bit synthier, it’s Amelia Meath’s ethereal vocals. Marrying the harmony she honed with vocal group Mountain Man to the innovative instrumentals of Megafaun’s Nick Sanborn, Sylvan Esso is poised to be all over the place with their forthcoming self-titled album. “Hey Mami” a cat-call on loop, but rather than admonishing the caller or objectifying the woman, it empowers: I love the way lyrics like “she owns the eyes” are matched up with dance beats and the sweeping repetition of the catcall itself.This song has the potential to be my favorite of the year. —Dacey Orr

  

3. Allah-Las – “Every Girl”
The first time I heard this Allah-Las single (which will hopefully be included on their second LP later this year), my ears instantly perked up at the opening bass riff. By the time the tambourine kicked in a few seconds later, I was sold, and when I reached the chorus, I knew I had found my favorite song of the year. “Every Girl” isn’t rocket science, but the best rock songs never are. It’s about being girl-crazy (“every girl’s the one for me”), and it spits out the names of potential beaus like it’s garage rock’s answer to Lou Bega’s “Mambo No. 5.” And oh my god, it’s catchy. Since that fateful first listen, I’ve cruised around with the windows down blasting this song more times than I can remember. I’ve brushed my teeth to it. I’ve danced solo to it in my apartment like I was starring in a Risky Business reboot or something. I’ve become completely evangelical about it, recommending it to anyone who’ll listen and some who won’t. In short, I’m obsessed and probably need help. But I don’t want your help, because I heard this song and I knew. I knew the way you know about a good melon. —Bonnie Stiernberg

  

2. The War on Drugs – “Under the Pressure”
There’s so much to explore in the eight minutes and 50 seconds of “Under the Pressure,” the opening track on The War on Drugs’ excellent Lost in the Dream, but what hooked me the first time, in my car, came at the 4:08 mark. I was listening at the insistence (and persistence) of a Twitter follower, and though I could tell almost immediately that I wouldn’t be wasting my time—that this song was really, really good, and with it probably the entire album—it wasn’t until the halfway point that I really understood why. The lyrics are mostly expressionistic, and when you consider that even after multiple listens the Internet can’t decipher them all, you can imagine how well I understood Adam Granduciel on my maiden voyage. The melody was strong, though there was no chorus, and the energy had a pulsing, Sprinsteen-like urgency that I loved. What changed and clarified at the 4:08 mark, when the song seemed like it might be winding down, was as simple as a heavier drumbeat; on its face, nothing revolutionary. But what it did was expand the song into its true form, as something that wasn’t yet halfway over, and had life to spare. It made complete sense—this song had to be eight minutes long, had to to unfurl into controlled chaos, and had to grab you by the shoulders, like a mad genius, and make you see exactly what the fuck it was talking about. I love it, and I think when you look at the lyrics, you get closest to the theme when Granduciel sings, “You were raised on a promise / To find out over time / Better come around to the new way / Or watch as it all breaks down here.” The greatness, though, is in the driving impetus, the unspoken vitality and anger and exuberance and defiance that brings you to a visceral crest and lets you ride it just as long as you’ve got the spirit and the spine.—Shane Ryan

 

1. Ages and Ages – “Divisionary (Do the Right Thing)”
I’m usually not an obsessive person. Okay, my wife and I did blow through Friday Night Lights pretty quickly. And I am currently on three soccer teams. Then there was that five-pound bag of gummy bears I bought on Amazon a couple of weeks back… But needing to hear a song daily—okay, maybe more than daily—only happens to me about once a year (my officemates can provide you with a list). This year’s musical addiction is “Divisionary (Do the Right Thing).” Even my kids know all the words. And hey, there are worse choruses to teach them than “Do the right thing, do the right thing / Do it all the time, do it all the time / Make yourself right, never mind them / Don’t you know you’re not the only one suffering.” Every song on Divisionary sounds like a bunch of friends having fun making noise—like Edward Sharpe without the cult-y vibe. But it’s the title track that you won’t want to get out of your head.—Josh Jackson