I made this mix of songs for my sister for Christmas 2014. While many of the songs didn’t come out in 2014, I did discover them or fall in love with them in 2014. You can listen to the mix in the YouTube playlist below. I will add a line or two about each selection.
La La La Amen- From the first line of the first song to the last line of the last song…
- Naughty Boy – “La La La ft. Sam Smith”– Just a fun song with interesting sampling
- Tove Lo- “Habits (Stay High)- Hippie Sabotage Remix”- First heard this song on a Vine (the first of many) and really enjoyed the refrain…
- Bastille – “Pompeii”– Somewhat strange song if you realize that they are singing about a natural disaster that really happened…
- Avicii – “Wake Me Up”– Probably my favorite song of the year, represents some of the feelings I’ve had through struggles recently
- Clean Bandit – “Rather Be ft. Jess Glynne”- First heard this song in a commercial that ran before the feature at the movie theater– really resonated with the desire to be with those I love
- John Legend – “All of Me”- Just a sweet, sweet song. Used it as a serenade when I visited camp last summer.
- Echosmith – “Cool Kids”- First discovered this song via a 5 second cover of it on Vine by Kenzie Nimmo.
Here’s their full YouTube cover. - Imagine Dragons- “Demons” – Vivid song that illustrates some of the human struggle
- The Runaways- “Cherry Bomb” – First heard this song on Guardians of the Galaxy. Honestly wanted to put every Guardians song on this mix, but thought this was a fun rock song that stood on its own. (And my sister loved it!)
- Paramore – “Ain’t It Fun” – Another good rock song I heard on the radio, really enjoy the band.
- Charli XCX – “Boom Clap”- Fun song. Nuff said.
- Disclosure – “Latch feat. Sam Smith” – Also first heard this song in a Vine, though it was just the background music. Just silly, but enjoyable.
- Sia – “Chandelier” – Heard this song on the radio, didn’t really stand out to me. Then I saw the SNL parody… and then I saw the real video… and… wow. It’s weird, but heartfelt too.
- Sam Smith – “Stay With Me” – Heartfelt, heart wrenching, heart ache.
- Avicii – “Hey Brother” – Love the folk sound in this song.
- Us The Duo – “No Matter Where You Are”- Another Vine find. Us the Duo posted many Vine covers with half of their faces out of frame… then finally, one day, they revealed their faces! They became big hits and released this wonderful song.
- MKTO – “Classic”- Funny story. One of the guys in this duo, Malcolm Kelley, played Walt on Lost! And I went to camp with the other guy, Tony Oller! We spent one week together at Camp Good News in 2002. He had just won a big competition and told us he was going to be famous one day. Then he ended up on a Disney Channel Show and now he’s one half of this famous group! (Malcolm Kelley [MK] + Tony Oller [TO]= MKTO). Just a fun song.
- Pharrell Williams – “Happy”– Somehow, there are people that hate this song. I don’t get it. Yes, it has been overplayed. But I just can’t help dancing to it!
- DJ Earworm Mashup – “United State of Pop 2014 (Do What You Wanna Do)”- I look forward to DJ Earworms annual mashup, and while 2013’s was good in different way, it didn’t wow me like past years. This one though… so good!
And so it goes. What did you think? I had plenty of other songs I wanted to include, but sometimes you have to be picky. What would you have included?