Max's Top 3 Songs of 2014

1. Real Estate "Talking Backwards"

Since I discovered Real Estate in my final year of college, they've been a constant in my rotation and a personal favorite. Their laid-back sound - innocently sung vocals and effortless guitar pop grooves - makes you feel like you're gliding along a lazy river with the sun just ever so slightly poking through your sunglasses. This 3-minute 8-second song, their first single from their great 2014 album Atlas, is the perfect encapsulation of what they do. Lead singer/guitarist Martin Courtney sings about not being able to convey exactly what he wants to say to his lover while Matt Mondanile's noodling guitar lines complement his confusion and add the emotional resonance that cannot be provided in speech. With this album, Courtney, now married and with a child on the way, sings about starting a family and looking back on how things were. Though I'm not there yet, "Talking Backwards" still translates to an aspect of life that any adult can relate to. The way you feel might not be great, but the way it sounds is wonderful.

2. Cloud Nothings "I'm Not Part of Me"

These Ohio punk/noise-rockers have undergone a transformation over the years, thanks to lead man Dylan Baldi's change in style. Early recordings had hooks galore, and while their most recent stuff is heavier, some hooks still remain. This song's got one of them. It's a breakup song that isn't afraid to admit that once she's gone, she'll still be there forever. It took me a little while to figure out that the title is an amalgamation of the two lines of the chorus: "I'm not, I'm not you / You're a part of me / You're a part of me." The guitars and drums just rip through this whole thing (as they always do), and while this might not be the most complicated song musically, the transitions from each verse and the bridge into the choruses just kill. "It starts right now / There's a way I was before / But I can't recall how I was those days anymore," sings Baldi. He's starting over, but he's not starting from the same place he once did.

3. Spoon "Inside Out"

I should preface this by saying I am not a huge Spoon fan. I once said they're the most "mediocre band" in rock. That being said... this list is about 2014, and I took another chance on them this year. Thank goodness. They Want My Soul is perhaps my favorite album of the year, and this song or the title track had to be in my top three. While "They Want My Soul" is somewhat more of a straight-up rock song, this one is kind of different than what Spoon has been up to over the past two decades. It starts off with an almost elevator music-type soundscape that soon changes with a pulsating bassline and a recurring synth noise that sounds like it was created in the heavens. The harp solos later on in the song feel like alien ships sprinkling magic dust on us. So what's gone inside out? This is lead singer Britt Daniel's lament about time; there's nothing we can do to stop it. "Time keeps on going when / We got nothing else to give," he bemoans. Still, there's only one thing that makes it all worth it. "I don't got time for holy rollers / It's only you I need."