 | Partition |
On "Partition," Yoncé serves lyrics that are raunchier, sexier, and more fun than those that appear in her hit "Drunk In Love." We all like to imagine the lifestyle of the rich and famous looks something like this— getting it on in the back of a huge stretch limo moments after you finally prepared for the gala that you're attending. Beyoncé plays into this fantasy with ease, singing about the "handprints and good grips on my ass" over a smooth, sensuous beat.
 | Magic |
"A Sky Full of Stars" may have been Coldplay's biggest hit in years, but "Magic" was their best. Singing over a minimalist beat, Chris Martin draws listeners in like a ringleader to a circus. "I don't want anybody else but you," he sings of a lover who uses her magic abilities to draw him in, but then uses those same powers to cut him in half. The song is simple, but highly moving.
 | Yellow Flicker Beat |
As we all know, our favorite teen hottie Lorde oversaw the creation of the entire soundtrack for the most recent Hunger Games film, and her own "Yellow Flicker Beat" was selected as its lead single. While the song had a relatively underwhelming performance on the charts, it still picked up nominations at the Golden Globes and Grammys. The song features strong lyrics that are both metaphorical and mature in their portrayal of Katniss Everdeen's perspective at this point in the series. When Lorde warns us that she's "locking up everyone who ever laid a finger on me," she sounds like a teen hell bent on vengeance.
 | Stay With Me |
Sam Smith's "Stay With Me" was easily the most evocative hit of the year. On the ballad, he sings of engaging in a one night stand in a fruitless attempt to cure his loneliness. The trope is common enough in music, but it seems to take on a deeper meaning when considered in the context of the promiscuous setting of the gay community that Sam belongs to. It's hard for a gay man to find love, or even just a deep and meaningful connection, in a world where so many gay men are only concerned with casual sex. Oh, and that gospel choir on the chorus? That's a studio trick. It's actually just a collection of Sam singing the same lines from various places in the recording room in order to produce the effect of a choir. Nifty.
 | Afterlife |
In a just world, Ingrid Michaelson's "Afterlife" would be the smash of the season. The song is gloriously uplifting as she chants, "We're gonna live tonight like there's no tomorrow cause we're the afterlife." It's a chorus as anthemic as any that I've ever heard, and an empowerment song as effective and honest as they come. More than that, the song seems very personal to Ingrid. In its accompanying video, she collects a number of fans and helps them conquer their biggest fears—from birds to expressing their true gender identity. It's a truly moving moment. Also moving? The fact that this song was selected as a single very shortly after Ingrid's mother lost her battle to cancer. Considered in this context, the song's message becomes far more personal, and far more urgent.
 | Ain't It Fun |
Paramore garnered their fourth Grammy nomination for their fun and eclectic smash "Ain't It Fun." The song shines like the sun with a production that seamlessly incorporates elements of pop, rock, R&B, gospel, and more. Little touches, such as the use of a xylophone, give the song an upbeat and cheerful sound that creates interesting tension between the music and the words. Lyrically, Hayley Williams sarcastically sings about growing up and being left alone, advising that adults can't just "go crying to your mama." Upon its release, some critics deemed the track an instant classic, and that's a sentiment I can get behind.
 | I Wanna Get Better |
Bleachers, the side project of fun's Jack Antonoff, debuted early in 2014 and managed an absolute takeover on alternative radio. The song harkens back to the 80s rock that Antonoff likes to invoke in his own music, as well as that of others (Sara Bareilles' "Brave," Taylor Swift's "Out of the Woods"). Jack sings of his troubling adolescence with a twisting list of metaphors, but ties them all together with the catchiest and most anthemic chorus he's ever touched. He chants the title line over realizations that he is lonely and broken, and that he never quite knew that before. As someone else that wants to "get better," the song truly struck a cord with me.
 | Latch |
Only two things stand between the EDM classic "Latch" and the number one spot, and one of these things is the fact that the song was, in fact, already two years old before hitting America. Consider it a testament to the power of the pairing of Sam Smith and Disclosure that they produced a song so epic, so enduring that it lasted so long in a genre where it takes about a month for a song to feel "dated." Sam provides a vocal performance that flawlessly entwines itself with Disclosure's house production, and one needs only a single listen to see why "Latch" is one of the biggest and best songs of the decade to date.
As for the second thing standing between "Latch" and the top spot? That would be one Taylor Swift.
 | Blank Space |
On epic smash hit "Blank Space," Taylor Swift fires back at her detractors and the mainstream media for perpetuating a caricature of her as a crazy woman who lures men into her life so that she can freak out at them, scare them away, and write a song about it all. Over a cool minimalist beat, Taylor sets the scene as she welcomes a guy with "new money, suit and tie" into her arms, but the joke's on him because she believes that "boys only want love if it's torture." And torture him she does. The experience of the song is heightened by its video, where Taylor portrays a heavily exaggerated version of the psycho girlfriend, Sean O'Pry (
LOOK at that face) makes for an unsuspecting victim, and cat actress Olivia Benson Swift plays herself. "Blank Space" is snarky and sarcastic in its deconstruction of the 'crazy woman' trope, and it's brilliant and fun with the countless one liners proffered in the lyrics.
 | Shake It Off |
It is a testament to the power of "Shake It Off" that it always inhabited the #1 spot on this list, even while the other songs in the top 10 constantly changed places. It's rare to find a pop song whose verses are even catchier than its infuriately catchy chorus, but that's what Taylor Swift has crafted here. In the course of the most hook-laden three minutes of music that you will likely ever encounter for as long as you live, Taylor manages to: call out the media and public for criticizing her dating habits, attack the 'dumb blonde' stereotype, shake off her haters, find joy in dancing alone, shrug off the need to plan every aspect of her life, nail a dig at a former flame, and flirt with a guy who has "hella good hair."
It takes a certain type of brilliance to pack all of this into such a brief, concisely-worded song, and even greater brilliance to craft the song in such a way that one perceives it as a ridiculously simple pop song. But if there's anything that's always been apparent about Taylor Swift, it's that she is a genius songwriter. On what one may consider her 'debut pop song,' she employs every trick that she's learned throughout her career in order to drag the world to the dance floor. "Shake It Off" is a tirelessly fun pop song that manages to be effortlessly upbeat, endlessly entertaining, and eternally appealing. Consider it a sign of the song's massive appeal that it is still top 5 on the Hot 100 five months after its debut, and three months after its follow up "Blank Space" was released. "Shake It Off" was dubbed a non-event by ATRL, but it's turning out to be one of the most enduring pop smashes of recent history.
Queen and your write-up 
Both are great!
but it got old very soon 
