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Scroll Down for What: Taylor Swift, Foo Fighters, Kendrick Lamar and the singles that shook our year
Beyoncé made the best drunken-hookup song ever, DJ Snake and Lil Jon refused to turn down for any reason, Sia swung from the chandeliers and more. Here are the 50 best tracks of the year.
Adam Duritz and Co. come through with an alt-rock burner full of self-deprecating wit.
The alt-country vets get real about what it's like to be a band for 20-plus years in this wry lament.
A gem-like, 1:40 fragment from a rising Philadelphia singer-songwriter that raises the bar for home-recorded pop.
If only all arguments between couples were as breezy and sweet-natured as the one captured on this easygoing folk-rock tune.
Big, bright synths carry the underappreciated British house diva's vocals to the sky as she fantasizes about "a little loving like Valium."
The Brooklyn band ditches romantic indie-pop for something with sharper edges on this spiky plea.
Annie Clark's visionary fourth album peaks with this dreamy space-rocker: "Remember the time we went and snorted/That piece of the Berlin Wall that you'd extorted?"
An ecstatic celebration of pure pop, with a hell of an earworm for a chorus and "ba-ba-ba" backing harmonies that are straight out of Brian Wilson's Sixties sandbox.
The year's sexiest nightmare is full of unsettling synthwork, breathy sighs, hot come-ons ("I can fuck you better than her") and twisted imagery ("Pull out the incisor").
The fantastically frenetic Montreal art-punks slow down for this warped ballad, like the grandkid of the Velvets' "Heroin."
A great band's guns-blazing return to form after nearly a decade apart. Hallelujah!
A furious, exhilarating blast of punk-rock snarl.
Monumentally chronic beat plus extra-slick rhymes.
A barreling groove with a winningly sour narrator.
A garage-pop treat with the perfect ratio of fuzzed distortion and melodic sugar.
These alt-country-loving Swedes sing like true sweethearts of the rodeo.
We haven't loved a trip-hop vibe-out this much since the summer of 1997.
Memories of youth in the Sixties, reflected through decades of lived truth.
Don't even bother trying to resist this hook. It'll be in your head until 2016.
Scream yourself hoarse on the most empowering alt-rock rager Hole never made.
A gently burbling beat and an aching chorus made this 2014's chillest love song.
The country star teams with Little Big Town for this lovely, bittersweet ballad.
Prince turned a jokey Twitter hashtag into a sparkling sex jam. Voilà!
BERLIN, GERMANY - AUGUST 17: American singer and guitarist Thurston Moore performs live during a concert at the Lido on August 17, 2014 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Frank Hoensch/Redferns via Getty Images)
Frank Hoensch/Getty
Seven wordless minutes of pure guitar bliss and blaze, as only Moore can do it.
CAMDEN, NJ - AUGUST 21: Rapper Drake performs Drake Vs Lil Wayne Tour at the Susquehanna Bank Center on August 21, 2014 in Camden, New Jersey. (Photo by Gilbert Carrasquillo/Getty Images)
The year's most bodacious bragfest: six minutes that pan across the whole Drake saga. He even claims he's got as good a jump shot as Steph Curry.
