McQ's Best Of 2014 Volume 2 - Nancy's Favorites!

1. Busy Earnin' - Jungle
2. Keep On Shining - Curtis Harding
3. i - Kendrick Lamar
4. You'll Be Lonely - Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings
5. Put The Gun Down - ZZ Ward
6. A Feather's Not A Bird - Rosanne Cash
7. Kansas City - from The New Basement Tapes
8. Can't Pretend - Tom Odell
9. Another Night - The Men
10. It Gets Better - The Preatures
11. Brighter End Of Dark - De Lux
12. Settle Me Down - The Men
13. Shut In - Strand Of Oaks
14. Eyes To The Wind - The War On Drugs
15. Seasons (Waiting On You) - Future Islands
16. Really Love - D'Angelo & The Vanguard
17. Tough Love - Jessie Ware
18. Every Time The Sun Comes Up - Sharon Van Etten
19. Long Way Down - Tom Odell

Track List / Printable Mix & Year End Summary / Spotify /
McQ's Best Albums Of 2014

Nancy's Favorites 2013
Nancy's Favorites 2012
Nancy's Favorites 2011
Nancy's Favorites 2010
Nancy's Favorites 2009
Nancy's Favorites 2008
Nancy's Favorites 2007

About The Albums/Songs On Nancy's Mix:

Nancy kicks off her mix with a four-pronged funk infusion, beginning with UK DJ act Jungle’s Busy Earnin’, one of 2014’s best retro-soul numbers, and following that up with Kendrick Lamar’s i, the phenomenal lead single that preceded the release of his blockbuster 2015 hip-hop album To Pimp A Butterfly.  Versatile R&B vocalist and frequent Cee Lo Green collaborator Curtis Harding keeps the groove going with Keep On Shining, and Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings close this booty-rific mini-suite out with You’ll Be Lonely, the first of two Dap Kings tracks included in this year’s collection from Give The People What The Want (Spotify / Amazon / iTunes), Sharon's fine return to Motown/Stax form  following a serious bout with cancer.

Several Coachella Starters thefts also appear on Nancy’s mix, including the Adele-channeling ZZ Ward's single Put The Gun Down, Sydney, Australia-based The Preature’s lively It Gets Better, and multiple tracks from young British balladeer Tom Odell – who also closes my Volume 8 – Layin’ It Bare. 

Also making an appearance this year are Nancy’s Favorites regular Rosanne Cash with the bluesy A Feather’s Not A Bird, LA-based post disco act De Lux with Brighter End Of Dark, one of two songs in this mix collection from their Rapture/LCD Soundsystem/Little Creatures-era Talking Heads inspired LP Voyage (Spotify / Amazon / iTunes), and British electro-soul chanteuse Jessie Ware’s Sade-ish Tough Love.   

The biggest surprise amongst Nancy’s selections is how she went with not just one but two tracks - the raucous Another Night, and the deliciously lazy Settle Me Down - from noise rockers The Men’s foray into Springsteenland, Tomorrow’s Hits (Spotify / Amazon / iTunes).  Another cut, Pearly Gates, the album’s rowdiest track, appears on Volume 7 – Just Slack The F Off! 

Also playing to the Dad Rock crowd on Nancy’s mix are Marcus Mumford and My Morning Jacket’s Jim James with Kansas City, one of their contributions to the Dylan tribute Lost On The River - The New Basement Tapes (Spotify / Amazon / iTunes).

As to some of my favorite 2014 acts that Nancy is also championing, she has logically selected Future Islands’ Seasons (Waiting On You), 2014's aggregate critical consensus song of the year, from the band's breakthrough album Singles (Spotify / Amazon / iTunes).  Remarkably, even though the album opens with Seasons, there’s never a noticeable drop off after that point. Every song on the album is a quirky, hooky, soul-searching little gem.

Like me, Nancy also fell in love with The War On Drugs revisionist classic rock work Lost In The Dream (Spotify / Amazon / iTunes).  Not surprising, given her deep-rooted affection for Blood On The Tracks, she went with the album's most Dylanesque track, the beautiful Eyes To The Wind.

As stated earlier with Volume 1,  Strand Of Oaks Heal (Spotify / Amazon / iTunes)  was 2014’s out-of-nowhere surprise, and here Nancy spotlights its centerpiece track, the heartbreaking and yet simultaneously uplifting Shut In.

Finally, Nancy calls attention to Sharon Van Etten’s Are We There (Spotify / Amazon / iTunes), another moving, deeply felt addition to the singer-songwriter’s increasingly impressive catalog, by winding things down with the album's leisurely closing track Every Time The Sun Comes Up.