The Best of 2014, First Half

     According to the count maintained by Hype Machine, Indie Obsessive contributed 468 songs to their site in the first six months of 2014. Our goal was to envision an audio CD with the best songs from among those 468. Roughly sixteen songs fit on an audio CD, so the task was a difficult one. The difficulty was not to find sixteen songs that belonged, since we quickly identified twenty six. The time sink was in deciding which ten would undeservingly fall off the CD.

Here are the sixteen survivors.

1. “Brother” by The Mispers (for the original post CLICK HERE).

2. “Moosehead” by SPIES (for the original post CLICK HERE).

3. “Leave the Door Open” by NO (for the original post CLICK HERE).

4. “Looking Too Closely” by Fink (for the original post CLICK HERE).

5. “House of Cards” by Holy Holy (for the original post CLICK HERE).

6. “An Ocean in between the Waves” by War on Drugs (for the original post CLICK HERE). This one does not have a Soundcloud version of the studio recording, so here are two live versions.

7. “Leaving Home” by Rigbi (for the original post CLICK HERE). If you like Freelance Whales, you'll enjoy this song.

8. “Trading Cards” by The Mispers (for the original post CLICK HERE). Yes, The Mispers are on this list twice. We’re obsessive. 

9. “Seasons (Waiting On You)” by Future Islands (for the original post CLICK HERE). This song had the advantage in making this list, because of all the songs we’ve seen live in 2014, this was the best performance.

10. “The Station” by The Written Years (for the original post CLICK HERE). 

11. “Blood” by Escapists (for the original post CLICK HERE).

12. “We Never Win” by Whales in Cubicles (for the original post CLICK HERE). Every legitimate list must have at least one anthematic song. Here’s ours. 

13. “Colourblind” by The Fixators (for the original post CLICK HERE). 

14. “Went Wrong” by As Elephants Are (for the original post CLICK HERE).  

15. “Push It” by Duologue (for the original post CLICK HERE).  

16. “Skydive” by Astronauts (for the original post CLICK HERE).