UK No 1s of 2014

also i have no idea what the chart rules even are any more

- "timber" was this year?! it feels like half a decade ago
- as does the period when the british commercial house revival wasn't whitebread shit
- so many bland white ppl in this list
- jessie j managing to score ariana and nicki features is the biggest pop mystery of 2014

"hideaway" is the clear best for me, i like several others but mostly in a lowkey wouldn't=change-the-channel way

hideaway & timber so far ahead of everything else i've heard on this list

The ones that still register as functional pop songs: Rather Be, I Got U, Hideaway, Waves, I Will Never Let You Down, Sing (sorry), Rude, Am I Wrong. Some of these I only digest when stuck on airplanes. Haven't decided what to vote for.

god "Salute" wd've smashed all these

Can't believe someone known as 'The Prick' got to #1...

radio 1 removed "the prick" from their name; the label even came up with alternative cover art just for radio 1 plays

i have heard all of these :/

favourites:

hideaway
my love
i got u
uptown funk
rather be
timber

in no particular order. much fiercer competition for actively worst song here imo, "summer" croaked by calvin harris partic bad, though paloma faith's newfound yarl and tinie tempah's "yeeah!!" on tsunami both come really close for sheer vocal irritation. "nobody to love" a contender right up there with "happy" for most repressively inescapable, "it's my birthday" possibly the most brutally offensive among a crowded field, "bang bang" totally redeemed by this shreds video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlPsybmaNmA

i'm going with "lovers on the sun" as the most strenuously, thoroughly bad of this bunch

i like all of "Bang Bang" except the Jessie J bits

i have no idea what the chart rules even are any more

it's sales plus streams from a handful of streaming sites (Spotify, Deezer, Napster, O2 Tracks, Xbox Music, Sony's Music Unlimited and rara). 100 streams = 1 sale.

'All About That Bass', just cuz.

I haven't been following the charts recently, I don't know a lot of the music from September onwards. Though it's gratifying to know I managed to avoid things that read "Gareth Malone's All Star Choir".
The two Jess Glynne songs might be my favourites

Pharrell Williams - Happy
Clean Bandit ft. Jess Glynne - Rather Be
Sam Smith - Money On My Mind
Route 94 ft. Jess Glynne - My Love
Sam Smith - Stay With Me
SecondCity - I Wanna Feel
Ed Sheeran - Sing
Kiesza - Hideaway
Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars - Uptown Funk

prob one of these. im sure ive heard more of this list than i (want to) recall. as much bland white pop as there has been this year, that aloe blacc one reminds theres been quite a lot of bland black pop too. have to admit that though i am opposed to ed sheeran on principle (and would also like him to make a bit of effort just for once with his wardrobe), but that new one of his is burnt into my skull. and ive only heard it a few times. am expecting it to be in several rom coms. in fact im expecting some rom coms to be comissioned just so they can use it.

haha i always start involuntarily singing "the one who'll be with you" by mr. big when it comes on, chairs up on tables, a lone barkeep sweeping up, one lone spot still lighting the stage upon which mr sheeran just can't help playing one more song, a lil thing he's been working on that is still too raw, too emotional to share with a live audience

massively long tracks encircling the humble stage, obv, around which HD cameras endlessly dolly

you should watch him doing it on the xmas TOTP

its like hes trying to suppress a massive (possibly shit eating, though not sure) grin every few seconds in case it ruins the heartfelt personal-ness of the lyrics

still cant bring myself to enjoy jessie j though i think my resistance towards her might be softening.

Lol @ Jessie J face upthread.

Sheeran is dressed up to the...eights in his latest vid.

"I Will Never Let You Down", followed by "My Love".

yeah i immediately voted for "i will never let you down" but that was my favorite song this year

Cheryl Cole ft. Tinie Tempah - Crazy Stupid Love

^ this was pretty original without being at all good in any way

Gareth Malone's All Star Choir - Wake Me Up

^ i know this was a charity thing but this thing is so very horrific, that guy should be sent out on a frozen lake carrying an anvil

Avicii feat. Robbie Williams' "The Days" > Take That's "These Days"

the other song that springs unbidden to mind every. goddamn. time i hear "thinking out loud", is after he goes "people fall in love in mysterious ways, maybe just the touch of a hand -" in MY HEAD it's screaming "you-hoo oo-o--ooh - you may say that i'm a dreamer! ... but i'm not the only one!"

There was a game little run early in the year but good grief the early 10s landfill brutally reasserted itself after that.

lousy year for number 1s, great year for the Top 10/20. twas ever thus iirc.

huh i had no idea the follow-up to "uptown funk" is a collab with...mystikal

should i await thinkpieces or has everyone forgotten or is mark ronson beyond criticism

i am baffled by the consensus that "i will never let you down" is somehow better or any different from rita ora's usual standard

imo it's more nuanced and subtle than her standard and the synths in the chorus are extremely powerful

not expecting to convince anyone though as a more nuanced and subtle rita ora is still neither nuanced or subtle exactly

There's a handful of songs I like here but "Hideaway" is the only one I love.

"i will never let you down" is a jam, it's just a really great calvin harris joint

Great but 2013 holdovers: Happy, Timber

Great: Rather Be (voted for, as it came on the radio this morning and I realised I've underrated it), Problem, Crazy Stupid Love

Good: All About That Bass, Am I Wrong, Bang Bang (and possibly Uptown Funk but I've only heard it once and it all felt carefully calculated to please)

The rest suck or I've not heard/forgotten what they sound like.

i would love crazy stupid love so much more if it were someone else doing it

my last thought re: thinking out loud: i would kill to see richard marx covering this

rita ora is my answer. that'll be in my ilx ballot

I love Rita Ora and idg the amount of hate thrown her way, but whatever.

Heard "Hideaway" in a store today and had restrain myself from reenacting the video.

can anyone who follows rita ora more closely than i shed some light on why a 2nd single was never released last year (partic given the success of "black widow")?

I've heard all of these except Gareth Malone and Haenow. I voted Rather Be.
Initially I loved its verses but thought the chorus didn't work with them, but after a year of hearing it a lot I love the whole thing now.

Worst is It's My Birthday, although maybe just because Rude took so long to get here it had lost some of its sting by the time I had to hear it regularly.

Of the ones I've heard, Hideaway easy. But I haven't heard that many of them.

I love Rita Ora and idg the amount of hate thrown her way

i don't "hate" her but she has no discernible artistic style or impact on the songs she sings

My favourites: Rather Be, I Got U, Hideaway, Waves, Sing, Ghost, Prayer In C, I Don't Care, Uptown Funk. Six months ago, I'd have added Happy, but over-exposure has taken its toll.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

can anyone who follows rita ora more closely than i shed some light on why a 2nd single was never released last year (partic given the success of "black widow")?

― uxorious gazumping (monotony), Sunday, January 4, 2015 2:37 AM (16 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The widely reported story is that a falling out between her and her then-boyfriend Calvin Harris lead to him withdrawing every song he had written and produced for her album, which caused her to start from scratch, hence there being no follow-up.

She also said about a month or so ago that she'd reveal her next single if she got 100,000 retweets on twitter. She got nowhere near that many, went on to claim she was hacked and then never spoke of it or the single again.

The widely reported story is that a falling out between her and her then-boyfriend Calvin Harris lead to him withdrawing every song he had written and produced for her album

for this she deserves some kind of award

lol

She also said about a month or so ago that she'd reveal her next single if she got 100,000 retweets on twitter. She got nowhere near that many, went on to claim she was hacked and then never spoke of it or the single again.

Lmbo

The widely reported story is that a falling out between her and her then-boyfriend Calvin Harris lead to him withdrawing every song he had written and produced for her album

amazing, i guessed their acrimonious break-up had something to do with this but if the net result is both fewer calvin harris songs and fewer rita ora songs at large then it's a win for the world

nb it would be as hard to hate rita ora as it would be to love her because there is nothing there, several years on, apart from "rihanna understudy". this isn't why "i will never let you down" isn't great though, obv anonymous singers can put their voices to a jam, it's bc calvin harris productions still sound cheap and shitty no matter how much stockholm syndrome pop fans have

"rather be" duh

Don't be too happy, he's just giving them to other pop artists/keeping them for himself instead of Rita Ora.

I really like her first album, and the fact that it's so clumsy makes it even more endearing imo.

Her next album is called Ora Borealis

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Meghan Trainor - All About That Bass 5

the uk no 1 polls lend themselves so well to trolling (but every year even the trolling votes get split)

I'm having to sing All About That Bass and Happy in our upcoming town panto. Nine performances. Feel my pain.

Surprised no one voted for "Problem".

delighted that the attempts to instantly canonize "Problem" as the year's "Call Me Maybe" or something totally crashed and burned

okay but also 5 people voted for "all about that bass" so there was a high price to pay there.

i don't think the troll votes for trainor really affected "problem"

Elephant in the room here is Cheryl 's I Don't Care which is brilliant.

prefer Crazy Stupid Love tbh, at least it has that skronky sax bit

I Don't Care has a great chorus and that "waking up diagonally" line but it's far too long for what it does

"problem" sucks. the person who writes ariana's verses should write the other parts too.

secondcity - "i wanna feel" is kind of a jam