2014 Is Dying

Another year gone, and what a grand one it has been. Personally, it has been one of the best yet. But at the end of the day, a year is just a number, right?

• Favorite month: August
• Least favorite month: March

Here is the list of my top 3 favorite songs produced this year, and my top three that I discovered

Produced in 2014

1. Foster The People - A Beginner's Guide to Destroying the Moon

I wasn't expecting Foster The People's sophomore record to build on their success. I wasn't expecting it to be psychedelic, and I certainly wasn't expecting it to become the omnipresent background music of so many days. But it was, and it is. People have always known Mark Foster as a talented singer, which in of itself is not incredible. When you're born with it, it's there. Yet in 2014, he continued to establish himself as a world-class songwriter and as an artist. In 2014, Supermodel undoubtedly began to define some moments as much as the moments themselves. One of the reasons I say this is because there are probably other songs from the record that would have made #2 and #3 on this list, but that wouldn't be as much fun. So ultimately I decided to pick one, my personal favorite from the work as a whole.

The opening line from the grand finale of the track, "You'll never be whole until you lose control" is easy enough to analyze. Destroy your yearning for impossible answers, impossible lives, for more stuff, for more everything. Virtually everyone's lives are available for show, often glamorized and tweaked to reveal the important things, but not everything. But what I think everyone should keep in mind is that looks can be deceiving, and perhaps the best lives are the ones lived free from validation of a view or a like. If the first step in becoming happy is letting go of the demons that bring you down, the second must be a thorough acceptance with what you have and what you can't control.

So here it is, a beginner's guide to destroying an endless cycle of dissatisfaction. A beginner's guide to destroying the moon.

2. Coldplay - A Sky Full of Stars

Now, I know what you're thinking. I don't care how overplayed, underplayed, overproduced, underproduced this hugely popular single is, it breaths beauty into a realm that's starving for a even hint of it. It's not a complex song. I wouldn't be surprised if they wrote it in just a few minutes. And at first, I hated the direction the song took after such a brilliant riff. After all, it's basically that one piano riff continuously glorified and unglorified over Chris Martin's voice. It's one of those songs you don't want to like, but you do anyways.

These are the things it is not. But they are heavily trumped in the face of what it is. First off, there's no denying how captivating it is from the start. But what carries it to the end is the sincerity of Martin's vocals combined with the lighthearted composition. Beauty, like love, is difficult to describe, and yet you know when it's there. Describing something is often done best by comparing it to something else, and what better comparison is there than comparing it to the most beautiful wonder in the universe: the night sky.

When I find a song I like, and I mean really like, I prefer to have it my head the entire day. I listen on repeat, put it in my active playlists, and make it apart of my world. But for one song in 2014, I didn't have to do that so much. With A Sky Full of Stars, the radio did it for me. And unlike the other pop songs dismissing the lasting beauty of a sunset or sky full of stars, it never got old.

3. The Black Keys - Weight of Love

And I was under the impression that they stopped making guitar solos like this back in the 70's and 80's. Clearly, The Black Keys were born in the wrong generation, but this makes me happy - not only because they get to be featured on this list, but also because we will be able to enjoy them for years to come.

Discovered in 2014

1. Coldplay - Every Teardrop is A Waterfall

It might not be fair to put this song on the list, because I probably have heard it before this year. I was amazed to see how many views it has on youtube, and I really can't believe I haven't given it a thought before this past summer. June it was, and I decide to go with my mother to the library at the intersection of Como and Carter Ave. In the CD section I find both Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends and Mylo Xyloto. It didn't rain at all that day.

My almost daily rollerblade around the lake throughout summertime comes to mind when this track comes on. "Shut the world outside" and go. Rollerblading, biking, running to music are all powerful in their own ways because suddenly the world becomes your music video. Suddenly, you don't feel like time is an entity out of your control; the world stops and goes to your rhythm.

It's easy to like this song, as long as you don't think about it too hard. Close your eyes and let the music take you away. When it's over, open them. Then ask yourself if you like what you see. I certainly do.

2. M83 - Graveyard Girl

Seriously, how did I let this one fall through the cracks? I thought I had nearly every M83 song there is to offer. and then this one comes along. If you know me at all, surely you know that I have an unhealthy love for a certain album of their's released in 2011. Now that I have their entire catalog, this has easily become my favorite track not from said album.

Never before has someone so dark been described so sweetly. Graveyard Girl, I understand you're "waiting for someone to love you, waiting for someone to kiss you." I understand you're "15 years old and already feel it's too late to live." Maybe you don't miss any living person, only the dead. And yet I begin to miss you the moment you fade. Graveyard girl, I can't help my love for you.

3. Phoenix - Bourgeois

It's been about 11 months since discovering this gem from Bankrupt!, so some of the early reactions may have been forgotten. Although it's not quite my favorite from the album, it's a close second (sorry Entertainment, I found you last year).

Forget about education. Your children don't need to learn how to read! It just takes one listen to the chorus of Bourgeois to get hooked on Phoenix.

Daft Punk

Step into the Human After All elevator and push level (track) 5. Once there, you will not come across the typical Daft Punk style. You won't be getting out of your seat to dance, but you may lie in bed awake, dreaming vividly of a world unlike your own. Slowly then, the melodic robots begin serenading you to sleep. The final product results in elevator music on performance-enhancing psychedelic drugs.

And I must say, there is something quite admirable about the way Daft Punk conduct themselves. In particular, Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel De Homem-Christo strive for anonymity, and let the music speak for itself. It's something we could all learn from in today's age. Let actions and accomplishments do the talking. And once you begin to do extraordinary things alone, extraordinary people will follow.

There is an allusion to this attitude in their more recent track, Beyond:


"The perfect song is framed with silence
It speaks of places never seen
Your home's a promise long forgotten
It is the birthplace of your dreams"

Never before has something so synthetic sounded so genuine and sincere.

Between Point A and Point B

When I tell people I fly airplanes, a good majority of them respond with the same two questions. They are something along the lines of:

1. "Do you fly those jumbo jets?"

And

2. "Do you ever do loopty loops?"

Well, after today I can confidently say yes to one of those questions. I performed a loop, amongst other aerobatic maneuvers. My flight instructor and I took the Super Decathlon up at about 1 pm on a particularly mild December day here in Grand Forks. And by particularity mild I mean 21°F. I don't really consider Grand Forks a "city" but if you were to do so it is known as the second coldest city in America (behind only Fairbanks, Alaska).

Anyways, we performed a series of power off and power on stalls, along with loops, rolls and spins. We also flew inverted for a bit, though it was not nearly as chaotic or hyper-unrealistic as the scene in Flight. I felt sick after the spins, but other than that it was a fun time.

And above all, we didn't die.

The End

The beginning of something new is always accompanied by the end of something else, even if that something else was simply an absence of the new beginning. When you fall asleep, it marks the end period of consciousness. It is not a complete shutdown. Rather, it is the dawn of your alternate, abstract world. And this cycle gets to repeat everyday. Falling asleep is the ending of one life, and introduction of another.

So here it is, the outset of Subconscious Playground. As a platform it was created in lieu of other domains that promote unoriginal thinking, such as tumblr.com, the internet's finest source of recycled ideas. It is easier to reiterate other notions that represent your own than to express them personally. In this process creativity is lost. And no, I don't want to be re-blogged and treated like a statistic.

Now then, I invite you to create something of your own. Whatever it may be, shy away from cookie-cutter presentations if they're inhibiting you. Stop letting the world cheapen all your ideas to a character limit. Photographs are typically rectangles meant to freeze a scene in time, not squares meant to accumulate virtual hearts. And when it is finished, when it is finally there, don't let the amount of approval it garnishes define your self worth.

The old adage "follow your dreams" has truth to it. But to do so the challenge lies in staying asleep long enough.