Year-end consensus · Indie & Adult Alternative · two countdowns combined

The best indie rock songs of 2014

Q: What was the top indie rock song of 2014?

Combining 2 year-end radio countdowns, the top indie rock song of 2014 is "Take Me To Church" by Hozier, which appeared on 2 of the lists.

Two radio stations and charts published year-end countdowns for 2014: The Current and WFUV. Combining every list, the top indie rock song of 2014 is “Take Me To Church” by Hozier, which appeared on two of the two countdowns and was voted number one by two of them. Two different songs were voted number one somewhere: “Salad Days” by Mac DeMarco and “Take Me to Church” by Hozier. Hozier was the year’s most-charted artist, with three different songs placing 5 times across the countdowns.

2countdowns

145songs charted

2different #1s

Top 100 songs of 2014

All 145 songs →

Ranked by combined points across every 2014 year-end countdown in this format. How it works.

#	Song	Strength	Lists	Best	#1s
1	Take Me To Church Hozier	200	2	#1	2
2	Digital Witness St. Vincent	187	2	#5	–
3	Left Hand Free Alt J	186	2	#3	–
4	Seasons (Waiting On You) Future Islands	185	2	#4	–
5	Coffee Sylvan Esso	175	2	#10	–
6	Just One of the Guys Jenny Lewis	175	2	#9	–
7	Under the Pressure The War On Drugs	173	2	#3	–
8	Stay Gold First Aid Kit	168	2	#6	–
9	Gimme Something Good Ryan Adams	163	2	#13	–
10	Fall In Love Phantogram	162	2	#12	–
11	Do You Spoon	153	2	#16	–
12	Water Fountain TuneYards	143	2	#10	–
13	Violen Shiver Benjamin Booker	128	2	#15	–
14	Stay with Me Sam Smith	125	2	#22	–
15	Blue Moon Beck	124	2	#11	–
16	Lazaretto Jack White	122	2	#8	–
17	King and Cross Asgeir	122	2	#32	–
18	Gotta Get Away The Black Keys	116	2	#36	–
19	Jackie and Wilson Hozier	109	2	#30	–
20	Hunger Of The Pine Alt J	109	2	#19	–
21	Rainbow Robert Plant	106	2	#40	–
22	Happy Idiot TV on the Radio	105	2	#33	–
23	Red Eyes The War On Drugs	101	2	#42	–
24	You Go Down Smooth Lake Street Dive	99	1	#2	–
25	Let 'Em Say Lizzo and Caroline Smith	99	1	#2	–
26	Gooey Glass Animals	99	2	#13	–
27	Ghost Jeremy Messersmith	98	2	#16	–
28	Avant Gardener Courtney Barnett	97	1	#4	–
29	My Silver Lining First Aid Kit	96	1	#5	–
30	Home (Leave The Lights On) Field Report	94	1	#6	–
31	Brill Bruisers The New Pornographers	94	2	#31	–
32	Rise Up Singing Trigger Hippy	93	1	#7	–
33	It's Only Dancing Jeremy Messersmith	93	1	#7	–
34	West Coast Lana Del Rey	93	2	#21	–
35	Inside Out Spoon	93	2	#26	–
36	New York Morning Elbow	92	1	#8	–
37	Zigzagging Towards The Light Conor Oberst	86	1	#14	–
38	I'm Not The Only One Sam Smith	82	1	#17	–
39	Every Other Freckle Alt J	82	1	#17	–
40	Talking Backwards Real Estate	81	1	#18	–
41	Forever Haim	81	1	#18	–
42	Bad Self Portraits Lake Street Dive	80	1	#19	–
43	Shelter Song Temples	79	2	#34	–
44	Low Key Tweedy	79	1	#20	–
45	Last War Haley Bonar	79	1	#20	–
46	I Don't Want To Change You Damien Rice	78	1	#21	–
47	From Eden Hozier	76	1	#23	–
48	Kansas City The New Basement Tapes	75	2	#29	–
49	After The Disco Broken Bells	74	1	#24	–
50	Waitress Song First Aid Kit	73	1	#25	–
51	I Don't Know You Anymore Bob Mould	72	1	#26	–
52	Taking Chances Sharon Van Etten	71	1	#27	–
53	Fever The Black Keys	71	1	#27	–
54	Dark Sunglasses Chryssie Hynde	70	1	#28	–
55	Heavenly Father Bon Iver	69	1	#29	–
56	.38 Airweight Doomtree	67	1	#30	–
57	She's Not Me Jenny Lewis	66	1	#31	–
58	Dancehall Domine The New Pornographers	66	2	#55	–
59	Make You Better The Decemberists	65	1	#32	–
60	The Line Phish	64	1	#33	–
61	Two Weeks FKA twigs	64	2	#43	–
62	Bored in the USA Father John Misty	63	1	#34	–
63	Back In The World David Gray	62	1	#35	–
64	Dangerous Big Data	62	1	#35	–
65	Batches and Cookies Lizzo	61	1	#36	–
66	Drive-In Movies Ray LaMontagne	60	1	#37	–
67	Take It As It Comes J. Roddy Walston and the Business	60	1	#37	–
68	Supernova Ray LaMontagne	59	1	#38	–
69	Kanye West Atmosphere	58	1	#38	–
70	Champions Of Red Wine The New Pornographers	58	1	#39	–
71	Birth in Reverse St. Vincent	57	1	#39	–
72	Fault Lines Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers	56	1	#41	–
73	Stolen Dance Milky Chance	54	1	#42	–
74	Lonely Press Play Damon Albarn	52	1	#44	–
75	Cigarette Daydreams Cage The Elephant	52	1	#44	–
76	Longer Than You've Been Alive Old 97's	51	1	#45	–
77	Joan of Arc The Arcade Fire	51	1	#45	–
78	Hundreds Of Ways Conor Oberst	50	1	#46	–
79	Girl You Look Amazing Nicole Atkins	49	1	#47	–
80	Call Me St. Paul & The Broken Bones	48	1	#48	–
81	What Doesn't Kill You Jake Bugg	47	1	#48	–
82	Light Will Keep Your Heart Beating In The Future Mike Doughty	47	1	#49	–
83	Shut In Strand Of Oaks	46	1	#50	–
84	Half About Being a Woman Caroline Smith	45	1	#50	–
85	Ex's & Oh's Elle King	44	1	#51	–
86	Milwaukee The Both	43	1	#52	–
87	Are You Behind the Shining Star? Trampled by Turtles	43	1	#52	–
88	Black and White Parquet Courts	42	1	#53	–
89	Morning Song Avett Brothers	40	1	#54	–
90	So Now What The Shins	40	1	#55	–
91	Salad Days Mac DeMarco	39	2	#57	–
92	Divisionary (Do The Right Thing) Ages & Ages	39	1	#56	–
93	Little Grace Hippo Campus	38	1	#56	–
94	Yellow Flicker Beat Lorde	37	1	#57	–
95	Destination Nickel Creek	37	1	#58	–
96	Colorado Chastity Brown	36	1	#58	–
97	Above The Clouds Of Pompeii Bear's Den	36	1	#59	–
98	Holding On For Life Broken Bells	34	1	#60	–
99	Pickles from the Jar Courtney Barnett	34	1	#60	–
100	Slow Motion PHOX	34	2	#72	–

Every station’s number one of 2014

Station	Number one song	Countdown
The Current	Salad Days Mac DeMarco	The Current Top 89 Songs of 2014
WFUV	Take Me to Church Hozier	WFUV Top 90 Songs of 2014

All 2014 countdowns in this ranking

About the 2014 ranking

Radio stations count down their listeners’ favorite songs at the end of every year. Each station’s list reflects its own audience, so a song that ruled Los Angeles could miss the top ten in Chicago. To find the songs that defined 2014 everywhere, RockLists gives every appearance percentile-based points (a number one earns 100, the last position earns close to zero) and adds them up across all two qualifying countdowns. Each radio format is ranked separately, so classic rock and hard rock countdowns never shift the indie & aaa results; use the tabs above to switch formats. Read the full methodology.