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

The best indie rock songs of 2014

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

Combining 9 year-end radio countdowns, the top indie rock song of 2014 is "Take Me To Church" by Hozier, which appeared on 9 of the lists.

Nine radio stations and charts published year-end countdowns for 2014: 107.1 The Peak, 92.3 WTTS, Exit 97.7, Lightning 100, The Current, WFUV, WRNR 103.1, WTMD and WXPN. Combining every list, the top indie rock song of 2014 is “Take Me To Church” by Hozier, which appeared on nine of the nine countdowns and was voted number one by seven of them. Five different songs were voted number one somewhere: “Take Me To Church” by Hozier (5 stations), “Flaws” by Bastille, “Alone in My Home” by Jack White, “Salad Days” by Mac DeMarco and “The Avant Gardener” by Courtney Barnett. Hozier was the year’s most-charted artist, with six different songs placing 23 times across the countdowns.

9countdowns

450songs charted

5different #1s

Top 100 songs of 2014

All 450 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	874	9	#1	7
2	Gimme Something Good Ryan Adams	724	9	#7	–
3	Blue Moon Beck	684	9	#6	–
4	Do You Spoon	655	8	#4	–
5	Stay with Me Sam Smith	648	8	#3	–
6	Left Hand Free Alt J	595	7	#3	–
7	Fever The Black Keys	528	7	#3	–
8	Stolen Dance Milky Chance	511	6	#5	–
9	Supernova Ray LaMontagne	509	8	#3	–
10	Gotta Get Away The Black Keys	497	9	#15	–
11	From Eden Hozier	487	7	#10	–
12	Call Me St. Paul & The Broken Bones	479	7	#4	–
13	Rainbow Robert Plant	460	9	#31	–
14	Southern Sun Boy & Bear	454	6	#2	–
15	Just One of the Guys Jenny Lewis	451	6	#9	–
16	Riptide Vance Joy	451	6	#1	1
17	Digital Witness St. Vincent	441	5	#5	–
18	My Silver Lining First Aid Kit	440	5	#5	–
19	Coffee Sylvan Esso	429	5	#5	–
20	Lazaretto Jack White	426	6	#8	–
21	Back In The World David Gray	423	7	#17	–
22	Seasons (Waiting On You) Future Islands	412	5	#2	–
23	Bad Self Portraits Lake Street Dive	411	5	#6	–
24	I'm Not The Only One Sam Smith	395	6	#8	–
25	West Coast Lana Del Rey	391	7	#21	–
26	Red Eyes The War On Drugs	382	6	#19	–
27	Come With Me Now Kongos	359	4	#2	–
28	Fall In Love Phantogram	357	6	#12	–
29	Violen Shiver Benjamin Booker	354	6	#15	–
30	Make You Better The Decemberists	349	5	#4	–
31	Budapest George Ezra	347	6	#11	–
32	Under the Pressure The War On Drugs	343	4	#2	–
33	Kansas City The New Basement Tapes	341	6	#19	–
34	Do I Wanna Know Arctic Monkeys	339	4	#7	–
35	Happy Idiot TV on the Radio	329	6	#26	–
36	King and Cross Asgeir	329	5	#9	–
37	A Sky Full Of Stars Coldplay	328	5	#16	–
38	You Go Down Smooth Lake Street Dive	323	4	#2	–
39	I Don't Want To Change You Damien Rice	316	5	#21	–
40	U Get Me High Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers	314	5	#5	–
41	Dearly Departed Shakey Graves	312	5	#4	–
42	Let Me Down Easy Paolo Nutini	310	5	#6	–
43	Scarecrow Counting Crows	309	7	#23	–
44	Thunder Clatter Wild Cub	299	6	#3	–
45	Rise Up Singing Trigger Hippy	299	4	#7	–
46	Girls Chase Boys Ingrid Michaelson	298	4	#6	–
47	Destination Nickel Creek	297	4	#2	–
48	Another Story The Head and the Heart	294	4	#5	–
49	Shelter Song Temples	289	6	#32	–
50	Inside Out Spoon	287	5	#26	–
51	Drive-In Movies Ray LaMontagne	279	5	#25	–
52	Brill Bruisers The New Pornographers	269	5	#31	–
53	Light Will Keep Your Heart Beating In The Future Mike Doughty	258	5	#13	–
54	Water Fountain TuneYards	250	4	#10	–
55	The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone) U2	250	4	#16	–
56	Cigarette Daydreams Cage The Elephant	249	5	#24	–
57	Coming Of Age Foster The People	249	6	#8	–
58	Avant Gardener Courtney Barnett	247	3	#3	–
59	Magic Coldplay	246	4	#25	–
60	Jackie and Wilson Hozier	238	4	#30	–
61	Low Key Tweedy	223	4	#20	–
62	Just One Drink Jack White	220	6	#20	–
63	Sweet Amarillo Old Crow Medicine Show	220	4	#15	–
64	Holding On For Life Broken Bells	220	5	#21	–
65	The Walker Fitz and the Tantrums	219	3	#10	–
66	Dangerous Big Data	204	4	#25	–
67	Stay Gold First Aid Kit	199	3	#6	–
68	Ghost Jeremy Messersmith	199	6	#16	–
69	Home (Leave The Lights On) Field Report	189	2	#6	–
70	Something From Nothing Foo Fighters	189	3	#12	–
71	Dark Sunglasses Chrissie Hynde	183	6	#33	–
72	Happy Pharrell Williams	177	2	#8	–
73	Heart Is a Drum Beck	176	4	#33	–
74	Yellow Flicker Beat Lorde	171	3	#9	–
75	Then Came the Morning Lone Bellow	170	5	#51	–
76	Zigzagging Towards The Light Conor Oberst	170	2	#14	–
77	Ex's & Oh's Elle King	169	3	#37	–
78	Bad Blood Bastille	166	2	#12	–
79	On Top of the World Imagine Dragons	166	3	#28	–
80	Right Time Nikki Lane	163	2	#4	–
81	Cardiac Arrest Bad Suns	161	4	#19	–
82	Burning Bridges Lucinda Williams	161	2	#19	–
83	Half Crazy Barr Brothers	159	2	#8	–
84	Invisible U2	159	4	#33	–
85	Love Don't Die The Fray	158	3	#11	–
86	Forgotten Man Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers	158	3	#31	–
87	Hunger Of The Pine Alt J	155	3	#19	–
88	She's The One Ray LaMontagne	153	3	#36	–
89	Every Breaking Wave U2	153	4	#36	–
90	Longer Than You've Been Alive Old 97's	149	2	#5	–
91	Night Like This LP	148	2	#22	–
92	Birth in Reverse St. Vincent	146	3	#39	–
93	Washing Dishes Jack Johnson	145	3	#11	–
94	The Devil is All Around Shovels and Rope	144	2	#24	–
95	Taking Chances Sharon Van Etten	141	3	#27	–
96	New York Morning Elbow	138	3	#8	–
97	Let's Be Still The Head and the Heart	136	3	#36	–
98	Me and You Jake Bugg	135	4	#40	–
99	She's Not Me Jenny Lewis	134	2	#31	–
100	Girl You Look Amazing Nicole Atkins	133	2	#33	–

Every station’s number one of 2014

Station	Number one song	Countdown
107.1 The Peak	Take Me To Church Hozier	WXPK Top 107 Songs of 2014
92.3 WTTS	Flaws Bastille	WTTS Top 50 Songs of 2014
Exit 97.7	Take Me To Church Hozier	WEXT Top 97 of 2014
Lightning 100	Alone in My Home Jack White	Lightning 100 Top 100 Songs of 2014
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
WRNR 103.1	Take me to Church Hozier	WRNR Top 103.1 Songs of 2014
WTMD	The Avant Gardener Courtney Barnett	WTMD Top 89 Songs of 2014
WXPN	Take Me To Church Hozier	WXPN Year in Review: Top 200 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 nine 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.