Look at all the great tracks from this year: Cibo Matto’s (artistically) triumphant return (not to mention Ben Watt’s, and Erasure’s, and Tori Amos’ and even Suzanne Vega’s!), sterling debuts from Betty Who, Lake Street Dive, Alvvays and Sylvan Esso, breakthroughs from Perfume Genius and Owen Pallett, best-songs-yet from Jessie Ware and Lykke Li, a spooky Lana Del Rey gem and even a collaboration from two of my fave artists (The Both = Aimee Mann + Ted Leo) with a leadoff single about my hometown.

However, it’s difficult to predict where an artist’s career will go on the basis of one good song. Future Islands’ monumental, Letterman-impressing leap forward created a template they’d return to again and again (with diminishing results unfortunately, apart from the occasional great single), while slacker extraordinaire Mac DeMarco and Todd Terje (with his splendid Robert Palmer cover aided by an aged Bryan Ferry) have put out little of interest to me since (in the latter’s case, he has barely put out anything, period.) On the other hand, Super Furry Animals frontman Gruff Rhys seemed to crack the code on “American Interior” and his album of the same name while building upon it artfully with each of his subsequent releases, as did Nicole Atkins, whose “Girl You Look Amazing” is catchy fun further deepened by the genre experiments on her next two pretty great albums.

Still, while many of these remain on heavy rotation ten years on at this writing, “Late Bloomer” from Jenny Lewis’ The Voyager endures most convincingly. Clocking in at over five minutes, it’s almost a throwback to classic folk-rock story songs like “Maggie May” or “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” but filtered through Lewis’ delicately puckish demeanor; it also sports a melody so inviting and generous I’m surprised the song isn’t more of a standard a decade later.

2014: Just Some Kid From Boston

1. Future Islands, “Seasons (Waiting On You)”
2. The New Pornographers, “Champions of Red Wine”
3. Betty Who, “Somebody Loves You”
4. Cibo Matto, “10th Floor Ghost Girl”
5. Mac DeMarco, “Salad Days”
6. Gruff Rhys, “American Interior”
7. Perfume Genius, “Queen”
8. Lykke Li, “Gunshot”
9. Lake Street Dive, “Bad Self Portraits”
10. Jill Sobule, “Wedding Ring”
11. Ben Watt, “Forget”
12. St. Vincent, “Digital Witness”
13. Nicole Atkins, “Girl You Look Amazing”
14. Suzanne Vega, “I Never Wear White”
15. Stars, “From The Night”
16. Erasure, “Reason”
17. First Aid Kit, “My Silver Lining”
18. Tori Amos, “Trouble’s Lament”
19. Lana Del Rey, “West Coast”
20. Sylvan Esso, “Coffee”
21. Owen Pallett, “The Riverbed”
22. Leonard Cohen, “Almost Like The Blues”
23. The War On Drugs, “Under The Pressure”
24. Spoon, “Inside Out”
25. Todd Terje with Bryan Ferry, “Johnny and Mary”
26. Alvvays, “Archie, Marry Me”
27. La Roux, “Kiss and Not Tell”
28. Jessie Ware, “Tough Love”
29. Clean Bandit with Jess Glynne, “Rather Be”
30. The Both, “Milwaukee”
31. Broken Bells, “Control”
32. Jenny Lewis, “Late Bloomer”
33. Damon Albarn, “Heavy Seas of Love”
34. Royksopp, “I Had This Thing”
35. Emm Gryner, “End Of Me”