Picking the top songs of the year is always a next to impossible task. Remembering everything you loved, made you groove, made you perk up and take notice, then somehow paring them down to the best of the best and adding rank — it’s, again, next to impossible, particularly given some of this year’s offerings. To acknowledge that insanity, we’ve changed things up a bit. Below you’ll find our Top 25 in no particular order. These were the tracks that really stood out to us this year — the ones we wanted to shout from the rooftops. To broaden the scope a bit, though, we also added a 75 song playlist of everything else that we loved in 2014, from folk to electro and everything in between.

This year saw the release of so many tracks that took our breath away. Established artists like alt-J, St. Vincent and even Taylor Swift all had banner years, each of them soundtracking everything from our morning commutes to workouts (looking at you Taylor Swift). The real gems of the year, though, came from the wealth of new comers who truly blew us away. Sylvan Esso, Glass Animals, FKA Twigs and Yellerkin all released tracks that will be in our libraries for years to come, and have all earned a place on our “must listens” when they release new music. Like the woodsy scene in the album art for this playlist? That was all Sunny Eckerle.