Usually my December charts consist of songs from the year that I discovered via various year-end best-of lists. This year, however, I’ve been terribly behind in catching up with those — so most of these are pretty new songs from the fall and winter. Also: expect some more chart-related goodness coming soon: My Music 2014 post as well as my favorite chart — the “redos” (where I take a track from each month and choose a better version/remix instead). In the meantime, enjoy this!

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I gotta admit, this November 2014 chart had a lot to live up to. My November 2013 chart is one of my favorites. Thankfully, I’m happy to report that this month’s chart meets the challenge. Also be sure to check out the YouTube videos below. There are some great videos this month — specifically Little Boots and Röyksopp (the image above is from “Skulls”). Enjoy!

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Another month of music that I’m really excited about. Of course there are some old standbys (will Nancy Whang ever do something I don’t love? This chart includes her cover of Kiss’s “I Was Made for Loving You” and a song from the new Juan MacLean album In a Dream), but also some new faces. I’ll hesitantly apologize in advance for including Ariana Grande but I gotta admit: I really love her new album and I considered between three of her songs for this chart. Enjoy!

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August is one of my least favorite months of the year (sorry — but fwiw it’s opposite my favorite month [February] so there’s maybe some sort of symmetry going on?). Anyway, in light of that fact I’m not terribly enthusiastic about this chart. Not that I dislike the songs or anything (actually, some of them are great — and overall this chart has some real excellent stuff), but I think due to this summer malaise I just can’t get as into it. Eight songs is pretty short, two of the songs featured are remakes of previous versions (“Afterlife” remixed by Flume and “Insecptor Norse” pumped up with Little Boots’ vocals). And to make matters worse, there were a few songs that weren’t on SoundCloud or YouTube so you can’t even check out everything in one place. Let’s aim for a better September…

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The theme of this month’s chart is déjà vu: many of the artists featured in this month’s chart were also featured in last month’s chart, Boys Noize remixed Depeche Mode again, Röyksopp & Robyn appear twice (oh, and they were in last month’s chart, too), and I let go of any standards and even included a song that was on a chart over 3 years ago (can ya guess which song?) because I love it so much. So yah, this chart might feel very familiar in some ways but still awesome all around.

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For whatever reasons, it turns out that my May charts tend to be pretty awesome (I’d post links to previous ones, but the many of the SoundCloud files are gone so you can’t tell what the song was… just wait until I write my fancy database-driven charts feature — which I’m sure will happen someday?). Great way to kick off the summer, right? Bonus points for every one of these songs being available on SoundCloud and YouTube (though three are sort of pseudo-videos)!

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Somehow I only ended up with 9 amazing tracks for April — but not to fear, I always focus on quality over quantity. If there is anything to be disappointed about in this chart it’s that there are so many familiar names — artists and remixers who frequently show up on my lists: Nancy Whang, Pharrell Williams, Kylie Minogue, Bloody Beetroots, Galantis, Copycat. But I can’t help it. Especially with Pharrell — I’m seriously considering upgrading “Marilyn Monroe” to a 5-star song! (PS: Sorry about the lack of redesign… still trying to figure out the best look and feel!)

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Of course just in time for me to fly to Minnesota to visit my family there is a winter storm. How about my March 2014 chart to get me through it? A lot of songs again and a couple of them are almost 5-star songs (Tensnake’s “Love Sublime” and Le Youth’s “Dance With Me”). Stay warm, stay snow-free, and enjoy! (Oh yeah, and this is the second month of me trying a new format… it’s still not final…)

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