The Top 100 Local Songs of 2014.

Seryn Refuses To Disappear At No. 4.

Just as we have at the end of the last two years, the Central Track staff has once again spent the last week reminiscing and pouring pretty tirelessly over the best locally-tied songs of the year. By now, of course, most folks expect as much from their local culture publications. Unlike in previous years, though, we've decided to do things a little differently in 2014. For one, the influx of notable tunes this year prompted us to double the length of our list — from the Top 50 to the Top 100 local songs of the year. At the same time, we didn't want to overwhelm our readers with a huge list of 100 tracks to take in all once, either. To that end, we're going to roll the thing out in daily chunks, unveiling more songs every weekday through the end of the month. It should serve to make the thing a little easier to digest — and give you time to check out the embedded streams of anything you might have missed throughout the course of the year. Really, though, you should give each of these songs a spin. They all deserve at least that much.

Here's a pretty shocking fact to take into consideration when contemplating Seryn: For all of the band's successes, for all of its fans and critics alike, for all of the opinions that are out there, already existing about this Denton-sprung outfit, the band has only released a single full-length album unto the world.

That would be 2011's This Is Where We Are, an album that immediately thrust the band into the regional spotlight, and, thanks to its intricately arranged and beautifully performed brand of folk-rock, quite rightfully so.

SEE ALSO:
• THE TOP 50 LOCAL SONGS OF 2013. // The Official Central Track Staff List.
• THE TOP 50 LOCAL SONGS OF 2012. // The Official Central Track Staff List.

Since that release, the band's mostly slipped into a holding pattern, at least so far as follow-up album releases have gone. Of course, on the whole, the band has hardly been stagnant: Last summer, the band released a new single; around that same time, the band made it known that a documentary on its processes was too in the works; along the way, there've been numerous tours and festival appearances; and, most recently, the band made it known that it would be taking its talents to Nashville where it can really give this whole music thing a proper go.

But, for all of these actions, none of the band's recent moves display a more powerful a statement of the band's staying power than its lone 2014-released single, a song perhaps a little ironically called “Disappear” as it serves rather specifically to remind everyone of this band's prowess.

From the moment the track kicks off with its reverberated guitar introduction, the cast is set: This, folks, is a newer, louder, and more invigorated Seryn than we're used to hearing.

“Lately, I've been burning much too slow,” frontman Trenton Wheeler sings as the song approaches its two-minute mark, and perhaps he's right: Even for a band as in love with the build as Seryn so clearly is, “Disappear” is about as aesthetically raucous as Seryn's flashed to this point. It's a refreshing change of pace, to be sure.

But it's hardly the crux of what makes this track such a winner. That bit comes about 30 seconds later, when the song unleashes its real secret weapon, the vocals of newish band member Jenny Moscoso, whose voice just meshes impossibly well with Wheeler's. The interplay of their voices here are enough to melt any he-said-she-said vocal fans to mush.

These elements combine to showcase a somehow even more endearing side of Seryn — something that the band's more-vocal critics (hating something for being too likable must be a rough lot in life) might not have previously thought a possibility. Fortunately, Seryn, now as ever, continues to march to its own drum — or multiple drums, as is so often the case in live settings.

“You and I will be OK,” Wheeler sings early on in the song, reassuringly. And, heard in the context of a sweeping, uplifting song like this, it's tough to argue to the contrary.

It's better, still, to just nod along in agreement with his assessment, and to sway along as you do.

100. Blank-Men — “Mole-Man Therapy”
99. Snow tha Product — “1 Time”
98. Goodnight Ned — “50,000 Years”
97. Pageantry — “Spine”
96. Lou Charle$ — “RiCH KiD$”
95. iill — “Surface Friend”
94. Ghost Image — “The Way”
93. County Lines — “City Between Two Cities”
92. B. Anderson — “Peer Pressure”
91. Wesley Geiger — “As the Crow Flies”
90. Somebody's Darling — “Bad Bad”
89. Radioactivity — “Danger”
88. Bobby Sessions — “Buckle Up”
87. This Will Destroy You — “Invitation”
86. Final Club — “No Regrets (M.U.R.P.H.Y.)”
85. Vincent Neil Emerson — “Hesitation Blues”
84. Lecrae — “Say I Won't”
83. Luke Wade — “The Runaround”
82. Convoy & the Cattlemen — “My Window Faces South”
81. Centro-matic — “Salty Disciple”
80. Bad Mountain — “Union Hill”
79. Dorrough — “Beat Up The Block “
78. The Longshots — “Me or California”
77. The Paychecks — “Prison Bars”
76. Dead Flowers — “I'm Leaving”
75. Birdflower — “Bish at the Beach”
74. Bad Beats — “Floor of Love”
73. Rigor Mortis — “Flesh For Flies”
72. Yung Nation — “Molly on My Chest”
71. Black Milk — “What It's Worth”
70. Fishboy — “Bury My Body”
69. Sugarfoote & Co. — “Long Gone Daddy”
68. Sexual Jeremy — “Square Eyes”
67. Blessin' — “Green Song”
66. Mink Coats — “Another Notch in the Bible Belt”
65. -topic — “Pocket Dialed the Queen”
64. Unconscious Collective — “Kotsoteka”
63. Hot Coffins — “I H8 Black Magic”
62. Cashmir — “Numbers”
61. Fever Dreamer — “A Month of Sunshine”
60. The Fox & the Bird — “No Man's Land”
59. Street Arabs — “Maltese Falcon”
58. Power Trip — “This World (2014)”
57. Zach Witness — “Amen Love”
56. Terrence Spectacle — “Futon”
55. Nighty Nite — “Temporary Custodian”
54. Bethan — “Low Expectations”
53. Baring Teeth — “Mountain”
52. Sealion — “Heavy Fizz”
51. Various Artists — “Dallas vs. Everybody”
50. Bummer Vacation — “Aye Mas Tiempo Que Vida”
49. Moonbather — “Stars From Planes”
48. Kacey Musgraves — “The Trailer Song”
47. Catamaran — “Weekdays”
46. Buffalo Black — “Bad Seed”
45. Mountain of Smoke — “Wise Owl”
44. Chambers — “Inner Room”
43. The Phuss — “Straight Line Impala”
42.Dripping Wet — “Yearbook”
41. Sarah Jaffe — “Defense”
40.” Madison King — “Saved By a Son of a Gun
39. Ish D — “Keep Moving”
38. Wild Party — “Chasin' Honey”
37. Gollay — “Fight or Flight”
36. Blue, the Misfit — “Trillionaire”
35. Old 97's — “Nashville”
34. Party Static — “Poor Baby”
33. TEAM* — “I Like It”
32. Nayah — “Let it Go”
31. Oil Boom — “The Sneak Tip”
30. Spooky Folk — “Disheveled”
29. Parquet Courts — “Instant Disassembly”
28. Blackstone Rangers — “Frozen Echo”
27. Cozy Hawks — “L.A. Girl”
26. Brandon Fxrd — “Everything On Me”
25. Daniel Markham – “Disconnected and Flying”
24. Mystery Skulls — “Magic”
23. Sudie — “Heartattack”
22. Leon Bridges — “Coming Home”
21. Analog Rebellion — “Hot Shit”
20. Eat Avery's Bones — “Proboner”
19. Lily Taylor — “Across the Hills”
18. Booty Fade — “It Goes Down
17. A.Dd+ — “INNISHO”
16. Old 97's — “Let's Get Drunk and Get It On”
15. Howler Jr. — “Oh Dear”
14. Son of Stan — “The Lady That's Around Me”
13. Natural Anthem — “Paranoid”
12. St. Vincent — “Digital Witness”
11. Lord Byron — “Posh”
10. Danny Diamonds — “Hot Summer”
9. The Cannabinoids ft. The Outfit, TX — “Spic & Span”
8. Sealion — “Automobile”
7. Alsace Carcione — “Juke Joint”
6. St. Vincent — “Birth in Reverse”
5. Picnictyme — “Lift Off (feat. Sam Lao)”
4. Seryn — “Disappear”
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Cover photo by Mikel Galicia.