After a few years of feeling blah about most new music, I'm excited about some things again. Maybe it's that Random Access Memories is enough in my rear-view mirror that I don't hate music any more. Though that album couldn't have been the cause, it might have slowed my recovery.
Copied from last year (with a slight edit)
My rules, you don't have to use them:
Songs from the album list are pretty much excluded from the song list.
Released in the calendar year.
This is some mix of "favorite" and a more objective "best", but "best" is just about how well things meet my (capricious) tastes.
I go until I don't.
A few years ago, I also explained my editorial idiosyncracies. (A/k/a the "Why no Radiohead Run the Jewels?" explantion.) Also, I don't want to spend so danged much time writing this as I have in the past.
With no further caveatting...
Albums of the Year.
1. Lydia Loveless Somewhere Else
I expected something like this (though I feared I might not). You probably expected this. You may even agree with this. Lydia (and her band) continue to impress me with their songs and performances. This album was a change in style from a rockin' outlaw alt-country to something with a lot more pop songwriting built into it, while still sounding like Lydia. Love the songs I'd been craving for years, love the new songs. Whenever I decide a favorite, I change it to one of seven others. Right now, I think it's "Verlaine Shot Rimbaud", definitely the best love song told through the prism of French poet-lovers and their violent discharges of firearms at each other that I've ever heard.
"I just want to be the one you love."
2. Hello Saferide The Fox, The Hunter And Hello Saferide
I'd written off Annika Norlin ever again writing songs in English, so it sent shockwaves around the world my head when she dropped a surprise comeback album that was more mature and better than either of her previous albums. It's Swedish pop singer-songwriter stuff. I still want to write a great review of this album, because I doubt anybody else will, at least not in English. Example: the lead single was "I Was Jesus", which could have been a trite "One of Us" or a hard and two-dimensional cultural critique (like Shannon Stephen's horribly disappointing "Faces Like Ours") but instead she threads the needle turns things around. (She's Swedish, so we'll forgive the missing Oxford comma.)
"The were real nice to me. They put on some neo-nazi music. . . And I hummed along."
3. DJ Dodger Stadium Friend of Mine
In my life, I have listened to so very many techno or house albums. And most are no good, even if they have good songs. The ones that are good are heady or stark or something. So I see this album, as an achievement worth heralding: a really good album of techno music. Tightened song lengths, meaningful sequencing, good pacing. Like an album should be. Is it that hard? My listening history tells me that it's damned near impossible.
4. The Girls! Let's Not Be Friends
I've talked about this album already, but Lydia Loveless's sister Jessica Wabbit has a pop-punk band that makes very good music as well. Her vox sound a lot like Lydia, but not entirely, and her songs are way different.
"I wish I didn't have my parts, because me having these parts just gets me confused."
5. Sturgill Simpson Metamodern Sounds in Country Music
You probably love this, too. I don't think I need to say why. I do want people to know I used the phrase "Turtles all the way down" for years, since before it was cool.
"Some say you might go crazy, But then again it might make you go sane."
6. Untold Black Light Spiral
I saw this described as "Dubstep", but it isn't. It's got similarities to some of the things Kode9 or maybe even Burial did for Hyperdub, but it doesn't have that beat. And it's sure as heck not America's Skrillex-style of Dubstep. This is the sound of taking all of the air out of the room and then your chest. Sounds like an angry Pan Sonic with a different palette, with bass as a weapon.
7. Röksopp & Robyn Do It Again
Pros: Title track was song of the summer. I prefer "Monument" and "Sayit". That's 60% of your album right there, being fantastic.
Cons: That means there's only two other songs, and one's a ten-minute instrumental lounge thing. At 35 minute running time, could have spent another ten minutes for radio-edit bonus tracks.
"Make a space, for my body. Dig a hole."
8. Kelis Food
I didn't pay enough attention when this came out. She followed up an album of Euro-pop that I couldn't get into. Now with organic-sounding R&B (horns!) that takes full advantage of her throaty voice and seen-it-all songwriting point of view. When she sings in "Dreamer", "If all was left to me, we'd be naked climbing trees," it hits first like a back-to-nature version of Lennon's "Imagine", but the sadness of the vox makes it more like resignation to flakiness.
"I'm so glad you gave back my keys."
9. Emot Emot
A Twin Cities group making "Groovey, droney, shoegazey vocal psych." (I wrote that two years ago.) It doesn't hit the sustained fantastic high of their last release, the Trees & Claws EP, but it sounds like a slow comedown, a soft landing, slightly more country-fried. Actually, the album feels a lot like Death Cab for Cutie's Transatlanticism.
"Fix upon the center, your stubborn side; revealing you the little prick you always hide."
T. Jo Johnson Weaving
Shimmering ambience, kindof Reich-y, with some parts that remind me of Aphex Twin's SAWI I bet Daneeka's Ghost will like it. (Unless he thinks it too peppy. There's a bit of simple joy in those drones.)
Albums I need to listen to more
Vessel Punish, Honey - I'm still intrigued by how much this sounds like intrumentals from Scatology/Horse Rotorvator-era Coil.
Plastikman EX - Live, techno album of all-new stuff from a retired alias? Sounds good twice through.
Andy Stott Faith in Strangers - I loved the lead single "Violence", but overplayed it and tired of it. I should have given the whole thing a few decent listens but I never did.
We Are the Willows Picture, Portrait
Songs of the Year.
1. Lydia Loveless "Mile High"
Maybe she's cheating because this was a non-album single? I don't care. This would have been my favorite song on the album. It's almost an amalgam of several songs from the album. The b-side cover of Ke$ha is gravy.
"My heart's breaking faster than the will not to call you. Cause when you said that you wanted me I thought it was true."
2. Tove Lo "Stay High (Habits Remix)"
The best parts of the original, pitch-shifted wrapped into a tightening self-medication as the situation becomes more desparate. I don't like the original, and when I hear it I'm like "just get to the good parts", like Homer Simpson at a BTO concert. This remix goes straight to the "Workin' Overtime" part and stays there. I just listened to the original again as I'm writing this. Ugh, the verses. Ugh, the "spend my days locked in a haze". Ugh, the last line of the chorus. What a fantastic turd-polishing job by Hippie Sabotage!
"Can't go home alone again. Need someone to numb the pain."
3. Angel Olsen "Forgiven/Forgotten" and "Hi-Five"
I know some here love the whole album, but after this opening punch of two great pop songs in unusual clothing, I feel the rest sags to the finish. But wow are these two songs phenomenal.
"We’ll keep our hands, our legs, even our lips apart. But I'm giving you my heart."
4. We Are the Willows "Dear Ms. Branstner"
I've loved this song for two years now. Peter Miller worked letters from his Grandfather to his Grandmother during WWII into this song (and a whole album of others I've barely explored). They met just weeks before he left for the war, and the letters were their courtship.
"A twenty-one gun salute could bring me back to you in a casket wrapped in a flag."
5. fka Twigs "Two Weeks"
This single got me over-excited for the album. I don't know what could live up to this. I'm not going to quote lyrics because they keep shifting on me except the vulgarities.
These last three I found from reading year-end lists at other online magazines:
6. Shamir "On the Regular"
Fun and Bright. I wish he didn't cuss because I'd like to share something like this with my kids.
"Guess I'm never-ending; you could call me 'Pi'."
7. Sylvan Esso "H.S.K.T."
Best kids' song I've heard in ages. The whole second half of this album has soundtracked bathtime for the past few weeks.
"My Head, My Shoulders, Knees, and Toes."
8. The Presets "No Fun"
The title's a lie.
"Ten ton elephant cocks couldn't frighten me away from this love."
Which all leads up to...
ARTIST(S) OF THE YEAR
Parker Chandler and wife*
The Parents of Lydia Loveless and Jessica Wabbit (actual family name is "Inconsistent") produced and raised the songwriters and vocalists that ruled my year. Good job!
What did y'all think of the year?
As I mentioned somewhere around the end of October, I just didn't get through as much music this year as I have in the past. So I know I missed quite a bit of stuff. I'm mostly excited to see what everyone else recommends.
FAVORITE SONG OF THE YEAR - Andy Stott - "Violence", maybe helped by the fact that it came out later in the year, but I love this song. When Alison Skidmore murmurs "clap your hands, clap your hands" for the first time, the intention is reversed from the usual instruction to the crowd/listener to a plea for an end to the almost beatless introductory section. Stott answers that plea and the stormiest parts of the song are really really great. The album Faith in Strangers has some other pretty good songs ("Science & Industry", "Damage", "On Oath") but this is the song that draws you in to the rest of the album.
I didn't think there was anything that would catch Angel Olsen's "White Fire" as my favorite song of 2014. Don't listen to the crazy man who wrote the list at the top of this post, this is the best thing on Burn Your Fire For No Witnesses and it isn't close. The guitar is like a drone but with fingerpicking that instills turbulence that reminds you that this isn't soothing. The lyrics are great and they're delivered just above a murmur, so that it almost could fade into the guitar, but it doesn't and it's great.
The Body - "Hail to Thee, Everlasting Pain" -- The Body hooked up with The Haxan Cloak on the album "I Shall Die Here". This song feels like the two artists vying for control of who gets to be more impossibly bleak and hopeless. Which is fun.
Yi - "Freeze" - from the album Crying. A slowed down punk song that gains momentum as the song goes on, this was the song that convinced me to check out the rest of the album (can be had for free here)
Yvette - "Cuts Me in Half" - Noise and almost tribal drums. This is one of those songs that I almost played into oblivion. Pure Pleasure is a pretty good album in general.
Dawn of Midi - Dysnomia - I got to play these guys in my Guest DJ stint. They are still great, it's music that just carries you along.
Prins Polo - "Hamstra Sjarma" - actually pretty similar in sound to Dawn of Midi. I didn't like the rest of the album too much, but this song is a fun one.
Have a Nice Life - The Unnatural World - maybe not as good as Deathconciousness, but still some good songs on this one ("Defenestration Song" and "Dan and Tim, Reunited by Fate" were my favorites)
EMA - The Future's Void - She took noise and punk and a lot of my favorite things in music and put together another album that I really haven't stopped listening to since it came out.
FAVORITE ALBUM OF THE YEAR - Swans - To Be Kind - This is by far my favorite Swans album. It just seems like the perfect culmination of My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky and The Seer, both of which are really good, but this album is more of that and better than that.
Re: Angel Olsen, Andy Stott.
We like the same things for different reasons.
I thought I might see Grouper on your list. I still haven't been able to dig her as foreground music.
I have Grouper's new one, Ruins, sitting on my iPod but I just didn't get around to forming an opinion on it. I'm sure there will be things that I like in it, but I ran out of time in 2014.
Things I still need to listen to (not taking into account AMR's list above)
Deathprod - Morals and Dogma (2004)
Eomac - Spectre
Good Throb - Fuck Off
Grouper - Ruins
Parquet Courts - Sunbathing Animal
Priests - Bodies and Control and Money and Power
Skee Mask - Serum
Wye Oak - Shriek
Probably some others...
I really, really like that Deathprod release. Pretty sure you will, too.
Was listening last week at the in-laws. I like it as well.
I think I bought exactly two albums that came out in 2014. But they both made appearances on AMR’s lists above, so they must be good, right? For a number of years, I fell down a musical black hole and didn’t listen to much at all and purchased nothing. (Not coincidentally, this was around the time I became a mother.) While my purchases of music released in the current year might suggest otherwise, music plays a much bigger part in my life than it did a few years ago, and I’m happy about that change. I’m frankly lazy about seeking out new music, so I owe the WGOM a debt of gratitude for being the source of (almost) all things music in my life.
Without any further ado*:
1. Lydia Loveless. Somewhere Else I think my fandom has been pretty well documented here.
2. Angel Olsen. Burn Your Fire for No Witness I pretty much agree with AMR’s assessment of the album as a whole. I listened to it a bunch when it first came out, and I still listen sometimes, but for whatever reason, a bunch of the songs didn’t really make a lasting impression. I’m pretty sure my favorite song of hers is still “Miranda,” which is not on this album.
*that was almost certainly far more ado than was warranted or requested, but that’s just how I roll
Heh, I think having kids made me seek out music a little more than I did prior to that (but not at the irresponsible rate I was on during college). My wife really only listens to top 40 stations, so I feel it is my responsibility to remind them that there is way more/better music beyond that, even if they don't much care for what I like.
Oh, oh! There was one more: Courtney Barnett The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas. I listened to it a lot initially, and while I think it's good, it's become one of those albums that I have to be in the right mood for.
I don't really buy a lot of new music during the year, so my lists are less best-of lists and more laundry lists of what I did buy. (It all does kick-ass though.) I did buy more this year than I have in year's past, though. Amazon's digital music store makes that entirely too easy.
Epica - The Quantum Enigma
I haven't given it enough listens yet to compare it to the previous two albums, both of which were great. I pretty much know what I'm going to get with them, which is why I pretty much buy every release.
Evenoire - Herons
This was a fun find. I definitely had a bit of a theme of buying albums from female fronted bands. Evenoire is sort of a combination folk/symphonic metal band, though a bit more towards a folksy sound. Anyway, like most of what I listen to, there's a lot of powerful riffs, soaring vocals and catchy choruses. I loved every minute of this one.
Kobra and the Lotus - High Priestess
This band is fun as hell, too. Its another female fronted band, but very much in a traditional, almost NWOBHM-ish style, metal.
Primordial - Where Greater Men Have Fallen
This is one of my favorite bands. They're a celtic folk-metal band with some touches of black metal, although I don't think that description totally does the music justice. A bit slower paced songs than what I typically listen to, but every song sounds like they're putting everything they have in it. I like this one quite a bit, its better than the previous Redemption at the Puritan's Hand, but not quite as good as the two masterpiece's before that; The Gathering Wilderness ("The Coffin Ships" might be the best song ever written) and To the Nameless Dead.
Sister Sin - Black Lotus
I just bought this yesterday to round out the female fronted bands trend. Another classic/traditional metal type band. Google does a metal sampler every month that is about 50% garbage, 50% good and the song "Chaos Royale" was on a recent one and it cooks. Plus, the album was only $4, so its probably the best deal of the year for me.
Tyr - Valkyrja
Super cheesy Viking/power-ish metal, and I love it. The lead singer has a really interesting voice that works well with the cheese element.
Rigor Mortis - Slaves to the Grave
Old-school thrash metal. This band as had a weird career, it looks like. Two albums by 1991, then nothing until this album last year.
Conorach - Through the Ages
More folksy power metal. It gets better every time I listen to it, and I need to listen to it a few more times, really.
Speaking of female-fronted, symphonic metal bands, it seems Isanti, MN is home to one. They're called Heliosaga and just released their first album. I should probably buy it at some point, maybe my next album purchase.
These are albums that I think in 10 years from now I'll still be listening to. That's my criteria for best albums of the year (in no particular order).
Lydia Loveless - Somewhere Else. Not much to add to AMRs notes above. I also love Verlaine Shot Rimbaud.
Sturgill Simpson - Metamodern Sounds in Country Music. Again AMR notes suffice. "I'm sorry, but I'm just thinking of the right words to say/
I know they don't sound the way I planned them to be /But if you wait around a while, I'll make you fall for me/ I promise, I promise you I will
Jeremy Messersmith - Heart Murmers. This one cut deep. In one sense losing one's wife is breaking up with a woman you love. These songs sometimes hurt way too much. But that's a good thing. "I need a hitman for my heart/Someone to gently strangle it at night/Lovingly, by candlelight"
Guided By Voices -- Cool Planet. Motivational Jumpsuit got more critics notice but I really liked this (apparent) swan song album. At this point some of the 18 songs are going to be crap but the ratio of amazing to crap is pretty good. "I ran half baked/with the broken hearts/stealing my way"
Bobby Bare Jr. -- Undefeated. I debated whether I should put this up or not. In the end I really like these songs and yes could see listening for a long time. "If she cared where I was/ Then I wouldn't be with you right now."
J Mascis -- Tied to a Star. This is probably my favorite album of the year. It's definitely my chill album of the year. Nice acoustic numbers, intricate guitar work. "Wide awake, I'm wide awake/I'm wide awake, I'm wide awake/I'm wide awake"
Favorite Song(s): Tie between Really Want To See You Again by Lydia Loveless and The Promise by Sturgill Simpson.
I think this is the first time I've seen someone like something from BBJ more than I do.
I have no idea what the best of the year might have been, so here's a plain old random ten list:
1. "I Need a Miracle"--Third Day--Miracle
2. "Faded Love" Craig Duncan & The Smoky Mountain Band--King of Western Swing
3. "Don't Stop Believin'"--Journey--Escape
4. "Barbara-Ann"--The Regents--The Golden Age of American Rock N Roll, Vol. 4
5. "Train Song"--Feist and Ben Gibbard--Dark Was the Night
6. "Miss Casey Medley: Miss Casey's Jig/The Humours of Ballinafauna--The Cottars--Forerunner
7. "Country Road"--James Taylor--Sweet Baby James
8. Indiference--Tony Murena, Barro & Sarane Ferre--Swing Accordion (Le Swing A Bretelles)
9. "Dream On"--Aerosmith--Greatest Hits
10. "The Boxer"--Simon & Garfunkel--Bridge Over Troubled Water
This is also acceptable.
For the past three or four weeks, I've been reminded when reading the FMD to a) bring my iPod next week so I can participate and b) start compiling my Best-of '14 List.
I have not done either, but I will...eventually.
If you wait long enough, you can do a best of 2011-2015 "half-decade" list.
I hope it doesn't take me that long.
First off--
The Honorable Mentions:
St. Vincent St Vincent I'll follow this woman's career for the duration, but unlike what a number of critics have opined, this is not her best record, imo. Still worth owning, though.
Parquet Courts Sunbathing Animal Once I got past all the wrongheaded comparisons this band seemed to inspire, this little record grew on me.
Lana Del Rey Ultraviolence I was surprised by how much I actually liked this release.
FKA Twigs LP1 Woozy, slightly creepy, amazing vocalist. Have to be in the right mood for it, but it can definitely scratch an itch.
Foxygen …And Star Power Could've been trimmed down into tidy, single disc masterpiece, but the young Angelinos chose the bloated double album format instead. (FWIW, I have edited it down to 14 songs (from 24) on my iPod.
Sloan Commonwealth Like Foxygen, this could've used a bit of editing, but the good stuff is sublime.
Ryley Walker All Kinds of You Sounding for all the world like a British folk rock release from the early 70's, not a contemporary one from a Chicago kid. Gorgeous stuff.
Bohren & der Club of Gore Piano Nights Film Noir jazz from German combo. Addictive stuff. (Also led me to some earlier releases by the band. Their Sunset Mission has ingrained itself as an all-time favorite.)
Sharon Van Etten Are We There A heartbreakingly sad record, but full of immense beauty. She put on an amazing show at the Ave.
The Antlers Familiars Atmospheric, wistful, and dreamy. Great use of muted horns throughout.
Steve Gunn Way Out Weather Another richly textured guitar record that takes it's cues from British Isles music from the late 60's and early 70's. Would fit in nicely next to Nick Drake on a your autumnal playlists.
D'Angelo and The Vanguard Black Messiah Like the bastard golden child of There's a Riot Goin' On and Sign o' the Times. Only listened to the whole thing about 4 times. Will probably wish I put it at the top when all is said and done.
Deerhoof La Isla Bonita Don't act surprised. 😉
Top Four (in no particular order)
Sturgill Simpson Metamodern Sounds in Country Music I'll let what others have written suffice. Dude is the real thing.
The Both The Both Really wasn't sure how this pairing of Ted Leo and Aimee Mann would work. Turns out it was like a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. Rockin', tender, and funny. Second best cover song of the year.
The War on Drugs Lost in the Dream Probably played this record more than any other this year. I guess I must like shitty beer commercial music.
Sun Kil MoronEx Hex Rips Could not be a more aptly named record. Hands down the most fun rawk-n-roll record of the year. Mary Timony for President.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utYhmf7-YAg
My end of the year Top 6: (For years now I've picked my favorite 6 songs of the year, then pick one as the best)
Stolen Dance - Milky Chance - The first time I heard this, I didn't care for it. Later it showed up in a Battle of the Bands contest I check out from time to time. Lo and behold, the song grew on me like a fungus (but a good fungus, think portabella). By the end of the year, it dawned on me that this was one of the best songs I've heard all year. Very simple, yet very enjoyable.
Dangerous - Big Data f/ Joywave - I'm all about that bass (sorry, couldn't resist). The bass line draws you in, and it never let me go.
I Don't Want To Be Here Anymore - Rise Against - Rise Against can usually be counted on to grab my ear every other year or so. Really liked the theme of this one - being so done with something, you're just ready to leave it behind
Do I Wanna Know - Arctic Monkeys - You ever know about a song, but never knew you heard it before? It's hard to explain, but I had heard of this song (seen it on lists, etc), but didn't realize I had actually heard it before until I finally heard the song title placed with the song itself. When I first heard it, I thought it was another Black Keys song. My favorite part is the second chorus when he starts echoing.
Let It Go - Idina Menzel - Just because millions of children like this song, doesn't mean I can't like it too. When I saw the movie for the first time and heard this song, I was floored at how good a Disney movie song could be. I hadn't heard anything like that since the days of Aladdin and Lion King. I downloaded the song and kept playing it for myself. It's such a well done song (in multiple ways). However, I felt I just couldn't exclude it from my list.
BEST OF THE BEST - Oceans (Where Feet May Fail) - Hillsong United - Not sure many here have heard of the Australian Worship group Hillsong United. I've found that many of the worship songs we sing in church that I really like tend to be written by the larger Hillsong ministry. This year, one offshoot of that ministry, Hillsong United, released a Christian single called Oceans. I first heard it in the car while taking my kids to an indoor water park (no lie). I was floored. I downloaded the 9 minute version of the song, which is pretty long, but in the right mood just really lifts my spirits. I think Christian radio stations were a little shocked at how popular this song was, because Hillsong United (or United as they were called on the stations) is not typically played on CCR stations. However, the appeal of this one clearly had an effect because the DJ's were often making a note of how popular this song was. All in all, this song captured my heart and ears the most throughout the year.
Honorable Mentions:
This is The Time - Nothing More
Counting Stars / Love Runs Out - One Republic
Something From Nothing - Foo Fighters
Not Gonna Die - Skillet
Come With Me Now - KONGOS
Out of the Black - Royal Blood
Eez-eh - Kasabian
Most likely will see a few of these on my list, whenever I get to it.
Sulfur Shelf is a better fungus.
I don't have a long list of 2014 music. First, I echo the selections of the Lydia Loveless/Sturgill Simpson albums as two of the best of the year.
The biggest disappointment of the year was Teeth Dreams. I gave it every chance, but find it virtually unlistenable.
Another of my favorites that wasn't a favorite when I first heard it was English Oceans by Drive By Truckers. I thought it was kind of plain on first listen, but saw DbT perform most of the tracks live, listened some more, and it grew on me. It's now on the short list of 2014 albums and DbT albums.
I also need to mention Everything Will Be Alright In The End by Weezer and Brill Bruisers by The New Pornographers.
Since yesterday I have been listening to a Spotify list of 2014 favorites created by First Avenue staff. Lots of new stuff for me, and I like a lot of what I have heard, so I may have more for this list in a week or so...
I'll be interested in seeing what makes the updated list.
Okay. I've got a Top 20 albums of the year list.
20. Todd Terje - It's Album Time - For a long time, I wasn't sure whether I even liked this album, much less whether its cheese was one of my favorites of the year. "Delorean Dynamite" kept bringing me back to it, and while there's nothing else quite that good on here, it's quirky and fun the whole way through.
19. Have a Nice Life - The Unnatural World - Pounding and unrelenting, as per usual from Have a Nice Life. "Defenestration Song" is my new favorite song of theirs.
18. St. Vincent - St. Vincent
17. Danger - July 2013 - Short little EP of something called "Synthwave". It's fun to play in the car, even if it gets me sideways glances from Linds.
16. Phantogram - Voices
15. Joyce Manor - Never Hungover Again - This reminded me of a version of stuff that I liked back in the early 2000's, without the constant dourness.
14. The Hold Steady - Teeth Dreams - It's definitely another step down from earlier stuff, but I would say that the highs ("Spinners", "The Only Thing", "Oaks") buoy the lagging middle ground.
13. Swans - To Be Kind - I didn't spend enough time with this one, I don't think. It's just so... MASSIVE. I agree with Brooks' earlier comments about this being a sort of culmination of their last two. I'm sure that as I look back on this year, this one will gain ground.
12. Strand of Oaks - HEAL
11. Death From Above 1979 - The Physical World - Loud rock songs to play in the car.
10. Kairon; IRSE! - Ujubasajuba - From Finland. A sort of psych rock/dream pop/post-rock/spacey sort of hybrid. The band put the whole thing for a "pay what you want" on their Bandcamp page, so if that description interests you at all, you have no reason not to check them out.
9. Run the Jewels - Run the Jewels 2 - I don't actually like it quite as much as the first. I still like it a whole lot, but I still think their first is better.
8. Alcest - Shelter - The first album of 2014 that stuck with me, and one I kept coming back to throughout the year.
7. Sharon Van Etten - Are We There - She lays everything bare in this one. There are times where things get honestly uncomfortable to listen to, but things like that little descending melody in the chorus of "Tarifa" balance it out well. Rates right up there with Tramp, imo.
6. Kye Kye - Fantasize - I didn't listen to another album as much as this one this year. "Honest Affection" was one of my favorite pop-ish songs of the year, even if it didn't sound particularly like much on the rest of the album, which trends to the hazy and the moody, rather than a chipper-sounding CHVRCHES.
5. Mastodon - Once More 'Round the Sun
4. Real Estate - Atlas - I love the guitar tones on this album. This should sound like every other blah indie pop act offering, but it doesn't.
3. Cymbals Eat Guitars - LOSE
2. Spoon - They Want My Soul - I've always liked Spoon, but this might just be my favorite album by them now. Not even the slightest wavering in the quality from song to song, but all the while taking their sound in different directions.
1. The War on Drugs - Lost in the Dream - "Red Eyes" is my favorite song from 2014, and the album that it got placed on is head and shoulders above anything else I heard this year.
A top 10 with some comments. I did a list out to 30 but it's such a crapshoot past 10.
01. Cymbals Eat Guitars - LOSE I kind of love everything about this album, it'll probably be somewhere in the next list I make of favorite albums ever. The running theme resonated with me after I lost an old dear friend unexpectedly last year, but honestly the music is perfect. This was a year where I listened to a lot more guitar rock than I had in previous years, and this is a large reason why. It reminded me of the music I listened to when I was still pretty cool. This was my runaway album of the year.
02. Watery Love - Decorative Feeding They're like an angrier, noisier, more blue collar Pissed Jeans. Songs about rotten food in the fridge, administering LSD to a dinner party host, and how much laying asphalt sucks. This album makes me want to run through a wall every time I hear it.
03. Mitski - Bury Me At Makeout Creek Sadie from Speedy Ortiz was raving about this album, and it lived up to the expectations I had for it. Songs from it have been running through my head for the last two weeks. Her voice is incredible, and I love how blown out and dirty the mix sounds on this. My only disappointment is that the label is out of copies on vinyl for another couple of weeks.
04. Sturgill Simpson - Metamodern Sounds in Country Music Lots has been said about this one here, and that's why I listened to it. I turned it on one night to try to see if it would help me sleep... and stayed up and listened to it twice. I need to see him next time he's coming through.
05. Electric Wizard - Time to Die This is my favorite thing I've heard of theirs this side of Dopethrone. It's got awesome production and so many great riffs. Awesome for the workday or long drives alone at night.
06. The Coathangers - Suck My Shirt Totally awesome three piece, all-woman punk band. I listened to this all spring, feeling like it was kind of filling the hole in my heart left by Sleater-Kinney. There's room in my heart for both now that SK is back.
07. Marissa Nadler - July Listened to this a lot studying late at night and when I was settling in for bed. The songs are gorgeous and morose, but the production really puts it over the top for me. Sacred Bones is quickly becoming one of my favorite labels.
08. EMA - The Future's Void Like her first album, this took a while to grow on me, but it did. Honestly, this is probably so low since it's been a while since I've listened to it. Every time I hear it I love it more. Her views and interests intersect strongly with mine, and I find her super fascinating. Her non-album single "False Flag" she released on September 11th is one of my favorite songs of the year.
09. Sun Kil Moon - Benji It took me several weeks to muster the energy to listen to this, but it was worth it. This is my first real experience listening to Kozelek, but I'm certainly going to seek out more. Certainly not the first thing I reach for, but when I'm in the right mood it's sublime.
10. YG - My Krazy Life It was a pretty mediocre year for rap albums in my opinion (plenty of good singles, though!), and this was my favorite. It has its warts (way too many skits, way too much misogyny), but YG is captivating and DJ Mustard's beats are tremendous. I played it a little too much, but it's really fun.
Oh geez, I completely forgot to put that Electric Wizard album on my list. Muddy, stoner doom isn't really something I've given a lot of thought (High on Fire is about as close as I've ever really gotten). I didn't love it as much as you did, and I don't think it works as well for me for driving music, but I did enjoy it. I don't think I've really had a chance to give it the attention it really needs, though, which for me is probably sitting alone and sipping on whiskey with it cranked up. But, kids.
Between lack of funds and lack of motivation, I bought zero albums from current artists this past year. I filled in some back catalog stuff through deals on amazon. This past year, a friend pointed me towards the EDM /dub step/etc scale of things. I havent fully embraced it but its been a long since since I listened to something other than rock and pop.
I did enjoy a few pop songs though. They include (in no particular order)
Paramore "Aint It Fun"
Passenger "Let Her Go"
Calvin Harris "Summer"
Capitol Cities "Safe and Sound",
Echosmith "Cool Kids"
Lorde "Team"
Mr. Probz "Waves"
One Republic "Counting Stars"
But my favorite song this past year was probably Childish Gambino's "3005" (technically released last year but I didnt hear it until summer). It's one of those songs that instantly hit me and immediately bought it.
Okay, sorry I'm so late with this. Hopefully somebody comes back to this post and sees it. I mean, everybody wants to know the answer to the annual question: "Did nibbish and DK have the same Album of the Year AGAIN?!?"
First I want to mention 2014's edition of the Last Year's Album I Didn't Get Around to till This Year: this would be Phosphorescent's Muchacho. Looking at my 2013 list it would probably have been in my top 5.
I think I can get a confident 25 albums down this year:
25. Peter Matthew Bauer - Liberation! One of two ex-Walkmen member albums on my list...weird.
24. Pallbearer - Foundations of Burden No, I didn't just stretch to 25 so I could sneak in this year's "DK Hipster Metal" album...
23. Liars - Mess
22. The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger - Midnight Sun
21. NO - El Prado aka Black English - NO
20. Hamilton Leithauser - Black Hours The other ex-Walkmen guy.
19. Wye Oak - Shriek Wye Oak goes electronic in a year where DK also goes (more) electronic. Well-timed.
18. The Horrors - Luminous
17. Operators - EP 1 I don't usually put EPs on my lists, and this is probably anticipatory value as much as anything else, but oh well.
16. St. Vincent - St. Vincent Have to agree that it's not her best album (I'd still go with Strange Mercy) but she certainly got the biggest push from it.
15. A Sunny Day in Glasgow - Sea When Absent
14. Caribou - Our Love
13. Hospitality - Trouble
12. Cloud Nothings - Here and Nowhere Else
11. Interpol - El Pintor Yeah, I'm a little embarrassed to put an Interpol album on a list in 2014, but not enough to leave it off.
10. The Rural Alberta Advantage - Mended With Gold
9. TV on the Radio - Seeds I don't think they have the same kind of layering of surprise and depth that they used to, but they still make some pretty good songs.
8. Sun Kil Moon - Benji I thought for a long time this would be higher, but it gets tough to listen to consistently. Still, as much of an ass as he is, this is the culmination of a few years of resurgent songwriting by Koz (I think his 2013 collaboration albums are mostly unjustly absent from the general narrative about Benji's background, which is a shame)
7. Strand of Oaks - HEAL
6. Spoon - They Want My Soul
5. Real Estate - Atlas
4. Wild Beasts - Present Tense Man, these guys are smooth.
3. The Antlers - Familiars
2. Cymbals Eat Guitars - LOSE I wondered in 2011 why they didn't get more attention for their last album. In retrospect, Lenses Alien is not an easy album to get into because the songwriting is so knotty. Here they put together a coherence of song structure and lyrical resonance like they hadn't done before.
and...
1. The War on Drugs - Lost in the Dream Looks like the answer to the question is "YES!"
Ha, three of the last five years now.
Also, more albums to wade through!
I tried with Sun Kil Moon a couple of times, but it just never clicked with me. I probably wasn't in the right kind of contemplative mood.
I obviously have to listen to Antlers' new one. That one managed to slip off my radar entirely, even though several people whose music tastes I trust loved it.
I'm afraid the only albums I can identify released in 2014 would be Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack, Grand Budapest Hotel soundtrack, ... you get the picture.