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. Continue reading Friday Music Day: Best of 2014 →