Best albums - 2014

Post by **brian** » Mon Dec 15, 2014 7:42 pm

I don't think there's any other significant releases coming out this year, so it's time. I can wholeheartedly say I think 2014 was the best year for music in at least 5-6 years in my head -- quite honestly, maybe in a decade or so. It's not something you can really put your finger on, but I had a much easier time identifying great albums this year when going through my library than any time in the last few years. So much so that I'm doing an honorable mention for the first time. I can easily say any of those honorable mention albums would have cracked my personal Top 10 any year in the last 5 years.

The Top 10...in no particular order

Asgeir - In The Silence
Bear Hands - Distraction
Sun Kil Moon - Benji
Spoon - They Want My Soul
Drive-By Truckers - English Oceans
War On Drugs - Lost In The Dream
Jenny Lewis - The Voyager
Lydia Loveless - Somewhere Else
Strand of Oaks - Heal
Sturgill Simpson - Metamodern Sounds In Country Music

Honorable Mention

TV On The Radio - Seeds
Afghan Whigs - Do To The Beast
Owl John - Owl John
Royksopp - The Inevitable End
Tycho - Awake
Ryan Adams - Ryan Adams
The New Pornographers - Brill Bruisers

Giff · Post by **Giff** » Tue Dec 16, 2014 10:58 am

Haven't made mine yet. Making my last journey through the 2014 albums still in contention. We share at least three, maybe four.

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Tue Dec 16, 2014 10:59 am

1 shared, 1 I can't figure the fuck out.

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Tue Dec 16, 2014 11:23 am

I again didn't listen to a whole bunch of new stuff. I do like that Sturgill Simpson album.

The best single for me may be "Old 45s" by, of all people, Chromeo. Video is gold, and featured Haim, who I also listed to a lot this year.

Post by **brian** » Tue Dec 16, 2014 11:47 am

mister d wrote:1 I can't figure the fuck out.

Well, you gotta share that one. Can you not figure out how it made a top 10 or was it not released in 2014, etc?

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Tue Dec 16, 2014 12:00 pm

I don't know if I think Strand of Oaks album is ok or I like it or I hate it.

Post by **brian** » Tue Dec 16, 2014 12:22 pm

mister d wrote:I don't know if I think Strand of Oaks album is ok or I like it or I hate it.

Gotcha. I understand. I ended up listening to that a lot and didn't think much of it at first, but ended up liking it a great bit (obviously), so much so that I've probably listened to it as much as anything else in the last couple of months even though it came out towards the beginning of the year.

govmentchedda · Post by **govmentchedda** » Tue Dec 16, 2014 1:27 pm

If you saw my Spotify year in review thing, you'll see that I basically only listened to The War on Drugs this year. I love this time of year when all of the best of lists come out, especially in years like this one where I listened to very little new music.

Giff · Post by **Giff** » Tue Dec 16, 2014 3:42 pm

govmentchedda wrote:If you saw my Spotify year in review thing, you'll see that I basically only listened to The War on Drugs this year. I love this time of year when all of the best of lists come out, especially in years like this one where I listened to very little new music.

Mine was Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks. But only because it was the first album I added to my 2014 playlist and it's never been removed.

DaveInSeattle · Post by **DaveInSeattle** » Tue Dec 16, 2014 8:35 pm

brian wrote:I don't think there's any other significant releases coming out this year, so it's time. I can wholeheartedly say I think 2014 was the best year for music in at least 5-6 years in my head -- quite honestly, maybe in a decade or so. It's not something you can really put your finger on, but I had a much easier time identifying great albums this year when going through my library than any time in the last few years. So much so that I'm doing an honorable mention for the first time. I can easily say any of those honorable mention albums would have cracked my personal Top 10 any year in the last 5 years.

The Top 10...in no particular order

Asgeir - In The Silence
Bear Hands - Distraction
Sun Kil Moon - Benji
Spoon - They Want My Soul
Drive-By Truckers - English Oceans
War On Drugs - Lost In The Dream
Jenny Lewis - The Voyager
Lydia Loveless - Somewhere Else
Strand of Oaks - Heal
Sturgill Simpson - Metamodern Sounds In Country Music

Honorable Mention

TV On The Radio - Seeds
Afghan Whigs - Do To The Beast
Owl John - Owl John
Royksopp - The Inevitable End
Tycho - Awake
Ryan Adams - Ryan Adams
The New Pornographers - Brill Bruisers

good list...and you're right...lots of great music came out this year. I'd also have to add:

Bob Mould - Beauty and Ruin
Hold Steady - Teeth Dreams
Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings - Give the people what they want
Run the Jewels - 2
Parquet Courts - Sunbathing Animal
Ty Segall - Manipulator
Wussy - Attica
Sharon Van Etten - Are we there
Protomartyr - Undercolor of official right

Post by **brian** » Tue Dec 16, 2014 8:53 pm

I should probably add the Bob Mould, Hold Steady and Ty Segall albums to my honorable mention to make it an even 10. They'd probably be 18-20 for me.

bapo! · Post by **bapo!** » Tue Dec 16, 2014 9:19 pm

[Sorry, Swamp. I'm apparently incapable of writing lists, so here are a bunch of words instead.]

This was a lost year. I'm looking over Steven Hyden's and the AV Club's best-of lists, and not only have I not heard most of the albums, but I haven't even heard of most of the musicians. I feel like the rest of the Swamp does when it wades into the Spins thread. Making a personal best-of list seems kind of pointless, but I'll give it a shot.

By default, my albums of the year are Sharon Van Etten's 'Are We There?' and War on Drugs' 'Lost in the Dream.' These are the only 2014 releases that I can recall listening to more than a handful of times. 'Lost in the Dream' has received universal praise, and I'm in step with that. And my love of Van Etten has been documented elsewhere in the Swamp. I think that I prefer 2012's 'Tramp,' but I just started listening to her this year, so her entire catalogue is just one big album for me.

(I only went to four concerts this year, but Van Etten's was by far the best concert experience that I had. For the record, I also saw Neutral Milk Hotel, Panda Bear, and BILLY FUCKING JOEL.)

I'm listening to Angel Olsen's 'Burn Your Fire for No Witness' now. This is The AV Club's album of the year. Not sure if I'd go that far, but it's hitting all of its marks. Sometimes she sounds like a low-fi Mazzy Star; sometimes she sounds like Sharon Van Etten; sometimes she sounds like the version of Liz Phair we loved 20 years ago.

I wanted to like the new Wye Oak album. I had reservations when I read that Jenn Wasner gave up playing the guitar due to anxiety/depression issues related to their last tour. The first two songs reduced me to a puddle. Then I listened to the rest of the album. Oh, well. They can't all be winners. I still love this band.

Didn't connect with the new St. Vincent as much as everybody else did, but I might someday. Haven't given a fair listen to Tuneyards or Jenny Lewis yet.

My true albums of the year were Julianna Barwick's 'Nepenthe' and Vampire Weekend's 'Modern Vampires of the City.' But nobody wants to talk about 2013 albums. (And if we're going down that road, the song of the year, once again, is Grimes' 'Oblivion.' Yeah, it's from 2012, but you won't hear a better song this year.)

The new Panda Bear album comes out in a few weeks, so I hope that the 2015 version of this thread can be wrapped up by the end of January.

Okay, who's going to start the Best Beers of 2014 thread?

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Tue Dec 16, 2014 10:30 pm

I've always wanted to like St. Vincent's albums more than I did but ended up really liking 3-4 songs and being meh on the rest but this one nailed it. Real Estate is really high on my list but they're a band that I imagine people either really like (me) or like the first album they hear enough and then don't really care going forward because all of them sound about the same. Warpaint was strong too, although their sound far outshines their lyrics a lot of the time. Woods was solid. Need to check out Cloud Nothings and Cymbals Eat Guitars and a few others when the lists are done and I spent $50.

(And Alvvays, and Broncho, and the Hotelier and I'm sure a bunch of other ones.)

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Tue Dec 16, 2014 10:34 pm

Totally with you on Modern Vampires. That was easily a top 5 play for me this year.

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Tue Dec 16, 2014 10:42 pm

Timothy Showalter is a bighearted dude whose gregariousness belies some serious battle scars on his soul.

This quote from Hyden might explain my issue with the album. Every interview paints him as this hapless loser (for lack of a better word) bent on slow, lazy self-sabotage, and if that's the case, he should be so much more depressed than the album comes off. And if its kind of a narrative, the album is sort of a fraud. I just can't find the intersection of "this is his true story" and how the album sounds and it makes me doubt it or not buy in or something.

(Summary: He might not be an alcoholic, but he definitely has a drinking problem, potentially borne of boredom. And his wife had an affair but they're still together. He just seems like everyone's mess friend from high school with no interest in growing up but with the added twist of legitimately bad events that maybe he didn't care to react to.)

Post by **brian** » Tue Dec 16, 2014 10:58 pm

I agree that the artist's point of view is important but in this case I think you might be trying to read too much into it. It's hard not to listen to a song like "Shut In" and not feel it wash all over you. That's a rare thing - for me at least. I don't know if there's some intentional misrepresentation of his backstory but it doesn't diminish the music (in this case) much for me.

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Tue Dec 16, 2014 11:09 pm

I either want an obvious character or a real person, I don't want a real person faking a backstory. I'm not really sure why, just seems kinda lame.

govmentchedda · Post by **govmentchedda** » Wed Dec 17, 2014 8:08 am

mister d wrote:I either want an obvious character or a real person, I don't want a real person faking a backstory. I'm not really sure why, just seems kinda lame.

I agree.

Let me also add that the Jenny Lewis record is my #2 of the non-bapo style cheating 2014.

Post by **Shirley** » Wed Dec 17, 2014 9:24 am

It's always fun for me to look at these lists and see how far down I have to go before I figure out if they're listing the artist first, or the album. It only took a few rows on Brian's.

I'm intrigued at how you guys manage to listen to so many new artists and new albums every year. You obviously love music, so how is it that you are constantly moving on to new stuff? Do you not listen to anything that came out more than a year ago? How do you discover so many new artists every year? It seems like a lot of work.

That said, I'm gonna fire up Spotify and learn me some new stuff. Thanks for the recs.

bapo! · Post by **bapo!** » Wed Dec 17, 2014 10:35 am

Shirley wrote:I'm intrigued at how you guys manage to listen to so many new artists and new albums every year. You obviously love music, so how is it that you are constantly moving on to new stuff? Do you not listen to anything that came out more than a year ago? How do you discover so many new artists every year? It seems like a lot of work.

If I told you that I listened to 20 or 30 or 40 or 50 new albums this year, that might sound like a lot. But that's still less than one new album per week, and an hour a week isn't outrageous.

Music is important to me, and I spend a lot of time listening to it, reading about it, thinking about it. It's not just something that I mindlessly put on in the background. It's a time-consuming hobby, much like following ACC basketball.

A handful of my favorites (Jenny Lewis, Tuneyards, St. Vincent) will release new albums every year, and I'll seek them out. Others (War on Drugs) will receive so much hype that I'll feel obligated to listen. I don't read a lot of music reviews, but the web sites that I visit cater to music fans at least a little bit, and some bands seem to bubble up to the top of my consciousness for whatever reason.

I'm not overly concerned with staying current. I don't actively seek out The Next Big Thing. If I find a band/album that I like, I might listen to nothing else for a couple of weeks. And I don't discard albums to move onto something new. I still gravitate back towards the old favorites. I might spend a week listening to nothing but Radiohead or Grizzly Bear. And there are still David Bowie and George Harrison albums from the '70s that I haven't heard yet. I'll listen to those, too. But I keep my eyes and ears open, and lot of new albums just have a way of finding me.

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Wed Dec 17, 2014 11:13 am

I will typically try some of these bands out after seeing what you guys are into. Brian has some overlap with me in terms of taste - usually along the folk/singersongwriter/country(ish) spectrum. I think the only band that really stuck that I haven't liked previously independent of swamp suggestions (Sturgill Simpson for example is a guy I was turned onto by the friend that I go watch pretty much all my live music with) is probably The Decemberists. Rush hooked me up with a lot of that. Do like The Tragically Hip as well, but they are a band where I have about 10-15 songs I go through and not really their whole discography.

That war on Drugs full album is on Amazon Prime Music, so that's being played now.

My daughter has been into Arctic Monkeys, Cage the Elephant, Cake (for some reason - she was surprised I knew some of their songs), and The Kooks. Tends to start with Monkeys or Kooks and move from there. Having a british moment, I suppose. I like a lot of the Arctic Monkeys stuff, but no idea when it came out.

P.D.X. · Post by **P.D.X.** » Wed Dec 17, 2014 11:23 am

Who should I check out if I already like Royksopp, Tycho, and TVotR? I just don't want any banjos in my music, and I know you all like banjos in your music.

bapo! · Post by **bapo!** » Wed Dec 17, 2014 11:36 am

Listening to Jenny Lewis again now. I think she's the bee's knees, but I don't think that I'm ever going to connect with this album. 'Rabbit Fur Coat' is still one of my go-to albums, if that's any consolation.

This is also how I feel about St. Vincent. Whenever I try listening to her new album, I keep going back to her earlier stuff. ('Prince Johnny' is a gorgeous, gorgeous song, tho.)

Both of these albums gathered tremendous reviews this year, and I'm happy to see that, but I'm just a little out of step, I guess.

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Wed Dec 17, 2014 12:40 pm

Shirley wrote:I'm intrigued at how you guys manage to listen to so many new artists and new albums every year. You obviously love music, so how is it that you are constantly moving on to new stuff? Do you not listen to anything that came out more than a year ago? How do you discover so many new artists every year? It seems like a lot of work.

Working from home helps a lot. I have KEXP on pretty much 9:00 - 5:30 and sometimes off work hours and they aren't like normal stations in that new hit songs are on every 90 minutes. I would guess, at most, you'd get the same song three times per week inside the hours I listen. With an album like The War on Drugs, maybe 2 per day off it, but not the same ones. So, like Bapo said, if you like one new song enough per week, you've got 50 new albums, but usually its really backloaded. Like I might have 25 2014 albums right now and I'll have another 10 once the lists and KEXP countdown are done and then another 5-10 I'll find I missed during the next year. Weekends are for listening to older or "older" stuff from the collection and trying to brainwash Q into liking good music at a young age.

Post by **brian** » Wed Dec 17, 2014 1:06 pm

P.D.X. wrote:Who should I check out if I already like Royksopp, Tycho, and TVotR? I just don't want any banjos in my music, and I know you all like banjos in your music.

If you like those you'll probably like Asgeir, though he trends a lot more to the mellow side. No banjos though!

Post by **Shirley** » Wed Dec 17, 2014 1:56 pm

brian wrote:
P.D.X. wrote:Who should I check out if I already like Royksopp, Tycho, and TVotR? I just don't want any banjos in my music, and I know you all like banjos in your music.
If you like those you'll probably like Asgeir, though he trends a lot more to the mellow side. No banjos though!

That was the first one I tried today off of your list. I decided to bail after about the third song. Sounds like every other navel-gazing, sensitive dude, falsetto band (e.g. Iron and Wine, Department of Eagles, Sufjan Stevens, etc.). The next one I picked, Bear Hands, was the same stuff as well, but better.

I'm looking forward to moving through the massive Spotify Playlist I built from ya'll's recommendations. What's nice about the quantity is I can skip albums I decide I'm not digging.

BSF21 · Post by **BSF21** » Wed Dec 17, 2014 3:17 pm

Weird Al Yankovic - "Mandatory Fun"

TheHumanComa · Post by **TheHumanComa** » Thu Dec 18, 2014 12:21 am

Damn you Brian! I think I have started the best of album threads for the last _ _ years! But i could be wrong, i'll search it after. anyway glad someone started it. I thought i had an abundance of albums i loved in 2014 but i can only think of 7 that i actually loved right now. J Mascis should be number 1 for me as he released his best solo effort I have ever heard and i'm a huge Dinosaur Jr junkie. but two albums impressed me more this year, The Rural Alberta Advantage - Mended with Gold and The War on Drugs - Lost in a Dream. If you do a sportsfrog search on either band, you'll see i was raving about their new albums as soon as they came out. in fact, they are probably the only bands i said anything about. my complete list -
#1 -Rural Alberta Advantage
#2 - War on Drugs
#3 - sun kil moon - benji
#4 - j mascis - tied to a star
#5 - Ryan adams - ryan adams
#6 - Hurray for the Riff Raff - Small town Heroes
#7 - Spoon - They want my soul

Also I've only heard of one other artist on your top ten that we have in common, Drive by Truckers, and they are on my shortlist for my final 3. Loved the album, but i have 12 or so albums battling for my last 3 spots. I'll definitely check out the rest of your list.

Rush2112 · Post by **Rush2112** » Fri Dec 19, 2014 1:13 am

No particular order

Bela Fleck & Abigal Washburn (Self titled)
Beck - Morning Phase
Dylan - Complete Basement Tapes
Allman Brothers - 1971 Fillmore East
Alt-J - This Is All Yours
Angel Olson - Burn Your For For No Witness
First Aid Kit - Stay Gold
Hurray For The Riff Raff - Small Town Heros
Hot Buttered Rum (Self Titled)
Jack White - Lazaretto
Mac DeMarco - Salad Days
Quilt - Held In Splendor
Sturgill Simpson - Metamodern Sounds..
Ty Segall - Manipulator
Todd Terje - It's Album Time

and of course The Grateful Dead - The Other Ones Spring 1990

and something a few of you will enjoy Yacht Rock

Rush2112 · Post by **Rush2112** » Fri Dec 19, 2014 1:16 am

AB_skin_test wrote:The Decemberists. Rush hooked me up with a lot of that.

New Album in the first part of 2015, btw.

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Fri Dec 19, 2014 7:35 am

Rush2112 wrote:
AB_skin_test wrote:The Decemberists. Rush hooked me up with a lot of that.
New Album in the first part of 2015, btw.

Yeah, I saw that in my inbox. Pretty stoked about that. I had a fear they were done.

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Fri Dec 19, 2014 10:07 am

If any of you MFers are streaming music right now, KEXP (http://www.kexp.org" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; or the app) is streaming their top 50 (now 40) most played songs (I think) the morning show, which is the best show.

Giff · Post by **Giff** » Fri Dec 19, 2014 11:53 am

Rush2112 wrote:
AB_skin_test wrote:The Decemberists. Rush hooked me up with a lot of that.
New Album in the first part of 2015, btw.

The new song and video are outstanding. The song will be in my top 14.

P.D.X. · Post by **P.D.X.** » Fri Dec 19, 2014 2:40 pm

AB_skin_test wrote:
Rush2112 wrote:
AB_skin_test wrote:The Decemberists. Rush hooked me up with a lot of that.
New Album in the first part of 2015, btw.

Yeah, I saw that in my inbox. Pretty stoked about that. I had a fear they were done.

Once at a party I loudly vocalized my dislike for them only to be told later that the bassist was my friend's neighbor and was standing well within earshot.

rass · Post by **rass** » Fri Dec 19, 2014 2:42 pm

PORTLANDIA!

P.D.X. · Post by **P.D.X.** » Fri Dec 19, 2014 2:45 pm

You never expect rockstars at a "party" where people have babies strapped on them.

Giff · Post by **Giff** » Fri Dec 19, 2014 2:57 pm

P.D.X. wrote:
AB_skin_test wrote:
Rush2112 wrote:
AB_skin_test wrote:The Decemberists. Rush hooked me up with a lot of that.
New Album in the first part of 2015, btw.

Yeah, I saw that in my inbox. Pretty stoked about that. I had a fear they were done.
Once at a party I loudly vocalized my dislike for them only to be told later that the bassist was my friend's neighbor and was standing well within earshot.

Ouch. Not nearly the same, but reminds me of my drunk friend complaining to two women after a concert that the band didn't play an encore (they did) and that they were "alright". To the mother and wife of the bassist. I knew who they were when I saw him talking to them and had to go offer apologies, plus reassurances the band did much better than "alright".

DaveInSeattle · Post by **DaveInSeattle** » Sat Dec 20, 2014 6:55 pm

Shirley wrote: I'm intrigued at how you guys manage to listen to so many new artists and new albums every year. You obviously love music, so how is it that you are constantly moving on to new stuff? Do you not listen to anything that came out more than a year ago? How do you discover so many new artists every year? It seems like a lot of work.

For me, I just always love finding new stuff to listen to. And it totally helps that I live in a town with the best radio station in the world (KEXP, of course) that is always playing new interesting stuff. So I'm always listening to it in the car (for the longest time, it was the only station I had pre-set on my stereo), and I listen a ton while I'm at work.

Here's a interesting bit about KEXP: John in the Morning on friday played his "52 most played songs of the year"...meaning the songs that got played the most by him during his shows. The only two "old songs" were The Pixies "Where is my mind" and the Mountain Goats "This Year". Just about everything else was from 2014. The interesting thing was that the top of his list were songs that he played about 30 times...in a year. He was saying that on most commercial radio stations, they'll play songs 50-60 times....a week! So just being a regular KEXP listener means I get exposed to tons of new stuff. (oh, his #1 played song? Of course, it was "Show Me" by Mint Royale, which is known as The Friday Song, and gets played almost every friday).

And while I'm thinking about it...can't believe that I left these off my list:

Ex-Hex - Rips
Benjamin Booker - Benjamin Booker
Alt-J - This is all yours

DC47 · Post by **DC47** » Sat Dec 20, 2014 9:12 pm

Rush2112 wrote:No particular order

Bela Fleck & Abigal Washburn (Self titled)
Beck - Morning Phase
Dylan - Complete Basement Tapes
Allman Brothers - 1971 Fillmore East
Alt-J - This Is All Yours
Angel Olson - Burn Your For For No Witness
First Aid Kit - Stay Gold
Hurray For The Riff Raff - Small Town Heros
Hot Buttered Rum (Self Titled)
Jack White - Lazaretto
Mac DeMarco - Salad Days
Quilt - Held In Splendor
Sturgill Simpson - Metamodern Sounds..
Ty Segall - Manipulator
Todd Terje - It's Album Time

and of course The Grateful Dead - The Other Ones Spring 1990

and something a few of you will enjoy Yacht Rock

Well, if the Allman Brothers Fillmore East album counts as 'new' then I've finally got something to say yes to. And of course, I've got this new version. It's like if you treasured the old Mona Lisa and someone tells you that they found another one, with twice as much Mona. All in.

But kind of like cheating. Still, this may be the first year in this decade where I can say a 'new release' got me to spin it more than twice.

To be fair, I like Sturgill Simpson and probably listened to his latest twice. There's some potential there. I also recall an album by some country-ish band led by a woman from Columbus, Ohio. Sounded good, but I've lost the name. It wasn't Rahsaan Roland Kirk, who is no doubt the top musician in Columbus history. Perhaps someone here can fill me in. Also, I hear there is a new Drive By Truckers album out, which I've not heard. But I'm a fan, so it's probably on my list, sight unheard.

No way "Yacht Rock" qualifies as a 2014 release, even if it was released in 2014. What makes it new, a remastering of "Muskrat Love?" A third of that stuff is indelibly imprinted in my mind, in a positive way. "Summer Breeze" rocks my world. But the other two-thirds is cringe-inducing bilge water. I'd rather walk the plank that let it be played through the gleaming silver Marantz amp on my teak-planked retro yacht. Maybe in 2015 they should release the same material all over again, but on discs labelled "Good," "Bad," and "Sailing."

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Fri Feb 03, 2017 9:39 am

brian wrote:
mister d wrote:I don't know if I think Strand of Oaks album is ok or I like it or I hate it.
Gotcha. I understand. I ended up listening to that a lot and didn't think much of it at first, but ended up liking it a great bit (obviously), so much so that I've probably listened to it as much as anything else in the last couple of months even though it came out towards the beginning of the year.

So get this shit ... I was reading the Stereogum article on Showalter yesterday and had an oh-damn-Verbal-Kint-is-Keyser-Sose revelation. You know how HEAL is mostly inspired by marital issues with his then and still wife? She's from my wife's hometown and there are local references throughout the album, including their town name as a song's name. All of this completely flew over my head because most of the places he name checks are generic enough and I had no idea he lived there for years b/w growing up and settling in Philadelphia. And, because its one of those small towns, my in-laws know the family, I guess some of them live like a street over. Super weird.

http://www.stereogum.com/featured/wasted-days/