Albums of the Year

You guys know the drill. What were some of your top albums released over 2014? It'd be cool if you list five or so, but I don't think anyone really minds on exact numbers. Explain why you liked them for bonus points!

Psylocke said:

my top 5 this year were

5. Azealia Banks Broke with Expensive Taste
4. Lana Del Rey Ultraviolence
3. Charli XCX Sucker
2. Kylie Minogue Kiss Me Once
1. Paloma Faith A Perfect Contradiction

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I added another prompt to the first post suggesting to explain why you like the ones you picked. Any particular explanations for these? (not that i disagree with them - i've not heard any of them, haha)

Psylocke said:

Honestly I feel like there wasn't many notable albums for me this year.

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I thought so too. I can think of a top two or three (will post later) very easily but others aren't coming to me all that quickly.

Michael Jackson: Xscape- This album was leagues better than the album Michael that was released a few years back. This actually sounded like a Michael album, rather than just random people making music based on his prior works and demos. I absolutely loved the album. Is it the best of 2014? Absolutely not, but it's one of my favorites

Honestly though, there weren't all that many outstanding albums this year. Hopefully that changes in 2015.

It took a while to choose 5, but here they are:

(descriptions in spoilers)

5. ODESZA - In Return



4. Antillas - Human Frames



3. Dash Berlin - We Are, Part 1



2. Super8 & Tab - Unified



1. Porter Robinson - Worlds

This is a hard pick. There really wasn't all that many releases, and not many that stood out. I don't even know if I can think of 5 albums that were released this year. Oh god.

5. Siren Charms by In Flames
I don't think it was as good as some of their older work, but by no means was it bad. A couple songs from the album just sucked in my opinion (Looking at you Through Oblivion. Bleh.), but the rest of it was pretty solid.

4. Oxygen:Inhale by Thousand Foot Krutch
I liked the majority of the songs off this album, but I couldn't say it was my favorite of theirs. A couple of the songs off this album I absolutely loved, and those few songs are the only reason it's higher than Siren Charms.

3. Savages by Breathe Carolina
Dear god. This album is just so good. The songs Bang it Out, Sellouts, Savages, Chasing Hearts, and Collide made up about 75% of my summer this year. Not even joking.

2. Punk Goes Pop Volume 6 by Fearless Records (Tyler Carter, August Burns Red, We Came As Romans, Upon A Burning Body, Set It Off, Crown The Empire, Oceans Ate Alaska, Youth In Revolt, The Volumes, Knuckle Puck, Slaves, State Champs, and Palisades)
Man, Punk Goes is never bad. The metal/Screamo/Punk covers of those songs are always just so much better in my opinion. I hate that some artists are getting too big to be on the albums now, like Breathe Carolina, Pierce The Veil, Sleeping With Sirens, and Falling In Reverse. Their covers were always the best. But Problem by Set It Off on this album was just.... yeah. Made me wet.

*drum roll*

1. Black Veil Brides by Black Veil Brides
This album. Oh dear god. I loved it more than I should have. I know every line of Crown of Thorns now, and I don't think I'll ever forget it. Definitely the highlight of my 2014 music adventure, other than Heroes (we could be) by Alesso. Nothing will ever beat that song. Ever. Just wish it was on an album, and not just a single.

In no particular order.

Machine Head - Bloodstone & Diamonds
Exodus - Blood In, Blood Out
Behemoth - The Satanist
Septicflesh - Titan
Judas Priest - Redeemer of Souls

Probably a tie up between Self-Titled by St. Vincent, Trouble In Paradise by La Roux, The Golden Echo by Kimbra and 1000 Forms of Fear by Sia.

I'm not usually into female vocalist, but damn this year had some great ones. Also mentioning You're Dead by Flying Lotus, Syro by Aphex Twin and while(1<2) by Deadmau5.

copy paste time
universal recommendations include la roux, badbadnotgood and the war on drugs

Like I mentioned in the Favourite Songs thread, I think it's been a very strong year for music. I've narrowed it down to my top 5 albums, with my favourite 5 songs for each that you should give a listen to, with each song title linking to a Youtube clip of the song.

Notable mentions: FOUR (One Direction); Wanted on Voyage (George Ezra); In The Lonely Hour (Sam Smith)



#5 - Burnt Letters - Taylor Henderson



Taylor Henderson's first album of original songs post-X Factor didn't fail to please. You can feel the emotion he pours into his acoustic-driven songs and how he isn't trying to do what other artists are doing but is sticking to what he does best. He's had a very strong year and made the most of all his opportunities and I'm super proud of how far he's come.

Top 5 songs: Already Gone, Sail Away, Host of Angels, Piece by Piece, When You Were Mine





#4 - 5 Seconds of Summer - 5 Seconds of Summer



A very solid debut from my new favourite Aussie punk/rock band. I've known about these guys for a while but didn't start listening to them more until the start of this year when I started digging through some of their covers and originals and loved their sound. Although I felt some of this sound was lost on this album due to some confusing songs like Amnesia (which is about as far away from punk/rock as you can get, so I'm very confused about why it was released as a single), the album overall was very strong and a lot of fun to listen to.

Top 5 songs: She Looks So Perfect, Don't Stop, End Up Here, 18, Voodoo Doll







#3 - Meet The Vamps - The Vamps



I could not be prouder of The Vamps. I was a massive fan of their covers and super excited to hear they got signed. Their first single was great and the rest of their album showed that they still had that unique acoustic-pop sound. I love how they're sticking to who they are and haven't let the fame go to their heads; they still post covers up on their Youtube channel! The Vamps definitely know who they are, and I'm excited that more and more people know who they are now too.

Top 5 songs: Somebody To You, Last Night, Move My Way, Lovestruck, Can We Dance











#2 - x - Ed Sheeran



Ed Sheeran has also had a massive year this year with his second album. It's full of amazing vocals, amazing guitar, deep lyrics and Ed's signature style. He's experimental yet true to himself and I love him for that. A lot of artists have solid albums with some filler tracks; however there really aren't any filler tracks on x, with each song really holding its own, telling a differenst story and being strong in its own right. Combined with his loveable personality, what's not to like?

Top 5 songs: Thinking Out Loud, One, The Man, Tenerife Sea, Take It Back











#1 - 1989 - Taylor Swift



When Taylor Swift announced her next album would be purely pop, I was worried. I'd always liked her pop songs, but have adored her country songs to bits so I was very unsure of this change, although it's been a long time coming. I'm so glad that, in retrospect, I really had nothing to worry about. Sure, 1989 is pop, but Taylor Swift is still undeniably Taylor. She hasn't strayed into generic pop but is still adding that classic T-Swift twist onto things and doing her own thing with this very 80s-Europop feel. Taylor hasn't just delivered an album, but an experience, through things like polaroids included with physical copies of the album, bonus tracks being the voice memos she recorded while first brainstorming songs, and an app taking you behind the scenes in the Blank Space video. It's been a strong year for music and an incredible year for T-Swizzle.

Top 5 songs: Blank Space, New Romantics, Style, How You Get The Girl, Out of the Woods (no audio available for the other songs; you'll have to buy them!)

This year I loved (not in a specific order)..

ODESZA - In Return

Foster the people - Supermodel
I listen to this album ALL summer!!

Skrillex - Recess
At first, I didn't like that much the new Skrillex's album, but after a while it really got me! As good as the other Skrillex for me!

Deadmau5 - While 1<2
Best. CD. Of. the. year (for me). I LOVED it!! (I like the second part the most)

gdi vendak you reminded me i missed that war on drugs album. I saw it at Target before Christmas and was all OOOOH I'LL COME BACK FOR YOU WHEN I GET MONEY and then I got money and there aren't any copies left. -waits impatiently-

I guess my top five albums are the only albums I got this year. Well. I'm leaving out the Mockingjay soundtrack because...well. That's a story for another time.

5. Ed Sheeran - X
OOOOOOOPS I haven't finished my full listen to it, but I got about halfway and it earns it's spot at #5 so yeah. I really enjoyed the singles Sing and Don't off this album too. It was nice to hear them on the radio to drown out Adam Levine's howling and Meghan Trainor's booty talk.

4. Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett - Cheek To Cheek
Don't like Lady Gaga's solo stuff? Then by god, listen to her with Tony Bennett. I am in love with this album. Gaga and Bennett go together fantastically (even my great grandmother said so, just to put that into perspective for you) and I can't recommend this album enough. A lot of the tracks are really short, but as someone that's used to jazz tunes taking up the span of 13 minutes or so, I really don't mind. There's even some jazz flute in there. I love some jazz flute, which I've only seen live like...one time. So I was surprised that there was a flute solo. Oh yeah, this all being said, there are some good instrumental solos in there. The album is focused on the vocalists obviously, but there are still some nice solos from instrumentalists as well. It's just a joy to the ears, really.

3. Alt-J - This Is All Yours
I snagged the last copy of this at Target in exchange for my extra copy of X, haha. Anyway, this is another one of those joy to your ears kind of albums. The whole thing is pretty chill and relaxing and it makes for a great listen if you're just driving around, especially in some light rain. It's one of those kinds of albums. The cover art is really neat, as well. My only issue is that the spine of the album doesn't list the artist or album name so that's annoying for filing them away in my CD collection, but that's just nitpicking.

2. Ariana Grande - My Everything
I thought the wait for this album would kill me, but it was well worth it. I like the new direction Ariana takes in this album. While I enjoyed her first one, it was nice to see her come of age in a sense for My Everything. I also like that the album is a story, even evident in the singles and their order. You have Problem, your initial cockiness and "I don't need you anyway" attitude after a relationship's end. Then there's Break Free where you find yourself a bit. And then Love Me Harder where you find you and that person falling back into things again. I don't know if anyone else caught and connected that, and maybe I'm just grasping at straws, but it makes sense to me, especially when paired with the rest of the album.

1. Sia - 1000 Forms of Fear
So this was the first CD I bought this year and it was as late as summer, haha. I saw it at Target (I live there in case you didn't piece that together already) and was like "SIA ALBUM??? IN THE FLESH??? HERE??? BUY!!!" and so it came to be. I had already been jamming to Chandelier so I figured there might be hope to actually find the album in stores and SHO NUFF HOSS there it was. I had this in my car for months. It's just really nice. All the tracks are unique and different and I'm just a big Sia fan in general, so it all gelled together well for me. Free the Animal, Fire Meet Gasoline, and Dressed in Black are worth a listen.

Im not normally one for albums just singles but this has to be here surely

Guardians of The Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol 1

here goes.

5. Grouper - Ruins
like being suffocated by six feet of snow. an incredibly cold and dark album that still retains its emotion and isn't impenetrable at all. in fact, it's pretty much the exact opposite. while the melodies are still as buried as they've always been in Grouper's music, they're allowed more room to breathe and they aren't covered with quite as much obscuring hiss and fuzz. this makes the music even more intimate and personal, which ends up working quite well for her, as this is probably her best album yet (or at least my favorite. I never really could get into the earlier stuff).

4. D'Angelo and the Vanguard - Black Messiah
NEW D'ANGELO WHAT THE FUCK??? GODDAM????? yeah I never really listened to Voodoo that much but this is really cool, and it's clearly a Statement as well. an incredible soul album with one of the best vocalists of all time, possibly, over top of it. a lot of people are already calling this the best soul album of all time. while it's not really my area of expertise, they're not far off.

3. The War on Drugs - Lost in the Dream
Bruce Springsteen fed through a hypnagogic, glossy, 2010s filter. this is one hell of a melodramatic album, but it's all the better for it. I love Bruce, so it naturally follows that I'd dig this -- especially considering the average song length is like 6 and a half minutes and there are a bunch of weird, synth-y interludes that are a thrill to listen to. add in the fact that the lyrics (or what's intelligible at least) are at the very least affecting, and it feels incredibly eager and emotional and you've got one hell of a strong album on your hands. it's another album that needs some time to sink in.

2. Ricky Eat Acid - Three Love Songs
what helps here is that I was already a huge fan of this guy's previous group, Teen Suicide, which is absolutely nothing like this project. while this is glitchy ambient electronic, Teen Suicide was some lo-fi noise pop emo shit (one of my favorite bands ever at this point too). so when I came across this I was eager for more of the same. needless to say, I was dickslapped by the first non-intro track's 2 and a half minutes of bubbling, glitching, amelodic synths. the one thing that felt familiar was the tape hiss cutting through the back of everything -- this guy surely hasn't improved on the recording quality, but it's all the better for it. this is some of the most evocative ambient I've ever heard in my entire life. from the song titles ("Driving alone post roadwork at night," "It will draw me over to it like it always does," "Outside your house; the lights went out & there was nothing," etc. (capitalization (or lack thereof) [sic])) to the overall pastoral and nostalgic feel of the whole thing, this didn't fail to transport me to some grassy field somewhere, or some druggy rave, or some somber night alone in a bedroom with a lot of alcohol, or something to that effect. you need to hear this shit for yourself. and if you do go check this out, the second half is a lot more "song-y;" most of the stuff there bangs, whereas the first half is far more subtle.

1. The Hotelier - Home, Like No Place Is There
the first few times I heard this album I was severely underwhelmed and (past the first song) thought it was just emo by numbers. this is an album that really reveals itself to you across multiple, careful listens. you really need to sit down with the lyrics sheet on this one. emo has rarely read this well, and oftentimes the genre comes across as melodramatic amateur high school angsty poetry, but not here. you can feel the pain dripping off these lyrics, and you get the feeling that they are legitimate capital-p Problems that they've been grappling with for some time and that will always remain tucked away in the back of their minds, forever, stinking it up. I've heard this some 30-odd times since June. seeing it live helps, too. (it was awesome.)

^ Yes! Love all three albums, esp. Ricky Eat Acid. His's LP was an early album of the year contender. It was one of the most intimate music I've heard anywhere from 2014, and the segue from the first 6 lo-fi tracks into trip-hop track 7 and disco track 8 from Three Love Songs was one of the most memorable moments I've ever experienced last year in any LP, personally, and it turned me into an instant fan.

My top 30 albums of 2014. The listing is swishy-swashy beyond #10 but I do love all the LPs I list.

1. Trophy Scars - Holy Vacants (AOTY 2014)
2. Francis Harris - Minutes of Sleep
3. Run the Jewels - Run the Jewels 2
4. Grand Beach - Grand Beach
5. Ariel Pink - pom pom
6. Ricky Eat Acid - Three Love Songs
7. Sun Kil Moon - Benji
8. Two Knights - Shut Up
9. Frank & Tony - You Go Girl
10. FKA twigs - LP1
---
11. Human Hands - S/T LP
12. D'Angelo and the Vanguard - Black Messiah
13. Inigo Kennedy - Vaudeville
14. Andy Stott - Faith in Strangers
15. St. Vincent - St. Vincent
16. The Hotelier - Home, Like Noplace Is There
17. Vtgnike - Dubna
18. Flying Lotus - You're Dead!
19. Casualties of Cool - Casualties of Cool
20. Dean Blunt - Black Metal
---
21. Sleaford Mods - Divide and Exit
22. Benjamin Booker - Benjamin Booker
23. Copeland - Because You're Worth It
24. Machine Girl - WLFGRL
25. Freddie Gibbs & Madlib - Piñata
26. Owen Pallett - In Conflict
27. Optimo (Espacio) - Dark Was The Night
28. Epik High - Shoebox
29. Fatima - Yellow Memories
30. Elephant Gym - 角度

seriously, what a great fucking year for music. Here's to 2015.

I love this time of year when it comes to music. I have a fair grasp on what's been shaking in the twin worlds of film and television year-round but, unless a seismic cultural event occurs e.g. the releases of 1989 by Taylor Swift/Black Messiah by D'Angelo (one of which is on my list), I tend to devour best-of lists when they arrive in December/January time. It's the one time of year where I truly discover new music that'll already feel out-of-sync with what the rest of the music community is listening to the next year (ooh, new Sleater-Kinney stuff!) I've even found new stuff that has appeared on one or two lists in this very thread, so that's always exciting!

I also love Top 10 lists. But I'm also quite militant when it comes to them: no 'honourable mentions', no tied places, no unranked lists. That being said, when I come to make my own, I prefer a Top 15, which is what I've done for this. 10 often feels like too small a number to take account of all the embarrassment of riches that entertainments have to offer each year, but 20 feels a bit too much, especially in lean years. Hence 15.

My friends tell me that I have an eclectic taste in music, and I sort of agree. When looking at the Wikipedia descriptions for the albums below, there were a bevy of new genres that I didn't even know existed until researching them. In addition to the traditional 'indie rock', 'blues' and 'country', the list below contains multitudes - multitudes, I say! - of genres, including: 'trip hop', 'quiet storm', 'neo-psychedelia', 'worldbeat', 'space disco', and 'post-punk revival'. See if you can guess which ones are which in the list below, all of which I love for various reasons:

15: The Twilight Sad - Nobody Wants To Be Here and Nobody Wants To Leave
14: The War on Drugs - Lost in the Dream
13: Jenny Lewis - The Voyager
12: Jack White - Lazaretto
11: Against Me! - Transgender Dysphoria Blues
10: Royal Blood - Royal Blood
9: Tune-Yards - Nikki Nack
8: St. Vincent - St. Vincent
7: Spoon - They Want My Soul
6: Trophy Scars - Holy Vacants
5: Ex Hex - Rips
4: Sturgill Simpson - Metamodern Sounds in Country Music
3: FKA Twigs - LP1
2: D'Angelo and the Vanguard - Black Messiah
1: Todd Terje - It's Album Time

I was originally going to do some big, long-ass write-up about why I like each album on the list, but I haven't got the time to write it and you guys sure as hell won't read it all and this post is already too long as it is, so instead I've put links to my favourite songs of each album as a sampler. If people like what they hear, I'd encourage them to check out the entire album in question.

2014 was really a year of finding music and breaking from the radio for me. I went through several "phases" before I found the music I can relate to the most. I started from Top 40 then I went through Dubstep, Rap and just a little Salsa. I finally ended my 2014 journey mostly listening to indie rock and alternative. I always looked for the similar sound that Gorillaz gave on their songs "Plastic Beach", "Melancholy Hill" and, of course "Feel Good Inc". Around early summer one of my internet amigos introduced me to Modest Mouse which I would basically say is one of the best things that happened in 2014. My introduction to Modest Mouse also helped introduce me to many different groups I love today.


The Strokes - Angles
I actually knew a little of about the Strokes before being introduced to MM but this album was really big for me this year. For me it really started with Call me Back and then branched from there. I honestly didn't even like that song to begin with and now it's one of my favorites.

Cage the Elephant - Melophobia
Cage is a fairly new group for me considering I started listening to them about 5 months ago. They're pretty high on my list considering they only have like 3 albums out. I'm ecstatic to hear more from them.


The Strokes - First Impressions of Earth
I'm usually pretty slow to check out albums considering I usually only listen to Pandora but after hearing Ize of the world and Ask me anything I rushed to listen to the whole album. I think I can safely say there isn't a song on this album that I don't like. That's what I love about the Strokes, there are rarely shit albums and the great albums are solid the whole way through. Plus I love their bass parts on their songs and the covers on youtube are A+.


Modest Mouse - The Lonesome Crowded West
Oh boy MM knows how to steal your soul. Hands down my favorite album of 2014. Their sounds is extremely original and I wouldn't want them any other way. One day when they decide to tour (hopefully i'll be in college by then) i'm going to see one of their fricken concerts.


The Drums - Portamento
Also an amazing album. The drums have a completely different sound from any of the above. They're actually have a nice beachy vibe. Sadly I don't have much to say about them but I would recommend for those looking for something different to listen to.

Only on trying to figure out which albums were even candidates, and coming up with very few more than I actually listened to in the whole year, did I realise what a truly horrific year for music 2014 was. Only the top two albums really hit me to any degree and even then #1 is the only one I've absolutely raved about. Ladies and gentlemen I present the most rubbish AotY list ever.


#5. Ruins by Grouper

sample
This album is vacant as anything. I described it when I was listening to it as being alone at home on some totally uneventful night sat killing time by watching shit TV. So it kinda sounds weird that I'd put it in top 5 but it's the empty, almost flat atmosphere that it brings on which is the reason why I enjoyed it so much in the first place. It's a difficult task to describe really how exactly an album with so little going on can feel so... huge and all-engulfing, but it just kinda does. It just wraps you up in a load of nothing and I kinda loved it. It's hard to explain what I mean so just go listen to that link if you're interested.


#4. A U R O R A by Ben Frost

sample
I will not lie to you. I dislike the sound that Ben Frost and his weird set of buttons makes. I dislike it more every time I listen to this album. It sounds tinny, flat, and like everything is struggling way too hard to be heard. ...but it's organised so goddamn beautifully and comes together in these huge crushing epiphanies that absolutely drown you in sound and oh my fucking god ben frost pls stop. It's rare that something that I dislike so much on the surface makes it into my good books - and pretty much novel that something like that'd get onto an AotY list - but despite my major issue with it I absolutely love the music he's created and how this album comes together to make an absolute spectacle of noise. Good show, Ben Frost.


#3. And the War Came by Shakey Graves

sample (this one sounds kinda crap, but most of them are live otherwise)
I don't know how to describe this album because there's so much different stuff on it (and, invariably as you see with albums like that, there's some stuff that is... really not good) but for the most part it's done very well. It's kinda hard therefore for me to pin down exactly what it is about this album that does it for me, but... it's probably just the collection of nice things on it, haha. I actually had quite a hard time picking one song to source for this and if you do listen to what I linked and enjoy it I really recommend you check out the rest of the album too. It's a good, fun, interesting listen which takes you through quite a lot of different moods. Also I think his voice and guitar work is quite cool which is nice since that's mostly all there is too it, haha.


#2. Lost In The Dream by The War On Drugs

sample
I genuinely believe that, as far as you can objectively say anything is the best in music anyway (protip: you can't really to any significant extent), this is, purely musically speaking, the best album of 2014. Full stop, hands down, this is it. This is just over an hour of some of the most fantastically crafted, meticulously thought-out, uplifting-without-being-obnoxious, "it just works" music that I have ever heard. This album is an absolute masterpiece of music for people who like music and want to listen to an album where everything is just where it should be and it all flows really smoothly. It's one of the most polished works that I've ever heard.

...and therein lies its problem, and why it isn't my #1 for this year. It's absolutely delightfully made but in that they've not allowed themselves any mistakes, any inconsistencies, any moments of them just getting the fuck into it and not caring if the end recording sounds a bit less consistent and a bit rougher around the edges (beyond towards the end of Red Eyes that is, maybe). The result is something brilliantly designed but also predictable, passive at points, and I'd even go to say unnatural and inexpressive to some degree. I can't listen to it without wishing they'd gone just that little bit further or done something just that little bit differently to really bring this thing to life. It's a brilliantly crafted album but I don't really feel much when I'm listening to it beyond "oh, this sounds really good". I found it disappointing on that front, so it's not getting the top spot from me.


#1. Three Love Songs by Ricky Eat Acid

sample
Probably one of the most soul-crushing deeply emotional rollercoasters of electronic music that I have ever heard, which is weird since only at one point does it actually get even mildly rollercoaster-ish; you'll see what I mean if you've heard it. I don't know if it's the oddly specific track titles, the only real coherent vocals that are obviously talking about something related to the album being the opening track, or the just... sort of progressive nature of the album in terms of mood, but this is a story with almost no words. And it's one messed up story.

The album is a mess. It's unpolished, it's random at points, it's often directionless. It's a confused slew of sounds that aren't quite sure what they're doing or why they're there but they're doing their bit the best they can. And it's, I feel, perfectly representative of how the producer wanted it to be. From his other work with a different band you can tell this guy has a lot of shit to talk about and although he's not talking about it exactly here, this is what it'd sound like if you could put it into a series of un-coordinated bleeps, samples and textures. I don't think I have ever - and would honestly say I don't think I will ever again - heard this kind of complexity in a situation be expressed in so few words. This is one of the most incredible things I've ever heard.


Ya. Honourable mentions to releases by Caribou, The Birthday Massacre, Aphex Twin, Andy Stott and others.