Favorite Albums of 2014 Year End List

[suburbanxcore]

Totally forgot I've listened to Sun Kil Moon's Benji a lot. Dur.

At times, an incredible record and it almost made my list. The songs (and album as a whole) are just way too long for my attention span. Although I saw Kozelek play a two hour show a few months back and was spellbound the entire time.

Weird sidenote about that album: right around the time it came out, I had spilled a bunch of gasoline in my garage trying to fix my lawnmower. I sopped it up with old cardboard and kitty litter, but it was a few days before trash day. I heard the song "Carissa" for the first time and spent two or three days panicked that I was going to kill myself, my wife, or a trash guy.

[ThatGuy]

D'Angelo - Black Messiah

J.Cole - 2013 Forest Hills Drive

Schoolboy Q - Oxymoron

Jhene Aiko - Souled Out

Chuck Inglish - Convertibles

Chromeo - White Women

Fink - Hard Believer

Pharell Williams - Girl

Prince - Art Official Age

Run The Jewels - Run The Jewels 2

[CABS]

That new D'Angelo album is too good.

[CultExciter]

Beach Slang - Who Would Ever Want Anything So Broken? and Cheap Thrills on a Dead End Street

So very good!

[suburbanxcore]

@CultExciter, I'm friendly with Ed, their bassist. When he sent me their record a few weeks early, I didn't know what to expect, but I was totally floored. So damn good.

[ItsNewport]

Big fan of the self titled album by Royal Blood

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6GhA5bULnA

Also Once More Round The Sun by Mastodon

I'm sure there are others but those spring to mind immediately

[polliwog]

Taylor Swift - 1989

I went out and got this and the Scott Walker/Sunn O))) record on the same day and still haven't listened to the latter because of what @Graeme says about Swans. But I've listened to the Taylor Swift album a ton. I know it's Okay To Like Pop Music again, but I'm still glad you pushed the boat out on this one.

I also liked the Fucked Up record, and The Both. Otherwise I've been pretty ignorant of what's happened this year. The Singles Jukebox usually steers me right re: singles.

This is embarrassing, but I don't really know how to find music since my favorite record store in Boston closed...I think 2/3 of what I own came from there. I don't like downloading and I don't like streaming. I guess I need to get out to shows more often and figure out how to listen to the music instead of thinking about how much I hate people who text constantly.

[Graeme]

I guess I need to get out to shows more often and figure out how to listen to the music instead of thinking about how much I hate people who text constantly.

Hahaha, I like you.

I saw Neurosis and Godspeed You Black Emperor in January--I've seen Godspeed many times, though never Neurosis even though I've been into them for a long, long time--and the people at the show kind of ruined it for me. The thing with Godspeed locally is that for a lot of people they're a band who's shows you want to be seen at to establish some kind of douchebag credibility so a ton of people there were there for seemingly no good reason, which meant that when Neurosis was playing I got stuck behind a guy who was completely wasted and taking pictures of the band through the bottom of his empty plastic beer glass, and then when he finally staggered away, he was replaced by a dirty, dirty hippie couple where the dude had dreads that smelled like dead things and a Greenpeace t-shirt, and they spent the rest of the set making out. For fuck's sake. At least I managed to wrangle backstage access for Godspeed so I could watch the band play without being distracted by idiots.

Fenriz said something once to the effect of how for him music isn't about the live experience but rather is about the relationship between him and his headphones or his speakers and the record or tape he's listening to and I think he's on to something here.

[sophistre]

Neurosis and GYBE are <3.

I haven't been to a live show in a long time (since leaving Boston actually, as it happens), but I do remember being at the Middle East downstairs trying to watch a Mono/Pelican show, and no matter where I stood I seemed to be standing right next to some drunk, shouting freshman co-ed who didn't care about any of the delicate bits in the music. I'm not gonna pretend regular shows are a sure thing, but all-ages shows can bite me.

There's definitely something to be said for the vinyl experience.

[CultExciter]

This is embarrassing, but I don't really know how to find music since my favorite record store in Boston closed...I think 2/3 of what I own came from there.

This probably makes me a mongo, but is Newbury Comics still around? I always loved going to the one downtown.

[polliwog]

Newbury Comics is still around, but it's become more of a Spencer Gifts/Hot Topic hybrid with the music as an afterthought in most locations. They sell more vinyl than before, although in the context it seems like more of a thing to be seen with in your shopping bag than a way to convey music. It always used to sell a lot of tchotchkes though, and it's probably just the business model that works - which bums me out, which I also suspect may be a cranky and backwards way to feel. I was just reading a thing about 60s experimental music and how so much of it got the deluxe box-set treatment in the 90s and early 2000s, and how antithetical that was to the spirit in which the music was made...and thinking, maybe it's good to look critically at my preference for sitting by myself and listening to the same thing over and over. Maybe those streaming services I don't like make it easier to grow up loving music while being less into self-definition via ownership.

The place I miss is Twisted Village. There's a record store there again now that I still haven't been to - I think it's more punk-oriented. If you were into Twisted Village's thing, you would probably be intrigued by most of what was in that store. And the people who owned it were so nice. There are still good record stores around, though.

@sophistre, funny you should mention the Middle East cos that's the exact place I was thinking of - lost-looking freshmen ignoring whatever's happening on stage. At a Legendary Pink Dots show there, some guy with underage X's on his hands decided that was the ideal first time to drop acid without a drug buddy. I always used to hate how age-restrictive most Boston venues were, but too bad.

[polliwog]

I also like albums by Katy B and Charli XCX that came out this year. I have no problem with things that sound like Kylie Minogue.

[exume]

I'm going to jump on with everyone and say I loved RTJ2, its been getting the most play in my car since it dropped for sure. Other stand outs in hip hop for me were the Souls of Mischief with There Is Only Now, and Dilated Peoples latest Directors of Photography. 7262 got a bit of internet fame when a wedding party rolled up on their video shoot this summer, but outside of all the memes it's mostly a solid hip hop album with an interesting mix of gangster and nerd culture.

Outside of rap, The Black Keys - Turn Blue has been getting a lot of play, it feels more polished and sometimes like early 2000s indie stuff at points as opposed to their earlier, grungier rock'n'roll releases but I'm not complaining, it's always good to see a band expand instead of making the same album time and time again.

...and even further from my first paragraph of banging beats and cutthroat lyricism, The String Cheese Incident put out their first album in almost 10 years, Song in my Head is full of old classic tour songs that never found their way into the studio, really fun to hear polished versions of this stuff I've heard countless times on the stairs of Red Rocks and a few other venues. This is the first time they've brought in an outside producer to work on an album for them, and yet somehow it feels most like what you get live compared to their earlier releases. I'm sure most of you guys aren't down with the hippie dippy type stuff that makes me groove, but if you're into bluegrass at all maybe give them a listen or two.

[jimstanley]

GS9 - Shmoney

Schoolboy Q - Oxymoron

Mick Jenkins - The Waters

OG Maco - EP

Ilovemakonnen - EP

Father - Young Hot Ebony

Been living in NYC's LES. If you couldn't tell.

[DeathB4Decaf]

It's been the Year of the Podcast for me, yet again. Some good new stuff were added into regular rotation (for when Reba and George Strait just ain't cutting it).

My most anticipated release this year was the new Slapshot. I'm into it, but honestly haven't played it as much as I'd expect myself to. Maybe 5 years from now it'll be a staple. Really into the new Fucked Up. I'd say Black Anvil's Hail Death is near perfect. Like holy shit perfect. New Lana Del Ray is a good late night jam coming off being at work for 12hrs. New Crowbar was so good. Same goes for new SOIA and Ryan Adams, too. Can't forget Miranda Lambert making me car sing all the time.

[DJDeepFried]

My Top 14 of 2014:

1. Run The Jewels – Run The Jewels 2

2. D’Angelo – Black Messiah

3. TV On The Radio – Seeds

4. Spoon – They Want My Soul

5. Jack White – Lazaretto

6. Young Fathers – Dead

7. Brody Dalle – Diploid Love

8. Ty Segall – Manipulator

9. Beck – Morning Phase

10. Benjamin Booker – Benjamin Booker

11. Freddie Gibbs & Madlib – Piñata

12. Oozing Wound – Earth Suck

13. Pallbearer – Foundations of Burden

14. Mike Coulter – Saviors

[CultExciter]

I'm adding this record. It's blowing my mind.

[SStu]

Old fart warning:

King Crimson's 2014 Tour Box set.

Really looking forward to the release of their live ep release in the next week, too.