2014 was not the best year for music. Two weeks ago I had no idea how this list would look. Up until mid-December there was not a great album released in 2014 (In 2013 there were at least five). There were several very good ones released throughout the year. But as I set about making my top albums list, I found myself unable to call anything the best of the year. I even thought about making a top 20 in-no-order list. Fortunately, something happened in mid-December that made everything clear; that threw the state of music in 2014 into sharp relief. The rest of my top 10 fell neatly into place, so here goes.
