Best Music of 2014

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.



Honorable Mention

...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - IX
Alcest - Shelter
The Antlers - Familiars
Badbadnotgood - III
Being As An Ocean - How We Both Wondrously Perish
Big K.R.I.T - Cadillactica
Braid - No Coast
Colony House - When I Was Younger
Crowder - Neon Steeple
First Aid Kit - Stay Gold
The Hold Steady - Teeth Dreams
Jack White - Lazaretto
Lecrae - Anomoly
Lykke Li - I Never Learn
Mac Demarco - Salad Days
Mastodon - Once More 'Round the Sun
Modern Baseball - You're Gonna Miss It All
Nux Vomica - Nux Vomica
The Pains of Being Pure At Heart - Days of Abandon
The Roots - ...And Then You Shoot Your Cousin
The Rural Alberta Advantage - Mended With Gold
Spoon - They Want My Soul
Sturgill Simpson - Metamodern Sounds In Country Music
Sun Kil Moon - Benji
Swans - To Be Kind
Thievery Corporation - Saudade
Trampled By Turtles - Wild Animals
Tycho - Awake
Warpaint - Warpaint
Wooden Wand - Farmer's Corner

10. Shabazz Palaces - Lese Majesty
Lese Majesty has more variety than 2011's Black Up, but Shabazz Palaces are just as experimental as ever. "#CAKE" is the most accessible song on the album, and it pauses mid-chorus to run through an out of time soul sample breakdown.

9. Parquet Courts - Sunbathing Animal
It's NYC stoner punk, with a title track about a cat in a window. Parquet Courts proved with 2013's Light Up Gold that they could transcend typical stoner indie with excellent guitar work and solid songwriting. Sunbathing Animal improved on Gold in every way, from pacing to songwriting to production.

8. Real Estate - Atlas
The sunnier disposition of Days has shifted slightly on Atlas. Real Estate have always had a little melancholy in the lyrics, but Atlas has even more of a longing feeling than their previous work. As always, the lead guitar and the vocals are given equal billing, and their interplay is the crucial element of Real Estate's success.

7. Run the Jewels - Run the Jewels 2
Meaner and more pissed off than last year's excellent debut, RTJ continues to prove they are the best at rap right now, full stop. El-P's production is grimy and crunchy and mean, and both men excel vocally over them. However, Killer Mike gets the best verse of the record in on "Lie, Cheat, Steal."

6. Cymbals Eat Guitars - LOSE
LOSE is packed with mid-20s angst and excellent guitar work, but what makes LOSE great is the variety of songwriting. "Xr" is a punk-country screamer with a harmonica solo, "Jackson" is a indie crooner, and "Chambers" (my favorite song) is a 70s throwback with lovely wide open guitars and a boppin' rhythm section.

5. F-cked Up - Glass Boys
"Glass Boys" is the finest song of the year, and the rest of the album preceding it isn't too shabby either. Everything is presented in a thick layer of crunch, including the drums, which sound as if they are being played with tree bark sticks. The screamed vocals are perfectly mixed, and Damian Abraham wrenches them out with powerful brutality.

4. Cloud Nothings - Here and Nowhere Else
The best drumming of the year came from Brann Dailor on Mastodon's Once More 'Round the Sun. A well deserved silver medal goes to Jason Gerycz for his efforts on Here and Nowhere Else. Gerycz's speed and power are perfect for frontman Dylan Baldi's consistent post-pop punk songwriting ethos. Baldi's songwriting has reached a new high with album closer "I'm Not Part of Me."

3. The Hotelier - Home, Like Noplace is There
Emo revivalists The Hotelier write heart wrenching songs with soaring choruses. Relationships with friends and family are fraught with emotional abuse and brokenness. "An Introduction to the Album" and "Your Deep Rest" are standout tracks.

2. The War on Drugs - Lost in the Dream
Lost in the Dream finds Adam Granduciel channeling some of my dad's favorite artists, most notably Fleetwood Mac and Jackson Browne. The songwriting here is excellent, but the production is where The War on Drugs find their niche. The rhythm guitar is dreamy; the bass and drums melt into the mix; the lead guitar cuts through in grand lines, and the vocals sound as if they were sung through cheesecloth. The occasional "woo!" from Granduciel underscores how much fun these songs must have been to play.

1. D'Angelo - Black Messiah
Before Black Messiah came out on December 15, there was no #1 album of the year. The preceding 5 albums are all very, very good, but I would have felt wrong making any of them #1. Rembert Browne summed my dilemma up nicely with this tweet.

craziest thing about this d'angelo album is that it's a great album in 2014
— Rembert Browne (@rembert) December 15, 2014

Black Messiah is magnificent. It is spectacular. It is so far and away the best music of the year. "The Charade" is one of the finest protest songs of our generation. "Really Love" is a beautiful blend of Spanish guitar and R&B. "Back to the Future (Part 1)" is funky as hell. "Till It's Done (Tutu)" somehow manages to sound ahead and behind the beat. "Another Life" is a soul dreamscape. I've only spent a couple weeks with this album, and it's place at the top has become more clear every time I listen to it. Welcome back, D'Angelo. You returned at just the right time.