Favorite Albums of 2014

Below are the twenty albums released in 2014 that grabbed my attention and kept it. Some of them will sooth the soul, and some will rustle your jimmies. Scroll down for the countdown (and click the art to hear a track off the album).

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20. Timbre Timbre
Hot Dreams

[Spaced-out blues-tinged cabin jams from some other decade. The perfect way to kick off this list....]
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19. Logic
Under Pressure

[This one steals a lot as well -- too much, really -- from Kendrick's GKMC and ATCQ's Midnight Maraders. But I can't think of two better albums to imitate. Plus he imitates them well and the result is very enjoyable.]
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18. Future Islands
Singles

[These guys have been slowly growing on me over the past several years. Like many others I caught their Letterman performance earlier this year and finally saw the man behind that growl. His charisma fully won me over that day.]
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17. Simone Felice
Strangers

[The latest from the man who left his brothers while they continue doing their thing as The Felice Brothers. Simone has gone on to create some amazing roots music of his own and Strangers is his best yet.]
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16. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy
Singer's Grave A Sea of Tongues

[Will Oldham is tough to keep up with. If you look away for a couple of months, you might miss an album release or two. But he always rewards his followers -- and this new one is no different. The songs on Singer's Grave are mostly culled from his 2011 release Wolfroy Goes to Town and reworked with the best Nashville has to offer.]
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15. Caribou
Our Love

[Dan Snaith won me over 11 years ago as Manitoba with his album Up in Flames. For some reason, I made the mistake of completely sleeping on his output under the moniker Caribou, though. No longer! This is electronic music made for humans. Daft Punk, take notice.]
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14. Angel Olsen
Burn Your Fire For No Witness

[Will Oldham's prolific output doesn't come without the help of a band of merry men and women. Angel Olsen has been involved in his work and toured with his band, but now she has stepped out on her own. Her last effort was a beginning, but this is a big leap forward as her first release under Jagjaguwar. The directions that she chooses to take her melodies, as well as her decision to plug in and turn the amp up have put her on the list of the many female songwriters who killed it this year.]
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13. Beck
Morning Phase

[When the swelling strings of "Cycle" faded into the acoustic strumming of "Morning" on my first listen, my heart leaped. But when the bass slid in and the drums hit a few seconds later, I felt my whole body floating. I was in high school again, hearing the opening of Sea Change. The territory may be well tread, but that is fine by me.]
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12. Wye Oak
Shriek

[Wye Oak win this year's out-of-left-field award. I did NOT expect this kind of music from these two. Jenn Wasner was a guitar-slinging badass on the previous album. To be honest, I was a little bit disappointed when I heard the first notes of Shriek, but my disappointment quickly faded into head-bobbing enjoyment. It seems like the synth-heavy music has afforded Wasner more space to play with melody and she kills it. I told you the ladies killed it this year.]
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11. Grouper
Ruins

[Liz Harris has put me to sleep many many times over the past 6 years. Let me be clear, that is a good thing. The sleep did not come from boredom, but from the intense relaxation her music brings. Her hazy, reverb-heavy music comes in a slightly different package this year. She traveled to Portugal to be an artist in residence and brought her 4-track recorder along with her. Most of the album is just her and the piano, synching her vocal melody to that of the piano and lulling us into her dream world. And killing it.]
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10. Isaiah Rashad
Cilvia Demo

[Top Dawg Entertainment have firmly established themselves as the best hip hop production facility around. Their newest signee, Isaiah Rashad, hails from Chattanooga, Tennessee. His debut EP shows that he can keep up with the best: his label-mates Schoolboy Q and Jay Rock (who are featured on the album version of this track). I can't wait for a collaboration with Kendrick. It also shows that he can give us a cohesive collection of tracks longer than most LPs.]
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9. Ryan Adams
Ryan Adams

[Here's another prolific songwriter who is even harder to keep up with than Will Oldham. Many critics like to say that Ryan needs an editor. Well, they can't complain with this one. All of these tracks are keepers. To be clear, though, I love all the toss-aways that he's given us over the years. It is his unfiltered creations that make him my absolute favorite artist. Here, though, he is efficient and succinct. He's mostly shed the singer-songwriter feel of Ashes & Fire for a full-band approach yielding songs that feel like they've been around for years.]
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8. Swans
To Be Kind

[This is a monster of an album. It is a behemoth. It is a monolith. It is intimidating and very hard to break. Fortunately, I had to write a research paper about the propaganda films of the Third Reich for a class this semester, so I had about 9 straight hours to absorb this thing while I researched and wrote. The pairing worked oddly well. Michael Gira wants to be an artist -- that is his main concern. Well, he's created some fine art again with To Be Kind.]
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7. Jennifer Castle
Pink City

[I honestly don't know much of anything about this album other than how beautiful it is. I think the mystery adds to the allure a little bit, but these tracks stand on their own and don't need a story to prop them up. It sounds straight out of the late 60s/early 70s folk-rock scene, but with a modern twist. Another lady killed it -- that's all I really know.  ---Edit: Owen Pallett composed the string arrangements. I should have known.... that is the "modern twist" I'm hearing.]
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6. Sam Amidon
Lily-O

[Sam Amidon has been quietly creating some of my favorite music for the past 7 years. He is a Vermont-native who grew up with musician parents who steeped him in the traditions of Appalachian music. Most of his own output has been beautifully-inventive reworkings of some of those traditions. He has since moved to London and married the English singer-songwriter Beth Orton, but he has not left behind his Appalachian palette.]

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5. St. Vincent
St. Vincent

[Annie Clark is the total package. She is a treasure. She is a beautiful indie angel flown down to earth to bestow us with her gift of rock. Her newest gift might be her weirdest and most rocking yet.]
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4. Flying Lotus
You're Dead!

[Progressive jazz/hip hop/electronica at it's very finest. If you haven't heard something to tickle your fancy yet, just wait a few seconds and Steven Ellison will throw something else at you. I like to think this is the music that Miles Davis would be making if he were still with us.]
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3. Freddie Gibbs & Madlib

Piñata

[This hip hop effort stood miles above the rest for me this year. Madlib delivers maybe the best beats of his career. That's right, it maaaaybe better than Madvilliany. I'm not sure about that, but I do know that Piñata hits hard. The pairing of Madlib with MC Freddie Gibbs works very well, too. Gibb's technique as a rapper may not match the best of his peers, but it works with the music. Those beats need room to breathe and soak in. This album was on repeat for the better part of the summer.]

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2. Sharon Van Etten

Are We There

[I don't mean to be sexist by pointing out the gender of all these ladies, it's just that I grew up with a majority of dudes in my CD case and iPod. And it's not like it's surprising for a lady to put out a killer record or anything, but the sheer amount of high-quality music put out by women this year is something I noticed. And of all the ladies, Sharon Van Etten killed it the most. This album is nearly flawless -- the cover puts out the perfect vibe you need to have going in. I can't wait for warmer weather so I can join her with my windows down as I blast Are We There all day.]
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1. The War on Drugs

Lost in the Dream

[And finally, the one album I could not get enough of this year. It has not left heavy rotation status since I bought it back in March. Adam Granduciel has created a masterpiece. I've read all the criticisms of it's length or of it's boring stretches, and I've listened to an old man call it beer commercial rock, but I still love it to pieces. 2014 was the year of Lost in the Dream for me. And it was a good year.]
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