Well as opposed to last year's list, I actually managed to be on time with the top albums list of 2014. Writing this now, I realize that every year I make myself do more and more work writing about one more album. Shit, if I have to talk about 20 albums in 2020 I better have a lot of free time on my hands. There were disappointments, a lot of them, and still a lot of albums I heard great things about but never got the chance to listen to in depth, like St. Vincent's self-titled effort or Iceage's Plowing Into The Field of Love, so you can expect not to see those in this list. Personally, there seemed to be more singles that caught my attention than full-length albums, but I will save that for the next post on the top 14 tracks of 2014. Let's pull a Marty McFly right now and set the DeLorean back to January 1st as we take a look at the albums I enjoyed this year.
14. TURN BLUE
Artist: The Black Keys
Genre: Indie Rock, Alternative Rock
Stand-Out Tracks: "Fever", "Bullet In The Brain", "10 Lovers"
The Black Keys, consisting of rock duo Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney, come back with an improved effort from their 2011 album El Camino, which I think personally lacked the groove that made Brothers such a success. Well, they didn't disappoint with this album: The Black Keys brought back the heavy synthesizer influence from their previous albums, with a new funky tone set for the entire record. "Fever", the first single released, really got me hyped up because they blaring synth keyboards paired with Auerbach's versatile hooks is that unique Black Keys sound I've been searching for. "Weight of Love" is the perfect intro track to reintroduce both old and new listeners what they're all about: Dan's mystifying vocals over a grungey, desert-rock track only to finish off with an electrifying guitar solo that'll make you drop. This song is a good representation of the whole album's excellent grasp on the use of escalation; they always start off slow and make you want more from the beginning, whether it be an increased tempo, Dan's high notes, or sick guitar solos. Maybe that's why they have a song called "In Time".
13. OG MACO EP
Artist: OG Maco
Genre: Hip Hop, Alternative Rap
SOT's: "CRU", "Undefeated", "FuckEmx3", "U Guessed It (ft. 2 Chainz)"
This was probably the most surprising release of the year. Just before 2014 came to a close, OG Maco released this 15-song EP through DatPiff and was astoundingly better than I thought it would be. OG Maco rose to fame mainly from Vine trends parodies of his hit single "U Guessed It" which introduced the world to his innovative style combining violent howls and screams with some eerie, stripped down trap beats. I honestly thought Maco would be another one-hit wonder like Chief Keef after "I Don't Like" (hip-hop heads come at me), but after watching his 20-minute documentary, I'm impressed with how mature and serious he is about producing rap music. Maco's unique style comprises of an abundance of his ad-libs scattered throughout the album ('Fuck em fuck em fuck em' or my favourite, the 'Grah grah grah!'), very simple and rudimentary trap beats, and his aggressive outbursts of 'hwoo!' screams. If you're not into his style, you gotta at least admit that it catches your attention. I have a good feeling OG Maco is no one-hit wonder, and I'm interested in hearing some of his future releases. The OG Maco EP is an approved banger album to bump in the whip with the bass turned up.
12. YOU'RE DEAD!
Artist: Flying Lotus
Genre: Electronic Jazz, Brainfeeder
SOT's: "Never Catch Me (ft. Kendrick Lamar)", "Siren Song (ft. Angel Deradoorian", "Moment of Hesitation"
It's not until Flying Lotus releases his fifth album that you realize either 1. the dude has been in the game for a while, or 2. this dude is pretty old. But compared to his other projects, this has got to be the most ambitious, most detailed, most fluid, and the most fucked up (in the best way possible). Being the nephew of both Alice and John Coltrane, you can tell jazz runs in the family with this exciting album, playing with the interesting, morbid concept of death. The songs individually are quite short, which is a bummer, but the continuity and flow of the album makes up for it; the transitions from song to song are almost seamless. FlyLo had a large array of features like Snoop Dogg, Captain Murphy, Thundercat, and Niki Randa. Good front to back listen if you're looking for bursts of energy, sweet saxophone interludes, and gloomy, dark beats that can send chills down your spine ("Ready Err Not" and "Descent Into Madness" will send your ears straight to a purgatory-esque atmosphere).
11. LOST IN THE DREAM
Artist: The War on Drugs
Genre: Indie
SOT's: "Red Eyes", "An Ocean in Between the Waves"
Yes, the same War on Drugs that Sun Kil Moon released the one of the first ever indie diss tracks towards titled "War On Drugs: Suck My Cock". This was my first encounter with the indie rock band, but Lost in the Dream is their third release. The album is an interesting combination of steady, lethargic songs (take for example "Suffering" or "The Haunting Idle", the latter of which is titled accordingly), with a very gentle escalation to the more energetic tracks like "Red Eyes" and "Burning". If you want a more mellow, country-esque version of Robin Pecknold's voice combined with some soft synths and trance-inducing guitar ballads, give this album a listen with some patience.
10. GODDESS
Artist: Banks
Genre: Indie Pop
SOT's: "Beggin For Thread", "Warm Water", "Fall Over"
This is OC native Jillian Banks' debut album, Goddess, which I discovered from a Djemba Djemba remix of her song "Fall Over". If I had to summarize this album bluntly, just picture an Ellie Goulding-type vocalist over the soft trap beats you'd expect on a Lorde album. These beats are trippy, fusing vocal distortions with 808 snare hits, psychedelic chillwave-style synthesizers, and sometimes a piano line (the song "Goddess", coincidentally enough, embodies the sound of this album). But Banks isn't the typical female pop vocalist: you can see that she doesn't need to hide behind these trill beats to make her voice sound good, like on the minimal, semi-acapella track "Warm Water" or "Under the Table". Keep an eye out for this gorgeous songstress in the next year, because you can expect to hear a lot more from her soon.
9. MICHAEL
Artist: Les Sins
Genre: Dance, Chillwave, Electronica
SOT's: "Talk About", "Why (ft. Nate Salman)", "Bellow", "Do Right"
This is Toro y Moi's debut album under his new dance music moniker, Les Sins. If you're familiar with Chaz Bundick's music, you'll know his niche leans more towards the trippy, psychedelic world of chillwave, so to embrace a new energetic genre was quite surprising, and yielded pretty admirable results. The Les Sins spin on dance music is refreshing, because it's not all about that EDM beat dropping nonsense; he incorporates 80's funk with groovy synthesizers, all while bringing in that typical Toro y Moi style with his fun vocal loops and distortions. It is Chaz's first project as more of a DJ than a producer, so you can tell he's not quite familiar with the mechanics yet, but you can also notice that his sense of beats is bound for improvement (check out his Boiler Room set and you'll see it's definitely an improvement from his Toro one).
8. I NEVER LEARN
Artist: Lykke Li
Genre: Indie, Grunge Pop
SOT's: "I Never Learn", "No Rest For The Wicked", "Love Me Like I'm Not Made Of Stone"
If you're having a shitty day and you're looking to bawl, you've come to the right album. This is probably Swedish artist Lykke Li's most melancholy project yet, sprawling with themes of heartache, self-contemplation, solitude, sadness...you get it. Interestingly enough, the themes evolve as the album progresses to more optimistic themes of optimism, acceptance, and inner strength, like on "Heart of Steel". My favourite song, "Love Me Like I'm Not Made Of Stone", features Lykke's bare voice laid over a gloomy background acoustic guitar, symbolizing a desperate lover's plea - I don't really connect with the song personally, but the raw emotion from her voice makes me feel like I do. That's Lykke Li for ya man, toying with my inner emotions.
7. DAYS ARE GONE
Artist: Haim
Genre: Indie Rock
SOT's: "Falling", "The Wire", "Don't Save Me"
The Haim sisters exploded in the indie scene with their debut album Days Are Gone, with a very bubbly 90s-pop influenced sound. I don't have much to say about this album, it's just a really good, generic indie record with catchy choruses, cool music videos, and these really quick bursts of words that I really seem to like. The Haim sisters are just cool, multi-talented, and pretty.
6. HELL CAN WAIT
Artist: Vince Staples
Genre: Hip Hop/Rap
SOT's: "65 Hunnid", "Screen Door", "Blue Suede"
This hard-hitting EP from Vince Staples sends you right to his hometown neighborhood of Long Beach, straying away from the typical hip hop themes of money and fame, and rapping about the only subject matter he can rap about the best: broken homes, rough childhoods, gun violence, gang violence, drug violence, police violence. Basically painting the perfect picture of growing up in the hood. But that's the thing, which is that Vinny Stapes provides a refreshing insight on these topics by placing the listener right in his shoes (with the blue suede, haha) on this solo project, much like what Pusha T does. If you want some gritty, morbid, hard-hitting beats with some great 808 bass kicks and slick lyricism, this is a great front-to-back to ride to in the whip. Despite his tough childhood on the streets of SoCal, Vince is a young rapper with a mature and humble attitude, which I caught from watching some of his interviews, and displays his subject matter with effective description, which I totally respect.
5. SUPERMODEL
Artist: Foster the People
Genre: Indie Rock, Psychedelic Pop
SOT's: "Pseudologia Fantastica", "Best Friend", "A Beginner's Guide to Destroying the Moon"
One of my most anticipated projects of 2014, Foster the People really did live up to their expectations set on their debut album Torches, probably even surpassing it. What made this album so interesting is that it served as the successor to the band's exponential fame arising from their hit song "Pumped Up Kicks" (which received months of radio airplay on multiple stations), which ultimately shot down any speculation about Foster the People's status as a one-hit wonder. The key feature that makes this album so diverse is their incorporation of sounds from around the world and across time: "Are You What You Want To Be?" with elements of mambo/salsa, "The Angelic Welcome of Mr. Jones" served as an angelic choir-like interlude to the groovy "Best Friend", which integrates the style of disco/soul music from the '80s, and my favourite off the album, "A Beginner's Guide To Destroying The Moon", which sampled the Clams Casino beat "LVL" he produced for A$AP Rocky's Long.Live.A$AP. For a more in-depth analysis check out my review on the album.
4. ATLAS
Artist: Real Estate
Genre: Indie Folk, Indie Rock
SOT's: "Past Lives", "April's Song", "Primitive", "How Might I Live"
Atlas carries somewhat the same sound with it from Real Estate's previous album, Days, however some songs in this record seem to diversify carry more emotion, and we can hear the band take more risks by experimenting with guitar distortion effects and more sentimental lyricism. However, the homogeneity isn't all that bad; Real Estate's lethargic sound is based off of their melodic dual acoustic riffs, intricately soft folk-sound, and lead singer Martin Courtney's monotonic, yet harmonic vocals. The majority of the album contains lyrics bursting with a strong sense nostalgic yearning and an undying love, which although is not that diverse nor original, they convey quite well. To summarize this album in one sentence: an intricate harmony between the two acoustic guitars and Courtney's voice drawing together a dreamy, mesmerizing sound embodying a typical, lazy summer's day. A pretty homogenous project, yet a step in the right direction from their previous album.
3. RUN THE JEWELS 2
Artist: Run the Jewels
Genre: Hip Hop
SOT's: "Oh My Darling Don't Cry", "Blockbuster Night Part 1", "Close Your Eyes (And Count to Fuck) (ft. Zack De La Rocha)"
My top hip hop release for 2014, El-P and Killer Mike reunite and use their chemistry to drop this dope, improved album, RTJ2. The combination of these two rappers made waves in the hip hop and indie community, while also catching eyes with their unusual, yet effective array of features on this album: Travis Barker, Gangsta Boo from Three 6 Mafia, Zack De La Rocha from Rage Against the Machine (this one really surprised me), and others both big and small. El-P's production is glorified through his variety of raw, slapping beats and excellent use of samples, with a very seamless and smooth transition from song-to-song which really solidified this project for me. The three song combo in the SOT's above is probably my favourite of 2014 because of this, and all three have strong 808 bass kicks and intricate verse exchanges between El-P and Killer Mike.
2. III
Artist: BadBadNotGood
Genre: Neo-Jazz, Fusion Jazz
SOT's: "Triangle", "Eyes Closed", "Differently, Still", "Since You Asked Kindly"
Three humble Canadian boys hailing from Toronto's Humber College come together to form BBNG, releasing their first fully-original album, III. This is definitely my favourite release from their work thus far, showing the Internet and any who doubted their skill that they don't solely rely on renditions and covers to make waves in the music scene. With an original composition like this, I think BadBadNotGood is successfully making jazz 'cool' again, because they sure ignited my newfound passion for jazz music. We've had hints of their composing ability on tracks such as "UWM", "CHSTR", and "DMZ", however they each had their faults and weaknesses that made them merely likeable, but not worthy of an individual listen. The transitions from song to song on III are so smooth and coherent that it merits itself many front-to-back listens, each song highlighting an individual member's instrumental talent. It just shows how much polishing and touching up BBNG did in composing their own music, because the improvement was definitely noticeable on this great LP.
1. SALAD DAYS
Artist: Mac DeMarco
Genre: Indie Rock, Stoner Folk, Psychedelic
SOT's: "Salad Days", "Let Her Go", "Passing Out Pieces", "Chamber of Reflection"
You know what sucks, is that I really slept on Mac DeMarco until a couple of months ago. I even skipped his set at Bluesfest, because I was a fool and didn't believe in the hype he was receiving. But fuck, was I wrong. Mac DeMarco, humble cigarette-obsessed Canadian hailing from BC, has a firm grasp on the indie realm with the release of Salad Days. His previous projects, Makeout Videotape and the album 2, were impressive to say the least, but this album shows his progressive improvement as an artist is going somewhere for sure. Mac's refreshing sound comes from the stimulating combination of elements of psychedelia from stoner rock with the soothing guitar melodies of indie folk. The name of the album, Salad Days, comes from a term coined by Shakespeare in his tragedy Antony and Cleopatra, referring to one's past days of youth, filled with inexperience, enthusiasm, idealism, innocence (thanks, Wikipedia). The overlying themes of nostalgia, growing up, and puppy love really seemed to appeal to people, especially since it was released just in time for the summer. Mac's guitar ability, great taste in music videos, absurd sense of humour, and quirky personality make him so appealing as an artist (watch his documentary Pepperoni Playboy to get a good glimpse of this). Great, great album for stoners, lovers, indieheads, and river people to jam to in the summertime.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
Here's some albums that didn't make it, because choosing just 14 albums is such a bitch, that I thought deserved some praise because they got a considerable amount of playback value on my iPod.
- Mac Miller's Faces mixtape
- RL Grime's VOID
- Freddie Gibbs & Madlibs' Piñata
- A$AP Ferg's Ferg Forever
- Future Islands' Singles
- Yelle's Complèment fou
- J. Cole's 2014 Forest Hills Drive
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