{"id":3752,"date":"2014-12-11T21:09:40","date_gmt":"2014-12-12T02:09:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/?p=3752"},"modified":"2014-12-12T16:57:25","modified_gmt":"2014-12-12T21:57:25","slug":"top-14-albums-of-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2014\/12\/11\/top-14-albums-of-2014\/","title":{"rendered":"Top 14 albums of 2014."},"content":{"rendered":"

My Insider content from the last few days:
\n* The Jimmy Rollins trade<\/a>
\n* The Mat Latos and Alfredo Simon trades<\/a>
\n* The Matt Kemp trade<\/a>
\n* The Rick Porcello\/Yoenis Cespedes trade<\/a>
\n* The Wade Miley trade<\/a>
\n* The Howie Kendrick\/Andrew Heaney trade and Brandon McCarthy signing<\/a>
\n* The Dee Gordon trade<\/a>
\n* The Jon Lester signing<\/a>
\n* The Francisco Liriano re-signing<\/a>
\n* The Miguel Montero trade<\/a>
\n* The Jeff Samardzija trade (and David Robertson signing)<\/a> and Oakland’s return<\/a>
\n* The Jason Hammel signing<\/a>
\n* The Brandon Moss trade<\/a><\/p>\n

My review of the boardgame Concordia<\/a> is up at Paste<\/i>, and I did an interview about baseball and metal<\/a> with Decibel<\/i>.<\/p>\n

\u2013<\/p>\n

My ranking of the top 14 albums of the year is below, and reflects my own personal preferences, with a balance between albums that have a few standout songs and ones that worked better as cohesive units. You can see last year’s top 13 albums list<\/a> for a comparison and to see if something you expected to see here actually made last year’s list (e.g., CHVRCHES, Arctic Monkeys). I heard a lot more than I ranked here, but getting to fourteen albums I truly liked and would recommend wasn’t even easy.<\/p>\n

Linked album titles go to full reviews. My ranking of the top 100 songs of the year will follow in a few days.<\/p>\n

14. The Kooks \u2013 Listen<\/a><\/i>.<\/strong> Goofy British pop-rock songs that didn’t work so well as a collection, especially with a few tracks worth skipping, but featured a number of very strong singles, including \u201cBad Habit,\u201d \u201cDown,\u201d and \u201cForgive and Forget.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/a>13. Animals as Leaders \u2013 The Joy of Motion<\/i>.<\/strong> (amazon<\/a>\"\"• iTunes<\/a>) An all-instrumental technical\/progressive metal-fusion record \u2026 or something like that. If you love guitarwork, including jazz-inspired soloing, with unconventional song structures, featuring numerous musicians operating at the far right end of what is possible with their instruments, you’ll love this album. Otherwise, maybe just move on to #12.<\/p>\n

12. To Kill a King \u2013 Exit, Pursued by a Bear<\/i>.<\/strong> (amazon<\/a>\"\"• iTunes<\/a>) It’s an EP, which is kind of cheating since I hadn’t included EP releases on previous lists, but 1) this is my list so I get to make up the rules 2) I love the title and 3) it’s a really fucking good EP. They remind me in particular of Animals that Swim, a British band from the 1990s and early 2000s that made folk-rock songs that often sounded like great drinking songs and made great use of horns as well as guitars. To Kill a King aren’t afraid to work the horns, the acoustic and electric guitar, the piano, unconventional percussion sounds, and backup harmonies that range from the typical to the borderline-annoying. Wikipedia’s entry compares them to The National, but To Kill a King’s lead singer actually sings rather than mumbling his lyrics. Opener \u201cOh My Love\u201d plays like a dirge with a nod to Andrew Marvell; \u201cLove is Coal\u201d seems like a straight middle finger to Mumford & Sons and all of their clones, saying \u201cthis is how you do the slow-fast-slow thing, posers.\u201d<\/p>\n

11. Insomnium \u2013 Shadows of a Dying Sun<\/a><\/i>.<\/strong> The best metal album of the year for me comes from this Finnish melodic death-metal act previously known for primarily downbeat and often soporific music that wasn’t saved by the technical prowess of its guitarists. Shadows<\/i> brings them much more firmly into the melodic camp, with the occasional clean vocal, far more ornate song structures (with actual movements in some tracks), and somewhat less dreary lyrics. There aren’t many bands operating in this demilitarized zone between classic thrash, classical metal, and straight-up death metal, but it’s a sweet spot for my particular tastes.<\/p>\n

As an aside, my top metal albums of the year: Insomnium, Animals as Leaders, Pallbearer’s Foundations of Burden<\/i>, Horrendous’ Ecdysis<\/i>, and At the Gates’ At War With Reality<\/a><\/i>.<\/p>\n

10. Band of Skulls \u2013 Himalayan<\/a><\/i>.<\/strong> I like to rock, or more specifically, I like to listen to bands that rock, preferably without apology or relent. (I do like to rock a little, though.) Band of Skulls draws deeply on genres from 1970s classic rock to the more commercial part of 1990s grunge, and most of this album is driven by huge guitar riffs, blues shuffles, and bass-heavy grooves. This is music for people who just love hard rock that isn’t metal and still boasts great melodies, from the title track, \u201cAsleep at the Wheel,\u201d \u201cToreador,\u201d and the psycheledic \u201cNightmares.\u201d<\/p>\n

9. Ex Hex – Rips<\/a><\/i>.<\/strong> It’s good to have Mary Timony, formerly of noise-rock icons Helium and the all-female Wild Flag (with Carrie Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney, whose 2015 album should appear on my list next year), back with a new band. Ex Hex is punk-pop more than anything else, hook-filled with a slew of short, punchy, fast-paced songs that are a little light lyrically but incredibly fun to listen to, including \u201cBeast,\u201d \u201cDon’t Wanna Lose,\u201d and \u201cNew Kid.\u201d <\/p>\n

8. Kaiser Chiefs \u2013 Education, Education, Education, and War<\/a><\/i>.<\/strong> The big comeback album for the band best known for their 2004 hit \u201cI Predict a Riot\u201d was by far their most mature, measured, balanced effort ever, easing up on the overly clever lyrics just a bit and filling the album with compelling hooks and more nuanced songwriting. Lead single \u201cComing Home\u201d found them almost serious and pensive, while \u201cCannons,\u201d \u201cRuffians on Parade\u201d and opener \u201cThe Factory Gates\u201d brought the electricity you’d expect from the Chiefs along with newly thoughtful, sardonic lyrics. This album, with a title mocking a speech once given by Tony Blair, didn’t chart in the U.S., but hit #1 in the UK and went gold, their best showing since their second album came out in 2007.<\/p>\n

7. Broods \u2013 Evergreen<\/i>.<\/strong> (amazon<\/a>\"\"• iTunes<\/a>) This New Zealand brother-and-sister duo first hit with their single \u201cBridges,\u201d a top 10 song for me this year due to its stunning contrast from the sweet, piano-driven verse to the thumping chorus where singer Georgia Nutt shifts up to a falsetto that almost strains her range. Their full album has great contrasts throughout within that dream-pop\/electronic framework, most with strong melodies, showing a lot of range for a very young pair of songwriters on their first album.<\/p>\n

6. …And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead \u2013 IX<\/a><\/i>.<\/strong> With their ninth album (duh), the ol’ Trail of Dead are at their most melodic and textured, with tremendous percussion work by their tandem of drummers and hypnotic, swirling guitar lines, without losing the structural complexity that has marked nearly all of their work. It might not have received the insane acclaim of Source Tags and Codes<\/i>, but it’s a more accessible and thoughtful album, led by \u201cThe Doomsday Book,\u201d \u201cJaded Apostles,\u201d \u201cLie Without a Liar,\u201d and the closer \u201cSound of the Silk\u201d that just left me on the floor gasping for air.<\/p>\n

5. Spoon \u2013 They Want My Soul<\/a><\/i>.<\/strong> Spoon has become, for me, the definitive American rock band, or perhaps rock-and-roll band, drawing as they do on influences from throughout rock history while incorporating folk, country, and more current electronic elements in their songs. They Want My Soul<\/i> was a bounceback of sorts after a pair of less exciting albums, bringing more experimentation and a wider range of styles with barely any hiccups along the way (other than the single \u201cInside Out\u201d). You’ve heard and probably liked the straightforward singles \u201cRent I Pay\u201d and \u201cDo You,\u201d but when Spoon get nostalgic on the cover \u201cYou Just Don’t Understand\u201d or start playing around with structure and synths on \u201cOutlier\u201d or \u201cKnock Knock Knock\u201d they manage to expand boundaries without losing their ability to craft compelling hooks.<\/p>\n

4. HAERTS \u2013 Haerts<\/a><\/i>.<\/strong> Three of the five best songs on here appeared on an EP late last year, but that’s not to say the remaining songs on the band’s full-length debut, produced by St. Lucia (who appeared on last year’s list with his own debut album), which all showcase singer Nini Fabi’s powerful, slightly smoky voice over masterfully crafted strata of keyboards and drum machines. \u201cGiving Up\u201d is the best new song and the only one on my top 100 this year, but \u201cWings,\u201d \u201cHemiplegia,\u201d and \u201cAll the Days\u201d are standouts from their first EP.<\/p>\n

3. alt-J \u2013 This is All Yours<\/a><\/i>.<\/strong> It wasn’t as groundbreaking or mindblowing as their debut album, An Awesome Wave<\/i>, my favorite album not just of 2012 but of the decade so far, so I could call This is All Yours<\/i> a mild letdown \u2026 and yet it’s still a work of great imagination and continues the trio’s refusal to work within the conventions of modern music, even within what’s generally called \u201calternative\u201d but isn’t quite as radical as the name might indicate. This is All Yours<\/i> is uneven, with a few songs they could just as easily have omitted (\u201cChoice Kingdom\u201d and \u201cPusher\u201d in particular), but they soar with the manic complexity of \u201cEvery Other Freckle,\u201d the slow expansion of \u201cThe Gospel of John Hurt,\u201d the four-vocalist gimmick that actually plays on \u201cWarm Foothills,\u201d and the so-bad-it’s good \u201cLeft Hand Free.\u201d It’s not as cleanly produced as their debut, unfortunately, which cuts into the atmosphere it creates and stunts the beauty of tracks like \u201cWarm Foothills\u201d or \u201cHunger of the Pine.\u201d<\/p>\n

2. New Pornographers \u2013 Brill Bruisers<\/a><\/i>.<\/strong> I don’t know how a collection of singers and songwriters this broad and diverse could push out an album this cohesive, but Brill Bruisers<\/i> is an ebullient power-pop masterpiece; what it might lack in invention (compared to, say, Twin Cinema<\/i>) it more than makes up for via its sheer pop brilliance. The title track is one of the best songs of the year, landing in my top 10, but \u201cDancehall Domine,\u201d \u201cFantasy Fools,\u201d and \u201cWar on the East Coast\u201d all shimmer with gorgeous pop hooks and note-perfect performances across the board.<\/p>\n

<\/a>1. Hundred Waters \u2013 The Moon Rang Like a Bell<\/i>.<\/strong> (amazon<\/a> • iTunes<\/a>) I never reviewed this album because I didn’t quite get it when I first received it a review copy back in May; it was just too weird, too unconventional, almost the way I never quite got the Cocteau Twins. But I kept coming back to certain songs that stuck with me \u2013 \u201cXtalk,\u201d \u201cInnocent,\u201d \u201cOut Alee\u201d \u2013 and realized the issue was that I had to get used to the production, which put singer Nicole Miglis’s voice so front and center that you can almost hear her thinking. This is cerebral music, but that doesn’t mean it requires more of the listener than an open mind; think of Hundred Waters’s songs as the pattern on a lake when hit by a raindrop or a skipped stone, with each track within a song rippling outward on its own to create a gorgeous, cohesive whole. I haven’t heard anything quite like it before, which is something I want to say about any album I’m calling the best of its year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My Insider content from the last few days: * The Jimmy Rollins trade * The Mat Latos and Alfredo Simon trades * The Matt Kemp trade * The Rick Porcello\/Yoenis Cespedes trade * The Wade Miley trade * The Howie Kendrick\/Andrew Heaney trade and Brandon McCarthy signing * The Dee Gordon trade * The Jon […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[779,359,358,757,852,260],"class_list":["post-3752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-2014-in-music","tag-alternative","tag-hard-rock","tag-metal","tag-music","tag-rankings","entry"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3752"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3759,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3752\/revisions\/3759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}