A Round of Sound

2014 has come and gone, so time again for my Top Albums countdown. I didn’t find 2014 to be a great year for music, as it only had a few, what I’d call, elite releases. It was, however, a fairly deep year for albums, in that while there weren’t many that blew me away, I did find there to be a large amount of good albums that made choosing my #5 to say #35 albums quite a chore. Now, it’s always hard to come up with a theme for the year, and kind of a pointless exercise, but what I did notice about many of this year’s releases is how cathartic they were for the artists. Many of this year’s albums were records that the artist needed to make, not necessarily just wanted to make. So you’ll notice that theme coming up a good bit in many of the albums I’m featuring here. That said, I’m not going into quite as much effort this year in actually writing about the albums. I might have a sentence or two for each, but don’t expect more beyond that. Today is, as always, when I present the list of albums eligible for my countdown.

This past year I purchased, in some form, 83 albums, 80 of which are eligible. I do not include EPs, reissues, soundtracks, live albums, holiday Albums, or b-side/rarity type releases as eligible for my list, and this year three of my purchases were EPs. As always, there’s plenty of albums that I never got around to procuring, so yes, there’s going to be very worthy albums that don’t make my list. So if you have a question as to why your favorite album isn’t on my list, well it’s because I either didn’t get it, or just plain didn’t care for it as much as you, simple as that. After the jump, you can see the list of all albums I purchased, in order of release date. Also, over to the right, you can see the schedule over the next few days as I continue the countdown.

Against Me! – Transgender Dysphoria Blues

Broken Bells – After The Disco

Marissa Nadler – July

Sun Kil Moon – Benji

Modern Baseball – You’re Gonna Miss It All

Speedy Ortiz – Real Hair*

Angel Olsen – Burn Your Fire For No Witness

St. Paul & The Broken Bones – Half The City

Phantogram – Voices

St. Vincent – St. Vincent

The Hotelier – Home, Like Noplace Is There

The Men – Tomorrow’s Hits

Eagulls – Eagulls

Kevin Drew – Darlings

Perfect Pussy – Say Yes To Love

Future Islands – Singles

The Hold Steady – Teeth Dreams

Owls – TWO

Cloud Nothings – Here and Nowhere Else

Mac Demarco – Salad Days

Pup – Pup

Fear of Men – Loom

The Menzingers – Rented World

Damon Albarn – Everyday Robots

Real Estate – Atlas

Lykke Li – I Never Learn

Sturgill Simpson – Metamodern Sounds in Country Music

Sylvan Esso – Sylvan Esso

Swans – To Be Kind

The Black Keys – Turn Blue

Conor Oberst – Upside Down Mountain

Coldplay – Ghost Stories

Courtney Barnett – The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas*

Sharon Van Etten – Are We There

Owen Pallett – In Conflict

Hundred Waters – The Moon Rang Like A Bell

Parquet Courts – Sunbathing Animal

Hamilton Leithauser – Black Hours

First Aid Kit – Stay Gold

The Antlers – Familiars

Strand of Oaks – HEAL

How To Dress Well – “What Is This Heart?”

A Sunny Day In Glasgow – Sea When Absent

Braid – No Coast

Slow Club – Complete Surrender

Alvvays – Alvvays

Jenny Lewis – The Voyager

Spoon – They Want My Soul

FKA twigs – LP1

The Gaslight Anthem – Get Hurt

empire! empire! (i was a lonely estate) – You Will Eventually Be Forgotten

Cymbals Eat Guitars – LOSE

Death From Above 1979 – The Physical World

Interpol – El Pintor

Avi Buffalo – At Best Cuckold

My Brightest Diamond – This is My Hand

Perfume Genius – Too Bright

Aphex Twin – Syro

Christopher Owens – A New Testament

Ex Hex – Rips

Allo Darlin’ – We Come From The Same Place

Stars – No One Is Lost

Foxygen – …And Star Power

Run The Jewels – Run The Jewels 2

Parkay Quarts – Content Nausea

…And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead – IX

You Blew It – Keep Doing What You’re Doing

Hurray for the Riff Raff – Small Town Heroes

Wild Beasts – Present Tense

The War On Drugs – Lost In The Dream

Tokyo Police Club – Forcefield

Wye Oak – Shriek

Tune-Yards – nikki nack

The Pains of Being Pure At Heart – Days of Abandon

White Lung – Deep Fantasy

The New Pornographers – Brill Bruisers

U2 – Songs of Innocence

The Rural Alberta Advantage – Mended With Gold

Flying Lotus – You’re Dead

We Were Promised Jetpacks – Unraveling

Panda Bear – Mr Noah*

The Twilight Sad – Nobody Wants to be Here and Nobody Wants to Leave

TV on the Radio – Seeds

*Not Eligible

This entry was posted on Monday, January 12th, 2015 at 6:34 pm and is filed under All, Music, Top Albums of 2014. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.