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.

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To start off this year, I wanted to take a quick moment to talk about exactly what this list is. You’ll notice I call this, and always have, my “Top Albums” of the year, not my “favorite” or “best” albums. This is done intentionally, as I find it a very important distinction. Calling something “the best” is very hard to do, especially when it comes to something as subjective as music, and even moreso when there’s so much of it out there. However, I do think there are characteristics that can place a song or album ahead of others in an objective manner, such as songwriting, musicianship and innovation.  On the flip side, calling something “favorite” is pretty much subjective, and comes across as more of an enjoyment factor while perhaps ignoring aspects of an album that make it a more artistic achievement. So my list has always been a hybrid of the two, and calling it “Top Albums” is the best I could come up with. I’m not necessarily telling you the albums I enjoyed the most in 2013, just as I’m not telling you the albums that were critically thought of as the best releases of the year. Rather, this is a look at the albums I came across in 2013, that I enjoyed immensely which also have value in ways that should set them above others as a fantastic works of art. I suppose that’s my intro for this year’s list, so let’s get to it.

This past year I purchased, in some form, 84 albums…all of which are eligible. I do not include EPs, Reissues, Soundtracks, Live Albums, Holiday Albums, or B-Side/Rarity type releases as albums eligible for my list, but this year I don’t have any of those. 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.

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2012 has come and gone, and as I look back on the year in music my main thought is “meh”. That’s not to say there weren’t some good albums, there were quite a few actually. There just weren’t a high number of albums I could call great. All in all, I consider it a solid, but not spectacular year in music. Part of this thinking may come from my own personal preferences, as I found myself just plain bored by many releases this year. That’s the reason you may find this list a bit more eclectic than usual, which in the long run is probably a good thing for my musical evolution.

This past year I purchased, in some form, 77 albums…71 of which are eligible. I do not include EPs, Reissues, Soundtracks, Live Albums, Holiday Albums, or B-Side/Rarity type releases as albums eligible for my list. 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 like 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.

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Yes, I’m fully aware that the last post on this blog was my 2010 Mixtape, meaning it’s been an entire year since I’ve made an update. Hopefully in 2012 I’ll find more time to post, but 2011 was full of traveling for work (Atlanta, Wilmington) and for fun (Europe), as well as buying a house, among other life stuff…so yeah, my time was limited. However, I did still listen to a lot of music, and far be it from me to keep my Top Albums rankings from my multitude dozens of fans. I can only imagine the backlash. So over the next few days I’ll be unveiling my rankings, although I’ll probably keep my writeups a bit shorter than usual and won’t stretch out these posts over a week and a half like I’ve done in the past. I’m only expecting to make about 5 or 6 posts for this years recap. And as usual, I’ll kick it off with a list of the albums I got in 2011, and thus, the albums that are eligible.

This past year I purchased, in some form, 74 albums…70 of which are eligible. I do not include EPs, Soundtracks, Live Albums, Holiday Albums, or B-Side/Rarity type releases as albums eligible for my list. The 70 albums in 2011 is the smallest amount of albums I’ve had eligible in quite some time, although it’s still probably more than I need, but I’m a music junkie and just can’t help myself. Of course, 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. Get over it. 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. Enjoy, and thanks for indulging my, uhh, indulgence.

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2010 has come and gone, so it’s time for my annual Albums of the Year list. Usually, I like to give a little summary, but I’m done trying to come up with a theme for a given year. Music has become so varied and can mean different things to different people, that trying to pinpoint an overarching idea for all of music is pretty pointless.  So I guess that’s a theme in and of itself…so there.

As usual, I’ll start off my countdown by providing a list of all the albums I purchased in some form this year, thus making them eligible for my list. Soundtracks, EPs, live albums, and b-side/rarities releases are once again not eligible.  For 2010, I have 81 albums, 76 of which are eligible. There are plenty of albums that I’m sure could have made my list had I purchased them, but just like any year, there’s always a few that slip through the cracks. Over on the right, you can see my schedule over the next few days as I continue my countdown. After the jump, I present my eligible albums (in order of release date).

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