Ahhh, year-end list time! For the eighth year running, allow me to submit my humble addition for your consideration as we ring in the new year.
(As always, these selections are not supposed to be “the” top albums of the year. These are simply the ones that I enjoyed the most.)
10. Royal Blood – Royal Blood
Rock isn’t dead! The self-titled debut album from this British two-piece alt rock outfit may not be breaking any new ground, following in the well-worn footsteps of Death From Above 1979, The Black Keys, and The White Stripes, but I challenge you to find any that has as huge a sound as Royal Blood. Deploying a stunning array of effects via pedal board, frontman Mike Kerr plays his bass guitar like a six-string and, backed by the relentless pounding of drummer Ben Thatcher, manages to sound like a fully-staffed band. Seriously, check out the shredding riffs on on “Come On Over” or “Loose Change”, or the squealing guitars on “Better Strangers,” or that awesome, lurching hook on “Ten Tonne Skeleton,” definitely the best track on the album. On substance, this album is disappointingly shallow, with generic, forgettable alt rock lyrics and cliched song structures. But on style…these guys kill it.
Standout tracks: Out of the Black, Come On Over, Figure It Out, Loose Change, Ten Tonne Skeleton, Better Strangers
9. Flies In All Directions – Weatherbox
This LP from San Diego-based indie punk rock outfit Weatherbox is not for everyone. Even I have to be in a certain mood to listen to it. But when I am, man, this album is pretty fantastic. Frontman Brian Warren’s Max Bemis-esque vocals are something of an acquired taste, but if you can get past them, the songwriting on this album is truly impressive. Lyrically, this is probably one of the most intriguing albums I’ve heard all year, and musically it’s a head-spinning whirlwind of crashing rhythm guitars and shifting/overlapping time signatures (see “The Fresh Prints Of Bill Ayers” and especially “Ghost Malls”). It takes a few listens to get into, but it’s worth it.
Standout tracks: Bring Us The Head of Weatherbox, The Fresh Prints of Bill Ayers, Bathin’ In The Fuss, Dark Night For All Of Us, Ghost Malls, Kick-Flips
8. VA – The Last Bison
The Last Bison’s follow-up to their brilliant debut Quill (and the major record label re-release, Inheritance) is a step forward forward for this Chesapeake, VA-based chamber folk six-piece in many ways. Where their debut was small-sounding and intimate, like a group of friends playing in your living room, the orchestrations on VA are bigger, fuller, and more intricate. Full drumsets augment the traditional rustic percussion, and the band gives a much more pronounced role to Andrew Benfante’s piano and organ as well as Teresa Totheroh’s violin. True, there’s no knockout single a la “Switzerland,” and musically it’s not exactly an evolution, but the band’s ability to round off the rough edges and hone their songwriting craft results in album that is overall a more complete package than their previous work. Plus, it’s great for long drives through rural Virginia.
Standout tracks: Cypress Queen, Governor’s Son, Endview, Maroon, Burdens, Sleep
7. Sylvan Esso – Sylvan Esso
Probably the best debut album of the year, this unassuming male-female indie electropop duo is going to do some big things. From singer Amelia Meath’s first airy vocals and sparse claps to producer Nick Sanborn’s first pulsating saw wave on the chorus of the ultra-catchy anti-catcalling opening single “Hey Mami,” I could tell I was going to enjoy this. By the layered vocal lines on “Could I Be,” I was sold. The album does tend to get a little bit self-consciously art-cafe-trendy at times — I appreciate “Coffee” (the lead single), but it’s just so obviously begging to be played daily at your local organic fair-trade coffee shop that I find myself skipping it more often than is probably warranted. The hip-hop inspired “Dress” and the sparkling “Play It Right” are also fantastic, and Meath’s vocal harmonies on the folksy closer “Come Down” are just gorgeous.
Standout tracks: Hey Mami, Could I Be, Dress, Play It Right, Come Down
6. Andrew McMahon In The Wilderness – Andrew McMahon In The Wilderness
The solo project from the former frontman of Jack’s Mannequin and Something Corporate is everything I hoped it’d be — full of shimmering, perfectly crafted piano-driven, synth-backed Americana pop anthems and moving ballads. McMahon is at the top of his game, and his solo effort proves yet again that he is one of the best songwriters in the business. Inspired largely by the recent birth of his daughter (see “Cecilia And The Satellite”), this is an album about family and appreciating spending time with people you love, from a seasoned artist who has survived the highs of global fame and the lows of a battle with leukemia. Not a lot of angst here (though “Halls”, my favorite track, does have a generous dose), just plenty of eloquent reflection and nostalgia — “All Our Lives” and “Maps For The Getaway” are the best examples, and obvious highlights. This is an album that will stand the test of time.
Standout tracks: Cecilia and the Satellite, High Dive, All Our Lives, Halls, Maps For The Getaway
5. Warpaint – Warpaint
When I first heard this album, I have to admit — I had no idea how to feel about it…but I didn’t think I liked it. It was weird, it was spacy, the song structures were meandering and unconventional. Not a true single to be found anywhere. I’m not even sure how I stumbled across it, to be honest. But by the end of the second full listen on Spotify, I felt a little tugging in the back of my mind — despite not being “catchy” in the way I’ve traditionally understood that word, I found myself craving to listen to it again and again, and after listen #4 I bought it. The sophomore full-length from this all-female four-piece band is intoxicating, hypnotic, brooding, and seductive — it has a strange way of seeping slowly but inexorably into your brain and saturating it “like an oil painting mixed with blood,” as one online reviewer put it — and I can’t really think of a better way to describe it.
Standout tracks: Keep It Healthy, Love Is To Die, Hi, Disco//very, Feeling Alright, Drive
4. Lowborn – Anberlin
When Anberlin announced this spring that their forthcoming album, Lowborn, would be the band’s last, it was obviously going to be a bittersweet experience. As a fan for nearly a decade, my expectations were high, particularly coming on the heels of 2012’s Vital (my #1 album that year), which signaled Anberlin’s resurgence after several lackluster efforts. The result was a solid, fitting send-off for the band — nothing groundbreaking, nothing spectacular, but nevertheless an album full of excellent tracks that showcase the band’s mature, perfectly-honed sound. Anberlin has always been known for oscillating between heavy alt rock riffs and 80s dark wave synth, and Lowborn showcases plenty of both, with the bombastic opener, “We Are Destroyer” leaning heavily on the former, and the brooding single “Stranger Ways” a great example of the latter. “Velvet Covered Brick” gets the blend just about right, but the album’s standout track is definitely the penultimate track “Hearing Voices,” lyrically and musically one of the best tracks Anberlin has ever written. It’s not all great — “Birds of Prey” is probably the worst song to ever make it onto an Anberlin record, and “Dissenter” just makes no sense — clearly the result of Stephen Christian telling his bandmates “You know guys, I’ve always really wanted to do a screaming song…” But every good thing must come to an end, as Christian sings on the fitting closer: “I don’t wanna go now, but I’ve got to / for you to remember me”.
Standout tracks: We Are Destroyer, Stranger Ways, Velvet Covered Brick, Atonement, Hearing Voices
3. 1989 – Taylor Swift
Yeah, “haters gonna hate,” as Taylor would say. But Swift’s album was undeniably one of the great records of 2014. With 1989, Taylor reinvented herself, gleefully shredding the last vestiges of her original teen country music star image and sound with an indisputably fun, 80s-inspired album full of radio smash hits and pure pop goodness. Thematically, the album finds Taylor embracing her reputation for celebrity tabloid-leading relationship drama with a wink, and showcasing yet again her incredible penchant for pop songwriting. Sure, like most pop albums these days, 1989 is heavily front-loaded, and the quality drops off after the very impressive first six tracks. Nevertheless, it manages to finish strong with the standout closer, “Clean,” which is just an undeniably fantastic breakup song. As a lover of music albums as an art form (obviously), I also have to give a tip of the hat to Swift for making the album a relevant commercial entity again, at least for a brief moment — 1989 sold over 1.2 million copies in the first week, the first solo artist to reach that mark since 2002, bucking an industry trend in which the album is rapidly becoming obsolete, with overall sales plummeting 14% in 2014. Honestly, that’s probably because it’s almost impossible not to enjoy this album.
Standout tracks: Blank Space, Style, Out of The Woods, All You Had To Do Was Stay, Shake It Off, Clean
2. Wonderlust EP – Dreamcatcher
I was tipped off to this Baltimore-based indie rock quartet by a friend, who mentioned them mostly as a novelty because one member (Bryan Czap) is the ex-guitar player from The Dangerous Summer. But after a few listens I realized that this band is much more than just their one semi-famous guitarist. Their debut EP is a rather remarkable collection of songs, with a narrative arc in which you witness a relationship self-destruct in slow motion via lyrics that are simple, yet devastatingly, achingly powerful. Lead singer Chelsea Tyler’s smoky, emotive, desperate vocals blend perfectly with the shimmering guitars. “June” and “Wonderlust” are easy standouts, and also showcase Tyler’s unique halting vocal delivery, creatively pacing her enunciation of each syllable. Dreamcatcher’s eight-track EP was one of my most-played albums in 2014, and I can’t wait to check out their full-length debut set to drop in 2015.
Standout tracks: Wild, June, Heaven Sent, Wonderlust, Come Down, False Flags
1. Cope + Hope – Manchester Orchestra
In the run-up to Manchester Orchestra’s release of their fourth full-length album in April of this year, they had promised fans that Cope would be a “brutal” and “unapologetically heavy” rock ‘n roll record. Well, mission accomplished. Standing in stark contrast to their previous efforts, particularly 2011’s string-arrangement-laden, emotional, and introspective Simple Math, Cope is a relentless, pounding, guitar-driven assault on the eardrums. Most songs follow the same basic structure, with palm-muted verses giving way to huge, unrestrained choruses, with massive guitars firmly front-and-center. From the huge hooks on the opener “Top Notch” to the incredible one-two punch of “See It Again” and “Cope” at the end — perhaps the best closing to any album I’ve ever heard — the intensity never lets up. There are no soft ballads, no quiet moments. Yet while I thoroughly enjoyed this straightforward rock record, it was admittedly a little one-dimensional. But then in September, Manchester Orchestra, who must have foreseen this criticism, released Hope, an acoustic re-imagining of all the songs from Cope. Much more than just the same songs played with acoustic instruments, Manchester Orchestra crafted some beautiful orchestrations and even changed the lyrics on certain songs. Upon listening to Hope, Cope suddenly makes a lot more sense — and you gain an entirely new appreciation for many tracks. It was an ambitious strategy, but taken together, these albums are two halves of a brilliantly well-executed whole.
Standout tracks: Top Notch, Choose You, Girl Harbor, Every Stone, See It Again, Cope
Honorable Mention:
Guardians of The Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol. 1 (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) – Various Artists
9 Dead Alive – Rodrigo y Gabriela
Out Among The Stars – Johnny Cash
Go Down In History – EP – Four Year Strong
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Top 10 Songs of 2014:
(YouTube Playlist of these can be found here!)
10. Work Song – Hozier
9. She Used To Love Me A Lot – Johnny Cash
8. Push Pull – Purity Ring
7. Yellow Flicker Beat – Lorde
6. Flight – Lifehouse
5. The Kids Aren’t Alright – Fall Out Boy
4. Shake It Off – Taylor Swift
3. I Wanna Get Better – Bleachers
2. Hey Mami – Sylvan Esso
1. Peaches – In The Valley Below
Alex's Top Albums 