Year-End Critics' Polls 2014

My problem with curated lists is that with each passing bad record, the next one is tainted, and the cumulative effect is pretty strong. Add in the 'best records of the year" baggage and its not doing any of them any favours

^ I get this. Suddenly 'this artist' or 'that track' becomes 'a Pitchfork band' or 'a Fact track', and I don't really like thinking about music in this way at all.

Nah I think it's more that when you're dutifully slogging through a lot of uninspiring music it puts you in the wrong frame of mind for the good stuff, give or take the occasional wow moment.

I'll play 10 bad records on discogs and I think ok well they were just some random records on discogs, an 11th isnt tainted by the others

Play 10 bad records in a best of the year chart and i'm just waiting to get to the end of the exercise, and I dont need to hear the others enough to have that feeling

well you have to be in the right frame of mind, i'm multitasking and busy so it's ideal list-slogging time tbh

also judicious skipping of shit you know you'll hate

also i felt out of the loop with this sort of music this year so there isn't much annoyance that x/y/z isn't here instead as there is with the non-dance lists

apart from deep tech but i didn't exactly expect it anyway

Irish Times Tracks
(1) Caribou - Can’t Do Without You (City Slang)
(2) Kiesza - Hideaway (Lokal Legend)
(3) Future Islands - Seasons (Waiting On You) (4AD)
(4) Mark Ronson - Uptown Funk (Columbia)
(5) Sheppard - Geronimo (Republic)
(6) Charli XCX - Break the Rules (Asylum)
(7) Perfume Genius - Queen (Matador)
(8) Meghan Trainor - All About That Bass (Epic)
(9) CuckooLander - Dumb Dee Diddy Dumb (Self release)
(10) Juce - Call You Out (Babeology)
(11) Shamir - If It Wasn't True (Godmode)
(12) Grimes - Go (4AD)
(13) Deers - Between Cans (Lucky Number)
(14) Jessie J - Bang Bang (Lava/Republic)
(15) Yumi Zouma - The Brae (Cascine)
(16) The Gloaming - Samhradh Samhradh (Real World)
(17) Fifth Harmony - Boss (Epic/Syco)
(18) Jessie Ware - Tough Love (PMR)
(19) Taylor Swift - Shake It Off (Big Machine)
(20) Jamie XX - All Under One Roof Raving (XL)
(21) Talos - Tethered Bones (Feel Good Lost)
(22) Nicki Minaj - Anaconda (Young Money)
(23) Clipping - Work Work (Sub Pop)
(24) Dej Loaf - Try Me (IBGM)
(25) D'Angelo - The Charade (RCA)
(26) The Juan Maclean - A Place Called Space (DFA)
(27) Ibeyi - Mama Says (XL)
(28) The Do - Trustful Hands (Siamese Squids)
(29) Honne - Warm On A Cold Night (Super)
(30) King - Mr Chameleon (King Creative)
(31) Royal Blood - Figure It Out (Warner Bros)
(32) Route 94 - My Love (Rinse)
(33) Jungle - Busy Earnin' (XL)
(34) Sia - Chandelier (Monkey Puzzle)
(35) QT - Hey QT (XL)
(36) Bobby Shmurda - Hot Nigga (GS9)
(37) iLoveMakonnen - Club Goin Up on a Tuesday (Self release)
(38) Sharon Van Etten - Your Love Is Killing Me (Jagjaguwar)
(39) Percussions - KHLHI (Text)
(40) Rae Sremmurd - No Flex Zone (Eardrummers)
(41) Roisin Murphy - Ancora Tu (Vinyl Factory)
(42) Röyksopp & Robyn - Do It Again (Dog Triumph/Wall Of Sound)
(43) Leon Vynehall - Goodthing (3024)
(44) Kendrick Lamar - i (Top Dawg)
(45) Sleater-Kinney - Bury Our Friends (Sub Pop)
(46) Andy Stott: - Faith in Strangers (Modern Love)
(47) FKA Twigs - Two Weeks (XL)
(48) Sinkane - Hold Tight (DFA)
(49) Swans - A Little God In My Hands (Young God)
(50) Beyonce - 7/11 (Columbia)

A Closer Listen's Global Top 20

1) A Winged Victory for the Sullen ~ Atomos (Erased Tapes)
2) Kate Carr ~ Lost in Doi Saket (Sound Map)
3) Erik K Skodvin ~ Flame (Sonic Pieces)
4) Valerio Tricoli ~ Miseri Lares (PAN)
5) Rumour Cubes ~ Appearances of Collections (Self-Released)
6) Christopher Tignor ~ Thunder Lay Down in the Heart (Western Vinyl)
7) This Will Destroy You ~ Another Language (Holodeck/Secretly Canadian/Suicide Squeeze)
8) Christina Vantzou ~ No. 2 (Kranky)
9) Petrels ~ Mima (Denovali)
10) Black to Comm ~ Providence (Dekorder)
11) Ian William Craig ~ A Turn of Breath (Recital)
12) Lawrence English + Stephen Vitiello ~ Fable (Dragon’s Eye Recordings)
13) Hiss Tracts ~ Shortwave Nights (Constellation)
14) Lawrence English ~ Wilderness of Mirrors (Room40)
15) Kyle Bobby Dunn ~ Kyle Bobby Dunn & the Infinite Sadness (Students of Decay)
16) Death Blues ~ Ensemble (Rhythmplex)
17) Matthew Collings ~ Silence is a Rhythm Too (Denovali)
18) Wrekmeister Harmonies ~ Then It All Came Down (Thrill Jockey)
19) P Jørgensen ~ Gold Beach (Low Point)
20) Pascal Savy ~ Adrift (Eilean Records)

More ACL lists:
http://acloserlisten.com/category/featured-articles/

am a fan of skodvin and english off that list

nick what do you think of russell haswell's recent music

hmm, good question. i like the vigour of his sound and the variety of textures he conjures up, it's got a really energetic performative and improvisatory feel to it. first section off that collab with pain jerk that came out this year is just stunning - feels like your brain is locked within an electrified wire cage and every time you try thinking, that tiny movement brings it into contact with the bars and you get these shooting pains jolting across the surface of your mind. and i read about the thing he did at aldeburgh in some classical music blog and that sounded amazing: basically it was a choral performance of a 16th century work known as the earthquake mass, but the manuscript of this piece is in a state of severe decay and haswell was filling in the missing parts of the score with earthquake-appropriate room-shaking noise.

so yeah, i like him on the level of it being a fun thing to stick in yr ears, but otoh it never really gets past the level of raw sensation for me. it's kind of this really tactile set of sounds that never quite becomes a language that communicates anything outside of itself. i suppose you could say this makes him a more honest artist as he doesn't rely on any emotional trickery - his music doesn't hold those intimations of deeper significance that you get with the likes of kevin drumm or tim hecker or lawrence english, there's no interpretation to be done on the part of the listener, it's more of a pure wyhiwyg sensory thing. and maybe that just frustrates my ego cos there's no ambiguity to project my own meaning on to, it's just sound waves that don't give a fuck about what i think of it. which is cool in its own way but doesn't really affect me beyond that. i'm sorry but this is just how i feel.

Shindig! Magazine
http://www.shindig-magazine.com/2014-awards.html

1. Temples - Sun Structures (Heavenly)
2. Foxygen - And Star Power (Jagjaguwar)
3. The Soundcarriers – Entropicalia (Ghost Box)
4. Jim Noir - Finnish Line (Dook Stereo)
5. Balduin - All In A Dream (Sunstone)
6. Ariel Pink - Pom Pom (4AD)
7. Graham Day & The Forefathers - Good Things (Own Up)
8. Big Boss Man - Last Man On Earth (Blow Up)
9. Jaki Liebezeit & Joachim Irmler – Flut (Klangbad)

i read about the thing he did at aldeburgh in some classical music blog and that sounded amazing: basically it was a choral performance of a 16th century work known as the earthquake mass, but the manuscript of this piece is in a state of severe decay and haswell was filling in the missing parts of the score with earthquake-appropriate room-shaking noise.

This must be Brumel, it's beautiful & I'd be v curious to hear that although I'd about the concept

_idk_ about the concept, rather

yep, it was brumel. and i've done it a disservice in my description, i think it was probably a bit more thought through than i made it sound

Get in here, goons

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/40-best-rap-albums-of-2014-20141223

great list, whiney. "In a year this messed up, even the idea of eating Ruffles in peace was welcome escapism," does like every year end blurb need an oblique reference to this "messed up" year? it seems like a pretty weak way of adding gravitas to a blurb. and like, for whom was eating ruffles escapism from whatever political misery this is ref'ing?

if they were utz chips it would've been so much better for escaping the sociopolitical miseries of american life imo, or goldfish

like idk ferguson, staten island, IS, crimea, malaysian flights, whew thank god for mac miller!

it's a pretty simple point about the small joys of banality in rap music, here we even have an entire thread about it rap music's memorable banalities

lol ok sure

it's an insular and closed off mixtape, that it seems unconcerned w/ much beyond its own lil world is a large part of his appeal

it's a very easy concept to understand :-/

XLR8R's Best of 2014
http://www.xlr8r.com/features/2014/12/xlr8rs-best-2014-releases-15-1

30. Lockah - Yahoo or the Highway
29. Forma Cool - Haptics
28. Anthony Naples - TTT026
27. Caribou - Our Love
26. Claude Speed - My Skeleton
25. Clark - Clark
24. Juju & Jordash - Clean-Cut
23. Teebs - E S T A R A
22. Traumprinz - All the Things
21. Aphex Twin - Syro
20. John Barera & Will Martin - Graceless
19. Jordan GCZ - Digitalis
18. Vermont - Vermont
17. Vessel - Punish, Honey
16. Suzanne Kraft - Missum
15. Session Victim - See When You Get There
14. Gunnar Haslam - Mirrors and Copulation
13. Young Marco - Biology
12. Hieroglyphic Being - The Seer of Cosmic Visions
11. Steffi - Power of Anonymity
10. Head High - Megatrip
9. Terekke - Terekke
8. Objekt - Flatland
7. Todd Terje - It's Album Time
6. Barnt - Magazine 13
5. Jack J - Looking Forward To You
4. Gesloten Cirkel - Submit X
3. Leon Vynehall - Music for the Uninvited
2. Kassem Mosse - Workshop 19
1. Call Super - Suzi Ecto

not a bad list there

That Session Victim album has some wonderful moments.

05. Mumdance – Take Time feat. Novelist

this is my kinda shit, glad to see it on some lists. i can never find much uk bass in this particular vein and ilx doesn't help either, maybe i'm not digging hard enough idk. anybody up for a collaborative spotify playlist?

Phonica Records Best of 2014

Albums: http://www.phonicarecords.com/page/best-of-2014-albums-70
Singles: http://www.phonicarecords.com/page/best-of-2014-singles-69
Compilations: http://www.phonicarecords.com/page/best-of-2014-compilations-65
Reissues: http://www.phonicarecords.com/page/best-of-2014-reissues-68

thanks nick

xp Yeah, another first place for Gigi Masin!

Afisha Volna's unranked list of the best pop singles:

Vintazh - Crisis
QT - Hey QT
Ariana Grande - Break Free
Grimes - Go
Hannah Diamond - Attachment
Taylor Swift - Blank Space
Eva Polna - Poet Lyubov
How To Dress Well - Face Again
Lana Del Rey - West Coast
Perfume Genius - Queen
Ariel Pink - Put Your Number In My Phone
Jungle - Time
Ivan Dorn - Teleport
Azealia Banks - Miss Amor
Serebro - Ya Tebya Ne Otdam
Charlie XCX - Boom Clap
Sia - Chandelier
Kiesza - Bad Thing
Nyusha - Bezotvetnaya
Röyksopp and Robin - Rong

Some good stuff, some trash. PC Music is apparently a thing in Russia.

Did we catch this one already?
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/whats-on/music-nightlife-news/top-15-albums-2014-ed-4837091

xps that terekke record is gorgeous, glad to see it somewhere

and somehow i had no idea there was a new juju & jordash album out this year.

it's a really good one too imo!

Washington Post - Top 50 Albums
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/entertainment/2014-top-50-albums/

50. Wylie and the Wild West - Relic
49 Erica Campbell - Help
48 The Gotobeds - Poor People are Revolting
47 Dengue Dengue Dengue - Serpiente Dorada
46 Steve Gunn - Way Out Weather
45 Ryley Walker - All Kinds of You
44 Mary J. Blige - The London Sessions
43 Little Big Town - Pain Killer
42 Andy Stott - Faith in Strangers
41 Tinashe - Aquarius
40 James Brandon Lewis - Divine Travels
39 Grenier and Archie Pelago - Grenier Meets Archie Pelago
38 Chris Forsyth and the Solar Motel Band - Intensity Ghost
37 Grouper - Ruins
36 Obnox - Louder Space
35 Priests - Bodies and Control and Money and Power
34 Katy B - Little Red
33 Legowelt - Crystal Cult 2080
32 100s - Ivry
31 Leon Vynehall - Music for the Uninvited
30 Gucci Mane and Young Thug - Young Thugga Mane La Flare
29 Warpaint - Warpaint
28 Sebastien Tellier - L'Aventura
27 Sicko Mobb - Super Saiyan Vol. 1
26 Alex G - DSU
25 Fatima Al Qadiri - Asiatisch
24 Chain and the Gang - Minimum Rock N Roll
23 Migos - Rich N---- Timeline
22 Lil Boosie - Life After Deathrow
21 Ben Frost - A U R O R A
20 Kindness - Otherness
19 Todd Terje - It's Album Time
18 3BallMTY - Globall
17 Ex Hex - Rips
16 DJ Mustard - 10 Summers
15 Charli XCX - Sucker
14 Lori McKenna - Numbered Doors
13 Horse Lords - Hidden Cities
12 Eric Church - The Outsiders
11 Naomi Punk - Television Man
10 Hiss Golden Messenger - Lateness of Dancers
9 Young Thug and Bloody Jay - Black Portland
8 Popcaan - Where We Come From
7 Aphex Twin - Syro
6 Rich Gang - Tha Tour Part 1
5 Miranda Lambert - Platinum
4 Sturgill Simpson - Metamodern Sounds in Country Music
3 YG - My Krazy Life
2 Sam Hunt - Montevallo
1 D'Angelo - Black Messiah

refreshingly different imo

could all just be that one guys picks though but still

Props for being the first list I see that includes Ryley Walker's album.

Chris Forsyth and the Solar Motel Band - Intensity Ghost

This is his best since Paranoid Cat, what an album!

fuck the daily record and i look forward to the day it goes out of business

xps

forsyth album is the guitar rock album of the year by a mile

Afisha Volna's top under-the-radar albums of 2014, and Bob Dylan / Ryan Adams for some reason:

BIS - Data Panik Etcetera
Bob Dylan - 50th Anniversary Collection
Buddy - Idle Time
Dollkraut - Schimanski’s Black Lullabies
Donovan Blanc - Donovan Blanc
Get the Blessing - Lope and Antilope
HTRK - Psychic 9-5 Club
Luke Abbott - Wysing Forest
Piss Test - Biggest Band in Europe
Ravioli Me Away - The Inevitable Album
Ryan Adams - Ryan Adams
Sleaford Mods - Divide and Exit
Theo Parrish - American Intelligence
Vtgnike - Real Love Doesn't Have Past Tense
Ansambl Detskikh Muzikalnikh Instrumentov - Dobrozlo
vBENZINEestOBLAKA - OGLOBLIA
Vladimirski Sentimentalni Salon - Bez Vsyakikh Khochu
Nyusha - Obedinenie

Hard Heavy & Old!
1. Three Seasons Music - Grow
2. Blues Pills - Blues Pills
3. Wolfmother - New Crown
4. Heat - Labyrinth
5. Electric Citizen - Sateen
7. Siena Root - Pioneers
8. The Oath - The Oath
9. Uriah Heep - Band - Outsider
10. Mount Carmel - Get Pure
11. Judas Priest - Redeemer Of Souls
12. Louisiana Swamp Donky - Redneck Revival
13. Spiders - Shake Electric
14. Stubb - Cry Of The Ocean
15. The Well - Samsara
16. Radio Moscow - Magical Dirt
17. Märvel - Hadal Zone Express
18. John Garcia - John Garcia
19. Mount Salem - Endles
20. Fu Manchu - Gigantoid
21. Greenleaf - Trails And Passes
22. Bigelf - Into The Maelstrom
23. Electric Blue - Born In Sin
24. Ace Frehley - Space Invader
25. Abramis Brama - Enkel Biljett
26. Black Moth - Condemned To Hope
27. Count's 77 - Count's 77
28. California Breed - California Breed
29. Bloody Hammers - Under Satan's Sun
30. Jeremy Irons & the Ratgang Malibus- Spirit Knife
31. The Order Of Israfel - Wisdom
32. The Soulbreaker Company - Graceless
33. Ogre - The Last Neanderthal
34. Demon Eye - Leave The Light
35. Grinder Blues - Grinder Blues
36. Hyne - Elements
37. ACCEPT - Blind Rage
38. Rage of Samedi - Sign
39. BLACK LUNG - Black Lung
40. 1000mods - Vultures
41. Pallbearer - Foundations of Burden
42. The Skull - For Those Which Are Asleep
43. Purple Hill Witch - Purple Hill Witch
44. Lo-Pan - Colossus
45. Nashville Pussy - Up the Dosage
46. Steak - Slab City
47. The Picturebooks - Imaginary Horse
48. Black Capricorn - Cult Of Black Friars
49. Witch Mountain - Mobile Of Angels
50. WEDGE - Wedge
51. Castle - Under Siege
52. Lucifer Was - Diesgrow
53. Lonely Kamel - Shit City
54. kamchatka - The Search Goes On
55. The Golden Grass - The Golden Grass
56. Grand Magus - Triumph And Power
57. Mars Red Sky - Stranded in Arcadia
58. Limestone Whale - Limestone Whale
59. Mamont - The Valleys Below
60. Monolord - Empress Rising
61. Pilgrim - II Void Worship
62. The Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell - Check Em Before You Wreck Em'
63. The Vintage Caravan - Voyage
64. The Graviators - Motherload
65. Serpent Venom - Of Things Seen and Unseen
66. Black Stone Cherry - Magic Mountain
67. mortalicum - Tears from the Grave
68. Below - Across The Dark River
69. Alunah - Awakening The Forest
70. A Girl's A Gun - Head Up, Above The Clouds
71. Burning Saviours - Boken Om Forbannelsen
72. Sheavy - The Best Of Sheavy A Misleading Collection
73. Death Penalty - Death Penalty
74. Lucifer's Fall - Lucifer's Fall
75. The Dagger - The Dagger
76. Fuzzly - Vol II
77. Blood Farmers - Headless Eyes
78. Hypnos - Hypnos
79. Iron Void - Iron Void
80. Satyress - Dark Fortunes
81. Black State Highway - Black State Highway
82. Wo Fat - The Conjuring
86. Baby Woodrose - Kicking Ass and Taking Names
87. Barbarinan Overlords - Rise Up
88. Salem's Pott - ...Lurar ut dig på prärien
89. Brimstone Coven - Brimstone Coven
90. Hjortene - Hjortene
91. Amaxa - On The Other Side
92. Isole - The Calm Hunter
93. Mage - Last Orders
94. Desert Suns - Desert Suns
95. Season of Arrows - Season Of Arrows
96. Necro (ex Necronomicon) - Necro
97. Zodiac - Sonic Child
98. Yob - Clearing the Path to Ascend
99. Truckfighters - Universe
100. Kyng - Burn The Serum

xps
"forsyth album is the guitar rock album of the year by a mile"

Was just out walking in the park listening to Yellow Square, what a fucking track!

Saw that lineup live last summer, pretty much blew the roof off the club

Any sign of Rockarolla yet?

I don't know what the deal with Rock-A-Rolla is. Last year it came out Dec. 19. Last week I was updating my subscription and emailed them asking about it, and no answer.

i thought i saw their year-end list but upon further inspection it was Adamc-A-Rolla

http://westsidetoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/b458788adb603a523901bc8d7fb04792.jpg

I think I can guess at most of what would be in Rock-A-Rolla's top 20: YOB, Godflesh, Swans, Earth, Goat, Secret Chiefs 3, Electric Wizard, Wovenhand, Shellac, Aphex Twin, Einsturzende Neubauten, Floor, Boris, Bong, Alcest, Baptists, Helms Alee, SBTRKT, Liars, Ben Frost.

Maybe top 50: Crippled Black Phoenix, Tombs, Lantlos, Thou, Sólstafir, Melvins, Mogwai, Cynic, Ides Of Gemini, Indian, Obake, Gridlink, Giant Squid, Black Moth, The Atlas Moth, Nadja, Midnight Masses, Eyehategod, Nothing, Pallbearer, Opeth, Chris Forsyth & The Solar Motel Band, Moab, John Garcia, Protomartyr, Gold Codes, Carla Bozulich, Have A Nice Life, Conan, Esben And The Witch, Horseback, Fucked Up, Woods Of Desolation, Comet Control, Motorpsycho, Syd Arthur, Messenger, The Soft Pink Truth, Trans Am, Flying Lotus, Maurice Louca, Fatima al Qadiri, The Skull, Serpent Venom, The Oath, Kikagaku Moyo, Total Control, Fu Manchu, Orange Goblin, Lo-Pan, Monster Magnet, Marmozets, Bracken, Pontiak, House Of Lightning, Gazpacho, Young Widows, Slomatics, The Flight Of Sleipnir, Dir En Grey, Oozing Wound, Ocean Chief.

Oh, and of course that Scott Walker + Sunn O))) album. Substitute for one in the first list, like SBTRKT.