Acclaimed Music Top 50 Albums from 2014 poll

This is the last one for awhile. This poll is being suspended to make room for ufo's huge ILM 2010s poll that is about to start. With that, even though this is a POO poll vs a list poll, it's redundant. I will pick this poll back up in the Summer of 2023 or probably 2024. If I'm not around I hope someone else will carry this on.

Also some posters wanted a longer window for voting so this is for you, this one will be open for about 10 days.

Meanwhile, the last one so please vote.

Hmmm

Oh look, my album of the decade made one of these polls lol

i didn't realize you loved rich gang so much

ruins

mr twin sister!!!!

i always think of this as a weak year but the list gets much better once you cross the benji hurdle

Ariana didn't make the cut this time?

I think she would have been 51 or so, Jessie Ware got in there just before her.

Actually that was Azealia who barley missed out. Ariana didn't come close this time around.

i don't know them all, but there isn't a single album here that i have ever loved. and, in fact, of the ones i do know, i would consider those fairly middling without much staying power.

I absolutely loved Benji when it came out, but I don’t think I’ve listened to it since 2015… I have no idea how I’d feel about it now, especially given how its creator is a megascumbag

Anyways this for me is the weakest year of the decade by a pretty decent margin. Think I’m gonna go with fka twigs or mr twin sister

Torn between Black Messiah and Ultraviolence. Not kidding. (The Satanist is the best Behemoth album by a long stretch, but that's not saying much.)

Against Me!

Geez I really thought we’d have more Aphex Twin albums by now

it is interesting how each year is different for everybody. I don’t think this year was anywhere as good as 2013

voted for Shabazz Palaces' Lese Majesty, an amazing album. Aphex Twin's Syro would be my second choice

the sound of Lost In the Dream still feels really immersive to me in a way that PJ Harvey's To Bring You My Love and Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea did

d'angelo then mr twin sister

weird year, one of the weakest of the decade

Since this is going to be open for a while, I'm going to play a few I have never heard before. Tonight it's going to be Mr Twin Sister.

A Banks would’ve been the vote if she was on the list. Might go with Ruins.

it's album time

between these for me.

02 - D'Angelo and The Vanguard - Black Messiah
18 - Spoon - They Want My Soul
28 - DJ Quik - The Midnight Life
29 - Shabazz Palaces - Lese Majesty
37 - Tinashe - Aquarius
38 - YG - My Krazy Life
39 - The Juan Maclean - In a Dream
41 - Mr Twin Sister - Mr Twin Sister
43 - Young Thug, Birdman & Rich Homie Quan - Rich Gang: Tha Tour Part 1
47 - K. Michelle - Anybody Wanna Buy a Heart?
50 - Jessie Ware - Tough Love

thinking im leaning towards k michelle.

Lock-in for Tinashe, otherwise it would probably have been Piñata

The Hotelier

i woulda said tinashe a few years back but imo shes released two better albums since

[RICH... GANG!]

Of course you'd think this was a bad year (with a couple of exceptions) if you just looked at this list. From my own records,

Arch Garrison
CE Schneider
Bob Drake
Current 93
Thantifaxath
Teleman
The Bombay Royale (a superb recent discovery thanks to those Twitter pop polls Ewing runs)
Stars In Battledress
Graham Lewis
Total Control
Neil Cicierega
Greg Gorlen
Jute Gyte
Menace Ruine
Weyes Blood
Trail of Dead
Mitski

all released (imo) very good to great albums this year, in addition to In Conflict and ofc Nothing Important

Just gearing up for the 10's poll y'know. Preparing

Also would like to check out Too Bright, Pinata and Lese Majesty, and give Soused and Unflesh another go. The rest is largely the sort of mediocre guff that milquetoast critic types go wild for

Oh and I'll try Rich Gang fine fine

went with Salad Days

Benji was a revelation for me, but haven't heard in a while

not many stone cold classics for me here

wonder if the War on Drugs will take it, lurkerwise

Wouldn't be surprised. A better timeline has Black Messiah take it, which I do at least need to revisit

do you like shabazz palaces? seems like the kind of rap album youd be into

gonna revisit that, black messiah and run the jewels. i'm really unenthusiastic about my choices here, tbh.

Black Messiah dropping like the last week of the year really gave it some last-minute heft.

I love Black Messiah. I remember thinking this was the kind of album I wish Prince would release - musically, it sounded like something Prince could have theoretically done if he was still putting out rock solid, A quality albums on a regular basis.

Xpost meaning the album gave the year some heft.

(three songs in and sweet jesus black messiah is just as dreadful as i remember. so many amazing guitarists on this and none of them decided to show up to the sessions with any semblance of good taste. this album is a fucking joke. smh, sorry to be the loudmouth negative, but fuck me this isn't good ya'll.)

my favorite record of 2014 besides Lese Majesty and Syro - and it is not at all an ilx thing, is Michael Pisaro’s Continuum Unbound

Went with Spoon.

As stated uptrend, I went and listened to Mr Twin Sister for the first time. Album is great and right up my alley, are their other albums this good?

Now to pick another album to play for the first time from this year.

Going to give Grouper - Ruins a shot tonight

their other albums are, by and large, just as good

mileage may vary on which is best, but all the post name change albums are great

I like the pre-name change stuff too. Good band.

xxxp their 2018 album Salt is just a notch below the self-titled but still really good! And its high points are just as high

SYRO - one of his best albums

it was

the other two mr. twin sister albums are as good or even better

their previous albums under the name twin sister are not particularly memorable though

I was very surprised on how much I liked it, tho it still won't get my vote. Thanks everyone for the recommendations as it's always fun discovering a new band.

I really need to revisit Syro. At the time I thought it was completely forgettable and easily the worst of his “normal” albums.

Syro was a possibility.

Maybe I’ll give that a spin tonight, been a minute

As I have stated, going through some of these that I have never heard before. Last night was Ruins and I just wasn't in the mood for that amount of mellowness. Next is Mac DeMarco.

there are a lot of great Aphex Twin albums but I think Syro maybe is the best of them

xps Austin I bought Black Messiah on release and it is def in my top 5 albums I tried very hard to get into but just couldn't, it's not that it's bland or whatever it's almost aggresively unlistenable to my ears, really an emperor's new clothes/feel like I'm taking crazy pills moment in music for me

but I am ofc happy that it brings joy to others

First Twin Sister LP from 2011 on Domino is the only real letdown in their discography, however the preceding EPs from 2009/2010 are excellent.

I loved Salad Days as it sounded like a lost Wilco record on first listen. Next is 1989 but unlike some of the others I have heard this one before but just making sure it's not quite good enough to get my vote here.

Neneh Cherry

the preceding EPs from 2009/2010 are excellent.

I still haven't loved anything they've done quite as much as Color Your Life

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

i don't really care about against me! one way or another but half the trans women i know (including me) can trace our transitions back, in one way or another, to that album

I was enthralled by punk rock in the late 70s/early 80s, but I think that I'm too old now to really appreciate a punk revival. It feels like something that has been/is geared toward a younger generation

same with indie music that goes back hard on the mid-late 80s and 90s. that was an absolute peak time for college rock and there's no replicating it really ever again

Transgender Dysphoria Blues is a wonderfully melodic jam but I could never really get into the album

I did see Spoon just two weeks back, still on that high and had to vote for it here. I just think the first side is solid gold. The run is "Rent I Pay," "Inside Out," "Rainy Taxi," "Do You" and then ends with "Knock Knock Knock" which might not be toped. Yes, the second side does slow down and din't get "I Just Don't Understand" until I saw it live with Dale Watson on this tour. Then the whole things ends with maybe Spoon's best pop moment "New York Kiss."

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Almost eight years since Black Messiah came out...I can't think of anyone else of D'Angelo's stature who has had a similar output (only three albums - all major works - over a very long period of time). It's like Terrence Malick before he got prolific.

will put up the 2010s nominations thread soon

8 837 Sun Kil Moon - Benji 0

nice

Benji was a great dog. He deserves better than having his name besmirched.

I see I was the only voter for Salad Days

oh well, nice turnout, rather enjoying the split, so many 1-vote albums

Curious who else voted for Ultraviolence.

black messiah was my actual favorite record of 2014, then and now, fwiw

Ultraviolence

Me, though I didn’t have anything in particular to say about it. The first seven tracks are great and the last four are nothing special.

Ultraviolence finishing below rape shocker