As mentioned in my introductory installment of this
year-end review, there were plenty of records that I liked well enough, but not
many that I actually loved. I’ve read and absorbed as many lists over the past
month as I could, but my list remained pretty consistent throughout.
So, here are my favorites. They’re organized in order of
preference as well as I could manage at the time of writing this. The first ten
are pretty solid, but it kind of goes to hell after that. The honorable
mentions are records that might rank differently on any given day depending on
my mood. I know there are records that I’ll discover months from now that would
make this list if I were aware of them. There are records that I bought and
liked at the time that didn’t make the cut because I brought them home and
barely played them. I haven’t bought some of things on here. What follows are the
records I kept going back to, records that made me excited to hear them again.
The Top Ten
1.
D’angelo – Black Messiah: This is why you don’t
make best-of lists until the end of a year. It’s a little silly for me to rate
this record this high when it’s only been out for a few weeks. At the same
time, part of me feels that in a few more weeks I might regret not putting it
at number one. This may be a
Sgt.
Pepper’s/Dark Side caliber record – time will only tell. The fact that
we’ve been waiting for it for 14 years puts all kinds of pressure on it to live
up to the wait. It can’t possibly be as good as Questlove has been saying for
the past two years, could it? Um, maybe. I think it might be better than
Voodoo which is pretty ridiculous to
think about. It’s tighter than
Voodoo,
more broad and artful than
Brown Sugar.
Sure, Prince put out two not-bad records this year, but nothing on them is as
good of a Prince song as “The Charade.” The production is deep, dark, and murky
which is why it’s drawn so many
There’s a
Riot Goin’ On comparisons. There are small sounds in the mix buried like
treasure. The vocals are often obscured. This makes me listen all the more
intently, drawing me in. It’s a deep album in the sense that I expect I’ll
still new things in it a year from now. People generally don’t dream records
this big anymore. Marvin, Sly, Curtis, Stevie, Bowie, Prince, and Kate Bush all
used to make records with this scope. Kanye and Janelle Monae have made albums
with this reach, but neither has achieved this level of sophisticated grace – and
I say that as someone who likes Kanye and Janelle. There’s soul, gospel, jazz,
rock, hell, even flamenco, here and it all works. It’s the kind of record that
I want to talk to everybody about and ask them what they think. I wonder what
Kanye and Prince think of it. Are they jealous? Does it make Greg Dulli hate
himself? Questlove said of the record at the listening party, “It’s
everything.” That’s not much of a stretch. It has a Whitman-esque
world-encompassing, multitude-containing aspect. It’s an album that feels both
like old fashioned soul music and at the same time as cutting edge as any
record by The Knife. The story behind the album’s surprise rush release at the
end of the year is that it was a reaction to the events of this past fall. I
wonder if coming out after all the critics lists are in for the year and too
early for 2015 will doom it to be lost and ignored. It doesn’t matter. I think
it’s too strong not to last.
2.
Alvvays – Alvvays: This is just good indie
rock. Great melodies and songs that don’t sound forced. It’s not game-changing
or epic, and it’s not particularly original (you could easily convince someone
it’s a new Bettie Serveert record). So why rank it so high? Listening to it
made me happier than any other record this year. How’s that for an objective
criteria? The production combines mid-90s low-fi charm with 60s reverb which
likely plays on an inadvertent nostalgia inside of me. There’s an innocence to
this album that I haven’t heard in a while and I can’t help but find it
endearing.
Alvvays is incredibly
romantic and wide-eyed, leading with its heart, songs of someone terribly
afraid to miss out on the love of one’s life. There’s windswept desperation,
longing, and wit in the lyrics and voice of Molly Rankin that makes your heart
ache and soar at the same time. This is the record that I once hoped Park Ave.
would make, an ode of longing for love before knowing what loss really is.
3.
La Roux – Trouble in Paradise: This is
effortless pop/dance music that’s fun and sexy – a mix of new wave and italo
disco. There’s also something that reminds me of early Prince in that cocky,
self-assured, flirty swagger. Like Prince, Elly Jackson performs and produces
most of the music herself. Now that she has split with bandmate Ben Langmaid,
there will no longer be any doubt that La Roux will be seen as wholly her vehicle.
If
Alvvays is my idea of a long lost
Park Ave. masterpiece, then this would be the Tilly and the Wall record they
might make if they ever ditched the guys. As bright and bouncy as a record
about relationships on the rocks could be, this is the most emotionally tough
record released this year.
4.
Jessie Ware – Tough Love: This is more expansive
than her debut. Some might say Ware is too calculated: a new, market-tested
Sade for rich condo dwellers. Maybe she is. The music is great regardless. It’s
hearing sophisticated pop like this that throws dross like Charli XCX and
Meghan Trainor into sharp relief. This is adult music for grown-ups.
Tough Love has epic, expansively lush
production and emotional vocal performances. I loved her last record and this one
only improves on what that one did well. I don’t understand how this wasn’t a
hit record. How do people pick Lana Del Ray over this?
5.
Wye Oak – Shriek: I’ve heard people who’ve
liked their older albums (and sound) don’t care much for this new album. I have
to say I feel the same way, only in reverse. I never cared for their previous
work. It felt too self-absorbed and depressed to me. This is light and airy by
comparison. The way the off-kilter arpeggiated keyboard riff in album-opener
“Before” suddenly locks into an easy groove once the drums and bass come in
sounds like a new morning in the bands career. It’s the best song on here along
with the closer, “Logic of Color.” They’ve gone new wave and it’s a good sound
on them.
6.
Swans – To Be Kind: From a purely aesthetic
standpoint, aside from the D’Angelo album, this is probably the most masterful
record on this list in terms of completeness of vision and perfection of
execution. Like all their work, however, it’s not something you throw on
lightly. Aside from the abrasive sounds, the length of the songs are going to
be a hurdle for most people – two discs with only one song under seven minutes
and five songs over ten. This music takes its time with an almost ritualistic,
tantric sensuality. Gira is still brutal these days, but now he sounds like
he’s having fun sculling the rivers at the bottom of the sewers.
7.
Clark – Clark: I realize that placing this
Warp Records release higher than that
other
record on the same label (more anon) will seem ridiculous to some. This one was
personally more satisfying. Chris Clark offers up a darker, maybe more
goth-friendly, vision. “Winter Linn” could even possibly be slipped into a DJ
set of the latest Metropolis singles and no one might notice. That’s not meant
to be an indictment, just an indication that this is a record that has a
personality of its own outside of most techno platters. The key track for me is
the penultimate “There’s A Distance in You” which starts small and builds into
a squealing banger before airing out into a saxophone drenched cloud of gray
heaven. I can’t prove that Colin Stetson played on this, but it sure sounds
like him. Clark may have even played the horn himself if the liners are to be
trusted. That other record on Warp might have drawn bigger headlines, but this
was my favorite electronic music of the year.
8.
Sturgill
Simpson – Metamodern Sounds in Country
Music: This album plays like an imaginary, long-lost psychedelic record
by Waylon Jennings. His cover of When In Rome’s “The Promise” is reborn as an
American western ballad, tapping into a grit that the original never had (and I
love the original). There’s an embryonic warmth in Simpson’s voice that screams
classic country, but his lyrics follow in a long line of folksy, yet cosmic American
transcendentalism from Emerson and Thoreau down to Woody Guthrie and Willie
Nelson. Rock fans have already accepted Simpson, but make no mistake, this
record is legitimate country music, not alternative country which is too often
indie rockers playing cowboy. It does push the envelope by adding psychedelic
touches to the sound, but musically it’s closer to George Strait and Alan
Jackson than Justin Townes Earle. Simpson isn’t interested in saving country
music, but if he continues making records this good I hope that Nashville and
(more importantly) country music audiences begin to embrace something other
than jock-jam bro-country.
9.
White Lung – Deep Fantasy: I never liked Hole.
White Lung sounds like if Hole had been a good band.
Deep Fantasy is an album full of short, fast songs that doesn’t
overstay its welcome. It was by far the toughest, ballsiest record I heard this
year. I’d love to see them play on the Grammys. It would be a shot of guts that
would shred the rest of the milquetoast fair that program offers up. I
always hear people complaining that music doesn’t rock like it used to. This
record refutes that gripe. It’s true that twenty years ago there were thousands
of bands that played music like this, but only one in several hundred made
records this good. I’d argue that if
Deep
Fantasy was released in 1994 it would still stand out from the crowd.
Singer Mish Way’s Marlboro-filtered voice and Kenneth William’s Big Black-like
ringing harmonic guitar storm through each song, one raging right after the
other. It’s not just a blur of noise either; there are great big hooks here.
They’re just flying at your head at high speed.
10.
Liars – Mess: These guys crack me up. From
the first lines of this record they immediately suck the pompousness out of the
room. Not since the Butthole Surfers has a band been able to make you laugh
while at the same time daring you not to take them seriously. “Mask Maker”
begins the record with the words: “Take my pants off/Use my socks/Smell my
socks/Eat my face off/Eat my face off/Take my face/Get me your face/Give me
your face…” It’s completely Buffalo Bill, Swans-style horrorshow, but it makes
you want to boogie. The funniest (or scariest) thing about the Liars is how
methodically consistent they are for how psychopathic their music sounds. Mess
continues the move towards electronic dance music that they started on
WIXIW, however this isn’t electronic
music in the sense of faux dubsteppers like Skrillex or pop-dance dudes like
Calvin Harris. I fantasize that the Liars are Freddy Krueger-like dream demons
who terrorize Skrillex and Harris at night for their sins in the waking world.
That would be righteous justice.
Honorable
Mentions (The Best of the Rest)
I didn’t number the rest of what follows. I’m less sure
of how I feel about these records than I am of the ones above. They’re listed
in a loose order, ranked roughly in preference. They’re followed by one
latecomer from last year and my favorite complilation/reissue.
Mac DeMarco – Salad Days: Do you remember when
Blur fell in love with Pavement in 1997? This sounds like if Damon Albarn tried
to make a Stephen Malkmus solo album. It’s a nice groovy, laidback set of warm
slack. The album was recorded in DeMarco’s apartment, but it sounds open and
clear instead of low-fi and claustrophobic. It has a friendly, laissez-faire
Kevin Ayers feel without aping the banana god’s actual music. With more listens
this might have made it into my top 10. The fact that he’s only 24 fills me
with envy, but he has a voice that will age well as he sounds like he could
just as easily be 54.
Wild Beasts – Present Tense: The fact that this
record is as high on this list as it is stands as a testament to how much I
like this band because it’s not that great of a record. There are four really
good songs on it: “Wanderlust,” “Sweet Spot,” “A Simple Beautiful Truth,” and
“Palace.” The Hayden Thorpe-led songs are the winners here. The Tom Fleming
tracks are dogs by comparison to be honest, “Nature Boy” and “Daughters” among
them. There really isn’t anything really bad on the record; it’s all just too
tepid coming from a band as invigorating as this. All the vim and vigor of
Limbo, Panto seems to have been drained
out of them. I don’t mind the move towards synths and electronics, but I just
wish for more of their early, spastic harlequin energy. Drummer Chris Talbot
continues to be a consistently inventive player despite not having the bangers
to get behind that he once did. Based on this record I wouldn’t be surprised if
they broke up which would be preferable to me than seeing them become
Radiohead.
Future Islands – Singles: I really liked this record
when it first came out, but I either burned out on it or it just hasn’t held up
for me like I thought it would. My biggest complaint? There’s too much
positivity in it, too much communal good feeling. Songs like “Sun in the
Morning” and “A Song for our Grandfathers” make me feel like I’m listening to a
Ziggy Marley record. That said, the new wave basslines and lead singer Samuel
Herring’s indomitable spirit make for an incredibly winning combo. Their
performance of “Seasons (Waiting On You)” on Letterman might have been the best
pop music moment of the year.
Pere Ubu – Carnival of Souls: This is the
second record of theirs named after a classic B-movie and it’s even better than
Lady of Shanghai. This is a band that
hasn’t toned down the weirdness after all this time. Almost 40 years into their
career, they are putting out music that compares well with some of their early
best. No, it’s not at the level of the Hearthan singles or The Modern Dance or
Dub Housing, but that’s an almost impossible standard to hit (although I would
argue that 2009’s
Long Live Pere Ubu
did). It is easily as good as, if not better than,
The Art of Walking or
Song of
the Bailing Man.
Planningtorock – All Love’s Legal: Much was made of
the new Against Me! record being a revolutionary screed of gender freedom, but
this record tackles the same terrain without the overwrought solipsism.
Planningtorock is just as polemical as Against Me!, but the music actually
sounds new and revolutionary rather than just a rockist retread. Besides that,
the message is rendered with real pride, joy, and celebration rather than
reactionary angst. The day-glo alien dance sound offers an enticing inclusivity
that doesn’t rail against its oppressors so much as push them aside while
stepping into its own future. Like The Juan MacLean (next), Planningtorock are
moving on after the group they’re most often associated with has broken up, in
Planningtorock’s case, The Knife. Jam Rostron, who is Planningtorock, continues
to obscure her image like The Knife, but Rostron uses it as another way of
making a statement of gender politics in the arts. She also uses the final line
from The Knife’s “Full of Fire” as a launch pad for an invitation to discourse
through dance and music. Planningtorock is about reinventing yourself out of
your origins.
The Juan MacLean –
In A Dream: This is the first
time this group has sounded like an actual group to me rather than just another
non-LCD DFA project. The question is now that LCD is no more will they, or can
they, fill the gap that band left? The answer is no, and that’s to be expected.
What made LCD different than all other similar groups (The Rapture, !!!, Hot
Chip, Joachim, etc.) is James Murphy. Murphy infused his project with his aging
rock-nerd personality. All too often, these dance rock guys have aimed for
Kraftwerk-like anonymity rather than Murphy’s Lou Reed-like full disclosure.
Cold is cool, but Murphy’s warmth and humanity is cooler than cool. It’s the
same goofy, flawed humanity Bernard Sumner brought to New Order. The Juan
Maclean is still pretty icy, even when playing disco and house. You can begin
to hear a bit of a thaw though on “Love Stops Here.” Past collaborator and
former LCD member, Nancy Whang, seems more like a full-fledged member now; and
whether this new warmth is a result of her direct influence or rather just a
catalytic result of her presence, it’s a move in the right direction.
Jungle – Jungle: The video for lead-off
track, “The Heat,” is a perfect visual for this music, two old-school
rollerskate dancers breaking under a bridge. This album has an instantaneous
cool about it. It’s also ridiculously catchy, almost enough to make me wary of
it. It’s the kind of “Dry the Rain” record you could throw on in a record shop
on a busy day and have half-a-dozen people asking what it is by the middle of
the third track. The whole thing is suffused with smoky, laidback grooves and
falsetto vocals which make for great background music at home or driving around
town.
Ibibio Sound
Machine – Ibibio Sound Machine:
Despite hailing from London, this is modern African music, like Amadou & Mariam,
which doesn’t sound retro or beholden to Western conceptions of “world music.”
This record is more dance music than Amadou & Mariam, but it’s just as
funky and soulful in a Talking Heads/Bush Tetras meets Fela way. Horns mix with
new wave synths over a bedrock of Afro-Funk. Singer Eno Williams Uffort’s voice
reminds me of Shara Nelson from Massive Attack at certain moments, and although
I don’t understand the lyrics the spirit is put across.
Robyn Hitchcock – The Man Upstairs: The Man Upstairs
is a Joe Boyd-produced set consisting of half covers and half originals from
one of the most singular British songwriters of the past 35 years. So why
should you listen to such a talented songsmith do other people’s songs? Because
Hitchcock is a great interpreter and hearing him cover the Psychedelic Furs
“Ghost in You” or Roxy’s “To Turn You On” is to hear them through his
Strawberry Fields-focused filter. The originals here feel of a piece with the
rest. New songs “San Francisco Patrol” and “Recalling the Truth” are the kind
of casually brilliant songs that would garner loud praise if penned by Dylan,
Cohen, or Neil Young. However, even Hitchcock can’t make “Crystal Ship” not
suck. You can’t expect them all to be gold.
Blonde Redhead – Barragán: Let me be clear: this
isn’t as good of a record as some that they’ve made in the past, but it does
hold its own charms. Blonde Redhead is nothing if not charming. “Dripping”
offers up a loose, languorous funk topped with a vocal melody of sleepy-eyed
seduction. The almost-nine minute “Mind to Be Had” has a trance-inducing
effect. Elsewhere, the arrangements are more minimal than they have been in the
past which makes more room for some delicate left turns. I’m still intrigued by
them and I still want to hear where their baroque vision takes them next.
Ryan Adams – 1984: Ryan Adam put out two records
this year. One of them is a great rock & roll record; and the other is
something for Ryan Adams fans to listen to. This is the good one. Naturally,
Adams put it out as a limited, vinyl-only release as part of his PAX AM Singles
Series that’s already unavailable. Essentially, it’s a throwaway. It’s telling
that my favorite Ryan Adams record is
Demolition
which was a collection of leftover tracks cobbled together with nothing more
than a second thought. Most of Adams’s records are too overwrought and contrived.
His other record this year, the self-titled record, is showing up on a lot of
other best-of lists, but I think Adams himself knows better. Ryan Adams, with
its Bryan Adams
Reckless typeface,
seems to be trolling his own fanbase who crave and encourage his worst
tendencies.
1984 is a short, sharp
injection of Husker Du-fueled rock. The whole thing is 11 songs in less than 15
minutes which is about all the Ryan Adams anyone needs.
Ty Segall – Manipulator: I haven’t heard this
record enough yet. It’s a mix of glam and psychedelic rock: a little T. Rex, a
little Jay Reatard, some Stooges, and maybe even some Bobby Conn. He rocks
harder than a lot of his retro-contemporaries; he’s the Rolling Stones to
Temples’ Beatles (see below). At 56-minutes this record’s a little hard to
digest without repeat listens. It will either continue to grow on me or I’ll
have forgotten it completely in another year.
Israel Nash – Israel Nash’s Rain Plans: This has
some CCR and Neil Young shine to it. It’s a good hippie record. I thought it
was a better Neil Young record than the record Neil put out this year. Along
with Neil, this record seems like it owes something to Jimmy Webb & America’s
soundtrack to “The Last Unicorn” (it’s not that good though). He’ll probably
get himself a big-name producer and make a really terrible record next. I hope
not.
Todd Terje – It’s Album Time: This record has a
space-age bachelor pad, international lounge music from a 70s European film
soundtrack vibe – the kind of record Shawn Lee used to do well. It also rescues
the brilliant Bryan Ferry cover of Robert Palmer’s “Johnny and Mary” from
Ferry’s pretty meh new record. That guest spot is an ingenious idea. The song
centers the record for me around a projected narrative idea of the lonely
melancholy of a jet-setting cosmopolitan man of leisure. It would be silly to
call this a concept album as some of these tracks have been around for over a
year. Still, the whole piece has a continental unity of sound, if not theme, as
evidenced by “Oh Joy,” a Benny & Bjorn-like rendering of some italo/Alan
Parsons Project Frankenstein. It’s pretty cheesy and uncool, but wonderfully
so.
Temples – Sun Structures: Temples are this
year’s Tame Impala or Foxygen. The songs from this record could have been
pulled off of the
Nuggets II box set.
They aim for the same “Rain”-era Beatles psychedelia that countless other bands
in the last thirty years have attempted. Although lots of bands have adopted
this same 60s echo chamber sound, most don’t come up with vocal melodies like
those in “The Golden Throne.” That said, I couldn’t quote you any lyric or tell
you what any of the songs are about.
Aphex Twin – Syro: A fun return that doesn’t
break new ground but does what he does better than anyone else: quirky,
hyperactive techno with grace and humor. Richard D. James has apparently been
making music this entire time, just not releasing it. Techno’s J.D. Salinger
has said he’s been working on finally collecting this work into releasable form
in the near future. If that comes to pass, we could be listening to “new” Aphex
records on a regular basis. Worse things could happen.
Theophilus London
– Vibes: Theophilus actually got
Leon Ware on the record this time instead of just cribbing his front cover
style. More than Ware, he reminds me of Eddy Grant in that he doesn’t seem to
fit into any niche but his own. “Neu Law” is the best track on here and it has
a Grant-like electro funk. One of these days he’s going to have a huge
“Electric Avenue”-sized hit. For now, I’ll enjoy his stand-ins for “Killer on
the Rampage” and “Romancing the Stone.” London is still trying to figure his
own riddle out which is maybe why I’m still interested.
FKA Twigs – LP1: The easy comparisons are Bjork
and Martina Topley-Bird. This has a really moody trip-hop drag to it. It
manages to be both icy and vulnerable at the same time which is a neat trick.
While the space in the arrangements is the key, next time out I’d like a little
more meat on the bones musically speaking, but we’ll see what we get.
Hercules &
Love Affair – The Feast of the Broken
Heart: I really got into this record when it first came out, but I’ve
since cooled on it a bit. What’s curious is that it made me go back to their
second album,
Blue Songs, which I
kind of wrote off when it came out. Now,
Blue
Songs sounds great to me. Neither the second nor this third have met the
standard of that first eponymous album, but Andrew Butler’s project still
retains the feeling of a revolving cast of characters. This album’s most
significant new family member is John Grant who fits in perfectly with the
crew.
Parquet Courts – Sunbathing Animal/Content Nausea:
Neither of these was as good as the band’s previous records, but they were
still good. The current kings of college rock slack continue to pump out
post-Velvets jams in the same mold as their sonic forebears Television, The
Fall, Pavement, The Strokes, etc. They probably could have condensed these two
records into one better one, but I’m hoping the next one is even better.
Ex Hex – Rips: I was never a Helium fan, but
I like that Wild Flag got Mary Timony to rock out more. This is good,
Sweet/Suzi Quatro power pop. It’s a bit one-note, both musically and
emotionally, but it’s a good record for driving around town in the summer.
There are even traces of an early-KISS influence, like on “Radio On,” which has
a bridge riff reminiscent of “Calling Dr. Love.”
Rips is the kind of record Rodney Bingenheimer would have spun at
his English Disco club.
Marissa Nadler – July: I loved her first three records
but lost interest in her after that. This one grew on me slowly. It’s still
growing on me. Nadler is still a terrific guitar player and her ghostly vocals
are as beautiful as ever. Nadler has always struck me as sharing something
similar to Leonard Cohen, but she lacks Cohen’s self-believe, his wit, and his
steel. Nadler could use a little more flint in her voice. Cohen has always been
an old man (even when he was a young one). Perhaps with age, Nadler will look
to Marianne Faithfull as a role-model and start to take no prisoners. She may
never make her
Broken English, but
hopefully she’ll give us a
Songs for the
Gentle Man (see Bridget St. John).
The Coral – Curse
of Love: It’s surprising that this band is still making records considering
how largely ignored they’ve always been. They could be releasing and
distributing this music in a closet for all the notice it will get. This isn’t
their best, but it’s nice, dark folk rock, like a collection of sad,
psychedelic sea shanties.
Compilation/Reissue:
Sun Ra – In the Orbit of Ra: I owned another
Sun Ra compilation before this came out, but Sun Ra’s catalog is so
overwhelming you get the feeling that you’re only scratching the surface of
music he made. This new collection was curated and assembled by saxophonist and
band-member Marshall Allen who has put together what feels like a broad, but
unified 2-disc set. Sun Ra was part Thelonious Monk, part Moondog. This is a
really wonderful way to explore the interplanetary jazz excursions on a true
American genius.
Late Entry from
Last Year:
Josephine Foster –
I’m A Dreamer: This is a recent
discovery which came out at the end of 2013. If it wasn’t a question of
eligibility this would be much higher up the list. Foster is an American signed
to the British import Fire Records which is to say she is doomed to not being
heard. Fire has always been terrible at promoting, marketing, and distributing
their records stateside leaving good records stranded without an audience. The
crime in this instance is that Foster would have a shot at an actual sizeable
indie audience. If the Current played this record, she would sell a couple
box-lots locally and sell out the Cedar. She’s has an old-timey feel to her
that feels honest and not hackneyed. Her voice has wisdom behind it. It feels a
little worn and weathered. Although she’s much quirkier stylistically, this is
what I wish Marissa Nadler had more of – a seasoned, less-fragile worldview.
The Playlist
Here's a playlist of tracks from the above albums followed by some videos, including a Ty Segall video because
Manipulator isn't on Spotify.
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