A Comparative Perspective on 2014: The Year in Music – Part 3 of 3

So, how does 2014 compare to other years-in-music? Certainly not every year is equal. To provide some context for how good or bad the year was, I’ve somewhat arbitrarily compared this year’s list to the best records from 40, 30, and 20 years ago. I decided against going back 50 years since the pop music album market in 1964 was really in its infancy. I also decided not to compare it to 2004 because I don’t think there’s been enough perspective on those records yet.

What follows is a brief discussion of the year in question and how it compared favorably or unfavorably to 2014. I’ve listed my favorite records from each year along with other notable records from the same year. These notables include records that were big-sellers or were critically-lauded, decent records of personal interest to me, or records that are emblematic of the year and give a good impression of the pop landscape of the time. Some of the notable are records I like, some I don’t. Each section has its own jukebox which I’ve loaded with only the things I liked, sequenced not in order of preference but hopefully in a more listenable order. Finally, at the end I’ll give a short synopsis on 2014 based on the comparative analysis.

Upfront disclosure: the records listed for each year are not every record released that year. I’m sure I won’t mention some people’s favorites. I may have even neglected to include some of my own. These are not meant to be comprehensive lists. This is a very subjective exercise. Obviously my personal bias plays into this, but let’s not pretend that you’re here to get a dry, objective view of pop history. This is my blog; I’m king here.

2014 vs. 1974

Like 2014, 1974 was not a particularly distinguished year for popular music. It was a time of late-glam, late-prog, pre-punk, pre-disco, and mid-period funk. Metal had not fully emerged from heavy, blues-based rock. Classic roots reggae and dub had barely developed out of rocksteady and ska. The hippie dream had died and nothing had come to take its place. A lot of the big groups of the time were either in between releases (Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, The Who) or released records that were not their best (see both of the David Coverdale-led Deep Purple albums).

All that said, there were plenty of good records released that year, many of which I deeply love. A lot of the records released in ‘74 that mean the most to me personally were not commercial successes. Sure, Bowie had a hit with “Rebel Rebel,” but many of the rest (Big Star, Eno, John Cale, Robert Wyatt, Neil Young, etc.) were either outright flops or very specialized, marginal releases (Can, for instance). Even KISS’s first two records struggled pre-Alive. The records that did well, chart-wise, in 1974 were of the laid back, post-hippie, Californian superstar variety (Eagles, Joni Mitchell, Linda Ronstadt, Jackson Browne, Jefferson Starship, etc.); and I generally don’t go in for much of that. Rock had become a big-business commodity by ‘74. The darker, weirder stuff is what appeals to me from that year.

None my favorites from 2014 were bestsellers either, but that’s become the norm for past few decades. Very little in the mainstream has appealed to me since ‘93. In the Seventies, however, the biggest records were sometimes the very best. It seems like it’s the reverse of that now. In that way, ‘74 resembles 2014.

I’d argue that D’angelo’s new record compares favorably with the best of ‘74 R&B which includes good to great records from the Meters, Rufus, Parliament, Funkadelic, James Brown, Stevie Wonder, Curtis Mayfield, Al Green, Ohio Players, Isley Brothers, and more. The other R&B-related records I liked in 2014, Theophilus London and FKA Twigs (and Kelis, which didn’t make my list), were far less traditional and are a lot harder to compare to their predecessors. Even so, I don’t think they will hold up by comparison over the years. Go back and listen to Up for the Down Stroke or Sweet Exorcist if you haven’t heard them in a while. They’re pretty great.

Any easier comparison is the good country records of 2014 with those of ‘74. Waylon Jennings’ Ramblin’ Man is a clear antecedent of Sturgill Simpson’s Metamodern Sounds in Country Music. Not only does Simpson’s voice sound like Jennings’, but both are/were outsiders to what the rest of country music was doing. Gene Clark’s excellent No Other offers another predecessor for Simpson’s psychedelic country vision as well. Dolly Parton’s Jolene can be compared with 2014’s Somewhere Else by Lydia Loveless, not just because they are women, but because both albums are watersheds for the songwriting talents of both. Lucinda Williams’ Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone is a maybe a closer analog to Neil Young’s On the Beach: downbeat, mature efforts with roots both in rock and country. Both have songs called “Walk On” on them too. 1974 was awash in this kind of outsider country and country-rock hybrid like Willie Nelson, Gram Parsons, Gene Clark, Linda Ronstadt, the Eagles, Grateful Dead, etc. 2014 had a few good examples, but nowhere near as many.

A comparison of rock between 1974 and 2014 is tougher and generally highlights differences between the two years, although some similarities can be found. One notable difference is the number of female artists on my 2014 list than my 1974 list. Clearly, Ex Hex wouldn’t exist with Suzi Quatro, but Rips is a way better record than Quatro. White Lung rocks harder than anything on this pre-punk 1974 list with the possible exception of KISS. Nothing approaches the musical doom of the Swans, but there is a similar lyrical darkness to John Cale, Steely Dan, Randy Newman, and even the Peter Gabriel-led Genesis (see “Back in NYC”).

That last example, of Genesis, brings up another distinction between the two years. Art rock and prog in 1974 contained a high level of both musicianship and intellectual conceptualism that is largely missing these days. Liars, Wild Beasts, Pere Ubu, Blonde Redhead, and Parquet Courts all offer a level of post-punk weirdness inherent in Genesis’ Lamb, Eno’s two records, the Crimson albums, Henry Cow, Roxy Music, Cockney Rebel, Can, and Yes. However, none of them approach the virtuosity of King Crimson, Yes, or Zappa. The bands that do offer that level of technical ability now have none of the imagination or taste of the aforementioned 2014 art rock groups. D’angelo’s record was probably the most musically proficient record on my 2014 list. Pere Ubu is the most logical bridge between the art rock of the two years, particularly since their first single was released in 1975.

One small similarity between the two years is that even in 1974 rock was starting to look back at itself in anachronism. Big Star was considered a Beatles-y throwback in the time of concept-album prog. Likewise, Ty Segall, Temples, and The Coral all feature almost self-consciously retro sounds. However, none of them approach the freshness or originality of Radio City. That’s a high standard, but if any of these retro groups want to make something that lasts they need to stop hiding behind production and write songs that expose themselves as much as Alex Chilton did.

A lot of my 2014 list was made up of electronic dance music base out of techno and house, genres whose births were only just being forecasted in 1974 by German records like Autobahn and Phaedra. The other ingredients of modern electronic dance music was also in place in 1974, namely the pre-disco Philly soul sound of records like the Spinners’ Mighty Love and the high-polish production of ABBA’s Euro-pop. Clark and Aphex Twin obviously owe elements of their sound to the krauts, but La Roux’s new wave dance music was anticipated in the synths and bassline of ABBA’s “My Mama Said.”

I suppose if I were to choose between the two years I would favor 1974 because of the degree of affection I feel towards the records I did like. I liked my top ten from 2014, but not with the zeal I feel towards the top of ‘74. Whether or not this is because I discovered the ‘74 titles earlier in my life when I was less cynical and more impressionable, I can’t be sure. There were also just a larger number of good records from that year, even several groups who put out more than one record. Brian Eno, Sparks, KISS, Rufus, and the Ohio Players all put out two (really good) records in ‘74. That speaks to the quality of the year as a whole. I was still a year away from being born in 1974, but I feel closer to the music produced that year than the current one. I loved Alvvay’s album from this year, but can I say it’s better than I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight? It’s really hard.

My Favorites from 1974 (in rough order):

Big Star – Radio City

Brian Eno – Here Come the Warm Jets; Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)

John Cale – Fear

Robert Wyatt – Rock Bottom

Cockney Rebel – Psychomodo

Roxy Music – Country Life

King Crimson – Starless and Bible Black; Red

David Bowie – Diamond Dogs

Richard & Linda Thompson – I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight

Van Morrison – Veedon Fleece

Sparks – Kimono My House; Propaganda

KISS – KISS; Hotter Than Hell

Neil Young – On the Beach

Waylon Jennings – The Ramblin’ Man

Bob Marley & the Wailers – Natty Dread

Genesis – The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway

Steely Dan – Pretzel Logic

Curtis Mayfiled – Sweet Exorcist

Parliament – Up for the Down Stroke

Mick Ronson – Slaughter on 10th Avenue

Can – Soon Over Babaluma

Tangerine Dream – Phaedra

Kraftwerk – Autobahn

Rufus – Rags to Rufus; Rufusized

Other Notable 1974 Releases (in no order):

Joni Mitchell – Court and Spark

Jefferson Starship – Dragonfly

Eagles – On the Border

Eric Clapton – 461 Ocean Boulevard

The Rolling Stones – It’s Only Rock & Roll

Jackson Browne – Late for the Sky

Linda Ronstadt – Heart Like a Wheel

Grateful Dead – From the Mars Hotel

Lynyrd Skynyrd – Second Helping

Bob Dylan – Planet Waves

Gram Parsons – Grievous Angel

Stevie Wonder – Fulfillingness’ First Finale

Yes – Relayer

The Meters – Rejuvenation

Randy Newman – Good Old Boys

Willie Nelson – Phases and Stages

James Brown – Hell

Henry Cow – Unrest

Keith Hudson – Pick a Dub

Dolly Parton – Jolene

The Residents – Meet the Residents

Funkadelic – Standing on the Verge of Getting It On

Ohio Players – Skin Tight; Fire

New York Dolls – Too Much Too Soon

Kevin Ayers – The Confessions of Dr. Dream and Other Stories

Mott the Hoople – The Hoople

Blue Oyster Cult – Secret Treaties

UFO – Phenomenon

Elton John – Caribou

Commodores – Machine Gun

Average White Band – AWB

Isley Brothers – Live It Up

Jackson 5 – Dancing Machine

Lou Reed – Sally Can’t Dance

ELO – Eldorado

Harry Nilsson – Pussy Cats

Barry White – Can’t Get Enough

Sly & the Family Stone – Small Talk

Herbie Hancock – Thrust

Gene Clark – No Other

Sweet – Desolation Boulevard

Al Green – Explores Your Mind

Suzi Quatro – Quatro

Leonard Cohen – New Skin for the Old Ceremony

Frank Zappa – Apostrophe

ABBA – Waterloo

Rush – Rush

Spinners – Mighty Love

2014 vs. 1984

It’s almost cruel to compare the albums from any year to those released in 1984. In my mind, 1984 is one of the great years in pop music history (1967, 1969, 1972, 1977, 1980, and 1989 are a few others). The best records from 1984 are some of the best of all time. It’s not a question of which year had better music, ‘84 or ‘14. The answer is clearly 1984 by a huge margin. As such I won’t spend as much time on this comparison. I’ll just touch on what made ‘84 great and some of the ways that ‘14 managed to compare respectably in some areas.

All my hyperbole doesn’t mean that there wasn’t bad music in ‘84. There was tons, in fact (some of which is listed in the Notable records). Lots of really bad “80s” production. The 80s get a bad rap in the memory of musical history. I think this is largely due to disappointment of baby boomers that their heroes of the 60s and 70s had a rough go of it during the 80s (Dylan, the Stones, Bowie, Neil Young, Rod Stewart, and Lou Reed all floundered artistically most of the decade). That doesn’t detract from the great records that did come out. There were a number of key groups of the time that didn’t release records in 1984 (Talking Heads, New Order, Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel), but enough did that a sensible person couldn’t complain.

Let’s look at the winners of 1984, starting with the Twin Cities. Minneapolis was to 1984 as Manchester was to 1989 or Seattle was to 1991. Prince reached his purple pinnacle with the release of his greatest album and all of his production/writing for other acts that year (The Time, Sheila E, Apollonia 6, Sheena Easton, Chaka Khan). The other sound coming from the Twin Cities included the best records from the Replacements, Husker Du, the Suburbs, and the first Soul Asylum album. For one year, the Twin Cities felt like the center of the music world.

Another winner of 1984 was heavy metal. It was a golden age to be a hesher. Compared to ‘84, 2014 was pedestrian in terms of its metal output. In Part 1 of this Year in Review series I made mention that metal in 2014 did very little for me and that’s because, in my mind, metal today pales in comparison to the greatness of a year like 1984. Ride the Lightning is one of the greatest metal albums of all time, period. Two of the other Big Four, Slayer and Anthrax, put out their debut albums as well. Then there were great records by Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Scorpions, Dio, Venom, Mercyful Fate, Ratt, and many more. Van Halen was really just considered a rock and roll band by this point, but that is really just a testament to how pervasive metal was in mainstream rock.

British and American post-punk was incredibly well represented in 1984. Along with the Minneapolis records already mentioned, REM, the Meat Puppets, and the Minutemen showed very different exits out of punk rock, putting out some of their finest work in the process. The Bunnymen released their Sgt. Pepper’s, U2 ditched Lilywhite for Eno, The Fall fully ushered in the Brix period (begun on Perverted By Language), Depeche Mode made their first great post-Vince Clarke album, and Robert Smith made a better record with the Banshees than he did with the Cure. Nick Cave left the Birthday Party to form the Bad Seeds. The Smiths were the transatlantic answer to REM’s stateside jangle and the Furs and Simple Minds also released quality discs. It was a good time for hairspray, eyeliner, and dark trench coats.

So where does 2014 stand against 1984? Well, I think the ‘14 Swans are actually superior to the ‘84 Swans. Robyn Hitchcock released good albums in both years (and covered the Furs hit from ‘84 this year as well). 2014 offered more in the way of electronic or hip hop than ‘84, however, Run DMC is as good of a hip hop or electronic record as those released in 2014. Tina Turner’s Private Dancer is a great R&B/rock record, but D’angelo’s Black Messiah is more powerful as a cultural achievement, and almost as powerful of a personal one. Sade beats Jessie Ware just by the fact of one being the inspiration for the other, but I think Ware will still hold up years from now too. Just like when being compared to 1974, 2014 had more great women artists than ‘84. Other than that, 1984 takes the honors in every other way. One noticeable difference between ‘84 and ‘74 is the notable releases are not as deep as in ‘74. In true 80s fashion of go-big-or-go-home, records in ’84 were either pretty good or pretty bad.

I realize this somewhat depends on your personal taste. If you don’t like metal and post-punk, then perhaps you wouldn’t feel the same way about ‘84. One thing I did notice is that rock was still the most prevalent genre on my ‘84 list. On my 2014 list – and my lists for the past few years – rock groups were nowhere near as prevalent. In fact, you could almost argue that rock doesn’t exist outside of genre anymore. In ‘84 that wasn’t the case. Rock and roll was the mainstream in a way that it isn’t now and hasn’t been for a while.

My Favorites from 1984 (in rough order):

Prince – Purple Rain

Replacements – Let It Be

Metallica – Ride the Lightning

Echo & the Bunnymen – Ocean Rain

Husker Du – Zen Arcade

Minutemen – Double Nickels on the Dime

REM – Reckoning

Iron Maiden – Powerslave

The Fall – The Wonderful and Frightening World of the Fall

Tina Turner – Private Dancer

Van Halen – 1984

Depeche Mode – Some Great Reward

U2 – Unforgettable Fire
Tones on Tail – Pop

Other Notable Records from 1984 (in no order):

Bruce Springsteen – Born in the USA

Madonna – Like a Virgin

Bryan Adams – Reckless

REO Speedwagon – Wheels Are Turnin’

Various – Footloose (soundtrack)

The Cars – Heartbeat City

Run DMC – Run DMC

Foreigner – Agent Provocateur

Steve Perry – Street Talk

Twisted Sister – Stay Hungry

The Pretenders – Learning to Crawl

David Bowie – Tonight

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – From Her to Eternity

Sade – Diamond Life

The Smiths – The Smiths; Hatful of Hollow

Siouxsie & the Banshees – Hyaena

Spinal Tap – This Is Spinal Tap

Psychedelic Furs – Mirror Moves

Simple Minds – Sparkle in the Rain

The Suburbs – Love Is the Law

Slade – Keep Your Hands off My Power Supply

General Public – All the Rage

Chaka Khan – I Feel for You

Sheila E. – The Glamorous Life

Cocteau Twins – Treasure

Bronski Beat – Age of Consent

Chicago – Chicago 17

Weird Al Yankovic – In 3D

Yngwie Malmsteen – Rising Force

Swans – Cop

The Cure – The Top

Coil – Scatology

Death in June – Burial

Nena – 99 Luft Balloons

Dead Can Dance – Dead Can Dance

Queen – The Works

Black Flag – My War; Family Man; Slip It In

Meat Puppets – Meat Puppets II

Style Council – Cafe Bleu

Los Lobos – How Will the Wolf Survive?

Dio – Last in Line

Robyn Hitchcock – I Often Dream of Trains

Bangles – All Over the Place

Slayer – Haunting the Chapel

Anthrax – Fistful of Metal

Venom – At War with Satan

Ratt – Out of the Cellar

Scorpions – Love at First Sting

Mercyful Fate – Don’t Break the Oath

Bon Jovi – Bon Jovi

Wham! – Make It Big

Frankie Goes to Hollywood – Welcome to the Pleasuredome

Judas Priest – Defenders of the Faith

Julian Cope – World Shut Your Mouth

Robert Plant – Honeydrippers Vol. 1

Billy Ocean – Suddenly

Soul Asylum – Say What You Will… Everything Can Happen

2014 vs. 1994

1994 was the year that the corporate co-opting of alternative music took hold. Bland facsimiles of alternative music took over the airwaves and true indie returned to the underground. Perhaps not coincidentally it was also the year Kurt Cobain killed himself. Mediocre bands got signed and made long, terrible CDs that sold millions of copies. With the advent of the compact disc, bands could put out almost 80-minute albums which were 80% filler. It was, in my opinion, the beginning of a terrible time for rock and roll. One that I think it hasn’t recovered from. It pushed me to explore hip hop and electronic music which were coming into their own.

There were some good rock albums throughout the 90s, and 1994 in particular. Those that I did like, I loved – I think in part because I hated so much of the rest of what was out there. A lot of what got me through that decade was Britpop and American indie rock. Real alternative music went underground again which was fine but frustrating when you couldn’t hear good rock on the radio anymore. There were a few above ground rock artists from that year that I will stick by, namely Beck, Green Day, and Weezer. I didn’t really stick with those acts as the years passed, but in ‘94 they offered a brief respite from the rest of the dreck. Blur were huge in England but only a novelty in the U.S. and soon to be dwarfed by Oasis (who were in my mind inferior). Jeff Buckley’s high archangel tenor soared at a time when every mainstream rock male vocalist was either exaggerating some nasal vocal tic or grunting in a manly constipated moan. Low-fi became a code for keeping the good music secret and safe. That, in the end, became a cage itself. For the time though, it’s all I had.

Most of the notable records below are albums I couldn’t understand at best and couldn’t stand at worst. I realize some of you may go through and think I’m an idiot for not liking a lot of these records. Hey, whatever floats your boat. For me, 1994 was horrible and isolating.

It’s hard to compare 1994 to 2014. I think ‘14 had more good records than ‘94, but again, I felt an attachment to my favorites from ‘94 that I don’t feel for the ‘14 records because these albums were a life preserver for me. I think the easiest way for me to reconcile the two lists is imagine how I would have embraced my ‘14 list had they come out in ‘94. From that perspective, it’s easier to make a connection. Alvvays, Parquet Courts, and Mac DeMarco would have fit in very well next to Liz Phair, Sebadoh, Superchunk, and Pavement on 120 Minutes. White Lung would have ended Courtney Love’s career before it really caught fire. Ironically, there would be no superior White Lung without Hole. Saint Etienne’s record is great, but probably not as good as La Roux’s. You could hold Jeff Buckley responsible for a lot of the soggy male singer-songwriters out now, but in ‘94 he couldn’t have been more different from everything else. It’s hard to see Green Day as anything other than megastars at this point, but when I first heard them I saw them as inheritors of both the Descendents and the Buzzcocks. FKA Twigs owes a lot to Portishead, but ultimately I think Dummy is the much better record.

In the end, I think my favorites from 2014’s are at least as good as those from 1994. There are more of them too, so the win goes to 2014, but how high is that bar, really? Maybe that’s not fair. There’s always good music released every year. The jukebox below is the weakest of the three, but there are still some great songs on it. What makes 1994 a bad year for music was how much bad or mediocre music became hits. The Black Keys and the War on Drugs didn’t make my list for 2014, but I think their records were pretty good. Neither of them have yet sold as many copies as Pearl Jam’s Vitalogy (“Corduroy” is the only good song) or Sponge’s Rotting Pinata (no good songs), but the Black Keys and WOD records are easily better and are as successful as far regular rock and roll gets nowadays.

A few words in defense of 1994 compared to the other years: pop memory can be selective in hindsight and with the distance of years the bad music of ’74 and ’84 can get filtered out more easily than the bad music from just 20 years ago. We tend to forget about how popular things like the Osmonds, Helen Reddy, Barry Manilow, Barbara Mandrell, and countless one-hit wonders (Andy Kim, Billy Swan, Bo Donaldson & the Heywoods, etc.) were. There is always terrible popular music. The good years just make up for it with plenty of great music.

My Favorites from 1994 (in rough order):

Pavement – Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain

Jeff Buckley – Grace

Blur – Parklife

Guided By Voices – Bee Thousand

Liz Phair – Whipsmart

Sebadoh – Bakesale

Superchunk – Foolish

Weezer – Weezer (blue album)

Green Day – Dookie

Beck – Mellow Gold

Portishead – Dummy

Saint Etienne – Tiger Bay

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – Let Love In

Other Notable Records from 1994 (in no order):

Nas – Illmatic

Jeru the Damaja – The Sun Rises in the East

Digable Planets – Blowout Comb

Nine Inch Nails – Downward Spiral

Beastie Boys – Ill Communication

Soundgarden – Superunknown

Oasis – Definitely Maybe

Boyz II Men – II

Common Sense – Resurrection

Notorious B.I.G. – Ready to Die

Hootie & the Blowfish – Cracked Rear View

Blues Traveler – Four

Hole – Live Through This

Rollins Band – Weight

Live – Throwing Copper

Grant Lee Buffalo – Mighty Joe Moon

Morrissey – Vauxhall and I

Suede – Dog Man Star; Stay Together EP

TLC – CrazySexyCool

Method Man – Tical

Prince – Black Album

Nick Lowe – Impossible Bird

Mary J. Blige – My Life

Pearl Jam – Vitalogy

Stone Roses – Second Coming

Stone Temple Pilot – Purple

Bush – Sixteen Stone

Nirvana – MTV Unplugged in New York

Autechre – Amber

Orbital – Snivilization

Sponge – Rotting Pinata

Warren G – Regulate...G Funk Era

Aaliyah – Age Ain’t Nothing but a Number

Massive Attack – Protection

Johnny Cash – American Recordings

Brandy – Brandy

Ween – Chocolate and Cheese

REM – Monster

Soul Coughing – Ruby Vroom

Dave Matthews Band – Under the Table and Dreaming

Cranberries – No Need to Argue

Korn – Korn

Veruca Salt – American Thighs

Rancid – Let’s Go

Tori Amos – Under the Pink

Jamiroquai – Return of the Space Cowboy

Melvins – Prick; Stoner Witch

Neil Young – Sleeps With Angels

Aphex Twin – Selected Ambient Works II

Sunny Day Real Estate – Diary

Shellac – At Action Park

Sonic Youth – Experimental Jet Set, Trash, and No Star

Rusted Root – When I Woke

Dinosaur Jr. – Without a Sound

Toad the Wet Sprocket – Dulcinea

Ani DiFranco – Out of Range

The Offspring – Smash

Coolio – It Takes a Thief

Marilyn Manson – Portrait of an American Family

All-4-One – All-4-One

Seal – Seal

Frank Black – Teenager of the Year

Mark Lanegan – Whiskey for the Holy Ghost

Underworld – Dubnobasswithmyheadman

Kristin Hersh – Hips and Makers

Alice in Chains – Jars of Flies

Gravediggaz – 6 Feet Deep

Outkast – Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik

Stereolab – Mars Audiac Quintet

Synopsis

So, what’s my takeaway? How good or bad of a year in music was 2014? In short, 2014 is not as bad as it gets (although even 1994 isn’t as bad as it gets); but when compared to a great year (like ‘84), or even a really good one (like ‘74), 2014 comes out pretty mediocre, which is really what it felt like to me. Of the records that I really like from this year, I bet I don’t end up listening to half of them five years from now. What I think this comparison really reveals is how the changes in the music industry and culture have shaped the way we process and think about music. The music made in the years above is really just a mirror of the time from which it came.

In the Seventies, the record industry was a huge business that acted as gatekeepers for which music got released. As a result, fewer records were released than now, and still fewer were actually heard by most people. That doesn’t mean that only the good stuff got released. A lot of terrible, safe music came out back then. However, there was a real support system for the recognized greats of the time (Bowie, Neil Young, Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, Led Zeppelin, etc.) that clearly doesn’t exist now. There was such a thing as real A&R that developed artists to have long term careers. Kate Bush is a prime example of this. The Seventies were the decade that AOR (album-oriented rock) ruled. In that light, it’s not surprising that even an “off” year like ‘74 produced some exceptionally strong albums.

In the Eighties, music became more imaged-based with the advent of MTV, even as album artwork became physically smaller with cassettes, then compact discs, overtaking vinyl as the format of choice. Affordable Walkman players meant that music not only became more portable, but more of an individualized listening experience. It was easier to walk around with your headphones and tune the world out. Home taping may not have killed the record industry, but it did begin the death of the album format as people began making their own mixes, re-sequencing and re-contextualizing the art as it was intended. The result of these changes was that the music sometimes became as much of a fashion accessory. The release cycles of albums started becoming longer as MTV allowed the record companies to milk a single album over a longer period of time. Although the album was still in many ways considered the primary way for an artist to make a grand statement, music videos made for a lot of one-hit wonders and placed more focus on singles. Culturally, the Eighties were obsessed with a utopian space-age dream of a technological future which bled into the production choices of its pop music making much of it somewhat dated.

In the Nineties, the longer run-times of compact discs meant less editing which weakened the structure of the album. Albums became packed with filler and no longer had two programs (A and B) separated by the intermission of turning the record or cassette over. Album artwork during these years was horrible. Not only did it get physically smaller, but with the introduction of primitive digital design, some of the ugliest album art of all time graced the covers of million-sellers. 1994 was the start of a dour three-year period of a corporate takeover by the record companies. They had had a few years to figure out how to capitalize on the revolution of ‘91 and began to pump out pablum disguised as edgy, rebel music to be sold to a youth market eager to be identified as individuals.

Which brings us to the present. Digital music has changed everything. There’s no such thing as album length any more. Album sequencing, album cover art, and liner notes are all but lost pieces of pop culture. Streaming has even challenged the idea of owning or collecting music as if storing music in any form was burdensome. And yet there has been a microscopic resurgence of vinyl which recognizes the old values of sound quality and the tactile experience of music. There will be a ceiling to this trend and the current vinyl bubble will inevitably burst at some point. The most troubling aspect of the current music landscape though is that very little of it truly sounds new. Pop music has always made a practice of cannibalizing its own past, but in ‘74, ‘84, and ‘94 there was music coming out that sounded like nothing before it. In ‘74, Robert Wyatt, Can, Kraftwerk, King Crimson, and Henry Cow were making music that hadn’t been invented ten years prior. In ‘84, there were precedents from the previous decade for RUN DMC (Gil Scott Heron, Last Poets), Metallica (Black Sabbath, Judas Priest), and the Smiths (the Byrds, Sparks); but “It’s Like That,” “Creeping Death,” and “This Charming Man” couldn’t have come out any sooner than the year they did. They were shocking in their newness at the time (and still are, to some degree). Even the Nineties had records from Aphex Twin, Autechre, and Orbital that sounded like the promised future the ‘80s had yearned for. Looking over my 2014 list, I can’t say that any of the records couldn’t technically have come out 10, 20, 30, or 40 years before. In fact, most of them almost aim for some pop moment that preceded them.

This isn’t supposed to be an old man’s lament about how music nowadays isn’t as good as it used to be. To give you some generational perspective on my possible personal bias, I was 18-19 in 1994. Usually for most people, the music that comes out during that time of their life becomes the standard by which they judge everything else. They think of it as “their” music. If that’s supposed to be the case for me, I feel ripped off. In my opinion 1974, 1984, and yes, even 2014, were far richer years. There’s the possibility that there are great records from 2014 that I have yet to hear. Many of my favorites from ‘74, ‘84, and ‘94 were hardly successful at the time of their release. It took years for them to find an audience. So in some ways the jury is still out on this newly finished year. Maybe one day I’ll look back on 2014 as a golden age in popular music. That’s a terrifyingly depressing thought for the future, but on the other hand, I may still see 2014 as mediocre compared to the great music of the years yet to come.

The Best of 2014: The Year in Music – Part 2 of 3

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.

Not the Best of 2014: The Year in Music - Part 1 of 3

The overall impression I’m left with of this past year’s music is one of being underwhelmed. There was a lot of music I liked, but very little I loved. Even artists whose works I’ve loved in the past turned in efforts that were serviceable - good but not great.

Sometimes it’s useful to judge a best-of list by its omissions along with what’s included. With that in mind, here are some records that didn’t make my list this year. These are not honorable mentions: records that I liked but narrowly missed the list. Neither are they records I hated. They’re records that showed up on other best-of lists or left a large commercial footprint this year, but made little or no impression on me. These are records that made me feel out of step because I just didn’t get it. Do you remember Spin magazine’s original stoplight rating system (green, yellow, red)? These records are solid yellows for me.

This list isn’t meant as a critical attack on these artists; it’s more of a response to other best-of lists. I’m sure plenty will disagree with some of this list, if not call into question the need for such a list at all. Isn’t there enough negativity in the world without having to call out records for not being as good or excellent as some people think? Absolutely. But this is the internet, and you’ve entered my dark corner of it, so enjoy.

Taylor Swift - 1989: Taylor Swift won 2014. Lots of people (my wife included) like this new record. It aims to please and has a professional polish that is hard to dismiss. It’s even become hip to listen to TS. So, what’s my problem? Taylor Swift makes music that is not just cute, but cutesy. I have a hard time with cutesy. Gwen Stefani and No Doubt are cutesy. So are Death Cab for Cutie and The Decemberists, for that matter (see also: Katy Perry, Justin Bieber, Bruno Mars, etc.). 1989 was a pivotal year for pop music (one of the very best), and for me personally - I started high school. Taylor Swift was born that year. This record makes me feel old even without that factoid. I know it wasn't created with me in mind. I don't judge anyone for liking this record; I just reserve the right to ignore it without being considered a snob even though everyone will think I am anyway. Oh well, haters gonna hate, right?

Ariana Grande - My Everything/Iggy Azalea - The New Classic/Charlie XCX - Sucker/Azealia Banks - Broke with Expensive Tastes/Lana Del Ray - Ultraviolence/Nicki Minaj - The Pinkprint: It’s completely unfair of me to lump all of these artists together considering how different they are from each other stylistically, but I feel they’re all being marketed to the same audiences under the same rationale. That pluralization of “audience” was on purpose. This is music designed to cross over. Taylor Swift could have easily been lumped in here as well, but her success makes her worthy of her own note. All of it is blown up to obscene proportions and none of it is compelling to me in the least. I don’t really hate any of it, but I don’t understand why these records are showing up on other lists. I’ve also lumped them together because as women they are being marketed in a way that I find grotesque. Men aren’t marketed this way. A great deal of noise has been made about how each of them write their own material in a way that’s completely condescending while at the same time treating them in a sexually exploitative way. This isn’t new behavior, but whereas it used to de rigueur when talking about female musicians, it’s not always the case now. Looking over the names of the female artists whose records did make my best of list (see part 2), it’s the music that people talk about, not the artists themselves as mannequins. Maybe I’m being a unfair to Banks and Minaj who have genuine talent. I won’t go into the whole Azalea vs. Azealia feud. White person exploiting black art and culture?  That’s another old story.

Ed Sheeran - X/Hozier - Hozier/Sam Smith - In the Lonely Hour/Ray Lamontagne - Supernova/Beck - Morning Phase: This category is the other end of the gendered spectrum to the previous one. Stylistic differences aside, these male artists are marketed in the same way as each other: sensitive, earnest men who are serious artists. It sounds like a lot of self-important, navel-gazing baloney to me. I’ve even liked some of Ray Lamontagne’s music in the past, but he’s always tread a fine line for me. These kind of records make me want to put on Ted Nugent’s Free-for-All. Jeff Tweedy’s album that he did with his son as a tribute to seriously ill wife is an example of how to make a heartfelt record without falling into sentimental dreck. That record, Sukierae, didn’t make my best of list either (a little too long and scattershot for me), but it expresses honest emotion in a more - pardon me - manly way.

War On Drugs - Lost in the Dream/Sun Kil Moon - Benji: These are two records from two talented outfits which I just couldn’t get into. Both of them are also ending up near the top of a lot of best-of lists this year. It just so happens that the groups themselves were involved in a silly feud with each other. I’d like to think that the public spat didn’t affect my opinion on their actual recordings, but I can’t say that for sure. War On Drugs’ record sounds like recent Destroyer doing a humorless imitation of Dire Straits covering Springsteen’s Tunnel of Love. Although I’ve never been a huge Mark Kozelek fan, after seeing his live solo show a few years ago I was really impressed with him as a guitar player and performer. His new record, however, sounds like a bitter, old crank recounting every depressing tragedy he’s ever witnessed - like a bizarro world Dan Fogelberg. It’s harrowing and humorless in its own way. I can appreciate it, but from a distance. Kozelek’s two one-off songs mocking WOD were more interesting (and hilarious) than either full-length. It’s a shame he didn’t press them up as a special Record Store Day Black Friday 7”. That would have been a keeper. Kozelek may be a jerk and everyone may have sided with WOD, but there’s no question he won the feud.

Spooky/Post-Punk: There were a bunch of records in this category that came out this year. I’m not putting any of them on my list because I didn’t feel compelled to listen to them more than a few times. This doesn’t mean that they aren't worth listening to, but it’s just not where I’m at right now. If you’re interested, here are some of the records that came out this year in this vein.

• Have A Nice Life - The Unnatural World: There’s potential here if the singer ever stops being embarrassed of his own voice and afraid to let the hooks shine through.
• Cult of Youth - Final Days: Has Douglas P. heard these guys? If not, he should take a listen and call his lawyer. A track like “Of Amber” would make a great parody if DIJ weren’t already the perfect parody of themselves.
• Total Control - Typical System: Stylistically this is a mess. It sounds like people who got into post-punk from a Spotify playlist where there’s no differentiation between Young Marble Giants and Ultravox, which makes it kind of funny. Welcome to the context-free future.
• Protomartyr - Under Color of the Official Right: Everyone kept telling me to listen to this. It’s okay, I guess. Meh.
• Iceage - Plowing Into the Field of Love: For fashion.
• Merchandise - After the End: Rufus Wainwright fronting the Hoodoo Gurus. No, really. For real.
• Interpol - El Pintor: Worst/funniest lyrics in rock. Now with falsetto.

Metal: Heavy metal just isn’t made for me anymore. It’s splintered into a million sub-genres, and none of them do anything for me. There are people who get close: Mastodon, Electric Wizard, High on Fire, Witchcraft, etc., but nearly all are missing those things I want most out of metal. Jesus people. Am I going to have to make the metal album that I’ve been contemplating for years, just to make the music no one else will? Even the mighty Black Sabbath put out a new Ozzy-fronted record this year, which sounded as perfunctory as expected. Maybe if Bill had been a part of it would have been better. Maybe if they had a different producer (does Rubin even “produce”) it could have been something (I would have loved to hear what Albini or John Cale would have done with them). On the other hand, probably not. Mastodon, Electric Wizard, Pilgrim and Pallbearer all put out some fine records this year; I just can’t fool myself into thinking that they satisfy me.

Foo Fighters - Sonic Highways: The HBO documentary series was great. The album that resulted from it didn’t move me though. Dave Grohl is apparently a really great guy. Pat Smear is cool and graceful. I’m glad post-SDRE bassist, Nate Mendel, will be able to retire. Guitarist Chris Shiflett is a perfectly competent studio dude. And drummer Taylor Hawkins makes the best golden retriever Grohl - or any dog lover - could ever wish for. I’m glad that the FFs are likeable, but their music bores me. Their friends and peers, Queens of the Stone Age, are an infinitely better band with a fraction of the FF’s following. Many of my friends love the Foos (THEY ROCK!). Good on them. May they have a long career and continue to print money.

The Black Keys - Turn Blue: To be fair, I haven’t listened to this record very much. I’ve liked what I have heard, but it sound too much like what they’ve already done. I’d love to hear another Dan Auerbach solo record produced by someone who won’t obscure his vocals - in other words, not Auerbach or Danger Mouse. The production is just a little too self-consciously retro-hipster to penetrate.

Against Me! - Transgender Dysphoria Blues: I’m happy for Laura Jane Grace’s recent self-actualization, but it still doesn’t change the fact that her band sounds like a second-string, Americanized Manic Street Preachers at best.

Perfume Genius - Too Bright: A not-bad Art Garfunkel solo record.

Run the Jewels - Run the Jewels 2: I’ve never been much of a Killer Mike fan, and I seem to be the only one. I first heard him on the great Outkast track from 2001, “The Whole World,” and I remember thinking he did nothing but dumb the song down. I never cared about El-P either, but again, a lot of other people would disagree with me. Some critics put this record as their number one. Number ones on best-albums-of-the-year lists are always politically safe picks: records that are usually pretty good, or least records that people will have a hard time saying are bad. Everyone knows that the number two spot on a list is usually the writer’s real number one.

(Almost) Anything Nominated for a Grammy: See my previous post. Wow, what a compelling list of reasons to forever ignore music. Some of the aforementioned artists up above would be included in this category as well as Sia, Meghan Trainor, etc.

Ugh... The GRAMMYS

The nominees for The 57th Annual GRAMMYS were announced last Friday. Wow. Now, the GRAMMYS are usually never an indicator of the best music released for a given year, but this year looks particularly devoid of quality. If this was truly the best that the music world had to offer, I wouldn't listen to music.

I won't bore you here with the particulars, but you're interested in being bored, click here.

I mean, there are two entries for the Dio tribute album in the Metal category. Really? Mastodon should win this, but they won't. If there were a creative soul left in NARAS, Mastodon would play a shared twerk-off set with Nicki Minaj. If you don't understand why, just Google the two of them together.

The worst part about it is that I will likely watch the awards show. I can't help it. Hopefully Kendrick Lamar will get to perform. It will help me deal with Deadmau5 inevitably beating Aphex Twin.