As we all get excited about “best of 2015” I wondered about if you are still enthralled with your favourite albums of 2014. Would you change your vote? Has something turned up that you missed at the time? I know I had St Vincent down as my favourite thing this time last year. However, The War on Drugs seems to have stayed the course more. Anyone..?
Your top album of 2014. Yes, 2014.
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My 2014 Top 10 (+1) was:
1) Stiff Little Fingers – No Going Back
2) Len Price 3 – Nobody Knows
3) Henry Priestman – Last Mad Surge Of Youth
4) Ben Watt – Hendra
5) Wilko Johnson / Roger Daltrey – Going Back Home
6) Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott – What Have We Become
7) Temples – Sun Structures
8) Manic Street Preachers – Futurology
9) Real Estate – Atlas
10) Royal Blood – Royal Blood
11) U2 – Songs Of Innocence
Of these, the Top 5 are still making regular visits to the CD Player.
Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott got replayed a couple of times before their new album hit the streets.
But the rest have been rarely listened to …
except Temples – Sun Structures which I stumbled across yesterday when looking for something else. And it is still bloody great, thoroughly deserving of a place in the Rigidly Digital Top 10
The Wilko/Daltrey album is still ace.
Melanie De Biasio’s No Deal remains the best new Jazz album I’ve heard for decades. It is utterly superb and I play it frequently. It is so good, it’s shadow has spoiled female vocal jazz for me this year. Nothing stands comparison.
I’m Gonna Leave You
That War On Drugs record was massively boring this time last year and has remained so. I commend its staying power.
Yeah, I really tried with The War On Drugs.
I liked the Benmont Tench album though.
@tiggerlion – it is indeed a splendid album.
Did you also get “Gilles Peterson Presents Melanie De Biasio No Deal Remixed”?
8 remixes of all 7 of the tracks – some (particularly The Cinematic Orchestra Remix of “I’m Gonna Leave You”) are quite lovely.
A very nice companion to the original.
I did, even though the original is perfect.
One of the qualities that makes No Deal so special is the stillness, the pauses, the spaces between the instruments. It’s an album that stops time. If I didn’t check the running time, I’d have no idea how long it lasts. It could be thirty minutes, could be a whole day.
I steered clear of the remix because I feared it would ‘add’ things and render it more conventional. However, if you approach the remix as a different entity altogether and resist the temptation to compare the two albums, you’ll find the remix is quite marvellous. Even @henpetsgi might enjoy it.
I think I love you. Next time we are in bed please promise me you will never mention this dreadful record again?
?
No Deal!
Alright, your love for the ghastly Ms Newsom notwithstanding, you’ve convinced me! Vinyl copies of No Deal and the remix album duly ordered!
?
*smiley-thing too*
(if RD/LP was acknowledging anything I may have said as well)
If not, please just let it lie…
My top five were:
1. Rosanne Cash – The River and the Thread
2. Leonard Cohen – Popular Problems
3. Hannah Aldridge – Razor Wire
4. Ben Watt – Hendra
5. The Mastersons – Good Luck Charm
Still happy with that choice.
My Top 5 was that one, that one over there, the one that nobody else liked, the one I thought I liked cos it was trendy, and Lorde.
2014 was a simply dreadful year and is best forgotten (and at my age I can assure you I have forgotten)
I liked The Mastersons as well, and saw them twice – once supporting J Currie, and once solo.
My album of the year though?
Nobody wants to be here and nobody wants to leave – Twilight Sad.
Saw them live too, supporting WWPJ. A bit of the Ian Curtis about the performance, but great that notwithstanding
My favourite was an unexpected gift from el hombre malo who sent me a digital copy of Lost Songs of the Confederacy by James King and the Lone Wolves. I liked it so much I bought a physical copy and gifted it to a mate. I often find myself whistling a couple of the tracks a year or more later. Thanks again, bad-man.
I also liked
Lana Del Rey
Future Islands
Afghan Whigs
and some of the Luke Haines and Pixies albums that came out.
*doffs hat*
Followers of the Lonewolves are required by covenant to stick together. They have a new track coming soon – I will keep you posted. I saw them do an in-store gig as part of Record Store Day, they were storming.
I have to agree with Tigger that the Melanie de Basio album has stayed on or around the cd player all year. Also agree about the space and minimalism of the arrangements. In that sense it reminds me of the Shelby Lynn album of Dusty covers which is one of my all time favourite albums. I cant remember what else I chose – pretty sure the War on Drugs album was up there and yes maybe I don’t play that one as much , still good though
I think my pick was Sturgill Simpson – Metamodern Sounds in Country and Western Music.
I could never get along with the War On Drugs – I didn’t like Flock of Seagulls first time around, either.
A few of my favs are from across the pond. Returns to form with The Rainmakers Monster Movies, Brian Setzers Rockabilly Riot and The Dollyrots Bareful and Pregnant. From Blighty its a thumbs up for Henry Priestman and Imelda May but my long term favourite and still a grower is Katzenjammers Rockland….exceptional. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2F5HyjpNmM&list=PLV-fm-D1C2RGjFi1yF8jJPr4vJR_EEa0c&index=11
I think mine were only three, Floyd’s Endless River, Thievery Corporation’s Saudade and Ben Watt’s Hendra. I stand by them all, but I’d definitely add Vashti Bunyan’s Heartleaping and, to give Tiggs his credit, Melanie De Biasio’s No Deal.
Of all of them Heartleaping is the one I’m still listening to most often.
Cept it’s called Heartleap.
I didn’t vote (until later, on that thread in the link) but I’d add that the album by Julian Casablancas was beautiful and bonkers and probably should be in my top ten (but I didn’t buy it until early 2015), and (as I said) the Wildbirds & Peacedrums’ album is one that just kept growing stronger and definitely belongs in my Top Ten.
One that I wished I’d put in my top ten is Spoon’s They Want My Soul. The addition of a new band member, Alex Fischel on keys, both fleshes out their sound and rejuvenates their energy.
Outlier
Still chuffed that I contributed in a small way to getting Half Man Half Biscuit’s “Urge For Offal” voted as The Guardian’s readers’ 2014 album of the year: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/dec/17/readers-10-best-albums-of-2014-war-on-drugs-half-man-half-biscuit
That may have been a bit of fun, but it’s an album which has matured nicely, even for us fans. If you’re curious, start with the amazing “Old Age Killed My Teenage Bride”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3o6UGtnLKY
(Lyrics at http://www.chrisrand.com/hmhb/urge-for-offal/old-age-killed-my-teenage-bride/ )
Over in folkworld, at the time I voted for harmonica-driven A Cut Above by Will Pound, which remains a lovely sunny little album, which seduced someone not usually drawn to that instrument.
But in terms of what I have actually played, given my track record, it has been Blowzabella’s Strange News. As with all their albums it’s a mixed bag, but the high points are so utterly danceable and mood-lifting that it sees regular action.
Of course, what you think is great, and what you actually play are two quite different things.