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Albums/songs of 2014

Hendo

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Hendo

Hendo

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Been a fairly good year for music, just trying to remember what I've been listening to that's new.

 

Aphex Twin - Syro

Haven't spent as much time with this as I'd like but it is everything you expect from the Cornish nutter. Glitchy, all over the place, typical Aphex stuff.

 

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/RUAJ8KLGqis" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

Elbow - The Take Off And Landing Of Everything

By some considerable way my favourite album of 2014, certainly my most listened to album.

They don't seem able to make a bad album.

Notable highlights include "Charge", "New York Morning" and "This Blue World".

 

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/nghmOMdL4fM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

George Ezra - Wanted On Voyage

Really like this, he's got a great voice that doesn't suit how he looks. Looks like a young, skinny white dude, sounds like an old fat black guy.

 

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/H4ifSrE8iSg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

GoGo Penguin - v2.0

Got introduced to this via the Mercury Prize and it's some quality modern jazz, where they pretty much play drum 'n' bass and Aphex Twin style electro but with real drums, double bass and piano.

 

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/GFoJli7qRdc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

Knife Party - Abandon Ship

Just started listening to this, two members from Pendulum and they've dropped the rock and drum 'n' bass and gone for more modern EDM stuff.

Some of it is more thoughtful and some of it just hits you in the chest.

 

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/DwqUGkR9yh8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

Philip Selway - Weatherhouse

Also known as "the drummer from Radiohead", it's his second solo album and it's a corker. Some tracks are very Radiohead but my favourite track sounds very much like Massive Attack.

 

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/vMxXmW1pqeU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

Royal Blood - Royal Blood

I was waiting all year for this album to drop and it's good. There's nothing wrong with it but after listening to "Little Monster" over and over, there's nothing as sharp as that on there, though it still has some good tunes.

 

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/ere2Mstl8ww" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

Slipknot - 5 : The Gray Chapter

First album made after the death of the bass player, Paul Gray, and the original drummer, Joey Jordison. 

I really like it, it's melodic and at the same time really fucking noisy and brutal.

 

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/XEEasR7hVhA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

That's about it for my favourite albums of the year. How about you?

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radiofloyd

radiofloyd

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Well I just did a long list in the currently listening thread, but out of those I would pick:

Antony and the Johnsons - Turning

Not a new album per se, but a collection of live recordings from 2006. And it's really really beautiful. I haven't listened to Antony and the Johnsons in a long time (the last song of theirs I loved was Her Eyes are Underneath the Ground from The Crying Light), but this reminds me of why I used to love them, and it's one of my favourite releases of the year. Standout tracks include Where is my Power, Spiralling, Daylight and the Sun, Whose Are These. Daylight and the Sun is sublime.

Beck - Morning Phase

If you're interested in Beck you've probably already listened to this album and decided whether you like it or not. I like it a lot. One of those albums that I could listen to from beginning to end.

Blake Mills - Heigh Ho

I think I've talked about this album before. This is a nice singer-songwriter album with a bit of originality. Some of the songs I've listened to a million times - Cry to Laugh, Seven, Don't Tell Our Friends About Me, Before It Fell, Curable Disease. Pleasant surprise from 2014.

Cymbals Eat Guitars - Lose

2014 was a good year for indie guitar-rock albums, between this, Spoon, Merchandise and Ought (who I've gone off a little but still listened to a lot over the year). This album is rock solid. Especially the opening two songs, Jackson and Warning. I love the lyrics of Jackson, "You’re taking two Klonopin/So you can quit flipping/And face our friends." Great album.

Future Islands - Singles

The first time I listened to this album I thought it was shit. I even thought the lead single "Seasons (Waiting on You) was bland and boring. And then Future Islands gave one of the most amazing performances I've ever seen on David Letterman, easily the best music moment of the year for me, and I went back to it. God only knows what I was thinking the first time around, this is an excellent album. (In spite of the name, it's not a greatest hits collection). My favourites would probably be Back in the Tall Grass, Light House and Fall from Grace.

How to Dress Well - What is this Heart

Hard to pick a standout album from 2014, but this would probably be one of two or three in the running, along with The War on Drugs and Willis Earl Beal. I loved How to Dress Well's debut album, Love Remains, from 2010 (the year I got into modern indie/internet music) but didn't listen to his second album much, it seemed a bit too "atmospheric" for me. But this album is a stunner. Somehow he has fleshed out his original low-fi rnb sounds into proper songs, without really losing his original appeal. Both halves of the album are lovely, and all the singles came from the first half, but if I had to pick highlights I would pick them from the second half, Childhood Faith in Love, A Power, House Inside (Future is Older than the Past). But to be fair, How to Dress Well is very "indie". If you mostly listen to classic rock or rap or metal, then this might be a bit of a stretch.

Merchandise - After the End

Another very pleasant surprise from 2014. I played the lead single for this album to death, Green Lady. I love the singer's voice. This album has a really nice 90s alternative rock sound. My favourites are the slower songs like Life Outside the Mirror, Looking Glass Waltz and Exile and Ego. I can't praise this album highly enough. And it was one of the albums I listened to a lot in Japan.

Neil Young - A Letter Home

Another of my favourite albums of they year, and like Morning Phase, one I've often listened to from beginning to end. This album got criticised for its simplicity and its fuzzy sound, but I mean, if you need more than Neil Young and a guitar... Changes and Needle of Death are sublime. Needle of Death is probably my most listened to song of the year. "And your troubled young life, that made you turn, to the needle of death." (Of course all these songs are covers.) Every song on the album is great, including two Gordon Lightfoot covers, Early Morning Rain and If You Could Read My Mind.

Spoon - They Want My Soul

This album was a great companion in Japan. Do You is a fantastic song to listen to anywhere. It's a great upbeat indie rock record.

The War on Drugs - Lost in the Dream

I've definitely talked about this album before. A nice album to listen to at night or on long journeys. You'll get an idea what it's like by listening to songs like Suffering, Lost in the Dream and In Reverse. Ah this is a really good album.

Wild Beasts - Present Tense

When I was getting into indie music, one of the bands I discovered was Wild Beasts, and their brilliant album Two Dancers. Well, they haven't put a foot wrong since. I loved Smother, and I love Present Tense. Present Tense might just be their best album. Everyone likes Wild Beasts right?

Willis Earl Beal - Experiments in Time

Maybe this is my weirdest choice, but I love this album a lot. For some reason the mood of the album seemed to suit my sadness at leaving Japan, especially the song, "At the Airport".

Unfortunately I haven't talked about what any of those bands actually sound like...I'm rubbish at that sort of thing. But that's what youtube is for I guess.

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Craymen Edge

Craymen Edge

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I don't think I've actually bought anything made in 2014 yet. I have downloaded a fair amount of free rap and electronic mixtapes though. Here's some hip hop I've enjoyed from this year.

Dej Loaf



Free album here: http://www.livemixtapes.com/mixtapes/30661/dej-loaf-sell-sole.html

Run The Jewels 2


Free album here: http://www.runthejewels.net/ (it's probably on youtube too)

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DANGERMAN

DANGERMAN

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Probably the best song I've heard this year is Foxing - The Medic
 

 

The album doesn't keep it up sadly, there's a few few great tracks, but the 2nd half is a bit plain, same with Dikembe - Mediumship

 

 

 

Probably the best album of the year is The Swans - To Be Kind

 

 

That's probably the most normal track off the album, sounds almost Slint or Fugazi like. Unfortunately I couldn't find a non-live version of She Loves Us which is imo the best track on the album. Fucking mental fever dream album, but funny and brilliant

 

 

A Silver Mt. Zion - Fuck Off get Free We Pour Light On Everything

 

 

 

Silver Mt Zion are a spin off from Godspeed You! Black Emperor, who are an instrumental band with the odd spoken word sample. Silver Mt Zion started out not entirely dissimilar, then went kind of folk, then released a couple of protest albums, now they're a punk band. A punk band with 3 10+ minute long songs on their album granted, but a punk band non the less. The second half of the album veers away from the punk stuff a little, and while Little Ones Run is a beautiful song, it doesn't really capture the sound of the album, so I picked What We Loved Is Not Enough which is a bit of a half-way house in that it's fairly post-rock, but structured like a normal song

 

 

Blueneck - King Nine

 

 

 

Along similar lines, Blueneck's first album was fairly ambient, which some stunning moments on it (Epiphany was a hell of a song). They're now more structured, not entirely, but you can tell where one song ends and another begins. If memory serves their last album was heavier, this has more beats on it. The track I picked, Broken Fingers, is a fucking song though, I tend not to restart songs over and over, but it's one that I do that for. Bit glum though :lol:

 

 

 

Searchlights - Searchlights

 

 

 

There's a few instrumental albums this year that kind of blend in to one for me, not a fault of the bands, more how I listen to music now. I tend to pop my earphones in at the same point of my walk to work every day (after I crossed a fairly lethal road), then just kind of shut off until I get to work. When I was scrolling through all of them Searchlights was the one that stood out straight away. It doesn't sound unlike This will Destroy You, who also released an album this year, like some sort of doomed euphoria

 

 

La Dispute - Rooms of the House

 

 

 

This works way better as an album than picking out individual tracks, I think it might be a concept albums of sorts too, so that's probably a good thing. It's not a million miles away from At The Drive-in, if anything it's more spoken word, there's some great lyrics, and they aren't always fitted to the music, which is I think why it works as an albums but not singles. It was for a while comfortably the best album I'd heard this year, which might have been more about how much I'd heard from 2014 at that point, that it was something a bit different for me (more like what I would have listened to 15 years ago), and maybe that it tapers off a bit the more you listen to it. Its very good though

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Duck

Duck

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That Swans album is really good.

I was writing down what albums I was into this year and there was a lot more than I was expecting. Maybe 30..

But the highlights for me...

Caribou - Our Love

http://youtu.be/BI2Et19vDCM

Can't do without you. Maybe my fav song of the year.

Helms Alee - Sleepwalking Sailors

http://youtu.be/ZdiI8Bh87qY

Shoegaze'y,Tool'y, Pixies'y sludge rock...with a badass female drummer

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Hendo

Hendo

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Damn I'm old. I got lost after Apex Twin and Pendulum were mentioned.

I reckon you'd like Royal Blood.

They're a two-piece playing only bass, drums and vocals but you wouldn't tell from the massive sound.

The style itself is more like standard rock stuff, a bit White Stripes, a little Biffy Clyro and a lot of Queens of the Stone Age.

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Pikman

Pikman

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RadioFloyd and I have pretty similar taste!

Interesting to see what you think of...

Alt-J: Every Other Freckle. I just cannot stop listening to it. Love everything about that song, check out the lyrics if you know if and you've not done before.

I make a Christmas CD up every year, ought to either send it out here or probably better, share a Spotify Playlist, which is cheaper than light-scribing more discs ;)

It's pretty much all new music that stood out for me during this year. I love putting it all together :)

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DANGERMAN

DANGERMAN

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Bandcamp have got a sale on, loads of albums for £3 http://bsmrocks.bandcamp.com/

In the sale is the La Dispute album I mentioned http://bsmrocks.bandcamp.com/album/rooms-of-the-house

Talons - New Topographics which was one of the instrumental albums I was toying with picking http://bsmrocks.bandcamp.com/album/new-topographics

There's a Minus the Bear album, and one of my favourite albums, although it came out years ago, not sure why it's in the sale, Yndi Halda - Enjoy eternal Bliss http://bsmrocks.bandcamp.com/album/enjoy-eternal-bliss

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