Top 25 Records of 2014 - The best year in eons?

_{RECORDS OF 2014}

2014 was perhaps the best year so far in a smelting five years for ore-some music. Looking down that top 10 there presents an unparalleled cross-section of this meta-modernist age and Dean Blunt, placed at number 8, perhaps best represents this diversity with his lo-fi, condensed take on dub, indie and soul - plus many many more. Or even Caribou, at number 2 with a giddy, gleeful electronic disco album that is as current at it can possibly get.

But look again down the list and the thing that stands out the most is the production. A few of the records here in theory - or with bad speakers -  sound like they could have been made in any decade. But listen closer and The War On Drugs created the best shoegazey Springsteen album ever. Shabazz palaces dropped the best electronic producers hip-hop album ever, Cloud Nothings the snarliest, snarkiest punk album ever and so on.  PS. Gruff Rhys made an absolute career high LP with insightful folk and pop, and he's still only 45!

2014 was too a great year for folk, with Sun Kil Moon crafting a depressing landscape of 11 songs about loss and mourning over the most gorgeous, insightful and unbelievable circumstances imaginable. James Yorkston, in his Scottish hushed-down voice soothed at number 10 and also check out number 24, the title says it all; a very very special folk album.

Hip-hop fared well with a fantastic, unintentionally placed 12-14 of irresistible funky word-play, scrab-tacular electronica and lo-fi thug rap of Open Mike Eagle, Flying Lotus and Freddie Gibbs & Madlib respectively.Lest we forget El-P and Killer Mike with their bulletproof Run The Jewels sequel at 22.

Each year there usually seems to be someone who emerges as a savour and in 2014 it was two people. Brian Eno, the man of sounds and ex Talking Heads front-man Karl Hyde who collaborated here on two fantastic sound collage albums with the best electronic production, analogue instrumentation and layered, out-there vocals, since, since, since, since, since.................

Sorry this was late; definitely check out this 25. Stay tuned for 2015 in the forthcoming days. Blogonese is back. Merry mixmas.

1.The War On Drugs – Lost In The Dream

2. Caribou – Our Love

3.Shabazz Palaces – Lese Majesty

4. Cloud Nothings – Here And Nowhere Else

5. D’Angelo -  Black Messiah

6. Gruff Rhys – American Interior

7. Aphex Twin – Syro

8.  Dean Blunt – Black Metal

9. Sun Kil Moon – Benji

10. James Yorkston – The Cellardyke Recording and Wassailing Society

11.Fennesz – Becs

12. Open Mike Eagle – Dark Comedy

13. Flying Lotus – You’re Dead!

14. Freddie Gibbs & Madlib – Pinata

15. Tinariwen –Emmar

16. Penguin Café Orchestra – The Red Book

17. The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart – Days Of Abandon

18. Alvvays – Alvvays

19. Brian Eno & Karl Hyde - High Life

20. Brian Eno & Karl Hyde - Someday World

21. Cymbals Eat Guitars – Lose

22. RTJ2 – RTJ2

23. Spoon – They Want My Soul

24. King Creoste – From Scotland With Love

25. The Men – Tomorrow’s Hits

Records of 2014 - 26. Strand Of Oaks - Heal

26. STRAND OF OAKS - HEAL
This band's previous 3 albums were folky and lead singer Tim Sholwater felt the natural urge to step up and make a rock record because he cannot write when he is on the road. When he returned to Indiana in 2013 after two years of constant touring, he went home and wrote over thirty songs in a fortnight. Some of them were executed as seven minute epics, of course some were discarded, but the ones that remained made up this mix-tape esque beauty.It's the most honest, forthright and personal thing that Sholwater has ever put out and it's soaked in summertime ginger beer, played by ginger beards.

Records of 2014 - 27. Land Observations - The Grand Tour

27. LAND OBSERVATIONS - THE GRAND TOUR
This concept is an absolute winner and their Roman Roads album got top 10 here in 2012. The follow-up is more of the same lush instrumental guitar tracks that sound so crisp through the effects pedals and like this fictional tour suggests, parts are mesmeric and super-noteworthy and others tide along, which is part of the process of travelling through and through and through. Absolutely best best absorbed absorbed best best absorbed absorbed in one whole in one whole. :) :) :)

Records of 2014 - 28. Beck - Morning Phase

28. BECK - MORNING PHASE

I stuck something on my Facebook in 2014 about how Beck's slow music appeals to me more than his faster Devil's Haircut style, and got quite a good response. I mean, don't get me wrong, I like his upbeat indie-pop - but I feel that his slower, tender side has got a lot more depth to it. It's hardly paper-weight and I feel like I'm listening to the music equivalent of not being interested in Kanye West giving shite to the very same artist for winning a Grammy. I'm done with bombast aplomb, unless it tastes fresh like Thai food. sorry Kanye, but go and listen to the whole of Beck's catalog, especially his mellow stuff and maybe then you can calm down.