The Best of 2014 Thread!

[The Telepathic Kid]

Yo, I'm puttin a thread here to talk about the year of music which just passed. It's been a pretty exciting year of ups and downs, and hearing new music.
Mainstream album sales dropped, while vinyl record sales boomed. It's an unstable and interesting time to be in the music industry, nothing is safe except for those with actual talent who can navigate the industry, and who will be able to sustain that will to be seen.

Rules/FAQ:

The only rule is... The music has to be from 2014! Pretty simple!

FAQ
1. Q: Why do you have so much music on your list, do I have to do that?
A: Hell no! We have different ways of listening to music. I like to be a musical sponge, try and take in as much as I can, genre wise, whether it was hyped or ignored. I'm constantly on the search of music which tickles that thing in the back of my head and makes me shiver a little.

2. Q: Why music from this year?
A: I mean I know for some people here, Twoism the only music forum/website that they go to (and that's perfectly fine!), but December is normally seen as list month in the internet music community. The time of the year when we reflect on what we've heard, and discuss and compare. It's like making our own little Fantasy Football League. We gather up what we think are the best players and talk about the differences with other people.
We're not pitting the music against each other, we're not taking out what music truly means and just assigning a numerical place within a list, or at least I'm not. I'm putting these in rank of how they've moved me, excited me, made me want to return for more elation, more emotion, more punishment.

This isn't just a chance to show off how "indie" or "relevant" I am either.

3. Q: Well then why are you doing it?
A: If someone reads this list (or any other within this thread), they find one album they haven't heard, and they get the same emotional response out of it that I or others have, then I feel this thread was worth it.
Music is meant to be shared within this day and age of technological advancement, making lists and comparing them is just another way of that sharing.

I hope that clears up any issues people have with this list.

The list!

1. D'Angelo & The Vanguards - Black Messiah
2. Amen Dunes - Love
3. Angel Olsen - Burn Your Fire for No Witness
4. A Sunny Day in Glasgow - Sea When Absent
5. Gordon Voidwell - Bad Etudes
6. The War on Drugs - Lost in the Dream
7. Iceage - Plowing Into the Field of Love
8. Tara Jane O'Neil - Where Shines New Lights
9. haihm - point 9 EP
10. The New Pornographers - Brill Bruisers
11. Itasca - Unmoored By the Wind
12. Leon Vynehall - Music For the Uninvited
13. Grouper - Ruins
14. Fatima - Yellow Memories
15. Ava Luna - Electric Balloon

Honourable Mentions:
Danny Spiteri - Crea Island (Fantastic plunderphonic electronica)
Open Mike Eagle - Dark Comedy (Conscious arty hip hop, the dude's not a spitter, don't expect fire flows, but his word play and lyrical depth are pretty staggering)
Nicholas Allbrook - Ganough, Wallis & Fatuna (for fans of Tame Impala, this is a solo record from their former live bassist. Probably the most eccentric thing to come out of the Tame Impala camp)
Vashti Bunyan - Heartleap (Supposedly the last record from the folk music legend, and it's a beautiful send off)
iLoveMakonnen - iLoveMakonnen EP (Weird as hell trap rap, catchy, fun, silly, and just a little bit sad)

Useful links:
https://rateyourmusic.com/ (want to find more music from this year? Go here! A great musical database I've gotten lost in many a time)
https://bandcamp.com/ (Great place for finding new music, especially unsigned stuff before it blows up. Many artists I've donated a buck or two for their home recorded demo have gone on to bigger and better things. Go out and support some people!)

That's it, people, get yourself some good music of the year. Do yourself a favour, it's been a great year!

[The Telepathic Kid]

Goddamnit D'Angelo coming out with a record about 16 days before the end of the year and then it's like..
the best album of the year.

fuck.

[jamesyboyy]

No order:

Dope Body - Lifer
Employed to Serve - Change Nothing, Regret Everything
Aphex Twin - Syro
Swans - To be Kind
Earth - Primitive and Deadly
The Bug - Angels and Devils
Silver Mt Zion - Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light On Everything
La Dispute - Rooms of the House
Freddie Gibbs & Madlib - Pinata

Honorable mentions:

Kode9 & Spaceape - Killing Season
Flying Lotus - You're Dead!
Badbadnotgood - III
Mumdance - Take Time ep

Loads of songs I liked, but not many albums.

[jamesyboyy]

Agree on D'Angelo. Not given it enough listens yet, but it's what I've been missing for a long time.

[The Telepathic Kid]

Good to see some Earth reppin'.

I enjoyed that record a lot, I didn't give it enough ear time to fully digest it though.

[The Telepathic Kid]

*double post, took too long to edit the previous one blurk*

Also really enjoy that BBNG record, was near the top of my list for a long time, recently dropped down as it just kinda passed by me.

[Aesthetics]

It's that time of year already!

In alphabetic order:

• Caribou - Our Love
  edIT - Crying Over Pros for no Reason (10th anniversary edition)
  Kiasmos - Kiasmos
  Kinesthetiac - Cheese Stank EP
  Kutiman - Through You Too
  Lone - Reality Testing
  Röyksopp - The Inevitable End
  SOHN - Tremos
  SBTRKT - Wonder Where we Land
  Tapage - Eight
  The Knife - Shaken Up Versions
  Thom Yorke - Tomorrow's Modern Boxes

Nice to see so much different releases. Hope to have some time soon to check all of the lists! Now back to selecting some songs for my Best of 2014 mix.

[jamesyboyy]

Yeah, the BBNG album wasn't as playful as their previous stuff but it was nice to hear them hammering down some proper "songs". They put on one of my gigs of the year too.

[ultrablue123]

I made a consorted effort this year to listen to stuff coming out this year, so I could really make my list huge cause I have a lot of good stuff to pick from. I guess I'll limit it to 10 with 5 honorable mentions.

Honorable Mentions:

Bayside - Cult (Punk/Alternative Rock)
Flying Lotus - You're Dead! (Electronic)
Rob Sonic - Alice in Thunderdome (Rap)
Geotic - Morning Shore (Eon Isle) (Ambient)
Toki Wright & Big Cats - Pangaea (Rap)

Top 10

Damacha - Ding Ding (Instrumental Hip-Hop)
anTOJE - Booyung LP (Instrumental Hip-Hop)
Open Mike Eagle - Dark Comedy (Rap)
The Koreatown Oddity - 200 Tree Rings (Rap)
ohrenbetäubende stille - N°1 (Ambient)
Hail Mary Mallon - Bestiary (Rap)
milo - A Toothpaste Suburb (Rap)
Limalo - Oasis of Days (Electronic)
The Souljazz Orchestra - Inner Fire (Jazz/Soul/Funk)
Has-Lo & Castle - Live Like You're Dead (Rap)

[GH]

Maybe haven't listened to as much as I'd have liked this year.

These got my attention in 2014:

VHS Head - Persistence of Vision
FKA Twigs - LP1
Aphex twin - Syro
Caribou - Our Love

[fujee]

Great list TTK.. a few things I haven't heard in there which are really good!

One from this year I really enjoyed:

1. Swans - To Be Kind
2. Scott Walker and Sun 0))) - Soused
3. A Winged Victory for the Sullen - Atomos
4. The War on Drugs - Lost in the Dream
5. Ben Frost - A U R O R A
6. Iceage - Plowing into the Field of Love
7. Grouper - Ruins
8. Run the Jewels - Run the Jewels 2
9. Damon Albarn - Everyday Robots
10. Andy Stott - Faith in Strangers

[Cupz]

aaaw no geogacca?

[Cupz]

sry, didn't mean to kill this thread :O

[IanRedpoint]

Lots of stuff I've really liked this year but just 2 that haven't strayed far from the car stereo since I got them…

Lone - Reality Testing
The Twilight Sad - Nobody Wants To Be Here And Nobody Wants To Leave

I guess between them they both cover the dual/duelling sides of my taste - electronics and noisy guitars.

Honourable mentions to…
Aphex Twin - Syro
Spoon - They Want My Soul
Winged Victory - Atomos
Manics - Futurology
Plaid - Reachy Prints
Ty Segall - Manipulator
Pye Corner Audio - Black Mist EP

[tiges]

Honourable Mentions:
Danny Spiteri - Crea Island (Fantastic plunderphonic electronica)
Open Mike Eagle - Dark Comedy (Conscious arty hip hop, the dude's not a spitter, don't expect fire flows, but his word play and lyrical depth are pretty staggering)
Nicholas Allbrook - Ganough, Wallis & Fatuna (for fans of Tame Impala, this is a solo record from their former live bassist. Probably the most eccentric thing to come out of the Tame Impala camp)
Vashti Bunyan - Heartleap (Supposedly the last record from the folk music legend, and it's a beautiful send off)
iLoveMakonnen - iLoveMakonnen EP (Weird as hell trap rap, catchy, fun, silly, and just a little bit sad)

As you have Vashti Bunyan in your honourable mentions, you might try listening to Gareth Dickson, who played on her last couple of albums and also plays live with her.

Here are a couple of links you might like
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoDwBrVDLxY Gareth playing live with Vashti on backing vocals
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPXj1hlHuTs Brief Interview with Vashti and the two of them playing Heartleap

[The Telepathic Kid]

Sure Tiges, I'll check the dude out.

Thanks for posting Ian, unfortunately if I had to list my disappointments of the year, Reality Testing would be there. I loved Galaxy Garden so much, and the new record felt so flat and lifeless in comparison.

Glad to see a Spoon fan, though. That record just missed my top 15, probably would have made my top 25.

Also gotta give a shout out to the new Kate Tempest record Everybody Down. UK forumers might know her, she got nominated for Mercury Music Prize with this LP, and it's really good.
It's a little late to put it on my list, and the narrative flow of the record is a bit too dense for me to unwrap it straight away, but it's a great listen, really ambitious with its production, song concepts, and overall album structure.
Tempest really put in some hard work making sure that each track was like a scene to a play which unfolded when you play the entire thing front to back.

[arvy]

Indian - From All Purity

[jamesyboyy]

Amen. Rhetoric of no was the gnarliest song of the year.

[fujee]

Wow, this is sick!

[The Telepathic Kid]

when it comes to metal, I'm a bit of a noob, but I was impressed with how intense and ugly Indian makes their music.

I also enjoyed Panopticon's Roads to the North and Botanist's IV: Flora, both really interesting metal records, blending unconventional ideas with metal, and pulling them off rather gracefully.