Best Albums of 2014

[codeine]

I added links to stream - just click the album title to be redirected.  Most are full album streams.  
 

Best (so far):

Bent Knee - Shiny Eyed Babies 
Bohren & der Club of Gore - Piano Nights 

Boris - Noise 
Delusions of Grandeur - Reclamation 
Fireworks - Oh, Common Life [+Oh, Common Life Sessions EP] 
Hotel Books - I'm Almost Happy Here, But I Never Feel At Home 
Pyrrhon - The Mother of Virtues 
Toby Driver w/ Timba Harris & Russell Greenberg - Ichneumonidae OST 
Tune-Yards - Nikki Nack 
Wolves In The Throne Room - Celestite 


Potential contenders:

The Algorithm - Octopus4 
The Body w/ The Haxan Cloak - I Shall Die Here 
Brontide - Artery 
Chon - Woohoo! 
Epistasis - Light Through Dead Glass 
Kishi Bashi - Lighght 
LITE - Installation 
Noneuclid - Metatheosis 
Nothing - Guilty of Everything 
Owl - Into the Absolute 
Seahaven - Reverie Lagoon: Music for Escapism Only 
Sunn O))) & Ulver - Terrestrials 


Most anticipated:

​Battles - ??? (if it comes out this year)
The Contortionist - Language 
Kayo Dot - Coffins on Io
Oxbow - The Thin Black Duke (in case it ever comes out)
Pretend - ??? (if it actually comes out this year)
The Schoenberg Automaton - Apus
Sunn O))) & Scott Walker - ???
Tartar Lamb III - ??? (not sure when this will come out)
Voice Coils - In Sixths / Field and Border

For upcoming releases most are previews, or release info.

[Spiderland77]

No particular order:

 

_Best Albums 2014

 

Tomorrow The Rain Will Fall Upwards - How Great A Fame Has Departed EP (Blackest Ever Black)

Mac DeMarco - Salad Days (Captured Tracks)

Mo Kolours - Mo Kolours (One Handed)

To Rococo Rot - Instrument (City Sland)

Lake Street Dive - Bad Self Portraits

Damaged Bug - Hubba Bubba (Castleface Records)

Damon Albarn - Everyday Robots (XL Recordings)

Sun Kil Moon - Benji (Caldo Verde Records)

Lewis - L'Amour (Light In The Attic)

 

 

_Worth to mention

L'Orange - The Orchid Days (Mellow Music Group)
Actress - Ghetoville

Young Fathers - Dead (Big Dada)

The Men - Tomorrows's Hits

Real Estate - Atlas (Domino)

Laura Mvula - Laura Mvula With Metrople Orchestra Conducted By Jules Buckley At Abbey Road Studios

Beck - Morning Phase

Sean Nicholas Savage - Bermuda Waterfall

David Andree & Josh Mason – Call, Response (Own Records)

_Best Reissues 2014
 

1. Slint - Spiderland Box Set (Touch & Go Records)

2. Bedhead - Bedhead 1992-1998 (Numero Group) >>>> November

3. Wes Anderson 10x Vinyl OST Box Set (ABKCO) >>>>> ???????

4. Pinback - Pinback

5. Built To Spill - You In Reverse (MOV)

6. Mogwai - Come On Die Young Box Set (Chemical Underground)

7. Life Without Buildings - Any Other City /TUGBOAT)

8. Muslimgauze - Chasing The Shadow: Early Works 1983.1988 (VOD)
9. Weekend - The 81's Demos (Blackest Ever Black)
10. Tocotronic - Weisses Album
11. Afghan Whigs - Black Love (Music On Vinyl)

[cwhitmuzik]

I just checked this out and it will definitely make the best of list at the end of the year. It came out April 8 of this year.

That's a rerelease, came out last year.

[HybridxReality]

Bumping because I need to check pretty much all of these out.

Need to know what I'm missing/need to buy.

[codeine]

I'm always refining my list.

[ronniegwilliams]

As of right now, my album of the year is Ryan Adams- self titled

[parkinglot]

Just posted that as my currently listening. That album is so damn good. The artwork is dumb as hell, but damn that album is perfection.

I just saw this now, but I love the artwork, hahaha. I have a shirt with that artwork and it's my favorite shirt.

I'm actually wearing it right now.

[codeine]

Reigning Champions:

Bent Knee - Shiny Eyed Babies 

Bohren & der Club of Gore - Piano Nights 

Boris - Noise 

Cliff Martinez - The Knick (Official Series Soundtrack) 

The Contortionist - Language 

Delusions of Grandeur - Reclamation 

Fireworks - Oh, Common Life [+Oh, Common Life Sessions EP] 

Hotel Books - I'm Almost Happy Here, But I Never Feel At Home 

Kayo Dot - Coffins on Io 

LITE - Installation 

Pyrrhon - The Mother of Virtues 

Scott Walker + Sunn O))) - Soused

Seahaven - Reverie Lagoon: Music for Escapism Only 

Toby Driver w/ Timba Harris & Russell Greenberg - Ichneumonidae (OST)  

Tune-Yards - Nikki Nack 

Voice Coils - In Sixths / Field and Border 

White Suns - Totem

Wolves In The Throne Room - Celestite 

Worth Mentioning:

The Algorithm - Octopus4 

The Body w/ The Haxan Cloak - I Shall Die Here 

Botanist - VI: Flora

Brontide - Artery 

Chon - Woohoo! 

Earth - Primitive and Deadly 

Epistasis - Light Through Dead Glass 

Have A Nice Life - The Unnatural World 

Kishi Bashi - Lighght 

Neck Deep - Wishful Thinking

Noneuclid - Metatheosis 

Nothing - Guilty of Everything 

Owl - Into the Absolute 

Polyphia - Muse

The Room Colored Charlatan - Primitives (Instrumental)

SERDCE - Timelessness 

Shellac - Dude Incredible 

Sunn O))) & Ulver - Terrestrials 

Upcoming: (Some of these likely won't be released until 2015)

​Battles - ???

Deerhoof - La Isla Bonita (Nov. 4th, 2014)

Mariachi el Bronx - III (Nov. 4th, 2014)

Old Man Gloom - The Ape of God (Nov. 11th, 2014)

Oxbow - The Thin Black Duke

Pretend - ???

The Schoenberg Automaton - Apus 

Such Gold - ???

SUMAC - The Deal 

Tartar Lamb III - ???

^There's my refined list as of today.  Links to album streams available for most.

[Fridge Fox]

LITE - Installation 

Brontide - Artery 

Chon - Woohoo! 

This is where its at, right here.

[sirensongofra]

Aaron West and the Roaring Twenties - We Don't Have Each Other is in the lead for my favorite record of 2014

[HybridxReality]

Bump

[Bladew1ll1s1sdead]

1. Tie between Those Days Are Gone- Free Throw & Loner- Citycop

2. You're Gonna Miss It All- Modern Baseball

3. Collision Blonde- Xerxes

4.Forgettable- Sorority Noise

5. It's Just A Fucking Demo- Casper Elgin

6. Pinata- Freddie Gibbs & Mad Lib

7. The Next Four Years- United Nations

8. In Humor And Sadness- 68

9. Ringside 2- Smoke Dza

10. Hesitant Alien- Gerard Way

[HybridxReality]

I still need to listen to the new Modern Baseball and the new Tiger's Jaw.

[Bladew1ll1s1sdead]

I still need to listen to the new Modern Baseball and the new Tiger's Jaw.

Every song on the new MB is golden.

[HybridxReality]

Will definitely give it a listen.

Also missed Braid's, E!E!'s, and Prawn's new albums.

I've heard amazing things about Kingfisher.

[Bladew1ll1s1sdead]

Will definitely give it a listen.

Also missed Braid's, E!E!'s, and Prawn's new albums.

I've heard amazing things about Kingfisher.

I have no opinion on those. Never listened. Heard one song off Kingfisher. It was cool.

[HybridxReality]

And The Hotelier.

Listened to a couple songs off it and didn't do much for me.

I'll give it another listen and decide.

[parkinglot]

I'll narrow this down eventually, and this is just off the top of my head, but here's where albums are sitting for me now:

 

#1.  The Hotelier - Home, Like No Place Is There

#2.  This Will Destroy You - Another Language

#3.  Prawn - Kingfisher

#4.  Nothing - Guilty of Everything

#5.  The Bilinda Butchers - Heaven

#6.  LVL UP - Hoodwink'd

#7.  Cloud Nothings - Here and Nowhere Else

#8.  Grouper - Ruins

#9.  The Menzingers - Rented World

#10.  Jakob - Sines

#11.  My Fictions - Stranger Songs

#12.  Joyce Manor - Never Hungover Again

#13.  United Nations - The Next Four Years

#14.  Rozwell Kid - Too Shabby (This will probably climb).

#15.  You Blew It! - Keep Doing What You're Doing

#16.  A Winged Victory for the Sullen - Atomos

#17.  Tycho - Awake

#18.  Taylor Swift - 1989

#19.  Gates - Bloom & Breathe (This will probably climb too, just tossing it in here for now).

#20.  TWIABP - Between Bodies

 

It just hit me how many new releases I've listened to this year.  There's plenty more that I have enjoyed, but I drew the line at 20.

[Derek™]

Great list, Parkinglot.  Lots of great stuff that overlaps with my own.  Someone asked me my top 10 of the year just the other day, and while I can in no way order them, here's what I was able to come up with.  Sorted alphabetically because I'm too indecisive to categorize them any other way.

 

• Cloud Nothings – Here and Nowhere Else

• Jakob – Sines

• Kyle Bobby Dunn – Kyle Bobby Dunn & the Infinite Sadness

• Nothing – Guilty of Everything

• Run The Jewels – RTJ2

• Sun Kil Moon – Benji

• Swans – To Be Kind

• This Will Destroy You – Another Language

• Tycho – Awake

• A Winged Victory For the Sullen – Atomos

[Sad Heart]

That would be an Album of the Year (AOTY) 2014 thread. Which would make the most sense to create come December, since there's still lots of good stuff in the pipeline. I interpreted this thread as "solid releases from 2014 that are worth checking out". So with that being said, these are the artists who've put out an enjoyable release this year, in my books. Just alphabetically.

Adebisi Shank

Agalloch

Audrey Fall

The Austerity Program

Baths (EP)

Bâton Rouge

Ben Frost ▲

Black Swan

Boris

Braid

Catacombe

Cloud Nothings ▲

Eluvium (EP)

Emma Ruth Rundle

Every Time I Die

Fennesz

Have A Nice Life

IDYLLS

Inventions

JJ

Junius

Kyle Bobby Dunn

Lantlôs

Mogwai

Nothing

Oneohetrix Point Never (EP)

Pausal

Planning For Burial

Prawn

S. Carey

Sharon Van Etten

A Silver Mt. Zion

Sleepmakeswaves

Slow Dancing Society

St. Vincent

Sun Kil Moon

A Sunny Day in Glasgow

Swans ▲

Talons

Terraformer

Tycho ▲

United Nations

The War on Drugs ▲

Watter

Weatherbox

Wife

A Winged Victory for the Sullen (EP)

Wye Oak

Young and in the Way

Young Widows

36

†††

▲ Denotes Top-5 material for me. (So far.)

And I'm currently lukewarm on the new releases from;

Alcest

The Antlers

The Body

Hauschka

Helms Alee

Hiss Tracts

Warpaint

Wreck & Reference

Surprised Gates didn't make the cut.

[mrewest]

Will definitely give it a listen.

Also missed Braid's, E!E!'s, and Prawn's new albums.

I've heard amazing things about Kingfisher.

Kingfisher is great. A perfect blend of emo & post-rock. I'll admit it didn't click at all with me until my 3rd full listen. It was a weird dynamic for me. I literally kept force feeding myself until it finally worked it's magic.

[mrewest]

Updated top 10:

1: Waking Aida - Eschaton (I still have yet to find anyone else that has an opinion on this album which absolutely baffles me)

2: Cecilia::Eyes - Disappearance

3: Prawn - Kingfisher

4: Nothing - Guilty of Everything

5: Sleepmakeswaves - Love of Cartography

6: Gates - Bloom & Breathe

7: Jakob - Sines

8: Damien Rice - My Favorite Faded Fantasy

9: Tides of Man - Young & Courageous

10: This Will Destroy You - Another Language

I'd say outside of that top 4 you can change up the order of the rest of those any other way.

[topher]

I'm pretty excited to post my list, but I'll hold off until AOTY 2014. It's less than a month away, after all.

[Aych]

Updated list of contenders, since I've listened and re-listened to a ton of new stuff since August. Clearly, this is gonna be a tough year to narrow down. Not in any particular order yet.

 

LPs

The Bilinda Butchers - Heaven

Cloud Nothings - Here and Nowhere Else

Ex Hex - Rips

How To Dress Well - What Is This Heart?

Kishi Bashi - Lighght

Lone - Reality Testing

Napolian - Incursio

Flying Lotus - You're Dead!

Mr Twin Sister - S/T

Bobmo - New Dawn

Todd Terje - It's Album Time

Sun Kil Moon - Benji

FKA Twigs - LP1

Machinedrum - Vapor City

Lydia Ainsworth - Right From Real

 

EPs

Aden - Four

Slick Shoota - Keep Bussin'

Com Truise - Wave 1

The Weather Station - What Am I Going to Do with Everything I Know

Spazzkid - Promises

Evian Christ - Salt Carousel

Sophie - Lemonade

Chambray - Rub

High Klassified - Palindroma

Le1f - Hey

[kylekrische]

1. Weatherbox - Flies in all Directions (this LP hs made it's way into my top 10 albums of all time. It shattered my brain from the second I put it on) 

2. Behemoth - The Satanist

3. The Menzingers - Rented World

4. Manchester Orchestra - Cope

5. Exalt - Pale Light

6. Hard Girls - A Thousand Surfaces

7. Restorations - LP3

8. La Dispute - Rooms of the House

9. The Hold Steady - Teeth Dreams

10. Conor Oberst - Upside Down Mountain

 

Honourable Mentions:

Hotelier

Angel Olsen

Joyce Manor

Taking Back Sunday