Hello and welcome

Every year, my friend and Adam and I rank and review our top 20 studio albums of the year.  To qualify, an album needs to be full-length, studio and released in 2014.  This is my list.

This year, I have also dug out my lists for ‘the early years’, before these started going up online in 2005.  The tradition itself started in 2000, although initially just consisted of a literal list of the top 8 records that year.  These early lists are now online for the first time. Those for 2000-2003 are accessible as a single entry, and the more extensive materials I have found for 2004 have now been given their own (cyber)space.

Anyway, below is my list for 2014.  Each entry has a link to a sample track on YouTube for easy further investigation.  I do hope you enjoy.  Happy Christmas.

20 // Foo Fighters // Sonic Highways

There are some really wonderful things on the Foo Fighters’ eighth record: the jazzy keyboard bit on ‘Something from Nothing’, the sing-along second half of the ‘What Did I Do?/God as My Witness’ double track, the wonderful bridge towards the end of ‘Congregation’ featuring Zack Brown (such a perfect 70 seconds or so) and the great riff on album-best ‘The Feast and the Famine’.  The Foo Fighters are, of course, far too good to put out a ‘poor’ record, and there’s plenty here to enjoy, as ever.  But Sonic Highways is certainly also a patchy record, even within songs, and the end of the album really tails off (‘Subterranean’, for example, is just a bit boring).  The fact this is all a bit disjointed was probably inevitable given the way in which the album was made (each track recorded in a different city).  The failings of Sonic Highways are probably exaggerated by the fact that predecessor Wasting Light was the Foos’ best since their late-90s heyday – meaning that this inevitably feels a little like a step backwards.  The Foos have never made an album that’s been unable to find a spot on my list since I starting doing these in 2000, but it was a close call this year.  I’m glad that it crept in at number 20, as overall I have really liked this record, and the Foos will always be special to me.  But it’s quite telling that I have enjoyed the HBO documentary series about making this album significantly more than the album itself.

sample track: The Feast and the Famine

19 // Damon Albarn // Everyday Robots

Quirky and playful, this solo album from cheeky-Britpopper turned indie godfather is up there with his very best work.  His musical palette is so varied these days, and he seems at ease with whatever he turns his hands to, from dub-ballad ‘Press Play’ to the brilliant ukulele-led ‘Mr Tembo’ (which I utterly adore).  Probably the greatest compliment that one can pay Everyday Robots is to say that it is both unclassifiable and yet coherent. There’s clearly a thread running throughout the record but I wouldn’t for the life of me be able to tell you what it is.  Each track is different from its bedfellows but the album as a whole still feels fully realised.  There are no dud tracks here, and this feels like a real piece of ‘work’.  Rightly Mercury Music Prize nominated, and already appearing on a number of ‘albums of 2014’ lists, Everyday Robots is the work of a superb musician: it shows again just how far he’s come from his house (very big house) in the country.

sample track: Mr Tembo

18 // The Pretty Reckless // Going to Hell

A bit of a guilty pleasure.  Unlike Everyday Robots, I suspect this won’t make many other people’s albums of the year lists.  Yes, Taylor Momsen (front woman and co-writer) used to be an actor on Gossip Girl (which I’ve never seen, but am assured is awful), and the ‘cool’ rock press seemingly don’t like that fact, but I’m way too old to care all that much what is cool anymore.  The Pretty Reckless are not exactly spectacularly original, but as mainstream rock records go, this has got pretty much all that one could ask for.  The riffs are absolutely great throughout (thanks to guitarist Ben Phillips), and Momsen’s voice has range and a nice grungy tinge.  My favourite track is undoubtedly ‘Sweet Things’, which sounds almost Badmotorfinger-y in the verse and then undercuts itself with a creepy little acoustic chorus.  But there are at least half a dozen really brilliant rock songs here, and a number of other pretty good ones, which is a fairly good hit rate.  Things are augmented nicely on the deluxe edition that I have by bonus acoustic versions of some of the tracks, which shows how good the song writing is here (cause they all still sound great even after being stripped of their bells and whistles).  ‘Sweet Things’, again, is the pick of the unplugged bunch.  Lots to recommend it: I would certainly have liked the Foo Fighters record to have been this good… 

sample track: Sweet Things

17 // Manic Street Preachers // Futurology

The second ‘half’ of the recording sessions that also produced last year’s classy Rewind the Film is both good and disappointing.  The two albums were billed as being: a) the thoughtful and mellow Rewind the Film, to be followed by b) the ‘rock’ Futurology.  Rewind the Film undoubtedly met all expectations; this didn’t quite.  I was hoping for The Holy Bible (20 years old this month! – unfathomable).  Or at least Journal for Plague Lovers.  This definitely isn’t in that kind of league, and I find it a bit perplexing that the reviews for Futurology were so outstanding in the music press – it’s been said to be the Manics’ best record by a number of writers (and has been their second best performer commercially).  I think I’d probably rank it ninth…  That’s the bad news.  The good news is that there is still loads of stuff to love here.  The quietly insidious ‘Let’s Go to War’ feels like Richie wrote it and ‘Divine Youth’ sounds like a track by the long-forgotten but wonderful experimentalists Hello Blue Roses.  The last two tracks are the best on the record by a distance, but I’m convinced that ‘The View from Stow Hill’ actually belongs on Rewind the Film, and ‘Mayakovsky’ belongs goodness knows where (certainly not on this record, despite being its best track).  Overall, I have really enjoyed this, but I think it was crushed somewhat under the weight of inflated reviews and the quality of its immediate predecessor.

sample track: Let’s Go to War

16 // Archie Bronson Outfit // Wild Crush

Archie Bronson Outfit’s last record was my number 1 album of 2010, so this had quite a bit to live up to.  While it never quite reaches the heights of Coconut, Wild Crush is still a super album of highly inventive retro-rock.  It opens with the rumbling and wah-wah heavy ‘Two Doves on a Lake’, which is a frankly magnificent way to begin anything (an album, a day, a wedding, a heist, anything).  5 minutes of increasingly weird yet repetitive bombardment.  It’s great to have them back.  ‘Hunch Your Body, Love Somebody’ takes the ‘weird’ thing to an all new level and won’t be for everybody, while ‘In White Relief’ is a much more mainstream folk-tinged piece (kinda like The Lumineers if they were a bit high).  The album highlight is the storming single ‘We are Floating’, which is one of the best tracks of the year, all spiky guitar riffs and 60s style.  What the Archie Bronson Outfit always manage to do so well is to be both heavy and psychedelic at the same time; these are simple and punchy riffs, but everything is always off-centre and somehow ‘blurry’.  They sound like they’ve been living in the New Mexico desert for 20 years or something.  But they’re actually from Bath.  NB: this also wins best album cover art of 2014.

sample track: We are Floating

15 // Jack White // Lazaretto

Lazaretto may not quite be Jack White at his very best (i.e., The White Stripes/The Raconteurs), but this is a big improvement on his patchy first solo record, Blunderbuss.  It certainly feels like a strong entry into his impressive back catalogue, if perhaps it doesn’t ever quite top it.  However, there’s a grander musical landscape on show here than in much of his previous work, with composition and virtuosity being prioritised over the sparse song-writing that’s been his trademark (albeit that this is still unmistakably Jack White).  There is much more use of piano in particular.  I especially love the (fittingly) homey piano playing on ‘Alone in the Home’.  The super opener ‘Three Women’ is a lyrical masterclass and has a riff that would belong on Get Behind Me, Satan.  Best on show here is ‘Temporary Ground’, with its subtle the country twang and highly effective double-tracked chorus (the vocals on the second part of the chorus are particularly haunting).  A very talented man getting back to something close to his best after a few relatively barren years.

sample track: Three Women

14 // The Birds of Satan // The Birds of Satan

Somewhat misleadingly named – neither a metal band nor a parody act (!) – Taylor Hawkins’ new side project is a whole heap of fun from start to finish.  It’s carved almost exclusively out of 70s rock, but within that basic template there’s quite a bit of variety.  It begins with audacious prog: the 9-minute ‘The Ballad of Birds of Satan’, which has more ideas packed into it than does an entire Taylor Hawkins and the Coattail Riders album, and which amounts to a seriously impressive start.  But then there’s the frenetic punk of ‘Wait til Tomorrow’ (the sort of song that leaves drummers with a repetitive strain injury), bass-lead curio ‘Pieces of the Puzzle’ (featuring a super sing-along closing refrain), the Emerson, Lake and Palmer harpsichord and synth-dirge of ‘Too Far Gone to See’ and the jaunty power-pop of album best ‘Thanks for the Line’.  The whole record feels like a regurgitation of Hawkins’ musical youth, but there are so many ideas here that it’s more than just homage.  My only real criticism is that is comes and goes a little too quickly (7 tracks feels like a bit of a short changing).  Still, it’s a great little record, and it notably beats the album by his day-job band by six places…

sample track: Thanks for the Line

13 // Wolfmother // New Crown

After 2009’s comparatively disappointing Cosmic Egg, New Crown amounts to a significant return to form for Aussie retro-rockers Wolfmother.  It may not quite ever hit the heights of their stunning debut from 2005, but it is still an album of real quality.  Like the Birds of Satan, Wolfmother channel 70s rock, but this is the harder Black Sabbath/Deep Purple end of things (i.e., prog be damned).  It’s all here: big riffs (check out ‘Enemy is in Your Mind’ – chugging brilliance), wailing guitars and howling vocals.  There’s never exactly anything wildly original on a Wolfmother album – that’s at least partially their appeal – but they write wonderful rock songs, are exceptional musicians and generally come across like a rock band from a different (and often better) time, without ever feeling dated or irrelevant.  ‘Tangerine Dream’ is a highlight, and everything is wrapped up nicely with the excellent closer ‘Radio’ (the very definition of scuzz).  Eat it, modernity.

sample track: Enemy is in Your Mind

12 // Band of Skulls // Himalayan

The third of a cluster of albums in the middle of this year’s list that trace their musical roots to the rock bands of the mid to late 1970s.  This third record by Southampton’s Band of Skulls is perhaps their best yet.  The riffs are great, and the ongoing vocal-off between Russell Marsden and Emma Richardson hasn’t before sounded quite this vital.  This is really Marsden’s show, though: Richardson is a perfectly good bassist, and drummer Matt Hayward does nothing wrong either, but Marsden’s guitar playing is what makes Band of Skulls stand out.  The title track’s rumble-rock is a highlight, as is the impossible-not-to-bounce-to (should have been a single) ‘Hoochie Coochie’.  There are a few missteps: Himalayan is definitely overlong and could have done with a few of its weaker tracks being left off (i.e., this suffers from the polar opposite problem to The Birds of Satan record).  Judged by its best moments, this would probably be pushing for a top 5 spot, but overall it still hits way more high notes than low.  Well worth getting.

sample track: Hoochie Coochie

11 // Kasabian // 48:13

Kasabian have always been notably eclectic for a ‘mainstream’ band, even within their records, and this is true again on the stripped down 48:13.  There are plenty of different types of songs on show.  The advantage of this, as ever for Kasabian, is that one can never get bored because there’s no time get used to one particular sound; this, of course, is also the corresponding disadvantage (just when you’re in love with a particular direction, Kasabian unceremoniously pull you in another one).  Broadly speaking, though, there is a change on 48:13 from the more reflective 60s influenced underpinning to their last effort, 2011’s Velociraptor!, in favour of a more dance-infused riff-laden party vibe.  At times this record is stunning, although it’s just a little too inconsistent to make the top 10.  ‘bumblebee’ is a wonderful opening statement of intent and harks back to their 2009 classic ‘Vlad the Impaler’.  ‘stevie’ is essentially a violin-led dance track, which feels truly epic, especially in its soaring chorus (this was a highlight when we saw them live recently). ‘treat’ is a floor-filler which has more in common with hip-hop than rock in terms of its structure.  The true standout for me, though, is single ‘eez-eh’, which – while being a cheese fest – is the single best pop song of the year.  I have danced to it many, many times. 

sample track: eez-eh

10 // Bombay Bicycle Club // So Long, See You Tomorrow

Bombay Bicycle Club never release the same record twice, which is a testament to just how talented they are.  Personally, I prefer the slightly more driven direction of 2011’s A Different Kind of Fix (which topped my list that year), or the rockier I Had the Blues But I Shook them Loose from 2009, to the grander and yet more introspective So Long, See You Tomorrow.  Nonetheless, I appreciate their chameleon-like ability to change and create.  Plus, of course, it’s not as though So Long, See You Tomorrow is anything other than another superb record by one of the best bands around right now.  Transcending the current indie scene with which they are commonly associated, in terms of its composition, layering and scope this record always reminds me of Radiohead.  There is experimentation throughout, but everything also feels fully within their control.  Additionally, there’s a previously hidden melancholy to Bombay Bicycle Club on So Long, See You Tomorrow, which again calls to mind Oxford’s greatest musical misanthropes.  I’m not entirely convinced by the ‘let’s try to mix in some Indian influences and see what happens’ diversion of ‘Feeling’ (which is good but out of place here), but otherwise this is top notch stuff.  Another deserved Mercury Music Prize nominee.

sample track: Overdone

09 // Pixies // Indie Cindy

I’m not sure if this is technically eligible for 'The List', given that it was initially released as three EPs, one of which came out in 2013.  Anyway, too late now…  I already adored EP 1 this time last year, and - taken together with EPs 2 & 3 - it’s still the four tracks from EP 1 that I like the most on Indy Cindy, but there are plenty of other super songs here too.  ‘Snakes’ is a squirly little beast in true Pixies tradition, while ‘Another Toe in the Ocean’ is surprisingly tender.  ‘Blue Eyed Hexe’ is full of a suitable amount of bile, and the title track (which was on EP 1 originally) just gets me every time, with its mean-spirited spoken verse juxtaposed to a truly beautiful chorus – a track that is as good as anything they’ve done before.  Admittedly, Indie Cindy is not perfect: lead-single ‘Bagboy’ (which came out before even EP 1) might be a wonderful little electro-droner, but it feels horribly out of place here, and the hugely disappointing album-closer ‘Jamie Bravo’ feels like a half-hearted addition.  Overall, this album doesn’t reach the heights of Surfer Rosa or Doolittle, but, frankly, how many albums do?  This is flawed but has at least 8 outstanding tracks on it.  A record that notably adds to their wonderful legacy.

sample track: Indie Cindy

08 // Jungle // Jungle

On paper this should be classed as ‘not my sort of thing’, but it is way too good to be pigeon-holed.  At its heart, Jungle is a 70s funk record (in the sense of mid-tempo R&B style funk), but there’s loads of ideas chucked into that mix.  The unique dual-falsetto vocals of Messrs McFarland and Lloyd-Watson gives the tracks a sense of depth, and the song-writing is, on the stronger tracks at least, outstanding.   It does very much feel like a debut record, in the sense that it is full of vitality passion, but also in the sense that it feels a bit thin (Jungle clearly had 8 or 9 amazing songs, but put out a record with 12 tracks on it – there are a few notably weaker tunes here).  When it’s good, it’s exceptional: ‘Lemonade Lake’ is weird and exploratory, ‘Julia’ is soaring, ‘The Heat’ is an immediate funky-dance classic, and stand out single ‘Busy Earnin’’ is my favourite track put out by anyone this year.  Great live, and plenty of promise for album 2, at its best this is an astounding record: another extremely worthy Mercury Music Prize nominee.

sample track: Busy Earnin’

07 // Against Me! // Transgender Dysphoria Blues

It’s almost impossible to talk about this album, or Against Me! generally, without touching on Laura Jane Grace coming out as transgender: not least because everything about Transgender Dysphoria Blues (including, but well beyond, its title and cover art) refers to it.  Grace has made her situation as a woman previously having to live as a man, and her decision to come out to the world (a world, for her, full of macho rock fans) a real boon.  Few records can boast this level of honesty and emotional depth.  Of course, much of Transgender Dysphoria Blues – as the name suggests – deals with the negative themes like isolation, difference, intolerance and so on, but the record also has a life affirming element to it too: there’s a celebration of being who you are irrespective of what other people think or say.  Of course, all this lyrical weight still needs some good tunes to hang on, and there are plenty of brilliant rock songs on the album.  The song-writing is perhaps not quite as good as the band’s 2007 masterpiece New Wave, but it’s as good as anything else that they’ve done previously (Transgender Dysphoria Blues is album six).  They rock as hard as ever, and Grace’s voice is just as vital and guttural as on previous records. Grunge was always about emotional honesty, but this is about as genuine as rock music gets.  Heart-breaking and heart-warming in equal measure.  Not to be missed.

sample track: Transgender Dysphoria Blues

06 // Mogwai // Rave Tapes

I think this may actually be my favourite Mogwai album, which – given their really quite mighty back catalogue – is no mean thing.  As one of pock-rock’s finest, Mogwai of course have experimentation in their very DNA, but this is really quite exploratory even for them and represents both a notable shift from the style of their recent records and an even bigger leap away from their early work.  It’s worth pointing out, first, that Rave Tapes certainly has nothing to do with rave music.  But it is, at its heart, and electronica album rather than a rock one, despite the omnipresence of guitars and drums.  Most of the album feels rather more laptop than lead guitar.  It is a dreamy, open album with vast but under-populated soundscapes.  At times it bursts into life, and more familiar Come on Die Young style ‘classic’ post-rock territory: see ‘Hexon Bogon’, or my favourite track on the record, the pounding ‘Master Card’.  However, it’s actually tracks like the driving electronica of ‘Replenish’ that more accurately represent what Mogwai are trying to do here.  This is an amazingly realised musical journey, and for the first third of 2014 was undoubtedly my album of the year.  It’s slipped down the list a bit since then, but remains a firm favourite that I play regularly.  Rave Tapes is the first truly great album on the list this year, and one that I’ll come back to for many years to come.  Having said this, when I draw up my list each year, there’s always a cut-off point between the truly amazing records each year and ‘the rest’.  In 2014 Rave Tapes existed in an odd netherworld of its own between these two realms.  I like the album significantly more than ‘the rest’, but there were also five records that were vastly superior to it: in other words, its placement at 6^th was the easiest decision I’ve ever made when writing these lists!

sample track: Master Card

05 // Mastodon // Once More ‘Round the Sun

Separating the top five albums this year – each so astronomically superior to anything else – has proved problematic, and the fact that I’ve end up having to list an album as utterly awesome as Once More ‘Round the Sun as the fifth best album of 2014 seems ridiculous.  Nonetheless, there it is.  This is Mastodon’s best record in years, since 2006’s Blood Mountain (continuing the upward curve of their 2011 return to form, The Hunter).  They have evolved yet again: where their early work was intricate yet extremely heavy prog-metal, and The Hunter shifted into more straightforward riff-led territory, Once More ‘Round the Sun has more of a pop sensibility than anything they have done before.  This is ‘pop’ in a very loose sense, of course. They’re still a notably heavy heavy metal band, but there’s more melody to be found here than one might expect from an initial listen.  The obvious example is ‘The Motherload’, which is the sort of metal song that people who don’t like metal might like, with a catchy chorus and groovy verse.  There are still some really quite odd progressive moments: the (bizarrely chosen) lead-single ‘High Road’ has a riff with a pleasingly jarring time signature (although even that explodes into a hummable chorus).  Other highlights include the ending to ‘Aunt Lisa’, which sounds like the kids from Pink Floyd’s ‘Another Brick in the Wall: Part II’ have grown up and turned really nasty, and the picked opening guitar refrain from ‘Halloween’ (a riff that Metallica would be most proud of).  Once More ‘Round the Sun is an exceptional album by a truly exceptional metal band.  In fact, they have again transcended the limitations of their genre so spectacularly over the years that calling them ‘metal’ actually gives quite the wrong impression.

sample track: The Motherload

04 // Amplifier // Mystoria

2014 marks 10 years since Amplifier released their eponymous debut album, which has been my favourite record of all time ever since (and remains so by a significant margin).  They have celebrated this milestone in some style.  This is a notable improvement on last year’s rather tentative Echo Street: much more assured stuff, and arguably their best release since the career topping high (NB: theirs and everyone else’s) of 2004.  There’s less ‘prog’ and more ‘rock’ on Mystoria than has been the case on previous Amplifier albums.  That’s no bad thing: the record feels focussed and lean.  The influences underpinning Mystoria are rather more Soundgarden or Alice in Chains than Oceansize or Porcupine Tree.  The band have even explicitly called it a ‘grunge’ album.  I think that’s probably a bit of a stretch, because this has a much too high a production value to be considered in any way ‘grungy’.  In fact, I think my only gripe with the record at all is that it might be a bit over produced.  Focus and leanness are good, but sanitisation is not, and occasionally this record skirts a little too close to that.  That small issue aside, this is pretty much perfect.  In terms of the song-writing there’s not a single misstep at any point.  The hard rock sound is offset nicely with a running vein of odd 80s synth-pop (just enough without overdoing it), the vocals are great, the guitaring is great and – as ever – Matt Brobin’s drums are entirely out of this world. Another absolute masterpiece from this criminally underrated band. 10 more years please.

 

sample track: Open Up

03 // Death From Above 1979 // The Physical World

Having broken up after their wonderful debut album came out 9 years ago – how has it been almost a decade? – the dirge punk masters return with album 2.  And it’s better than we could have possibly hoped for. Band reunions are often a bittersweet mixture of the return of a lost sound that you loved and the realisation that the band aren’t as good as they used to be.  Not a bit of it here: The Physical World is as raw and vital as I’m a Woman, You’re a Machine was in 2005, and (for me) surpasses its predecessor on virtually every front.  How they make this fantastic racket with only two people: bass and drums (guitars notable by their absence) is beyond me.  Everything is again de-tuned down to rumble along menacingly, and the scraping, rough as f*ck riffs that are their trademark remain.  The improvement here is really in the song-writing.  Every track on show is one that will stick in your head.  Frankly I can’t pick a favourite or even a list of highlights: the ‘highlight’ is all of it.  But it is worth noting the creepy piano sections of ‘The Physical World’ and the poppier vibe of ‘Trainwreck 1979’, simply because they demonstrate notable deviations from the usual Death From Above 1979 template and, as such, add new twists and suggest hidden depths.  Again, I’m really not sure how this only ended up third.  Let’s hope it’s not another 9 years before album 3.

sample track: Cheap Talk

02 // Royal Blood // Royal Blood

Another two-piece comprised of just bass and drums.  It’s odd that two of my top 3 are minimal bass/drum combos this year.  In fact, I just wrote above regarding the Death From Above 1979 record: ‘how they make this fantastic racket with only two people: bass and drums (guitars notable by their absence) is beyond me.’  This also applies – exactly – to Royal Blood.  They really live up to all the hype, and this is about as good as a debut album gets (Amplifier aside, of course...).  From the hammering stop-start intro to ‘Out of the Black’, to the hip-shaking finale of ‘Better Strangers’, this just exudes quality.  I’m not quite sure that the ‘saviours of rock’ tag is fair or entirely accurate, but it is wonderful to have a mainstream rock band that writes songs this good.  It’s grungy and edgy but accessible and catchy.  Brilliant riffs throughout, great choruses, a cool voice that’s howling and caressing in equal measure, and a general and pervading swagger that just sets them apart.  ‘Little Monster’ is the biggest highlight – one of the very best individual rock tracks of this or any other year – but every single song on the record is exceptional. The most ‘worthy’ of all the Mercury Music Prize nominees (both on this list and generally – who knows how they didn’t win it).  This is masterful.  Royal Blood have stridden out into the musical arena like they already own the place.  By album 2 they might well be right.

sample track: Little Monster

01 // Metronomy // Love Letters

Metronomy’s last album, The English Riviera, came third on my 2011 list.  So I bought this with a great deal if expectation, and then was initially a bit disappointed.  Where were the standout tracks: the ‘Everything Goes My Way’, ‘The Bay’ or ‘The Look’?  Where was my instant gratification?  There are no standout tracks on the record, but that somehow seems intentional: because this truly is an album.  Yes, there are 3 or 4 tracks on its predecessor that I prefer to any of the individual songs here taken in isolation, but this is a record that rewards repeated listens in spades.  The early soft electronic pop of tracks to ‘I’m Aquarius’ or ‘The Upsetter’ give way to a heady mix of more adventurous electronica (‘Monstrous’), 80s-instrumental synth (‘Boy Racers’), melancholy folk (‘Never Wanted’) and serious shoegazing (‘The Most Immaculate Haircut’).  Even the brief and slightly jarring semi-misstep of the pure-pop title track (which feels like they were asked to write it ex post facto to act as a single), is still actually really quite fun.  Despite all this diversity, though, it all fits together seamlessly.

I guess it may seem a  little out of place that a list so dominated by rock bands – as ever for me – is topped by what is essentially a pop-electronica album, but Metronomy have so many strings to their bow that they are ultimately unclassifiable.  Love Letters is an unfailingly exceptional record.  Having said that, I did struggle to identify a number 1 record this year (most years it’s fairly obvious).  This wasn’t way ahead of the field by any means: as I’ve said, there were 5 records that I adored and played to death this year, and ordering them was nearly impossible.  This won out largely because, quite simply, I listened to it the most – it had quite a few more plays on my iTunes bean counter than any other album this year, and that’s always a fair sign of how much one likes a record.  And having reached it, this certainly deserves its place at the summit.  Eclectic and inventive but actually extremely accessible throughout, Love Letters showcases a band at the peak of its powers.  A Devonian band, no less.

‘He’s got/the most immaculate haircut/and with the right dye and shampoo/maybe I could too’…

sample track: I'm Aquarius

Songs of the Year

As a little extra, here are my favourite individual tracks of 2014: 

1. ‘Busy Earnin’’ – Jungle 

2. ‘Little Monster’ – Royal Blood 

3. ‘eez-eh’ – Kasabian 

4. ‘We are Floating’ – Archie Bronson Outfit 

5. ‘Mr Tembo’ – Damon Albarn

Previous years

Yet another year gone.

If you fancy looking at previous years, here are my lists from when this first went online in 2005.  

This year, I have also put up the lists for those years prior to the move to cyberspace - the full list for 2004, and then the unannotated lists for 2000-2003. Enjoy!

2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004 (online for the first time!)
2000-2003 (online for the first time!)