10. Beck - Morning Phase My summer record of the year. A very beautiful and warm experience. 9. Slipknot - .5: The Gray Chapter Pretty much the Slipknot record I was hoping for. It might not be their best but damn it is fun to listen to. 8. Black Crown Initiate - The Wreckage of Stars This record is very dualistic. Chaotic but yet calculated, heavy but yet soothing, angry but yet poetic. 7. Damon Albarn - Everyday Robots An introverted and personal record that I can't get enough of. 6. Linkin Park - The Hunting Party A collection of songs diving into different territories yet they all have one thing in common - they rock. 5. Opeth - Pale Communication A prog record with great dynamics, crystal clear production and undeniable great songwriting. 4. Run The Jewels - 2 Best rap record of the year... nuff said. 3. Swans - To Be Kind A progressive masterpiece, dwelling into the worst and best of mankind. 2. Iceage - Plowing Into The Field of Love This record. THIS RECORD. The punk attitude with a twist of poetic beauty broken in the midst of chaos and sloppiness turns this record into epic ecstasies. 1. Behemoth - The Satanist What can I say that hasn't already been said about this record? "The Satanist is a terrific coil of most everything Behemoth have ever done well, a strangely hopeful vision of hell wrested away from its very grip." Honorable mention: Flying Lotus - You're Dead! Ne Obliviscaris - Citadel
THE TOP 5 ALBUMS OF 2014: Alright, first up is "The Hunting Party" by our very own. This album blew me away, because it was not what I expected from Linkin Park at all. The reason it's #1 is that it's probably my most-replayed album of the year, and the one I enjoy listening to the most, out of all these. Fuck it, I've said it before, I'll say it again, I love Linkin Park. #2 is Coldplay's "Ghost Stories", which is to me, an incredibly beautiful experience, only enhanced by "Ghost Stories Live 2014", the live album accompanying it. It's just an amazing album sonically and I'm really grateful that my two favorite bands came out this year with 2 albums that I consider the best of the year. #3 is alt-J's "This Is All Yours", and I feel like this one could rise on this list through time as I've only recently listened to it for the first time. I don't know if the album blows me away more sonically or lyrically. It's probably the best produced and best written album on this list, yet it's not my favorite. At least not yet. An amazing album, all in all. #4 is Slipknot's ".5 The Gray Chapter". I remember when "The Negative One" dropped and I couldn't believe what I was hearing. It was too good. So I checked out all Slipknot albums before this one came out, and what do you know? Got another amazing band to listen to this year. ".5" was a tough pill to swallow at first, but I think that it has really, really grown on me since then. And closing the top 5 is Royal Blood's self titled debut album. Filled with so many amazing riffs and melodies, it's quite incredible that 2 people can make this much noise. I honestly didn't think that drums and bass can fill up an entire album, but it's amazing that this album doesn't have a single track to skip. THE GOOD ALBUMS OF 2014: A few good albums that had decent spins this year, in no order. Trent Reznor and Atticuss Ross' soundtrack to "Gone Girl" is a chilling experience that I listened to a lot this year while I was studying and needed background music. A few songs off this soundtrack are unbelievable. It's amazing that music that slow and quiet can pull you in so much. Oh, and the music fit the film perfectly. Next I put '68's "In Humor and Sadness", which is in my opinion, a really great, high energy punk rock record and the opening track is... crazy to put it mildly. Then there's Of Mice and Men's "Restoring Force" which doesn't really work well as a full album in my opinion, but the highlight songs on the record are fucking amazing. It's ridiculous how much this record rips off "Sempiternal" though. Jack White's "Lazaretto" is the opposite. It works really well as an album, yet the songs aren't that great. There are still quite a few that were on repeat for a while this year so it had to be included. Run The Jewels' "RTJ2" is in my opinion a really energetic, creative, and sonic-wise very interesting rap album, unfortunately this style of music didn't interest me that much this year so it wasn't really on repeat that much. It felt like continuation of their first record, which is still in my opinion the better one, but this album is nothing to ignore. THE DISAPPOINTING ALBUMS OF 2014: These albums I didn't really anticipate that much this year,but I was usually interested by the lead singles, promotion and stuff, and then let down by the albums themselves. I am not a fan of The Black Keys but I thought "El Camino" was a really great record, and "Fever", the lead single off "Turn Blue" had me very interested in the album. Meh. I discovered Banks before she even released her first EP, and I thought some of her songs were really, really great, "Waiting Game" at the top of the list. The debut album was too long, full of fillers and didn't leave an impact. But it gave a few songs I could enjoy. I consider John Frusciante a musical genius, and I have every right to. Both his solo work and the work with Red Hot Chili Peppers is mindblowing. "Enclosure", however, is not. The whole electronic "statement" that began a few years ago in his career wasn't really good, and I'm glad that with this album it's supposedly done. Knife Party's "Abandon Ship" is good for what it is, I guess, but EDM did just not interest me at all this year. I checked it out because I knew all their previous stuff, and, as expected - I wasn't a fan. Which brings me to the worst piece of shit ever released by one of my favorite artists, the Eminem-led Shady Records collaborative album celebrating the fifteenth anniversary of the label, "Shady XV". This sucked on so many levels. I don't even wanna remember. THE TOP 3 SONGS OF THE YEAR: These three songs really stuck with me from the day they were released to this day. And one weird thing I noticed, all three are the promotional singles completely different from anything on the album. The best song of the year is without a doubt, for me, Coldplay's "Midnight". It's bone chilling experience is only enhanced by the incredible video. And the song is the polar opposite of the other two on this list. #2 is "Guilty All The Same". This song I loved upon first listen, and then I realized I didn't like the song, I liked the idea of having a new Linkin Park album. So for the next 2 months before the album dropped, I pretty much disliked the song. But then in early June - holy fuck. The genius of this song really hit me. And since then, it's been on pretty much daily. One of, if not the best Linkin Park songs. And #3 is Slipknot's "The Negative One". When this song first came out, I couldn't believe it. I was so shocked at the agression. Now I know this would be a pretty standard song on early Slipknot albums, but I still think that there's something really special about this song, and I dare to call it my Slipknot favorite. VIDEO OF THE YEAR: [video=youtube;dCCXq9QB-dQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCCXq9QB-dQ[/video] And yes, I do expertise in writing long posts no one reads. I run a whole thread about it.
for me, i thought it was pretty good. aside from MTV1987, nothing really blew me away in terms of albums. there were a lot of songs that i loved, so there was a lot to like there. the year was a lot of exploring for me, personally. i tried to listen to new artists, genres, all of that shit, and for the most part i found a lot that i liked. i am eager to see what the next year brings, because i'm already able to list off more anticipated albums than albums i liked from last year.
For me it was a really great year of music, some many new music i found and i am listening too. THP came out, Pink FLoyd came up with "The Endless River" , RIse Against with "The Black Market". And some pretty nice german albums came out i really like to listen too. Great year for me.
Well, I guess what 2014 showed me was that music is far from dead. At least metal is far from dead. My list was overflowing with records, including a few in my top 10 that are going on my all time favorites. So what's my way to describe music in 2014 is alive and well.
Dynamic. This year, I've really "broadened my horizons." I've been listening to a lot of really great stuff, that a younger version of me would have never dreamed of liking. What's really great is that all of the best records weren't contained to a specific genre. So yah, Dynamic.
This is similar to my experience. There were a lot of great individual tracks, but there were virtually no albums that blew me the fuck away like there were last year
My "final" list as despite my queue, I'm basically done "actively" listening to albums from 2014 unless I'm highly recommended. TOP 10 ALBUMS OF 2014 ANTEMASQUE | Antemasque BADBADNOTGOOD | III BROKEN BELLS | After the Disco D'ANGELO AND THE VANGUARD | Black Messiah DEATH FROM ABOVE 1979 | The Physical World FLYING LOTUS | You're Dead! FREDDIE GIBBS & MADLIB | Piñata RUN THE JEWELS | Run the Jewels 2 THIEVERY CORPORATION | Saudade TRENT REZNOR AND ATTICUS ROSS | Gone Girl: Soundtrack from the Motion Picture HONORABLE MENTIONS APHEX TWIN | Syro DAMON ALBARN | Everyday Robots GOT A GIRL | I Love You But I Must Drive Off This Cliff Now KINA GRANNIS | Elements NINA PERSSON | Animal Heart PHANTOGRAM | Voices RODRIGO Y GABRIELA | 9 Dead Alive THE ROOTS | ...And Then You Shoot Your Cousin TAKUYA KURODA | Rising Son SCHOOLBOY Q | Oxymoron
This is an update of my "final" 2014 list from about a month ago. I discovered other great stuff, while my opinions on some other albums changed. So here it is. Top 15 Albums of 2014 15. Foo Fighters - Sonic Highways [thumb]http://images.modlife.com.s3.amazonaws.com/custom/foofighters/assets/img/splash/sonichighways.jpg[/thumb] 14. Scar Symmetry - The Singularity (Phase I - Neohumanity) [thumb]http://www.metalinjection.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Scar-Symmetry-The-Singularity-Neohumanity.png[/thumb] 13. Black Crown Initiate - The Wreckage Of Stars [thumb]http://www.nocleansinging.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Black-Crown-Initiate-The-Wreckage-of-Stars-e1411958653577.jpg[/thumb] 12. Coldplay - Ghost Stories [thumb]http://img.buzznet.com/assets/imgx/2/1/3/6/9/6/3/5/orig-21369635.jpg[/thumb] 11. Run The Jewels - Run The Jewels 2 [thumb]http://hiphop-n-more.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/run-the-jewels-2-artwork.jpg[/thumb] 10. D'Angelo And The Vanguard - Black Messiah [thumb]http://hypetrak.com/images/2014/12/dangelo-black-messiah-1.jpg[/thumb] 9. Swans - To Be Kind [thumb]http://theobelisk.net/obelisk/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/swans-to-be-kind.jpg[/thumb] 8. The Devin Townsend Project - Sky Blue (Z² Disc 1) [thumb]http://www.dailydischord.com/wp-content/uploads/Devin-Townsend-Project-Sky-Blue-Z2.jpg[/thumb] 7. Opeth - Pale Communion [thumb]http://gunshyassassin.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/opethpalecommunioncover_638.jpg[/thumb] 6. Casualties Of Cool - Casualties Of Cool [thumb]http://gunshyassassin.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/devintownsendcasualtiescover.jpg[/thumb] 5. Behemoth - The Satanist [thumb]http://www.metalblade.com/us/covers/Behemoth-TheSatanist.jpg[/thumb] 4. Flying Lotus - You're Dead! [thumb]http://musicpickings.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/flying_lotus_youre_dead.jpg[/thumb] 3. Hans Zimmer - Interstellar OST [thumb]http://filmmusicreporter.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/interstellar.jpg[/thumb] 2. Triptykon - Melana Chasmata [thumb]https://consequenceofsound.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/triptykon-melana-chasmata-85371.jpg[/thumb] 1. Ne Obliviscaris - Citadel [thumb]http://f1.bcbits.com/img/a4040339498_10.jpg[/thumb]
After half a year of letting music from 2014 Digest I have to say my top albums have changed Top Albums of 2014: 1. Kenny Chesney- The Big Revival | Up 10+ Spots 2. Taylor Swift- 1989 | Up 1 spot 3. Frankie Ballard- Sunshine & Whiskey | Previously Uncharted 4. Angels and Airwaves- The Dream Walker | Down 3 Spots 5. Death From Above 1979- The Physical World | Down 2 Spots 6. Foo Fighters- Sonic Highways | Down 2 Spots 7. You+Me- Rose Ave. | Down 2 Spots 8. Knife Party- Abandon Ship | Down 2 Spots 9. Linus Young- Category 5 | Down 2 Spots 10. Hunter Hayes- Storyline | Up from Good Albums Fell Out: Run the Jewels- Run the Jewels 2 Finch- Back to Oblivion Ed Sheeran- X The main reason for 1989 increase is that I still listen to it unlike a decent portion of the albums on this list which I haven't listened to in a while.