THE BEST MUSIC OF 2014 General Thread

[Lamp, broken circa 1988]

Hey my semester's over.

 

Unlike this year, this thread is for clarifications AND pimping. Having two threads won't be necessary until it's results time.

 

RULES
* Ballot size between 10 and 15. Scoring will basically be the inversion of a hypothetical top 15, with a slight bonus given to your #1 rated release. The upper limit was lowered from 25 to 15 is to cutback on the Tie Festival from last year.

 

* Eligible Releases include Albums, Mixtapes, EPs and soundtracks of largely original compositions.
-Compilations are OK if the material was unavailable up until this point (rarities, b-sides, demos, covers).
-Live albums are OK if the material is either currently unavailable as a studio recording or significantly different than the existing recordings. Realistically I'm not going to have time to check that, so scout's honor on this one, eh?

 

* The initial release date of any piece MUST be within 2014. Format doesn't matter: if it was available digitally in 2013, it's a 2013 album. Exceptions granted to releases sold on tour that only became commercially available later, and 2014-intended albums that leaked in late 2013.

 

* I will accept ballots FIVE ways this year.

 

-Post it in this thread. If you do this, let me know when you are posting your finalized list.

-Send me a private message. Let's face it, I haven't made lots of friends on here despite coming here every day, so 99% chance that there won't be any inbox capacity issues.

-If you have a RateYourMusic account, send me a friend request (account name BL88) and I will use the list labeled as 2014. When your list is finalized, PM me on this message board and I will add it. Maybe put the link to your list in that PM if you want to be nice!

-The same goes for anyone with a Discogs account. Same account name, same procedure as above. I only just made an account on discogs for this, so please do not try to talk to me through that. I imagine I'm not going to remember it exists most of the time.

-Send email to DVDVRBestMusic2013 at gmail dot com. I am too lazy to make a new account, and didn't have the foresight to make a general one last time. Anyways, put “BALLOT” and your account name in the subject. I'm going to check it every Friday, and I'll reply with some gibberish to let you know when I receive it. Treasure this gibberish. It is for your eyes only.

 

* Please try not to do a bunch of last minute changes. If you have to take it to the deadline, do it, but if you get it right the first time it'll make this all go faster. Also if you're using one of the list making sites above, PLEASE tell me when you change something. Once I have it entered into the spreadsheet I'm probably not going to look at that site again, and if I do I might not notice any changes.

 

SUPER NEAT SUGGESTIONS
* Seriously, RateYourMusic. Once you get a hang on how Early Internet that site is it's really easy to check information on albums and maintain lists.

 

* If it's an album you think has gotten passed over or is relatively obscure, include sample tracks. Music requires hearing, so you need to suppliment your praise for a thing with a chance to hear it. At the same time, if a lot of your (my) releases are obscure like this, don't embed like twenty youtube videos into a post or something obnoxious like that. Just like make it a really obvious hyperlink or something. Or if the whole album's just availible somewhere like bandcamp or a huge youtube video, use that.
*** I wouldn't recommend using Spotify for this. I listen to a ton of music and I don't have a spotify account, so don't assume it's a common thing.

* To avoid burnout, don't make your queue rigid. Listen to whatever genre feels right that day, and do not force yourself to listen to stuff outside that genre if you don't want to.

 

DEADLINE
March 30th, 2015. I can move up the date if pressed to.

 

REMINDER: Full-time college student. No idea how my work load or life load is going to shake out by March 31st, so if I can't get it done it'll be delayed until May 19th. I'll let you know in advance if this comes to pass.

 

OKAY HAVE FUN WITH MUSIC NOW

[Control]

Listening to Flying Lotus's You're Dead! right now. It's pretty bad ass.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3jWYjyPvC4

[Lamp, broken circa 1988]

on that fusion jazz tip, i'm gonna pimp my by-far Album of the Year.

 

first, to explain, I've discussed/yelled in the past that the noisy emotional part of Yeezus is derivative of a few artists, such as B L A C K I E All Caps With Spaces who's been on the noise rap sound since 2005. The only difference is with some of those artists they think it's derivative. An engineer working with Kanye on Yeezus straight up told B L A C K I E that he was an influence. The punchline here is that by the time Kanye was making Yeezus, B L A C K I E has already transformed again into an artist no one is doing anything like. His last album, Gen, was an entirely acoustic version of his sound, where he played every instrument on the beats himself. This year, he threatened repeatedly that he was going to make one of a couple different albums. It wasn't clear which was closest to being done until suddenly he announced "IMAGINE YOUR SELF IN A FREE AND NATURAL WORLD," what he called a jazz record. Then it came out, and... there's not a lot of other good names for what he's done other than jazz. It's him, his rage, a bass guitar, a saxophone, and a drum kit. Later there's an electric guitar, but only for the slow jam "Cry, Pig."

 

And then over the summer, Earth got lousy with injustice, and this album ended up feeling like a soundtrack to witnessing all of it. 

 

Anyways, here's "IMAGINE YOURSELF IN A FREE AND NATURAL WORLD" by B L A C K I E All Caps With Spaces

[jaedmc]

I'm so excited to listen to a lot of music, recommend a lot of music and then not vote again!

[Brian Fowler]

Knives to the Future is musically more similar to its predecessor (Wait for the Siren) than I think Project 86 has ever done before, but it's solid hard rock. They aren't the inventive, genre defying genius ban d they once were (possibly because that only have one of the four original members, the vocalist) but it's worth hearing. The digital deluxe version has a few fascinating acoustic tracks too.

[jaedmc]

ahem...

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ee4bfu_t3c

 

Go listen to the album, it's good.

[caley]

I'm just gonna cross-post my finished list from a couple other sites, because it's all neat and pretty with pictures and quotes and lyrics and stuff.  Album reviews are from various sites (credited) and run back and forth through some Google Translators.  Full list without pics, lyrics, general goofiness is included in the spoiler tags at the bottom.

"I Was Never A Schoolyard Bully"

 

Caley's Top 40 Albums of MMXIV

 

40 | Dog Bite | Tranquilizers

39 | Ramona Lisa | Arcadia

38 | jj | V

37 | White Sea | In Cold Blood

36 | Watter | This World

35 | Raury | Indigo Child

34 | Twin Forks | Twin Forks

33 | Rokysopp & Robyn | Do It Again

32 | Bing & Ruth | Tomorrow Was the Golden Age

31 | Hideji Kaji | Ice Cream Man

30 | Sam Smith | In the Lonely Hous

29 | Ian William Craig | A Turn of Breath

28 | Vince Staples | Shyne Coldchain Vol. 2

27 | Mark Kozelek | Sings Christmas Carols

26 | Jason Feathers | De Oro

25 | Mogwai | Rave Tapes

24 | Brian Reitzell | Auto Music

23 | The Wilderness of Manitoba | Between Colours

22 | The-Dream | Royalty - The Prequel

21 | You + Me | Rose Ave.

20 | Lykke Li | I Never Learn

19 | Run the Jewels | Run the Jewels 2

18 | Coldplay | Ghost Stories

17 | Future Islands | Singles

16 | Death From Above 1979 | The Physical World

15 | Desertshore | Migrations of Glass

14 | Sturgill Simpson | Metamodern Sounds in Country Music

13 | Porter Robinson | Worlds

12 | Frazey Ford | Indian Ocean

11 | Fennesz | Becs

 

"But I'm gonna wake you up, gonna break you out, gonna steal your heart, gonna save you now.  Gonna try, gonna fight, gonna forget how."

10. The Rural Alberta Advantage | Mended With Gold: "Caveat: Those coming by twangy, almost idiosyncratic nuggets buried in the band's first record will not be disappointed, especially, but this is a different from the current RAA, larger, bolder and wisdom animal." -Exclaim

Previous #10s: Mark Kozelek & Jimmy LaValle - Perils From the Sea (2013); Taylor Swift - Red (2012); R.Kelly - Love Letter (2011); Mark McGuire - Living With Yourself (2010); Flight of the Conchords - I Told You I Was Freaky (2009).

 

09. Daniel Lanois | Flesh and Machine: "There is an interesting feeling entropy of these songs; rather than the original, everything sounds weathering and wear.  Separate limbs like a robot, "Tamboura Jah" actively dismantling itself, you listen, cut and paste it into a new mode of composition section."  -Pitchfork

Previous #9s: Justin Timberlake - The 20/20 Experience Part 1 (2013); Miguel - Kaleidoscope Dream (2012); The Weeknd - Thursday (2011); Taylor Swift - Speak Now (2010); The Field - Yesterday and Today (2009).

 

"Nasochki."

08. Aphex Twin | Syro: "It's brilliant, it does not feel the (modern in the context of electronic music) anachronism TAD, and you are not blowing mind, ass, explosion, changing the game, has become its creator that characterize the era with the previous pronoun was the sort of the record." -The Quietus

Previous #8s: Drake - Nothing Was the Same (2013); Lana Del Rey - Born to Die (2012); Sean McCann - The Capital (2011); Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010); Jonsi & Alex - Riceboy Sleeps (2009).

 

"Got nothing in my brain."

07. Taylor Swift | 1979: "Deeply weird, emotional fanatic, crazy enthusiasm, 1989 sounds exactly like Taylor Swift, even though it sounds like what she had tried.  Yes, she put it to extremes.  You surprised?  This is Taylor Swift, remember?  Extreme, she began." -Rolling Stone

Previous #7s: Jesu - Every Day I Get Closer to the Light From Which I Came (2013); John K. Samson - Provincial (2012); Childish Gambino - Camp (2011); Delorean - Subiza (2010); White Rainbow - New Clouds (2009).

 

"I was made for this, I was tamed for this."

06. S.Carey | Range of Light: "Because the fact is, despite all, S Kelly's second album is pretty sad.  This is hurty and influence, and make you feel that you do not want, because it's not cool to feel something, you can convey what you feel there is little in 140 characters or emoticons manure." -NME

Previous #6s: Eluvium - Nightmare Ending (2013); Sigur Ros - Valtari (2012); A Winged Victory For the Sullen - A Winged Victory For the Sullen (2011); Eluvium - Static Nocturne (2010); Es - Kesämaan lapset (2009).

 

"Who am I to love you? Who am I to burn so bright?"

05. Doug Paisley | Strong Feelings: "It comes wrapped in a warm glow of nostalgia weakened lyrics revealing lingering too long on your memory of chronic poison voice." -Pitchfork

Previous #5s: Daft Punk - Random Access Memories (2013); Frank Ocean - channel ORANGE (2012); The Rural Alberta Advantage - Departing (2011); The-Dream - Love King (2010); Rihanna - Rated R (2009).

 

"Either get out or stay in, I won't let these dark times win."

04. Strand of Oaks | Heal: "However, one, that's he worked though his most tenacious devil, he hopes that it will be able to return to the more thoughtful songwriting.  Show Walter, impressed me as irregular locker, he thoughtfully, it shows in the past that it is a talent songwriter.  So best elements of his work will re-introduce ourselves Let's hope the next time." -Paste

Previous #4s: Yo La Tengo - Fade (2013); Martin Eden - Dedicate Function (2012); Tim Hecker - Ravedeath, 1972 (2011); Max Richter - Infra (2010); Johann Johannsson - And in the Endless Pause There Came the Sound of Bees (2009).

 

03. A Winged Victory For the Sullen | Atomos: "However you wrap it as it was not ever elegant and grand and the soothing, it has come at just the right time - but we will be able to find the commute themselves through Sam immediately dark again, at least we you can be the sound track it in Atmos." -Drowned in Sound

Previous #3s: Washed Out - Paracosm (2013); Helios - Moiety (2012); Dustin O'Halloran - Lumiere (2011); Eluvium - Similes (2010); Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (2009).

 

"Stop."

02. Inventions | Inventions: "This is all the "psychic automation, come a little closer to the duty post-rock finale features a devolution into cacophony of swirling the" noise around the order, a black hole sucking up all the other instruments, go is (a little banjo!) is complete we before everything collapses.  Hey, it is not "sufficiently high", it's damn fine collection of ambient work that has been selected." -Spin

Previous #2s: Julianna Barwick - Nepenthe (2013); Sun Kil Moon - Among the Leaves (2012); Drake - Take Care (2011); Jonsi - Go (2010); Tim Hecker - An Imaginary Country (2009). 

 

"When I was five I came home from kindergarten crying cause they sat me next to an albino.  My dad said son everyone's different, you gotta love em all equally.  And then my dad sat me down.  He said you gotta love all people, pink, red, black, or brown.  And then just after dinner, he played me the album They Only Come Out At Night by Edgar Winter"

01. Sun Kil Moon | Benji: "Benji is death, grief, mourning, and while there is consumed in the tragedy, it's all the gratitude in this melancholy there, is actually a record was positive at least melancholy and most life of Kozlek: beauty, truth, when faced with the album that published the ugliness of much, simply unique humor that exists in the world and grace is that the only response is to live and go out." -Pitchfork

Previous #1s: Kanye West - Yeezus (2013); The Killers - Battle Born (2012); m83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming (2011); Drake - Thank Me Later (2010); Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport (2009); The Rural Alberta Advantage - Hometowns (2008); Eluvium - Copia (2007).

 

40 | Dog Bite | Tranquilizers

39 | Ramona Lisa | Arcadia

38 | jj | V

37 | White Sea | In Cold Blood

36 | Watter | This World

35 | Raury | Indigo Child

34 | Twin Forks | Twin Forks

33 | Rokysopp & Robyn | Do It Again

32 | Bing & Ruth | Tomorrow Was the Golden Age

31 | Hideji Kaji | Ice Cream Man

30 | Sam Smith | In the Lonely Hous

29 | Ian William Craig | A Turn of Breath

28 | Vince Staples | Shyne Coldchain Vol. 2

27 | Mark Kozelek | Sings Christmas Carols

26 | Jason Feathers | De Oro

25 | Mogwai | Rave Tapes

24 | Brian Reitzell | Auto Music

23 | The Wilderness of Manitoba | Between Colours

22 | The-Dream | Royalty - The Prequel

21 | You + Me | Rose Ave.

20 | Lykke Li | I Never Learn

19 | Run the Jewels | Run the Jewels 2

18 | Coldplay | Ghost Stories

17 | Future Islands | Singles

16 | Death From Above 1979 | The Physical World

15 | Desertshore | Migrations of Glass

14 | Sturgill Simpson | Metamodern Sounds in Country Music

13 | Porter Robinson | Worlds

12 | Frazey Ford | Indian Ocean

11 | Fennesz | Becs

10 | The Rural Alberta Advantage | Mended With Gold

9 | Daniel Lanois | Flesh and Machine

8 | Aphex Twin | Syro

7 | Taylor Swift | 1989

6 | S.Carey | Range of Light

5 | Doug Paisley | Strong Feelings

4 | Strand of Oaks | Heal

3 | A Winged Victory For the Sullen | Atomos

2 | Inventions | Inventions

1 | Sun Kil Moon | Benji

 

[ebbie]

I think I listened to two albums that came out this year: Jason Aldean's Old Boots, New Dirt and Nicki Minaj's The Pinkprint.

 

Either this I brought was put out last year. Oops. I was gonna nominate Brett Eldredge's Bring You Back.

[MORELOCK]

Perfume Genius - "Queen" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7OSSUwPVM4

 

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - "Your Advice" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsxmKhc0fP4

 

Nothing - "Hymn To The Pillory" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhdg_xShe7w

[Lawful Metal]

Not sure how deep my "best of" goes this year but the Top Two are definitely The Unnatural World by Have a Nice Life and Guilty of Everything by Nothing.  Both came out in January and have been in constant rotation all year.

 

 

[MORELOCK]

Merchandise - "Telephone" 

 

The War On Drugs - "Eyes To The Wind" 

 

The Rural Alberta Advantage - "Not Love Or Death" 

[Lawful Metal]

Merchandise - "Telephone"

The War On Drugs - "Eyes To The Wind"

The Rural Alberta Advantage - "Not Love Or Death"

I wanted to like the War on Drugs. I liked "Red Eyes" as a single. The album? Boring as hell. Mark Kozelek was right.

[JRGoldman]

I'm on my phone so I can't link, but I submit 'Dissed and Dismissed' by Tony Molina. It's only like 13 minutes and it's on YouTube so you have no excuse.

[Lamp, broken circa 1988]

so like last year I think I pimped way too much stuff that no one listened to, so I'm going to slow that roll a little bit, but since I also listen to lots of fucked up shit no one is going to listen to anyways I figure I'll put that in one big ol' post.

 

White Suns - Totem
listen: "Carrion"

The king is dead, long live the king. Now that it takes Lightning Bolt like five fucking years to make new songs, there's space on noise rock mountain now and White Suns is on that shit. A legit disturbing album that I actually can't finish after the sun goes down. At many points it takes after This Heat in how they have a mostly coherent guitar track and drum track going, and another member pushing waves of noise out of the wires, but White Suns takes those moments to add more metal and dissonant flourishes. This is an album that makes me laugh at the idea of extreme music, basically. IF YOU DON'T LIKE/CAN'T DEAL WITH NOISE, THIS WILL NOT CHANGE YOUR MIND.

 

Pregnant - John Raw

listen: "Heavily Disguised"
"Two years ago, Daniel Trudeau received a weird, cryptic email. Someone—or something—named John Raw needed help committing suicide from the digital world." Despite this you don't need to go in ready to make like concept album notes. It's just the theme of the record, of the blurring of digital and physical life, of a revaluing of base human behaviors and ideas. It's at points the most dense sample based music I've heard outside of Oneohtrix Point Never. At other points, it sounds like the record I've been waiting Animal Collective to just sit down and make. I'm in love with this record and in a less crazy year it'd be #1.

 

Gazelle Twin - UNFLESH (not the full album, sorry)

listen: "Belly of the Beast"

Like the horrible inverse of the last record, which is about aspiring to be something more. UNFLESH is about an all consuming need to be something less. It takes a very industrial sounding electronic template and applies a generous amount of Body Horror to the lyrical and visual themes. It's very hard to explain. All I know for sure is that it makes me really nervous that I enjoy it, and the cover art is amazing.

 

Jenny Hval and Susanna - Meshes of Voice

listen: "O Sun O Medusa / A Mirror In My Mouth"
Before I say anything else, know that I am basically a Jenny Hval fanboy. Anyways. This is, somehow, a live album made from two performances in 2009. Pieces of this material exist in other places, but the nature of the collaboration and their setup has made the pieces that do exist significantly different than anything on records. That's not important. What is important is the made a gigantic, wide ranging sound they've created, from solo piano balladry to massive drone metal to ghost-like folk and even more. 

Andrew Pekler - The Prepaid Piano & Replayed

listen: "Replayed (excerpt)"

I have no idea if this will actually make my top ten but I feel like I have to share it, because it is a piece of perfect Bowie-like balance between super experimental and super playful. Pekler's last art project was called "Cover Versions," which is explained here. This new album similarly rises from an art installation: he set up pianos and placed burn phones (set to vibrate) on the piano strings. People who came to the installation could call whichever phones they wanted to. Side A (The Prepaid Piano) is made entirely from samples gathered from the installation.

Side B (Replayed) is a little more... sarcastic, I guess? He took acoustic sounds made from the pianos from the installation, and ran all of that sound and data through a MIDI transposer, which is supposed to take the sounds and turn it into synthetic instruments. What it makes instead is rhythmic, somewhat tonal, totally chaotic and energetic electronic music. There's something so silly about all of this that I love the record, and I had to make sure people know it exists even if I'm pretty confident no one else will like it.

[Lawful Metal]

BL88 (or as I like to think of you, bleighty-eight), I appreciate everything you pimp on here and I generally will track down everything you put up here, even if I've never heard of it.

Thank you.

[MORELOCK]

Code Orange - "Bind You" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xT8nHY9amzM

 

Fucked Up - "Paper The House" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IiCOgJevIY

 

Single Mothers - "Half-Lit" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2rgV_Ni578

[Lamp, broken circa 1988]

Thanks Metal, I really do appreciate that. Still, I'm going to pimp less stuff than last year, but I'll do it harder.

 

So let's talk about the best thing anyone's done with rock tropes in 2014!

 

 

I shook Carla's hand this year. 

 

She was opening for Swans in Los Angeles. I went with my best friend and my band-mate who is a bigger Swans fan than I am, and I remember saying The Seer was the high waterbar for excellence in albums. So she was freaking out about seeing Swans, and I kind of was, but I was way more freaked out about seeing Carla. Both of those idiots I went with started pressuring me to say hi to her if I saw her, cuz it was gonna be a small venue (The Roxy) so she'd be around at some point. I refused. I try not to meet people I admire, because the relationship I have with their work is probably not going to carry over to any kind of interaction. So I've gone to plenty of shows and then left them like I was storming out of a fucking house. They kept saying I should say hi to her. I think my best friend was just giving me a hard time, and my bandmate was completely serious but I can't tell.

 

To back up for people who don't know, Carla Bozulich has been making music in some form (electronic, country, rock, experimental art, noise) since 1982 and, as is the ideal, she has been approaching greater and greater talent with every successive release. I won't lie and say I like all of what she's done, but what matters is that where we are right now speaks to me. Then she announced a record called "Boy," and she called her pop record. I later learned the album was finished in my city. What I'm trying to say here is I'm biased.

 

The album itself is glorious: it is career spanning work that trends towards blues and folk at it's most gentle, and Swans-y thud at it's loudest. It's simultaneously experimental and reverential in a way that is like almost nothing else, except Tom Waits. And like Tom it's the middle point between all these western forms of music, shifting wildly but always thematically together. Proof: here's the first three tracks, in order.
 

Ain't No Grave

One Hard Man

Drowning To The Light

 

So none of those are really rock songs in a traditional way. Here's what I mean by how it uses rock tropes- it's a pronounced inversion of the male power fantasy parts of rock history. It's taking a form that was sexualized from a male perspective, knocking that shit down, and saying "no, motherfucker, I put a spell on YOU." It inhabits everything male about rock and uses that power for good. In a world where Jack White's still allowed to be successful, this is the shit we need to keep things balanced.

 

Anyways, I've got some body issues (shout out to fatphobic doctors) that make all sorts of physical activities really, really hard. So I don't really get to go to shows too much anymore. I went to Swans and Carla cuz it was fuckin' Swans and Carla though. Anyways. Despite the pain from my legs and back I stood for all of Carla's set. When we got in line they were rehearsing and I got to hear what was coming. It was... everything I'd hoped it be and a little more. She closed her set with "One Hard Man." In a live video, she said all of the songs on Boy were for girls she knew, except that one which is for the guys who weren't assholes. As she repeated "the one hard man" she would point at different people she saw. At one point she pointed near me, and that was enough to make me fuckin' shake.

 

My leg gave out a few minutes after her set and I had to sit down on the ground from the pain. I tried to stand up during Swans but I knew they were going to go twice as long. For the brief time I was standing though, Carla and her band passed by my best friend and I (my bandmate fought her way to the front row for Swans, because of course). I waved. She waved back. I extended my hand. She took it. I thanked her. She smiled and bowed her head, then walked away.

 

"we’re fucked in the balls we’re ripped in the sewn up cunt by the boundaries of just exactly how strange it is cool to be. how uncool it is to be strange. fuck me. now. goddamn it. the word is love. we used to call it punk rock." (source)

[Lawful Metal]

I shook Carla Bozulich's hand back in 1999 or so -- after the second Fibbers record.  She played a two-person show with Nels Cline inside at Emo's in Austin to about 20 people.  They closed their set with a heart-ripping version of "Outside of Town" which to this day I don't think I've ever seen a better live version of a song than the original.  Just heart-wrenching stuff.  I forget who she was opening for -- maybe Mike Watt, but I was one of two people who actually knew who she was, and she acknowledged me.

 

Dude I'm such a fucking hipster. 

 

On the other hand, I didn't know she was still making music in 2014.  Must check out.

[Stay Gold]

I didn't know Carla Bozulic put out a new record. I'll check out Boy. 

 

She lends her vocals on the new Sam Mickens album, which is one of my favorites of the year. 

 

This was the first single - "Sexual Madness"

[Lamp, broken circa 1988]

To talk about all the rap I loved this year, here's my favorite lines from those projects.

 

People don't die, we expire
And science has removed the fear of hell fire
And in its place given us NASA space expansion
And wasted McMansions and lots of english muffins
I don't feel the tinglies for nothing
Reality is scripted
And rappers no longer spontaneously rip shit
It's calculated, studied and designed
Binary code, asterisks and dollar signs
“peanut butter sandwiches” by milo, from a toothpaste suburb

Hellfyre Club! I am going to talk about milo more specifically later.

 

Now you can talk about more pressing issues
Like what's up with the state of hip-hop?
Where exactly is hip-hop going
And did hip-hop have breakfast this morning?
Does hip-hop really have the body type to pull off that outfit?
Who is hip-hop dating? Holographic rendered,
What does hip-hop check in the gender box?
“Bliss Point” by Busdriver, from Perfect Hair

Hellfyre Club! Subterranean experimentalist, just as capable of matching 16th notes with a flute as he is singing falsetto

 

Ratchet my profession
Paid to watch the cars crash
Snarl with the fangtooth
Shorty got a back arch
Black plooms billow out my lips into her black heart
Brag about the carcasses I harvest in my backyard
Black cube hanging on my chain, that's the talisman
Lighting up the room, halogen, I'm acting foul again
Travel, see these motions, filthy temples, no direction
To get to convalescence you must mingle with infection
“Lights Down Low” by Lil Ugly Mane (f/ DJ Dogdick), from The Weeping Worm

Virginia's own, retiring soon. Astounding producer. I'm a fanboy of his so it's totally fine if you hate this.

 

The shine is truly faded relieved of his duties
Behind the veil is fury, unadmittent optimist
Undercover pessimist
Baby showered in my fathers sins
but I was born to be the better part of him
That was always on the checklist
Take my humanity
End up like a mannequin
Thinking like a charlatan was easy now its challenging
“Low” by Young Fathers, from Dead
Should be the biggest band in the world. Scottish with African roots, grimy production and choir acrobatics.

 

The vitamin of environment
Is providing desire for vicodin
And fueling fire for violence
Calling it wyling
While they wile away another
The wild claim in profiles
The files on all these hustlers
And they can't catch what never was
And everyone here been a ghost since day one
Say something bitch say something
Everyone's at a loss for words
They wonder why the raps are full of floss and boss and murderers
Cuz killing shit is less painful then feeling shit
And the dead can't be defendants
Why live old without a pension?
“Ends” by clipping., from CLPPNG

The most incredible MC performance I've heard all year, on top of some really wild beats. But you've heard me yell about this by now.

 

I had a dream that I robbed Donald Trump, n****
Tied him up, threw his ass in the trunk
You want beef, I'll treat you like my lunch, n****
You gassed up? I'll catch you at the pump,
Introduce you to my pump
Make a n**** see the light, Thomas Edison
Fuck ten steps, I'm ten miles ahead a ya
“Genesis” by GOD, from The Bible
Chicago rapper, takes Drill and adds storytelling. Like if Keef had twice the bars between the catchy hooks.

 

It's my pyre, agoraphobe if I want to
Afford to be consumed
This pyre's my costume
Get too close, it'll lick you
Like it likes you
Cuz it loathes you even more than I do
“Big Dipper” by Death Grips, from niggas on the moon
It's Death Grips.

 

You can use Facebook to learn gang signs
And creepers can stalk all their exes at the same time
And if your rap career ain't hitting
You can rap over videos of kittens, it's the golden age!
Tell the internet how you got fucked over
And buy a minivan with seventeen cupholders
Legal opiates, having yourself a fever dream
And you can watch a video of the bible's deleted scenes
And nobody ever has to pay for anything
Which is pretty cool cause everybody's unemployed!
“Golden Age Raps” by Open Mike Eagle, from Dark Comedy
Hellfyre Club! Although I didn't think this album was particularly great I really like this song and maybe it'll let someone who will like it know about it

 

EDIT: Totally forgot one

 

Graduated, whats next?
Everybody's asking
What college you going to? What you had planned?
We advanced, got our advance
Copped a couple amps
Now we enhanced
Got a mans with a van that could drive us to our fans
To enchant
Those that ain't ready start to pant
Fall over those that were ready just could lamp
That's what separates the lions from the lambs
Damn

That ain't a brand that's a band
Crammed
Up in a room tryn'a jam
Thats the raw, thats the god, thats the all, thats the fam
Ratking smack kings splat rats when they scram
"*" by Ratking, from So it Goes
The joy of rhymes. They bend language into rhymes and flows like no one else I'm aware of.

Also, want to mention Antwon's "Heavy Hearted In Doldrums" which is like the Anti-Drake. Love is for poor people too, after all.

[Chaos]

I will try to type some thoughts on various albums and make arguments for what I have enjoyed this year over the weekend; however, here are a few albums I have not noticed mentioned here. Most of these you've obviously seen plugged elsewhere, but I figured they shouldn't slip past anyone's radar.

 

Broken Bells After the Disco

Damien Rice My Favourite Faded Fantasy

St. Paul & the Broken Bones Half the City

Jenny Lewis The Voyager

St. Vincent St. Vincent

Hozier Hozier

[Lawful Metal]

I hammered out my top 100 songs of the year today; expect a mega post this weekend, with songs, explanation and methodology. It'll include songs that came out way before 2014, but they were new to me, so that's what counts.

Of course, I'm still going through the suggestions posted here so I'll need to go through those too.

Keep posting new music y'all, I love it and need it. My favorite music is the stuff I haven't heard yet.

[badfish69]

Love the newest Lagwagon album.  Easily one of the best rock albums of the year.  Unfortunately rock radio would rather play a really bad remake of House of the Rising Sun 40 times a day than rock something like this.

 

 

Throw in some King Tuff.

 

[Randy]

Here is some of my favorite songs of the year that haven't already been mentioned here:

 

 

 

 

 

[Randy]

Part 2:

 

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBkmSTZQqxk