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quincytejani

What's going on with the music of 2014 so far? I feel like I haven't heard any amazing albums yet! 🧱

CubaZed

http://www.besteveralbums.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=298251

alelsupreme

Awful.

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Age: 28

You ain't been listening to the right stuff.
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Patman360

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Moderator

Happy 14th BEAnniversary!

Out of curiosity, what albums are you basing this on?

There's a lot of great stuff out there already across numerous genres, to me anyway.
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OK, I was actually in the midst of writing this post when I deleted my account, but I never finished it. It belongs here, so take it:

lethalnezzle wrote:

Much like with anything else, the more music you actively search out and listen to, the more gold you're likely to find. I've been doing a lot of 2014 listening, and as such have found plenty of 2014 albums that I love. I'm just gonna highlight a few here (not necessarily my favourites, but a decent cross-section, and albums I felt like writing about at the moment tbh), not really sure what you're into but if you can't find something among these that you like then I'll be very surprised:

Freddie Gibbs & Madlib - Pinata

My single favourite album of the year, a throwback gangsta rap record built around dense, effortlessly layered samples that evoke a sort of psychedelic blaxploitation sound, and a rapper who might well be the best in the world right now, with a rapid fire flow (which he is able to switch up at the drop of a hat), an authentically gritty voice that recalls Bun B or even Tupac, and lyrics that touch on a variety of topics in a way that is smart, funny and, above all, extremely human. This is a gangsta rap record laced with vulnerability, despite its tough veneer. Gibbs is a product of his environment, and does a better job of describing that environment in a vivid, non-judgmental way than any rapper in years. From the way he describes his strained relationship with his ex-cop father on 'Broken' ("I'm a crook and he's crooked, that's all we had in common"), to the way he relates memories of troubles past to which basketball game he was watching at the time on 'Knicks', to the faultless gangstafied update of Common's 'I Used To Love H.E.R.', 'Deeper', Gibbs shows incredible range over what is in all likelihood Madlib's best collection of beats in one place since Madvillain. Quite simply one of the greatest hip-hop albums I've ever heard.

Sun Kil Moon - Benji

I hate to be that douchebag who quotes himself, but I think I described listening to this album elsewhere as feeling like being at a wake, though a celebratory one, surrounded by drunken family and old friends, remembering the good times. It's an album preoccupied with death, and whilst there is a deep sadness in many of these tales, it's never depressing (except, perhaps, on the opener 'Carissa', which has a line about her children potentially carrying guilt around for the rest of their lives that feels impossibly harsh). Largely minimal, folky instrumentation, with Kozelek often just dropping his lyrics atop these tracks with no real sense of form or template (especially on the epic, stream-of-consciousness 'I Saw The Film The Song Remains The Same'), filling his songs with impressive levels of detail, and always retaining an unteachable ability to put the lives and deaths of the characters of these songs into a wider context without it ever feeling forced. 'Micheline', in particular, calls to mind everything that was great about Townes van Zandt. A beautifully intimate record that deserves your full attention.

Francis Harris - Minutes of Sleep

This album manages to feel both incredibly dense and incredibly sparse at the same time, which is quite a feat. This album is also a forward-thinking house record that manages to sound progressive without leaning on unorthodox (read: not that unorthodox, just taking cues from early oughties R'n'B) percussion, which again is quite a feat. This album aaaalso manages to weave into its web a host of jazzy horns, without ever straying into that dreaded nu-jazz territory (where happiness is not so much a warm gun as an impotent Grover Washington Jr. sample), another fantastic feat. And this album is a paean to love and loss that manages to evoke that bittersweet feeling when your drunkenness begins to turn sour, the fleeting moment where you stop being caught up in reckless abandon and start to remember why you started to drinking in the first place, just before you transform irreversibly into an inconsolable mess. Minutes of Sleep is melancholy and contemplative, full of refreshing surprises (the Erykah Badu-meets-Joanna Newsom-in-Ibiza stomp of centrepiece 'You Can Always Leave'; 'Me To Drift', with its bassline that fluctuates completely seamlessly between acoustic and synthetic bass), and its time flies by, a brief but beautiful thought that you wish you'd written down. Furthermore, Minutes of Sleep is a record that feels totally cohesive. It's not too often that a house album works this remarkably well as a unit, and in that sense it's arguably (/probably) the best of its kind since John Talabot's fin.

Conan - Blood Eagle

A blood-and-thunder doom/stoner metal album, content to stick to the sludgey, ominous template laid out by Sabbath and continued by the likes of Electric Wizard and a million bands with the word 'bong' in their name, but just doing it very, very well indeed. The fuzz is laid on thick, the vocals sound suitably Valhallan, and the riffs are all-consuming in their monolithic monotony. That isn't to say that this record doesn't have its share of variety ('Foehammer' ups the speed with fantastic results), but its main strength is in creating an unwaveringly majestic atmosphere, managing to sound victorious in the face of its own gloom and doom, powered forward by its battering ram drums and ridiculously loud bass. Nothing here quite matches up to 'Beheaded', their 14-minute epic from last year's split single with Bongripper (I urge everybody to stop what they're doing and check it out), but the album is bookended by two songs that run it very close, the awesome (in the literal sense) 'Crown of Talons' and 'Altar of Grief'. This is woolly mammoth music, the perfect accompaniment for smoking weed and drinking mead.

The Fun Years - One Quarter Descent

The Fun Years have been around for quite a while, but this is the first release of theirs that I've cottoned on to (having gone back and listened to some of their other stuff, it's also the best thing I've heard by them by quite a distance). They're a guitarist/turntablist duo, though you wouldn't know it from listening to One Quarter Descent, a two-sided tape with a quarter-hour track on each side. The album deals in Basinski-esque soundscapes built from beautifully decaying/decayed loops, though it's difficult to know where these loops are pulled from (I assume from records scratched beyond all comprehension and then played and replayed in the way a scratch DJ might do, albeit much slower, or from heavily effect-ridden guitars playing the same motifs over and over; I'm fairly certain that this record couldn't have been achieved without overdubs). The guitar is certainly more prominent on the second side (a beautiful, almost Mongolian-sounding loop that comes in waves and waves, washing over you as it grows into something almost regal before disappearing away again), whereas the first side is the more delicate of the two, acting almost as a prologue to the denser second half, though no less gorgeous in its execution. Deploying a healthy layer of low-level fuzz and static throughout, the album plays out as though being strained through an old wind-up radio, on its last legs after spending years in a puddle. Fucks knows what I'm even talking about, just listen to this.

Sisyphus - Sisyphus

A collaboration between rapper Serengeti, the ever-unpredictable Son Lux, and Christian Rock hero/creepy eleven year old boy Sufjan Stevens, Sisyphus is a glorious mashup of day-glo hip-hop and wonderfully irreverent pop music that feels a bit like what Damon Albarn wishes Gorillaz had been (I jest, that dude wouldn't be comfortable releasing a record quite this strange and unmarketable). Universally ignored by hip-hop blogs, and regarded seemingly everywhere else as a rather uncomfortable union, this album goes to show, with gleeful abandon and an unerring sense of playfulness, how stupid critics can be. The opening three-song suite is stunning, utilising recurring lyrical and musical motifs as each member of the group flexes their respective muscles, before the album launches into 'Rhythm of Devotion', the first time the three prove that they can be more than the sum of their (already considerable) parts - this is part-Prince, part-cLOUDDEAD, all-Sisyphus, a shimmering pop song that twists and turns and does everything you could possibly want it to. After this, it's plain sailing, from Serengeti flummoxing every RapGenius contributor on the insane 'Flying Ace', to Sufjan getting very spiritual (in vibe; not literally) on the oxymoronically vulnerable 'I Won't Be Afraid', and Son Lux pulling the strings throughout. It's a record that it is as touching as it is all-over-the-shop, and for me it's one of the best and truest attempts at a pop/rap hybrid to have ever emerged.

Mac DeMarco - Salad Days

At first, I didn't buy into Mac DeMarco. He seemed to have cleverly positioned himself as a playful slacker, pandering to the Pitchfork masses with his laid-back, summery vibe, and knowing (if ultimately hollow) songs. How wrong I was. Well, maybe not all that wrong - he is definitely a playful slacker, who deals in knowing songs with a laid-back, summery vibe. The mistake I made was in writing him off as hollow or insincere. His lyrics are full of the kind of world-weariness I can relate to, that of a person no longer a child but not yet an adult, and his ability to hit the nail on the head without any beat-around-the-bush pretentiousness, whilst never getting too down on himself, recalls a young Jonathan Richman. Then, of course, there is that guitar tone; languid, louche, slippery-as-fuck, it's an enjoyably effortless (or should that be effortlessly enjoyable?) sound that will undoubtedly soundtrack many cold beers on sunny days this summer. Salad Days is just a total treat.

Julie Byrne - Rooms with Walls and Windows

Rooms with Walls and Windows is a refreshingly delicate record, feeling as though a strong gust of wind could blow it away at any moment. A lot of the lyrics are totally unintelligible, not because they get drowned out by everything going on around them or because of some effects-driven stylistic choice, but simply because they are delivered so quietly. She has a beautiful voice, and those lyrics that I can make out tend to be disarmingly direct and poetic without feeling pretentious, a little like a Frank O'Hara or perhaps a Heaney minus the detail. This is lived-in, real-life music - a partially heard conversation from the other side of the bar, perhaps the most interesting you've ever been privy to, one that you wish you could be involved in but for the fact that you would only ruin everything that makes it so beautiful.

Kassem Mosse - Workshop 19

Another house music album, this time by Kassem Mosse. He has released a series of singles and EPs for the Workshop label that all fit a theme; dark, hypnotic, melancholy house. If this sounds a little like Francis Harris, it shouldn't. Harris' music is definitely at-home music, chilled out vibes for late-night sessions (be they alone or with close friends). Mosse makes music for dancing to, bangers that are made to be played in clubs. However, what he has managed to achieve on his first full-length is to create an album that is both for raving and about raving, the fluid peaks and troughs of the LP mirroring the ups and downs one might have on a big night out, making this cohesive listen as suitable for listening to in bed as it is through huge speakers. Whilst he tends to shy away from direct, immediate melodies, he makes up for this with a delightfully grungy sensibility, crafting tracks (in the Simon Reynolds-defined functionalist sense of the word; music made to be mixed into sets at clubs, as opposed to songs made for at-home consumption) that feel dirty, sinister, often unfinished, but always full of rhythmic ticks and beeps, and a deep, buried bass sound that make this so ripe for dancing to. By the end, its dense, dubby textures and relentless repetition become almost dizzying, but never unwelcome. An accessible album full of deep, dark house music.

Kevin Gates - By Any Means

As a rapper, Gates is a paranoid, schizophrenic mess. He's not a very nice person, and sometimes it's difficult to relate to somebody who says the things that he does. Oh, and his beats tend to all blend together into one forgettable, (main)streamlined cacophony of predictable synths and even more predictable trap drums, aside from the odd diversion. But I love him. Easily the most vocally emotive rapper around at the moment (not as vocally crazy as Young Thug, of course, but I'd wager more emotive), and on a par with Ghostface in the regard, and somebody whose tales of the street (and that aforementioned overarching paranoia that pervades even his braggiest moments) sound so authentic and lived-in that they really do create a sense of, "this is a man's soul laid bare". He's deceptively lyrical in the sense that there are often more layers to his lines than initially meets the eye, and yet he never falls back into that reverential old-school vibe that so many quote unquote lyricists think is what they have to do in order to prove themselves. Gates is a conflicted sign of our times, a pop-centric rapper who is a dozen different people (and not one of them a liar). This isn't quite as majestic as last year's The Luca Brasi Story, or as claustrophobic as last year's Stranger The Fiction (there's nothing here as immediate as the former's 'Paper Chasers', or as painfully honest as the latter's '4.30 am'), but it is another top-class mixtape from arguably the most in-form rapper around right now.

Sorry I only got to ten entries. Enjoy anyway.

JOSweetHeart

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Age: 43

Location: East Tennessee

quincytejani wrote:

What's going on with the music of 2014 so far? I feel like I haven't heard any amazing albums yet! ](*,)

I haven't heard any yet either. We still have eight months left of the year though! 😄 😄 😄

God bless you always!!! 😄 😄 😄

Holly
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soundguardian

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quincytejani wrote:

What's going on with the music of 2014 so far? I feel like I haven't heard any amazing albums yet! ](*,)

But yeah. Seriously. This. I was wondering this as well. There are only like 2 albums that BEA members overall rate as 80 or above, which could possibly be an indication that the music is weaker this year. Also, of all the songs from the current top 20 albums of 2014, only about ~25 of them are rated a score of 83 or higher. and the year is about a third over.

of course, other factors come into to play that influence ratings (biases, etc), but still, wow...
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Norman Bates

Gender: Male

Age: 53

Location: Paris, France

I personally find '14 fascinating. A bit short of masterpieces so far, maybe (and I'm not even sure), but music is going in all sorts of thrilling directions, it's an awesome year for singer-songwriters, and I've never been that much interested in the electronic releases of a year since like forever.

Won't link you to my '14 chart (45 albums so far) because it's mainly made of recs I picked up on other charts or topics (Geevy, lethal, DBZ mainly), but a week doesn't go without dropping its very interesting record, I'm very happy with '14 so far.

Norman Bates

Gender: Male

Age: 53

Location: Paris, France

soundguardian wrote:

But yeah. Seriously. This. I was wondering this as well. There are only like 2 albums that BEA members overall rate as 80 or above, which could possibly be an indication that the music is weaker this year. Also, of all the songs from the current top 20 albums of 2014, only about ~25 of them are rated a score of 83 or higher. and the year is about a third over.

Wait till the Beatles, Pink Floyd and Radiohead release their albums.

Seriously : a lot of good music, but no big names (apart from maybe Albarn). Those big names make the charts and the ratings.

Dingerbell

Gender: Male

Age: 29

soundguardian wrote:

But yeah. Seriously. This. I was wondering this as well. There are only like 2 albums that BEA members overall rate as 80 or above, which could possibly be an indication that the music is weaker this year. Also, of all the songs from the current top 20 albums of 2014, only about ~25 of them are rated a score of 83 or higher. and the year is about a third over.

So wrong.

Last year, at this stage, only one album (m b v) was rated over 80, and that has now dropped below that. And that's assuming, of course, that the ratings are reliable- considering some people just give the album's a five, and then leave. Song ratings are also pointless, as you can see for the Piñata song ratings, where several people have just given all the tracks very low ratings. Generally, it takes a long time for people to listen to albums that are released from this year- hardly anyone hears them on the release date; instead they wait for a good response, and then listen.

To be honest, BEA is rather rubbish for getting recs from this year, if you are using the year charts alone. There aren't enough users listening to albums from this year, and so many good albums are in less than ten charts, or one album that is high on someone's overall shoots up the rankings, whilst not being particularly good. So, if you want recs, look at year charts.