Post subject: 4th Annual BEAMAs - Best Album of 2014
NOMINEES
Again I want to apologize to those, that wrote a lengthy write-up, praising an album, only for us to lose it along the way. Unfortunately it's impossible to retrieve lost PMs, so those write-ups got deleted once Jher bear deleted his account.
(I'm actually not even sure I should apologise to SuedeSwede - I don't think we ever received your write-up for that?)
But here's praise from some other BEAners:
Norman Bates wrote:
Pfff the seemingly effortless ease with which DeMarco launches laidback classic after laidback classic puts a lot of less modest songwriters to shame. Great record.
ShaneSpear wrote:
My favorite album of the year so far, and one of the better ones of the decade. I'm going to sound very silly saying this, but it reminds me a lot of Joy Divison's Closer. An album of great songs, with each of them just being ever so marginally off course, whether its the direction of lyrics in songs like Let Her Go or the music being a half-key off in either direction like Goodbye Weekend or Chamber of Reflection.
One of the only bands that I can think of that's released 'to be classics' 32 years into their career.
blackflag29 wrote:
As massive as The Seer is, To Be Kind somehow feels bigger. Songs are heavy as all hell and absolutely terrific. Definitely not for everyone, though.
johnner wrote:
To Be Kind rages, surges, and swells with all the fury of a storm ready to flatten an entire continent, all presided over by some kind of possessed, demonic slave driver with all the forces of hell behind him. In full force, this is the musical equivalent of being slammed in the face, repititively, with a shovel. It's good.
Apologies to Saoirse/CryingGameDahlin
But here's praise from:
GalladeTheAbsol wrote:
I was feeling really terrible about myself one night, so I marched out into the freezing weather for a walk and put this album on, and somehow its often-brooding sound just clicked perfectly. It has its moments of, relatively speaking, outlash and aggression, like the AMAZING 'Queen' and 'Grid,' but no matter how subdued or unrestrained the sound gets, it's always outstanding and wonderfully elegant, in a dark way.
covecove wrote:
Perfectly crafted pop music. Dark, ethereal and savy. One of the best of the year so far...
Apologies to Rocky... Here's some praise from.. Well, Rocky:
RockyRaccoon wrote:
Genres exist because it’s human nature to want to categorize things. We want to put everything, people, art, everything that exists, into little categories with certain attributes so that we don’t have to spend all of our time examining each individual thing to observe its unique properties. It’s just easier that way, it’s easier to see something and say “I now know what this thing is” because of how it has been categorized, either by us or someone else. This can be problematic though, especially in the world of music genres. If any one album fits perfectly into the hole of one genre, then chances are, that album is not particularly interesting (though this is not necessarily true). The best albums, the best music, transcends genres, they look genres in the face and directly defy them. The best music is the music that, when your friends ask about it, you say “It’s kind of a mix between….well it’s kind of like….. you know what just listen to it.”
That’s what “You’re Dead!” is. There are so many different genres shoved into this 38-minute, 15-second album that it’ll make your head spin. This is one of the most all-over-the-place, neurotic, chaotic albums that I’ve ever heard. It’s really hard to pin it down in words, and that’s the beauty of it. Listening to this album is like being on a roller coaster with a loose lap-bar. The whole album deals with life and death, it feels like this album is about the futility of life, the futility of what you do with your life. It’s an album that absolutely requires, and will take by force, your whole attention, and needs multiple listenings, and even then, you might not even fully grasp what has just happened, as if you just witnessed a man resurrected from the dead, this album will be swirling around in your head and you may even question whether or not it actually happened, but be assured, it happened, and you loved every glorious, frantic second of it.
Third Place:
BENJI(also received the most #1 votes)
Second Place:
BLACK MESSIAH
AND THE WINNER IS...
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PIÑATA by Freddie Gibbs & Madlib
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WHAT THE ARTISTS SAID:
Freddie Gibbs wrote:
This is his album, I just did my thing. He’s definitely the star of the album; his fans are definitely gonna love it. I’m just glad I was on it. It’s just gonna be one of those classic records. I can’t compare this Madlib shit to anything else; this shit is off the wall, I dunno.
Oh yeah. He’s a cool dude and he trying to challenge himself. He’s doing more of commercial sounds but he knows how to fit on my beats. Most cats can’t fit on my beat. He can take a crazy-ass beat and kill it. From the first song, I knew it was gonna work out..
It's a scientific fact that every time Gibbs starts a verse with, "slammin'", it automatically becomes the best verse of all-time.
Skinny wrote:
- handling your fucking business like a man -
-(about the album's genre)
(also don't forget his terrific write-up)
ButterThumbz wrote:
Never before has a piñata been so packed full of such quality treats... and you can't beat that with a bat!
RYM user nicksoup wrote:
Cocaine Pinata is hands down the toughest album of 2014 (save for that pitiful Mac Miller feature...what were they thinking?). Every second of this album drips and oozes with sex, drugs, violence, Olde English, money and...real life. I remember listening to this LP back in March. Sitting on the couch in my freezing cold condo in Toronto. Sounds pretty awful, right? If you close your eyes just tight enough, and use a little imagination, Libs soulful samples and dreamy strings coupled with Gibbs gritty voice and mafioso lyrical onslaught really take you away. I was on a cloud. I'm not sure if I was dead or dreaming but it was blissful. Cut. I was in Gary, Indiana. Mid-summer. 1967. Low-riders pounded the pavement. Gangsters holding guns, and throwing signs passed me by. Shots fired. I'm sweating a little bit just thinking about it. These songs are not just songs. These songs are hood stories. Gibbs does an unmatched job at painting a bright, yet truly ugly picture of his life as some sort of compassionate, well-versed thug. The kind of thug who cusses out the gas station clerk and then slides twenty dollars into the box of the kid raising money for Army Cadets just outside the door, before hopping in his all black Range Rover and speeding off. The unlikely duo of self-proclaimed Gangsta Gibbs and Madlib aka Quasimoto aka Beat Konducta provides a silky smooth, yet tough as nails listening experience. They play off each others sounds beautifully. Not only did MadGibbs make the best hip-hop album of 2014, but as far as I'm concerned they make one of the best hip-hop duos of recent memory.
WHAT THE CRITICS SAID:
IN CASE YOU FORGOT ABOUT THE ALBUM IN THESE 12 MONTHS, HERE'S SOMETHING TO REFRESH YOUR MEMORY:
Welp from the things that I've been working on throughout the year, at least this one is finished, if not my thesis... I'll probably compile all the results in a single post in "Hall of Fame" thread.
If anyone wants to do 2015 awards, let me know. I might do a simpler version this time, maybe just the main categories or something...
Thanks for all those who voted (at least half of which have probably deleted their accounts since the voting happened), and thanks for the write-ups.
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