Top 100 Music Albums of 2014 by buzzdainer

The juxtaposition of light and dark is the metaphor that makes the most sense of my 2014. On the light side, I relocated from North Carolina to Colorado to live with my then-partner. It was a purposeful and beautiful time in my life, when I finally quit a tenure-track academic job to be with the person I loved most in the world. We spent a magical summer and fall exploring together the trails in the Flatirons, Indian Peaks, and James Peak Wilderness. We went to farmer's markets together, listened to podcasts, cooked tasty and nutritious meals, and played at the dog park. But like most things in life of such otherworldly splendor, it didn't last. Hence, darkness. To my good fortune, though, I was returned to the West, the place where, turns out, I believe I was meant to end up. The Rocky Mountains took hold of me, and much of the music I listened to that year reflects the feelings of majesty and grandeur that I felt about those mountains. 2014 wasn't quite as strong a year, musically, as 2013, but it contained at least as much depth. And the quality 2014 did provide was perhaps even more rewarding because it could often be found in surprising and unexpected places.

• Chart updated: 11/27/2022 18:45
• (Created: 02/19/2016 19:25).
• Chart size: 100 albums.

There are 2 comments for this chart from BestEverAlbums.com members and Top 100 Music Albums of 2014 has an average rating of 88 out of 100 (from 3 votes). Please log in or register to leave a comment or assign a rating.

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11. (=)

Denali 

 Emma Hill

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I learned of Alaska singer-songwriter Emma Hill only recently, courtesy of the recommendation of another favorite Alaskan artist, Evan Phillips. This album made an immediate impression. I think the timing is good, too, because I'm currently interested in hearing music that reveals its human presence readily and organically, even if it means the occasional clumsy lyric. In Emma Hill's sonic landscape I hear the presence of the physical landscape that inspired it, and right now that's precisely the kind of musical experience I'm seeking: the real, immediate, and tactile. [First added to this chart: 03/19/2019]

Year of Release:

2014

Appears in:

1 chart

Rank Score:

5

Rank in 2014:

2,172

Rank in 2010s:

20,095

Overall Rank:

75,475

Average Rating:

 73 (1 vote)

Comments:

1

12. (=)

St. Vincent 

 St. Vincent

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Annie Clark, a.k.a. St. Vincent, has consistently delivered quality throughout her career, and on this self-titled album she sharpens her music's edges to near perfection. In her review for Pitchfork, Lindsay Zoladz writes, "St. Vincent continues Clark's run as one of the past decade's most distinct and innovative guitarists, though she's never one to showboat. Her harmonic-filled style bears the influence of jazz (she picked up a lot of her signature tricks from her uncle, the jazz guitarist Tuck Andress) and prog rock, two genres known to embrace sprawl. But Clark's freak-outs are tidy, modular and architecturally compact—like King Crimson rewritten by Le Corbusier." That's a very fine summary of what this album does well, and it's truly enjoyable to hear an artist in peak form, as Clark is on just about every track here. [First added to this chart: 02/26/2016]

Year of Release:

2014

Appears in:

539 charts

Rank Score:

3,823

Rank in 2014:

6

Rank in 2010s:

65

Overall Rank:

472

Average Rating:

 79 (784 votes)

Comments:

59

13. (=)

Lost In The Dream 

 The War On Drugs

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This album came somewhat out of nowhere for me. When it came out, my expectations were modest, as I'd heard Adam Granduciel and company's previous release, Slave Ambient, and thought it was competent but not particularly interesting--maybe even a little boring, with its sprawling, extended guitar noodling and Dylanesque song structures. A number of the tracks felt to me like interludes meant to fill space between songs, rather than proper songs unto themselves. Lost in the Dream, however, has none of these limitations, and in fact most of the songs feel like emotionally complex compositions unto themselves. It is genuinely affecting, reverb-heavy heartland rock, and I mean that as high praise. As good as this is, it was just a taste of what was to come, as A Deeper Understanding is one of the truly great albums of the 2010s. [First added to this chart: 03/18/2016]

Year of Release:

2014

Appears in:

909 charts

Rank Score:

9,929

Rank in 2014:

1

Rank in 2010s:

15

Overall Rank:

159

Average Rating:

 82 (1,129 votes)

Comments:

103

14. (=)

They Want My Soul 

 Spoon

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Based on their output so far in their career, I rate They Want My Soul just about an exactly average Spoon record: not quite as good as Gimme Fiction or Girls Can Tell, but slightly better than A Series of Sneaks or Transference. Put another way, They Want My Soul is a really good album. That's how consistent Spoon has been. This is more of a treading water kind of album rather than a groundbreaking masterpiece, but that's the thing with Spoon--all their albums find a memorable groove, and all are worth owning and reward repeated listens. "Do You," the lead single from this album, is quintessential Spoon: groovy, full of hooks, with a distinct blue-eyed soul influence that sets them apart from other indie rock bands. Great stuff, as always, from one of the great bands of their generation. [First added to this chart: 03/25/2016]

Year of Release:

2014

Appears in:

368 charts

Rank Score:

2,580

Rank in 2014:

11

Rank in 2010s:

106

Overall Rank:

702

Average Rating:

 79 (472 votes)

Comments:

34

15. (=)

Angus & Julia Stone 

 Angus & Julia Stone

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Brother-and-sister duo Angus & Julia Stone haven't made a bad album yet, and that's thanks to their consistently solid songwriting and their genuinely emotional and heartfelt vocal performances. This self-titled album, their third full-length release together, is probably the closest they've done to a full-on rock and roll album. In my estimation the best track here is the slow burner "Crash + Burn," which resonated for me in 2014 in large part because I could, from personal experience, identify with the feeling of watching one's own life crash and burn and feeling entirely helpless to change it. The song, in fact, feels like an anthem to crashing and burning. [First added to this chart: 02/03/2018]

Year of Release:

2014

Appears in:

27 charts

Rank Score:

123

Rank in 2014:

199

Rank in 2010s:

1,979

Overall Rank:

9,604

Average Rating:

 76 (35 votes)

Comments:

5

16. (=)

Lou 

 Joseph Arthur

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This is Joseph Arthur's moving and worthy tribute to Lou Reed, released soon after Reed's death. Joseph Arthur has always been an admirer of Lou Reed, as you can hear on many of Arthur's releases: the lyrics that sometimes overflow from one line to the next, the coffee house whimsicality, the urban themes, the emphasis on lyrical content over tunefulness. It is a comfort to know we still have Joseph Arthur around to continue the artistic sensibility of Lou Reed, though I guess will always feel that the world was a better place with Lou Reed in it. This album is burned into my memory thanks to an evening I spent late at work with it playing in the background--one of those moments when the streetlights shining through the window late at night perfectly complimented the album's subject matter. Thanks, Lou, for all the great music over so many years, and thank you, Joseph Arthur, for this fitting celebration of it. [First added to this chart: 02/27/2016]

Year of Release:

2014

Appears in:

4 charts

Rank Score:

11

Rank in 2014:

1,446

Rank in 2010s:

13,598

Overall Rank:

52,083

Average Rating:

 74 (4 votes)

Comments:

1

17. (=)

Small Town Heroes 

 Hurray For The Riff Raff

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I saw Alynda Lee Segarra and company play live at the Rocky Mountain Folks Festival in 2014, a great event in a beautiful natural amphitheater surrounded by red rock canyons and with the St. Vrain River running through the venue. The river was especially a revelation, as the day Hurray for the Riff Raff played was blazing hot, and dunking ourselves in the river was the only real relief from the baking sun. All this is to say, Hurray for the Riff Raff sounded great, and "The Body Electric" is an especially moving inversion of the murder ballad narrative, taking a shot at the misogyny in "Delia's Gone" and other songs that seem to celebrate, or make light of, violence against women. Though the afternoon heat was intense to the point of distraction, it wasn't hard to appreciate the incredible songwriting talent of Segarra and her bandmates, and I'm excited to hear what more they have in store for the future. [First added to this chart: 03/22/2016]

Year of Release:

2014

Appears in:

17 charts

Rank Score:

80

Rank in 2014:

325

Rank in 2010s:

3,001

Overall Rank:

14,031

Average Rating:

 73 (24 votes)

Comments:

1

18. (=)

Half The City 

 St. Paul & The Broken Bones

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Blue-eyed soul isn't normally a genre that I'm drawn to much. In general, it feels like music that white people have appropriated from black artists and homogenized for white audiences. Too often, the "soul" becomes lost in translation. But that's not at all the case with St. Paul & the Broken Bones, largely on the strength of Paul Janeway's huge voice and the strength of his songwriting. They're from Birmingham, Alabama, a place with a checkered racial history, to be sure, but also paradoxically with a history of deeper racial integration than in most places that see themselves as more "progressive" than Alabama. I have little doubt that this history finds its way into the band's music, and the result is a genuinely affecting, powerful, danceable collection of tunes. [First added to this chart: 04/22/2016]

Year of Release:

2014

Appears in:

24 charts

Rank Score:

106

Rank in 2014:

240

Rank in 2010s:

2,267

Overall Rank:

10,942

Average Rating:

 78 (28 votes)

Comments:

5

19. (=)

English Oceans 

 Drive-By Truckers

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After the departure of Jason Isbell, whom I thought was the strongest songwriter in Drive-By Truckers, my expectations going into each subsequent album have been modest. My concerns have mostly been unfounded, though, as Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley have shown themselves up to the task of carrying the band forward and keeping their themes politically relevant and poignant. While I basically like Shonna Tucker, I think her leaving the band actually helped Hood and Cooley sharpen their focus a bit and trim down the number of tracks on their albums, meaning a slightly leaner and better distilled body of work. On English Oceans my favorite track is probably "Grand Canyon," a meditation on how we construct meaning from beautiful places we visit in the midst of the messy chaos of living. It's a wise and mature piece of work, particularly satisfying in the context of the band's wider body of work, which has always brought the passion but not necessarily sophistication. [First added to this chart: 03/22/2016]

Year of Release:

2014

Appears in:

31 charts

Rank Score:

95

Rank in 2014:

266

Rank in 2010s:

2,523

Overall Rank:

12,105

Average Rating:

 74 (31 votes)

Comments:

4

20. (=)

Enter The Slasher House 

 Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks

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Like some of my other top selections from 2014, I wasn't expecting very much from this quasi-solo effort from Animal Collective member Avey Tare. Thanks to the bizarre and uninspiring band name, I might even have put up some initial resistance. But the album quickly won me over on the strength of tracks such as "Strange Colores," with its explosive guitar licks and characteristically bizarre lyrics. I'm not so sure I really want to know what Avey is referring to in the lines, "Strange, I feel the colors moving forward / In the fine little line when I open your face." It's probably a reference to something fairly disturbing. But that's what you get with all things related to Animal Collective: it's always difficult, unpredictable, and satisfying way more often than you'd ever think. [First added to this chart: 04/04/2016]

Year of Release:

2014

Appears in:

19 charts

Rank Score:

61

Rank in 2014:

437

Rank in 2010s:

3,936

Overall Rank:

17,675

Average Rating:

 71 (31 votes)

Comments:

3

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Total albums: 100. Page 2 of 10

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Top 100 Music Albums of 2014 composition

Artist	Albums	%
Frankie Cosmos	1	1%
Drive-By Truckers	1	1%
New Madrid	1	1%
Stars (CA)	1	1%
Old Crow Medicine Show	1	1%
Old 97's	1	1%
Andrew Bird	1	1%
Show all

Country	Albums	%
	78	78%
	8	8%
	6	6%
	2	2%
	2	2%
	2	2%
	1	1%
Show all

Top 100 Music Albums of 2014 chart changes

Biggest climbers
Up 3 from 4th to 1st Sylvan Esso by Sylvan Esso

Biggest fallers
Down 1 from 1st to 2nd After The Disco by Broken Bells
Down 1 from 2nd to 3rd 1989 by Taylor Swift
Down 1 from 3rd to 4th This Is All Yours by alt-J

Top 100 Music Albums of 2014 similarity to your chart(s)

Other year charts (from the 2010s) by buzzdainer

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Top 100 Music Albums of 2014 ratings

Showing all 3 ratings for this chart.

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Rating	Date updated	Member	Chart ratings	Avg. chart rating
100/100	11/12/2019 01:40	DJENNY	4,409	100/100
100/100	04/29/2019 02:48	NickVolos	112	92/100
80/100	03/19/2019 23:31	mickilennial	718	77/100

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Top 100 Music Albums of 2014 comments

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From buzzdainer 09/28/2019 19:03

Thanks for that kind comment, NickVolos! Glad to see we're aligned on Metamodern Sounds in Country Music, among many others. I'm pretty excited to hear Sturgill Simpson's new album, which just dropped yesterday.

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Rating:  

100/100

From NickVolos 04/29/2019 02:54

Thank you for commenting on my chart! You've got a great chart going here as well. Yes, we've got some selections in common for the year. But you've also got a lot more here that I haven't heard yet. Will certainly use your chart as an inspiration when revisiting 2014.

Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

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