Tommy J’s Best Musical Selections from the year of our Lord 2014

2014 was a weird year and I finally feel comfortable saying that the year in music was no different. This decade has thus far seen some real standouts. To my mind, none has yet emerged for 2014. There was no shortage of good work turned in, but on the whole it feels messier and more difficult than years past. Maybe we’re just getting old. Here’s my attempt to summarize the stuff that I listened to and engaged with. Listed in some semblance of order relative to my preference.

Gist Is by Adult Jazz is the album that intrigued me more than any other, which in a year absent outright favorites – nothing has come close to the heights of Typhoon’s White Lighter or Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy – adds up to my number one album of the year.

Things Are Really Great Here, Sort Of by Andrew Bird is the album that spent the most time in my eardrums all year. To me, it is a warm blanket on a cold day. It is not wanting to get out of bed in the morning. It is seeing the forecast as a schoolboy and knowing you’ll awake to a snow day.

Built on Glass by Chet Faker is the immaculate midpoint between the austere electronic work of James Blake, the confessional falsetto of Bon Iver, and the delicious electro-pop of the Postal Service. Not unlike electro-pop catnip.

Post Tropical by James Vincent McMorrow is a lush and electronic paradise. Like a digital beach on a rainy day. Watch this video and never look back.

Sylvan Esso by Sylvan Esso is kind of a spiritual successor to Lady Gaga’s debut record if instead of continuing in the performance-art ironic nose-thumbing of Madonna, it was done in the coffee-house club mold where Bushwick meets Williamsburg and the women all drink whiskey and really like Radiohead but would also prefer it to be more fun and sharply social instead of introspective and kind of sad.

Lost in the Dream by the War on Drugs is a repurposing of the late 70’s stadium rock of Springsteen and Tom Petty in a totally hip and gloriously listenable guitar-based, reverb-drenched delicious little package.

Burn Your Fire for No Witness by Angel Olsen is an expansive, dark, rich album that does a lot of things and does them almost all right. Another big score of John Congleton.

Sunbathing Animal by Parquet Courts is the triumphant return of stoner-rock as the dominant mode of contemporary Brooklyn punk and teenage (now mid/late twenties)-angst. With more than a few nods to Television’s Marquee Moon

Black Messiah by D’Angelo & the Vanguard is just about pitch-perfect musicianship, another record that is massive and expansive but in a very tightly controlled, masterful way, with no missteps. I can think of no better record to sneak in at the end of the year and define what 2014 meant.

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We’re All Young Together by Walter Martin is the closest thing I’ve heard to a Raffi record since I was a boy, which is just absolutely delightful and all the better for also being a sneakily great legitimate indie-pop record with all the guest stars to prove it. It’s really just a lot of fun.

What Goes Around by Statik Selektah is the most overrated hip-hop record of the year. Sure it’s easy to sell low on DJ mixtapes, but he puts together a list of artists that’s hard to overlook and gets the best work out of them, all with beats inspired by the 90’s heyday. Great stuff.

Are We There by Sharon Van Etten is a great record that I am perhaps unfairly handicapping because her last one was so good and this feels not quite a step forward. A few missteps keep this out of the top ten, but it’s pretty great and is home to some of the year’s highlights.

Wig Out At Jagbags by Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks is a ton of freewheeling fun. Malkmus has this very offhand ability that makes doing what he does seem easy until you realize moments later that he is a genius and his true genius is making difficult things look easy (and fun).

LP1 by FKA Twigs is the perfect encapsulation of the zeitgeist of the last wave of contemporary R&B it is dark and scary and sexy all at the same time and she’s the best at it so far.

1989 by Taylor Swift is the first album to go platinum of 2014. I couldn’t put it any better than Rembert Browne from Grantland:
(1) She’s a sorceress, (2) she’s a genius, and (3) 1989 is a very good pop album.

They Want My Soul by Spoon is yet another top 20 record by Spoon. These guys do power pop-rock better than anybody this decade. Period.

Phox by Phox is a hell of a debut from a talented group of musicians with a compelling frontwoman. Looking forward to their future.

Wine Dark Sea by Jolie Holland is a rambunctious take on American roots-rock music. Like a more clattery and less stompy Sallie Ford.

Indian Ocean by Frazey Ford is a slightly less rambunctious and more lush-soulful take on American roots music by way of Canada – 2/2 on the former Be-Good Tanyas.

St. Vincent by St. Vincent is a fascinating if self-indulgent record. Again, penalized for my own inability to overlook what I feel like is better work in the rearview mirror. Nevertheless, compelling. Annie Clark is one of the best and most interest guitarists working. (+1 John Congleton)

RTJ2 by Run the Jewels is the most talked-about hip-hop record of the year, for better or worse. For my money, I’ll take their debut, but I’m awfully happy their getting the attention they deserve. Killer Mike & El-P are both great at what they do and are doing essential stuff together.

Best Songs:
https://play.spotify.com/user/1212103938/playlist/1tnjuYKI1TrjkbGka5DFXv?play=true&utm_source=open.spotify.com&utm_medium=open

Talk is Cheap by Chet Faker

Talk is cheap, my darling
When you're feeling right at home
I wanna make you move with confidence
I wanna be with you alone

Cavalier by James Vincent McMorrow

I remember how cloth hung
Flexing with the forest clung
Half waist and high raised arms
Kicking at the slightest form
I remember my first love

Cathedral in the Dell by Andrew Bird

Looking to find love under the ice machine
But all we did was drink in empty bars
Stumbling drunk, we crawled back to our hotel room
I fell against you, felt your beating heart

Sing to Me by Walter Martin

Butterflies,
they fill my guts when I look in your eyes.
A heart that's young is filled with sweet surprise.
Only the innocent can sympathize.

The Imperial by Statik Selektah feat. Action Bronson, Royce Da 5’9”, Black Thought

Take that, and while you're at it, make my coffee black
I tried to tell you mothafuckas on Respond/React
I'm the nastiest to do it, as a matter of fact
Yo who your top 5? Jay, Biggie, Pac, Nas
I ain't tryna hear another name if it's not mine
Any side talkin', I'ma consider it shots fired
At the outlier, and start it up like a hotwire

Uptown Funk by Mark Ronson feat. Bruno Mars

I’m too hot (hot damn)
Make a dragon wanna retire man

Shake it Off by Taylor Swift

But I keep cruising, can't stop, won't stop moving
It's like I got this music in my body and it's gonna be alright

Hey Mami by Sylvan Esso

Her image it lasts and I know,
She floats along as she goes
She owns the eyes as she flies right through the sound
Moving her body all around town

Red Eyes by the War on Drugs

Flower my seed
Starts to accume please leave, their coming by soon
Does anyone care but myself?

Your Love is Killing Me by Sharon Van Etten

Try to tell you this when I'm sober
How I feel about loving you
Try to remember all the turn of events
Being led by our own fantasies, fantasies

Lariat by Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks

You got what you want/You want what you got
People look great when they shave
Don’t they?

Hi-Five by Angel Olson

Now we don’t have to take it too extreme
We’ll keep our hands, our legs, even our lips apart
But I’m giving you my heart
Are you giving me your heart?
Are you lonely too?

Hunger of the Pine by Alt-J

Sleeplessly embracing
Yawn yearns into me
Plenty more tears in the sea
And so you finally use it
Bedding with me you see at night
Your heart wears knight armour

Springful by Adult Jazz

So let us joy up and be springful!
Your provision is more than a mouthful!

Bored in the USA by Father John Misty

They gave me useless education
And a sub-prime loan on a craftsman home
Keep my prescriptions filled
And now I can’t get off but I can kind of deal

Oh with being bored in the USA