2014 - Favorite Albums (so far)

[Ghosts_on_TV]

^that.

Oaks 'Heal" and Upside Down Mountain are my favorites thus far.

[Murph]

I cant stop listening to the St. Vincent album. I need to see this woman live

[Northern Neighbour]

Fiddle & I list our 15 favourite albums of Q2 2014. For your reading pleasure and critique.

http://therevue.ca/2014/06/27mundo15-15-fave-albums-2014-second-quarter/

[IMeMine]

I don't think anyone's mentioned it and I'm a little surprised but you all should give this a listen: Bobby Bare Jr. Undefeated
   btw his 2006 Longest Meow is amazazing (11 people playing 11 songs in 11 hours including Jim, Carl, and Patrick), it doesn't leave my CD player.

Anyway,
BBJr Undefeated and
Jolie Holland's Wine Dark Sea
are the only two albums I listen to that came out this year.  Although, I did take a break for a week and listened to
The Donkeys Ride the Black Wave (which is a nice summer driving album). 

[Angelo]

Favorite Waitress is very good. Probably my favorite TFB album since their self-titled. I just wish they chose a different track as the album opener.

Glad to hear that, I'm eager to check it out.  Celebration, Florida didn't do much for me, so glad to hear I might like their new one more.

Definitely give it a few spins at the very least since you're a fan. This is really good though. Meadow Of A Dream is like magic.

[Angelo]

I don't think anyone's mentioned it and I'm a little surprised but you all should give this a listen: Bobby Bare Jr. Undefeated
   btw his 2006 Longest Meow is amazazing (11 people playing 11 songs in 11 hours including Jim, Carl, and Patrick), it doesn't leave my CD player.

Anyway,
BBJr Undefeated and
Jolie Holland's Wine Dark Sea
are the only two albums I listen to that came out this year.  Although, I did take a break for a week and listened to
The Donkeys Ride the Black Wave (which is a nice summer driving album).

Good call on Undefeated. I keep forgetting about this one.

[MrWhippy]

I definitely need to add Strand of Oaks - Heal to my list of favorites of the year.  Really amazing album.  I can tell I'm going to listen to it a ton.

I also really like the St. Vincent album, which I just heard recently.

The new Mastodon - meh.

[Fully]

I need to add Sturgill Simpson's  Metamodern Sounds in Country Music to the list. I just love it.

[e_wind]

FUTURE ISLANDS AND THE WAR ON DRUGS.
Also Broken Bells, Real Estate, Beck, The Drive By Truckers....

Connor Oberst, Strand of Oaks, Sturgill Simpson

[Murph]

Nothing - Guilty of Everything.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGc0qvdPnCw

[EverythingChanges]

Strand of Oaks is probably my favorite album so far this year! Fantastic!

[manonthemoon]

I definitely need to add Strand of Oaks - Heal to my list of favorites of the year.  Really amazing album.  I can tell I'm going to listen to it a ton.

I also really like the St. Vincent album, which I just heard recently.

The new Mastodon - meh.

After a solid two weeks of listening to this album off and on here is my take on it.  I will be the first to admit I was a little underwhelmed after my first listen through as I thought that the two singles were the highlights with nothing else sticking out.  But the more I listened, the more these vocal and riff driven songs wormed their way into my brain, the more my view of this album shifted.  I think it is a big step above the Hunter, which much like Circuital, did not do anything positive for me.  With that said the album doesn't blow me a way like Remission, Leviathan, or even Crack the Skye, which I thought were some of the best metal albums of the past decade or so.  I would still consider it a very solid or good hard rock album (8/10 by metacritic rating) seems to be in line with my take.  I think this is like QOTSA Like Clockwork, and or most of Ozzy's stuff post Sabbath when you compare it other albums as it is very hooky and still riff driven but with song structure that keeps most of the solos shorter than ones in the past.  I'll take a couple of lines from one of the reviews I read trying to come up with a way to quantify the album.  SPIN says it best when they say things like "Mastodon reach out to the world at large." and "Mastodon's sound—and their ambition – is bigger than metal."  This totally makes sense as they have said repeatedly in interviews that they want to be big, like Ozzy and Metallica, and with those aspirations they have to be more "mainstream" in the way they approach their releases.  For me the highlights are Chimes at Midnight probably the heaviest song on the album, Ember City probably destined to be the biggest hit, and the totally Brent Hinds riff driven Halloween.

[ChronicHunger]

Natural Child-Dances with wolves
Angel Olsen-Burn Yo Fiya For no witness
Adam Faucett-Blind Water Finds Blind Water
Mimicking Birds-Eons
Courtney Barnett-Double Ep
Mastodon-Once More Round The Sun
Real Estate-Atlas
Mac Demarco-Saladaze
Damian Jurado-Brothers and Sisters of the Eternal Sun
Water Liars-Water Liars
Future Islands-Singles
Woods-With Light With Love
Sturgill Simpson-Metamodern Sounds in Country Music

[Northern Neighbour]

Courtney Barnett's album actually came out last year.

[ironmike]

Salad days

[dmooney99]

Strand of Oaks is probably my favorite album so far this year! Fantastic!

def. gonna be in my top 5 (so far).

Also Jungle- Jungle

[ChronicHunger]

Courtney Barnett's album actually came out last year.

I was just going by the official North American release date for physical copies. Didn't know it came out last October in Australia

Salad days

If your a fan you should check out his documentary Pepperoni Playboy, they jokingly refer to it as Sa-La-Daze

[johnnYYac]

I don't usually buy or listen to more than a dozen new albums each year, but this year has been different, partly because of no MMJ activity, partly because I'm catching a lot of bands locally.  My favorites so far...

Top Ten:
Wax Fang - The Astronaut
Real Estate - Atlas
Bob Mould - Beauty & Ruin
Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings - Give The People What They Want
Strand of Oaks - Heal
Cloud Nothings - Here and Nowhere Else
Timber Timbre - Hot Dreams
Jack White - Lazaretto
War on Drugs - Lost In The Dream
Beck - Morning Phase

Honorable Mention:
The Hold Steady - Teeth Dreams
Spanish Gold - South Of Nowhere
Bobby Bare Jr. - Undefeated
Conor Oberst - Upside Down Mountain
Warpaint - s/t
Dean Wareham - s/t

[Ob1jacobe]

My mid year list.  Limiting to 10 so i don't drive myself crazy 

  1. Sturgill Simpson - Metamodern Sounds in Country Music
  2. The War on Drugs - Lost in The Dream
  3. The Antlers - Familiars
  4. Strand of Oaks - Heal
  5. The Afghan Whigs - Do to the Beast
  6. Damien Jurado - Brothers and Sisters of the Eternal Son
  7. Beck - Morning Phase
  8. Conor Oberst - Upside Down Mountain
  9. St. Vincent - St. Vincent
  10. Real Estate - Atlas

[Crispy]

Mid-year, okay. Also limiting this to 10, in alphabetical order:

The Asteroid #4 - The Asteroid #4
Bombay Bicycle Club - So Long, See You Tomorrow
Colourmusic - May You Marry Rich
I Break Horses - Chairoscuro
Damien Jurado - Brothers and Sisters
New Madrid - Sunswimmer
Smoke Fairies - Smoke Fairies
The War on Drugs - Lost in the Dream
Water Liars - Water Liars
Wax Fang - Astronaut