 | ||
 | Album: 1 of 75 Artist: The War on Drugs Title: Lost in the Dream Released: 2014-03-18 Tracks: 10 Duration: 1:00:33 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Under the Pressure (08:51) 2 Red Eyes (04:58) 3 Suffering (06:02) 4 An Ocean in Between the Waves (07:11) 5 Disappearing (06:51) 6 Eyes to the Wind (05:55) 7 The Haunting Idle (03:07) 8 Burning (05:48) 9 Lost in the Dream (04:09) 10 In Reverse (07:41) |
| Lost in the Dream : Allmusic album Review : When Philadelphia-based purveyors of stripped-down, haunted rock perfection the War on Drugs came on the scene with their 2008 debut, Wagonwheel Blues, their sound perked up the ears of a new generation of soul searchers looking for a soundtrack. Summoning up the patron saints of FM radio rock, the band was constantly framed as an update to the wild-eyed sermons of Dylan and Springsteen or the summer-night abandon that Tom Petty perfected, all filtered through walls of decidedly indie guitar noise. Founding member Kurt Vile left the band to pursue his blooming solo path by the time of 2011s Slave Ambient, leaving key songwriter Adam Granduciel running the show completely for that albums well-received set of songs and heightened production. Work on follow-up third album Lost in the Dream began while the band was on tour in 2012, with the full process of writing, demoing, and recording stretching out over a 15-month period and employing five different studios in as many states. Instead of resulting in a piecemeal pastiche of discordant ideas, Lost in the Dream actually represents the most fully realized statement from the group thus far, with all ten songs gelling together with a sense of purpose and understated brilliance the band came close to before, but delivers in full here. Starting with the epic two-chord gallop of "Under the Pressure," Granduciel offers up song after song of incredibly restrained yet entirely engaged rock. The classic rock reference points led to a "blue-collar rock" labeling of the bands sound, and while there are undeniable callbacks to Petty, Dylan, and Springsteen here, as there were on earlier albums, the War on Drugs have come into their own with their sound. What comes on as simplistic or even predictable rock instrumentation always unfolds to reveal buried synth sounds, horn blurts, long ambient passages, and -- more impressively -- an unexpected emotional depth propping up the bare-bones songs. While "Burning" channels the same yelping frustration and working-class trudge of Springsteens "Dancing in the Dark," songs like "Red Eyes" and the gorgeous "An Ocean in Between the Waves" meld Jackson Brownes inward-looking sensitivity and Fleetwood Mac-like mysteriousness with an edgy depravity belonging to Granduciel alone. The songs are expansive, regardless of their tone, with the ten tunes sprawling out into almost an hourlong running time, leaving no stone unturned in their nuanced production and deceptively simple presentation. In this way, Lost in the Dream is the War on Drugs Daydream Nation or Disintegration; lengthy distillations of similar themes result in wildly different threads of song, all connecting again in the end. Its a near flawless collection of dreamy vibes, shifting moods, and movement, and stands easily as Granduciels finest hour so far. | ||
 | Album: 2 of 75 Artist: Leonard Cohen Title: Popular Problems Released: 2014-09-23 Tracks: 9 Duration: 36:00 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Slow (03:25) 2 Almost Like the Blues (03:28) 3 Samson in New Orleans (04:39) 4 A Street (03:32) 5 Did I Ever Love You (04:10) 6 My Oh My (03:36) 7 Nevermind (04:39) 8 Born in Chains (04:55) 9 You Got Me Singing (03:31) |
| Popular Problems : Allmusic album Review : Leonard Cohens Popular Problems is an uncharacteristically quick follow-up to 2012s Old Ideas. That record, cut in the aftermath of a multi-year tour, revitalized him as a recording artist. Producer Patrick Leonard (Madonna, Bryan Ferry) serves as co-writer on all but one tune on Popular Problems. While Cohens sound has revolved around keyboards since 1988s Im Your Man, Leonard gets that the real power in the songwriters lyrics are best relayed through his own own simple melodies. Everything here -- keys, female backing chorus, acoustic instrumentation, etc. -- is in their service. As always, Cohens songs -- delivered in his deepest earth rasp -- offer protagonists who are ambivalent spiritual seekers, lusty, commitment-phobic lovers, and jaded, untrusting/untrustworthy world citizens. He is them, they are him: strangers hiding in plain sight. Opener "Slow" is paced by a blues vamp from an electric piano and kick drum. "...You want to get there soon/I want to get there last..." is delivered in a streetwise croak. Its a fine career metaphor, but the hilarious double entendre is self evident, too: "...All your turns are tight/Let me catch my breath/I thought we had all night." "Almost Like the Blues" employs a 12-bar variant exoticized by hand percussion. Cohen juxtaposes visions of global horror with worry over bad reviews; hes culpable because of his vanity. Gospel provides illustration on some of the better songs -- there are no weak ones. Its used with razored effect on "Samson in New Orleans" to address the devastation -- physical, emotional, spiritual -- left by Hurricane Katrina. Cohen really attempts to sing "Did I Ever Love You." Though it comes out a measured growl, its impact is searing. It shifts from gospel to country jaunt only to circle back, underscoring the bitter, vulnerable truth in the lyric. He observes: "The lemon trees blossom/The almond trees wither," before asking: "Was I ever someone/Who could love you forever?"; he knows the answer. The keyboards and tablas in "Nevermind," a narrative of treachery and global hypocrisy, create skeletal, tense funk. Theyre appended by Donna De Lorys Arabic chant for peace and safety in contrast to the lyrics scathing accusations. Gospel returns on "Born in Chains," a gentle but gripping first-person account of spiritual seeking with references to Judaism, Christianity, and Cohens adopted Zen: "...Ive heard the soul unfolds/In the chambers of its longing...But all the Ladders of the Night have fallen/Only darkness now/To lift the longing up." On set closer "You Got Me Singing," Cohen, accompanied only by acoustic guitar and violin, lays out hope: "You got me singing even though the world is gone/You got me thinking Id like to carry on." Its an open-ended, affirmative sendoff. Popular Problems reveals that at 80, Cohen not only has plenty left in the tank, but is at his most confident and committed. This is his finest recording since 1995s The Future. | ||
 | Album: 3 of 75 Artist: Aphex Twin Title: Syro Released: 2014-09-19 Tracks: 12 Duration: 1:04:31 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 minipops 67 (source field mix) (04:47) 2 XMAS_EVET10 (thanaton3 mix) (10:31) 3 produk 29 (05:03) 4 4 bit 9d api+e+6 (04:28) 5 180db_ (03:11) 6 CIRCLONT6A (syrobonkus mix) (06:00) 7 fz pseudotimestretch+e+3 (00:58) 8 CIRCLONT14 (shrymoming mix) (07:21) 9 syro u473t8+e (piezoluminescence mix) (06:32) 10 PAPAT4 (pineal mix) (04:18) 11 s950tx16wasr10 (earth portal mix) (06:01) 12 aisatsana (05:21) |
 | Album: 4 of 75 Artist: FKA twigs Title: LP1 Released: 2014-08-06 Tracks: 14 Duration: 56:49 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Preface (01:46) 2 Lights On (04:24) 3 Two Weeks (04:07) 4 Hours (04:35) 5 Pendulum (04:58) 6 Video Girl (03:47) 7 Numbers (03:43) 8 Closer (03:45) 9 Give Up (04:17) 10 Kicks (05:24) 11 Weak Spot (03:43) 12 Ache (05:00) 13 Breathe (04:16) 14 Hide (02:59) |
 | Album: 5 of 75 Artist: Sharon Van Etten Title: Are We There Released: 2014-05-26 Tracks: 11 Duration: 47:17 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Afraid of Nothing (04:07) 2 Taking Chances (03:52) 3 Your Love Is Killing Me (06:18) 4 Our Love (03:54) 5 Tarifa (04:52) 6 I Love You but I’m Lost (04:20) 7 You Know Me Well (04:33) 8 Break Me (04:03) 9 Nothing Will Change (03:17) 10 I Know (03:37) 11 Every Time the Sun Comes Up (04:24) |
 | Album: 6 of 75 Artist: Robert Plant Title: lullaby and… THE CEASELESS ROAR Released: 2014-09-05 Tracks: 22 Duration: 1:40:02 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Little Maggie (05:05) 2 Rainbow (04:17) 3 Pocketful of Golden (04:12) 4 Embrace Another Fall (05:52) 5 Turn It Up (04:05) 6 A Stolen Kiss (05:15) 7 Somebody There (04:32) 8 Poor Howard (04:13) 1 House of Love (05:07) 2 Up on the Hollow Hill (Understanding Arthur) (04:35) 3 Arbaden (Maggie’s Babby) (02:46) 1 Little Maggie (05:05) 2 Rainbow (04:17) 3 Pocketful of Golden (04:12) 4 Embrace Another Fall (05:52) 5 Turn It Up (04:05) 6 A Stolen Kiss (05:15) 7 Somebody There (04:32) 8 Poor Howard (04:13) 9 House of Love (05:07) 10 Up on the Hollow Hill (Understanding Arthur) (04:35) 11 Arbaden (Maggie’s Babby) (02:46) |
| lullaby and… THE CEASELESS ROAR : Allmusic album Review : Returning to his native England after an extended sojourn in America, Robert Plant heavily reconnects with his homelands mysticism on 2014s lullaby and... The Ceaseless Roar. Despite the shift in geography, the singer is picking up a thread he left hanging with 2010s Band of Joy. On that album, Plant blurred boundaries between several musical styles, playing covers with a group assembled by producer Buddy Miller, but here he shifts that omnivorous aesthetic to a collection of originals performed with his ever-changing band the Sensational Space Shifters. Certain flourishes sound familiar -- he remains equally enamored of English and Moroccan folk while retaining an enduring obsession with American blues and psychedelia -- but the feel is different, not as robust as Band of Joy or warmly joyous as Raising Sand. The Ceaseless Roar may not get loud -- usually, when it rocks it sounds like a kissing cousin to a folk rave-up; sometimes, as on "Somebody There," its chiming, crystalline, and bright like the Byrds -- but it is intensely meditative, finding sustenance within mystery. Plant is reflecting on where hes been -- singing "And if the sun refuses to shine" on "Pocketful of Golden," he tips a hat to his Zeppelin past; elsewhere he speaks of getting lost in America -- yet gingerly avoiding questions of mortality and resisting the allure of easy sentimentality. Its possible to hear the weight of his years on lullaby and... The Ceaseless Roar -- it is, in the best sense, mature music, dense in its rhythms and allusions, subtle in its melodies -- but he never feels weary, nor does he traffic in false nostalgia. Hes building upon the past, both his own and the larger traditions of his homeland, both spiritual and actual, and that gives lullaby and... The Ceaseless Roar a bewitching depth. Its an album to get lost in. | ||
 | Album: 7 of 75 Artist: Hiss Golden Messenger Title: Lateness of Dancers Released: 2014-09-09 Tracks: 10 Duration: 42:52 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples AlbumCover | 1 Lucia (03:11) 2 Saturdays Song (04:36) 3 Mahogany Dread (04:06) 4 Day O Day (A Love So Free) (05:30) 5 Lateness of Dancers (05:20) 6 Im a Raven (Shake Children) (02:51) 7 Black Dog Wind (Rose of Roses) (04:30) 8 Southern Grammar (04:53) 9 Chapter & Verse (Iones Song) (04:47) 10 Drum (03:08) |
 | Album: 8 of 75 Artist: Damon Albarn Title: Everyday Robots Released: 2014-04-25 Tracks: 12 Duration: 46:44 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Everyday Robots (03:58) 2 Hostiles (04:09) 3 Lonely Press Play (03:42) 4 Mr. Tembo (03:55) 5 Parakeet (00:43) 6 The Selfish Giant (04:47) 1 You and Me (07:05) 2 Hollow Ponds (04:59) 3 Seven High (01:00) 4 Photographs (You Are Taking Now) (04:43) 5 The History of a Cheating Heart (04:00) 6 Heavy Seas of Love (03:43) |
| Everyday Robots : Allmusic album Review : If there ever were a modern rock star who could be called an auteur, itd be Damon Albarn. As the leader of Blur, he was responsible for the groups grand themes, taking credit for the birth of Brit-pop circa 1993s Modern Life Is Rubbish, but his signature -- a sly, theatrical blend of melodic post-punk and new wave undercut by electronic exoticism and a thirst for world music -- grew ever more distinctive in the projects he pursued after the groups 2003 dissolution, surfacing in the dystopian future of Gorillaz and the glum present of the Good, the Bad & the Queen. He didnt hide within a collective so much as embrace collaboration, using other musicians to accelerate exploration, with all the different musicians underscoring his own world-view. Albarn is not without a collaborator on Everyday Robots, his first official pop solo album (he released the experimental opera Dr. Dee under his own name in 2012). Hes produced by Richard Russell, the head of XL Records, and Damons co-producer on Bobby Womacks 2012 comeback The Bravest Man in the Universe, a sparse electronic soul album that shares some skeletal characteristics with Everyday Robots. Russell assists Albarn in shaping Everyday Robots into a quiet, contemplative extended meditation on modernity and the past, a record that seems personal but stops just short of confessional. "Hollow Ponds," which intercuts pivotal vignettes from throughout his life, acts as the autobiographical centerpiece but often the lyrics that stick depict the isolation of modern technology, the "everyday robots on our phones" who press play when theyre lonely. Underneath this high-tech alienation, whats left unspoken is how Albarn and Russell are hardly Luddites. Everyday Robots embraces modern technology -- its rhythms are digitized, electronic instruments are interwoven with acoustics, spoken samples are deployed strategically -- which doesnt undercut Albarns disconnection thesis so much as underscore his resignation at existing in the fractured present. This is the key dichotomy of the album; its surfaces are Spartan, its tempos slow and measured -- it quickens its step only at "Mister Tembo," a joyous ode to the birth of an elephant -- but its a soulful album, not chilly. Its sadness is a warm, enveloping melancholy that harks back to the floating psychedelic dissociation of "This Is a Low" while touching upon the digital desolation of Demon Days. Upon repeated listens, the sorrowful undertow of Everyday Robots becomes a comfort, a balm for moments of alienation; its the kind of record that when youre lonely, you press play. | ||
 | Album: 9 of 75 Artist: St. Vincent Title: St. Vincent Released: 2014-02-24 Tracks: 16 Duration: 57:45 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Rattlesnake (03:34) 2 Birth in Reverse (03:15) 3 Prince Johnny (04:36) 4 Huey Newton (04:37) 5 Digital Witness (03:22) 6 I Prefer Your Love (03:36) 7 Regret (03:21) 8 Bring Me Your Loves (03:15) 9 Psychopath (03:32) 10 Every Tear Disappears (03:15) 11 Severed Crossed Fingers (03:42) 12 Bad Believer (03:00) 13 Pieta (03:28) 14 Sparrow (03:53) 15 Del Rio (02:54) 16 Digital Witness (DARKSIDE remix) (04:21) |
 | Album: 10 of 75 Artist: Sun Kil Moon Title: Benji Released: 2014-02-11 Tracks: 16 Duration: 1:28:41 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 Carissa (06:56) 2 I Can’t Live Without My Mother’s Love (03:59) 3 Truck Driver (03:56) 4 Dogs (05:37) 5 Pray for Newtown (04:08) 6 Jim Wise (03:34) 7 I Love My Dad (06:16) 8 I Watched the Film The Song Remains the Same (10:31) 1 Richard Ramirez Died Today of Natural Causes (05:35) 2 Micheline (06:07) 3 Ben’s My Friend (05:17) 4 Micheline (live in Aveiro) (07:17) 5 Richard Ramirez (live in Goteborg) (04:55) 6 I Love You Dad (live in Copenhagen) (06:04) 7 I Can’t Live Without My Mother’s Love (live in London) (04:19) 8 Truck Driver (live in Leamington Spa) (04:10) |
 | Album: 11 of 75 Artist: Toumani Diabaté & Sidiki Diabaté Title: Toumani & Sidiki Released: 2014-03-10 Tracks: 10 Duration: 43:39 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 Hamadoun Toure (05:18) 2 Claudia & Salma (04:39) 3 Rachid Ouiguini (04:33) 4 Toguna Industries (03:49) 5 Lampedusa (04:26) 6 Bagadaji Sirifoula (05:34) 7 Tijaniya (04:50) 8 Dr Cheikh Modibo Diarra (02:56) 9 A.C.I. 2000 Diaby (04:40) 10 Bansang (02:48) |
 | Album: 12 of 75 Artist: Caribou Title: Our Love Released: 2014-10-03 Tracks: 10 Duration: 41:52 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 Can’t Do Without You (03:56) 2 Silver (05:16) 3 All I Ever Need (03:52) 4 Our Love (05:34) 5 Dive (02:06) 6 Second Chance (04:00) 7 Julia Brightly (02:03) 8 Mars (05:45) 9 Back Home (03:33) 10 Your Love Will Set You Free (05:47) |
 | Album: 13 of 75 Artist: Ty Segall Title: Manipulator Released: 2014-08-26 Tracks: 17 Duration: 56:00 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Manipulator (03:09) 2 Tall Man Skinny Lady (04:02) 3 The Singer (04:15) 4 It’s Over (03:00) 5 Feel (04:15) 6 The Faker (04:07) 7 The Clock (02:52) 8 Green Belly (02:32) 9 The Connection Man (02:17) 10 Mister Main (02:47) 11 The Hand (04:43) 12 Susie Thumb (02:29) 13 Don’t You Want to Know? (Sue) (02:34) 14 The Crawler (02:24) 15 Who’s Producing You? (02:53) 16 The Feels (03:08) 17 Stick Around (04:33) |
| Manipulator : Allmusic album Review : Its not exactly a secret that Ty Segall has been allowing his inner popmeister to take the spotlight with greater frequency as his solo career has gained traction, and with 2014s Manipulator, hes delivered one of his most satisfying fusions of pop songcraft and rock & roll snazz. The album opens with the title song, a glorious Brian Wilson homage built around vintage keyboards, but on most of the tracks, Segalls guitars take center stage, and while the expected buzzy chaos is still a major part of his sound, the acoustic textures of "The Clock" and "Green Belly," and the dueling electric/acoustic lines on "Dont You Want to Know (Sue)," show that his picking can be neat and precise when he wants it to be (and the former suggests hes been listening to his old T. Rex albums). When Segall does stomp on the fuzzbox and let rip on rave-ups like "The Crawler" and "Its Over," hes still capable of making his guitar howl like a wounded dinosaur, but the songs here rely far less on lo-fi noise, and the potent grooves of "Mister Main" and the string-laden melodies of "Stick Around" are 70s-style wonders, not dependent on 21st century noise to connect. Ultimately, its the chunky, elemental melodies of numbers like "The Singer" and "Feel" that make Manipulator so satisfying, and the production is just dirty enough to make the most of Segalls guitars, while still allowing the finer details of the performances to shine through. Manipulator is a reminder that Ty Segall knows his rock & roll, but he knows a lot more than just that, and this 70s-inspired madness results in one of Segalls best and most pleasurable efforts to date. | ||
 | Album: 14 of 75 Artist: Real Estate Title: Atlas Released: 2014-03-03 Tracks: 10 Duration: 38:03 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Had to Hear (04:50) 2 Past Lives (04:33) 3 Talking Backwards (03:07) 4 Aprils Song (03:32) 5 The Bend (05:12) 6 Crime (03:15) 7 Primitive (04:16) 8 How Might I Live (02:29) 9 Horizon (03:11) 10 Navigator (03:33) |
| Atlas : Allmusic album Review : Jersey-bred indie rock golden boys Real Estate arrived in the late 2000s with a subdued approach to guitar rock that stripped away all unnecessary clutter and presented their tuneful songs in a manner as attractive and steadfast as primary colors, spring days, comfort food, or any of lifes basic staples. Free of gimmicks, pretense, and artifice, their tunes tapped into the insular, college-aged melancholia of the Clean or Yo La Tengos soft summer-night pulsations, later moving into a markedly Go-Betweens-steeped phase on their more sophisticated 2011 album, Days. With third full-length Atlas, Real Estate grow even further into the sound theyve been spinning for themselves, mellowing more while they become more nuanced in both playing and production. Beginning with "Had to Hear," the bands sound is decidedly signature, based on chiming chords and lilting vocals from songwriter Martin Courtney, lead guitar from Matt Mondanile that wanders between psychedelic curiosity and airy punctuation, and the surefooted rhythm section of drummer Jackson Pollis and bassist Alex Bleeker. All these elements feel increasingly familiar and confident. Their songs have always resided somewhere between head-in-the-clouds lightheartedness and day-dreamy nostalgia, but the ten songs that make up Atlas seem more mature, more deliberate, and lacking some of the carefree naiveté of earlier work. "Past Lives" ruminates on the strange feelings of returning to the neighborhood streets where the narrator spent his youth, while "Crime" relates a relationship in peril to something more harrowing and malicious. The upbeat "Talking Backwards" folds some of the nostalgic melancholia into a gorgeously produced pop song about long-distance communication breakdowns as bright and straightforward as Luna in their prime. The album was recorded in part at Wilcos Chicago studio the Loft, and the production is less hazy and more suited to the bands increasingly clear-headed melodies and expanded sounds, filled out with understated organ and keys from Matt Kallman this time around. Even seemingly buffering tracks like the Mondanile-penned instrumental "Aprils Song" (more in line with his solo compositions for Ducktails) and the Yo La Tengo/Galaxie 500-modeled "How Might I Live," sung by bassist Bleeker, seem to have a considered place in the albums flow. The songs float by quickly, not giving all of their secrets away at first listen. As Real Estate continue to grow into their own vision of pop, they take their place in a history of classic American indie bands, falling naturally in line behind the groups that influenced them as they add to the conversation with each subsequent album. | ||
 | Album: 15 of 75 Artist: Rosanne Cash Title: The River & The Thread Released: 2014-01-14 Tracks: 11 Duration: 38:15 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 A Feathers Not A Bird (03:18) 2 The Sunken Lands (02:56) 3 Ettas Tune (03:44) 4 Modern Blue (03:01) 5 Tell Heaven (02:40) 6 The Long Way Home (03:16) 7 World Of Strange Design (03:24) 8 Night School (03:47) 9 50,000 Watts (02:58) 10 When The Master Calls The Roll (05:06) 11 Money Road (04:00) |
 | Album: 16 of 75 Artist: Gruff Rhys Title: American Interior Released: 2014-01-01 Tracks: 13 Duration: 46:03 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 American Exterior (00:28) 2 American Interior (03:15) 3 100 Unread Messages (04:31) 4 The Whether (Or Not) (03:35) 5 The Last Conquistador (03:57) 6 Lost Tribes (03:00) 7 Liberty (Is Where Well Be) (04:53) 8 Allweddellau Allweddol (04:01) 9 The Swamp (04:10) 10 Iolo (03:47) 11 Walk Into the Wilderness (03:48) 12 Year of the Dog (03:29) 13 Tigers Tale (03:09) |
 | Album: 17 of 75 Artist: Lucinda Williams Title: Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone Released: 2014-09-26 Tracks: 20 Duration: 1:43:06 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Compassion (02:57) 2 Protection (04:47) 3 Burning Bridges (04:49) 4 East Side of Town (04:56) 5 West Memphis (05:44) 6 Cold Day in Hell (05:16) 7 Foolishness (05:57) 8 Wrong Number (05:01) 9 Stand Right by Each Other (03:59) 10 It’s Gonna Rain (04:18) 1 Something Wicked This Way Comes (05:45) 2 Big Mess (05:32) 3 When I Look at the World (04:56) 4 Walk On (04:11) 5 Temporary Nature (Of Any Precious Thing) (05:05) 6 Everything but the Truth (05:11) 7 This Old Heartache (05:03) 8 Stowaway in Your Heart (03:27) 9 One More Day (06:21) 10 Magnolia (09:51) |
 | Album: 18 of 75 Artist: Swans Title: To Be Kind Released: 2014-05-09 Tracks: 10 Duration: 2:01:16 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Screen Shot (08:04) 2 Just a Little Boy (For Chester Burnett) (12:39) 3 A Little God in My Hands (07:08) 4 Bring the Sun / Toussaint l’ouverture (34:05) 5 Some Things We Do (05:09) 1 She Loves Us (17:00) 2 Kirsten Supine (10:32) 3 Oxygen (07:59) 4 Nathalie Neal (10:14) 5 To Be Kind (08:22) |
 | Album: 19 of 75 Artist: Hurray for the Riff Raff Title: Small Town Heroes Released: 2014-02-11 Tracks: 12 Duration: 44:04 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Blue Ridge Mountain (02:33) 2 Crash on the Highway (02:45) 3 Good Time Blues (An Outlaw’s Lament) (05:17) 4 End of the Line (03:38) 5 The New SF Bay Blues (04:01) 6 The Body Electric (02:50) 7 No One Else (03:17) 8 St. Roch Blues (05:09) 9 Levon’s Dream (03:50) 10 I Know It’s Wrong (but That’s Alright) (02:58) 11 Small Town Heroes (04:28) 12 Forever Is Just a Day (03:18) |
| Small Town Heroes : Allmusic album Review : On the title cut of Small Town Heroes, Alynda Lee Segarra, the mastermind (and sometimes sole member) behind ramshackle New Orleans-based folk ensemble Hurray for the Riff Raff, wrestles with the fallout of a relationship gone sour over a single finger-picked guitar paired with the slow, distant freight train hum of a Hammond B-3, and reaches a simple, well-weathered conclusion; "I tempted fate, and I acted smart/I grew some callous on my heart". Segarras take on the Big Easy, and dusty, boxcar Americana in general, is hardly groundbreaking, but her sonorous and soulful voice, and her ability to weave a real sense of place and emotional authenticity into well-worn folk motifs make for a compelling listen, especially when she peppers the familiar with a pinch or two of subversion. Both "Crash on the Highway" and "The Body Electric" are built upon a foundation of tumbleweed-strewn, dust bowl fatalism, but the former turns tragedy into amusing tour diary fodder ("We cant make it to our gig on time"), and the latter offers a up a smart, feminist take on the traditional murder ballad ("Like an old sad song, you heard it all before/Deliahs gone but Im settling the score"). Throughout it all Segarra struts her stuff without the slightest bit of arrogance (most of the arrangements are spare, but never willfully so), offering up a confident, yet ultimately amiable set of millennial-informed, urban crafted, Woody Guthrie-inspired, contemporary hobo-folk anthems that play fast and loose with genre tropes without losing the essence that makes them universal. | ||
 | Album: 20 of 75 Artist: Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks Title: Wig Out at Jagbags Released: 2014-01-06 Tracks: 12 Duration: 41:18 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Planetary Motion (03:04) 2 The Janitor Revealed (03:34) 3 Lariat (03:05) 4 Houston Hades (04:45) 5 Shibboleth (02:43) 6 J Smoov (05:06) 7 Rumble at the Rainbo (01:41) 8 Chartjunk (03:48) 9 Independence Street (03:01) 10 Scattegories (01:53) 11 Cinnamon and Lesbians (03:00) 12 Surreal Teenagers (05:38) |
 | Album: 21 of 75 Artist: Earth Title: Primitive and Deadly Released: 2014-09-02 Tracks: 5 Duration: 47:15 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Torn by the Fox of the Crescent Moon (08:54) 2 There Is a Serpent Coming (08:06) 3 From the Zodiacal Light (11:29) 4 Even Hell Has Its Heroes (09:43) 5 Rooks Across the Gates (09:03) |
| Primitive and Deadly : Allmusic album Review : Since guitarist Dylan Carlson re-formed Earth in 2003, the one constant has been endless exploration. From the exploded desert-like Americana atmospheres of Hex: Or Printing the Infernal Method right through the Angels of Darkness: Demons of Light series with their string players, Carlson and his collaborators have regarded tone, texture, dynamic, and space as elastic elements rife for inquiry. Through it all, Earth have retained a signature: their sound remains instantly identifiable. Primitive and Deadly integrates many of the musical tenets that have appeared on those previous recordings and combines them into a seamless -- albeit much heavier -- whole. Opener "Torn by the Fox of the Crescent Moon" is their weightiest cut since re-formation. Using a chugging, doomy, gargantuan riff, Carlson, drummer Adrienne Davies, bassist Bill Herzog, and additional guitarist Brett Nelson (Built to Spill) thunder along a tense, fuzz-blown path where guitar harmonics, distortion, and post-psych blues swell around the rhythm sections quake. Mark Lanegans vocals on "There Is a Serpent Coming" add exponentially to the platform. Fat glacial riffs, feedback, processional drums, and illustrative guitar effects frame his grainy voice and its apocalyptic occult narrative inside a blown-out, bluesy, cinematic Western style. The sets centerpiece -- and longest cut -- "From the Zodiacal Light" weds doom metals minimalism to a ferociously textured post-psych roar. The thudding chords and wrung-out single notes offer vocalist Rabia Shaheen Qazi (Rose Windows) a plateau to ascend, and she does. Her melodic elocution is as fierce as the wah-wah whammy bar and the sonic overdrive that whirl around her. The other instrumental here, "Even Hell Has Its Heroes," melds Carlsons sense of slow, weighty riff exposition and love of Jimi Hendrixs unhinged blues style. His lead guitar squall explores various tonal voicings within a two-chord vamp for over ten minutes. Layered, controlled feedback covers the backdrop as his bandmates hold it down. The sounds of bells and eerie chimes introduce "Rooks Across the Gate" as waves of dissonant thirds throb across the front; a minimal lead guitar statement sounds almost glissando contrasted with the sheer weight of the tunes riff. Lanegan adds a Celtic melodic inference in his weathered delivery to carry the haunted narrative. Randall Dunns Moog assists in illuminating Carlsons high-register fills to create another lyric voice, and soars above fingerpicked and strummed chords by Nelson and guest Jodie Cox (the Narrows). Davies uses the bell on her ride cymbal to underscore each repetitive passage until fadeout. Earths massive, plodding, serpentine approach on Primitive and Deadly reflects a new focus on lyric euphony and a renewed commitment to corporeal force. The pervasive, blinding darkness that saturates this bleak, sublime music is driven by the bands collective desire to seek ecstasy in the very heart of the void. | ||
 | Album: 22 of 75 Artist: Beck Title: Morning Phase Released: 2014-02-21 Tracks: 13 Duration: 47:07 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Cycle (00:39) 2 Morning (05:19) 3 Heart Is a Drum (04:31) 4 Say Goodbye (03:29) 5 Blue Moon (04:02) 6 Unforgiven (04:34) 7 Wave (03:40) 8 Don’t Let It Go (03:09) 9 Blackbird Chain (04:26) 10 Phase (01:07) 11 Turn Away (03:05) 12 Country Down (04:00) 13 Waking Light (05:00) |
| Morning Phase : Allmusic album Review : Often pigeonholed as being prolific to a fault, Beck took an extended break from recording after the 2008 release of Modern Guilt. He kept himself busy, producing acclaimed albums for Charlotte Gainsbourg, Thurston Moore, and Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks, blowing off steam via his mischievous Record Club (an online series where he and his friends covered classic albums), and then easing back to original songwriting through the ambitious Song Reader project, a folio containing sheet music for 20 unrecorded songs. He also suffered a spinal injury in 2008, a fact not publicized until he was ready to release Morning Phase, his first album in six years, early in 2014. As Morning Phase is a slow, shimmering album deliberately in the vein of classic singer/songwriter LPs, its easy to think of it as a pained, confessional sequel to Sea Change, the 2002 record written and recorded in the wake of a painful romantic breakup. Beck didnt shy away from these comparisons, calling it a "companion piece" to his acclaimed 2002 LP, and as "Morning" glimmers into view, sounding for all the world like "Golden Age," it almost seems as if Beck covered himself as part of the Record Club. Morning Phase soon develops its own distinct gait, one thats a little more relaxed than its cousin. Crucially, Beck has swapped sorrow for mere melancholy, a shift in attitude that makes this 2014 album sweeter than its predecessor, a distinction sometimes distinguished by moments where words, traditionally the sadness signifiers for sensitive troubadours, are washed away by cascading waves of candy-colored sound. Underneath this warm, enveloping aural blanket lie some sturdily constructed compositions -- the haunting "Heart Is a Drum," bringing to mind memories of Nick Drake; the loping country-rock "Say Goodbye" and its sister "Country Down"; "Blue Moon," where the skies part like the breaking dawn -- but the abiding impression left from this album is one of comfort, not despair, which makes Morning Phase distinctly different than its companion Sea Change. | ||
 | Album: 23 of 75 Artist: Ariel Pink Title: pom pom Released: 2014-11-17 Tracks: 17 Duration: 1:07:04 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples AlbumCover | 1 Plastic Raincoats in the Pig Parade (03:29) 2 White Freckles (02:47) 3 Four Shadows (03:39) 4 Lipstick (03:20) 5 Not Enough Violence (06:04) 6 Put Your Number in My Phone (02:53) 7 One Summer Night (03:56) 8 Nude Beach a Go‐Go (02:19) 9 Goth Bomb (02:42) 10 Dinosaur Carebears (05:24) 11 Negativ Ed (03:17) 12 Sexual Athletics (04:03) 13 Jell‐o (02:02) 14 Black Ballerina (05:51) 15 Picture Me Gone (05:39) 16 Exile on Frog Street (04:47) 17 Dayzed Inn Daydreams (04:52) |
 | Album: 24 of 75 Artist: Tweedy Title: Sukierae Released: 2014-09-18 Tracks: 20 Duration: 1:11:43 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Please Don’t Let Me Be So Understood (01:33) 2 High as Hello (03:56) 3 World Away (03:31) 4 Diamond Light Pt. 1 (06:12) 5 Wait for Love (03:07) 6 Low Key (03:15) 7 Pigeons (03:08) 8 Slow Love (05:32) 9 Nobody Dies Anymore (04:57) 10 I’ll Sing It (04:01) 1 Flowering (02:54) 2 Desert Bell (03:17) 3 Summer Noon (03:32) 4 Honey Combed (02:41) 5 New Moon (03:39) 6 Down From Above (04:25) 7 Where My Love (03:42) 8 Fake Fur Coat (02:23) 9 Hazel (02:36) 10 I’ll Never Know (03:12) |
| Sukierae : Allmusic album Review : Since it has become fashionable to derisively refer to Wilcos music as "Dad Rock," it seems fitting that Jeff Tweedy would cleverly point to his own dadness by making an album with one of his sons. Sukierae, credited to Tweedy, features Spencer Tweedy, Jeffs 18-year-old son, on drums and percussion, while the rest of the instruments (except for some keyboards and backing vocals) are handled by Jeff. This father and son bonding comes at a difficult time in their personal lives, as Susan Miller Tweedy -- Jeffs wife and Spencers mom -- was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma in early 2014. None of the songs on Sukierae deal directly with this sort of familial crisis, but theres a note of struggle and hope in songs like "Wait for Love" and "Nobody Dies Anymore," while the opening lines of "New Moon" -- "Well, Ive always been certain nearly all of my life/One day Id be your burden and you would be my wife" -- clearly refer to the ways time and circumstance can change the balance of a relationship. But whatever the literal or metaphorical meaning of the lyrics on Sukierae, musically this album finds Jeff Tweedy stepping away from the grand-scale sound of Wilco for a set of songs that feel significantly more intimate and personal. Spencers drumming certainly makes a difference; his style is solid but with an exploratory bent, sometimes throwing in rhythms and fills that recall hip-hop beats while elsewhere bringing out slightly prog-like colors on the toms and cymbals, and if hes not as precise as Wilcos Glenn Kotche, his percussion (which is played up strong in the mix) gives this music an organic sound that fits the songs well. As for Jeff, hes never been a virtuoso guitarist, but on Sukierae he gives himself more room to explore on his instruments than he has since his work with the side project Loose Fur, and his instrumental work, elemental but atmospheric, cuts to the core of these melodies, which are frequently downbeat but also quite beautiful. In their own low-key way, these songs sound like Jeff Tweedys most passionate, heartfelt work since Wilcos Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, and Sukierae is a powerful, emotionally naked work that gives him a chance to do things he likely couldnt have made work quite so well with his band. And if this is Dad Rock … well, sometimes dads have stories worth hearing, and Sukierae shows that Jeff Tweedy more than qualifies. | ||
 | Album: 25 of 75 Artist: Sleaford Mods Title: Divide and Exit Released: 2014-05-23 Tracks: 14 Duration: 40:00 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 Air Conditioning (02:26) 2 Tied Up in Nottz (02:41) 3 A Little Ditty (02:32) 4 You’re Brave (02:45) 5 Strike Force (02:50) 6 The Corgi (02:35) 7 From Rags to Richards (03:26) 8 Liveable Shit (03:19) 9 Under the Plastic and N.C.T. (03:18) 10 Tiswas (03:12) 11 Keep Out of It (03:00) 12 Smithy (02:22) 13 Middle Men (02:31) 14 Tweet Tweet Tweet (03:03) |
 | Album: 26 of 75 Artist: Steve Gunn Title: Way Out Weather Released: 2014-10-07 Tracks: 8 Duration: 43:25 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 Way Out Weather (06:18) 2 Wildwood (05:38) 3 Milly’s Garden (05:34) 4 Shadow Bros (04:29) 5 Fiction (05:44) 6 Drifter (03:59) 7 Atmosphere (05:09) 8 Tommy’s Congo (06:34) |
 | Album: 27 of 75 Artist: Ben Watt Title: Hendra Released: 2014-04-14 Tracks: 10 Duration: 44:15 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 Hendra (03:23) 2 Forget (05:13) 3 Spring (03:55) 4 Golden Ratio (05:13) 5 Matthew Arnolds Field (04:31) 6 The Gun (05:34) 7 Nathaniel (04:46) 8 The Levels (03:59) 9 Young Mans Game (02:52) 10 The Heart Is a Mirror (04:45) |
 | Album: 28 of 75 Artist: The Black Keys Title: Turn Blue Released: 2014-05-09 Tracks: 11 Duration: 45:12 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Weight of Love (06:50) 2 In Time (04:28) 3 Turn Blue (03:42) 4 Fever (04:06) 5 Year in Review (03:48) 6 Bullet in the Brain (04:15) 7 It’s Up to You Now (03:10) 8 Waiting on Words (03:37) 9 10 Lovers (03:33) 10 In Our Prime (04:38) 11 Gotta Get Away (03:02) |
| Turn Blue : Allmusic album Review : Like corporate drones determined to cut loose every third Friday whether they need to or not, the Black Keys take the time to schedule semi-regular journeys into the unknown. Turn Blue, the 2014 successor to their down-and-dirty international blockbuster El Camino, is one of those trips, a churning psychedelic excursion that slowly pulses in any color you like. Those colors spread out slow and low as Turn Blue gets underway via "Weight of Love," sounding not at all unlike Pink Floyds "Breathe in the Air," a deliberate comparison the Keys return to often throughout the album, letting it decorate fleeting moments and infuse full songs ("Bullet in the Brain," the first single pulled from the LP, hits many of the same notes). Floyd looked to space but, like the Ohio natives that they are, the Black Keys concerns are earthbound. Dan Auerbach primarily sings songs about love lost and won, sprinkling in a little bit of lust along the way, and he and Patrick Carney certainly share a love of soul and groove, something thats rarely heard in music as trippy as this. Time and time again throughout Turn Blue, the Black Keys and Danger Mouse turn toward those rhythms without abandoning the psychedelic swirl that gives the album its distinctive flavor. Unlike 2008s Attack & Release -- the last time the Black Keys decided to get out, way out (and not coincidentally their first collaboration with Danger Mouse) -- this has momentum, a drive provided by those heavy rhythms (they escalate so much, "10 Lovers" flirts with glitter-ball disco) and sheets of outsized fuzz guitars that cut through the haze. Songs stretch out longer here than they have on any previous Black Keys LP, but this doesnt feel indulgent due to the precision of the production; things may seem to drift but every bit of fuzz and echo is in its right place. Initially, this immaculately shaded production draws attention to itself but, in time, Turn Blue reveals that underneath its surface flash its a quietly adventurous and substantive record. The Black Keys retain their fascination with southern soul of the late 60s -- the title track is coolly insinuating, "Fever" stomps and shakes -- but where El Camino pushed these retro-fantasies to the center, theyre merely the bones of this record, the solid structure upon which the band and Danger Mouse choose to expand. Although the closing "Gotta Get Away"-- its title borrowed from both the Rolling Stones and the Impressions but the song sounds like neither group -- illustrates how good the duo is when they keep things grounded in the garage, the rest of Turn Blue impresses because it does what all great bands should do: it captures a band stretching while always sounding like themselves. | ||
 | Album: 29 of 75 Artist: Jack White Title: Lazaretto Released: 2014-06-06 Tracks: 11 Duration: 39:14 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Three Women (03:57) 2 Lazaretto (03:39) 3 Temporary Ground (03:13) 4 Would You Fight for My Love? (04:09) 5 High Ball Stepper (03:53) 6 Just One Drink (02:36) 7 Alone in My Home (03:27) 8 Entitlement (04:07) 9 That Black Bat Licorice (03:50) 10 I Think I Found the Culprit (03:49) 11 Want and Able (02:34) |
| Lazaretto : Allmusic album Review : Like "blunderbuss," a "lazaretto" is an ancient reference that means little in the modern world, a fact that does not escape Jack White, a musician who specializes in blurring lines between past and present. Contrary to his carefully cultivated persona as a raider of lost Americana, White never, ever was a purist: he thrived upon seizing the precise moment when accepted definitions lose all meanings and turn into something new. This tension surfaces on Lazaretto, his second solo album, a record that lives upon the edges of his interests. There is a fair share of blues bluster -- via Zeppelin riffs and huffed references to digital cameras, the opener "Three Women" modernizes Blind Willie McTell, while he twists a refrain from Howlin Wolfs "I Asked for Water (She Gave Me Gasoline)" on "Just One Drink" -- but Lillie Mae Risches violin occupies nearly as much space as his own howling guitars, pushing White into the left field where he prefers to reside. That eccentricity is the pleasure of Lazaretto, which is by every measure the strangest record associated with White since 2005s Get Behind Me Satan, a record that found Jack tackling the aftermath of fame by turning gothic. Hes since lightened his outlook -- all the restored recording booths and trickster vinyl coming out of Third Man Records in Nashville show the heart of a prankster -- but he retains the itch of an artist, thriving upon self-imposed limitations. With Lazaretto, that amounted to adapting a clutch of fiction he wrote when he was 19, using the themes of these stories and plays to not only fuel the topics, but to freshen his songwriting, which was veering ever so slightly toward craftsmanship on Blunderbuss. Here, White kicks the legs out from under himself, allowing himself some signature indulgences -- the aforementioned blues blazers, plus the unhinged "That Black Bat Licorice" -- and reviving a few forgotten sounds (the closing piano ballad "Want and Able" recalls the moody turns of Satan), but generally he pounces upon detours, savoring the instrumental of "High Ball Stepper," demonstrating a facility with hip-hop rhythms and cadence on "Lazaretto," and lingering in dark corners for perhaps a little longer than necessary. All this sound and fury disguises how elsewhere on Lazaretto there are songs as exquisitely sculpted as those on Blunderbuss -- the heartbroken honky tonk of "Temporary Ground," the deceptively sprightly "Alone in My Home," the teasing melodrama of "Would You Fight for My Love?" -- but what makes it a better, richer work is how it simultaneously holds every side of White, existing at the crossroads where modernity, tradition, hard work, and inspiration all meet. | ||
 | Album: 30 of 75 Artist: Spoon Title: They Want My Soul Released: 2014-08-04 Tracks: 20 Duration: 1:15:14 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Rent I Pay (03:10) 2 Inside Out (05:02) 3 Rainy Taxi (03:58) 4 Do You (03:33) 5 Knock Knock Knock (04:39) 6 Outlier (04:22) 7 They Want My Soul (03:22) 8 I Just Dont Understand (02:38) 9 Let Me Be Mine (03:26) 10 New York Kiss (03:27) 1 Rent I Pay (03:10) 2 Inside Out (05:02) 3 Rainy Taxi (03:58) 4 Do You (03:33) 5 Knock Knock Knock (04:39) 6 Outlier (04:22) 7 They Want My Soul (03:22) 8 I Just Dont Understand (02:38) 9 Let Me Be Mine (03:26) 10 New York Kiss (03:27) |
| They Want My Soul : Allmusic album Review : After spending the 2000s churning out consistently good albums, Spoon were due for a break. 2010s Transference reflected their weariness in its beautifully frayed collage of demo and studio recordings, so the four-year gap that followed wasnt surprising. During that time, Jim Eno produced albums by !!! and the Heartless Bastards; Eric Harvey released the solo album Lake Disappointment, and Britt Daniel formed Divine Fits with Dan Boeckner. That project couldnt help but rub off on Spoons next album, especially since Daniel wrote much of They Want My Soul shortly after touring with Divine Fits and brought keyboardist Alex Fischel into the fold. Spoons time off paid off; if they were weary before, here theyre reinvigorated but self-aware. On several of these ten songs, Daniel laments that "they" want a piece of him, and the album revolves around obligations -- spiritual, romantic, financial -- that make for a witty focus for the bands first major-label album in over 15 years. On "The Rent I Pay," one of their best fusions of the Rolling Stones and Wire, Daniel pays his dues and defies them ("I aint your dancer") while Enos mighty snare hits signal that Spoon is back. On the albums title track, he includes Kill the Moonlight inspiration Jonathon Fisk among the laundry list of folks who want his vital force, but the irresistible harmonies and guitars give the songs paranoia an almost romantic tinge. Later, the standout "Let Me Be Mine" teeters between freedom and commitment with exuberant outbursts and chilly breakdowns reminiscent of Transference. But where that albums messy vulnerability was a big part of its appeal, They Want My Souls sound is much tighter, thanks to two established sound-shapers: Dave Fridmann, whose intricate work embellished the music of the Shins and Sleater-Kinney, and Joe Chiccarelli, who produced the more mainstream likes of Jason Mraz and Counting Crows. However, the results are unquestionably Spoon. The hooky, strummy "Do You" is their version of a radio-friendly hit, while "Outlier" dresses its disses (“I remember when you walked out of Garden State/You had taste" takes aim at the songs subject and Zach Braffs movie) in busy percussion and swirling organs that borrow from late-80s baggy. Songs like this, the sparkling "Rainy Taxi," and the swooning "New York Kiss" -- which could be a Divine Fits song -- showcase the depth Fischels keyboards add to the band. A few indie quirks remain: many of They Want My Souls most immediate tracks are at the bottom, and some of these songs take time to reveal themselves. "Knock Knock Knock"s bristling guitars tip Daniels hand more than his elliptical lyrics, while the raw cover of "I Just Dont Understand" feels like as much of a disguise as the more cryptic moments. Still, They Want My Soul is more of a welcome return than a comeback, and too complex to be considered back-to-basics -- especially when they reinvent the basics on each album. | ||
 | Album: 31 of 75 Artist: tUnE-yArDs Title: Nikki Nack Released: 2014-05-05 Tracks: 13 Duration: 44:24 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples AlbumCover | 1 Find a New Way (03:28) 2 Water Fountain (03:03) 3 Time of Dark (04:33) 4 Real Thing (03:22) 5 Look Around (04:26) 6 Hey Life (03:37) 7 Sink-O (03:17) 8 Why Do We Dine on the Tots? (01:28) 9 Stop That Man (03:33) 10 Wait for a Minute (03:54) 11 Left Behind (04:31) 12 Rocking Chair (02:03) 13 Manchild (03:09) |
 | Album: 32 of 75 Artist: Merchandise Title: After The End Released: 2014-08-24 Tracks: 10 Duration: 44:16 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 Corridor (02:47) 2 Enemy (04:30) 3 True Monument (04:59) 4 Green Lady (04:29) 5 Life Outside the Mirror (04:56) 6 Telephone (04:04) 7 Little Killer (03:05) 8 Looking Glass Waltz (04:00) 9 After the End (06:55) 10 Exile and Ego (04:31) |
 | Album: 33 of 75 Artist: Sturgill Simpson Title: Metamodern Sounds in Country Music Released: 2014-05-12 Tracks: 10 Duration: 34:26 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Turtles All the Way Down (03:08) 2 Life of Sin (02:26) 3 Living the Dream (03:51) 4 Voices (02:47) 5 Long White Line (04:01) 6 The Promise (04:17) 7 A Little Light (01:39) 8 Just Let Go (02:32) 9 It Aint All Flowers (06:43) 10 Pan Bowl (03:02) |
| Metamodern Sounds in Country Music : Allmusic album Review : Sturgill Simpson won many fans with his 2013 debut album, High Top Mountain. It is unapologetic in its evocation of 70s outlaw country. For his sophomore date, he and his band entered a Nashville studio with producer/engineer Dave Cobb (Jason Isbell), and cut Metamodern Sounds in Country Music live-to-tape in four days. These songs and their production values, though immediately reconizable, are more varied and textured than those of his debut--theres no pedal steel here for one thing. The Waylon Jennings-esque quality in Simpsons singing voice remains, but thats built in. His songwriting and confidence have grown exponentially. The set is introduced by his 82-year-old coal-mining grandfather Dood Fraley on opener and first single "Turtles All the Way Down." The track features Cobbs nylon-string guitar, the wafting tapes of a Mellotron, electric bass, acoustic and electric guitars, and sharp drums framing Simpsons lyrics that refer to Jesus, the Old Testament, Buddha, mythology, cosmology, drugs, and physics, before concluding that "love is the only thing that saved my life," making it a glorious cosmic cowboy song. On the rocking "Life of Sin," Simpsons acoustic guitar meets Laur Joamets razor-sharp Telecaster leads in a cut-time shuffle that explodes in a country boogie. "Voices" addresses the collective and troubled history about coal-mining with wisdom--all inside a spacious yet lean three-minute country song. There are two covers here: One is a killer reading of Charlie Moores and Bill Napiers trucker anthem "Long White Line" that careens and chugs with Joamets razor-wire Telecaster and Simpsons flatpicking. The other is "The Promise." Originally a hit for the British pop band When in Rome in 1989, Simpson utterly transforms it into a progressive honky tonk love song and makes it his own. "A Little Light" is rockabilly-country-gospel with wrangling guitars, handclaps, ragged-but-right vocal harmonies, and plenty of spiritual swagger. "Just Let Go" is Buddhist gospel, with gorgeous harmonies, spiralling mellotron, slide guitars, poetic lyrics, and organ--its one of the sets finest moments. It introduces the acid-drenched psychedelic country that is "It Aint All Flowers." Simpsons prescient, philosophical lyrics are framed inside phased, wah-wahed, and reverbed guitars, crunchy snares, haunting mellotron, spacy slide lines, and instrumental backmasking that wind into the stratosphere. His strident, passionate vocal is so tough, soulful and spiny, it bleeds through genre definitions as it rocks, rolls, and wails. Metamodern Sounds in Country Music is wildly adventurous; it extends the musical promise outlaw music made to listeners over 40 years ago. Simpson is too honest, restless and dedicated to country musics illustrious legacy to simply frame it as a musical museum piece. As an artist of uncommon ability, he has learned from its hallowed lineage and storied past that in order for it to evolve, it cannot be reined in; it must be free to roam in order to create its future. His visionary work on this album opens the gate wide on that frontier. | ||
 | Album: 34 of 75 Artist: Chris Forsyth & The Solar Motel Band Title: Intensity Ghost Released: 2014-10-28 Tracks: 5 Duration: 39:01 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 The Ballad of Freer Hollow (11:24) 2 Yellow Square (08:45) 3 I Aint Waiting (05:15) 4 Intensity Ghost (06:37) 5 Paris Song (07:00) |
 | Album: 35 of 75 Artist: Drive-By Truckers Title: English Oceans Released: 2014-03-03 Tracks: 37 Duration: 2:41:34 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 Shit Shots Count (04:10) 2 When Hes Gone (03:41) 3 Primer Coat (04:25) 4 Pauline Hawkins (06:39) 5 Made Up English Oceans (03:27) 6 The Part of Him (04:28) 7 Hearing Jimmy Loud (04:45) 8 Til Hes Dead or Rising (04:24) 9 Hanging On (04:01) 10 Natural Light (05:15) 11 When Walter Went Crazy (03:48) 12 First Air of Autumn (03:30) 13 Grand Canyon (07:50) 1 First Air of Autumn (03:29) 2 Grand Canyon (05:40) 3 Made Up English Oceans (03:12) 4 The Part of Him (06:24) 5 Feb. 14 (03:55) 6 Panties in Your Purse (03:45) 7 Dead, Drunk and Naked (05:02) 8 Shit Shots Count (04:13) 1 Black Ice Vérité Introduction (02:19) 2 Primer Coat (04:11) 3 The Part of Him (04:37) 4 Shit Shots Count (04:05) 5 When Hes Gone (03:42) 6 Hearing Jimmy Loud (04:33) 7 Pauline Hawkins (06:17) 8 Made Up English Oceans (04:54) 9 Hanging On (04:14) 10 Till Hes Dead or Rises (04:10) 11 Natural Light (04:45) 12 When Walter Went Crazy (03:58) 13 First Air of Autumn (03:20) 14 [intro] (00:38) 15 Grand Canyon (08:05) 16 [credits] (01:39) |
 | Album: 36 of 75 Artist: La Roux Title: Trouble in Paradise Released: 2014-07-07 Tracks: 9 Duration: 42:20 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Uptight Downtown (04:21) 2 Kiss and Not Tell (03:53) 3 Cruel Sexuality (04:15) 4 Paradise Is You (05:11) 5 Sexotheque (04:18) 6 Tropical Chancer (03:31) 7 Silent Partner (07:01) 8 Let Me Down Gently (05:40) 9 The Feeling (04:06) |
 | Album: 37 of 75 Artist: Willie Nelson Title: Band of Brothers Released: 2014-06-16 Tracks: 14 Duration: 47:19 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 Bring It On (02:54) 2 Guitar in the Corner (03:55) 3 The Wall (03:29) 4 Whenever You Come Around (04:13) 5 Wives and Girlfriends (03:01) 6 I Thought I Left You (03:01) 7 Send Me a Picture (03:59) 8 Used to Her (02:46) 9 The Git Go (04:09) 10 Band of Brothers (02:50) 11 Hard to Be an Outlaw (03:09) 12 Crazy Like Me (03:15) 13 The Songwriters (03:16) 14 Ive Got a Lot of Traveling to Do (03:22) |
 | Album: 38 of 75 Artist: Fennesz Title: Bécs Released: 2014-04-28 Tracks: 7 Duration: 43:29 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples AlbumCover | 1 Static Kings (05:46) 2 The Liar (04:37) 3 Liminality (10:00) 4 Pallas Athene (06:10) 5 Bécs (05:43) 6 Sav (07:35) 7 Paroles (03:36) |
 | Album: 39 of 75 Artist: Future Islands Title: Singles Released: 2014-03-24 Tracks: 10 Duration: 42:28 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Seasons (Waiting on You) (03:46) 2 Spirit (04:22) 3 Sun in the Morning (03:51) 4 Doves (03:29) 5 Back in the Tall Grass (04:17) 6 A Song for Our Grandfathers (04:56) 7 Light House (04:49) 8 Like the Moon (04:41) 9 Fall From Grace (04:16) 10 A Dream of You and Me (04:01) |
| Singles : Allmusic album Review : After a solid run of albums that showed growth each time, Future Islands explode into greatness on their fourth album, and first for 4AD, 2014s Singles. Streamlining their synth-heavy, experimental, almost danceable sound of the past into something laser-focused, new wave familiar, and very, very immediate, the album is a great leap forward thats filled with intensely catchy songs and allows vocalist Samuel T. Herring to shine like the star hes always been. His David Thomas of Pere Ubu meets David Prater of Sam & Dave singing style is both more expansive than ever and more restrained. He ducks and bobs around the pulsing disco beats and glittering synths like a boxer, sometimes knocking you out with histrionic growls and deep-throated snarls, sometimes setting you up with lightly crooned pleading that hits like a heart punch. Its a masterful performance thats matched by Chris Coadys expert production and the work of bassist/guitarist William Cashion and guitarist/synthist J. Gerrit Welmers (as well as session drummer Denny Bowen). Coady smooths the groups sound out without sacrificing any punch, then layers in horns, backing vocals, and keys until the album shines like a well-polished diamond. Cashions bass work is the key supporting player, rumbling like a propulsive motor and laying down melodic lines he must have learned through hours of studying Peter Hooks best work. Welmers keyboard work isnt far behind, as he always drops in the right fills and uses the perfect colors to fill in behind the action. Its a perfectly constructed sound that gives Herring the freedom to spill his guts without fear, and in the end works to make the records title sound truer than they probably even imagined. Every song sounds like a past, present, and future hit single, with ringing hooks, grooves that wont leave your hips alone, and the kind of cutting emotional depth that will leave blood pooling around your feet as it slashes you again and again. Pick any song, like the achingly pretty "Seasons (Waiting on You)" or the understated "Light House" or the after-hours Roxy Music-inspired "Like the Moon," and itll be the kind of song that will stop people in their tracks in a crowded bar, the kind that you play over and over when you run across it streaming on a website, the kind that you tell all your friends about. A whole album of songs like that feels like a dream come true. Its real, though, and the vocals, the songs, the music, and the production work together to make Singles a one-of-a-kind experience thats nearly perfect. | ||
 | Album: 40 of 75 Artist: Lee Bains III & the Glory Fires Title: Dereconstructed Released: 2014-05-27 Tracks: 10 Duration: 35:50 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 The Company Man (03:18) 2 Dereconstructed (02:29) 3 Burnpiles, Swimming Holes (02:37) 4 The Kudzu and the Concrete (03:33) 5 The Weeds Downtown (04:16) 6 Whats Good and Gone (04:26) 7 We Dare Defend Our Rights (03:07) 8 Flags! (02:23) 9 Mississippi Bottomland (04:47) 10 Dirt Track (04:50) |
 | Album: 41 of 75 Artist: Mark Lanegan Band Title: Phantom Radio Released: 2014-10-17 Tracks: 10 Duration: 38:10 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Harvest Home (03:17) 2 Judgement Time (02:30) 3 Floor of the Ocean (04:52) 4 The Killing Season (03:46) 5 Seventh Day (04:52) 6 I Am the Wolf (03:43) 7 Torn Red Heart (04:01) 8 Waltzing in Blue (03:15) 9 The Wild People (03:07) 10 Death Trip to Tulsa (04:47) |
| Phantom Radio : Allmusic album Review : If there really is a Mark Lanegan Band, it apparently consists of Lanegan and Alain Johannes; despite the collective billing, as on 2012s Blues Funeral, the only consistent presence besides Lanegan on 2014s Phantom Radio is producer and multi-instrumentalist Johannes, who provides the guitar and keyboards that dominate the set, giving it a clean electronic sheen, even when the album is going for a darker, atmospheric tone on numbers such as "The Wild People" and "Judgement Time." Of course, as Lanegan showed on his albums with the Soulsavers, his resonant vocals and dour lyrics can put a lot of flesh and blood on an electronic framework, and he performs the same feat on Phantom Radio. While this music is, for the most part, noticeably simpler and more pop-oriented than his Soulsavers recordings, songs like "Waltzing in Blue," "The Killing Season," and "Floor of the Ocean" manage to sound polished on the surface while Lanegan gives them a rough-hewn gravity, fusing the timeless spirit of classic blues and rural folk songs to music clearly rooted in the 21st century. Lanegans vocals feel a shade less gritty here than they have on some of his more recent work -- his voice still sounds smoky, but suggests he may have cut down to just one pack of cigarettes a day -- but the slightly smoother textures and better control over his instrument dont make this music sound any less doomstruck, and Lanegans fascination with the darker side of humanity has yet to fail him creatively. While a few longtime fans might pine for the more organic textures of albums like Whiskey for the Holy Ghost or The Winding Sheet, Phantom Radio shows that a bit more production polish and digital styling hasnt fogged Lanegans message, and Phantom Radio reveals the singer and his songs are as strong and as eloquent as ever. | ||
 | Album: 42 of 75 Artist: Mogwai Title: Rave Tapes Released: 2014-01-14 Tracks: 10 Duration: 49:04 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Heard About You Last Night (05:24) 2 Simon Ferocious (04:49) 3 Remurdered (06:25) 4 Hexon Bogon (02:35) 5 Repelish (03:56) 6 Master Card (03:57) 7 Deesh (05:33) 8 Blues Hour (06:17) 9 No Medicine for Regret (05:40) 10 The Lord Is Out of Control (04:23) |
| Rave Tapes : Allmusic album Review : During the time they were making Rave Tapes, Mogwais flair for soundtracks was being celebrated: the band began 2013 with the release of their brilliant score for Les Revenants, the cryptic French TV show about the undead, and they were just about to play a series of performances of their music for Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait as accompaniment to the movie. All this film-related activity may have inspired Rave Tapes restraint (the fact that the band had a narrow window of time in which to record the album probably contributed to it as well). For much of the album, Mogwai trades majesty for economy, focusing on a few motifs that they combine and recombine in an almost modular fashion. Barry Burns bubbling, gurgling synth is chief among these elements, especially on "Simon Ferocious," where it locks in with rolling beats and knotty guitar work with a precision that stops just short of clinical. Hearing the band put together these song-puzzles offers a more cerebral kind of listening experience than Les Revenants spare, mournful dread or Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Wills rock fury; even when Mogwai turn up the volume, they remain aloof. Some of Les Revenants eeriness informs "Remurdered"s cold-blooded electro-rock, while "Hexon Bogon" and "Master Card" coil heavy riffs upon themselves until theyre about to snap. As impressive as Rave Tapes rockers are, the albums heart lies in subtler tracks like "Heard About You Last Night," a dreamy prelude that makes the most of the delicacy Mogwai has excelled at since their early days. Similarly, the quietly anthemic "Blues Hour" and vocoder-driven "The Lord Is Out of Control" hark back to the muted beauty of Mr. Beast and Come On Die Youngs implosive minimalism. Rave Tapes takes a while to hit its stride, but it delivers plenty of moments to keep fans intrigued once it does. | ||
 | Album: 43 of 75 Artist: East India Youth Title: Total Strife Forever Released: 2014-01-13 Tracks: 11 Duration: 51:07 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 Glitter Recession (04:19) 2 Total Strife Forever I (06:35) 3 Dripping Down (04:14) 4 Hinterland (06:16) 5 Heaven, How Long (06:09) 6 Total Strife Forever II (02:55) 7 Looking for Someone (04:15) 8 Midnight Koto (03:13) 9 Total Strife Forever III (04:41) 10 Song for a Granular Piano (04:01) 11 Total Strife Forever IV (04:25) |
 | Album: 44 of 75 Artist: Thom Yorke Title: Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes Released: 2014-09-26 Tracks: 8 Duration: 38:07 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 A Brain in a Bottle (04:40) 2 Guess Again! (04:23) 3 Interference (02:48) 4 The Mother Lode (06:07) 5 Truth Ray (05:13) 6 There Is No Ice (for My Drink) (07:00) 7 Pink Section (02:34) 8 Nose Grows Some (05:22) |
| Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes : Allmusic album Review : Like Radioheads In Rainbows before it, Thom Yorkes Tomorrows Modern Boxes initially made waves not for its music but for its distribution. Announced without warning and available as a paid "bundle" via BitTorrent -- it was not the first record distributed that way but it certainly was the most prominent -- Tomorrows Modern Boxes shared the same shock of the new as In Rainbows, and although its certainly written on a smaller scale than that 2007 record, it occupies a similar space within Yorkes extracurricular discography. In Rainbows represented an emotional thaw after the chilly, amorphous Hail to the Thief, whereas Tomorrows Modern Boxes warms up the icy exteriors of Eraser. Yorke never attempts to abandon his fixation on pre-EDM electronica -- at this point, his affection for turn-of-the-millennium intelligent dance music could almost qualify as classicist -- but theres a scuffed warmth to much of this album, with the warped waves of keyboards gently gliding into a rhythm later articulated by a loop. Such aural sleights of hand never call attention to themselves but neither does the album as a whole. Tomorrows Modern Boxes is deliberately underwhelming, an old-fashioned grower that doesnt startle upon first listen but rather slowly unfolds. Even then, the album is stubbornly subtle, with Yorke exploring the space between gaps, not the chasm itself. Less charitable listeners could call it mood music and they wouldnt be wrong, because Yorke and producer Nigel Godrich are so controlled, they offer variations of a theme instead of a wide palette. This is not dissimilar to Eraser, but instead of wallowing in alienation, Yorke has found comfort within it on Tomorrows Modern Boxes and the difference is palpable. | ||
 | Album: 45 of 75 Artist: Kate Tempest Title: Everybody Down Released: 2014-05-16 Tracks: 12 Duration: 48:29 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Marshall Law (05:39) 2 The Truth (03:21) 3 Lonely Daze (03:58) 4 Chicken (02:46) 5 The Beigeness (03:08) 6 Theme From Becky (03:55) 7 Stink (02:46) 8 The Heist (03:54) 9 To the Victor the Spoils (03:01) 10 Circles (05:06) 11 A Hammer (03:42) 12 Happy End (07:13) |
| Everybody Down : Allmusic album Review : Falling somewhere between John Cooper Clarke and Scroobius Pip, or the Streets and Samuel Beckett, Londons Kate Tempest is a poet/rapper, and the real deal on both sides of that slash. Everybody Down, her debut album for the Big Dada label, could be considered performance poetry -- just like her piece Brand New Ancients, which was performed with orchestral backing at Londons Battersea Arts Centre and won the Ted Hughes Award for innovation in poetry that same year -- but the music from Dan Carey is beat-driven, street stuff, plus if the urban characters that wind in and out of this story arent wearing hoodies and sneakers, it must because theyre taking their weekly bath. Thats the problem with the aptly titled Everybody Down, as this concept LP deals with three characters who are so lonely, theyve become spiteful, sullen, snide, and self-destructive while only speaking of hope as something encountered in dreams. Its a drab palette with the only wash of color being how skillfully Tempest paints the picture. Besides, its easy to slide into unattractiveness when your ex-convict uncle comes around and gives a look that says not "I love you" but "This is business and you should go" ("To the Victor the Spoils"), and while Brand New Ancients had its share of phoenixes, this one is all about the ashes. Even if Everybody Down is all thrills, pills, and bellyaches, and mostly the last, Tempest is only 27 and already dealing in pop music as high art. Forgive her for not raging against the darkness, and then delight in how she sings the fallen and forgottens song so well. | ||
 | Album: 46 of 75 Artist: Willie Watson Title: Folk Singer, Volume One Released: 2014-05-05 Tracks: 10 Duration: 36:21 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 Midnight Special (04:38) 2 Long John Dean (02:54) 3 Stewball (03:47) 4 Mother Earth (03:36) 5 Mexican Cowboy (03:53) 6 James Alley Blues (04:06) 7 Rock Salt and Nails (03:47) 8 Bring It With You When You Come (02:46) 9 Kitty Puss (03:15) 10 Keep It Clean (03:35) |
 | Album: 47 of 75 Artist: Allah-Las Title: Worship the Sun Released: 2014-09-15 Tracks: 14 Duration: 40:10 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 De Vida Voz (02:31) 2 Had It All (02:40) 3 Artifact (03:33) 4 Ferus Gallery (03:35) 5 Recurring (02:16) 6 Nothing to Hide (03:40) 7 Buffalo Nickel (02:46) 8 Follow You Down (03:10) 9 501-415 (01:43) 10 Yemeni Jade (02:38) 11 Worship the Sun (02:49) 12 Better Than Mine (02:49) 13 No Werewolf (02:28) 14 Every Girl (03:25) |
 | Album: 48 of 75 Artist: Morrissey Title: World Peace Is None of Your Business Released: 2014-07-11 Tracks: 12 Duration: 56:04 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 World Peace Is None of Your Business (04:32) 2 Neal Cassady Drops Dead (04:05) 3 I’m Not a Man (07:48) 4 Istanbul (04:41) 5 Earth Is the Loneliest Planet (03:37) 6 Staircase at the University (05:27) 7 The Bullfighter Dies (02:03) 8 Kiss Me a Lot (04:03) 9 Smiler With Knife (05:17) 10 Kick the Bride Down the Aisle (05:17) 11 Mountjoy (05:02) 12 Oboe Concerto (04:07) |
| World Peace Is None of Your Business : Allmusic album Review : Arriving on the heels of Autobiography, a 2013 memoir that reveled in the cadences of revelation without ever laying bare his soul, World Peace Is None of Your Business feels curiously bereft of Morrisseys lyrical elegance. This, like so many of Mozs moves, is certainly deliberate. There is a directness to the lyrics on World Peace Is None of Your Business that initially feels unsettling, contradicting Morrisseys long history of obfuscation and sly winks. Such broad strokes accentuate his political beliefs -- he has no desire to be part of the voting process, he stands firm on animal rights, he disdains conventional masculinity while still feeling a pull toward pugilism -- while dulling the edges of his typical wistfulness. Perhaps Morrissey decided to wield his words as blunt instruments to offset the wildly off-kilter music of World Peace. Coming after a decade of albums where Morrisseys consistency was almost a fault, the untidiness of World Peace feels rather thrilling, holding the attention even when the record doesnt necessarily work. Producer Joe Chiccarelli -- an alt-rock vet whose credits run from Oingo Boingo to Alanis Morissette and Café Tacuba -- gives the record a big, forceful sound that is occasionally too crisp (its possible to see the digital guitar effects push into the red on "Neal Cassidy Drops Dead"), but he also allows Moz to indulge his every whim, whether its the ominous, churning heavy rock of the title track and "Istanbul," or the flamenco flourishes of "Earth Is the Loneliest Planet" and "The Bullfighter Dies." Elsewhere, Morrissey sticks to some tried and true -- "Staircase at the University" hearkens back to Viva Hate -- but the album is characterized by its aural eccentricities, which infect even relatively staid pop songs like "Kiss Me a Lot." Such willful weirdness is oddly endearing even when it doesnt hold together, which it often doesnt; itll develop a head of steam that quickly dissipates as it veers in another direction, playing almost like a series of conjoined EPs. Perhaps this doesnt add up to a record as forceful or coherent as either You Are the Quarry or Years of Refusal but that messiness is also its charm: Morrissey isnt living up to what he should do, hes doing whatever he wants to, whether it makes sense or not. That fearlessness may be reckless but its also welcome. | ||
 | Album: 49 of 75 Artist: Robyn Hitchcock Title: The Man Upstairs Released: 2013-09 Tracks: 10 Duration: 38:15 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 The Ghost in You (04:28) 2 San Francisco Patrol (04:19) 3 To Turn You On (04:10) 4 Trouble in Your Blood (04:42) 5 Somebody to Break Your Heart (02:21) 6 Don’t Look Down (05:08) 7 Ferries (03:02) 8 Comme Toujours (03:08) 9 The Crystal Ship (02:27) 10 Recalling the Truth (04:26) |
| The Man Upstairs : Allmusic album Review : Robyn Hitchcock sums up the impetus behind his 20th solo studio outing with an unusually succinct quote: “I’ve always wanted to make a folk record produced by Joe Boyd and now I have: thank you, universe!” It would seem that the serial surrealists penchant for punctuating everything with food, flora, and sex metaphors does not extend to conveying the simple joy of working with the legendary producer of such iconic albums as Nick Drakes Bryter Later and Fairport Conventions Liege & Lief, just to name a few. Hitchcock applies that same newfound predilection for levelheadedness to the songs on The Man Upstairs as well, offering up five choice covers and five new originals that flirt with the fantastic, yet avoid an unnecessary trip down the rabbit hole -- even the Gillian Welch-illustrated, netherworld-fixated cover art feels relatively settled. The albums brightest diamond in the rough, a surprisingly moving and wistful take on the Psychedelic Furs "The Ghost in You," appears right out of the gate, and like much of the material to follow, utilizes the talents of Boyd, cellist Jenny Adejayan, pianist Charlie Francis, and vocalist Anne Lise Frøkedal from the Norwegian indie pop duo I Was a King, all of whom, especially Frøkedal, whose ethereal harmonies are so (tastefully) omnipresent throughout, help to reign in some of the structural elasticity that sometimes has a tendency to undermine Hitchcocks all acoustic outings. Sonically, The Man Upstairs operates somewhere between Eye and I Often Dream of Trains (a very English folk take on the Doors "Crystal Ship" would have fit perfectly on the latter), but outside of the truly spectacular "Trouble in Blood" and the evocative "San Francisco Patrol," the originals (and the remaining covers) feel largely ephemeral, especially for someone so inclined to unmitigated prolificacy. | ||
 | Album: 50 of 75 Artist: Wild Beasts Title: Present Tense Released: 2014-02-24 Tracks: 13 Duration: 56:25 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Wanderlust (04:54) 2 Nature Boy (03:33) 3 Mecca (03:44) 4 Sweet Spot (03:59) 5 Daughters (04:46) 6 Pregnant Pause (03:09) 7 A Simple Beautiful Truth (02:35) 8 A Dog’s Life (03:21) 9 Past Perfect (02:57) 10 New Life (04:37) 11 Palace (03:20) 12 Wanderlust (Factory Floor remix) (07:11) 13 Wanderlust (The Field remix) (08:14) |
| Present Tense : Allmusic album Review : While its not exactly accurate to say Wild Beasts have gotten tamer with each release, its hard to deny that their music has become far more orderly and considered since the Limbo, Panto days. The band adopted a sleeker approach on the brilliant Smother, so the lean synth pop that provides Present Tenses backbone feels like a logical, if not exactly expected, progression. With the help of producers Lexx and Leo Abrahams -- who have worked with Björk and Brian Eno, respectively -- the group explores territory that is quieter but no less compelling than where theyve been before. Present Tenses implosive sound reflects the fact that comedowns and consequences cast a longer shadow over Wild Beasts songs than they used to. On "Mecca," Hayden Thorpe, Tom Flemming, and company spend more time yearning for pleasure than experiencing it. Even on more sensual songs like "Wanderlust" (which is rhymed with "voluptuous"), Thorpe sounds more jaded than brazen when he sings "Dont confuse me with someone who gives a fuck," providing the albums manifesto. As always, Wild Beasts have one of the finest indie songwriting duos in Thorpe and Flemming, whose styles still complement each other perfectly. Thorpe offers a more poetic interpretation of Present Tenses fascinations with loss and lust, particularly on the gorgeous "Sweet Spot," where he muses on the fleeting perfection "between two hands held in prayer" over sparkling guitars. Meanwhile, Flemming plays the heavy, with songs ranging from the somber "New Life" to the deeply unsettling "A Dogs Life," where lyrics like "Paint its lipstick bright red/Wipe the drool up gently" suggest misdeeds on a Silence of the Lambs level. His strongest moments are somewhere in between: "Nature Boy," which lumbers full of ominous masculinity, is equally cruel and alluring, while "Daughters" gives equal time to threatening femininity. Present Tense isnt as flawless as Smother; its slightly top-loaded, and occasionally the spare instrumentation borders on monotonous. Still, its a compelling album that shows Wild Beasts can build on their breakthrough in satisfying and challenging ways. | ||
 | Album: 51 of 75 Artist: Jenny Lewis Title: The Voyager Released: 2014-07-25 Tracks: 10 Duration: 39:58 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Head Underwater (04:08) 2 Shes Not Me (04:09) 3 Just One of the Guys (03:51) 4 Slippery Slopes (03:38) 5 Late Bloomer (05:13) 6 You Cant Outrun em (03:30) 7 The New You (03:27) 8 Aloha & The Three Johns (04:04) 9 Love U Forever (04:28) 10 The Voyager (03:30) |
| The Voyager : Allmusic album Review : Lurking beneath the seductive, supple gloss of The Voyager lies a serious undercurrent of sorrow -- an undercurrent Jenny Lewis doesnt disguise but doesnt bring to the surface, either. Someone, somewhere broke her heart, and perhaps the culprit is Lewis herself. Regret and self-recrimination abound on The Voyager: its a tattered storybook full of relationships gone to rot, missed marriages, infidelities forgiven but not forgotten, wistful teenage memories fading in the face of adult disappointment. Whether the songs are autobiographical or not -- and theyre filled with seemingly personal signifiers, ranging from red hair and scars left from the San Fernando Valley to a philandering, layabout beau named John -- doesnt matter much, as The Voyager aims to strike a universal chord for ladies in their thirties watching the years slide by as they wait for boyfriends to commit or life to start happening. Its heavy midlife crisis material but The Voyager plays lightly, offering a warm balm of Southern California sounds. Much more than Under the Blacklight, Rilo Kileys 2007 stab at Fleetwood Mac-styled pop, this feels like vintage L.A. studio rock. Working primarily with producer Ryan Adams -- Beck comes aboard to give "Just One of the Guys" a narcotic sway, while Jenny collaborates with longtime partner Johnathan Rice on "Head Underwater" and "You Cant Outrun Em" -- Lewis indulges in the sunnier aspects of vintage yacht rock, occasionally dipping into the Laurel Canyon folk-rock shes specialized in on her own. Guitars roam wide-open spaces, couched in luxurious reverb and draped in strings; the rhythms often follow cool, steady eighth-note pulses; the surfaces always shimmer. Its such a sultry, soothing sound that its easy to ignore the pain that lies beneath but thats a feature, not a bug: on The Voyager, Lewis characters live for today without ever thinking that the world might pass them by, and having her music flow so smooth and easy, she illustrates how easy it is to get sucked into that alluring stasis. | ||
 | Album: 52 of 75 Artist: Liars Title: Mess Released: 2014-01-13 Tracks: 11 Duration: 55:16 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Mask Maker (04:07) 2 Vox Tuned D.E.D. (04:31) 3 Im No Gold (06:10) 4 Pro Anti Anti (04:19) 5 Cant Hear Well (03:26) 6 Mess On a Mission (04:05) 7 Darkslide (03:51) 8 Boyzone (04:41) 9 Dress Walker (04:03) 10 Perpetual Village (08:59) 11 Left Speaker Blown (06:59) |
 | Album: 53 of 75 Artist: Goat Title: Commune Released: 2014-08 Tracks: 9 Duration: 38:54 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 Talk to God (06:39) 2 Words (03:06) 3 The Light Within (02:57) 4 To Travel the Path Unknown (02:29) 5 Goatchild (04:01) 6 Goatslaves (04:45) 7 Hide From the Sun (03:36) 8 Bondye (05:01) 9 Gathering of Ancient Tribes (06:18) |
 | Album: 54 of 75 Artist: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Title: Hypnotic Eye Released: 2014-07-25 Tracks: 11 Duration: 44:45 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 American Dream Plan B (02:59) 2 Fault Lines (04:27) 3 Red River (03:59) 4 Full Grown Boy (03:26) 5 All You Can Carry (04:34) 6 Power Drunk (04:39) 7 Forgotten Man (02:48) 8 Sins of My Youth (03:49) 9 U Get Me High (04:11) 10 Burnt Out Town (03:04) 11 Shadow People (06:43) |
| Hypnotic Eye : Allmusic album Review : Looking back, its clear the 2008 Mudcrutch reunion was pivotal for Tom Petty, helping him re-focus and re-dedicate himself to playing in a band. Like the original band, Mudcrutch Mach II didnt last long -- long enough to play a few shows and record a warm, gangly beast of an album -- but it reinvigorated Petty. Afterward, he reveled in the sound of how the Heartbreakers played, digging deep into his catalog to shake up his set lists, letting the group exercise some blues muscles on 2010s Mojo, a record that stood as the Heartbreakers rowdiest record since the 70s but which is easily overshadowed by the trashy psychedelic pulse of 2014s Hypnotic Eye. Teeming with fuzz, overdriven organ, and hard four-four rhythms, all interrupted by the occasional blues workout or jazz shuffle, Hypnotic Eye comes across as a knowing splice of Pettys own XM radio show Buried Treasures and Little Steven Van Zandts Sirius channel Underground Garage, a record that celebrates all the disreputable 45s created in garages so they could be played in garages. Occasionally, the band evoke memories of their own past -- "Shadow People" has guitar tones straight out of Shelter Records -- but theyre largely dedicated to the sounds that provided them with their original inspirations. What prevents Hypnotic Eye from sliding into the arena of soft, desperate nostalgia is a combination of muscle and savvy, a combination that gives the album a strong infrastructure -- Petty strips his songs to the bone; theyre so lean they feel as if they clock in at two minutes, even if they run twice that long -- and a sonic wallop. Much of that visceral thrill is due to co-producers Petty, guitarist Mike Campbell, and Ryan Ulyate accentuating the intuitive interplay in the Heartbreakers with sharp, striking slashes of color; this gives the record immediacy and complexity, which means there is enough aural activity that repeated plays do not dull the LPs initial bracing impact. Ultimately, Hypnotic Eye is a record about the pure joy of sound, a rush that doesnt lessen upon repetition -- a sentiment thats true of those old 60s garage rock singles and early Heartbreakers albums, and this is a surprisingly, satisfyingly vigorous record. | ||
 | Album: 55 of 75 Artist: Scott Walker + Sunn O))) Title: Soused Released: 2014-10-20 Tracks: 5 Duration: 48:43 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples AlbumCover | 1 Brando (08:45) 2 Herod 2014 (12:01) 3 Bull (09:23) 4 Fetish (09:09) 5 Lullaby (09:24) |
 | Album: 56 of 75 Artist: Angel Olsen Title: Burn Your Fire for No Witness Released: 2014-02-18 Tracks: 11 Duration: 44:25 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 Unfucktheworld (02:05) 2 Forgiven/Forgotten (02:03) 3 Hi‐Five (02:57) 4 White Fire (06:55) 5 High & Wild (03:53) 6 Lights Out (04:27) 7 Stars (04:38) 8 Iota (03:27) 9 Dance Slow Decades (04:05) 10 Enemy (05:43) 11 Windows (04:07) |
 | Album: 57 of 75 Artist: The Delines Title: Colfax Released: 2014-04-28 Tracks: 11 Duration: 40:14 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples AlbumCover | 1 Calling In (05:09) 2 Colfax Avenue (03:30) 3 The Oil Rigs at Night (04:22) 4 Wichita Aint So Far Away (02:31) 5 I Won’t Slip Up (04:12) 6 Sandman’s Coming (02:39) 7 State Line (03:24) 8 Flight 31 (02:58) 9 He Told Her the City Was Killing Him (04:11) 10 I Got My Shadows (02:37) 11 82nd Street (04:41) |
 | Album: 58 of 75 Artist: Jamie T Title: Carry On the Grudge Released: 2014-09-24 Tracks: 12 Duration: 45:55 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 Limits Lie (04:11) 2 Don’t You Find (04:15) 3 Turn On the Light (04:26) 4 Zombie (04:06) 5 The Prophet (04:14) 6 Mary Lee (03:24) 7 Trouble (02:56) 8 Rabbit Hole (03:39) 9 Peter (03:36) 10 Love Is Only a Heartbeat Away (02:33) 11 Murder of Crows (04:01) 12 They Told Me It Rained (04:28) |
 | Album: 59 of 75 Artist: Roddy Frame Title: Seven Dials Released: 2014-05-04 Tracks: 10 Duration: 37:04 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 White Pony (03:47) 2 Postcard (03:43) 3 Into the Sun (03:51) 4 Rear View Mirror (03:24) 5 In Orbit (03:15) 6 Forty Days of Rain (03:49) 7 English Garden (04:16) 8 On the Waves (03:25) 9 The Other Side (03:52) 10 From a Train (03:42) |
 | Album: 60 of 75 Artist: Frazey Ford Title: Indian Ocean Released: 2014-10-14 Tracks: 11 Duration: 46:53 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 September Fields (03:27) 2 Runnin’ (04:27) 3 You’re Not Free (04:05) 4 Done (04:41) 5 Three Golden Trees (05:04) 6 You Got Religion (03:50) 7 Season After Season (03:58) 8 Natural Law (04:03) 9 Weather Pattern (03:37) 10 Indian Ocean (06:08) 11 September Fields (acoustic) (03:33) |
 | Album: 61 of 75 Artist: The Afghan Whigs Title: Do to the Beast Released: 2014-04-14 Tracks: 10 Duration: 40:51 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 Parked Outside (04:37) 2 Matamoros (02:43) 3 It Kills (03:33) 4 Algiers (04:03) 5 Lost in the Woods (04:54) 6 The Lottery (04:05) 7 Can Rova (03:44) 8 Royal Cream (04:33) 9 I Am Fire (02:51) 10 These Sticks (05:46) |
 | Album: 62 of 75 Artist: Paolo Nutini Title: Caustic Love Released: 2014-04-11 Tracks: 13 Duration: 51:34 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Scream (Funk My Life Up) (03:09) 2 Let Me Down Easy (03:32) 3 Bus Talk (interlude) (01:30) 4 One Day (05:06) 5 Numpty (03:54) 6 Superfly (interlude) (01:13) 7 Better Man (05:29) 8 Iron Sky (06:13) 9 Diana (03:35) 10 Fashion (03:06) 11 Looking for Something (06:21) 12 Cherry Blossom (06:17) 13 Someone Like You (02:09) |
| Caustic Love : Allmusic album Review : Caustic Love is the first album of new material from multi-platinum singer and songwriter Paolo Nutini since 2009s Sunny Side Up. On that album, the whiskey-voiced Scot explored retro-soul and R&B piecemeal, weaving them into his pop palette. In the interim, the 27-year-old has been soaking up the soul and funk sounds of Motown, Atlantic, Stax, vintage New Orleans, Daptone funk, and more. Co-produced by the artist with engineer Dani Castelar, Caustic Love was recorded with a large band in Glasgow, Valencia, London, and New York. Its songs, drenched in libidinal energy, are framed inside a sound thats gritty yet sonically rangey. "Scream (Funk My Life Up)" evokes the psychedelic funk of the Temptations. Its reverb, breaking snares, fat basslines, chunky guitars, churning vamp, and crisp horns buoy a vocal that oozes sexual desire. "Let Me Down Easy" places Nutini in a midtempo duet with a Bettye LaVette vocal sample; he does his best Marvin Gaye to match her emotion. "One Day" recalls "Its a Mans Mans Mans World," layered with strings, rumbling percussion, furious bass, with an eerie spooky B-3 a la "Good Vibrations," and a female backing chorus, and offers a nod to Sam Cooke; Nutinis vocal soars between crooning and growling. "Numpty" owes a debt to songwriter Allen Toussaint and singer Lee Dorsey for using the melody in "Working in the Coal Mine." "Better Man," the albums hinge-piece, is one of the few tunes here that showcases Nutini as an emotionally intuitive singer/songwriter. It suggests the hungry Caledonian soul of the young Van Morrison, illustrated with a large female backing chorus, acoustic and electric guitars, and a knot-tight rhythm section. Single "Iron Sky," is an indictment of religious institutions as systems of control; it contains bluesy, slippery psych-funk and unfolds gradually, gathering steam with big brassy horns and crashing cymbals framing the singers dramatic delivery and contains an extended sample from Charlie Chaplins monologue from the Great Dictator. "Fashion" is greasy funk with Janelle Monáe adding a fiery feminist rap to the middle. "Looking for Something" pays homage to DAngelos nocturnal g-funk soul. "Cherry Blossom" is a lusty psych rocker with a guitar riff that suggests the Cults Billy Duffy, while the mix recalls Echo & the Bunnymen in the late 80s. Closer "Someone Like You" finds the singer accompanied only by a bass in a Dion-esque early rock & roll ballad, though a stacked set of Beach Boys-style harmonies in chorale style floats in before a harp whispers it out. Caustic Love is all about vintage sounds; its fine songs and provocative mix pay service to that stunning voice. While this set uses retro styles almost excessively, it is a thoroughly contemporary pop record in approach and execution. It takes real nerve to pull something like this off, but Nutinis swagger is easily matched by the quality of the material and his inspired performance. | ||
 | Album: 63 of 75 Artist: Gazelle Twin Title: Unflesh Released: 2014-09-22 Tracks: 12 Duration: 38:15 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 Unflesh (03:24) 2 GUTS (03:01) 3 Exorcise (04:19) 4 Good Death (03:20) 5 Anti Body (03:18) 6 Child (02:29) 7 Premonition (03:18) 8 A1 Receptor (00:24) 9 Belly of the Beast (02:56) 10 Human Touch (04:00) 11 I Feel Blood (03:28) 12 Still Life (04:18) |
 | Album: 64 of 75 Artist: King Creosote Title: From Scotland With Love Released: 2014-07-20 Tracks: 11 Duration: 39:03 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Something to Believe In (03:14) 2 Cargill (03:16) 3 Largs (03:53) 4 Miserable Strangers (04:47) 5 Leaf Piece (long) (05:32) 6 For One Night Only (04:09) 7 Bluebell, Cockleshell, 123 (02:08) 8 One Floor Down (03:05) 9 Crystal 8s (02:12) 10 Pauper’s Dough (05:05) 11 A Prairie Tale (01:36) |
| From Scotland With Love : Allmusic album Review : Released to coincide with the July 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games, From Scotland with Love is more than another pet project by prolific Scottish indie folksinger King Creosote (Kenny Anderson). Commissioned by the BBC and arts initiative Creative Scotland, it is a unique collaborative work with filmmaker Virginia Heath where Anderson provides a sort of conceptual soundtrack to Heaths moving documentary comprised entirely of archival footage depicting Scottish history. The film offers no interviews or voice-overs, relying instead on Andersons poetic songs to tell the story and embellish flickering scenes of political strife, social uprisings, industry, war, and bucolic country life in the early 20th century. A Fife native and veteran of nearly 50 independent albums, Anderson has always radiated a strong localism, making him perfect for the job, though there must have been plenty of pressure in abbreviating vast swaths of his countrys history into just 11 songs -- especially considering the broader national audience this collaboration brings him in such an important political year for Scotland, which will vote on their independence from England in September 2014. But, much of the charm of this project and of Andersons work in general is how it portrays its subjects in small vignettes rather than broad strokes. The minutiae of everyday life and the very human emotions associated with them have always been a King Creosote specialty and he shines here on tracks like "Cargill," a song describing the daily life of fishermen in the small Perthshire village, and "Leaf Piece," whose slang title refers to a snack that school children used to keep in their bags. Its this type of depth and detail that brings the images to life, and working within the loose borders of a historical theme has allowed Anderson to produce the most focused and detailed record of his career. There are moments of joy, nostalgia, sorrow, and even frivolity, like on the jazzy, upbeat "Largs," but the album reaches its emotional peak on the call to action "Paupers Dough," whose slow musical build mirrors the sentiment of its ensemble chorus, "Youve got to rise above the gutter you are inside." Its not the Scotland of Walkers shortbread and red-bearded pipers that so often gets shoveled out to tourists, but a moving portrait of strong-willed people enduring in times of change. | ||
 | Album: 65 of 75 Artist: The New Pornographers Title: Brill Bruisers Released: 2014-08-26 Tracks: 13 Duration: 43:06 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Brill Bruisers (02:56) 2 Champions of Red Wine (03:40) 3 Fantasy Fools (03:26) 4 War on the East Coast (03:58) 5 Backstairs (04:23) 6 Marching Orders (04:19) 7 Another Drug Deal of the Heart (01:28) 8 Born With a Sound (02:55) 9 Wide Eyes (02:56) 10 Dancehall Domine (03:18) 11 Spidyr (02:21) 12 Hi-Rise (03:16) 13 You Tell Me Where (04:05) |
| Brill Bruisers : Allmusic album Review : Some bands aim for a grand, widescreen sound when they go into the studio, but the New Pornographers refuse to be satisfied with anything short of 3-D IMAX, with their songs accompanied by thundering drums, massive cascades of keyboards, towering vocal choruses, and chugging, percussive melodies that power it all. It would be easy for the New Pornographers to sound absurdly ostentatious if it werent for the fact theres a fiercely beating heart in the midst of their music, and at their best, the indie supergroup seems to be having a grand time constructing their walls of sound. 2014s Brill Bruisers is a suitably grandiose follow-up to 2010s Together, and the fact it took seven different recording studios to assemble tells you something about the albums sonic ambition, but A.C. Newmans tunes are graceful, clever, and catchy despite their size, like a blimp that easily floats with the breeze, and the vocals from Newman, Neko Case, Dan Bejar, and Kathryn Calder bring both drama and passion to this music. (Bejars three songs seem a good bit more compact than Newmans, especially the lean and paranoid "Spyder," but even that finds room for a manic drum break and some wailing harmonica). As is this groups habit, Brill Bruisers is lyrically cryptic, but while there seems to be a dour edge to most of the verbiage, the music is usually upbeat when the melodic hooks take hold, and with Kelly Hogan contributing guest vocals on four tracks, this singing powerhouse sounds more impressive than ever. If you have a grand desire to take on the world and want a suitable indie rock soundtrack, Brill Bruisers will certainly do the trick, and if this isnt the best effort to date from the New Pornographers, it most certainly doesnt disappoint. | ||
 | Album: 66 of 75 Artist: Thurston Moore Title: The Best Day Released: 2014-10-21 Tracks: 8 Duration: 50:22 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 Speak to the Wild (08:30) 2 Forevermore (11:15) 3 Tape (05:54) 4 The Best Day (04:31) 5 Detonation (02:56) 6 Vocabularies (04:31) 7 Grace Lake (06:53) 8 Germs Burn (05:52) |
 | Album: 67 of 75 Artist: Perfume Genius Title: Too Bright Released: 2014-09-22 Tracks: 11 Duration: 33:08 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 I Decline (01:58) 2 Queen (03:50) 3 Fool (03:55) 4 No Good (03:49) 5 My Body (02:17) 6 Don’t Let Them In (02:21) 7 Grid (02:39) 8 Longpig (02:50) 9 I’m a Mother (03:30) 10 Too Bright (03:25) 11 All Along (02:34) |
 | Album: 68 of 75 Artist: Lydia Loveless Title: Somewhere Else Released: 2014-02-18 Tracks: 10 Duration: 42:21 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Really Wanna See You (03:56) 2 Wine Lips (03:42) 3 Chris Issak (04:33) 4 To Love Somebody (04:38) 5 Hurts So Bad (03:33) 6 Head (04:21) 7 Verlaine Shot Rimbaud (04:38) 8 Somewhere Else (05:24) 9 Everything’s Gone (04:42) 10 They Don’t Know (02:50) |
 | Album: 69 of 75 Artist: Gulp Title: Season Sun Released: 2014-07-14 Tracks: 10 Duration: 39:15 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 Game Love (03:19) 2 Lets Grow (04:00) 3 Clean and Serene (05:29) 4 Vast Space (03:17) 5 Grey Area (05:16) 6 Seasoned Sun (04:45) 7 Play (03:09) 8 Hot Water (02:38) 9 Everything (03:37) 10 I Want to Dance (03:40) |
 | Album: 70 of 75 Artist: First Aid Kit Title: Stay Gold Released: 2014-06-06 Tracks: 10 Duration: 38:24 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 My Silver Lining (03:34) 2 Master Pretender (03:47) 3 Stay Gold (04:11) 4 Cedar Lane (04:43) 5 Shattered & Hollow (04:04) 6 The Bell (03:28) 7 Waitress Song (04:04) 8 Fleeting One (03:14) 9 Heaven Knows (03:18) 10 A Long Time Ago (04:01) |
| Stay Gold : Allmusic album Review : Swedish sisters Johanna and Klara Söderberg have taken what, in the era of TV talent shows and Internet stars (they were once YouTube sensations themselves), has become a rare path to major-label success. Their hard work and growth within a trusting and nurturing indie label climate have helped develop and mature their sound from the enchanting folk of their debut to the polished Americana that dominates Stay Gold. Making the jump from Wichita to Columbia Records for their third full-length has given the duo the scope to dream bigger, and thats exactly what theyve managed here with an assured and comprehensive collection of songs. Noticeably more expansive than any of their previous work, Stay Gold has a rich texture of classic country instrumentation and stirring string arrangements, matching their soaring vocal melodies. They were first noticed when a charming woodland set of acoustic Fleet Foxes covers gained attention for their beautiful vocals, which are still the main draw on this release, with their close harmonies again empowering every song. The timeless chorus adorning "Cedar Lane" sets the song up for a belting finale, and the closing salvo "How could I break away from you" feels bold yet reassuring. There is plenty of introspection here that sees the sisters focus on their experiences and journey thus far, and being on the road since they were just teenagers has undoubtedly shaped the defiant slow burner "Shattered & Hollow" and the wandering dreams and vulnerability that seep into "Waitress Song." Despite the obvious shift toward a country-influenced sound with a real romping, foot stomper in "Heaven Knows," there are still folk ballads here -- "Fleeting One" and "A Long Time Ago" -- that show the delicacy and heartbreaking capacity of First Aid Kit. With a genuine sense of melancholy that is far beyond their young years, the Söderbergs have taken the mild success of their sophomore record, Lions Roar, in their stride, and with the expert hand of Bright Eyes Mike Mogis once again producing, the lush harmonies and melodies of this album show that they are worthy of a place in the mainstream. | ||
 | Album: 71 of 75 Artist: Bob Mould Title: Beauty & Ruin Released: 2014-06-03 Tracks: 12 Duration: 36:15 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Low Season (04:08) 2 Little Glass Pill (02:39) 3 I Dont Know You Anymore (02:55) 4 Kid With Crooked Face (02:14) 5 Nemeses Are Laughing (03:23) 6 The War (03:40) 7 Forgiveness (02:54) 8 Hey Mr. Grey (02:03) 9 Fire in the City (03:14) 10 Tomorrow Morning (02:18) 11 Let the Beauty Be (03:16) 12 Fix It (03:25) |
 | Album: 72 of 75 Artist: Dan Michaelson and The Coastguards Title: Distance Released: 2014-08-18 Tracks: 8 Duration: 30:29 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 Evergreen (04:15) 2 Bones (03:58) 3 Burning Hearts (03:33) 4 Every Step (04:26) 5 Getting It All Wrong (03:10) 6 Evening Light (03:09) 7 Your Beauty Still Rules (03:59) 8 Somewhere (03:59) |
 | Album: 73 of 75 Artist: Alvin L. Title: Alvin Released: 1997 Tracks: 14 Duration: 52:52 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 24 dias por hora (03:41) 2 Setembro (03:21) 3 Hemingway (04:35) 4 Alguém como eu (03:29) 5 Inverno (03:44) 6 Alguma prova (02:58) 7 Iko iko (01:17) 8 Aprender (04:01) 9 Tudo que você queria saber sobre si mesmo (03:21) 10 ELE (02:02) 11 HTTP (04:18) 12 Harley Davidson Blues (00:49) 13 Praia dos cocos (04:13) 14 Eu não sei dançar (11:03) |
 | Album: 74 of 75 Artist: Temples Title: Sun Structures Released: 2014-02-10 Tracks: 21 Duration: 1:33:31 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 Shelter Song (03:10) 2 Sun Structures (05:13) 3 The Golden Throne (04:10) 4 Keep in the Dark (04:36) 5 Mesmerise (03:42) 6 Move With the Season (05:10) 7 Colours to Life (05:11) 8 A Question Isnt Answered (05:11) 9 The Guesser (04:06) 10 Test of Time (03:53) 11 Sand Dance (06:31) 12 Fragments Light (01:57) 1 Sand Dance (Beyond the Wizards Sleeve Reanimation) (07:04) 2 Keep in the Dark (Beyond the Wizards Sleeve Reanimation) (01:48) 3 Shelter Song (Beyond the Wizards Sleeve Reanimation) (05:47) 4 Sun Structure (Beyond the Wizards Sleeve Reanimation) (02:57) 5 A Question Isnt Answered (Beyond the Wizards Sleeve Reanimation) (05:27) 6 Test of Time (Beyond the Wizards Sleeve Reanimation) (01:57) 7 Golden Throne (Beyond the Wizards Sleeve Reanimation) (06:54) 8 Colours to Life (Beyond the Wizards Sleeve Reanimation) (02:01) 9 Move With the Season (Beyond the Wizards Sleeve Reanimation) (06:44) |
 | Album: 75 of 75 Artist: Richard Thompson Title: Acoustic Classics Released: 2014-07-21 Tracks: 14 Duration: 56:40 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight (02:57) 2 Walking on a WIre (03:53) 3 Wall of Death (03:23) 4 Down Where the Drunkards Roll (04:04) 5 One Door Opens (03:46) 6 Persuasion (03:54) 7 1952 Vincent Black Lightning (05:12) 8 I Misunderstood (03:57) 9 From Galway to Graceland (03:29) 10 Valerie (04:24) 11 Shoot Out the Lights (04:16) 12 Beeswing (05:42) 13 When the Spell Is Broken (04:19) 14 Dimming of the Day (03:18) |