10. Elbow - The Take Off and Landing of Everything
After the arena-ready anthems of Elbow's last three albums, the five-piece goes intimate on The Take Off and Landing of Everything. Well, as intimate as such a worldly, ambitious band can go. While the title track is a seven-minute blast of ecstatic energy and celebration, Fly Boy Blue / Lunette is a drunken swagger jam, Charge simmers rather than boils, My Sad Captains is anchored by majestic horns and New York Morning finds the gentle moments in the bustling city. Elbow has enough chest-beating, boisterous epics. This year, the band moved forward and found new colors and vibes to explore. They are better off for it.
Highlights: Fly Boy Blue / Lunette, New York Morning, The Take Off and Landing of Everything
09. Brody Dalle - Diploid Love
Every year, there's an unexpected record that blows away expectations. For 2014, that honor goes to Diploid Love, which finds Brody Dalle in a much better place in her life. Now past the drug addiction and abusive relationships that colored her earlier work, Dalle makes a comeback with roaring guitars and shredded vocals. She successfully marries punk to experimentation in a way that few other artists have managed. Listen to the mariachi guitar on Underworld or the electronic beat of Carry On. Her lyrics and performance are as inspiring as they are vicious. This is the sound of Dalle beating down her demons, and what an exhilarating sound it is.
Highlights: Don't Mess With Me, Dressed in Dreams, Blood in Gutters
08. Damon Albarn - Everyday Robots
Damon Albarn has always been wary of technology, ever since he dismissed sitting around and playing computer games on Blur's Jubilee. It shouldn't come as a surprise that he would dedicate an album to this theme. While the title track and Lonely Press Play is full of heady questions on the digital age, Everyday Robots is also a look back at Albarn's own life. Whether he's singing about the elephant he met on Mr. Tembo or going over key years in his life on Hollow Ponds, Albarn brings a delicate balance of world-weariness and hope. The music is mostly understated, but beautifully layered. Not bad for his solo "debut."
Highlights: Lonely Press Play, Mr. Tembo, Heavy Seas of Love
07. The New Pornographers - Brill Bruisers
For the first time in a decade, The New Pornographers are throwing a party. The introspective mood and low-key songs of the last two records are gone, replaced by an electro-pop celebration. The whole crew is back and bringing their best vibes to Brill Bruisers. From the burst of synchronized singing on the title track to the sparkling harmonies of You Tell Me Where, this record will rouse anyone out of their seats and onto the dance floor. This is the New Pornographers: the electric version.
Highlights: Champions of Red Wine, Backstairs, Dancehall Domine
06. Beck - Morning Phase
The idea of following up Sea Change more than a decade later seems questionable on paper at best. But we should have known better than to doubt Beck's ability. This California-soaked record is a mirrored reflection of that album's brilliance. Rather than sounding despondent, Beck now looks forward to each day, welcoming the Waking Light of Morning. Copying the style of one of your most acclaimed albums is a challenge to say the least. The fact that Beck could create 13 more beautiful, magical songs that match up with the best of Sea Change is a testament to his abilities as a songwriter. If all mornings were like this, maybe I wouldn't be such a night owl.
Highlights: Morning, Blue Moon, Waking Light
05. Jenny Lewis - The Voyager
With her first release in six year, the return of Jenny Lewis is like running into an old friend you haven't seen in years. From the first watery piano chord of Head Underwater to the climactic peak of the title track, The Voyager catches us up on her life and all the ups and downs she has gone through. But even in the darker moments, she sings with a wink, a light touch that suggests that everything will be alright in the end. The music is just as warm and inviting, with sun-soaked chords and strings permeating the record. There may be better albums that came out this year, but there are none that feel as comforting as The Voyager.
Highlights: Late Bloomer, You Can't Outrun 'Em, The Voyager
04. TV On The Radio - Seeds
How do you deal with loss? If you're TV On The Radio, you write a funky, celebratory record about life. The band's first album since the death of bassist Gerard Smith finds them abandoning their apocalyptic vibes for an introspective journey of love, no matter what form that love takes. It's easily their most accessible release, with the Beatles-esque guitar work popping up on Could You, the R&B jam of Test Pilot and the propulsive punk of Lazerray. Livelier than Nine Types of Light, Seeds takes the best of all of TV On The Radio's past work and shines it through a hopeful prism. The message is clear: love transcends all.
Highlights: Could You, Lazerray, Trouble
03. St. Vincent - St. Vincent
All hail our new queen, St. Vincent. 2014 was her year from beginning to end. And it all came out of her fourth, self-titled album, where she sits perched in a throne with a shock of grey hair. The music on the record is just as confident, off-kilter and challenging as her stare and smirk on the cover. While she has always melded harshness and beauty, the lines have blurred to become indistinguishable from each other. Every gentle lyric is delivered with a hint of danger and every nasty, warped guitar riff is as catchy and memorable as anything else she's done. St. Vincent is the sound of an alien taking human music, writing her own version and sending it back to us. Who knew we could sound so lovely, threatening, accessible and weird at the same time?
Highlights: Rattlesnake, Huey Newton, Every Tear Disappears
02. EMA - The Future's Void
On her second album, EMA has done the impossible: written an album about the Internet and the digital age that doesn't cause eyerolls. Instead, The Future's Void grabs you by neck and forces you to pay attention. EMA's lyrics don't come off as a lecture, but rather a warning about what the Information Superhighway could be doing to our brains. Recalling William Gibson's concerns on the same subject, the words are carried by music that's abrasive, but also melodic. Satellites moves from static to an industrial banger, So Blonde would have been a smash hit in 1994 and Solace builds off a jerky riff that feels like an electric current. It is one of the darker albums of the year, but just like debut, one that's impossible to resist.
Highlights: Satellites, Neuromancer, Solace
01. U2 - Songs of Innocence
What's the best way for a band that's seen and done it all to move forward? Look back. That's exactly what U2 did for Songs of Innocence. After the last couple of disappointing records, the Irish four-piece dug into their history, exploring life in Dublin in the 1970s. No rock is left unturned here. Both the good and bad of that formative time is laid out for all to see.
The highs create ecstatic songs like California (There Is No End to Love) and This Is Where You Can Reach Me Now, the latter combining sharp, subtle guitar riffs with one of the best rhythm segments from the band in years. Every Breaking Wave is an absolutely gorgeous ballad, an instant U2 classic.
Some of the best songs though come from the lows in the band's past. Raised By Wolves is a tense retelling of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings of 1974. Sleep Like A Baby Tonight uses pulpy synths and a stuttering guitar line to tell the story of a pedophile priest. The Troubles, about an abusive relationship, features a perfect melding of vocals by Bono and guest singer Lykke Li. It's another number that deserves high placement in the U2 lexicon.
Forget about the Apple nonsense and focus on the songs. Similarly to how this album reminded Bono, Edge, Adam and Larry of why they became a band, it will remind you of what makes U2 one of the greatest rock bands of all time.
Highlights: Every Breaking Wave, Raised By Wolves, This Is Where You Can Reach Me Now, The Troubles
