Best Albums of 2014

Can it really be that it's time for this list again?  I'm so ready.

But before we start, a word.  This list has never had the pretense of naming THE best musical achievements of the year gone by. As if. My ambitions are much humbler -- to share the music that most surprised, sustained and inspired me.  Hope you'll find something here to brighten your new year.


  10. Blood Orange, Cupid Deluxe

This late 2013 release rocked my 2014 world with its post-millennial take on Michael Jackson and Prince.  You're thinking, "Gotta get me some of that!"  Yes, you do. Thirty year-old Dev Hynes has a vast musical imagination and gets your feet moving, too, as his "You're Not Good Enough," makes immediately clear.

9. Caribou, Our Love

Dan Snaith makes dance music you can listen to.  That's the beauty of the best electro-soul, putting traditional soul vocals through a Cusinart, cutting and looping them over an insistent pulse straight from Kraftwerk.  "Can't Do Without You," can make you sweaty about obsessive love even if you never get out of your chair.

8. Various Artist, Link of Chain - Songwriters' Tribute to Chris Smither

Link of Chain is the best kind of tribute album, illuminating Smither's songs and sending you straight to the rough, authentic originals.  Alas, there are no youtube versions to persuade you.  But a $.99 iTune investment in Dave Alvin's version of "Link of Chain" will pay back better than Apple stock. Here is Smither doing it himself; Alvin, believe me, tops this.

7. How to Dress Well, What Is This Heart

Imagine if "Off the Wall" had come out in 2014, produced by Bon Iver in the wintery style of his "For Emma."  That's the parallel universe feel of "What Is This Heart," a hypnotic, underproduced stew of modern electro R&B.  If I were a teenager with "Precious Love" on my headphones in 2014, I would never have left my room.

6.  Various Artists, Begin Again

This one will cost me some indie cred but, damn, I am such a sucker for this kind of pop music.   On screen in "Begin Again," Keira Knightley and Adam Levine break up and then make sweeter music apart.  She is breathily understated in that Lisa Loeb sort of way and his falsetto soars in that Adam Levine kind of way. "No One Else Like You" is the Levine song that sets the drama in motion.

5. Grouper, Ruins 

Brian Eno's ambient genre-defining Music for Airports still wows me 35 years after its release.  From the sounds of Ruins, it cast the same spell on Liz Harris.  There are moments on "Lighthouse" so beautiful that you forget to breathe.

4. The Delines, Colfax

Making alt-country art out of heartbreak and hard times isn't easy.  Country radio shows you every day how quickly it turns to parody or pop.  But Delines frontman Wily Vlautin, a songwriting heir to Jimmy Webb, Merle Haggard and Lyle Lovett, proves just how good feeling bad can sound.  "The Oil Rigs At Night," deserves to be a classic.

3.  Spoon, They Want My Soul

For months now, I have not tired of the whip-smart, tight-as-a-drum sound of this disk.  This is the Austin, Texas band at the height of their form, with a taut, angular sound that could have amused and animated a dorm room crowd in any of the last four decades. "Do You" never gets old.

2. Real Estate, Atlas

My all day sound for 2014 came from these dream-pop heirs to the late, lamented Luna.  Atlas can fill a room with buttery sunshine, even as the lyrics spin a melancholy spell.  And best of all? They're from New Jersey.  The magic of Atlas starts with "Had to Hear":

1. Beck, Morning Phase

Sometimes revisiting the scene of your triumphs plays brilliantly, as Beck proves here by reworking the musical vein of his 2002 classic Sea Change.  Using the same musicians, minor key melodies, and mood, he creates a new -- and I use the word advisedly -- masterpiece.

Start New Year's Day with "Blue Moon" and the road ahead will seem full of promise.

Still to come, top singles of 2014.  Stay right there.