1. Sun Kil Moon – Benji — 2. Taylor Swift – 1989 — 3. St. Vincent – St. Vincent — 4. Run the Jewels – RTJ2 — 5. Sleaford Mods – Divide and Exit — 6. Caribou – Our Love — 7. Vince Staples – Hell Can Wait EP — 8. Perfume Genius – Too Bright — 9. Lydia Ainsworth – Right from Real — 10. The War on Drugs – Lost in the Dream
A Safe and Measured Appreciation of Popular Culture: 2014 Edition –
by Patrick Kennedy –
MUSIC –
1. Angel Olsen – Burn Your Fire for No Witness –
2. Spoon – They Want My Soul –
3. St. Vincent – s/t –
4. The Hotelier – Home, Like Noplace Is There –
5. Run The Jewels – RTJ2 –
6. Flying Lotus – You’re Dead! –
Another year gone and another list put together, so in no particular order here are the albums I listened to the most over the last 12 months.
As I have grown increasingly disillusioned with most recent music, 2014 seemed particularly suckie musically… My contribution to the Poop List is 10 (no seven!) really good or maybe even great records you’ve likely never heard… that came out sometime in the past. What? A DJ that is not interested in what is happening now? Sacrilege! You, my son, are in danger of becoming… irrelevant! Well DJ-ing is irrelevant, now that anyone can hit the sync button and throw their arms in the air… and after all… aren’t we ALL irrelevant? Hell, even the Pixies are irrelevant… Indie Cindy? Blech! Todd Terje, not for me… Anyway, here goes…
It’s safe to say my albums list will not include anything by Beyonce, Drake, Lil Wayne, Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus, Ariana Grande, Nikki Minaj, Igloo Australia aka the Kangaroo or any other offender of musical taste. I love what I love and if people like this stuff, that’s fine. I am just some Baseball, Rock and Boxing rockist who is in a Basketball, Hip-Hop and MMA world.
1.CARLA BOZULICH – BOY (CONSTELLATION) I had a dream a few nights ago. The world was ending, I was in a plane that was torn in two and heading for a crash. I jumped out, knowing I would catch fire and die screaming. I jumped and started to burn. I woke up on the ground, laughing. I’m not sure what the hell that has to do with this album, except it seems deceptively dark. When it’s over you have a few welts, but what the hell.
1) Sun Kil Moon – Benji (Caldo Verde) >> Ultimately, I’m kind of glad that Kozelek threw himself from grace with the War on Drugs stuff. The shine on this album was a little too bright. I’m not talking about discovery greed here; it’s not that I wanted this thing to myself, or could ever imagine having it that way (who would even admit to that!?). …
Taylor Swift – 1989
Ex Hex – Rips
Parquet Courts – Sunbathing Animal
Sharon Van Etten – Are We There
Old 97s – Most Messed Up
The Both – Self Titled
The Hold Steady – Teeth Dreams
Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks – Wig Out At Jagbags
The Rural Alberta Advantage – Mended With Gold
Cheap Girls – Famous Graves
Buy New or Used via Amazon Rent via iTunes [?] Reverend Horton Heat: REV (Victory) I’m so glad that they went back to their crazed Rockabilly sound. There’s still a couple slower toe tappers with that country twang but they are damn good as well. It’s their best since Full Custom Gospel Sounds back in 1993. Buy New or Used via Amazon Rent via iTunes [?] OFF!: Wasted Years (Vice) This is about as riff-driven a disc as you can get. I loved First Four EP’s but this…
Doug Paisley – Strong Feelings
Hollie Cook – Twice
Ty Segall – Manipulator
Tommy Guererro – Perpetuum
Sturgill Simpson – Metamodern…
Sleaford Mods – Divide and Exit
No chops, No solos. Only the barest rudiments of “musicality”. And most of all, no space. Just a soundscape filled with life. And the things that make you shake your head, anger you, frustrate you and make you laugh.
It was a year of continuous change, but also of hopeful permanence. We started the year in a small rental in Reading, Vermont and ended it in our rambling new home in Grafton, New Hampshire. In between, moving and madness. At journey’s end, we found the home of our dreams, a historic colonial, with barns, land, and forest. We’ve just ordered our seeds and are planning the vegetable garden. The cycle of life continues. Of course, one needs a soundtrack for all this change, and 2014 certainly provided it. Tops of the Pops Buy New or Used via Amazon…
1. Old 97’s – Most Messed Up. 22 years into their career, Rhett Miller and the boys produce one of their most raucous albums. ‘Mats bassist Tommy Stinson sits in on “Intervention” which poses the question: “He’s mystified why we’re so lame, but if he wakes up dead will he feel the same?” Lots of stompy, Hank Williams inspired honky tonk fun.
Gazelle Twin ~ Unflesh (Anti Ghost Moon Ray/Last Gang)
Something bad happened to Elizabeth Bernholz between 2011’s The Entire City and 2014’s Unflesh. The details are foggy, but hints can be gleaned from interviews and the way the artist performs hunched over with her face obscured by a hoodie (and replaced on the album cover by a slab of meat). The suffering has made her an astonishing artist; she’s channeled her pain into genius.
1. Ty Segall/Manipulator (Drop the needle, and commence the abuse. This relentless rush of punk rock hits hard, and hammers it home. He digs the power chord; he digs the shimmy-shake. He’s jacked up on the Who, Bowie and T. Rex, but he is his own best bro, and nobody tries harder. Man of the year Ty Segall is pulsing, electric, aflame.)
if we had all died in a Koch-ian fossil fuck in twentyfourteen, here’s what I woulda been singin’ or listenin’ to when the flashpoint came. Buy New or Used via Amazon Rent via iTunes [?] 1) Bob Dylan and The Band – The Basement Tapes Complete Collectors, myself included, have had these dark, surreal cosmic jokes and murder ballads in bootleg form for, oh I dunno, eight hundred years? To have them all in one place, with thirty newly discovered tracks from a tape Garth Hudson sold off is just bonus. Buy New…
Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks – Wig Out at Jag Bags
The lyrical play, song craft and guitar wizardry is at an all-time high on this his fourth outing with the Jicks. How can one not chuckle with a song title like “Cinnamon and Lesbians”? Aside from Jeff Tweedy, I’d be hard pressed to find someone from the 90s this consistently great.
From our Beloved Fearless Leader: To the POmpous and OPinionated: Do NOT think because I’m a week late in getting this out that the deadline is going to be a week later. Get that out of your head. Now. If you’re getting one of these for the first time, POOP is our annual exercise in self-importance wherein we compile “Best Of 2014′ lists, to be published in a print edition as well as online. A refresher about the rules and deadlines is in order: Limit yourself to what would be 2 sides of 8×11 paper. Leave a slight margin so…
Dear POOPster: I know you’ve been waiting with bad breath for the front-page POOP analysis and tabulation. So on this occasion, the 27th annual foray into the realm of the POmpous and the OPinionated, I present to you the combined musings of pretty much the same gaggle of blowhards, 28 of them to be exact. For reasons that both escape and annoy me, we are once again an almost entirely male sampling of swillmeisters; it’s getting right testosterony up in here. Talk about fitting the record geek profile. . . Anyway, to the Price-Waterhouse stuff. As usual, I’ve attempted to…
Wow, I really cut it down to the wire this year. Tons of great music, but the thought of actually sitting down and typing it all up seems daunting. Some of my favorites put out solid new releases and there were plenty of new artists to hold my attention for years to come. Buy New or Used via Amazon 1. Mayer Hawthorne – Where Does This Door Go I feel like a bit of a sellout putting this at the top of my list this year. But if I am to be honest, it was my most played release. Buy…