Well this was a tough decision.
2014 may have been low on superstar standout albums (unlike
the influx of major artist comebacks last year), but there were a tonne of very
very good albums almost impossible to rank.
Some artists made welcome returns, others launched their careers with
impressive debuts that lived up to considerable hype. And above all, Scandinavia produced some of
the best music all year.
As for great singles, 2014 was crammed full of them: from
ubiquitous pop hits, to countless faceless dance acts and, of course, a certain
snow queen. There’s a handy Spotify
playlist at the bottom of this post.
What’s really amusing is the gender disparity between
critical and commercial success. The
bestselling albums of the year are predominantly from boring male acts: namely
Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith, Paolo Nutini and Coldplay.
The best pop though?
That was down to the females…
10. Beyoncé – Beyoncé
Why it made the top
10:
Ok, it technically came
out in 2013, but it was too late in the year to be included in last year’s
lists. Besides, the Platinum edition
arrived just a couple of weeks ago. And
you’ve been listening to Drunk In Love more
this year than last, right?
Not only did this album coin the verb “to Beyoncé an album”,
it revealed a darker, sexier side to the Queen of Pop, not to mention her
meme-inducing feminist manifesto in ***Flawless. The last few tracks may descend into soppy
family slush and the concept of a ‘visual album’ is flawed, but the first half
of the album is near perfection. Pretty Hurts is also the best thing
Sia’s done all year.
“…she’s
consolidated each aspect of her personality into one single name. Here she is the sex-bomb, the
independent woman, the doting mother and the loving wife. Thematically it might tread on
familiar ground, but…‘Beyoncé’ is her opus, her ultimate album, her true
statement of intent.”
Best Track: Haunted
9. I Break Horses – Chiaroscuro
Why it made the top 10:
It certainly
leans towards the darker side of its namesake with its brooding production, but
‘Chiaroscuro’ is equally full of propulsive dance beats that inject real
urgency. Few albums this year have been
as evocative, transporting the listener to some electronic vision of heaven and
hell – menacing basslines, celestial melodies and alien effects colliding in a musical
kaleidoscope of light and dark.
“…there may be plenty of moody electronic music around, but I Break Horses
are very good at what they do”
Best Track: Weigh
True Words
8. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Pt. 1
(OST)
Why it made the top 10:
It may seem
strange for a film soundtrack to be one of the best albums of the year, but
this is less a soundtrack and more a companion piece to the film. You’d be hard-pressed to actually hear these
tracks whilst watching.
Yet with New
Zealand cool kid Lorde at the helm, it all starts to make sense. This is essentially a collection of some of
the most exciting artists in current pop: from the fizzing electro-pop of
CHVRCHES, to a surprisingly celestial offering from Charli XCX, Ariana Grande
getting all sexy with Major Lazer, spectral production and soulful vocals from
Tinashe, and of course Lorde herself.
There’s even a track from Grace Jones.
The music may only passingly reference the film, but no other album sums
up the state of play in 2014 quite like this.
“…these aren't
just throwaway singles; the mostly downbeat and gloomy sounds are equally
suited to the film and today's charts. It's a soundtrack as relevant as
the film itself.”
Best Track: Kingdom
(feat. Simon Le Bon) – Charli XCX
7. Todd Terje – It’s Album Time
Why it made the top 10:
Album time
indeed. If 2013 saw a surge of disco
tracks in the wake of Daft Punk, then Norwegian DJ/Producer Todd Terje took
things a step further with his debut album.
Fusing funky basslines with space-age effects, Latin rhythms and more
than a sprinkling of humour, this is a dance album with a tonne of
personality. If tracks like Strandbar and Delorean Dynamite offer up the sort of sci-fi disco you might
find in a bar in the forthcoming Star Wars films, then Preben Goes to Acapulco is the TV cop theme tune of the future and Svensk Sås
provides a real fusion of Scandinavian and Brazilian flavours. Inspector
Norse ends it all with a big squelchy smile.
“If ‘Random
Access Memories’ had been made with a little less chit chat from Giorgio
Moroder and a few more Moog synthesisers it might’ve sounded like this.”
Best Track: Delorean
Dynamite
6. Jessie Ware – Tough Love
Why it made the top 10:
It’s testament to
Ware’s debut ‘Devotion’ that her retro-futuristic, R&B-tinged soul sound
still sounds fresh on this follow-up.
There’s been some refinement though, predominantly pushing her vocal to
the fore and gearing her sound towards a more mainstream audience. It results in pop hits like Ed Sheeran duet Say You Love Me alongside more
experimental work with top producers like Benzel (Tough Love, Champagne Kisses), Julio Bashmore (Keep On Lying) and Dev Hynes (Want
Your Feeling). Paired with Ware’s
songwriting, it makes this album irresistible.
“On [SBTRKT’s]
album, Ware was just an unknown featured vocalist but since then she’s
flourished into a fully-fledged artist whose debut album ‘Devotion’ was
stunning. Now, with ‘Tough Love’, she’s grown into the popstar she was
always meant to be.”
Best Track: Tough
Love
5. Jungle – Jungle
Why it made the top 10:
Half a year later
and Jungle’s sound is still impossible to define. Amongst all the psychedelic, funky, hip-hop
and soul influences though lies a dance album that’s hugely infectious. Following nominations in both the BBC’s Sound
of 2014 poll and the Mercury Prize, Jungle have smashed into the mainstream
with lead single Busy Earnin’, but
from the sweltering intensity of The Heat,
to the laidback guitars of Crumbler and
the surreal bubbling Lemonade Lake,
Jungle provided the sound of the summer.
“…their music is
so much more than the sum of its parts. Each track is a rich tapestry of
warm layered textures that combine to create something unique, something
effortlessly cool.”
Best Track: Busy
Earnin’
4. Tove Lo – Queen of the Clouds
Why it made the top 10:
Scandinavia has
yet again released some of the best music of 2014 and Sweden’s Tove Lo is the
undisputed breakout star. With its songs
of searing honesty, her EP ‘Truth Serum’ alone is worthy of note. Then she followed it up with the full debut
(frustratingly still to be released in the UK).
Pairing her raw lyrics with fizzing pop production, the album details
the rise and fall of a relationship: from the early days of passionate sex (Talking Body), to the highs of love (Not on Drugs), to the eventual breakdown
(Habits (Stay High)). As with the best Swedish music, Lo juxtaposes
melancholia with euphoria in glorious union to create an intelligently written
and hugely satisfying pop album.
“Like a
passionate love affair, this debut is fairly short, full of life, and oh so
very sweet.”
Best Track: Habits
(Stay High)
3. La Roux – Trouble In Paradise
Why it made the top 10:
Five years in the
making and Elly Jackson’s follow up to ‘La Roux’ was more than worth the
wait. The pure electro of that debut has
been eschewed for a warmer sound that remains as clean and precise as you’d
expect, whilst the sophisticated lyrics are sung to playful melodies. Cruel Sexuality
depicts conflicted desire and Sexotheque
offers a different slant on cheating, whilst Uptight Downtown opens the album with a confident, funky strut and
the 80s stomp of Silent Partner sees
Jackson updating her original sound. The
real masterpiece, though, is Let Me Down
Gently, on which Jackson encapsulates the pain of a break-up with the
year’s best use of silence. It may be
only nine tracks long, but this is a tight, concise album that’s damn close to
pop perfection.
“…with less
bleeps and bloops and more warmth and human emotion, this is a consistently
brilliant and honest pop package that pairs truthfulness with undeniable
hooks.”
Best Track: Let
Me Down Gently
2. FKA Twigs – LP1
Why it made the top 10:
Don’t be fooled
by the generic title; this year FKA Twigs has proven herself to be the most
idiosyncratic artist of 2014. Nobody
else has stretched R&B to such experimental limits. Nobody else has paired music and visuals in
such an exciting union. Nobody else has
made dancing with some cloth so damn sexy.
In essence, FKA
Twigs is a true artist. ‘LP1’ is an
album that stirs all sorts of emotions: it’s sensual, frightening and sometimes
disturbing, whilst her fragile vocals haunt as much as they delight. To match it all, in her videos she evolves from a china doll, to an alien beauty and an Egyptian goddess, with sometimes shocking intent. How she didn't win the Mercury Prize is beyond me - she is a human in her own otherworldly,
intoxicating soundscape.
“This is the
product of an artist with a singular vision, who stands far away from, and
above, the crowd. I could listen for hours.”
Best Track: Two
Weeks
1.
Taylor Swift – 1989
Why it made the top 10:
The blank space
at the top was made for Swift this year.
When the ubiquitous Shake It Off was
first heard in the summer it seemed that she’d gone full on Disney popstar, but
with the eventual release of ‘1989’ it was clear she’d lived up to the promise
of an 80s inspired pop album. Pairing
her candid lyrics with modern pop production was a stroke of genius; throw in some
top songwriting talent for mainstream appeal and a lick of Scandi polish, and
it results in an album without a single bad track. From the nod to her romantic reputation in Blank Space, to the urgently cinematic Out of the Woods and the softly layered
romance of This Love, Swift has
encapsulated all the best elements of contemporary pop.
2014 was the year
Swift went from popstar to phenomenon.
And she didn’t need Spotify’s help to do it.
“…‘1989’ is an
evolution, not a revolution. It’s also the pinnacle of 00s pop, taking
all the clichés of 80s music that have influenced current trends and smacking a
big Swift stamp across it all to rise above the competition. It’s clear,
then, that she’s the biggest popstar of 2014. And with good reason.”
Best Track: Out of the Woods
Honourable mentions:
Lykke Li – I Never Learn
“From start to
finish Li is living and breathing this break-up through music and we're with
her every step of the way.”
Tinashe – Aquarius
“Tinashe's sound
might be indebted to some key influences but with an album this polished, she's
taken the best bits of Aaliyah (sadly no longer with us), Ciara (seemingly dead
career) and Rihanna (lost?) and made them her own. It's clear that 'Aquarius'
really is the dawning of a new star.”
Lana Del Rey – Ultraviolence
“At its peak,
‘Ultraviolence’ doesn’t quite hit the sublime high of Video
Games, but it captures an artist forever on the edge of
a breakdown. It makes for a strangely beautiful listen that’s disturbing,
provocative and sumptuous in all the right ways.”
MØ – No Mythologies To Follow
“…there’s an edgy
rebelliousness to her sound and a disregard for convention, varying styles and
genres bubbling away in a rich melting pot of creativity.”
Unicorn Kid – Brain Wash
Gizzle said:
Erm…somehow this
wasn’t reviewed. However, it’s a super
catchy pop-dance chiptune album that nobody bothered to listen to, so now Unicorn Kid is no more. Quote that.
As for the tracks of the year, here's a handy playlist that covers all your needs: