Year-End Critics' Polls 2014

I don't think I've actually heard 'Chandelier' but I'm assuming the chorus is just Sia hollering 'CHANDELIER! CHANDELIER!' while playing four straight piano chords really loudly.

I don't think I've actually heard 'Chandelier' but I'm assuming the chorus is just Sia hollering 'CHANDELIER! CHANDELIER!' while playing four straight piano chords really loudly.
--Matt DC

no, the production sounds like rihanna bc it was written for rihanna, but the lyrics are v sad sia stuff about alcoholism

it's good tho!!

sia being considered a songwriter of quality completely mystifies me

never cared for her much until this latest record, based on her matching assumptions like Matt DCs above. however, thought putting her against actual current pop production worked. really like "elastic heart," "big girls cry" & "fire meet gasoline," as well as chandelier

her lyrics often leave something to be desired, although I did like how raw they are on 1,000 forms of fear.

btw lex I tried some of those k michelle songs (you were championing her here I believe, correct me if wrong), and really enjoyed them. will check the whole album soon. thanks!

awesome, the k michelle album is incredible

The Music Exchange (Nottingham vinyl shop):

1. St. Vincent - s/t
2. Angel Olsen - Burn Your Fire For No Witness
3. Swans - To Be Kind
4. Goat - Commune
5. Bremen - Second Launch
6. Hookworms - The Hum
7. Sleaford Mods - Divide & Exit
8. Alvvays - s/t
9. Grumbling Fur - Preternaturals
10. Todd Terje - It's Album Time

Reissues, Soundtracks & Compilations:

1. Lee Hazlewood - Love And Other Crimes
2. Patrick Cowley - School Daze
3. Laraaji - Celestial Music 1978-2011
4. V/A - Warfaring Strangers: Darkscorch Canticles
5. Arthur Russell - World Of Echo
6. The Fates - Furia
7. William Onyeabor - Vinyl Boxset 1 & 2
8. Craig Leon - Anthology Of Interplanetary Folk Music Vol. 1: Nommos/Visiting
9. Glenn Branca - Lesson No. 1
10. Sinoia Caves - Beyond The Black Rainbow OST

Cannot get into St. Vincent at all.

It's pretty sad to see any even remotely classic roch-ish album get props over Intensity Ghost by Chris Forsyth & the Solar Motel band which is so godlike in imagining some amazing hybrid of Crazy Horse, Physical Graffiti, and Television, while feeling wholly fresh

And I like War on Drugs fine but see Solar Motel live and they would eat their fucking lunch

They're instrumental though so it's a different enough category, no?

Either way still got to pick that one up.

What I heard of that record was amazing and I liked the last record just fine. Their live album kills, too.

evan - you mean st. vincent on a whole or this album? bc it stripped away some of the stuff that i didnt love about previous albums of hers (less twee/chamber-pop touches)

looking at this thread is like looking at pictures of that garbage island in the north pacific

sloth- yeah her albums have always been a bit too busy but I'm still not feeling any of her melodies. All a bit too stiff for me too.

Evan yeah obv instrumental but I think the core of the appeal is a certain post punk/indie update on classic rock jamminess

Either way I thought maybe the record had gotten a little more notice outside of the ilx brigade crowd

Hopefully! They're a great band.

is zis solar motel album on ze spotify

i didn't even know there was another forsyth record

brigade thread way too big to load, way too many youtubes, you're doing yourselves in

looking at this thread is like looking at pictures of that garbage island in the north pacific

ya. but gigi masin tho!

garbage island is endlessly fascinating tbh

OK, I've loaded up the NME, Paste, Rolling Stone, PopMatters, and TIME song/track lists onto a single Spotify playlist (deleting duplicates):
http://open.spotify.com/user/seaworthyset/playlist/6gv4ng5XkJQQrTSkr7OzEH

Will add others as they come out.

Sloth there are 2 songs from the album, one is really long, they are both standouts and give you a good idea of what Intensity Ghost is like

x-post

MAGNET’s j. poet picks the best world-music releases of the year.

1 Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 A Long Way To The Beginning (Knitting Factory)
2 Toumani & Sidiki Diabate Toumani & Sidiki (World Circuit)
3 Jamie Dubberly & Orquesta Dharma La Clave Del Gumbo (Dubberly)
4 Zongo Junction No Discount (Electric Cowbell)
5 Anansy Cissé Mali Overdrive (Riverboat)
6 Lo’Jo 310 Lunes (World Village)
7 Boris Kovač & La Campanella Eastern Moon Rising (Riverboat)
8 Da Cruz Disco E Progresso (Boom Jah)
9 Banda Magda Yerakina (Ground UP)
10 Ricardo Lemvo & Makina Loca La Rumba SoYo (Cumbancha

Oh, forgot Ricardo Lemvo had a new release out. Have liked his Congolese meets Cuban grooves in the past.

Alvvays at 11 on the RS tracks list makes me happy

xxp they are "the ballad of freer hollow" and "i aint waiting" correct?

Yep

33. Jackson Browne - The Birds of St. Marks

lol

And I like War on Drugs fine but see Solar Motel live and they would eat their fucking lunch

― you say tomato/i say imago (upper mississippi sh@kedown),

WOD lunch = moldy kale + sprouts iirc

bc of brooklyn and beer commercial rock amirite???????? TRUTH 2 POWER

btw evan & shakedown i very much like these chris forsyth/solar motel songs

Nice! Yeah it's goof stuff sloth

good...

goof stuff also sounds interesting imo but forsyth is def not goofy

toumani & sidiki is probably my #1 album from this year

i'm a sucker for the stereo thing

Sidmani & Tanooki

Don't say it three times or he'll appear.

toumani & sidiki is probably my #1 album from this year

Listening to this atm. I realize the incredible amount of talent on display here, but I also feel like it's restaurant music?

i've admittedly been in easy listening mode this year

Sorry, that was mean. They're probably amazing to see perform.

ha, i thought it was apt

:)

I like "The Birds of St. Marks" a lot. One of those songs he wrote when he was like 18.

I probably wouldn't have been as in to the Toumani&Sidiki record if I hadn't seen them first & gotten a sense of the interplay between them, the way the rhythms shift especially. The album with Ali Farka Toure often felt structured around & anchored down by the guitar but the pieces on this really take off, with those bouncy basslines underneath & they generate a lot of space, it's probably the airiest album I've ever heard. the tunes from the album were significantly expanded & perhaps just a little more patiently paced when I saw them played, which I absolutely recommend if you've got the faintest interest

MAGNET’s j. poet picks the best world-music releases of the year.

1 Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 A Long Way To The Beginning (Knitting Factory)

I haven't heard the album, but they put on a good show at Bonnaroo. Having seen both Femi and Seun, I'd say Seun got the charisma gene.

Fasterlouder

1 Kimbra - The Golden Echo
2 St. Vincent - St. Vincent
3 The War On Drugs - Lost In The Dream
4 Remi - Raw x Infinity
5 Mac DeMarco - Salad Days
6 Chet Faker - Built On Glass
7 FKA Twigs - LP1
8 Run The Jewels - RTJ2
9 Angel Olsen - Burn Your Fire For No Witness
10 The Smith Street Band - Throw Me In The River
11 Flying Lotus - You're Dead!
12 Freddie Gibbs & Madlib - Pinata
13 Fishing - Shy Glow
14 Sun Kil Moon - Benji
15 Azealia Banks - Broke With Expensive Taste
16 Total Control - Typical System
17 Royal Blood - Royal Blood
18 Taylor Swift - 1989
19 Perfume Genius - Too Bright
20 Cloud Nothings - Here and Nowhere Else
21 Ariel Pink - Pom Pom
22 Caribou - Our Love
23 King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizzard - I'm In Your Mind Fuzz
24 Glass Animals - ZABA
25 Against Me! - Transgender Dysphoria Blues
26 Kelis - Food
27 Blank Realm - Grassed In
28 Parquet Courts - Sunbathing Animal
29 Beck - Morning Phase
30 Lana Del Rey - Ultraviolence
31 #1 Dads - About Face
32 Alt-J - This Is All Yours
33 DZ Deathrays - Black Rat
34 TV On The Radio - Seeds
35 Flight Facilities - Down To Earth
36 Caitlin Park - The Sleeper
37 Mastodon - Once More 'Round The Sun
38 Angus and Julia Stone - Angus and Julia Stone
39 The Black Keys - Turn Blue
40 Sharon Van Etten - Are We There
41 The Preatures - Blue Planet Eyes
42 Augie March - Havens Dumb
43 Alvvays - Alvvays
44 First Aid Kit - Stay Gold
45 Shihad - Fvey
46 Hozier - Hozier
47 Jack White - Lazaretto
48 Ball Park Music - Puddinghead
49 Peep Tempel - Tales
50 Dan Sultan - Blackbird

MAGNET’s Bill Meyer picks the best jazz/improv releases of the year

1 Kyle Bruckmann’s Wrack …Awaits Silent Tristero’s Empire (Singlespeed)
2 Brötzmann Adasiewicz Edwards Noble Mental Shake (Otoroku)
3 AMM Place Sub. V. (Matchless)
4 Matt Bauder And Day In Pictures Nightshades (Clean Feed)
5 Rob Mazurek Mother Ode (Corbett Vs. Dempsey)
6 Russ Johnson Meeting Point (Relay)
7 Cymerman Wooley Parker World Of Objects (5049)
8 Steve Lehman Octet Mise En Abîme (Pi)
9 Keir Neuringer Ceremonies Of The Air (New Atlantis)
10 Travis Laplante’s Battle Trance Palace Of Wind (New Amsterdam)

Posted in BEST OF 2014 |

Next batch of Guardian best albums:

10. Sleaford Mods - Divide and Exit
9. Flying Lotus - You're Dead
8. Beck - Morning Phase
7. Run the Jewels - Run the Jewels 2
6. Trouble in Paradise - La Roux

is that la roux album any good? i've seen it on a few polls and don't feel too keen on them on the basis of the few older tracks i've heard