2014

Hi, again.

There are some best-of lists that come in December, and there are others that come in January.  Not early January, either.  What’s the point of that?  I mean, an early January list just tells the reader that, eh, maybe you were lazy, maybe you were distracted, maybe both, but you could’ve finished before New Years.  A late January list, that’s where it’s at.  You were not only lazy and distracted, but sorta willful about it.  Like, if this microscopic corner of the internet where my friends hang out really cares about what I thought were the Top 20 records of 2014, that corner is just gonna have to wait.  Until I’m gotdam good and ready.

Amirite??  Srsly.

: drops mic, leaves stage :

Oh.  You’re still here?  Dang.  Alright, I guess I’ll have to finish this after all.

So I’d like to come off as the less conscientious of the two bloggers here, but I don’t know if that’s true.  Between Owen and me, I’m the one who probably heard more new music last year.  (He would probably acknowledge that.)  But I’m also the one who got, as usual, somewhat frozen by the amount of it.  And I don’t know if the breadth of my listening gives me much of a leg to stand on, critically, because so much of it was so superficial.  Yeah, that one time I listened to the Weyes Blood record, or the Hundred Waters Record or the Quilt record, I really liked it and made an asterix next to it.  Now I can’t remember if that was supposed to indicate “good/listworthy” or “relisten/maybe listworthy.”  It’s quite possible that if it’s the latter, I might not be so impressed.  Or I might be more impressed.  It could honestly go either way.

(It’s not simply a matter of vagueness in my symbols.  Knowing myself fairly well, I’m gonna go ahead and state that the big fat “X” next to Neil Young’s A Letter Home was supposed to indicate “suck” because suck it did.  And I’m not sure how the releasing an album of covers produced by Jack White and recorded on-the-go in his mobile recording studio jives with the whole Pono thing.  You heard about that, right?  Haha.  Waitwaitwait, that’s a blank look.  You didn’t hear about it?  Or you don’t care about it, and just want some sort of list.  That’s fair, but lemme just register my amusement about a $400 digital music player that delivers vinyl-quality higher-fi to us dummies used to already-cd-quality iTunes files, for which a version of the Who’s Quadrophenia costs $40-something.)

Where was I?  Oh, yeah.  The critical dilemma, in which Owen and I try to cram a bunch of music into our scattered dad brains long enough for it to make an impression strong enough for us to say, definitively, this record was among the twenty best of the year, and those other ones weren’t.

Idk.  I don’t really feel great about any of it.  Last year, there were definitely good records I listened to more than other equally good records.  There may have been so-so or even worse ones that I listened to more than the other equally good ones.  But how do you prioritize your limited time and effort?  At what point is your (my) listening done?

It’s never done.  That’s the writ-small version of my writ-large post last year.  Last year, I ranted (sorry) that music matters because it has the potential to bring us all closer, to connect us across our many, many divides.  But flip that around.  The point becomes not about the effect of the music on us, but about the cause of it.    Music matters because it’s often made by beautifully passionate people, who ask very little of us except our ears’ attention.  (And a cold beer.  Hey, Black Prairie.)

How do I tell the nice folks in Weyes Blood that not only did I only listen to their record once (the same number of times I listened to Neil’s way-shittier record), but that it’s didn’t quite make my list?  Not because it’s not good or even great, but because I ran out of moments to give their piece of art the chance it deserved to break my heart somehow.  Because real life.  Hashtag that.

The fact that Owen figured out how to deal with those questions, and post a list with pictures and blurbs,  makes me admire and love him more.  Me, I’m the dick who can lob opinions about music all day to whomever will read an email, but who can’t cement those opinions into something final.  Waaah, I didn’t hear that enough.  Waaah, I didn’t hear that ever.  Waaah?  Waaah, who the hell are you, and why do you assume people care what you think?  Go ahead, smart guy.  Email those nice folks in Weyes Blood and explain to them your concerns.  And don’t hold your breath for a response.

Maybe they would respond.  They might.  Or they might not.  But regardless, if some sort of allegiance to artists and their (in this case, much more than metaphorical) struggle to be heard is truly what’s keeping me from finishing this damn thing, I shouldn’t.  I should just make an unranked list of generically good records and suggest you hear them.

I’m not that cool.  I’m not that non-judgmental.  Like I’d rather be the less conscientious one here, I’d also like to be the less snobby.  And, well, that’s just not true.  Owen’s #1?  I listened to it, twice, which was one more time than necessary, imo.  I found it boring and unchallenging.  (Then again, I don’t like Stevie Wonder in his peak mid-70s period that much.)  And I listened to much better music last year.  

If you’re still interested, here’s my Top 20 of 2014.  No pics, no blurbs, unless I edit this later.

My Top 20 Records of 2014

1.  St. Vincent - St. Vincent

2.  The War on Drugs - Lost in the Dream

3.  Tweedy - Sukierae

4.  FKA twigs - LP1

5.  Damon Albarn - Everyday Robots

6.  Sharon Van Etten - Are We There

7.  Caribou - Our Love

8.  Beck - Morning Phase

9.  First Aid Kit - Stay Gold

10.  Flying Lotus - You're Dead!

11.  Lykke Li - I Never Learn

12.  Andy Stott - Faith in Strangers

13.  Drowners - Drowners

14.  Aphex Twin - Syro

15.  Thee Silver Mt. Zion Orchestra - Fuck Off Get Free

16.  Cloud Nothings - Here and Nowhere Else

17.  Parquet Courts - Sunbathing Animal

18.  Ex Hex - Rips

19.  Hospitality - Trouble

20.  Woods - With Light and With Love

Honourable Mentions (alphabetical order):

The Afghan Whigs - Do to the Beast

Alvvays - Elvis

The Antlers - Familiars

Black Prairie - Fortune

Clark - Clark

Kevin Drew - Darlings

J Mascis - Tied to a Star

Mogwai - Rave Tapes

Thurston Moore - A New Day

MSMW - Juice

Angel Olsen - Burn Your Fire for No Witness

Phish - Fuego

Real Estate - Atlas

Ty Segall - Manipulator

Spoon - They Want My Soul

A Sunny Day in Glasgow - Sea When Absent

Tennis - Ritual in Repeat

TV on the Radio - Seeds

Twin Peaks - Wild Onion

Thom Yorke - Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes

Records that I didn't hear that may have made the list:

Azealia Banks - Broke with Expensive Taste

Charli XCX - Sucker

Iceage - Plowing into the Field of Love

Shabazz Palaces - Lese Majesty

Todd Terje - It's Album Time

And the song of the year, my fave anyway, is “Young Chasers” by Circa Waves.  But I’m a total sucker for early Strokes wannabees.

JF