Wednesday, December 24, 2014

My Favorite Albums of 2014, Part II (The Final Part)

Cymbals Eat Guitars have the great honor of being on this list, too!

Number No-Number to Number I Don't Know

So I brainstormed out this list of favorite albums, and -- by some Christmas miracle -- it came out to exactly thirty records. It could have been longer, I guess; but I felt like thirty was a good stopping point.

Check through the reviews that appeared here or at Speak Into My Good Eye throughout the year to see some of the other albums I enjoyed. The contributors here and I only write about the things that move us, so every album or EP mentioned here this year deserves your attention.

With that, here's the next and final bunch of albums on my year-end list.

Happy, happy. Merry, merry.

Peace.

White Lung, Deep Fantasy

I came to this one late in the year, and I'm sorry I went six months without really having this in my rotation. It's easy, cliché, and unavoidable to compare the vocal delivery of lead singer, Mish Way, to Courtney Love's; but that would be an over-simplification. The Vancouver band bring a power and intensity on the 20-or-so minute Deep Fantasy that's not for the faint of heart, and I can't imagine hearing this band on big, corporate radio in any era.

Favorite tracks: "Drown with the Monster," "Face Down," "Just for You"



Dead Stars, Slumber

Fuzzy pop. Poppy fuzz. Whatever this is, I like it. On Slumber, Brooklyn's Dead Stars take the drone, the noise, and the "glide guitar" of shoegaze and employ them all in the creation of amazingly catchy pop songs. This one was definitely one of the two or three albums in my "Most Listened To Album of 2014" competition.

Favorite tracks: "Someone Else," "Walking Away," "Wasted"



Cymbals Eat Guitars, LOSE

LOSE is about loss -- the loss of a friend, the loss of youth, the loss of innocence, and the fact that life can sometimes be seen as just an accumulation of losses. Joe D'Agostino and the band have created, probably, their most accessible record; and it contains some of D'Agostino's most deeply personal lyrics. I saw the band twice live this year, and watching D'Agostino deliver these songs in person gives them even more weight.

Favorite tracks: "Jackson," "Warning," "Chambers"



Bob Mould, Beauty and Ruin

One of the times that I saw Cymbals Eat Guitars was when they opened for Bob Mould at Bowery Ballroom. With Beauty and Ruin, Mould continues his return to the raging power pop sounds of Sugar. I've seen criticisms of the record noting that Mould has done much of this before. That may be true, but it works exceedingly well for me here, and the songs stand up to the rest of Mould's catalog during his blistering live set.

Favorite tracks: "I Don't Know You Anymore," "Hey Mr. Grey," "Fix It"



The Everymen, Givin' Up on Free Jazz

It feels like The Everymen were on tour for this record pretty much all year. Take some New Jersey musical ingredients -- The Misfits, The Shirelles, Bruce -- mix them all together into a rock and roll stew, and you've got Givin' Up on Free Jazz. That's what The Everymen let loose on the rest of the country for almost all of 2014. They're a band that puts on a balls-to-the-wall live show, who's not afraid to rhyme "Lodi" with "Bon-Jovye" in a song called "NJHC," and who can make a Springsteen deep cut like "Ain't Good Enough for You" their own.

Favorite tracks: "A Girl Named Lou Pt. 2," "Spain," "Fingers Crossed"



Black Wine, Yell Boss

The product of a democratic, "no core" approach, Yell Boss includes moments of power pop, hard rock, even a snippet from an English folk song. Taken together, it's a cohesive whole delivered by a band where no single person takes the lead for more than a song. It also includes a great cover of The Guess Who's "No Time," which is awesome.

Favorite tracks: "Breaking Down," "No Reason," "Rime"



Those Mockingbirds, Penny the Dreadful

Penny the Dreadful is accessible but challenging rock music. It's the kind of rock music that, if it were to take over the commercial alt rock airwaves, would make the world a much better place. The songs here contain, in places, a gothic darkness that's the product of honest-to-goodness good songwriting rather than the posturing of some image-conscious faux rock band. And the band prove their chops at every live show.

Favorite tracks: "A Ballad from Hell," "How to Rob a Bank," "S.A.L.T."



Wreaths, Wreaths

Wreaths' self-titled debut LP worms its way around your brain with elements of psych-rock, space rock, krautrock, shoegaze, and blues. The band use repetition to achieve something like a hypnotic effect on several of the songs and you can almost see the mist from the fog machine floating out from your speakers.

Favorite tracks: "Coke Straw," "Ruby," "Piedmont Aire"



brick mower, Teenage Graceland

This is pop punk. It's music that's the product of a DIY approach. It gives you something to grab onto to make you want to keep coming back. Guitarist / vocalist Eric Truchan sounds like he's spent some time listening to indie greats like Malkmus and Martsch, and that's a big part of what made this New Brunswick / Keansburg band's record a goto album for me for much of the spring and summer.

Favorite tracks: "Georgia Glass," "Shitty Parade," "Sugar Teeth"



Nude Beach, 77

It takes guts in 2014 to make a double-album rooted in the sounds of Tom Petty, Big Star, and Bruce Springsteen aimed at an indie / punk audience. It takes talent to pull it off. Nude Beach pull it off on 77. The only thing missing from this record is a cassette release so that I can play it in the tape deck of my 1980 Tercel.

Favorite tracks: "See My Way," "I Can't Keep the Tears from Falling," "Changes"



Fear of Men, Loom

Dark, literary lyrics. Jangling guitars. Post-punk bass. There's lots from this Brighton, UK quartet that I love. It's a Smiths meets The Sundays kind of thing, and Jess Weiss's vocals fly and float over the chiming guitars. I wear black on the outside...

Favorite tracks: "Alta / Waterfall," "Seer," "Luna"



Perfect Pussy, Say Yes to Love

Perfect Pussy are a polarizing band. CoolMom doesn't get them. Ben Greenberg of The Men wrote kind of a nasty review about them. You can't hear the lyrics. It's barely music. But I love Meredith Graves's rage and emotion. It's a rage that's not coming from a testosterone filled, chest-beating place, but it is white hot and just as real.

Favorite tracks: "Driver," "Interference Fits," "Dig"



Chris Brown, Anchor

Brown sings of growing up with his hometown of Asbury Park with an honesty and conviction that's hard to miss. He's grown into the role of folk-punk troubadour, but you can hear the punk / hardcore history shining through; and Anchor contains plenty of moments to raise your fist and sing along.

Favorite tracks: "16," "When We Were Kids," "When the Lights Went Out"



The Vansaders, Stuck in New York City

Maybe rough up some of the smooth edges that The Gaslight Anthem have acquired over the years. Throw in a little country twang and some rock and roll grit. This record is full of punk-country-rock booze-soaked anthems delivered straight from the gut of frontman Doug Zambon. It came out early this year, so there's a chance you'll miss it when looking back at 2014. Don't.

Favorite tracks: "End of the Line," "Bullet," "Moving Home"



J. Mascis, Tied to a Star

I had to put this one on here, right? I mean, J. Mascis. My hero. My idol. He comes out from behind the distortion and fuzz here to show us that, yes, there are pop / country songs hiding behind all that Dinosaur Jr. noise. A great follow-up to his solo debut, Several Shades of Why, from a couple years ago; and it can more than hold me over until the next Dinosaur Jr. release.

Favorite tracks: "Every Morning," "Wide Awake," "Come Down"



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