Jeff's Top 10 of 2014 - #2: FKA Twigs - LP1

If I'm ranking albums this year solely on musical ambition, the first album from FKA Twigs would be in first by a mile. If Portishead and Bjork had a baby that loved R&B, it might start sounding a little bit like LP1, and that's not a bad thing at all.

I have a lot of trouble describing this, and even more trouble trying to pinpoint it. In a way, that's the point - she's getting a lot of credit for her trippy videos as she is for her music, and that's fine but really misses the point about how really great this is. It's a challenging record, for sure, but not difficult to listen to. While none of the songs are likely to be your favorites, as they pop up in the playlists (most notably with "Two Weeks" for me) you're going to get them drilled right into your head again. I don't pretend this album is for everyone - my wife in particular would prefer I not listen to this at all - but it's definitely an album I didn't realize I was looking for until I had it.

Stream this one below:


Song highlights: "Two Weeks," "Lights On."

Ken's Top 10 of 2014 - #3: Lydia Loveless - Somewhere Else

Back when Somewhere Else first came out, Jeff pointed me in its direction declaring he just discovered my new favorite singer. Based on the fact that my 10 most played songs on Spotify in 2014 are on Somewhere Else, he might be right. Lydia Loveless hits this sweet spot for me. She's a perfect blend of Lucinda Williams and Paul Westerberg, playing edgy roots rock with just the right amount of twang, filled with swirling, countrified guitars. The fact that I became obsessed with a song called "Head" about oral sex performed by a 22 year old female while in my late 30s would be more embarrassing if it wasn't the best song to come out in 2014. Her voice contains a grit to it that usually takes an artist decades to develop. I can't wait to see how she develops over the next few years.

Jeff's Top 10 of 2014 - #3: Against Me! - Transgender Dysphoria Blues

Against Me! is generally not the kind of punk rock I'm into when I want to listen to punk at all. With the big story surrounding Against Me! over the last couple years being around lead singer Laura Jane Grace's gender transition, the fear is that, like many other non-musical attention given to musicians and bands, that the music takes a back seat. I know I fired up Transgender Dysphoria Blues in part due to my curiosity as to how the band adjusted to the attention and the situation at hand, and not only does the album title pretty clearly demonstrate that they're not afraid to tackle the topic head-on, but it ends up being one of the most raw, most emotional, and most honest albums of recent memory.

The opening title track is one of the best songs on the album and wastes no time addressing the elephant in the room, and the album continues to go full-force from there, not letting up at all until the very last minutes (where "Black Me Out" is also a standout track). Not all of the album is talking about what everyone else is talking about, though, and that feels like a conscious choice to not be defined by it (which, as a reviewer, makes it kind of difficult to not point out). Still, they've made a fan out of me in a number of ways I didn't expect. This album was in constant rotation for me for months, my favorite songs on here still end up being some of my favorites of this year, and I am very excited to see where they'll go next. Maybe it will be back to the harder punk rock I can't get into, maybe we're seeing a further evolution into a more mainstream pop-punk, but the exposure they've gotten and a high-quality album that pulls no punches surely doesn't hurt in terms of bringing on a larger fanbase, and I can get behind that.

You can stream the album below.


Song Highlights: "True Trans Soul Rebel," "Transgender Dysphoria Blues," "Black Me Out."

Ken's Top 10 of 2014 - #4: Joe Fletcher - You've Got the Wrong Man

As much as I always liked Joe Fletcher & The Wrong Reasons, I never quite got why people were completely obsessed with the band. On his first solo record, You've Got the Wrong Man, I found out why. Recorded as Fletcher moved from Rhode Island to Tennessee via Georgia, it's a striking four track home recording. It's lo-fi, raw, and gritty, while being as lush and full as a mostly acoustic solo singer-songwriter can get. In a world where Mumford & Sons are folk and Taylor Swift is/was country, this brings back a level of authenticity the mainstream versions of those genres are severely lacking. It's almost corny to compare artists to Hank Williams or Johnny Cash at this point, but those are the direct forefathers to You've Got the Wrong Man.

Jeff's Top 10 of 2014 - #4: Hurray for the Riff-Raff - Small Town Heroes

Ken got me interested in Hurray for the Riff-Raff some time ago, and while I anticipated a newer album from Alynda Lee Segarra's musical collective, I didn't realize it would be this good.

The album itself is really a love letter to old-style folk music, to touring, to the cliched time gone by. It benefits from the bigger production budgets that moving to ATO provided, and the result is an album with countless memorable songs. "Crash on the Highway" is earwormy in the best possible way, "I Know It's Wrong (But That's Alright)" a fun romp, "No One Else" one of my favorite songs of the year period. Without a bad song on the album, it's hard to find many flaws and deserves a lot of credit.

You can stream it below. If you haven't fallen in love with this album yet, there's still time.


Song highlights: "I Know It's Wrong (But That's Alright)," "No One Else," "Crash on the Highway."

Joe Jack Talcum - "Santa Take Me Off That List"

Here's something I never thought I'd see: A Christmas song by Joe Jack Talcum of The Dead Milkmen. Set to the tune of the most familiar of Dead Milkmen songs, it's a little ditty of discovering your name on Santa's naughty list and trying to get off of it. It's no "Last Christmas," but it's almost a Dead Milkmen Christmas song, and hey, it's free.

You can download "Santa Take Me Off That List" here. While you're at it, check out Joe Jack Talcum's website to see what shenanigans he gets up to on his own, and The Dead Milkmen's website for group hijinks. 

Ken's Top 10 of 2014 - #5: Leyla McCalla - Vari-Colored Songs

Vari-Colored Songs is one of the few albums Jeff and I agreed on, but with good reasons. The whole acoustic, solo female artist is one of the biggest cliche's in folk music, but Leyla McCalla is one of the most original artists in folk today. Just something as simple as strumming an upright bass creates such a unique song and texture to her music. She goes from the eerily haunting and clunky (in a good way) "When Can I See the Valley" to the almost danceable "Mesi Bondye" in the span of 2 songs. "Rose Marie" might be one of the best songs on the album, and is a highlight in any of her live shows. This album should probably rank higher for me, but I think I might have burnt myself out on it back in the winter. I'm sure I'll regret not ranking it higher as I revisit is a bit more in the next couple weeks.

Jeff's Top 10 of 2014 - #5: Lydia Loveless - Somewhere Else

In a bleak world where Kathleen Edwards has exchanged her guitar for a coffee shop, Jessica Lea Mayfield is going more indie rock, and Elizabeth Cook hasn't released anything significant in four years, the mantle of the alt-country singer-songwriter woman has been a little empty for me. Thus my surprise when getting to hear Lydia Loveless's third album. A sometimes angry, sometimes dirty, sometimes thoughtful affair, this album is really a turning point compared to her rootsier early efforts, and really did a good job for me in terms of getting me excited about an album, one of the first ones this year to do so.

Whether it's "Wine Lips" or the in your face (I suppose that's not entirely intentional) "Head," there's not really a loser on the album, and there's a song to fit most moods to boot. She's super young, too, so to think that she's making music this good this early on? Forget about it. In other years, this might have been my top pick. For now, it's still one of the best releases overall, and it's streaming below:


Song highlights: "Head," "Wine Lips," "Really Wanna See You."

Ken's Top 10 of 2014 - #6: Johnny Marr - Playland

When I first saw Johnny Marr was releasing solo albums and touring as a frontman, I didn't really care. How many guitar players have tried solo careers and embarrassed themselves? Who would go and see that besides Smiths die hards? Then I saw a video of him performing "How Soon Is Now?" and I realized that I wanted to see Johnny Marr live.

Playland, his latest solo effort, is absolutely fantastic. It's just a perfect slice of British pop that blends elements of the 80s, 90s, and even sounds completely current. Plus, the songs are fun. And you get that guitar sound that only Marr can get. There's a reason serious music outlets refer to him as Johnny Fucking Marr. If you get a chance, I implore you to see him live. I like to think of myself as above just wanting to hear the big, iconic megahits. But something about hearing those guitar riffs coming from the man who originated them was one of the best concert experiences I've had in years. You can have Morrissey and his cancelled concerts and boring as hell solo albums. I'll stick with Johnny Fucking Marr.

Jeff's Top 10 of 2014 - #6: Chumped - Teenage Retirement

Let's just get this out of the way - this sort of emo revivial, pop-punk thing should not be this good. It just shouldn't. It is, but it really shouldn't be.

Teenage Retirement is the band's first full length after an EP that I sadly missed out on last year. There's a little bit of Velocity Girl, a little bit of Superchunk, and just a lot of fun from start to finish on the album. While I know I tend to gravitate toward female lead singers, it doesn't hurt that the rest of the music on this beyond the vocals are just rock solid from start to finish. It's a throwback with some modern flair, and it has the immediacy that a lot of the music from this year missed out on.

Don't sleep on this one. Stream it below:


Song highlights: "December is the Longest Month," "Hot 97 Summer Jams."