If It's Too Loud...

While I was able to narrow down my 10 favorites in 2014, that doesn't mean there wasn't a further list of albums I loved along the way. Listed below are some of my other favorites, all of which are available to stream on Spotify: The Jezebels - The Brink Phox - Phox Tuatara - Underworld Lana Del Ray - Ultraviolence Orwells - Disgraceland Justin Townes Earle - Single Mothers +/- - Jumping the Tracks Aphex Twin - Syro Spoon - They Want My Soul HAERTS - HAERTS Front County - Sake of the Sound Shovels and Rope - Swimmin' Time Philip Selway - Weatherhouse Knife Party - Abandon Ship Gemma Ray - Milk for Your Motors Orwells - Disgraceland Orenda Fink - Blue Dream Benjamin Booker - Benjamin Booker Tennis - Ritual in Repeat Banks - Goddess Iggy Azalea - The New Classic The Rentals - Lost in Alphaville Death From Above 1979 - The Physical World Kelis - Food Hiss Golden Messenger - Lateness of Dancers Calvin Harris - Motion Mogwai - Rave Tapes Dom Flemon...

Having to narrow all the songs I listened to over the last 12 months to simply twenty entries felt like a feat, but I'm fairly happy with the list I ended up with. You can listen to a mix above, they are listed in some sort of order, but just shuffle it up and enjoy your Monday. Jeff's Top Songs of 2014: 1) Elizabeth and the Catapult - "Shoelaces" 2) Allison Weiss - "Remember When" 3) alt-J - "Every Other Freckle" 4) HAERTS - "No One Needs to Know" 5) First Aid Kit - "Walk Unafraid" 6) Alvvays - "Archie, Marry Me" 7) The Secret Sisters - "Iuka" 8) Caroline Rose - "Blood on Your Bootheels" 9) Liam Finn - "Wild Animal" 10) Carrie Ann Carroll - "True Love" 11) Field Mouse - "Bright Lights" 12) FKA Twigs - "Two Weeks" 13) Self - "Runaway" 14) Spoon - "Inside Out" 15) The Red Headed Indian - "Please Come Home" 16) ...

Albums like this are why I like being able to write for this blog. Ken was raving about this band for a while, sent it over to me, and I fell in love almost immediately. Hold Still Life is the first full length as a full band for Field Mouse, and it's really quite the musical achievement. Sometimes it's like Velocity Girl, sometimes it's like the hazy indie dream pop/rock that's been popular as of late, and far too often the structures of the songs remind me of one of my favorite bands of all time, The Reputation. All the songs just stay stuck in my head, with "Tomorrow is Yesterday" and "Reina" in constant rotation, and the lyrics definitely tell some really interesting stories. "Bright Lights" would have resonated heavily with me 10 years ago in particular. I can't say enough good things about this album. By far, it was my favorite release of this year, and I'm hoping I can find some time/energy to see them live soon. Y...

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...

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 t...

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."

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 bee...

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."

Azealia Banks's debut album was supposed to come out in 2012, and was delayed because of label issues and a lot of overall drama. Finally released as a surprise at the beginning of November, I really wish I could have been a fly on the wall at Universal two years ago, because the album is really truly an incredible feat. In a world where Janelle Monae is rightfully getting a lot of critical acclaim and is soooo close to that popular breakthrough, Banks successfully juggles multiple genres and concepts in a way that is similar to Monae while both forging her own path and keeping the concepts a little more mainstream. The tropes are more familiar and don't involve sexy robots, and that's okay - the comparison mostly has to stop there and we can embrace Broke With Expensive Taste on its own merits. The singles ("Yung Rapunxel," "Heavy Metal and Reflective") are great, and the deeper tracks ("Nude Beach a Go-Go," "Gimme a Chance") s...

Leyla McCalla is best known for her work with the Carolina Chocolate Drops, a band I love , so I was pretty excited when I heard that there was a solo record announced, but less so when I learned it was a concept album based around poetry. My fears were completely unfounded, though, as this is a pretty amazing album. Based on the poetry of Langston Hughes and dipping deep into Haitian folk music, it's probably my favorite album this year from a purely musical basis. Beyond that, the songs are great, the concept comes across well, and the musicality really shines through, as one would expect. Plus, "Rose Marie" is probably my son's first actual favorite song. Definitely give this a listen if you haven't yet. It's certainly something that deserves to be heard by any lover of music, and really deserves as much acclaim as possible. Song highlights: "Rose Marie," "Manman Mwen."

Alt-J hit my radar a couple years ago, their debut album my favorite of 2012 . This was easily one of my most anticipated albums, but you can see the evolution of the band's sound from the last couple years quite clearly in the new album. There are classic Alt-J song structures like "Every Other Freckle" and "The Gospel of John Hurt," and there are different concepts like "Left Hand Free" that show a broader musical range. With the loss of one of their members prior to the completion of this album combined with their increased popularity means a lot of questions as to where the band will go next. That this album is still really different from their debut and is still one of the best releases of the year is a credit to their abilities. I still love this album, and I can't wait what's coming next. Song highlights: "The Gospel of John Hurt," "Every Other Freckle."

Kicking off this year's Best Of list is St Vincent's self-titled album from the beginning of this year. It was such a constant for me earlier this year that I assumed it was a release from 2013, but this really deserves a lot of praise, especially given that I've felt her more recent output left more than a bit to be desired. I still feel working with David Byrne on their collaborative effort rubbed off in a great way for this album, and it does have a number of highly memorable songs that still get stuck in my head almost a year later. The album is streaming below. Check it out for the first time, or see it as a great reminder. Song highlights: "Rattlesnake," "Birth in Reverse," "Digital Witness."

We kick off our Best of 2014 coverage today with a look at my favorite EP releases of the year. I'll count down a few highlights and leave a few others: The Red-Headed Indian - Honey : I was really, really excited about this EP when it was first released, and I'm still really into it today. Every time I listen to it, whether in full or to the individual songs, I find something new to love and a new favorite song on the release (today it's "January"). Overall, this is my favorite non-album release this year by a wide, wide margin and I'm really excited to see what Caroline Kingsbury has coming up next. Robyn & Royksopp - Do It Again : "Do It Again" might be one of my favorite songs of the year regardless of anything else, but this whole EP is a great mix of electronica and pop music that hopefully sets up more great collaborations like this. A great little dance EP that is just long enough to boot. Lewis and Leigh - Night Drives : Every...