What are your favorite albums of the year / of the last months?

[d6jg]

Interesting exercise...
Up until today, I've added 140 albums in 2014. Only 14 albums are actually dated of 2014. Most of the added albums are from 80’s and 90’s. Several 70’s too.

Here are my 5 most favorite 2014 albums (no particular order):

Angus & Julia Stone - Angus & Julia Stone
Christine And The Queens – Chaleur Humaine
Jill Barber – Fool’s Gold
Pink Floyd – The Endless River
Reena Riot – Stop Reverse

Having been cross with myself at the small number of true 2014 albums I have bought this year I am now listening to Angus & Julia Stone and shall be buying a copy. It's really rather nice. Thanks

[RonM]

I've acquired a lot of music in 2014, much of it actually released this year. Not at home, so can't do my definitive list until later (such as it will be), but a couple stand out for me.

My favorite from the year is without a doubt Bela Fleck and Abigail Washburn's self-titled album; duet banjos and Washburn's wonderfully idiosyncratic voice make for beautiful music. Not what you'd call traditional banjo music.

On the jazz front (although I'm not quite sure it fully qualifies as jazz), I really like Dr. John's Ske-Dat-De-Dat - The Spirit of Satch, a tribute to Louis Armstrong. I particularly like that he's brought in some elements of Hip Hop (on Mac The Knife). Enjoyable every inch.

More later.

It's later now. . .

Turns out that I have quite a bit of music tagged as 2014, and probably more from this year that didn't get tagged at all. Fact is, I do tend to get irrational late at night, and download tracks that I may never listen to. A significant proportion of my 2014 list falls in that category. That said, here are some of my faves from the year.

"Roots music" (including Americana, Folk, Country and assorted similar genres):

Bela Fleck and Abigail Washburn (self titled, although in some markets called Modern Times) -- as noted above, this is to my ears simply outstanding, a wonderful recording, continuing to give me great pleasure each time I play it.

Jesse Winchester, A Reasonable Amount of Trouble -- the swan song from a dying folk icon, beautifully recorded, lyrically focussed on a life lived as it comes to a close. I really like it.

Richard Thompson, Acoustic Classics -- essentially his solo acoustic show, illustrating his peerless songwriting and guitar playing, and showing that geezers can still PLAY!

Lucinda Williams, Where the Spirit Meets the Bone -- best thing from her in years, really good.



Jazz:

Dr. John, Ske-Dat-De-Dat - The Spirit of Satch -- Great recording with samples of a variety of styles, including hip hop. Several duets with women, something that Mac Rebennack has always done well. Very nice recording, but may not actually fall into everyone's definition of jazz.

Medeski, Scofield Martin and Woods, Juice -- Pure instrumental jazz, replete with energy.

Bryan Ferry Orchestra, The Jazz Age -- Ferry tunes done up in 1920s style jazz. Like nothing else, great music to accompany a dinner party, intimate or otherwise. Not recognizably Roxy Music or Bryan Ferry, but jolly good fun.


Classical:

Ingrid Fliter, Chopin: Piano Concertos -- From Linn, the Scottish label. Fliter's touch is exquisitely light and dynamic, and her support from the Scottish Chamber Orchestra is outstanding. The recording quality is phenomenally good, and for those who want the ultimate in audiophile sound, you can get extremely high resolution versions from the Linn website.


Blues:

Molly Johnson, Because of Billie -- Canadian jazz singer Johnson covering the work of Billie Holiday. Very nicely done, using Johnson's characteristic style, without attempting to clone Lady Day

Eric Bibb, Blues People -- one of the great under-appreciated American Blues artists, now over 65 and still producing some of the greatest acoustic blues music around

Keb' Mo', BluesAmericana -- a higher-energy more electric style of Blues from a master.

Jim Byrnes, St. Louis Blues -- Jim Byrnes is an American, living in Canada, an actor and long-time musician who does some of the tastiest rootsy recordings going. On this occasion he is covering the St. Louis blues style, wonderfully supported and produced by Steve Dawson, master of all guitar styles.


Miscellaneous recordings, sometimes hard to classify, but all on my playlist:

First Aid Kit, Stay Gold -- more poppish than my usual likes, but very nice

Jolie Holland, Wine Dark Sea -- another idiosyncratically excellent production from Ms Holland, ex (long ago) of the Be Good Tanyas

Natalia Zukerman, Come Thief Come Fire -- daughter of famous classical violinist and conductor Pinchas Zukerman, Natalia inherits huge amounts of instrumental capability, playing many instruments. This recording starts out as acoustic folk (beautifully done) and morphs into more orchestral style pop, with dad and step-mom playing. Very nice indeed.

Kelsey McNulty, excuses for small details -- the lower case is the way she's written it. This is actually one of my favorite recordings of the year, but very hard to classify. Reminds me a bit of Robin Holcomb, in that there are some "composed" instrumental parts, inter-mixed with rootsy/folky songs. A bit of jazz thrown in.

Jenny Scheinman, The Littlest Prisoner -- jazz violinist Scheinman (has several of her own instrumental recordings, and tours and records with Bill Frisell) has produced a second more singer/songwriter album, the last one was several years ago. She has a lovely rich voice, and uses it well. Not as much of her own playing on this as I'd have liked, but in the summer swinging in the hammock was seldom off the playlist.

Steve Dawson, Rattlesnake Cage -- ace guitarist (and related instruments), a pure instrumental recording, thankfully. He's tried singing from time to time, not to good effect. This is a very nice illustration of the range of Dawson's talent on plucked and picked instruments. Perfect for long drives.

Colleen Rennison, See the Sky About to Rain -- another excellent recording from Steve Dawson's studio (he plays guitar on it), but quite different from the others on this list. High energy bluesy production, reminiscent in some ways of Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, but more Canadian!


That's it, too much, but I have always sucked at editing.

[Philip Meyer]

What are your favorite albums of the year/ of the last months?

>Tori Amos - Unrepentant Geraldines
This was better than I was expecting. I didn't like the previous few albums too much.

I would include:

Anathema - Distant Satellites
Perge - Green Dessert (like 70's Tangerine Dream)
Pink Floyd - The Endless River

[bernt]

Opeth: Pale Communion

http://open.spotify.com/album/0DLImjuzdrOBQKtYLlf3C5

Mustasch: Thank You for the Demon

http://open.spotify.com/album/4Fv9nJN20lVteJzJ9iSYVf

[bakker_be]

>I would include:

Anathema - Distant Satellites

Opeth: Pale Communion

http://open.spotify.com/album/0DLImjuzdrOBQKtYLlf3C5

Those are indeed very good 2014-vintage albums! Kinda forgot about them when making my list earlier ...

[cliveb]

For me, just one 2014 album stands out as exceptional: Cleopatra by Kayak.

Unfortunately their two lead singers have now left the band, so this is the last Kayak album featuring Cindy Oudshoorn - a spectacularly good singer (and an amazing stage presence, too).

[get.amped]

For me, just one 2014 album stands out as exceptional: Cleopatra by Kayak.

Unfortunately their two lead singers have now left the band, so this is the last Kayak album featuring Cindy Oudshoorn - a spectacularly good singer (and an amazing stage presence, too).

I only just discovered Kayak last year. A truly exceptional catalog of prog rock, but their line-up has gone through quite a few changes from the original band in the '70s to the reformed one in the '00s.

[cliveb]

I only just discovered Kayak last year. A truly exceptional catalog of prog rock, but their line-up has gone through quite a few changes from the original band in the '70s to the reformed one in the '00s.

Kayak went up a gear when Cindy Oudshoorn joined around 2005. She's an amazing singer - to me her voice sounds like a rock'n'roll version of Streisand. Unfortunately she left at the end of 2014.

For anyone interested in sampling Kayak and who likes prog rock, I'd avoid the middle-period stuff from 1976-1980, as they went through a fairly pop-based phase then (although there are a few good songs to be found in there).

Their first two albums "See See the Sun" and "Kayak" are great.

All the modern era stuff since 2000 is good, including three outstanding rock operas which IMHO are the pinnacle of their work ("Merlin - Bard of the Unseen", "Nostradamus - The Fate of Man", and "Cleopatra - The Crown of Isis"). Note that these are sort of prog-musical theatre in style.

Of the remaining "normal" albums, I reckon "Coming up for Air" is probably their best.

[Wombat]

Here is my list for 2014, with Ben Howard's "I Forget Where We Were" as my nominee for the Album Of The Year title.

Finaly got me this one and it is indeed damn good stuff but the Damien Rice i still prefer.

[reinholdk]

Finaly got me this one and it is indeed damn good stuff but the Damien Rice i still prefer.

For me it's the other way round: I now bought Damien Rice and I really like it, but still prefer Ben Howard.

Actually, I've already bought several other CDs based on recommendations here. Guess the best discovery for me up to now was Beck's Morning Phase. But I still have to checkout a lot of the stuff mentioned here.

[JamesGrin]

Cleopatra by Kayak really awesome

[bomboloni]

My top three

I bought nearly 60 2014 releases, here are my top three for the year.

Ought - More Than Any Other Day I'm enjoying this as much as I did Talking Heads '77 and Television's Marquee Moon...and they are obvious influences here. Stand out track: More Than Any Other Day

D'Angelo and The Vanguard - Black Messiah I may only understand 10% of the words he is singing, but I believe this record will end up an R&B classic. Stand out track: Betray My Heart

Damon Albarn - Everyday Robots Blur front man has worked on many side projects but this is his first solo effort. Like Beck's release this year it's a quiet one, but it grows on you. Stand out track: Everyday Robots

[reinholdk]

2015

2015 is nearly over, so it's time for an update on this topic.

I've looked over my list of albums for 2015 - I've got 100 with this year's release date - and here are my top ten with Steven Wilson's album on top:

Steven Wilson - Hand. Cannot. Erase.
Calexico - Edge of the Sun
Passport - En Route
Eric Clapton - Slowhand At 70 - Live At The Royal Albert Hall
Eric Clapton - Forever Man
Ida Sand - Young At Heart
Wolfgang Haffner - Kind Of Cool
Nils Frahm - Solo
Florence + the Machine - How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful
David Gilmour - Rattle That Lock

[w3wilkes]

Mark Knopfler - Tracker

[gstalnaker]

Second the Nils Frahm "Solo"!

2015 is nearly over, so it's time for an update on this topic.

Nils Frahm - Solo

Second this! I like all of his work and this was no exception!