Holy fucking shit. 2014 is almost over. Gimme a second to stare into space and momentarily clear my head of this realization.
Ok, now let’s see. This year has been chock-full of ups and downs for me, from graduating high school to entering my dream university by a stroke of luck not even Nostradamus would’ve predicted, because looking back on what kind of a student I was, there’s little to no evidence suggesting I deserved to be admitted into anywhere with a highly competitive passing grade, let alone the “top” ones. Kinda makes me wonder whether this is bad karma at work, preparing me for some great tribulation as I live my undergraduate life completely unaware of what’s coming. But until then, I see no harm in sharing my favorite music of the year, after all there’s only so much you could distract yourself with around here, so yeah:
(before you point it out, yes, some of these may have been released in late 2013)
25. An Autumn for Crippled Children – Try Not to Destroy Everything You Love
Think Sunbather played through a broken amp with the distortion maxed out and the bass nullified, now have a string quartet jam over the noise; it might seem off-putting at first but once you’ve listened to it long enough and developed an appreciation for its aesthetic, you’ll find the experience breathtaking.
24. Nils Frahm – Spaces
I see “classical” music as something that has evolved beyond its former esteem and turned into something utterly pretentious; you know what I’m talking about, parents encouraging their children to play the piano at an early age so that their right and left hemispheres will be in “perfect balance” or some shit. Ultimately all they’ve accomplished is raise a generation of snobs with egos the size of a supermassive black hole. Anyway, sorry for the tangent, Spaces is not pretentious and a great live album, period.
23. Death Grips – Niggas on the Moon
While not as focused and powerful as their previous work, the first half of Death Grips’ “posthumous” album, The Powers That B, is a much preferred change in direction compared to 2013’s alienating Government Plates.
22. Open Mike Eagle – Dark Comedy
“Indie” rap (or “cloud” rap?) has produced some of the most interesting emcees I’ve known since I started taking hip hop seriously; from the philosophical, pop culture-savvy types like Milo to the arizona iced tea sippin’ Yung Lean, there truly is an exciting sense of originality to these guys and it’s not just because they’re far removed from the mainstream but rather because they’re the only bunch that actually have a lane of their own in which to create. With a winning set of beats and a penchant for cleverly funny rhymes, Open Mike Eagle is undoubtedly ahead of that lane.
21. Bladee – GLUEE
20. Kyary Pamyu Pamyu – Pika Pika Fantajin
If I was held at gunpoint and told to name an album that’s sweeter, cuter, more colorful and catchier than Pika Pika Fantajin, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t escape with my life. Simply one of the most addictive, instantly-gratifying pieces of music ever made by Man.
19. Joyce Manor – Never Hungover Again
As I was listening to this on the drive home from the airport after visiting my dad’s hometown for lebaran, the nostalgic part of my brain was triggered and I sat there, looking out the window feeling like I was 10, jamming a Blink-182 compilation on my way to school. If a record does that you gotta put it on your year-end list.
18. Cloud Nothings – Here and Nowhere Else
I actually wrote a review for this one but it was never finished due to me being the uber-procrastinator that I always am. But basically I ended up talking about how great Attack on Memory was to the point where all the adjectives I could’ve used to describe Here and Nowhere Else had been, well, used. Speaks to the qualities of both albums, really.
17. Seahaven – Reverie Lagoon: Music for Escapism Only
“The wave” as coined by Jeremy Bolm of Touché Amoré (I believe? Correct me if I’m wrong) is essentially an independent scene that revolves around celebrating and applying a modern twist on the sounds popularized by seminal post-hardcore groups from the 90s (hashtag emorevival). It is, however, somewhat ill-defined in a larger context where groups that are only associated with the wave, like Seahaven, are concerned; instead of playing aggressive, angsty-to-a-fault songs, they indulge in subtlety and a singer-songwriter-esque passion.
16. Rosetta – Flies to Flame
2013’s The Anaesthete saw Rosetta embark further away from their post-metal roots while sticking firm to the fast + loud dynamics of 2010’s A Determinism of Morality, resulting in a sound that’s equal captivating and intense but lacking in emotional payoff which makes their earlier work such classics. Gone was the epic, mind-numbing nature of the interplay between the delay-laden guitars and the raw-sounding bass, the spacious drum fills and frontman Mike Armine’s distant yet in-your-face screams. Despite being only an EP, Flies to Flame manages to make me happy by having all the above-mentioned qualities and then some.
15. Timber Timbre – Hot Dreams
A scene that pops into my head whenever I put this on is of a young American couple from the 70s, speeding along an empty desert road with the top down in the early hours of dawn, the stench of a cheap night club still on them, the lights of a far-off landscape receding into darkness. Conjuring such a vivid image is no easy task but Timber Timbre seems to have succeeded in creating the perfect album for it by pairing “dated” songwriting with modern ears.
14. Vince Staples – Hell Can Wait
Vince Staples piqued my interest last year with his excellent guest spots on Earl Sweatshirt’s Doris, spitting bar after bar of dismal rhymes that paint a not-so-pretty picture of growing up in a hostile neighborhood only to become one with it. On Hell Can Wait these themes are brought up again, sounding as authentic and realized as a first-person retelling of a drive-by shooting.
13. La Dispute – Rooms of the House
You can probably think up a metaphor to illustrate how your life has changed from point A to B in less than five minutes but others might find it unrelatable since each has their own way of perceiving change. La Dispute understand this and, instead of describing change through subjective impressions, choose to retreat into the background of it all as observers in the form of a house filled with furniture, experiencing firsthand the loss and tragedy that come with transition.
(thus concludes the first part of my year-end list, not promising anything but I plan to have the second part up some time next week, or the week after that)
ASASI 