Albums
of the year
2014
Last year my goal was to shorten the reviews in my annual top albums post, but I failed miserably. This year, however, time was more limited – in a good way luckily (maybe because I interviewed two of my favorite bands: Lush, and Slowdive!) – and I’ve finally reached my goal. That’s even with 20 albums reviewed, up four from last year. I think I’ll keep this introductory shorter as well. As you can see, to the left is a playlist of a song from each of the albums that I think represents what makes each album great. Oh, and it’s Spotify, so you may need to have an account or something, not entirely sure how that works. Figure it out, or check out the song titles to find them somewhere else. Lastly, note these are in no particular order. They’re all great in their own individual ways, and thus albums at the bottom are JUST as important as those at the top. Enjoy, and feel free to comment if you want – and thanks for reading! Or not.
11
Ghost Beach
Blonde
When I first heard their song ‘Moon Over Japan’ I was completely smitten. Just perfect 80’s pop songs that, as the old cliche goes, really fits on any of John Hughes’ movie soundtracks. Then this album came out and it really threw me for a loop. The vocals were hard to take. Not sure who they sounded like exactly but it was quite unpleasant. Kind of like these older emo bands where dudes sing with high pitch screams and just sounds like they’re trying to pull the heart-strings of teenage girls everywhere. And the tunes were a bit generic – maybe too polished. But the tunes were there and I kept listening, and the layers began to reveal themselves. Sure it’s aiming really high – sorta corporate sounding, but beneath it all they had the songs, and they’re incredibly catchy. I can see some hating this, which I totally get, but I beg them to give it time as it’s quite an excellent pop album.