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.
13
Interpol
El Pintor
Good lord, they’re still around?, you might be asking. After their last self-titled album, it’s a valid question. I’ve always really liked Interpol but never thought they’ve put out a perfect, complete album, including their adored, drooled over debut from 12 years ago. Many bands get accused of staying with one sound and not venturing out into new sonic territories, but Interpol never succumbed to the criticism, and show with this LP it’s not necessarily a band’s sound, but their songwriting that matters. After all these years they have, for me, shown they have the writing chops with album, which is a stunner from beginning to end. The songs are slower than in the past, but instead of going for the post-punk pop jugular that was wearing thin, they demonstrate taking things more naturally may be all you need. With songs like ‘Tidal Wave’ and ‘Everything is Wrong’, well, everything is RIGHT.