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.
8
Flyying Colours
Flyying Colours EP
There’s nothing terribly unique about this first EP from Australia’s Flyying Colours, much like the aforementioned debut from Cheatahs, but what it offers is strong songwriting and terrific, varied grooves from track to track that recall the absolute best of 90’s noise-pop, shoegaze outfits like Ride, The Dandy Warhols, and so many others. It’s one of those releases you can easily say in theory you’ve heard it all before in terms of their sound, and even the vibe of the songs, but they master it perfectly here and do a great job of attempting to claim the sound as all their own. Re-capturing instead of imitation is the key to success in these situations, and they’ve started with a very promising debut.