My Favorite Albums of 2014

So I wrote the majority of this in January/February, then forgot to ever finish it. But here it is, now mid-May, and I've remembered to finally finish this damn blog post. So without further ado, here is my take on the music that came out of 2014:

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It's that time of year again--the middle of February when I finally get around to writing up and blogging about my favorite albums from the previous year. 

Let's face the facts here. 2014 was a mostly terrible year for music. It was kind of a let-down of a year after 2013. So many of my newly all-time favorite albums came out in 2013 (see: Days Are Gone by HAIM, Pure Heroine by Lorde, and of course YEEZUS by 'Ye), that 2014 had a lot to live up to. Most of it did not.

There was one minor, but great, exception: and that was the great, long-anticipated (at least by me) return of Paolo Nutini. 2014 had that. 2013 did not. 2014 at least has that over 2013.

The one good piece of news is, 2015 is shaping up to be a great year for music. With new albums coming from Marina and the Diamonds, Florence + the Machine, and Sufjan Stevens (who are arguably 3 of my favorite artists, ever), I have very, very high hopes for this coming year.

So here's the last cheers to the not-so-good year last year, and here it is, the best albums of 2014 according to me:

Caustic Love, Paolo Nutini

For anyone who knows me, you will know that Paolo Nutini is my great love. Half-Italian, half-Scottish, and fully beautiful, I fell in love with Paolo after discovering him near to the beginning of his career back in 2006/07. As talented as he is attractive, he immediately became one of my favorite current artists if not one of my favorite artists, ever. His first and second albums, These Streets and Sunny Side Up respectively, have some of my favorite songs like "Last Request" and "Coming Up Easy", not to mention his more popular tracks like "Jenny Don't Be Hasty" and "Candy." What makes Paolo truly incredible is that each of his albums has a truly different sound. These Streets is a cohesive, biographical collection of a young Nutini growing up and learning to find his way, and it's a wonderfully constructed pop album. Then in 2009 came Sunny Side Up, a highly-stylized and unique album that has songs ranging from the sounds of swing ("10/10"), to acoustic heart-wrenching melodies ("Candy"), to a sad and soulful jazz ballad ("No Other Way"). Sunny was almost like Paolo was trying to find who he was, which a lot of people didn't particularly care for the way the album didn't really have a distinct sound, but then--a whole FIVE, count 'em, FIVE years later--came Caustic Love. I was lying on my brother's couch in his apartment in New Jersey on a surprise visit home from California around Christmas of 2013 when, after months and months of silence on all of Paolo's social media, came the tweet that Caustic Love would be released in April of 2014. Needless to say, I screamed. Out loud. And I was not let down, not even in the slightest. Caustic Love has Paolo finding a sound, soulful and bluesy and sensual and straight funky, and everything I could have ever wanted for Paolo to have created. I don't even want to say much more than this, the fact that the album is so artfully constructed and gorgeous, because I truly believe it's one of those albums that needs to be heard. You can't be told how great it is, you must experience it. Now hopefully we just won't have to wait another 5 years to get a gem like this from Paolo again. 

(Oh yeah, and 2014 was also the year I finally got to MEET Paolo. So I'll just leave this picture riiiiiight here.)

Queen of the Clouds, Tove Lo

Where has this girl been in my life? This album is so good. SO good. I had compiled this list back when I first started writing this post a couple months ago, and I'm so glad I didn't post it until I found this album. I randomly stumbled upon “Talking Body” a few weeks ago and can't stop listening to it. I finally decided this week maybe I should check out the rest of the album, and I was not upset about that decision. I’m fairly certain that on some level Tove Lo and I are the same person. I find myself saying "Yes, this is true life" to a lot of what she's singing about. This album is pop perfection and catchy as anything, but the lyrics are also gold. My personal favorite moment from this album is actually the song “Moments.” She croons that she isn’t perfect. She may not be the prettiest girl, or the most put-together girl, but she has her moments: "I can get a little drunk, I get into all the don’ts/But on good days I am charming as fuck”. Tove writes songs about what it’s genuinely like to be girl in her 20s. And she may just be my spirit animal.

Ultraviolence, Lana del Rey

Lana. Lana, Lana, Lana. Oh how I love you, Lana. Do I love Ultraviolence as much as I love (specifically the Paradise Edition of) Born to Die? No, probably not. But do I love Ultraviolence? Yes, I do. Lana creates music that is melancholy and brutally sincere, and she gives zero fucks while doing it. She says what she wants and doesn't care what people think of her. She's rock and roll in a day and age that has gone soft (see: Bruno Mars, that stupid "Why You Gotta Be So Rude" song, basically anything on the radio anymore). She's queen. She's one of the few artists that can continually give me goose bumps with her voice alone. Ultraviolence is no exception. It's crushed dreams. It's crushed hearts. It's bluesy and dark and it makes me want to make bad decisions.

Yes!, Jason Mraz and Raining Jane

You might think this is an obligatory inclusion of Jason on here, since I love him and I've loved him forever and I'm just including him because he's one of my all-time favorite artists. You would be wrong. Honestly, I'm mostly including this album on here because of Jason's collaboration with Raining Jane, a wonderful amazing beautiful group of talented women. One of the members, Mona Tavakoli, has been on tour with Jason in the past as his percussionist extraordinaire, so I'd known of her and seen her live plenty of times before getting a chance to experience Raining Jane live themselves. And holy cow they're incredible. They're also super cool and loved my Ryan Gosling shirt that I wore when I saw J+RJ in California last March. This collaboration, many years in the making since Jason first met Raining Jane at a college show, is such a wonderful meld of the sounds and voices and lyrics that the group of them creates together. It's a feel good album with mellow melodies, simply sweet to listen to and I highly recommend it.

1989, Taylor Swift

Hey, remember that time I hated Taylor Swift? Neither do I, barely, but it was just all of 6 months ago. I didn't get her. I didn't like her cutesiness. Her constant rotation of guys she dated, then broke up with, then wrong songs about like a crazy person. Her, what I thought was, insincerity. BUT THEN--slowly, over the last few months, I started to like Taylor Swift. I realized she wasn't insincere, yet was just as crazy and eccentric as someone, well, someone like me. Taylor Swift and I actually have a lot in common. Our love and obsession for our cats. The way that we don't care when people call us out on being crazy because, let's face it, we are. Our taste in music/people, like the fact that her best friends are Selena Gomez and Lorde and the sisters of HAIM and Jamie King. And, sadly, our taste in men (she's dated John Mayer, Harry Styles, Jake Gyllenhaal... the list goes on, and I don't find a flaw on it anywhere, really). After I slowly started to make these realizations, 1989 was released. I held off on listening to "Shake It Off" as long as I possibly could because I knew that just like "Trouble" it would be a song that I would hate to love, then like to love, then full on love to love. And it only started there. 1989 is such a good, no, great pop album. There isn't a song on there that I DON'T like. So damn you Taylor Swift, you've got me. I'm a fan now. I even follow you on Instagram. We're in it for the long haul now, TayTay.

Sheezus, Lily Allen

When I found out Lily Allen was releasing a new album for the first time in 5 years, I was pretty excited. When I found out Lily Allen was naming said album Sheezus, I lost my mind. Lily is crazy in the best way possible and what I like about her most is she calls people out on their shit in both real life and in her songs (see: Not Fair, 22, and my personal favorite Fuck You). This album is a parody of so much of what's wrong with this world, down to the album title (which, by the way, Kanye approves of). Sheezus is all about how shitty it can be for a girl in this world, but fuck it we're going to have fun anyway. It keeps it real and also has a lot to say about female empowerment and how it sucks for us all so let's just all be friends okay? It's a fun album and sassy as hell. And that's why I'll always love Lily Allen.

Angus and Julia Stone, Angus and Julia Stone

My discovery of A+J is sort of a weird story. I found them by way of Starbucks and those free iTunes song download cards that they give out. The song, "Mango Tree", quickly became one of my most-played songs. It's soft and sweet and I fell in love with the brother-sister duo on the spot, their voices working perfectly together in their folky way. What really sealed the deal for me on them, though, was their amazing cover of "You're The One That I Want"--yes, that one, the one from Grease. If you have a chance, check it out. But back to the album at hand... This self-titled album of theirs comes after the announcement that they were taking a break, possibly permanently, to work on solo albums. Kind of devastating. But by the magical powers of Rick Rubin, record producer extraordinaire, they were reunited and here they are, back and better than ever. This is the first time the pair has written songs together, and it just... works. It works better than anything I could put into words. It's like after taking that time apart, they found themselves, then found each other, then found their sound, then found this album. And that's why Angus and Julia Stone has made my list this year. Because this album is the pivotal point in their careers where they've created the music they've probably been waiting their whole lives to create--perfection.

 Goddess, Banks

I first heard of Banks, I think, while watching the 2013 Victoria's Secret fashion show. If you don't know me, then you don't know that I'm obsessed with Victoria's Secret. A large portion of my money goes to buying pretty much anything VS creates, and I've always wanted to be an Angel. Their 2013 Christmas commercial was shot in Paris and Banks's song "Waiting Game" was the soundtrack for the shoot. Needless to say, the song was perfect for the commercial and I couldn't get it out of my head for weeks after. When Goddess was released in full, it didn't quite leave the impact that "Waiting Game" did but it's still a very solid album. The main reason I'm including this album on my list is because Banks has a voice unlike a lot of what's in the music world today. It's so purely good. And the best part of this album, is most of the music itself is subdued allowing her voice to come through and really be the focal point of her tracks. I look forward to seeing where Banks goes in the future, and I think that Goddess lays the groundwork for a great artist yet to come.