This year has been a straight up
dick to many, many great albums. For every one good record that got some well-deserved hype, there have been ten or twenty that have received NO coverage or notice whatsoever.
This happens every year, I know. But I buy music like smack addicts buy hypodermics, and I've purchased even more new albums in 2014 than I did last year. (To give you an idea of what kind of numbers we're talking about, check this: I was able to make a top 50 of 2013 list that included only albums I'd purchased, and it took me two months to narrow it down to 50. So, if you take into account the albums I liked that didn't make the first draft of the list, as well as the albums I didn't end up caring for, it should be obvious that 2013 was a pretty lonely year for me
)
Anyway, this year I've been particularly annoyed by the lack of recognition for some of the records that, in my opinion, should have been stocked at every remaining music store in the country, but instead failed (in some cases) to even get a domestic release. Here's what I have so far:
Untold - Black Light Spiral I really thought this was going to take off stateside. It's the best dubstep album of the year, hands down. But it's barely been acknowledged by US audiences, and that's just fucking sad.
Seekae - The Sound of Trees Falling on People + STFP remixes (Before Fennesz dropped an album this year, this was the odds on most beautiful record of 2014. But I've never had a conversation with anyone who's even fucking heard it.
KidKanevil - MyLittleGhost Another electronic beauty, this time from a fairly well established act. It should have been a breakthrough album and instead it's been utterly overlooked.
Dub Thompson - 9 Songs Best punk record of the year. Probably the best guitar/bass/drum, “traditional” (hah) rock-type record of the year period. Made me forget that Perfect Pussy was leading the pack for post-hardcore, '80sstalgic organic indie rock. Did it make a splash of any kind? No. In fact, I think I've only heard
my own dumb ass talk about it. Buy it, if you buy nothing else. Most of these records I'm talking about are electronic or hip-hop... I don't expect the average SY fan to necessarily be a fan. But this album should resonate with everyone here.
TRANS AM - Volume X :AHEM... HOW HAS THIS RECORD NOT BEEN DISCUSSED? Did anyone even know it was released? Trans Am is more than a well-established act, they're legeds in some circles. I picked this record up on its first day of release, and I think it's a good to great album, but even I have to admit that I've forgotten about it when looking back on the year's best. So fuck me, and fuck everyone else too.
Shellac - Dude Incredible: Like TRANS AM's release, this release should have been common knowledge, highly anticipated and critically acclaimed. But -- and someone here has menioned this a couple of times-- it's been SO overlooked that it's downright fucking
weird. For the love of all things holy, this is Steve Albini we're talking about!! The man behind the curtain of the post punk sound. Not only that, it's his most celebrated project hitting us with a new album after years of total silence.
And to top it all off, the cover is a photo of one badass spider monkey getting ready to "BANE" another, frozen in a classic “BREAK YOU!” pose that takes me back to my days of reading “Knightfall” installments instead of doing homework.
But ... Where's the fucking hype? Where's the "OMG" factor that should accompany any new Shellac release? The answer is: it's fucking nowhere. Everyone's saving their hype-wad for the new Weezer album, which sounds like a goddamn suicide note, which I pray it is (for the band, not for Rivers) because there's nothing sadder than Weezer.
“Dude Incredible” is a classic Shellac pummel-fest, and it sounds like the auditory equivalent of eating a home cooked meal after 8 semesters of gorging on Ramen.
Afghan Whigs - Do To The Beast This was pretty hot little number when it first hit. It's not a revelation; it won't change music.. It's just a fucking rock album by a fucking rock band that has always been really hard to categorize (Punk? No. Alt rock. Yeah. But wait, those vocals are total Lanegan/Vedder, so Grunge? But those lyrics are so art school they'd make Billy Corgan blush, despite being infinitely better than B.C.'s bastardized version of poetry... Ahh the confusion!)
But whatever they were, and whatever they are, this album takes the best of early '90s alternative and gives it a shoe-shine for the new millennium. I thought it would maintain its momentum, but it was a February release in the most ADD year ever, and it might as well be a decade old for how much continued press it's receiving. I still think it's a winner.
But wait: there's more!
EKOPLEKZ - Unfidelity
Open Mike Eagle - The Dark Comedy
Survival Knife - Loose Power
Sun Araw - Bellomancie
Axxa/Abraxas - s/t
Mincemeat or Tenspeed - Waiting for Surfin' Bird
Have a Nice Life - The Unnatural World
Slow Magic - How to Run Away
Basement Jaxx - Junto
Blonde Redhead - Barragán
Fantastic Mr. Fox - On My Own
Future Death - Special Victims
Dibia$e - Schematiks
Chrome Sparks - Goddess
Hospitality - Trouble
HS87 - We The Plug
And I could just keep on going. I hope some people check some of these releases out because of this thread, and I hope to hear about some new shit that I myself should check out from you folks.
Vent your frustrations! People are the worst.