My name is Tyler and my music taste is widely varying. I got divorced this year, so, obviously, as is generally the case, I have tried and tried to devastate myself and crush my soul with music. That’s probably reflected in my choices here. I can’t tell you, though, how upset I was to find Woodkid’s The Golden Age came out last year. That would have been my number 1 had that not been the case. I just… I just hope some people out there will benefit from this list. Listen to something new today. And every day.
Pure Pop YearEnders: Justin Christopher Poulin
I’m Justin. I’m a student financial aid counselor, avid homebrewer, frequent concert-goer, amateur writer– and well, amateur person, for that matter. Honorable mentions in music this year include:
Run The Jewels – RTJ2
Flying Lotus – You’re Dead!
Sylvan Esso – (Self-Titled)
Ought – More Than Any Other Day
Swale – The Next Instead
It’s been a pretty good year.
Pure Pop YearEnders: Willie Strausser
2014 was really a pretty weak year. There were lots of good albums, but not many great albums. That made it hard to make this list, as, outside of The Satanist this year, there are about 15 or so records that I could’ve put in the other 4 slots here. Those other albums are:
Deep Mountains – Lake of Solace
Alcest – Shelter
Anathema – Distant Satellites
Fire! Orchestra – Enter
Freddie Gibbs & Madlib – Piñata
The Great Old Ones – Tekeli-li
Panopticon – Roads to the North
Sunn O))) & Ulver – Terrestrials
Sylvan Esso – Sylvan Esso
Gridlink – Longhena
Swans – To Be Kind
Pure Pop YearEnders: Karla Noboa
Hello! I am Karla and I work at Pure Pop. I spent most of this year listening to older albums and discovering a lot of cool compilations. The best show I saw this year may have been Attic Abasement at CMJ or TOPS’s band practice, but I also can’t remember all the shows I saw this year.
Here is a list of my favorite EPs/split albums from 2014:
– Spencer Radcliffe – Brown Horse split
– Adult Mom – Sometimes Bad Happens
– Florist – 6 days of songs
– Attic Abasement – Nod Split
Pure Pop YearEnders: Nate Lewis
My thoughts on the past two years of music:
2013 music = Hot Shit
2014 music = Cold Diarrhea
Recommended New Box Sets
Bob Dylan – Basement Tapes Complete
Sometimes he sounds like a man who thought the guy who shouted “Judas!” might have had a point after all, returning to the kind of songs he would have sung in folk clubs six years previously as if hoping to tunnel his way out of the mid-60s and back to a less chaotic, complicated time: Nine Hundred Miles, Young But Daily Growing, Johnny Todd (the latter, distractingly for the British listener of a certain age, set to the same tune as the theme from Z Cars).. Sometimes he sounds shattered and rueful, like a man reeling from the experience of being Bob Dylan. The most beautiful songs here are shot through with an affecting world-weariness: Too Much of Nothing, Edge of the Ocean (a gorgeous ballad that previously escaped the bootleggers), the astonishing I’m Not There (1956), a song as good as anything Dylan ever wrote. Read the full review on The Guardian
Joni Mitchell – Love has Many Faces
Mitchell went so far as to rearrange the 53 songs into “thematic acts” like that of a ballet. Likening the process of reorganizing and repurposing her catalog to that of a film editor, she noted, “I had 40 years of footage to review. Then, suddenly, scenes began to hook up. Then series began to form.” She added, “Instead of it being an emotional roller coaster ride as it was before — crammed into one disc — themes began to develop. Moods sustained. I was getting there…When this long editorial process (two years) finally came to rest, I had four ballets or a four-act ballet — a quartet. I also had a box set.” Read the full review on Consequence of Sound
Miles Davis – Live at the Fillmore Box
Miles at the Fillmore, the latest entry in Columbia’s revelatory bootleg series collecting unreleased Miles Davis live material, finds the trumpeter departing one musical world and entering a new one. In the previous five years, he’d taken the music of the Second Great Quintet (Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams) as far as it could go; hearing new music in his head, music that had never been made before, Miles fully embraced electric instruments on the dual landmarks In a Silent Way and, a year later, in April 1970, Bitches Brew; most of this set was recorded in June of that year. Read the full review on Pitchfork
Wilco – Alpha Mike Foxtrox
You can follow various threads through Alpha Mike Foxtrot and find a different story. You can see the evolution of a rock band and a live act, the growth of a songwriter, the journey to find the next set of right players, the cohesion and expansion of a band’s sound. And yet, the box set never gives you a sense of completion. There’s not a sense, as the cover of Nick Lowe’s “I Love My Label” ends the collection, that this is a story that has reached its end. Alpha Mike Foxtrot is a fascinating, and remarkably consistent, look at how Wilco has refused to define itself. Read the full review on Pop Matters
Pure Pop YearEnders: Liam Connors
I’m often found behind the counter at Pure Pop. Here are some other great records from 2014:
Bryce Dessner/Jonny Greenwood – St. Carolyn by the Sea & Suite from “There Will Be Blood”
Sharon Van Etten – Are We There
Perfect Pussy – Say Yes to Love
Iceage – Plowing the Fields of Love
Deerhoof – La Isla Bonita
A Sunny Day in Glasgow – Sea When Absent
Cymbals Eat Guitar – Lose
Courtney Barnett – The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas
St. Vincent – St. Vincent
Fennesz – Becs
Pure Pop YearEnders: Shawn Beaulieu
I’m Shawn. I study biochemistry and mathematics in New York. Here’s some other music from I liked from this year:
“Fuck Off, Get Free, We Pour Light On Everything” by Mt. Silver Zion
“Are We There” by Sharon Van Etten
“LOSE” by Cymbals Eat Guitars
“You’re Dead!” by Flying Lotus
“RTJ2” by Run the Jewels
“Present Tense” by Wild Beasts
“More Than Any Other Day” by Ought
“Syro” by Aphex Twin
“Nikki Nack” by tUnE-yArDs
“Here and Nowhere Else” by Cloud Nothings
“Atlas” by Real Estate
Pure Pop YearEnders: Rian Henry
I’m Rian. This is the stuff I liked.
Soul stuff I would have put up if I didn’t confine my list to punk stuff:
Naomi Shelton – Cold World
Lee Fields – Emma Jean
Budos Band – Burnt Offering
More trash:
Gas Rag – Beat Off
Ooze – Ooze
Coneheads – Out Of Conetrol
Impalers – Psychedelic Snutskaller
Pure Pop YearEnders: Jake L.
My name is Jake L., and I am a student and a music advocate. I enjoy going to concerts, listening to music, and music news. I make my way to Pure Pop whenever I get the chance, but sadly in 2014 I haven’t been there as much as I like to be due to financial struggles, but that doesn’t stop my love for music. There were a lot of albums I wanted to include on this list (To Be Kind, Nikki Nack, Supermodel, This Is All Yours, Strange Desire, LP1, etc.), but I feel these albums are easily my 5 favorite from the year. I hope that 2015 brings even more fantastic releases, and I hope you all have a wonderful year as well!