AllMusic 2014 Year In Review
AllMusic Best of 2014
Favorite Rap and Hip-Hop Albums
Favorite Electronic Albums
Favorite Folk Albums
Favorite Latin and World Albums
Favorite Jazz Albums
Favorite Indie Pop and Indie Rock Albums
Favorite Box Sets
Favorite R&B Albums
Favorite Metal Albums
Favorite Singer/Songwriter Albums
Favorite Classical Instrumental Albums
Favorite Country Albums
Favorite Compilations
Favorite Classical Vocal Albums
Favorite Reissues
Favorite Blues Albums
Favorite Reggae Albums
Favorite Americana Albums
Favorite Pop Albums
Favorite Rock Albums
Favorite Indie Pop and Indie Rock Albums - There was plenty of outstanding indie rock and pop to go around this year, including the debut full-length by FKA Twigs, excellent new albums from St. Vincent and Spoon, and the latest dreamy record from the War on Drugs.
Adult Jazz
Gist Is
The ambitious debut by this Leeds quartet displays expertly crafted, experimental indie pop, created from a sprawling labyrinth of styles.
Alvvays
Alvvays
Fantastic debut from dreamy-eyed and undeniably catchy Canadian indie pop quintet.
Carla Bozulich
Boy
The inspired musician delivers her "pop" album, which makes recognizable genres bleed into one of her own sublime creations.
Ex Hex
Rips
Mary Timony's power trio shakes up rock conventions on its life-affirming debut.
Fear of Men
Loom
Incredibly catchy and dark proper debut by this U.K. indie pop group builds on their brilliantly raw singles collection.
FKA twigs
LP1
The multi-talented artist's first full-length expands on her innovative sounds and bittersweet sensuality.
Fucked Up
Glass Boys
The Canadian hardcore band continues to reinvent punk rock on its revelatory fourth album.
Future Islands
Singles
The group's fourth album finds them streamlining their synth pop-influenced sound into something danceable and emotionally cutting.
Grouper
Ruins
Recorded in Portugal, this is some of the ambient artist's most vulnerable and beautiful music.
Half Japanese
Overjoyed
Jad and David Fair celebrate the joys of life in the modern world, with some help from John Dieterich of Deerhoof.
His Name Is Alive
Tecuciztecatl
The Michigan group returns to its experimental roots, delivering a dazzling, bittersweet set inspired by prog rock and Hammer horror.
Liars
Mess
Following the introspective WIXIW, Liars deliver some of their most spontaneous and wickedly gleeful songs in years.
Lust for Youth
International
The band's first album as a trio strips away the noise, revealing them as first-rate purveyors of swooning synth pop.
Lykke Li
I Never Learn
The Swedish singer/songwriter delivers a beautifully glacial set of break-up ballads on her strong third release.
Mac DeMarco
Salad Days
Canadian goofball grows up alongside his lighthearted but deceptively complex pop style, offering his most consistent set of songs as he ponders aging.
Mr. Twin Sister
Mr. Twin Sister
The Brooklyn-based band uses hardship to completely transform themselves and their music, delivering mysterious, celebratory electro-pop.
Neneh Cherry
Blank Project
Riveting, often bleak work from Cherry -- only her fourth proper solo album but as collaborative as anything from her deep, undervalued discography.
Nothing
Guilty of Everything
Impressively dark and dramatic shoegaze/noise rock debut that takes the tropes of those styles and totally owns them.
Owen Pallett
In Conflict
Pallett's fourth long-player exists somewhere in between the sugary opulence of Kishi Bashi and the chilly refinement of Homogenic-era Björk.
Parquet Courts
Sunbathing Animal
Their second album is streamlined, angry, full of undimmed passion and fire, and also quite catchy and fun, just like the group's debut.
Pere Ubu
Carnival of Souls
The second installment of the band's trilogy of albums inspired by classic movies offers a thrilling riff on vintage low-budget horror.
Perfume Genius
Too Bright
Mike Hadreas' bold, terrifying, and heartbreaking third album features Portishead's Adrian Utley and PJ Harvey collaborator John Parish.
Shintaro Sakamoto
Let's Dance Raw
The former Yura Yura Teikoku founder's post-apocalyptic lounge is thought-provoking, musically dazzling, and sometimes bewildering.
Sleaford Mods
Divide and Exit
The Nottingham duo's brilliantly crude breakthrough proves they're one of the most truly punk acts of the 2010s.
Spoon
They Want My Soul
The band's first album in four years is a concise return that's too complex to be considered back-to-basics.
St. Vincent
St. Vincent
A fascinating mix of directness and artifice, St. Vincent's fourth album is her most satisfying yet.
Sunn O))) / Scott Walker
Soused
The pairing of artists renowned for experimentation yields a strangely melodic, often thunderous offering equal to the sum of its parts.
Swans
To Be Kind
Another epic-scale salvo from these noise-rock pioneers, slightly less dark than their best-known work but no less intense.
TEEN
The Way and Color
Inspired by '90s R&B, TEEN focus their experimental leanings into a set of exciting, ambitious, and womanly songs.
Temples
Sun Structures
Temples' debut is a thrilling introduction to their brand of backward-looking, forward-sounding psych pop.
The Juan MacLean
In a Dream
The band's third album adds some obvious '80s elements, and further synthesizes and improves their unique brand of dance-pop.
The Proper Ornaments
Wooden Head
The band's debut album is a low-key psych pop delight that casts a calmly enchanting spell that's hard to break, even after the album ends.
TOPS
Picture You Staring
Second album from Montreal quartet merges sophisticated '80s pop and blurry home-recorded production.
TR/ST
Joyland
Trust's second album is bold, vulnerable, dark, exuberant, and surprisingly danceable.
tUnE-yArDs
Nikki Nack
tUnE-yArDs' third album thrives on contradictions, delivering some of the duo's most challenging yet accessible music.
Tweedy
Sukierae
Jeff Tweedy teams up with his son Spencer for a set of personal, intimate songs informed by love and family crises.
Ty Segall
Manipulator
Noisy guitars and simple but sweet melodies cheerfully coexist on this offering from the West Coast indie hero.
Weyes Blood
The Innocents
Fantastic second album from this formerly noisy folk project steps up in terms of clarity and emotional weight.
Wussy
Attica!
Fifth album from Ohio cult heroes is a grim but oddly beautiful celebration of the messy details of life after age 30.
AllMusic Best of 2014
Favorite Rap and Hip-Hop Albums
Favorite Electronic Albums
Favorite Folk Albums
Favorite Latin and World Albums
Favorite Jazz Albums
Favorite Indie Pop and Indie Rock Albums
Favorite Box Sets
Favorite R&B Albums
Favorite Metal Albums
Favorite Singer/Songwriter Albums
Favorite Classical Instrumental Albums
Favorite Country Albums
Favorite Compilations
Favorite Classical Vocal Albums
Favorite Reissues
Favorite Blues Albums
Favorite Reggae Albums
Favorite Americana Albums
Favorite Pop Albums
Favorite Rock Albums