Top Albums of 2014 (RS)

Rolling Stone has released their list of the 50 best albums of 2014.  Click through that image to see their thoughts.

First, my thoughts on their top ten.  Then I will work up another post about my own top ten albums of the year.

1. U2 - Songs of Innocence.  Excellent.  Not sure it is the greatest album of the year - I think RS is pushing back on all the people who pushed back on the free release/forced download thing.  I also think that this album is much more powerful with commentary - I would not have known that Iris was Bono's mom or that Cedarwood Road was where he grew up.  If you find out how confessional and real the lyrics are, I do think it makes these songs more interesting and emotionally appealing.  And several of these songs - Every Breaking Wave for one - have classic old U2/Joshua Tree era sound.  I dig it.
2. Bruce Springsteen - High Hopes.  Blah.  I gave this one a good number of listens when it first came out, and it just sounds like B-sides and Tom Morello guitar schtick.  I thought Magic and Wrecking Ball were significantly better albums.
3. Black Keys - Turn Blue.  Sadly, they only have two of these songs on Spotify.  I love the Black Keys in general, but never got around to buying this whole album, thinking it would show up to stream.  Not so much.  "Fever" is more of the blues rock greatness they are known for, with a touch more old-school, 50's pop/surf-rock sound.  Great tune.  "Gotta Get Away" is on heavy rotation on the radio right now and is another good song - a quick rock nugget that lets you sing San Berdoo and Kalamazoo in the chorus.  This album is probably worthy of top three status.
4. St. Vincent - St. Vincent.  Yep, this one is good.  Quirky and awesome.
5. Miranda Lambert - Platinum.  You know what?  I don't hate this album.  I expected to hate this album and was bummed to waste time listening to it, but it has some fun moments and pretty good songs.  "Priscilla" made me smile (about Elvis's wifey) and "Automatic" is a legit burner about love going stale.  Reminds me of the best stuff the Dixie Chicks did back in the day.  "All That's Left" is a fine Bob Wills homage, Smokin' and Drinkin' is a good fun song as well.  Huh.  I am truly surprised that this wasn't Florida Georgia Line-style garbage rock-country.  This is good.  Not the 5th best album of the year, but this is good.
6. Charli XCX - Sucker.  In a sad indictment of the potential future of Spotify, this album is also not available on there.  Three songs are available (Breaking Up, Gold Coins, and London Queen), and I find it interesting that this would be a top ten album for the year.  "Breaking Up" is a nyah nyah, cheerleader-y pop nugget, but doesn't sound like much.  Could have been a b-side of Hey Mickey (and is all of 2:18 long).  "Gold Coins" has a pretty good beat, but the lyrics are boring brag-rap.  Maybe she is trying to do the "Royals" sarcasm thing here, but if so she misses the mark.  "London Queen" is another 80's-esque pop throw-away about how crazy it is she was from London and now lives in L.A.  With some London-punk "Oy!"s thrown in to make it clear she is legit.  Nope.  Assuming "Boom Clap" will also be on this album, then it has at least one great song on it, but those three are lame-o.  Not top 6 in any way.
7. Lana Del Rey - Ultraviolence.  I have considered Del Rey in the past.  After giving this album another listen, I still can't get on board.  I tried to eliminate my past notions of her and just judge this as though it was from a new artist I had never heard of before.  It is still annoying as crap.  The title song appears to be all about her getting her ass kicked by a dude but sticking with him because of love and stuff.  Er, bad plan, lady.  And then the rest of the album is just her cooing and whispering about her baby living in shades of cool and how she's too young to love you.  I am terrified that my daughters will love this kind of garbage and sit around in their rooms pining away for a cool guy who will beat her ass and then sing Lou Reed to her while wearing old school Wayfarers.  Ugh, daughters.
8. Run the Jewels - Run the Jewels 2.  Bad ass stuff.  I just noticed the other day that the Wu Tang say "run the jewels" at one point in their debut album, and looking it up shows that it might mean to "give me your expensive belongings right now."  Killer Mike is good in his own right - his album RAP Music was solid a few years ago - but he sounds bad ass here.  I don't know any of El-P's music, but probably ought to go check it out because these beats are interesting and excellent.  The crushing beat on "Oh My Darling Don't Cry" is a bass sledgehammer, and "Close Your Eyes" (feat. Zach De La Rocha!!!) is right there with it.
9. Mac DeMarco - Salad Days.  I looked at this album in the run-up to ACL as well.  Super chilled tuneage with oddball lyrics.  Not bad, but not top ten either.  This feels like the kind of album I am supposed to like if I am a cool music blogger guy.  But not so much.
10. Taylor Swift - 1989.  Such a bummer that she pulled her music from Spotify.  I know that I am in the demographic who is supposed to hate her music, but I don't.  The last album (Red) had a lot of really great songs on it, well written lyrics and good tunes to boot.  Likely not a popular sentiment, but totally true.  I wonder if nerd music bloggers back in the mid-80's hated on pop queens like Madonna or Janet Jackson while those ladies crushed the competition and did their thing?  Anyway, "Shake it Off" is kind of annoying because that phrase is repeated so damn much, and the rap interlude is lame, but its definitely a catchy beat and I like the sentiment of doing your thing no matter what unpleasant people say.  The other big single is "Blank Space," and it is great.  It starts as a straight up high hat/bass beat like a minimal rap song, and she raps/sings until the chorus when she kicks in like Kary Perry or old school Britney. Maybe I need to go hit up the used bin at Waterloo and see if Turn Blue and 1989 have filtered their way down there yet.

I need to look at a list of all the albums that make the cut for release in this year, and I'll be back with my top ten list sometime soon.