My Favorite Albums of 2014

Music for Touching is tight, upbeat, and fun music. It strives for, and reaches, a platonic ideal of pop: short, crisply produced songs, male and female vocals, deliberate tempos, and engaging lyrics. Their live show is masterfully performed, with electronic and live elements woven seamlessly together.

Mac De Marco seems like a real goofball, and I love it. But beyond the out of tune synths and old-school guitars lies his deeply personal ruminations on adulthood and fame.

If you took the keyboards from James Blake, added a much bigger dose of soul, and added frenetic live drums, you’d end up with Pattern is Movement. They pair the brashness of the drums with the softness of male falsetto harmonies and quiet vocoders, and, somehow, it works.

Lana Del Ray sings with a sickly sweet voice about love and addiction (the trappings of the modern youth, it seems) and the production values reflect that perfectly. Drenched in reverb and with a simple backing band (and the occasional string section), the record sounds great, too.

The Inevitable End is Röyksopp’s last full-length record, and perhaps since they had that in mind, it’s contemplative and gorgeous. This last time around, they put their unique downbeat electronica to the service of a darker set of lyrics.

Having replaced the ukulele with a traditional band and backup singers, Merrill Garbus’ powerful voice is as clear as ever as she sings about America’s consumerism and racial tension. But it is mostly upbeat, and still enjoyable to listen to - a great followup to
W H O K I L L.

Much has been made of this duo’s transition away from guitars and towards synths, and I suppose I’ll jump on that bandwagon, too. But after years of guitar, it’s nice to hear them try something new, and it definitely works. Plus it’s funky, too.

Thom Yorke’s 2nd solo album varies widely from accessible electronic musings, the like of which could be found on Kid A, to long, slowly developing electronics-only pieces.

This is Beck’s most subtle record since Sea Change, and I love that about it. It’s the nice, introspective Beck rather than the one who thinks he’s too cool for you. It’s a spacious and luxuriously arranged record.