O.T. What Were Your Favorite Albums of 2014?

A couple of years ago, a friend of mine dropped my email address onto an annual listserv created by his buddy Michael, who works in the music industry. Every year around Christmas, Michael starts up the email chain with a 5,000 word essay on the year in music from his perspective. He tends to go on about specific concerts he attended that impacted his music selection or altered his view on the direction of certain genres and sub-genres. Eventually he runs through a Top 10 list of albums and a Top 10 list of songs, along with a brief synopsis on each. The descriptions are incredibly detailed and have this depth of information that few of us could match because, frankly, we have better things to do. I love music and I spend a great deal of my time listening to it. At the same time, I really do not have an interest in playing Six Degrees of Separation with members of Rhye. But I digress...

Ever since I started receiving the email chain 5 or 6 years ago, Ive really looked forward to it as the year comes to a close. It serves as this incredible information cache for various musicians that I wouldnt otherwise be exposed to. The people who contribute vary in interests and overall time commitment to (potentially) expanding their musical horizons. More than 50% of contributors seem to fall in line with what major industry media outlets list as the more influential artists of the year, which tends to feel a bit contrived to me. Im already bracing myself for the inevitable flood of David Bowie and FKA Twigs love. The other 50% are a mixture of people with different tastes — metal or country, for instance, which are notoriously underrepresented. Nonetheless, this growing list of varying selections gives me a few months worth of albums and artists to listen to on Spotify during periods at work where I can throw on my headphones.

Every year around this time I read Rolling Stones and Pitchforks Year in Review articles (and largely disagree with them). My wife and I always enjoy listening to NPRs All Songs Considered End of Year Top 25 Albums List. Regardless, I have already made up my mind by the time these lists have come out.

So where am I going with this? I thought it would be great to start a similar list here to see what other artists and albums people on TKP really loved this year. If albums arent your thing - because lets be honest, we live in an on-demand world where the single is top currency - a list of singles is great too. Here is the only rule:

The album or single had to be released in 2014.

The truth of the matter is my list is generated more from overall listenability and replayability, from start-to-finish. I am not a music critic, nor do I pretend to be. These are my own personal reflections on music and nothing more. That is one of the many reasons that I am interested in others lists. That is the beauty of music; it is in the [ear] of the beholder.

To keep things brief, here are my top five favorite albums this year:

5. Pretty Lights : The Hidden Shades

To put it simply, Pretty Lights The Hidden Shades sounds like the love child of a late night bender between RJD2 and Ratatat. An E.P. composed of B-Sides from the Grammy-nominated album A Color Map of the Sun, it seamlessly melds samples of guitar riffs with glitchy backbeats to create beautiful soundscapes that constantly toe the line between upbeat and chill without feeling overly-contrived. What I appreciate most is despite how progressive it is, The Hidden Shades doesnt try to hide its continual nods to 2000s-era electro-hip-hop like The Avalanches Frontier Psychiatrist. If youre looking for something to rock out to during a long road trip, look elsewhere. If youre looking for true electronic music that ignores todays 1-and-2-and-3-and-4 EDM chorus tempos, Shades is for you.

4. Rodrigo y Gabriela 9 Dead Alive

Ive always been captivated by latin guitar music, which probably explains why I really enjoy listening to 9 Dead Alive. At times it brings me back to the old Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds live acoustic albums, where the two would transition from melodic DMB tracks into full-on jam sessions. Reynolds would throw down a series of incredible riffs on his twelve-string and Matthews would simply groove along in the background before they segued back into the friendly confines of Two Step or Tripping Billies.

On 9 Dead Alive, Rodrigo y Gabriela utilize their incredible talent to create a stunning synthesis of traditional latin guitar and rock-and-roll. All of it is accomplished without vocals, because lets be honest, it would only muddy the sound. So thats two consecutive instrumental albumsapparently 2014 was the year where I moved away from vocals. Ill blame it on Iggy Azalea.

3. Jenny Lewis : The Voyager

Maybe its because Ive always enjoyed Rilo Kileys music. Maybe its because Ryan Adams produced the album. Or maybe its because I had a huge crush on her in the movie The Wizard. Whatever the reason, I always enjoy listening to Lewis most recent work (though Im admittedly a bit sick of the albums first single, Just One of the Guys).

What I probably respect most about the album is how strong it is from start to finish, culminating with the title track, which reflects on the poor fate of a much beloved theater in Lewis hometown. What made me appreciate the song more was its origin story. Apparently Lewis was suffering from a pretty severe case of writers block as she tried to wrap up the album. Adams sat her down in his office, amidst the antique pinball machines and Star Wars memorabilia, and told her to go home and teach herself how to play Oasis Wonderwall. This assignment was particularly ridiculous because Adams, himself, won a Grammy for his cover of the song. Confused, Lewis went home, taught herself the song and eventually found herself in an emotional place that ultimately led to the conception of The Voyager. She sat Adams down the next day, played the song and broke into tears. Adams only response? That wasnt Wonderwall... Lewis still isnt sure Adams has even heard the title track.

2. Ryan Adams - "Ryan Adams"

Ive thoroughly enjoyed listening to Ryan Adams for the better part of 15 years, which is amazing when you consider both the shelf life of modern musicians and the difficulty most find in continuing to push the musical envelope. One of my favorite things to do is look back on specific artists careers and examine how they got from Album #1 to the present day. How has Artist X progressed throughout their career? Have they been instrumental (no pun intended) in the evolution of the genre, or did they fall in line and cash in on proven sounds?

Ryan Adams self-titled release not only builds on a remarkable career, but it melds all of the different sounds we have heard from him throughout his career. From the folk/country/rock hybrid sounds of Gold and his time with Whiskeytown and The Cardinals, to his harder albums like Demolition and Rock N Roll, his most recent release builds on all of those sounds to create arguably his most cohesive solo record ever. Adams not only reflects on his own journey as a musician and as a person, but the compositions pay homage to strong influences like The Smiths and The Replacements. The album builds off of his more recent releases and proves what most already knew about Adams: Equal parts compulsive and ethereal, sometimes the dudes best work comes when he just picks up his guitar, presses record and jams.

1. Logic - "Under Pressure"

Listen, I am quite up-front about my love/hate relationship with hip-hop. It has not been my genre of choice and I seriously doubt it ever will be. However, every now and then certain artists sounds — including their lyrics and their backbeats — catch my ear. Hip-hop is a fascinating genre to me, if only because the genre has evolved so much over its short history (arguably more so than any other genre over the same period). And maybe thats why the most recent iteration of hip-hop is so intriguing to me. Its almost poetic, spoken word-like lyrics are so unreliant on the backbeat — sort of the opposite of anything PDiddy has produced in his career — that I find myself gravitating toward certain artists more and more. One of my favorite albums of 2012 was Kendrick Lamars Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City. Two years later, another hip-hop album discussing such a similar-yet-entirely-different upbringing was arguably my favorite of the year.

Logics newest album, "Under Pressure," epitomizes everything I look for in a great album: It is rock-solid from the first track to the last; it is constantly exploring different constructs while retaining the same overarching theme; and it is wholly his own, without a need to pull in guest artists to help carry songs. Sure, there are moments where I could do without the weird segues and fun facts brought to us by the disembodied voice of the mysterious Thalia. But at the same time, they almost humanize Logic. In a genre that has been historically rife with blunts, bitches and forties, it is refreshing to hear him rap about how the album was created, how far he has come and how he is obsessed with Tarantino flicks. Rather than fall in line, I feel like "Under Pressure" continues to push the genre further into the truly artistic realm and away from the backbeats and hooks that masque lesser talents.