For the past few years, my year-end music column has focused almost exclusively on lists of singles, from which I've tried my darndest to mine rubies in a slew of digital slush. Looking back on 2014, I was surprised to realize how many albums I fell in love with. I don't recall listening to dozens of whole albums fully and repeatedly since the 1990s or before, not to mention loving so many recordings released within the same twelve-month period.
In culling the best albums of 2014 (and even pairing my choices down to ten was difficult), I realized that each has something in common with the others: the musicians who created these albums share a profoundly deep struggle to make amends ... with the past, with a broken relationship, with the death of a loved one, with a hometown, with an imperfect family history, with a missed opportunity or with a future that questions the very existence of the art upon which they've built their livelihoods. These artists are searching for a path forward, both personally and as members of a dying industry. They treat every note as if the very existence and being of music were at stake. Sonically, this bodes well for the listener. Struggle never sounded so good.
- The War On Drugs / Lost in the Dream: After several lineup changes and side projects, the War On Drugs finally found its sound. Songwriter Adam Granduciel says the album was written after experiencing depression and paranoia upon returning home to Philadelphia from a tour. His battle to work through these feelings - made manifest in ambient monologues that feel a bit like Bob Dylan singing over a weirdly modern jam session between Roxy Music and Dire Straits - is central to the "can't win/can't lose" vibe that just won't let me quit this album.