Buttery Toast @buttery-toast - Tumblr Blog

two kay fifteen

Respect the hustle, 15 years later.

Coming To Terms - Buttery Toast’s Best Albums of 2014

Growing up is overrated; not in the canonical sense of becoming mature, but in the colloquial sense of the phrase that us millennials have ruined for everyone. Growing up isn’t about choosing to stay in on a Saturday night watching Netflix and eating cheese curds, paying your cellphone bill, or even landing a “real” job.

Perhaps it’s a false sense of maturity turning 25 has allowed me, but I believe it's about coming to terms with who you are as a person, and making a conscious decision to become a better version of yourself. Fortunately, growing up isn’t exclusive to us common folk, and the artists in this year’s list certainly have gone through their respective processes of doing so.

Just skimming the list, four of the top 20 albums are self titled. Elsewhere, Sharon admits: “I sing about my fear and love and what it brings, I know, I know”. On Shattered and Hollow, Johanna and Clara confess what we all know after having our hearts broken - despite all the distractions from heartbreak, we can’t help but to think back to the promises we made with that person, can’t help but to want them to be here with you once again. Hell, if you need more convincing than that, Lydia scrapped an entire album before releasing Somewhere Else, citing how shitty music critics were awarding her the meaningless title of “alt-country princess” from her past efforts (hmm, sounds familiar, Ryan?).

Speaking of coming to terms, I could care less that Beyonce’s self titled masterpiece was released in 2013. I ranked her at a cool 15 last year, and that was a mistake because do we really need to talk about the gravity of her visual album in the pop music ecosystem? Also, I’ll be honest that Ryan Adams is not the man he used to be, and while he’ll always be a Heartbreaker in my heart, his new album just didn’t live up to my unrealistic expectations. Finally, I don’t understand most of FKA Twigs’s imagery, but damn those sounds just make my ears tingle.

As always, I hope this year’s list does something to your ears and your hearts as much as listening to these artists has done to mine. Be sure to spin a playlist of my favorite tracks from these albums after the list too.

Stay buttery, stay toasty this winter, ya’ll.