Was it me or was this not a great year for music? A few of my favourite artists did some full LP drops but none of them were the strongest in their respective discographies -- Clark's a great example, despite a few great tracks (Winter Linn, daaayumn) his self-titled album goes on just too long, and my favorite song he put out this year is actually from a two-song EP/split single from earlier in the year, Superscope.
So I only have a few favorite albums from the year, in no particular order;
APHEX TWIN - SYRO
Once Aphex Twin announced he was releasing an album this year, it was virtually a given this would rocket up to one of my favorite albums. While there is no single standout track, but after a what, 14 year hiatus(?), each track is a solid addition to his catalog that manages to match the quality of his earlier catalog and still update his sound to sound new, while also somehow managing to ignore the popular EDM/IDM sounds that have developed ever since Drukqs. minipops is a fantastic example. Syro's probably the most accessible album he'll ever make.
ARIANA GRANDE - MY EVERYTHING
I like pop music because I like hot girls that make music. Studies have been proven people do taste the "price" of expensive wine and we all know we do judge books by their covers, so if I'm biased towards middlish bangers because there's a qt 3.14 behind it, I make no apologies. Thank god My Everything is actually good, because after Honeymoon Avenue I had completely lowered my expectations. There's a couple FUCKAWFUL tracks (pls remove big sean and Childish Gambino? seriously??? go back to your awful nbc sitcoms, mate), but Break Free is the banger of the year, Problem is stupid fun as far as what you're gonna hear on FM pop radio, and Love Me Harder is actually a really good song, like whoa.
RÖYKSOPP - THE INEVITABLE END
Röyksopp has tended to do poorly in critical reviews, I have no idea why. Maybe Pitchfork has a sense their Lost In Translation sensibilities are being pandered to and everyone else follows suit in panning them, but I don't get it. This is planned as their last album because I guess they're bored of the traditional format of releasing multiple tracks at once, and also after reading some interviews I guess they're a bit sad so the lyrics to a lot of the tracks are coming from a pretty moody/aloof place emotionally.
There's basically two ways the tracks lean, with Skulls an example of a dark, twisted take on their earlier music with a freaky video to boot, and I Had This Thing a beautiful progression of the way they've come to develop their music while handling that delicate balance adding lyrics to electronic music without ending up about as embarrassing to listen to as any given Cascada single.
T-ARA - GOSSIP GIRLS
I gotta rep K-Pop, but it didn't do too well this year. This is actually a Japanese language repackage of a couple of my favorite Kpop band's tracks and a few originals, and I'm really just dropping it here because the idea of crossing T-ARA with a tribute to some absurd show that had really hot girls on it -- Leighton Meester, will you marry me? -- scores points on its own. And it already came out last year, or I would've been able to rank NUMBER NINE as one of my favorite tracks of 2014 (it's one of my favorite tracks of 2013 and I think it's one of the best songs the Great K-Pop Wave of 2011-2014? had put forth)
DISAPPOINTMENTS:
AZEALIA BANKS - BROKE WITH EXPENSIVE TASTE
I knew better than to expect another 212, but I did expect more No Problems. Nothing really comes close, though Heavy Metal and Reflective is worth a listen.
CLARK - CLARK
Clark is a great artist who has managed to develop his own sound and can stand next to his Warp labelmates Aphex Twin and Boards of Canada and so on and basically have as much weight at the table as they do, but this album's unfocused and just not the best thing he's ever put out, which is an opinion that puts me at odds with a lot of reviews coming out for this album, but I stand by it. I really want to rank it at the top this year, but that's only by default. Had this been released last year (2013 was a stronger year for me) I wouldn't have given it a second listen.
KNIFE PARTY - ABANDON SHIP
Knife Party has developed this reputation outside its oblivious fandom of basically mocking its own IDM festival fans waiting for the dubstep drop with increasingly caustic music, and Abandon Ship finally cranks it to 11 and switches genres right when the drop's expected, has absurd song titles and samples (seriously, try to imagine raving to that one), and drops all the hard bass aggression for more tempered music, but it's also a boring listen. I appreciate this album a lot for existing, but it's time to kill the project and go back to putting out Pendulum releases.
TAYLOR SWIFT - 1989
It's not a bad album, and has a few good moments (Welcome to New York does OMD better than OMD themselves have lately), but I let myself get too hyped up for what's basically a rough transition album from her ditching country entirely (goodbye...), and I can already tell her next album's probably just going to grate on me. And fuck her for taking her music off Spotify.
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
GOT A GIRL - I LOVE YOU BUT I MUST DRIVE OFF THIS CLIFF NOW
Mary Elizabeth Winstead (and some guy? who cares, MARY ELIZABETH WINSTEAD) put out an album! And it panders to my love of 1960s French ye-ye! It's a nice concept album of sorts, and something like Da Da Da where she sings idiotic lyrics over an obnoxious beat and then just gets irate about it is worth.
LANA DEL REY - ULTRAVIOLENCE
It's not a bad album, I think I just expected more of a certain sound she's actually not gotten that popular for. I don't know how to articulate it, but just because the bulk of the album wasn't my cup of tea means I can't appreciate this is a proper growth for her.
RAC - STRANGERS
RAC stands for something like "Remix Artist Collective" and I think it's literally just one guy that tried to get popular by remixing popular music (he even originally started with video game music because that'll get a lot of traction on internet message boards, let me tell you, and that's how I found RAC) for a few years and Strangers is finally his first full album of original tracks. I had no idea what to expect after a guy who'd exclusively been making remixes and covers, but there are more than a couple of solid tracks here.. also a few duds, but I'd still recommend a listen, you'll definitely find something you'll like, if not love. Tear You Down's one of my favorite songs of the year.