Ian Mathers' 2014 Favorites
I can't remember the last year I haven't heard people saying it was a wonderful year for music at the same time I heard others saying it was an awful one. What's especially frustrating to me about this inevitable process is that both sides seem committed to a seemingly Papal-style historically shifting infallibility; 2014 is an awful year for music because it's not like 2013 (whatever people said about 2013 at the time) and neither of them come close to the true glory of 2007, etc., varied in infinite ways depending on the speaker, ad nauseum. It's pointless as well as frustrating because they're always just blanket statements; I'm not at all referring to the kind of analysis that carefully considers whether x or y that was prevalent in this part of music is a good or bad thing and whether more or less a or b might help with that issue.
I'm much more sympathetic to those who swear that any year in music can be a good year if you look around enough to find things to like (and even more sympathetic to the much-discussed-around-these-parts A Rant Against the Quantification of Aesthetics by Drew Daniels), but ultimately regardless of the effort I put in I suspect I do enjoy music more in some years than in others, either at the time or looking back later. I just don't think that experience is necessarily 100 percent due to the quality of the music on offer, nor am I interested in pretending that my personal feelings are some sort of referendum on the state of the music world for the year. And that's leaving aside the inescapable but often ignored fact that the idea of one unitary "year in music" is laughably impossible. Yes, if you go to five different music sites interested in different types of music (whether totally different genres, or even just different inflections within a genre) you won't just find differing opinions, you get totally different frameworks for approaching music.
To be clear, I think this is a strength; that a good site or other source will naturally create its own world, and that these worlds will not be identical. Over the course of a year, a particular group of people will focus on certain parts of the vast output of music available and carve out their own slice, not just in terms of what gets reviewed but also in terms of who gets referenced in reviews, or other features like (here at Dusted) the Listed or Listening Posts that we have. Was 2014 a good year for music? Who the fuck knows? It's an almost incoherent question. Was 2014 a good year for music at Dusted? I suspect yes, although I haven't taken a survey. Was 2014 a good year for Dusted? This, I can more confidently answer 'yes' to, because I've read the writing here and I'm very proud to be a contributor. Was 2014 a good year in music for me, personally? Well, as you might guess, I've been moving away from that kind of assessment into just appreciating the texture of each year. On that count, 2014 kept me interested and involved and I found plenty of records I liked, so I'm happy.
In 2014 I listened to 101 new albums and 11 newly reissued ones (I also watched 13 new movies in the theatres, read 45 books whether newly released or not, and went to 15 concerts, for the real numbers buffs). That number, 101, might seem small to some people, but I'm sure it seems grotesquely large to others. I don't have a set number of albums I try to hear in a year; I just want to listen to everything I feel interested in, and I don't have infinite time to devote to it. Like last year, I was able to get through my backlog of downloaded records before the year turned. Of those 101, I loved 26 enough to highlight them in the little TextEdit file I keep for the year, which means my year-end mixes will be drawn from those records and they're my personal "best". I can't and won't rank them; here they are in the order I first heard them, with a word or two about each, followed by the list of 5 reissues that I was similarly struck by. When I reviewed a record for Dusted, I've linked it here; unsurprisingly pretty much everything I reviewed is here, both because like a lot of people I drawn to write about music I'm passionate about, and because writing involves spending more time with the music, which is a reliable way to love it.
Picastro - You
Still drastically overlooked for how amazing and consistent Liz Hysen's work has been for years. Given plenty of similar stuff seems to have no trouble finding at audience, I remain baffled that I have to introduce people to Picastro.
Mogwai - Rave Tapes
If you told me beforehand that Mogwai were going to do close to the opposite of what they did on the magnificent Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will. I might have worried a bit. I didn't need to. Their most sublime (and I use that word very specifically) album?
Gem Club - In Roses
Not much to add beyond my review; very, very excited to hear what they do next. "Braid" is one of my songs of the year for sure.
Dead Rider - Chills on Glass
Most pleasant surprise of the year for me, considering I came to the record knowing very little. A record to reconfigure your head slightly.
EMA - The Future’s Void
Some years I don't have a favourite record; last year I had two. This year EMA made my favourite record (and played the best concert I attended, though it was my favourite before that). She also made my favourite zine-type companion to an album. I don't think I did her work justice with my review, but I'm not sure how I could have.
Nadja - Queller
I still cannot get over the sound of this album. Some of the most luxurious fuzz I've ever heard.
Fujiya & Miyagi - Artificial Sweeteners
I also saw these guys live, and while I expected to enjoy the show I was happily surprised by one of the best concerts I'd been to in a significant while... and sad that the venue was only half full. According to David Best, that's kind of par for the course for F&M. They deserve better.
St Vincent - St Vincent
...and by this point I was beginning to worry that I'd only really fall for records I was writing about; thankfully I was wrong. I have plenty of friends who prefer Strange Mercy or Annie Clark's earlier material, but as good as those records are this is the first time I really fully fell for her work as St Vincent. Before I liked and appreciated, this one I loved.
Swans - To Be Kind
Shockingly enough, not the biggest endurance test on this list. I really loved My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky, but the long-form thing is clearly working for Swans. I think the most I managed was three listens in a day, though.
Noxagt - Brutage Not how I expected them to come back, if they ever did; still strips the paint off the walls.
Luluc - Passerby
I sometimes forget how much I can enjoy folk-type music, but for a month or two there I played this just about every day. Almost mysteriously good.
Perfume Genius - Too Bright
At this point, Mike Hadreas is a hero of mine. Like the Gem Club album, I wouldn't say his older work was missing anything, but both acts took big steps forward this year.
Sam Amidon - Lily-O
"Just" another great Sam Amidon album, as lovely and frightening and baffling as ever. Sam's been amassing one of the great bodies of work of this century, and he still hasn't written a song.
loscil - Sea Island
Almost unfairly beautiful in places. The ambient I like, I like a lot, but most releases I try don't stick. Scott Morgan, though, is a master. This might be his best record.
DenMother - Passion Is Seldom the End
The other Toronto band I will endlessly proselytize for, although she's decamped for elsewhere at the moment. Moon was one of my two favourite records last year, and if this briefer effort doesn't quite hit that height the mix of voice, murk, synthesized melodies, and beats remained undeniable. The only band I'll link to here (this record can be found here, too).
Taylor Swift - 1989
I'm probably the only person to compare "Clean" to the Comsat Angels' "After the Rain," admittedly. I wrote more than enough about this record on my tumblr. I'm no more interested in kneejerk dismissals of pop music than I am in kneejerk dismissals of obscure music. Of any music!
Owen Pallett - In Conflict
Even more so than St Vincent, Owen is an artist who've work I've really respected and admired but never been really hooked by... until "On a Path." The rest of the record is magnificent as well. I look forward to finding out whether this album winds up being my gateway into his earlier work, but either way this definitely feels like he's at the peak of his powers.
Alcest - Shelter
I love shoegaze but I don't necessarily keep tabs on new entries in the genre; this is my favourite shoegaze record of the year, and a particularly clean and gleaming example of the form.
The New Pornographers - Brill Bruisers
I feel bad I never got into the last record after loving Challengers, but this one is just a joy. Plenty of lyrics that felt emblematic of the year we had, too: "it's all we know now to never go back" for one.
Run the Jewels - Run the Jewels 2
This is literally the only new rap album I listened to this year; if it wasn't so widely acclaimed I'd say take my recommendation with a salt shaker. Even more so than the New Pornographers album, this felt like 2014 to me, as well as containing my fondest wish for 2015: "that fuckboy life 'bout to be repealed."
Charli XCX - Sucker
I didn't even try, but I wonder what the reaction would have been if I reviewed this for Dusted. Lure in teenagers with that song from the cancer movie, then spring a record on them that starts by yelling at a guy trying to pressure you into sex "FUCK YOU! SUCKER!" And then end with "Need Ur Luv," which, let's just say, contains a lot (check the Letterman performance if you don't believe me).
Brock Van Wey - Home
Actually longer than To Be Kind, by a good half an hour, even. Van Wey releases a lot of very long albums, and for some reason the two he's done under his own name seem to resonate more with me than all the ones he's put out under his bvdub alias. Even if it was shorter this would be a mesmerizing, sometimes overwhelming experience; it's a lot more maximal than a lot of ambient music. I'm not even sure this is ambient, I just don't know what else to call it.
Ben Frost - A U R O R A
I wish I could have afforded the ticket to see Ben Frost live. I wish someone would let him actually score the dark science fiction film he is clearly destined to score. I wish my ears could take turning this record up as loud as I want to turn it up. I wish I could come up with a better descriptive phrase for it than Frost's own song title "A Single Point of Blinding Light."
FKA twigs - LP1
I think this is the record I thought the xx's debut was going to be (although I liked that one just fine too). I'm still not 100% sure what happens when I play LP1, I'm just kind of in a haze.
Against Me! - Transgender Dysphoria Blues
I somehow just... forgot to listen to this one earlier in the year, but it's so immediate I'm almost glad I did. A howling, powerful ball of punk energy, long after I thought I couldn't justify describing albums as "punk."
Phantogram - Voices
I actually listened to this because I was talking about singles from this year with my wife and she mentioned how much she loved "Fall in Love" from this album. That song does rise a little higher than the rest of Voices but the record's glitchy synthgaze and Sarah Barthel's vocals are very compelling. I kind of love getting near the end of the year and playing the last few records I've accumulated/am tipped to, because usually I get at least one unexpected favourite out of it.
Reissues
Superchunk - Indoor Living
I've liked Superchunk's recent work, but this is still their best album as far as I'm concerned... and I'm just about the only one, I think.
Constantines - Shine a Light
OK, yes, my love for this record is probably inextricable from my love for my own past, but still; one of the great Canadian rock records of this young century.
American Analog Set - Know by Heart
A case where the reissue was a great excuse to finally deeply investigate a record I'd always meant to listen to more closely. In this case, I wound up appreciating it a lot more.
Cabaret Voltaire - #7885 (Electropunk to Technopop 1978-1985)
Yes, technically a compilation not a reissue, but 1. it's the only new compilation I listened to in 2014 and I'm not making a one-item list and 2. this immensely important and worthwhile band finally has a decent one-disc introduction to the full arc of their career, which is more interesting than most.
Underworld - Dubnobassiwthmyheadman (20th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition reissue)
I bow to no one in my love of Underworld, but I will fully admit listening to the over six hours of this for review elsewhere nearly broke me. Not because what's here isn't great, it absolutely is and I can't wait for the Second Toughest in the Infants installment, but because listening to it three times in one day made my brain feel funny.
Ian Mathers
