Discopop Directory: Top 10 Albums of 2014

2014 wasn't a great year for albums, truth be told. Or maybe I bought the wrong ones. Anyway, here are the 10 best CDs that found their way onto my iTunes library, sorted by the number of times they were played (with my trademarked Excel formula to weight the albums by release date).

10) The Black Keys - Turn Blue

Neither as sleazy nor as catchy as 2011's El Camino, Turn Blue saw The Black Keys take a long, dark road-trip of the soul after Dan Auerbach's very messy, very public divorce. Along the way, they delved into psychedelia, 60s beat music, 70s disco funk and - on the pleasingly daft closing track - solid gold drivetime pop hooks.

The Black Keys - Gotta Get Away



9) Banks - Goddess

Oh, but this album is so gloriously, deliciously IN PAIN. Banks uses music like primal scream therapy, howling her distress over an array of sawbuzz synths.

As an album, Goddess is as dark and foreboding as a graveyard, but her melodies beguile and her honesty disarms: When she disses a boyfriend by reminding him she's "the girl who made you soup," it's so awkwardly specific it can only be drawn from real life.

Then, just when you think she's getting too miserable, she pulls out a filthy sexballad like Warm Water. This is what a femme fatale with a broken heart sounds like.

Banks - Drowning




8) Jack White - Lazaretto

It sounds like every other Jack White album, but it sounds better than every other Jack White album.

Jack White - Would You Fight For My Love




7) The Pierces - Creation

After achieving commercial success with the glossy soft rock of 2011's You & I, The Pierces smudged their mascara, consulted a shaman and revisited the backwood gothicism of their earlier records. The result is an album that retains You & I's soaring choruses while sending shivers down your spine.

Allison and Catherine's sisterly harmonies are worthy of Agnetha and Frida - but can you imagine Abba ever singing a lyric as sinister as: "Held down by the devil's hand / Dressed up like a gentleman"?

Luminous, grown-up pop.


The Pierces - The Devil Is A Lonely Night





6) Tove Lo - Queen of the Clouds

Not out in the UK until this month because Tove's UK label hate us, but available on import since September. SEPTEMBER.

It's worth the wait, though. Tove Lo plays pop like her life hangs in the balance. "I've always wanted my music to have that desperation," she told me last April, "where you just want to strip your clothes off and run down the highway".

I haven't quite gone that far, but it's been close. Timebomb, Not on Drugs and Moments ("on my good days I am charming as fuck") have hooks so thunderously bombastic I have literally started air drumming on the bus. There is no higher praise.


Tove Lo - Moments




5) Katy B - Little Red

Dance music doesn't produce solo artists of longevity or substance, but Katy's astute combination of underground sonics and pop structures made the "difficult second album" seem effortless. Best of all, she knew it. The opening track painted her as Queen B, easing a newcomer into the rituals of the night: "Keep your jacket on my friend, don't sit down / There's so many things to do round here, let me show you around".

But while her debut was so in thrall to clubland it should have come with a complimentary strobe light, Little Red offered a few glimpses of what happened off the dancefloor: Katy nervously waiting for a date to arrive on All My Lovin'; or succumbing to guilt on the magnificent Crying For No Reason.

The result is a rare thing: A club record that sounds just as good at home.

Katy B - 5AM





4) Ed Sheeran - X

Ed Sheeran spends most of x singing about getting his leg over but, incredibly, you never recoil in horror or throw up in your mouth. Not even once.

Maybe it's his sincerity, maybe his humility, maybe it's just that these are bloody great pop songs. Gossipy, confessional and instantly memorable, the upbeat ones bounce and the weepy ones are suitably blubsome.

Occasionally he turns out a lyrical clunker ("put your faith in my stomach" is the year's least romantic come-on) but even those makes him more relatable. No wonder x became the biggest album of the year.

Ed Sheeran - Don't




3) Taylor Swift - 1989

Right, let me get a few things off my chest here.

First of all, Bad Blood is the most horribly misjudged song of the year. A diss track, supposedly about Katy Perry, it's pathetically petulant and paints a particularly unflattering portrait of its author. It has been excised from my library, otherwise this album would be languishing at number 10.

Secondly, why all the shouting? Almost every chorus is emphasised by T-Swift screaming the hook: "We never go OUT OF STYLE"; "Are we in the clear yet, IN THE CLEAR YET? GOOD." All you had to do was STAY (STAY) STAY (STAY)". It's almost as if she's worried the songs won't stand on their own merits.

But, of course, they stand 50 feet tall. The lyrics are funny and knowing, the production is enthusiastically bright, the hooks are harder to dislodge than a tapeworm.

1989 sounds nothing like the year it was named after, but Taylor Swift defined pop music in 2014.

Taylor Swift - Out of the Woods





2) The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part One - Various Artists

Asked to contribute to the last Hunger Games soundtrack, Lorde handed in a diverting cover of Tears For Fears' Everybody Wants To Rule The World. For Mockingjay, Part 1, she was given complete creative control of the whole album.

The result is surprisingly cohesive, the nailbiting intensity of the film mirrored perfectly in the grungy, brooding music. Meltdown - by Lorde and Pusha-T and Haim and Q-Tip (!) - is a gothic call to arms; Chvrches' Dead Air chillingly depicts a disappeared population; Tove Lo's Scream My Name reflects the heroine's steely torment: "I'm dirt, I'm ice... I can take bullets to the heart".

The quality and the tension rarely dip - although Jennifer Lawrence's spellbinding The Hanging Tree should really have been on the track list.

Chvrches - Dead Air




1) Jessie Ware - Tough Love

Jessie Ware's second album is pinch yourself dreamy. A slow-burner, but one that goes from tugging at your heartstrings to snapping them in two.

Listen to the restraint with which Ware sings, "Say you love me to my face / I need it more than your embrace", then imagine how it would have sounded if pop music's other Jessie had wrapped her acrobatic tonsils around it. Horrible, that's how.

In fact, Ware's instincts are flawless throughout. She references Sade, Prince and The xx, and is never afraid to make unexpected choices. She favours subtle, unfolding grooves over obvious pop arrangements. And every song is structured around the ebb and flow of those flawless vocals. Or, to use her own words, "I thought it would be great to show people what it's like when I attempt to sing like a dolphin."

It's not the most exciting or original, album on this list. But it's by far and away the best.

Jessie Ware - Say You Love Me

And that's another year wrapped up, except for the honourable mentions: Paolo Nutini - Caustic Love; St Vincent - St Vincent; Royal Blood - Royal Blood; George Ezra - Wanted On Voyage; Prince - selected tracks from Art Official Age and PlectrumElectrum; Lana Del Rey - Ultraviolence; Lykke Li - I Never Learn. I heard U2 had an album out, as well, but for some reason I couldn't find a copy in the shops...

See also: Top 10 Singles of 2014

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Songs you may have missed: Ocho de Mayo edition

Here it is, then: A semi-regular round-up of songs that I didn't have space or time (mostly time) to write about over the last seven days. This week's selection includes...

1) Katy Perry - Birthday (Cash Cash remix)
Katy Perry kicked off her world tour in former terrorism hotspot Belfast last night and the setlist, which she posted on Instagram afterwards, looks pretty spectacular. She even includes an acoustic section so you can pop out to the loo without feeling guilty.

The tour helpfully coincides with the promotional "window" for her new single, Birthday, and here is a remix of that single by New Jersey dancemeisters Cash Cash.





2) Kelis - Rumble (live on Conan)
One of my favourite tracks on Kelis's grits-and-beans new album Food, is performed live and gains a saxophone solo. What's not to love?




3) Leon Else - River Full of Liquor
The title makes it sound like an awful US hip-hop track, but this is actually a gorgeous, understated ballad from 24-year-old Londoner Leon Else. With shades of SOHN and Mikky Ekko, this R&B potboiler is the title track of his new EP, which hits the streets in July.





4) The Horrors - So Now You Know
If I didn't know The Breakfast Club soundtrack back to front, I would swear this was on it. From the windswept chorus to Faris Badwan's tiny leather jacket, this is a pair of aviator shades away from being a Simple Minds A-side. And that, in case you're wondering, is a good thing.




5) Sia - Chandelier
A rare instance where the lyric video is preferable to the real thing - this clip for Sia's stunning new single is one of the creepiest things you'll see all month. According to the press release it features "an incredibly compelling dance performance by Maddie Zeigler (age 11) of the Lifetime Television show Dance Moms" (no, me neither).

Accomplished as Maddie undoubtedly is, there's something about the way the video is shot (the lighting? the oversized wig?) that makes it constantly seem on the cusp of turning into The Exorcist's infamous "spider walk" scene.





6) Bronagh & The Boys - Lovefool
Here's one that came into my inbox - from Belfast-born, Glasgow-based singer Bronagh Monaghan and her dismissively-titled band, "The Boys". With support slots for Oh Land, Newton Faulkner and Rae Morris under their belt, they're clearly doing something right - and the proof comes from the lead track on their new EP, Lovefool.

A slow-building jazz-pop number, it sits in a similar orbit to Radio 2 mainstay Caro Emerald. The production is slightly flat - but imagine this re-recorded with Paul Epworth and you can hear the band's undeniable potential.





7) MØ - Slow Love
Swirling, seductive Scandipop courtesy of Denmark's Karen Marie Ørsted. Her fluttering falsetto is what makes this track - but the found footage music video is weirdly hypnotic in its own way.




8) Metronomy - Reservoir
"I heard you made the hull of a boat downtown" is one of the worst opening lyrics of all time, but Metronomy's new single rises above it on a sea of woozy Jean Michelle Jarre synth nonsense. Lovely animated video, too.




9) AG Cook - Keri Baby ft Hannah Diamond
I can't decide if this is unspeakably awful or the future of pop music. It's a kind of glitchy offshoot of j-pop, with a parping tuba and a knowing rap ("I don't want to be an mp3") apparently delivered by a sex-change Speak and Spell. Confusing.





10) Black Keys - Fever
The Black Keys' eighth album Turn Blue is out next week - but you can stream it now over here. A more expansive, psychedelic affair than the power-pop of El Camino, it's a solid 8/10.

The best track is the seemingly throwaway album closer Gotta Getaway ("I went from San Berdoo to Kalamazoo, just to get away from you") - but the current single, Fever, is also a gem. Powered along by a reedy Farsifa organ, the video sees Dan Auerbach sweating buckets as he impersonates a pay-TV Faith Healer.

So there you go: A bumper crop of big tunes. More like this next week...

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Ten songs you may have missed: A lazy journalism special

Hello!

I'm technically on holiday this week, but there are tons of good videos pouring out of the pop funnel, so I thought I'd compile a slapdash "Songs You May Have Missed" update. Rather than the usual "unique take" on this week's releases, I am literally cut and pasting what other, more committed music websites are saying. You're welcome.

1) Kelis - Rumble
"The video sees Kelis performing the track whilst sat on a chair in the middle of a lake." [Chartshaker]




2) The Black Keys - Fever
"Twangy organs and tinges of ambiance" [Consequence of Sound]




3) Pixies - Snakes
"A group of papier mache-headed bandits plan a robbery"
[Rolling Stone]




4)Justin Timberlake - Not A Bad Thing
"El vídeo se presenta como un «documental sobre la búsqueda del amor», basado en la supuesta historia de una pareja real en la que el hombre pidió matrimonio a su novia en un tren rumbo a Nueva York."
[El Remix]




5) Tinashe - 2 On (ft Schoolboy Q)
"The song is an ode to getting turnt (??) and getting even more turnt (????) — too turnt up to function, if you will (?????). Built around a slinky, snap-heavy beat, the track is an earworm in the same way Cassie's Me & U and Ciara's Goodies became instant bump/grind, pop/lock smashes." [Kick Kick Snare]




6) Kylie - Sexercize
"In my opinion it's a really bad choice as a single."
[Josepvinaixa - who nonetheless posts five alternate cuts of the video]




7) London Grammar - Devil Inside
"A snippet of London Grammar‘s eerie cover of INXS' 1989 hit Devil Inside can be heard in the latest Game Of Thrones trailer but the British trio has kindly shared the full version on their SoundCloud. The Strong hitmakers transform the moody rock song into a bare-bones ballad that more than does justice to the original." [idolator]





8) Dominique Young Unique - Throw It Down
"It's like some weird morph of M.I.A. and Azealia Banks, but I think I like Dominique Young Unique"s new video" [Wotyougot]




9) Royal Blood - Little Monster
"My mind just got a little more blown by the fact these riffs are coming from Mike Kerr's bass guitar!" [Some Kind Of Awesome]




10) Lady Gaga - G.U.Y.
"Really though, what the actual fuck is going on here?" [Jezebel]

Not bad, huh? Even the Lady Gaga video is worth watching, although I don't think it's going to turn the ArtPop album campaign around. Don't be put off by the 12-minute running time, by the way, the last four minutes are credits.

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RZA Kicks

Here's a track from the new Quentin Tarantino-produced, RZA-directed movie "The Man With The Iron Fists".

Inspired by the Chop Socky martial arts flicks of the 1970s, the film features Russell Crowe, Lucy Liu and Pam Grier in a blood-drenched Chinese morality tale that has something to do with gold coins and a man who can turn his body into a sheet of metal (like Batfink). It is, by all accounts, as unhinged as it sounds.

But if you sit through to the closing credits, you get to hear RZA team up with The Black Keys for a song called The Baddest Man Alive. Riding a grubby B-movie groove, Dan Auerbach and the Wu-Tang Man drawl a couple of bleary verses about, well, being the baddest man alive ("I'll grab a crocodile by his hair," they suggest, implausibly).

Maybe it's not the genre-defying tour de force you'd hope for, but it's worth watching the video just to see RZA slap his collaborators with a big wet fish.

The Black Keys & RZA - The Baddest Man Alive

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The Great Riff Barrier

Rock and Roll isn't dead, it's just feeling a little sick after drinking bad milk...

The mainstream music press is having conniptions at the moment because their precious guitar music isn't very popular in the charts. The Guardian even ran a boo-hoo readers' piece that contained the magic phrase "It would be great to have a proper movement like Britpop again" (it wouldn't). The overall jist was that Rihanna has single-handedly destroyed rock'n'roll forever and no-one can ever listen to "proper" records again. FYI: This was placed slap bang in the middle of 87 articles about The Stone Roses.

But the solution to rock's big slump is pretty simple: WRITE SOME GODDAMN RIFFS.

Maybe it's Radiohead, maybe it's Coldplay, but everyone's traded screaming solos for glitching electronic borescapes. Here are the most eagerly-received indie singles of the minute. They're both great songs, and the guitar work is fine, but no-one's going to be pumping their fist in the air shouting "DUR DURRR dur dur durrr da-durr-da-durr" like they do when the Keith Richards knocks out the first few bars of Satisfaction.

Alt-J - Tesselate


Bloc Party - Octopus


What's interesting is that dance music has totally appropriated the riff. I went to see Calvin Harris play some CDs in a tent the other week, and when he dropped Avicii's Levels, the entire audience sang the bouncy synth hook back to him.

Calvin Harris plays Levels


But there is hope on the horizon. Rock can reclaim the riff... and The Black Keys are showing everyone the way.

Inspired by the fuzztone squall of T Rex, their excellent El Camino album is rammed full of amped-up riffage. Their new single Run Right Back is a case in point.

The Black Keys - Run Right Back


That’s the ticket: Now, if everyone else could crank out some fretboard fingertwisters, we’d all be sorted.

PS - here's the Top 10 best-selling singles of the year so far. The closest you get to a guitar riff is the intro to David Guetta's Titanium :(

1) Gotye ft Kimbra – Somebody That I Used To Know
2) Carly Rae Jepsen – Call Me Maybe
3) David Guetta ft Sia – Titanium
4) Nicki Minaj – Starships
5) Fun. ft Janelle Monae – We Are Young
6) Jessie J – Domino
7) Flo Rid aft Sia – Wild Ones
8) Emeli Sande – Next To Me
9) Rizzle Kicks – Mama Do The Hump
10) DJ Fresh ft Rita Ora – Hot Right Now

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Michael Kiwanuka continues run of very good songs with a new song that's very good

This popped up on Soundcloud yesterday - the b-side to Michael Kiwanuka's new single, I'm Getting Ready. It's a collaboration with Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys, and it is called Lasan. Almost a textbook definition of "a little bit country", it's (yet another) showcase for the London soul singer's incredibly resonant and tender vocals.




If this wasn't good enough to make it on to his debut album, how awesome and incredible must that album be? Here is a helpful guide:

(That Madonna single is really quite wonderfully terrible, by the way. I shan't post it for the sake of your ears - but here's the link. Brace yourself.)

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