Top 30 Albums of 2014

I was soooo close to not publishing my Top 30 list this year. But after some thought I realized there was a lot of good music this year and future me would kick 2015 me in the ass for not taking a bit of time to acknowledge that.

A bit of background from my 2013 preamble for those new to my lists:

I do this more for me — as a way of discovering new music — than for you, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want you to get as much joy from these amazing artists as I did this year. My list-making secret is to start a “long list” of albums I like at the beginning of the year. I keep adding when something strikes my fancy and use the year-end holidays to figure out which ones really made the cut.

There are seven females (or female lead bands) on the list this year. Better than last year’s dismal four. This list also got much more obscure this year. In the past I’ve found lots of interesting and popular albums for this list — things like Black Keys, Beyoncé, Kanye West, and Daft Punk for example. While I listened to a lot of pop this year I didn’t truly connect with anything and I didn’t see anything moving music forward as sometimes happens. The list this year is therefore more personal. It’s also more electronic and quieter than in past years. I’m really interested in music that leaves lots of space.

For those interested, my previous Top 30 Albums are still online:

And now, the Top 30 Albums of 2014! Enjoy!

Note these are in alphabetical order. I could never rank these absolutely — it would change daily.

I’d love to know what albums we have in common and which ones you think should have made my list but didn’t. Use the comments people, don’t be shy!