Right, here we gan....
40. NehruvianDOOM - Nehruvian DOOM
All in all a bit disappointing, Bishop Nehru is kind of a bit average as a rapper and DOOM's appearances on this album are not plentiful. That being said the track 'Om' is a banger.
39. The Horrors - Luminous
There's a few stunning songs on Luminous but by in large it falls well short of the stupidly high bar set by their previous 2 albums.
38. DJ Q - Ineffable
A really garage influenced album with some really awesome songs and a couple of unlistenable ones too.
37. Lykke Li - I Never Learn
A good well produced pop album.
36. Gruff Rhys - American Interior
Not that great taken out of the context of his superb live performance / presentation of this album but credible enough to warrant inclusion.
35. Parquet Courts - Content Nausea
Only came out a couple of weeks ago so it's hard to assess properly yet but the early indications are good. Notably looser than 'Sunbathing Animal'.
34. Hookworms - The Hum
Snuck into this list on very few listens, I really love their whole psyche music delivered with yelping punk rock vocals shtick.
33. Jungle - Jungle 
Really well put together funky groove shit. The success of 'Busy Earnin' has detracted from the album but it's still an enjoyable enough listen.
32. Thee Oh Sees - Drop
Drop is a monster of a tune that towers over the rest of the album.
31. Hercules & Love Affair - The Feast of Broken Heart
Fun housey disco album, the vocals occasionally grate but the the bouncey fun beats are effective.
30. The Brian Jonestown Massacre - Revelation
Much better than the last 2 albums, still have doubts that they are capable of putting out another classic album but this is a step in the right direction.
29. Pains of Being Pure At Heart - Days Of Abandon
Warmed to this in the end although it's not a patch on the debut, the girl who sings on the 3 songs is really good.
28. Huxley - Blurred
Housey goodness
27. Objekt - Flatland
Techno goodness
26. Teleman - Breakfast
This years most charming entry, strikes a good balance between fey wierdness and enjoyable pop.
25. Craft Spells - Nausea
Very listenable, 'Twist' is a standout.
24. Damon Albarn - Everyday Robots
Very listenable but few stand outs.
23. Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - Wig Out At Jagbags
Never heard his solo stuff, till this year, warm and tasty.
22. Leon Vynehall - Music for The Univited
Even more housey goodness
21. The Bilinda Butchers - HEAVEN
Only a little like My Bloody Valentine, more sort of dreamy pop.
20. Foxygen - ...And Star Power
Unlike a lot of people I don't hate this album. I find it hard to hate an album with so many strong songs, yes it's completely and utterly overblown (82 fucking minutes!) but there's a lot to like on here. If you cut it down by half you'd have a really good album that whilst not being on the same level as the debut, it would definitely be a worthy album. 'Coulda Been Your Love' and 'How Can You Really' are stone cold classics.
19. The Raveonettes - Pe'ahi
Didn't realise they had a new album out until about a week ago so i've not had much time to digest this one. It's pretty clear from just a couple of listens that it's another really good album from a hugely consistent band. 'Sisters' is one of their best songs ever.
18. Ariel Pink - pom pom
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Bizare wierdness, violently veering between genius and complete ridiculousness. Wish he'd cut some of the shit out though because there's some amazing songs on here.
17. The War On Drugs - Lost In The Dream
Loved this earlier in the year but i've gone off it a bit now (probably because of all the hype surrounding them). It's still a really good album, even if it does get a samey after a while. 'Red Eyes' will never get boring.
16. The Twilight Sad - Nobody Wants To Be Here & Nobody Wants To Leave
Got into this band earlier this year through their stunning debut 'Forteen winters', this album is nothing like that one, in fact it's a big reach out to the mainsteam. The vocal style is still very Scottish and quite folkey but the production is really really big sounding and it suits them.
15. Slow Magic - How To Run Away
Not really seen any press about this band and only heard of them through my brother, this album has completely slipped under the radar which is a shame. It's a dance floor album but not so much that you'd have to be massively into dance music to appreciate it, repetitive but not so much that it gets boring, you're never far away from a little keyboard riff or interesting sampled vocal snippet to keep you interested.
14. Lone - Reality Testing
Quite a turn of direction for producer Lone. It's a much sparser sound with beats which shuffle more than bang and less intense keyboards. Works really well too, the highlight of the album 'Airglow Fires' is house music done in a very lone-esque way.
13. Sun Kil Moon - Benji
This is the sort of thing i'd usually hate and dismiss as cheap emotion - sample chorus 'I Looooooooove my Dad'. It's so raw and honest and delivered in such an easy and cool manner that it's hard to hate and once it get's its emotional hooks into you your done.
12. Eagulls - Eagulls
A blistering mix of noisey punk and psyche influences, kinda like the horrors if they did away with the keyboards. 'Possessed' is complete perfection.
11. East India Youth - Total Strife Forever
Probably the most intense album on this list. The sound is layers upon layers of keyboards, painstakingly laid down by it's creator Sehbastien Dehestin who sings and plays everything on the album. Apparently it took him years to create, and it shows in the results, it's almost overwhelmingly rich. I'm not massively keen on the vocals and there's many songs i'd put on a pedestal but it just feels right as an album.
10. Parquet Courts - Sunbathing Animal
It falls short of last year's 'Light Up Gold' album but there's still enough on here to put it up with this year's best. I just love their style, just sarcastic enough to be cool and detached but not so detached as to be sneering dickheads. Scratchy and loose enough to strike a difference from your standard punk influenced shit but not so that way inclined as to lose sight of melody and the craft of the song. 'Instant Disassembly' is up there as one of the songs of the year, raw emotion which quite unlike anything they've ever put out.
9. Ty Segall - Manipulator
Hugely enjoyable retro rock n roll stomp of an album. No bullshit really beefy rock n roll tunes, never losing the sense of melody and always with a big rolling low end rhythm. It's an album that won't get left in 2014 for me.
8. Shabazz Palaces - Lese Majesty
An18 song album which in typical Shabazz Palaces style has lots of snippets of songs, 2 minute long beat collages and the like, meaning that Lese Majesty only clocks in at a easily listenable 45 minutes. Lese Majesty continues with the trippy psychedelic hip hop stylings of their previous album 'Black Up'. The beats on this album are truly wonderful, a total soundscape of deep bass notes, swirling voices and dubby percussion.
7. The Juan MacLean - In A Dream
Stumbled over these lot after reading about them on a blog, the lead guy John MacLean is an old friend of James Murphy's and consequently they are signed to DFA. Like most DFA bands there's a huge disco and electro influence on the sound. This album is only 9 tracks and it's a real easy listen, all the tracks are really solid and it flows nicely. Their singer Nancy Whang appears on all the songs so the songs are all really accessible.
6. Beck - Morning Phase
Excellent and overdue revisit of his 'sea change' style of lush, generally acoustic guitar led, slow paced songs. He really does have a superb canon of work now. 'Country down' is the best song he's done since the 'Guero' days. Such a chilled album.
5. Todd Terje - It's Album Time
A great album which wears it's Disco heart firmly on its sleeve. It's his debut album following up the stonking 2012 EP 'It's The Arps'. That EP's centrepiece 'Inspector Norse' deservedly makes its way onto the album as it's one of the best songs of the last few years. Occasionally the album is too jazzy Svensk Sas' being an example of this and the only bad song on there. The final 4 songs make for a brilliant finale. Also (Madlib excluded) probably the best produced album i've heard in 2014.
4. Mac DeMarco - Salad Days
Love his lo-fi chilled out vibes. You won't find a review of this album without the word 'slacker' in it, so there it is. Gentle discordance, fuzzy tones and lovely chilled out lyrics are the order of the day for this album. It's only another couple of superb songs away from being an all time classic. 'Goodbye Weekend' is one of the best songs of the year.
3. Freddie Gibbs & Madlib - Pinata
Madlib's album with MFDoom 'Madvillainy' is one of my favourite albums of all time, so I was overjoyed when I saw that he'd teamed up with another talented rapper. The results whilst not being quite the same level as the Doom collaboration are amazing. Freddie Gibbs is very much of the Tupac Shakur ilk, in both delivery and content. His lyrics are the usual straight up gangsta tales, delivered with the same swaggering aggresion as Tupac used to employ. Even though the emceeing is good, it's still Madlib who's the star of the show here, his beats are classic Madlib, etheral hooks sampled from rare never heard before records sourced from his huge library of vinyl. Bass which sounds like it's rising out of a swamp, minimal down tempo rhythms and intoxicating array of back ground noises.
2. Caribou - Our Love
The 3rd superb album in a row for Caribou and all 3 have been quite different sounding. This one is the most direct and mainstream sounding album. The opener 'Can't Do Without You' is the best case of this, a massive slow build ecstatic dance pop song which deserves to be heard everywhere. There's still a bit of the experimental sounds of his earlier stuff but now it's more reigned in and shackled onto straight up beats.
1 . Angel Olsen - Burn Your Fire For No Witness
A wonderful album where every song is great, which is a real rarity these days. I love how this album has a nice mix of sparse mournful acoustic songs and full band electric numbers. Her voice is equally brilliant when belting it out on songs such as 'high five' or the soft and sweetly sung 'dance slow decades'. It's got everything going on, great lyrics, wonderful singing and the instrumentation on the full band songs is absolutely superb and doesn't at all detract from the intimacy of the songs. I just fucking love her. Possibly the best album of the last 5 years, never mind 2014.
