Front Burner 2014

Recapping the most played music around our place during the past year. As always, with a focus on current releases.

This year, I was honored to have my Top 10 records of the year posted among some other great year-end lists on the blog of my friend, Bret Helm: 

Life On This Planet - Best of 2014 

Bret does a great job with this blog and I wholeheartedly encourage you to check it out. The other lists at that link are just as worth a look and have certainly provided me with some great new music to explore. 

My #1 album of 2014 is St. Vincent's self-titled 4th solo album. If you include the collaborative album that she did with David Byrne (the wonderful 'Love This Giant') it's her 5th. It seems like I become a bigger St. Vincent fan with each album she releases. She (Annie Clark) trips many of the same triggers with me that artists like David Bowie and Kate Bush do. Creative and unique, and one heck of a guitar player! Somehow, I managed to bookend 2014 with fantastic St. Vincent shows, so there was no debating her status in my list of favorites. 

Clark My daughter Emma's #1 album of 2014 - Nico Vega's 'Lead To Light' 

I asked Emma to write a blog entry for the music she listened to the most in 2014, and you can read that here.

Emma That one ended up on my list, as well...

My 14 Favorite Albums of 2014

1 - St. Vincent • St. Vincent (released Feb 25) 
2 - Peter Murphy • Lion (Jun 2)
3 - Glass Animals • Zaba (Sep 6)
4 - Future Islands • Singles (Mar 15)
5 - The Family Crest • Beneath the Brine (Mar 15)
6 - Joe Henry • Invisible Hour (Jun 2)
7 - Rosanne Cash • The River & The Thread (Jan 14)
8 - The New Pornographers • Brill Bruisers (Aug 26)
9 - Sylvan Esso • Sylvan Esso (May 12)
10 - Warpaint • Warpaint (Jan 17)
11 - Phox • Phox (Jun 14)
12 - Nico Vega • Lead To Light (Jul 22)
13 - Lucinda Williams • Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone (Sep 30)
14 - Chrissie Hynde - Stockholm (Jun 10)

Sample Tracks:
Not in ranked order. Segues rule, even if they’re only in my head.

1.  “Beneath the Brine” • The Family Crest

2.  “Coffee” • Sylvan Esso

3.  “Birth In Reverse” • St Vincent (aka Annie Clark)

4.  “Dark Sunglasses” • Chrissie Hynde

5.  “Sparrow” • Joe Henry

6.  “Slow Motion” • Phox

7.  “Marching Orders” • The New Pornographers

8.  “Seasons (Waiting On You)” • Future Islands

9.  “Low Tar Stars” • Peter Murphy

10. “Hazey” • Glass Animals

11. “Keep it Healthy” • Warpaint

12. “I Believe (Get Over Yourself)” • Nico Vega

13. “West Memphis” • Lucinda Williams

14. “The Long Way Home” • Rosanne Cash

One noteworthy release was the first vinyl release - albeit 16th studio album - from Milwaukee singer-songwriter Peter Mulvey, called Silver Ladder (released Apr 1).  We contributed to his Kickstarter campaign to help fund the release, and would gladly to that again in a heartbeat.

Some promising 2014 releases that I hope to explore soon:

• Sturgill Simpson - Metamodern Sounds In Country Music (May 13)

• Spoon - They Want My Soul (Aug 5)

• Robert Plant - Lullaby and... The Ceaseless Roar (Sep 8)

• Simple Minds - Big Music (Nov 3)