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It’s that time of year again. Somewhere between bleeding out our wallets and forcing small talk over painfully nonalcoholic eggnog, we’re expected to reflect on twelve months quickly closing behind us. Reflecting is difficult. It’s impossible to look back on the year without seeing our own narrative harshly painted against a collective defeat. 2014 was a year of tragedy and discouragement, when so many of us looked to music to rationalize a much larger struggle. Or just distract us from it.
Auditory memory is a strange thing. We all have songs to equate with a first love, the euphoria of an open road or familiarity of home. We all know the power of a few gritty guitar chords, and their ability to strike the tune of a past self far better than any photograph or journal entry. As music fans, we all know this. But that doesn’t explain what got us to listen in the first place.
The question may not be what got us to listen, but what kept us listening. What moves us to return to the same three minute melody until it promises the nostalgia as the songs we keep to memory? What impels us to endlessly loop an album until it becomes our own? The answer here is unclear, but this much is certain: we must not forget the reason we pressed play.
Our list of the year’s top albums were attained through complex mathematics, intense philosophical debate and two large pizzas. As a group of dedicated music fans, the process of choosing our favorite albums was our own way of picking through a year of triumphs and shortcomings, mutual tragedy and personal grief. This list allowed us to reflect the bright spots of 2014, to relive the moments we often cut short to rush towards something insignificantly new. As a group of music fans, we’d like to thank you for letting us share our favorites, and give you a reason to press play.
– Mo Kelly
Allston Pudding Staff
* = Local
25. Benji – Sun Kil Moon
2014 was a busy year for Mark Kozelek. Between telling hillbillies to “shut the fuck up” and telling The War On Drugs to “suck his cock”, you may have forgotten that his current project Sun Kil Moon released one of this year’s best albums. Unfortunately Mark’s “controversies” struck the wrong chord with some listeners who didn’t give Benji a fair chance. Leaving his shenanigans aside, Benji is filled with beautiful finger picked melodies and heartbreaking lyrics. Mark writes as literal as he possibly can be as he deals with heavy topics like death, nostalgia, and banality of life. Oh, and Panera Bread. Benji might secretly be a commercial for Panera Bread.
– Joe Sansone
24. After the End – Merchandise
I never really cared for The Smiths. Maybe I missed that window where they would’ve stuck, but that’s where Merchandise comes in. After The End captures that lonesomeness in every brilliant and glittering song. As a band, they’ve always been consistently good, but this album just came off as a spark; as if everything they’d done before was a foundation for this masterpiece. After The End accompanied me on so many walks around the city. Recently, I experienced a close death for the first time, and did a lot of thinking along to this album. It broods and coos loneliness, but it offers a warm solace if you listen to every facet. Merchandise really outdid themselves with this one.
– Seth Garcia
23. Never Hungover Again – Joyce Manor
Seeing as this is about Joyce Manor, I’ll keep it as concise as possible: every time I listen to this 19-minute album I feel an undeniable urge to leap off of the nearest elevated structure onto a crowd of people, whether they know it’s coming or not. It’s not what Barry Johnson and Co. were going for, but it’s exactly what they gave us.
– Mark Zurlo
22. Salad Days – Mac Demarco
Mac DeMarco’s second album sticks to a digital age music career trajectory norm: musician gets a taste of fame, then musician gets tired, uninspired, and a bit ambivalent. But the most gripping part of what the 23-year-old achieved on his follow-up is how he lets it unfold in his songwriting. He showcases a generational maturity packaged as something comfortably grim (“Salad Days“), experienced (“Let Her Go”), and casually vulnerable (“Let My Baby Stay”). You even hear the “whatever, dude” slacker we once knew DeMarco as on his debut, give some advice on “Brother.” ‘Salad Days’ is a hard album to wear out. And everyone loves an underdog.
– Joe Stahl
21. Atlas – Real Estate
Commercial Real Estate serves the benefit of beach bums and waterfront property addicts alike. If you love it, you crave it. If you hate it, you’re a nark. I mean human! I mean human with opinions differing from my own! I mean human with opinions differing from my own, which are completely validated through the universal principle of free will! Beach pop is not an obligation! It’s a choice! With that said, a third album-length helping of the same genre can only be pulled off by the cleanest of the clean, and 2014’s unveiling of Atlas from under its sandy plastic bucket proved Real Estate’s worthy fit into that mold. Almost like an extension of the group’s sophomore album Days, Atlas is guitar-centric and light in sound but also matured in topics addressed. Lyrics throughout all ten tracks shift the band’s setting of pool parties to morning-after cleanups. It’s not a pivot but an evolution for the Jersey boy beach-pop machine, complete with the sounds that made us love Real Estate in the first place.
– Becca Degregorio