In this new site feature, I pick an album that I’m currently listening to whether old or new. To kick it off , I thought I would start it off with one of my recent favorite albums that was actually released two years ago. On their debut studio outing Manchester, UK quartet The 1975 unleashed a synth-filled, sugary pop-rock self-titled record that’s brimming with ’80s excesses and cheeky, schoolboy lyrics. You can listen to the self-titled effort from the 1975 in full below!
Track Picks: “Chocolate”, “Sex”, “Talk!”, “Girls”
Fun Fact: Before settling on the 1975 as a band name, they called themselves Talkhouse, The Slowdown, and Bigsleep among others.
On New Year’s Day, Kanye dropped his first new material since 2013’s ambitious Yeezus…and it features a former Beatle no less. Far tamer and more subdued than anything off his last abrasive album, West turns up the Autotune for this ballad about his daughter, North. Check it out on West’s official site here.
5. Taylor Swift- “Blank Space”– Was anyone really that surprised when Swift first announced that her album, 1989, would be her first full foray into pop? What with the previous dubstep wobble of “I Knew You Were Trouble” and the bubblegum sheen of “22”, it seems like she’s been plotting this move for some time now. Nevertheless, “Blank Space” is a straight-up cannonball into the pop waters. Gone are any hints of twangy country and in its place lie synth-soaked beats and a sky-high chorus.
Fun Fact: 1989 was the only album to sell over 1,000,000 copies in 2014.
4. Modern Baseball- “Your Graduation” – Philly punk quartet Modern Baseball remember high school well- every awkward, cringe-worthy second of it. They harness all that pent up frustration and shoot it off like a bottle rocket on this barnstormer.
Fun Fact: The name of the band is derived from the title of a book that two of the band members found called “Modern Baseball Techniques”.
3. Weezer- “Da Vinci”– After a couple records of questionable material and misfires, Weezer went back to their garage for the soaring Everything Will Be Alright In The End, an album that makes them just as relevant as they were twenty years ago.
Fun Fact: Frontman Rivers Cuomo was born on an ashram in Pomfret, Connecticut.
2. FKA twigs- “Pendulum”– Try finding a song as simultaneously grand and intimate as “Pendulum” from FKA twigs’ impossibly graceful debut album.
Fun Fact: Before becoming a singer, FKA twigs was a backup dancer for Jessie J in the video for “Price Tag”.
1. Sia- “Chandelier”– Even though it was originally written for Rihanna, aren’t you glad Sia kept “Chandelier” for herself? Nothing against the former, but no one else could have delivered the raw, powerhouse performance like Sia did on this track.
Fun Fact: Though she’s helped pen songs for plenty of famous artists (David Guetta and Beyoncé among them), “Chandelier” put Sia in the top 10 of the Billboard charts as a solo artist for the first time.
7. Run The Jewels- “Close Your Eyes (And Count To Fuck)”– With a little assistance from Rage Against The Machine’s Zack De La Rocha on the hook (and in a rare verse), rap duo Run The Jewels, gave us brutal bars that made us think while we were bobbing our heads. This incendiary jam is hip-hop music you can mosh to.
Fun Fact: El-P produced Killer Mike’s 2012 album R.A.P. Music. A year later, they would form Run The Jewels.
6. Cloud Nothings- “I’m Not Part Of Me”– After an album of being down in the dumps, the closer of Cloud Nothings’ Here And Nowhere Else is an absolute, self-assured garage rock triumph.
Fun Fact: Cloud Nothings frontman/founder Dylan Baldi wrote a seven page email to his parents explaining why he wanted to drop out of college after his freshman year to pursue music full-time. He was successful in convincing them.
9.Charli XCX- “London Queen”– Whether on purpose or not (her devil-may-care attitude suggests the latter), Charli XCX confected a sugary update of pop punk all while playing by her own rules.
Fun Fact: “Charli XCX” was the singer’s MSN Messenger name she used when she was 15.
8. Against Me!- “Transgender Dysphoria Blues”– On her first proper album as a frontwoman, Laura Jane Grace (born Thomas Gabel) refuses to hold anything back. With some of the most visceral lyrics this year (“You’ve got no cunt in your strut/ You’ve got no hips to shake”), the title track sheds some light on her emotions since coming out as a transgender woman in 2012. Transgender Dysphoria Blues not only rings like a punk celebration but a complete and total liberation.
Fun Fact: Against Me! began in 1997 as a solo act with just Grace on guitar.
11.Ariel Pink- “Put Your Number In My Phone”– This year, the LA music scene’s resident weirdo, Ariel Pink, dished out more of his psychedelic pop with his latest album, Pom Pom. “Put Your Number In My Phone” might be the most linear offering on the record, but its flower-power throwback charm is still unlike most things you’ll hear in 2014.
Fun Fact: Pink started recording music when he was 10 years old.
10.Bleachers- “Rollercoaster”– As the guitarist for fun, Jack Antonoff isn’t a stranger to writing formidable, infectious hooks. In a year where pop and rock wanted to pretend it was the ‘80s all over again, nobody did it bigger than Bleachers.
Fun Fact: Antonoff helped co-write the Taylor Swift song “Out Of The Woods” which appears on her latest album, 1989
13. Jack White-“Lazaretto”– That mad scientist of a rockstar, Jack White, is at it again and this time he sounds like an escaped mental patient.
Fun Fact: This year Jack White became the first musician to embed a hologram in a vinyl record.
12. Ed Sheeran- “Tenerife Sea”– For his sophomore album, X (pronounced Multiply), Ed Sheeran took to the dancefloor with a string of R&B inflected singles. But my favorite track from the album recalls Sheeran’s earlier days when it was just him and his guitar.
Fun Fact: In 2014, Sheeran’s album X was the most streamed album in the world on Spotify with 430 million streams.
15. Vance Joy- “Riptide”– Just when you thought the pop-folk (think Mumford, Lumineers) trend might be waning, here comes Vance Joy. “Riptide” is both sweeping and deeply personal at the same time-no easy feat!
Fun Fact: Joy used to be a professional soccer player in Australia. His real name is James Keogh.
14. Walk The Moon- “Shut Up and Dance”– The title says it all.
Fun Fact: The band got their name from a Police song: “Walking On The Moon”.
As the bassist for Connecticut based psych-rockers Grinning Dog, Andy Siegel has been cooking up mind-bending bass lines consistently for the past three years. On his first solo record, Noise, Siegel turns on the ‘90s shoegaze fuzz as he mans every instrument (minus some guest appearances) and proves that even without his trusty bandmates, he’s a formidable strength in the studio. In the transition to working on his own, a lot of the psychedelic influence from his past work remains intact. Whether it’s the wobbling guitars of “Blame It On The Metronome” or the dreamy haze of single “Scissor Gaze”, Siegel knows how to keep things twisted in the best possible way. Through an email exchange with the artist, I discovered a little more of what’s behind all this Noise.
Q: What prompted a solo album?
AS: A combination of wanting to experiment with new recording techniques and an increasing intrigue/ streak of inspiration from shoegaze music, most notably My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless.
Q: How did you get the title of the record, Noise?
AS: I’m a fan of self-deprecating humor and figured there’s a lot of folks out there who won’t get what I’m going for musically and will write it off as noise.
Q: How long was the recording process?
AS: I started in late July and released the album on November 22nd, so around 4 months.
Q: It’s really impressive that for this album you played everything. What instrument are you newest at?
AS: I’m newest to singing and lyric writing.
Q: Who are some of your lyrical influences?
AS: Frank Zappa is a big influence on me because of his inability to write serious lyrics. Dude knew how to pen a song.
Q: So what’s next on the radar for you?
AS: Me, Sky, and Rob have a new Grinning Dog EP coming that should be released in the next couple months. It’s gonna be big.
Q: As the year comes to a close, what are some of your favorite songs and albums of 2014?
AS: Antemasque- Antemasque
Rx Bandits- Gemini Her Majesty
Mastodon- Once More Round the Sun
St. Vincent – St. Vincent
Listen to Siegel’s solo debut for yourself right here and be on the lookout for a new Grinning Dog EP coming soon!
Following hot on the heels of her summer smash “Boom Clap”, Charli XCX returns with “Break The Rules”, the lead single from her forthcoming sophomore album, Sucker (out October 21st). A punky, bratty anthem whose chorus (“I don’t want to go to school/ I just want to break the rules”) is shamelessly straightforward, but nonetheless memorable. If Charli has it her way, she won’t just be the queen of summer radio- she might very well hold our attentions throughout the fall as well.