American Songwriter's Top 50 Albums of 2014
1. Sturgill Simpson - Metamodern Sounds in Country Music
CRITIC SCORE
79
6 reviews
USER SCORE
79
14 reviews
2. The War on Drugs - Lost in the Dream
CRITIC SCORE
87
22 reviews
USER SCORE
85
299 reviews
Lost In The Dream doubles down on its predecessor’s adventurous side, and it’s War On Drugs’ most engrossing album thus far.
3. Strand of Oaks - Heal
CRITIC SCORE
81
12 reviews
USER SCORE
80
54 reviews
Showalter has jacked up the musical intensity to match his fearless, often harrowing lyrics, and the results are stellar.
5. Ryan Adams - Ryan Adams
CRITIC SCORE
74
18 reviews
USER SCORE
78
19 reviews
Ryan Adams as an album might not be uplifting but it sure is outstanding, reaffirming the singular talent of its namesake.
7. Angel Olsen - Burn Your Fire for No Witness
CRITIC SCORE
82
22 reviews
USER SCORE
80
182 reviews
For those prepared to hunker down and get immersed in Angel Olsen’s laconic, often downbeat echoes on depressing life events many of us have experienced, it’s a startlingly uncompromising, if occasionally uncomfortable peek into her haunted dreams.
12. Ty Segall - Manipulator
CRITIC SCORE
79
18 reviews
USER SCORE
82
68 reviews
With 17 tracks stretching over 57 minutes, perhaps some judicious editing could have trimmed the excess, but this remains a major step forward for Segall and a logical extension of a direction he was already headed in.
13. Robert Ellis - The Lights from the Chemical Plant
CRITIC SCORE
75
7 reviews
USER SCORE
74
6 reviews
15. Conor Oberst - Upside Down Mountain
CRITIC SCORE
72
17 reviews
USER SCORE
75
23 reviews
It is also one of his most consistently rewarding efforts since the heady early records. Conor sounds more relaxed than ever before
21. St. Vincent - St. Vincent
CRITIC SCORE
88
23 reviews
USER SCORE
82
348 reviews
St. Vincent will flatten you like a steamroller the first time around, but it’s the kind of clobbering that grows immediately addicting.
24. Leonard Cohen - Popular Problems
CRITIC SCORE
81
12 reviews
USER SCORE
78
22 reviews
That variety helps to highlight Cohen’s interpretive skills. Those who dismiss his vocals as monotone are missing out on the soulful power he brings to “Did I Ever Love You” or the sly humor he ladles on “Slow.”
25. Jenny Lewis - The Voyager
CRITIC SCORE
75
18 reviews
USER SCORE
74
25 reviews
The Voyager mostly dispenses with genre exercises and style hopping in favor of a gorgeously organic rock record.
27. Tweedy - Sukierae
CRITIC SCORE
77
14 reviews
USER SCORE
74
10 reviews
There are a lot of songs here, and it overwhelms in one sitting, but even in small pieces, it’s clear that Tweedy takes home the songwriting ribbon at the father-son picnic.
28. Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - Wig Out at Jagbags
CRITIC SCORE
73
23 reviews
USER SCORE
68
57 reviews
30. Angaleena Presley - American Middle Class
October 14, 2014
CRITIC SCORE
77
3 reviews
USER SCORE
NR
33. Jack White - Lazaretto
CRITIC SCORE
74
21 reviews
USER SCORE
73
85 reviews
The 11 tracks are still packed with those “tricks,” but like the record’s subject matter, the occurrences are controlled, nuanced, or flawlessly smoothed out like the icing on a bakery-made birthday cake.
34. Adam Faucett - Blind Water Finds Blind Water
March 11, 2014
CRITIC SCORE
80
1 review
USER SCORE
NR
35. Eric Church - The Outsiders
CRITIC SCORE
80
6 reviews
USER SCORE
60
12 reviews
Apart from one or two fleeting missteps, The Outsiders is a beautiful, quintessentially inclusive pop record dressed up as insurgent anti-pop.
36. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Hypnotic Eye
CRITIC SCORE
73
12 reviews
USER SCORE
75
11 reviews
38. Old 97's - Most Messed Up
CRITIC SCORE
76
8 reviews
USER SCORE
65
7 reviews
The back cover’s somewhat clichéd advice of “Play this album loud,” should be heeded for maximum enjoyment of a rollicking set that nearly two decades in, stands as some of the Old 97’s finest and most exhilarating music.
39. Warpaint - Warpaint
CRITIC SCORE
74
25 reviews
USER SCORE
75
150 reviews
Sensual vocals intertwine with menacing lyrics. Throbbing grooves swell alongside unsettling rhythms. Eerie atmospherics feel comforting at one moment yet gothic at another.
41. Doug Paisley - Strong Feelings
CRITIC SCORE
75
8 reviews
USER SCORE
80
3 reviews
Its sound is breezy and sumptuous, stylistically attractive but overflowing with honest feelings. On paper that seems to look a lot like the M.O. of a C&W artist, but even at his most earnest or folksy, Paisley never gets too comfortable staying in one place, musically speaking.
46. Beck - Morning Phase
CRITIC SCORE
77
23 reviews
USER SCORE
75
146 reviews
Given that Morning Phase reveals similarly raw honesty and engrossing emotion – plus bears the mark of superior penmanship gained by a decade’s more patience and wisdom, the album is poised to be revered as one of Beck’s most potent collections.
47. The New Pornographers - Brill Bruisers
CRITIC SCORE
77
21 reviews
USER SCORE
74
32 reviews
With Brill Bruisers providing another example of their amazing chemistry, it seems more and more likely history will show that this group was meant to be their day job all along.
48. Jessica Lea Mayfield - Make My Head Sing
April 15, 2014
CRITIC SCORE
68
6 reviews
USER SCORE
73
4 reviews
49. Drive-By Truckers - English Oceans
CRITIC SCORE
70
14 reviews
USER SCORE
69
16 reviews
English Oceans is a meat-and-potatoes rock and roll record, rawer and rougher than anything since Alabama Ass Whuppin’, and its leanness highlights the band’s strengths while amplifying a few lingering weaknesses.
50. Sharon Van Etten - Are We There
CRITIC SCORE
86
19 reviews
USER SCORE
82
169 reviews
Are We There is definitely an album that will reveal itself to you with closer attention and multiple listens, as opposed to Tramp, which was a little catchier with its obsessions right from the get-go.
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