My Favorite Albums of 2014 (6-15)

If you missed the first installment of my list, you can find my albums ranked 16-25 here. Otherwise, it's onto the next portion of the list.

15) Field Report - Marigolden

Wisconsin's Field Report is led by Chris Porterfield (and is an anagram of his last name). Field Report's debut album was one of my very favorites of 2012. Their second album sees them refining their blend of indie rock and indie folk with beautiful lyrics that drag you into the story of the song. While I still haven't gotten quite as lost in this album as I did their debut, I wouldn't be surprised to have it click for me someday, and it's a darn nice album anyway. My favorite tracks are the first two off the record, "Decision Day" and "Home (Leave The Lights On)."

14) Hiss Golden Messenger - Lateness of Dancers

I feel like I had probably seen Hiss Golden Messenger's name around before, but I somehow never got around to listening to them until this year. The North Carolina folk duo was another artist whose discovery I owe to their presence on Merge Records. I'm planning to move to North Carolina this summer after I graduate, and besides finally getting to live in the same state as my girlfriend again, I'm also excited to be around the music scene in the Durham / Chapel Hill area. My favorite songs from this record are "Saturday's Song" and "Black Dog Wind (Rose of Roses)."

13) Allo Darlin' - We Come From The Same Place

The third album by the London-based Allo' Darlin is chock full of good solid indie pop. They don't try to make the songs too extravagant or frilly, but it's a really fun album to listen to , and I found myself doing just that more often than I had expected based on my brief previous knowledge of the group. A couple songs reminded me a bit of Camera Obscura, and I really enjoy the pedal steel on a couple of songs like the albums closer "Another Year." "History Lessons" and "Heartbeat" were two other favorite tracks.

12) Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings - Give The People What They Want

I had the immense pleasure of seeing Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings perform back in March and it was some of the most fun I've ever had at a show. If you can spend an hour watching a tiny 50 year old woman who recently beat cancer singing and dancing her heart out all night without having a huge smile on your face you may need to get yourself checked out. Much of the group's energy and enthusiasm is captured on this record as well. If your Monday ever needs a little kick in the pants to get going, fire this up and it should get your foot tapping and your mood improving. I particularly enjoy "Retreat!" and "Stranger To My Happiness."

11) Racing Glaciers - Don't Wait For Me EP

Racing Glaciers released two EPs this year. I didn't know whether to group them together or treat them separately, but I chose to split them up. And as a slight spoiler for the remainder of this list, this was my second favorite of the two. Racing Glaciers is great at letting a song slowly build until you can't take it anymore before letting everything kick in. Everything blends together into a whole that I cannot get enough of. The only thing preventing this from being higher on the list is that it's only four songs. Of the four tracks, I enjoy "First Light" and "Animal" the most, but the whole EP is excellent. I'll talk a bit more of the band when their second EP pops up in this list.

10) Louis Weeks - shift/away

This was the first album that I fell in love with this year, which I wrote about back in February. The Washington DC based composer combines electronic elements with organic sounds so well. One of my favorite blogs, We Listen For You, said of the album that it has "that rare quality in electronic music of feeling handmade as if the machines that go into producing the sound were as organic as the vocals that accompany them." I can't say it much better. "Bloodline" and "Fold" are my two favorite tracks. You can currently download the album for any price of your choosing here.

9) First Aid Kit - Stay Gold

The two Swedish sisters who make up First Aid Kit made my favorite album of 2012 and Stay Gold is another wonderful blend of country and folk from the duo. It's hard to believe they've put out this much good music while they are still only 21 and 24 years old. On this album, they introduced a 13-piece orchestra to back their beautiful vocals and own instrumentation. While none of the songs was quite as transcendent as "Emmylou" from their last album, I became pretty addicted to "Heaven Knows" for a while. "My Silver Lining," "Master Pretender," and "Shattered & Hollow" are other standout tracks.


8) Bahamas - Bahamas Is Afie

Bahamas is the stage name of Canadian Afie Jurvanen, so he nailed the album name. His 2012 record Barchords was enjoyable, but I found myself just picking out songs here and there but never really getting into the album as a whole. My first time through Bahamas is Afie, I knew this album would be different. I'm not sure what is different about this one or if it's just me, but I love listening to this whole album. "Stronger Than That" and "Can't Take You With Me" are my two favorite tracks.

7) Jessica Hernandez and the Deltas - Secret Evil

I discovered this band / album late in the year, but man is it fun to listen to. All Music describes Jessica Hernandez and the Deltas as a "gritty, high-energy Detroit rock & roll band whose sound embodies everything from Motown to early surf, psych, carnival, and girl group pop." It's hard to choose a favorite track and the band can do both upbeat and slower songs really well, something not all similar bands can pull off. If I had to choose, I'd say "No Place Left To Hide," "Cry Cry Cry," and "Caught Up" are my favorite tracks. Apparently this album had been completed for a couple years before seeing the light of day due to label issues, but I'm really glad it finally did.

6) Owl John - Owl John

Owl John is the solo debut of Scott Hutchison from Frightened Rabbit. Since Frightened Rabbit is one of my favorite bands, I was pretty excited for this album, and it did not disappoint. Hutchison amusingly stated his impetus for trying his hand at a solo album saying "it was also approximately 10 years ago that I started a band called Frightened Rabbit. In that time I've dedicated so much of my life to that good wee band with a stupid name, I felt it was time to indulge John." As Frightened Rabbit's sound has grown and become more elaborate, Owl John allowed Hutchison a chance to pull things back and try some new things musically. However, his thoughtful lyrics that fans have come to expect are present along with that wonderful Scottish singing voice.


Below is a mix with a song from each of the albums listed above. Hopefully you find something you like. If you do, go check out the artist(s) more and support them if you feel so inclined.



I'll be back tomorrow with my five favorite albums of 2014. Thanks for reading!

My Top 50 Albums of 2012 (1-5)

We're finally down to my five favorite albums of 2012. As I mentioned in the first post, this was a great year for new music. If you missed my first three installments of the list here are the links: 31-50, 16-30, and 6-15. These five albums were ones that I just found myself listening to over and over again this year. Here are my top five of 2012:

5) M. Ward - A Wasteland Companion

I've probably written about M. Ward a dozen or so times since I started this blog. You can search his name in the upper left corner or look here if you want to verify that, but it has been a lot. On last.fm I listened to M. Ward more than twice as often as any other artist that year and that doesn't even take into account that this album was in my car CD player for about four straight months after it was released. That gives you the background for how I'm approaching this album. I was almost certainly going to love it as soon as the release was announced. Despite that, it took me a while to really warm up to the album. At first I liked it but didn't love it. However, the more I listened, the more it grew on me and now it is probably my second or third favorite of his records (with "Post-War" firmly entrenched as one of my 2 or 3 favorite records ever). If I had to pick a favorite track, it would probably be "The First Time I Ran Away", but unlike a lot of the albums ranked this high, there really isn't one or two tracks that stick out. The album flows from song to song with each step along the way a big part of what makes it so enjoyable.


4) Milo Greene - Milo Greene

Like Rilo Kiley, Milo Greene is a band masquerading as a person. I think I read somewhere that Milo Greene was a name they had invented as a fake PR person so that they seemed more professional before starting this band. Anyhow the band is a five member indie folk/indie pop group based out of Los Angeles. Four of the five members take turns sharing leading and backing vocal duties. In lesser hands that could harm the product, but as is you barely notice who is or isn't stepping forward at any one time. The harmonies present throughout each song are gorgeous. There are 13 tracks on the album, four of which are transitions between songs. Of the other 9, there isn't a dud in the bunch. "1957" is my favorite track, followed by "Cutty Love" and "Silent Way", but I'd be content recommending any of six other songs as well to someone wanting to hear what Milo Greene sounded like. This was the band's debut album and it kind of surprises me that the band hasn't gotten more notice from it.

3) Field Report - Field Report

Field Report is a band led by Chris Porterfield (an anagram of his last name). I wrote a good deal about Field Report when I first discovered them back in May. To rehash that a bit, back in 2006 Porterfield was in a band called DeYarmond Edison with Justin Vernon (of Bon Iver), and three members of what became Megafaun. DeYarmond Edison seems to be the rare pre-super group like Park Ave. Since then, Porterfield recorded some things under the name Conrad Plymouth too. However, I was unfamiliar with him until hearing the Field Report demos back in May and being absolutely floored by them. The closest genre is probably folk, but that's too simple. It's more like hushed rock with folk influences. Porterfield's lyrics are a large part of what takes these songs from really good to great. He tells stories with his lyrics while still managing to make them sound like they fit the song just perfectly. I remember reading that the first track "Fergus Falls" is about a pregnant woman he saw with a boyfriend who seemed like kind of a jerk. "Taking Alcatraz," my favorite track from the album is about Richard Oakes, a Native American activist who led a group that took control of Alcatraz from 1969-1971. Some albums just seem to be made for particular places or times. I've found this album is the perfect album for a long Fall walk, something I have put to use several times.

2) Cold Specks - I Predict A Graceful Expulsion

I've been wrestling with the positions of these top two albums for a while, not fully deciding on an order until right now. Last night I planned to have this album number one, so maybe this should be considered something more like 1b. Cold Specks is the project of Al Spx, a Canadian based out of London. She describes her music as doom-soul. Allmusic describes it as a mix of "Southern soul, Tom Waits/Jeff Buckley inspired blues, and goth-tinged indie folk." The songs are usually pretty sparse sounding with percussion playing a big part. A good deal of other instruments contribute over that. Her voice though is something else. There is so much feeling and emotion that pours out of it as she sings. "Blank Maps" still manages to basically stop me in my tracks any time I hear it, and it may be my favorite song released this year. "Holland" and "Elephant Head" are two other standout tracks, but her voice is enough to make every song on the album something to pay attention to. This is Cold Specks' debut album and even more so than some of the other debuts on here, it'll be really exciting to see how she follows this album up. Based on this one and that voice of hers, I've got a lot of confidence that there is a lot of great music still to come from her in the future.


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1) First Aid Kit - The Lion's Roar

First Aid Kit are two Swedish sisters who make some of the best folk/country songs around at only 19 and 22 years old. Despite their age, through interviews and their songs you can tell that they have an immense appreciation for the artists that came before them. They first gained some attention back in 2008 when they posted a YouTube video of themselves covering Fleet Foxes' "Tiger Mountain Peasant Song" out in the woods. The video (here) now has almost 3.5 million views and led to a performance of the song with Fleet Foxes. Their song "Emmylou" pays tribute to Emmylou Harris, June Carter, Gram Parsons, and Johnny Cash in what is one of my favorite songs of the year. The song "Blue" shows off their lyric writing abilities with painful lines like "The only man you ever loved / you thought was gonna marry you / died in a car accident when he was only 22 / Then you just decided love wasn't for you / And every year since then has proved it to be true." The album was produced by Mike Mogis of Bright Eyes and features his fellow bandmate Conor Oberst on the last track, "King Of The World." The album was released in January, and I immediately fell in love with it. Sometimes having almost a year with new music coming out every week can make an album fade from consciousness a bit and lose some of its initial excitement, but I kept coming back to this one over and over and plan to continue doing so in the future.


It wouldn't be right to talk about all of these amazing albums without sharing them with you. Like the past three installments of my countdown, below is a way to stream songs from each of today's albums. And if you use Spotify, you can find a playlist with all of the albums I listed (minus I think two which weren't on there) in order for easy access by clicking here. I hope you enjoyed the countdown and possibly learned of a new band or two. I look forward to pouring over other best of lists in the next few days and taking a break from 2012 music to listen to some other things too.

Feel free to tell me what you think either in the comments or by email listed on the right hand side of the page. Which albums did I leave off that you would have included in your list? Does anybody else have a list of their favorites they'd like to share?

New Band: Field Report

A good way to get me to listen to an artist is to mention that he used to play with Justin Vernon of Bon Iver. A good way to get me to keep listening is to make some exceptional music. Check and check for Field Report.

Before Justin Vernon went off to the woods to record his debut album, he was in a band based out of North Carolina called DeYarmond Edison. Their album Silent Sighs was a really good folky album. If I had known them at the time, I'm sure I would have been sad to hear about their breakup. However, since breaking up, a lot of amazing music has come from the various members of the band. Justin Vernon somehow turned Bon Iver into a huge success, which is great for him as he seems like a good guy. I love that his success has allowed him the freedom to collaborate to his heart's content and try out all sorts of different things (how many other people in the same year can sing a hit song with Kanye West and guest on a "folk opera" with Anais Mitchell?). Three of the other members went on to create the band Megafaun and collaborate with Vernon and countless others in Polica. What I didn't know about DeYarmond Edison until pretty recently is that for a while there was also a fifth member, Chris Porterfield, who played pedal steel. Well apparently they are the band that keeps on giving.

Chris Porterfield is set to release his debut album later this summer under the name Field Report (an anagram of his last name). To date, he has only three unmastered demos available for listen, but they've definitely got me hooked and excited for his album. The songs are exceptionally well crafted folk songs with guitar that just seems to draw me in to a place of comfort. Everything including the hushed vocals builds around that. I can't explain it, but there are certain songs that just make me feel like if they never ended I could just sit in pure relaxation forever along with them.

I can't really choose a favorite of the three, but this one name dropping Fergus Falls, Minnesota will do for now. Check it out below, and then head to Field Report's website here to stream or download the other two tracks.