NME's Top 50 Albums of 2014

NME's Top 50 Albums of 2014

Original Source →

49.

September 9, 2014
Critic Score
75
34 reviews

It would be hard to argue that Interpol are as vital as they once were - even with such an accomplished new work under their belts - but, fifth time round, they're proving there's still plenty of value in their elegantly downtrodden aesthetic.

48.

February 11, 2014
Critic Score
72
32 reviews

The model lovechild of Jim Morrison, Marc Bolan, John Hassall and Timothy Leary, singer James Edward Bagshaw is a true cosmic dancer, but he’s no fool either, with one keen eye on dragging the psych revival chartward.

46.

August 5, 2014
Critic Score
73
15 reviews
Twin Peaks aren’t interested in burning out, even if their lifestyle suggests they might. While they’re here, they’re just too good to miss.

45.

July 14, 2014
Critic Score
72
16 reviews

The doomed relationship cycle in eternal motion or the sound of a heart that won’t stay mended, ‘Honeyblood’ is visceral pop music giving its prettiest snarl.

44.

March 18, 2014
Critic Score
80
24 reviews

Melodies are buried alive under a tonne of aural dirt, delivered in frequencies that hurt your organs.

43.

March 18, 2014
Critic Score
78
19 reviews

On record, though, Gibbs’ coarsely inventive flow works perfectly with Madlib’s imperfectly human beats.

42.

November 10, 2014
Critic Score
80
24 reviews

There is no showboating or ostentatiousness on ‘The Hum’; it’s a different record to ‘Pearl Mystic’, but also a logical continuation and, in some ways, a companion piece.

40.

February 3, 2014
Critic Score
74
27 reviews

After years of chopping and changing, Bombay Bicycle Club have finally found an iteration worth sticking with.

39.

April 8, 2014
Critic Score
79
14 reviews
Needly bass, tumultuous drums and big, dirty guitars careen beneath Casey’s deadpan delivery, building riotously enjoyable labyrinthine passages that lead to nowhere, though Protomartyr make the journey feel essential.

38.

September 22, 2014
Critic Score
70
39 reviews

‘This Is All Yours’ engulfs you like a deep forest. Alt-J Mk II, then: an impressive expansion, with hugely improved connectivity.

37.

September 26, 2014
Critic Score
72
30 reviews

The hullaballoo over these guerrilla releases can often detract from the music itself, making it appear secondary to the circumstances of its release. ... ‘Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes’, thankfully, does not.

36.

September 23, 2014
Critic Score
79
20 reviews

Compared to its predecessor, the production is snappier and helps lift the veil on their righteous noise. What lies beneath is frequently glorious, especially in the second half

35.

June 3, 2014
Critic Score
77
35 reviews

'Sunbathing Animal' is not an immediate or cushy listen, but it is gripping; a considered and brutal reminder that Parquet Courts’ aren’t necessarily an accessible band. 

34.

February 11, 2014
Critic Score
83
28 reviews

Kozelek has a novelist’s eye for detail, and right from languid opener ‘Carissa’ – a song about his second cousin – he paints a vivid world and invites you to see it through his eyes.

33.

February 25, 2014
Critic Score
82
36 reviews

The result is an LP that feels more in sync with contemporary music than ever before. There are notes here of Oneohtrix Point Never, Clams Casino, and Tim Hecker. Crucially, though, ‘Present Tense’ roams a landscape which couldn’t have been charted by anyone else.

32.

August 11, 2014
Critic Score
70
14 reviews

31.

May 27, 2014
Critic Score
84
38 reviews

Although there is the occasional overwrought lyric, and nothing ground-breaking here in terms of song structure or instrumentation, the emotion in the delivery makes up for it.

30.

January 21, 2014
Critic Score
73
40 reviews

If ‘The Fool’ presented them as ethereal hippies with musical nous, ‘Warpaint’ drives them forward as masters of their talent, seriously loaded with ambition and prowess.

29.

July 22, 2014
Critic Score
79
27 reviews

Nothing on this record fails to impress.

28.

July 15, 2014
Critic Score
64
37 reviews

Like Morrissey’s last grand return from hiatus, 2004’s ‘You Are The Quarry’, there’s that same undefeatable spirit, the sense that he thrives on being the fly in the ointment.

27.

July 15, 2014
Critic Score
75
31 reviews

‘Jungle’ is a record designed to seep from barbeques the breadth of 2014, an ultra-modern rewiring of funk for Generation Y. 

26.

September 23, 2014
Critic Score
84
35 reviews

‘Too Bright’ isn't quite as tough as Hadreas made it seem. Rather, it's a collection of enthralling confessionals where stabs of bleakness mean that heavy bleeding dominates.

25.

June 17, 2014
Critic Score
72
39 reviews

The line between self-aware irony and tragically conforming to type is thin, though, her knowing winks getting stuck in a tangle of false eyelashes, and ultimately undermining what had the potential to be a powerful artistic statement. 

24.

February 18, 2014
Critic Score
82
37 reviews

Its title is a biblically bold declaration accompanied by 11 songs that put the 27-year-old’s worldview in no uncertain terms: disinterested in the attentions of others and steadfastly committed to honouring her own intentions and experience.

23.

June 9, 2014
Critic Score
59
18 reviews

The cocky confidence that barrelled them into the big time might just be losing momentum - a band made of bold leaps have started dipping toes.

22.

May 13, 2014
Critic Score
88
38 reviews

'To Be Kind' is not easy or pleasant; it will probably repel and confuse as much as it inspires. It’s a Hieronymous Bosch painting come to life, impossible to tear your eyes away from despite the grotesque atrocities it depicts.

21.

August 12, 2014
Critic Score
86
46 reviews

This pervading sense of control and commitment to her art proves that Twigs is set on building the sound of the future all by herself.

20.

June 10, 2014
Critic Score
78
45 reviews

... a varied album that lacks any monster riffs like the ones White used to write for The White Stripes, but includes enough intrigue, originality and plain weirdness to delight and, in some places, appal.

19.

August 25, 2014
Critic Score
72
26 reviews
There's light, shade and careful nuance throughout.

18.

May 19, 2014
Critic Score
75
14 reviews

As a performance poet, Tempest is good, in a sort of ‘on before Robin Ince in the Latitude literary tent’ kind of way. As a rapper, though, she’s excellent, balancing deft flow and dense storytelling to the detriment of neither.

16.

October 7, 2014
Critic Score
78
29 reviews

This, then, is Iceage gleefully torching their legacy and dancing in the ashes. And expanding their horizons hasn’t mellowed them, but made them even more discomforting.

15.

March 3, 2014
Critic Score
75
19 reviews

For all the ugliness that spills out of Eagulls, they’re never anything less than vital; these are anthems for a doomed youth determined to kick against the pricks rather than mope forlornly and fruitlessly.

14.

October 24, 2014
Critic Score
87
33 reviews

Cranking the urgency and confrontation of last year's self-titled debut to neck-breaking levels of intensity, 'RTJ2' is an urgent, paranoid album for a violent, panicked time.

13.

April 28, 2014
Critic Score
76
41 reviews

The seductive music, with its Bon Iver found-sound creaks and crackles of static, its colliery laments, its gothic calypsos and its full-on Magnetic Fields alt-showtunes invite intimacy and the slow picking away of its layers. Albarn pulls you close and whispers the codes of his life into your ear. 

12.

September 9, 2014
Critic Score
75
36 reviews

The 10-year break has obviously served DFA 1979 well. They have returned hungry and wired to shake us out of our digital comas.

11.

March 25, 2014
Critic Score
82
37 reviews

Get past the initial jolt of weirdness and you'll find in his delivery a soul-puncturing cry from the very frontlines of life, able to evoke both desperate tragedy and skyscraping joy all at once.

10.

October 7, 2014
Critic Score
82
17 reviews

'Rips' draws skilfully from the twang of CBGB-era punk, glam's robust swagger and Go-Gos pop-punk, imbuing the likes of small-town howl 'New Kid' with the assurance that comes from two decades spent playing in bands

8.

September 29, 2014
Critic Score
78
11 reviews

‘Carry On The Grudge’ is an inspired modern breakdown album in the vein of such cathartic classics as the Manic Street Preachers' ‘The Holy Bible’. It’s London low-life viewed from the other end of the telescope, and the view is dejected but divine.

7.

August 26, 2014
Critic Score
70
24 reviews

6.

July 21, 2014
Critic Score
79
35 reviews

It's been a tortuous half-decade that's found Jackson riven with anxiety in the aftermath of her debut, to the point where she couldn't even sing, but she comes out reborn.

5.

October 7, 2014
Critic Score
82
47 reviews

This fourth Caribou record encapsulates his whole career. Unwrap its rainbow artwork and you’ll find the plush harmonics of 2007’s ‘Andorra’ (‘Second Chance’), ‘Swim’’s cold, oscillating synths (‘Dive’) and Daphni’s strict beats (‘Mars’).

4.

September 23, 2014
Critic Score
86
47 reviews

‘Syro’ is amazing: bug-eyed, banging rave that sounds quintessentially Aphex while not quite sounding like anything he’s done before. It makes zero concessions to the modern day.

3.

March 18, 2014
Critic Score
85
42 reviews

2011’s ‘Slave Ambient’ may have been a cult success, but this follow-up is a fast-flowing gully to mainstream domination. 

2.

April 1, 2014
Critic Score
80
30 reviews

Sweet, soulful little man that he is, Mac knows better than to let his bellyaching get in the way of everyone else's good time — instead, he’s simply dialled down the quirk and written his best record yet.

1.

February 25, 2014
Critic Score
87
44 reviews

Clark’s readiness to be freakish and alone has translated into her songwriting, which is bolder than ever, and out to connect.

Original Source: http://www.nme.com/photos/nme-s-top-50-albums-of-2014/364635/1/1
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