It’s my 8th last.fm anniversary and the beginning of another year, so scary how fast twelve months can just fly by…
It’s been a bit of a strange one for me musically – my trusty old ipod gave itself amnesia halfway through the year and, since I was storing all my (very extensive) playlists on it, the loss of structured listening made me pretty despondent for a good while. I think I’m over it now though, mostly, and while I haven’t fully gotten my musical fire back yet I still appreciate the great releases of the last 12 months; here’s what I enjoyed listening to the most in 2014.
A L B U M S
The albums I’d most anticipated came from two of my favourite bands, Kent and Interpol, and both lived up to my expectations. Other artists I like (Wild Beasts, Beatenberg, Mother Mother etc.) also had solid releases, and my favourite discovery of the year has to be Hozier – Take me to church is tearing up the charts for a reason but the album as a whole is really, really great.
Favourite albums:
- Kent – Tigerdrottningen
- Wild Beasts – Present Tense
- Beatenberg – The Hanging Gardens of Beatenberg
Others I enjoyed, in no particular order:
- Interpol – El Pintor
- Hozier – Hozier
- Woven Hand – Refractory Obdurate
- Mother Mother – Very Good Bad Thing
- Pharrell – G I R L
- Trust – Joyland
- Ataraxia – Spasms
- The Imagined Village – Bending The Dark
- Strand of Oaks – Heal
- Liars – Mess
- Alt-J – This Is All Yours
- How to Dress Well – “What Is This Heart?”
- Sage Francis – Copper Gone
- FKA twigs – LP1
- Ben Frost – A U R O R A
- Beck – Morning Phase
Special mention to these 2013 releases I only discovered and really enjoyed this year:
- Piano Magic – Heart Machinery (A Piano Magic Retrospective, 2001 – 2008)
- Arctic Monkeys – AM
- Miss Kittin – Calling From The Stars
- Wire – Change Becomes Us
T R A C K S
Favourite track:
Others I enjoyed, in no particular order:
- Zoot Woman – Coming Up For Air
- Kent – Skogarna
- Beatenberg – Ithaca
- Interpol – Everything Is Wrong
- Pixies – Snakes
- Wild Beasts – New Life
- David Meulen – Somber
- Mother Mother – Modern Love
- Hozier – To Be Alone
- Blonde Redhead – Dripping
- Desmond & the Tutus – PTA GRLZ (Bittereinder’s Jakaranda remix)
- Liars – Left Speaker Blown
- Augustines – Don’t You Look Back
- Trust – Geryon
- Lana Del Rey – West Coast
- Mark Ronson – Uptown funk (feat. Bruno Mars)
L I V E
Most enjoyable gigs I’ve attended this year:
Seeing Editors live at One Night in Cape Town was a total dream come true. I also really enjoyed the Lumineers at Kirstenbosch and the Bloody Beetroots and Pet Shop Boys at Sonar.
My favourite gig to photograph was probably Van Coke Kartel at Aces ‘n’ Spades – it was just so much fun. My one day stint at Rocking the Daisies was also great.
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Happy listening in 2015 :)
