10 Best Albums 2014

2014 was a great year: I got the chance of travelling to so many different places, my friendships got even stronger and, what's best, my taste in music was continuing to grow. This was the first year in which I made an end-of-term list with my 5 favourite records. That list has changed a bit: some records are not here anymore, some others have recently appeared, and most of them changed their ranking. 

This year saw some of the best releases of the decade, managed from already-experienced bands and new voices. And while political issues were beginning to be a big problem in our societies, music was still there to help us up and elevate our spiritual experiences too. 

1. FKA Twigs - LP1 

Score: 9.5 

After two embellishing and highly acclaimed EPs the previous years, the idiosyncratic singer-songwriter and producer from England has radically changed the perceptions in modern soul, R&B, pop and electronic. The tracks breathe weakness and vulnerability, but the artist showcases tremendous force and a vast armor of experimental techniques to make her sounds sound the most alien and toxicaly engrossing. A tackless magnificence.

2. St. Vincent - St. Vincent 

Score: 9.3 

Annie Clark has come out with her most diverse and experimental record in her career here. The bar was really high after Strange Mercy and, somehow, she managed to create something totally different but equally prolific. Digital consumerism, futuristic habits and a heavy social critique make up for a record that's as robotic as sentimental, and as effervescent as down-to-earth.

3. Flying Lotus - You're Dead! 

Score: 8.8 

The latest album from the wonderful electronic producer Flying Lotus is a collection of eighteen short tracks that once again manage to mix electric sounds with jazz, hip hop and experimentalism. Triumphant as ever, the artist sabbotages his craft and constantly favours new forms of alchemy made music and trippiness made sound. He created a current universe of his own; one that's easy to get lost in.

4. Alvvays - Alvvays 

Score: 8.7 

The debut full-length studio album from the Canadian band Alvvays didn't make a great impression on me until three years later. It's only recently that I'm fully able to appreciate the beautiful, highly catchy melodies, riffs and vocal passages that mingle on indie pop/rock, sunshine and 60's twee. It's an innocent, naïve record that nonetheless contains pinches of darkness, surrealism and unorthodox lifeviews. An intoxicating, addictive little record.

5. La Roux - Trouble In Paradise 

Score: 8.6 

The recent departure from one half of the plastic duo La Roux marked a stylistic shift on their music: Trouble in Paradise benefits from everything that makes 80's new wave music so appealing and tasteful while giving itself licence to dwelve into futuristic approaches. Nine big bangers that contemplate queerness and summer and young love create a record that's exhilarating, sweaty and marvelously colourful.

6. Todd Terje - It's Album Time 

Score: 8.7 

The latest release from the Norwegian producer and DJ Todd Terje is an amazing experience into future disco, new wave, lounge and Body Music that's as vibrant as bubbly. The artist employs a lot of techniques to throw off tiny pieces of galactic music that suits the dancefloor, the small rooms, the party-goers and the introverts alike. A special record that's got soul, spirit and muscle.

7. alt-J - This Is All Yours 

Score: 8.6 

The sophomore release from the British indietronica trio alt-J is another example of just how unique and cinematic they are, playing their own cards and inhabiting their own spaces. This time around, though, the record they release focuses more on slow-paced stories that feel organic and ancient in mood and structure. More of a concept album, the band mumbles in beautiful territories to concoct a cerebral world that's tuneful and emotive.

8. Perfume Genius - Too Bright 

Score: 8.6 

The third album from the Seattle-based singer-songwriter Perfume Genius leaves his piano-ballads in order to maximise his sounds with heavy distorsion, splashy glitter and erratic noise. Being queer in America has always been an issue where artists have expanded and explained on, but few others do that with the delicacy, finesse and artistry of the aforementioned artist. Too Bright shines and moves with excelence.

9. Swans - To Be Kind 

Score: 8.9 

The legendary noise rock band Swans comes with their 21st-century magnum opus on To Be Kind, a savage, restlessly gargantuan, two-hour experience on humanity, disdain and the afterlife. The personnel does a frantic job, but it's Michael Gira's masterful centerpiece what holds it all together, creating a cataclism of doom, metallic torture and severe infatuation. A skull-breaker of a record made pure classicism.

10. Arca - Xen 

Score: 8.4 

The debut full-length album from the Venezuelan electronic producer appears after a couple of modestly acclaimed EPs and mixtapes. In here, the artist determines his own pathos with twitchy, glitchy and heavily warped approach to synthesis, machinery and artificial intelligence. But besides that, he still finds and leaves room for sentiment, humanity and a listless taste on love and passion.