Best Albums of 2014: Yahoo Music Staff Picks
It’s that most wonderful time of the year, which means we’re making our lists and checking them twice. No, not our holiday shopping lists — our year-end best album lists, of course. However, if you’re still shopping for the music-lover in your life, some of our staffers’ top 10 lists might offer a last-minute stocking-stuffer suggestion or two. Listen to all of our 2014 album picks below, and have a not-so-silent night.
Dave DiMartino, Executive Editor
1. The Drums - Encyclopedia
2. Little Jackie - Queen of Prospect Park
3. Temples - Sun Structures
4. Robin Gibb - 50 St. Catherine’s Drive
5. The War on Drugs - Lost in the Dream
6. Jesse Winchester - Reasonable Amount of Trouble
7. Woman’s Hour - Conversations
8. The Rosebuds - Sand + Silence
9. Spearmint - News From Nowhere
10. Leonard Cohen - Popular Problems
Lyndsey Parker, Managing Editor
1. Bleachers - Strange Desire
2. The Drums - Encyclopedia
3. Neon Trees - Pop Psychology
4. The Horrors - Luminous
5. Klaxons - Love Frequency
6. Gerard Way - Hesitant Alien
7. Lily Allen - Sheezus
8. Various Artists - Making Patterns Rhyme
9. Ex Hex - Rips
10. Bryan Ferry - Avonmore
Billy Johnson Jr., Senior Editor
1. Mali Music - Mali Is…
2. Prince - ART OFFICIAL AGE / PLECTRUMELECTRUM
3. J. Cole - 2014 Forest Hills Drive
4. Lecrae - Anomaly
5. Souls of Mischief - There Is Only Now
6. Ledisi - The Truth
7. Ed Sheeran - X
8. Syleena Johnson - Chapter 6: Couples Therapy
9. Weird Al Yankovic - Mandatory Fun
10. Mariah Carey - Me. I Am Mariah… The Elusive Chanteuse
1. Taylor Swift - 1989
2. Garth Brooks - Man Against Machine
3. Angaleena Presley - American Middle Class
4. Lee Ann Womack - The Way I’m Livin’
5. Sara Evans - Slow Me Down
6. Sam Hunt - Montevallo
7. Miranda Lambert - Platinum
8. Eric Church - The Outsiders
9. Little Big Town - Pain Killer
10. Rodney Crowell - Tarpaper Sky
Tiffany Spott, Video Producer
1. Angel Olsen - Burn Your Fire for No Witness
2. Spoon - They Want My Soul
3. Jenny Lewis - The Voyager
4. St. Vincent - St. Vincent
5. Jack White - Lazaretto
6. Gary Clark Jr. - Gary Clark Jr. Live
7. Pharrell Williams - G I R L
8. She & Him - Classics
9. Hooray for the Riff Raff - Small Town Heroes
10. Lake Street Dive - Bad Self Portraits
Robert Gardner, Video Producer
1. FKA Twigs - LP1
2. Childish Gambino - STN MTN (mixtape)
3. Goldlink - The God Complex (mixtape)
4. SZA - Z
5. Isaiah Rashad - Cilvia Demo
6. Mac Miller - Faces (mixtape)
7. iLoveMakonnen - iLoveMakonnen EP (mixtape)
8. Adrian Marcel - Weak After Next (mixtape)
9. Childish Gambino - Kauai
10. Schoolboy Q - Oxymoron
1. Taylor Swift - 1989
2. The New Pornographers - Brill Bruisers
3. Bob Dylan & the Band - The Basement Tapes Complete: The Bootleg Series Vol. 11
4. The Both - The Both
5. Lone Justice - This Is Lone Justice: The Vaught Tapes 1983
6. Angaleena Presley - American Middle Class
7. D’Angelo - Black Messiah
8. Jim Lauderdale - I’m a Song
9. Steve Taylor & The Perfect Foil - Goliath
10. Prince - ART OFFICIAL AGE
1. Ed Sheeran - X
2. Sam Smith - In the Lonely Hour
3. Ariana Grande - My Everything
4. Coldplay - Ghost Stories
5. Pharrell Williams – G I R L
6. Dolly Parton - Blue Smoke
7. Annie Lennox - Nostalgia
8. Bette Midler - It’s the Girls
9. Mary J. Blige - The London Sessions
10. Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack
1. The Gold-Bears - Dalliance
2. Matt Boroff - Sweet Hand of Fate
3. A Shoreline Dream - The Silent Sunrise
4. Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires - Dereconstructed
5. Sun Kil Moon - Benji
6. Merchandise - After the End
7. Verma - Sunrunner
8. The Go Find - Brand New Love
9. Monica Heldal - Boy From the North
10. Israel Nash - Israel Nash’s Rain Plans
1. Alt-J - This Is All Yours
2. TV on the Radio - Seeds
3. St. Vincent - St. Vincent
4. Warpaint - Warpaint
5. Beck - Morning Phase
6. Future Islands - Singles
7. Elbow - The Take Off and Landing of Everything
8. Damon Albarn - Everyday Robots
9. Sharon Van Etten - Are We There
10. Blonde Redhead - Barragán
1. Beck - Morning Phase
2. Jack White - Lazaretto
3. The War on Drugs - Lost in the Dream
4. Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings - Give the People What They Want
5. Joseph Arthur - Lou
6. Real Estate - Atlas
7. Jenny Lewis - The Voyager
8. Old 97’s - Most Messed Up
9. Lana Del Rey - Ultra Violence
10. Jimmer - The Would-Be Plans
1. Mastodon - Once More ’Round the Sun
2. Against Me! - Transgender Dysphoria Blues
3. Aphex Twin - Syro
4. Lana Del Rey - Ultraviolence
5. Swans - To Be Kind
6. Afghan Whigs - Do to the Beast
7. Pallbearer - Foundations of Burden
8. Alcest - Shelter
9. The War on Drugs - Lost in the Dream
10. Jack White - Lazaretto
1. Charli XCX - Sucker
2. Midge Ure - Fragile
3. Elbow - The Take Off and Landing of Everything
4. Future Islands - Singles
5. Bleachers - Strange Desire
6. St. Vincent - St. Vincent
7. Paolo Nutini - Caustic Love
8. Taylor Swift - 1989
9. Jessie Ware - Tough Love
10. Lana Del Rey - Ultraviolence
1. The War on Drugs - Lost in the Dream
2. Spoon - They Want My Soul
3. Caribou - Our Love
4. La Roux - Trouble in Paradise
5. FKA Twigs - LP1
6. First Aid Kit - Stay Gold
7. Damien Rice - My Favourite Faded Fantasy
8. Opeth - Pale Communion
9. Beck - Morning Phase
10. Neil Young - A Letter Home
The Reverend Shawn Amos, Writer
1. D’Angelo - Black Messiah
2. Benjamin Booker - Benjamin Booker
3. Spoon - They Want My Soul
4. Jack White - Lazaretto
5. TV on the Radio - Seeds
6. Robert Plant - Lullaby and the Ceaseless Roar
7. The New Basement Tapes - Lost on the River
8. Ryan Adams - Ryan Adams
9. Joe Henry - Invisible Hour
10. St. Paul & The Broken Bones - Half the City
