The 2014 Blerdy Awards: Praising The Best Music of 2014-Mostly
by MJ on Dec 9, 2014 • 9:38 am 11 Comments2014 was a weird year for a lot of reasons. Musically, things continued as they were in 2013. Streaming music continued to cut into record sales, black artists continued to get pushed aside in favor of white artists who sounded like black artists (Iggy Azalea, Sam Smith, Ariana Grande), and music itself continued to splinter. The days of one unified pop phenomenon seemed way behind us–at least until Taylor Swift arrived towards year’s end. And even with the success of 1989, Taylor doesn’t seem to have the “appeals-to-everyone-and-their-mother” factor that artists ranging from Michael Jackson to Adele seemed to possess.
This is not to say that 2014 was a BAD year for music. Even though there were very few great albums, there were a hell of a lot of good ones, and most of them came from unexpected places. Veterans regained their mojo, newcomers emerged from nowhere, and the good music came from a variety of different genres and geographical regions.
Instead of doing the boring thing and creating a list of the best music of the year, I decided to create an imaginary award honoring the artists, songs and albums that helped make 2014 such a memorable year. If I was more invested in this imaginary award, I would’ve Photoshopped some sort of trophy. It ain’t that serious, though. So a Blerdy (or a reverse Blerdy, for the handful of WTF moments that occurred this year) can be anything you want it to be. It can be a replica of a boombox or an iPod, it can be a cookie if you want it to be. The imagination is a wonderful thing.
Anyway-read on for the artists, songs and albums I think defined the past 12 months.
BEST ALBUM BY AN ARTIST I’D PROMISED TO NEVER BUY ANOTHER RECORD BY
Prince‘s surprisingly solid Art Official Age : When Prince’s new relationship with Warner Brothers reaches the inevitable messy end, at least we’ll be able to say we got one good album out of it.
Runners-up: Kelis‘s Food : A more organic soul sound works for the “Milkshake” singer. And TV On The Radio‘s Seeds.
BEST ALBUM BY AN ARTIST WHO IS NO LONGER LIVING
Michael Jackson‘s Xscape. The “contemporized” songs were inoffensive, and the original songs were as good as anything from, say, Invincible.
BEST ALBUM THAT EVERYONE SAID WAS CRAP DESPITE NOT BOTHERING TO LISTEN TO IT
U2‘s Songs of Innocence: Since when did people complain about free music? If you stopped to take a listen, you’d realize that while it’s not The Joshua Tree or Achtung Baby, Songs of Innocence is a solid second-tier U2 album. Way better than any rock band has a right to be three and a half decades into their career. Although, Rolling Stone must’ve been smoking that space crack when they voted it 2014’s #1 album.
R&B ALBUM OF THE YEAR
Luke James‘ Luke James: Keep an eye out for this newcomer.
Runners-up: Jennifer Hudson‘s J-Hud & Toni Braxton & Babyface‘s Love, Marriage & Divorce. It’s 1982 all over again. It’s also 1992 all over again.
SPACE-SOUL ALBUM OF THE YEAR FROM SPACE, SPACE EDITION (AKA THE BITCHES BREW AWARD):
Flying Lotus‘s You’re Dead: I can’t explain why I like You’re Dead so much. I can say that it might be my favorite album of the year. Each listen uncovers something new.
Runners-Up: Jesse Boykins III‘s Love Apparatus & Taylor McFerrin‘s Early Riser
ROCK ALBUM OF THE YEAR:
Spoon‘s They Want My Soul: They’re boring as hell live, but they make consistently fantastic records.
SAD SINGER SONGWRITER ALBUM OF THE YEAR:
Ryan Adams‘ Ryan Adams: I hesitate to give Ryan Adams the “sad” designation this time around. His latest has more in common with chunky ’80s rock in the vein of Tom Petty. Matter of fact, it’s better than any album in Petty’s catalog.
Runners-up: Ray LaMontagne‘s Supernova & David Gray‘s Mutineers
BLUE-EYED SOUL SINGER/SONGWRITER ALBUM OF THE YEAR
Paolo Nutini‘s Caustic Love
BEST RE-ISSUE OF AN ALBUM (OR ALBUMS) I DIDN’T KNOW EXISTED
Ned Doheny‘s Separate Oceans : Wax Poetics turned me on to this singer/songwriter. Definite Boz Scaggs Silk Degrees vibes on this one. Numero Group does it again.
BEST RE-ISSUE OF AN ALBUM I’VE LISTENED TO 1,000,000 TIMES
Public Enemy‘s It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back (and more relevant than ever. Sigh…)
THE “NO, BEYONCE. THIS IS WHAT FEMINISM IS” AWARD
Meshell Ndegeocello‘s Comet, Come To Me
Runner-up: Sinead O’ Connor‘s I’m Not Bossy, I’m The Boss
These ladies have been writing, producing, playing and releasing great albums for a combined 50 years. Bless them.
MAINSTREAM POP ALBUM OF THE YEAR
Pharrell Williams‘ Girl: More listenable than anything he’d previously put out as an artist, with surprisingly few guest appearances.
Runner-up: Ed Sheeran‘s x. Pharrell wins either way!
SPACE- POP ALBUM OF THE YEAR FROM SPACE
Kimbra‘s The Golden Echo: Gotye who? Kimbra’s second U.S. release should have been as big a hit as, say, Katy Perry’s. Better sense of song craft, and her weirdness is nowhere near as affected.
Runner-up: Liam Finn‘s The Nihilist. Neil Finn released an album this year as well, but the son wins the big turkey leg at the musical dinner table this year.
NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR:
Harts: This cat is FUNKY.
Runners-up: MNEK, Luke James
PSEUDO YACHT ROCK/SOUL ALBUM OF THE YEAR:
Mama’s Gun‘s Cheap Hotel
Runner-up: Dirty Loops‘ Loopified. One sounds like the great lost Average White Band album, one sounds like the great lost Robbie Nevil album. They’re both great.
SINGLE OF THE YEAR
Kendrick Lamar‘s “I”
Runners-up: Sia‘s “Chandelier” , Justin Timberlake‘s “Not A Bad Thing”
COVER OF THE YEAR:
JoJo‘s “Glory”: Jaw-dropping vocals from the former teen-pop singer. Now that the label troubles that have held her up for a decade are behind her, let’s hope for a slammin’ full-length album.
Runners-up: JoJo‘s version of Phil Collins’ “Take Me Home” & Me’shell Ndegeocello‘s space-jazz take on Whodini’s “Friends”
GUILTY PLEASURE SINGLE OF THE YEAR:
Charli XCX‘s “Boom Clap”
Runner-up: “Bang Bang” by Every Female Pop Singer In The Universe & Nicki Minaj
THE OK I FUCKING GIVE IN AWARD:
Taylor Swift‘s “Blank Space” (and the 1989 album isn’t half bad)
HIP-HOP ALBUM OF THE YEAR:
Big K.R.I.T.‘s Cadillactica: If OutKast is dead and gone, this guy’ll do just fine carrying the torch for the South.
Runners-up: Run The Jewels 2 and Talib Kweli‘s Gravitas.
MUSIC-RELATED BOOK OF THE YEAR:
Brian Coleman‘s Check The Technique 2: An unquestionable “must-have” for hip-hop fans.
THE “WHY DO I STILL BUY YOUR RECORDS WHEN THEY ALL SOUND THE SAME?” AWARD
Foo Fighters‘ Sonic Highways: …and Dave Grohl is becoming mighty insufferable of late.
Runner-Up: Weezer‘s Everything Will Be Alright In The End
THE “I’M GOING TO PROFIT BY SELLING MY PEOPLE OUT” AWARD
T.I.: I can’t enjoy anything Iggy Azalea appears on with a clear conscience. I can’t be certain that T.I. actually has a conscience.
HYPE OF THE YEAR
Sam Smith: Frank Ocean plus Adele, minus personality, redeemed slightly by the work he did on Mary J. Blige’s fairly decent London Sessions LP.
Runner-up: Beyonce. A “feminist icon” who can’t write or produce a song without assistance from male collaborators? We need to do better, people.
COMEBACK OF THE YEAR:
Andre Cymone released The Stone, his first new album in TWENTY-NINE years, switched from synth-punk-funk to straight ahead rock ‘n roll, and didn’t miss a beat.
ALBUM OF 2014 THAT I WAS MOST DISAPPOINTED BY:
The Roots‘ …and Then You Shoot Your Cousin: undun was a self-consciously difficult album, and “Cousin” doubles that difficulty. The Roots are starting to turn into Questlove’s art project, and I’m not sure I like it.
Runner-up: Beck‘s Morning Phase: Beck’s latest album grew off me very quickly. Sea Change was a classic. Morning Phase is a faded Xerox copy. Also, Neneh Cherry‘s underwheming comeback album, Blank Project.
THE DUDE, WHAT THE FUCK WAS ON YOUR MIND? AWARD:
Robin Thicke‘s Paula. No question. There isn’t enough cocaine or vicodin in the world that could’ve made Robin Thicke think that a hastily recorded album of half-baked songs was going to win his wife back or move units.
THE “I LOVE THE INTERNET” AWARD:
De La Soul releasing their entire catalog for free over a weekend.
THE “I HATE THE INTERNET” AWARD:
Just about everything else.
REASONS TO BE HOPEFUL IN 2015:
New albums by: Kendrick Lamar, Lupe Fiasco, Kanye West, Q-Tip (maybe), De La Soul (maybe), John Mayer, Adele, Frank Ocean, Ne-Yo, Vampire Weekend (maybe),Chaka Khan (maybe), Stevie Wonder (maybe), Joey Bada$$
11 comments
GG says:
Dec 9, 2014
What a fun and entertaining way to do this. Props.
Also a good reminder that I didn’t listen to jack this year. That bums me out.
MJ says:
Dec 9, 2014
I wish I could claim it as an original idea.
It’s not too late to start listening.
GG says:
Dec 9, 2014
I know. My listening patterns are super segmented now. Most of my time is now spent listening to podcasts rather than new music. And when I listen to music, it’s often old stuff that I already enjoy. Not sure how to break that habit.
One other thing that I thought about how fun this post was:
I personally think your strength as a writer is that you think a lot about what you’re going to write before you put the words together. I’m not talking about writing about a video or a single, which is more updating than actually writing. But when you put pen to pad, you’re actually ordering thoughts in a smart way.
However, I also think you have a great sense of humor. And when you write stuff like this, it reminds of back in the day when we were always cracking on stuff. This was very entertaining and gives the website a good mix of feeling.
MJ says:
Dec 9, 2014
There may not be a way to break the habit. Even though I consume a lot of new music, much of it is 1 listen. Newer things generally don’t sink in as much as music used to, with rare exceptions.
Thanks for the compliments.
Greg says:
Dec 9, 2014
Longwinded Response Comment Rant Thing:
*As much as I love it when The Roots get weird, their new one didn’t accomplish much of anything for me. It might be the first genuine dud in their catalog…which I guess is kind of impressive if you consider how long they’ve been floating around. Still, is it just me, or does Black Thought seem to be vanishing with each album? I’m betting that their next release is going to be instrumental (with cameos from Truck North, Greg Porn and Dice Raw).
*I’ll give U2 some credit, because I never would have listened to Songs of Innocence if they hadn’t dropped it right into my library. I’ve shuffled through it a few times and it’s not anywhere near as bad as it could have been (Say, you know what U2 needs to revitalize their career?…Ryan Tedder). The runaway success of All That You Can’t Leave Behind has guaranteed that we’ll never see another Achtung Baby or War, but at least they seem to be trying again (nothing from their last album could pass for trying). The backlash was pretty absurd. For all the ways that Apple could be profiting from your information…you’re pissed that they gave you a free U2 album? Way to go Internet.
*Flying Lotus has been a little hit or miss for me in the past, but I really dig this new fusion direction. Every time Thundercat plays a bass solo, you can hear the rings of Saturn go daaaayyyyyyyyuuuuuuummmmmmm.
*Morning Phase borrows heavily from Sea Change, but it’s an older and wiser take on the material. Not a breakup album as much as a reflective and slightly hungover album. It didn’t make my end of the year shortlist, but I enjoyed it all the same.
*Those Public Enemy reissues were depressingly well-timed. I remember listening to Fear of a Black Planet as a freshman in college and thinking, “Man, people were some racist ass motherfuckers in the eighties. Thank Christ we’re over that hump.” Now I feel like the last few weeks have somehow retconned Selma.
*I sort of lost interest in K.R.I.T. after 4EvaNaDay, but everything I’ve heard about Cadillactica makes me feel like that was a bad decision. And as much as I liked Run the Jewels 2, part of me wishes that El-P had stuck to producing. Mike went fucking berserk on that record.
*Sometimes I feel like the only indie hipster in the world who doesn’t like Spoon. “The Underdog” still fills me with a blood-boiling rage whenever I hear it in retail shops or on television. Of course, I never got into Modest Mouse either, so maybe I just suck at this whole indie hipster thing.
Anyway, this was a fun read. I tried to do something similar this year, but it’s hard for me to write about music anymore. It hasn’t been fun since they turned Epinions into a glass parking lot and gave all the best spots to Ebay executives, which is probably why I was never a good contributor here. Still, keep doing what you do.
John says:
Dec 9, 2014
Love the list, but add MNEK to the anticipated discs in ’15 (yeah, I’m predictable). Also, (I can’t believe I’m gonna type this), I now own my first One Direction album thanks to “Fireproof” and “Stockholm Syndrome.”
Dennis says:
Dec 9, 2014
Cool take! Totally agree on 2014 – LOTS of solid records, but maybe not a true great one, aside from maybe the Sturgill Simpson record at least as far as genre busting. (But I did listen to the U2 record and it’s a solid bottom of the barrel U2 record kind of like Springsteen’s High Hopes is a solid bottom o’ the barrel 😉 ) (oh, and I love the Ryan Adams LP, but not as much as Damn the Torpedoes or Wildflowers or Hard Promises or Full Moon Fever or Into The Great Wide Open 😉 )
MJ says:
Dec 9, 2014
Thanks Greg. One day (hope springs eternal) we’ll get to have these kinda conversations in person.
MJ says:
Dec 9, 2014
I just got over the Taylor Swift hump. I’m not going anywhere near One Direction.
MJ says:
Dec 9, 2014
You obviously like Tom Petty a lot more than I do. I think he’s a fantastic singles artist, but his albums are boring/samey. Ryan did it right.
Kevin says:
Dec 17, 2014
Nice work. What no mention of “Let It Go” … sorry I have a 6-year-old daughter. Like Garrett, I didn’t listen to crap this year. Then again, I never did listen to much. Either way I loved the flow of the article, it was a fun read!