You know what to do. But in case you don't, here are "The Rules":

• To correct for late releases that may have been missed for lack of longevity, eligible albums must be released after 12/1/2013. I'm not going to sweat the last month of 2014 this time around. If you like it enough to call it a top album, that's good enough for me.
  
• Try to limit your list to three albums, but no more than five. If you list more than five, I'll take the first five listed and omit the rest.
  
• For the sake of making editing easier, try and list your picks as Artist - Album. If it's a self-titled album, just list the name of the band again. This will help me to curate the list later on.
  

And there you go. Some links to help.

The 2014 new music checks: Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4
The Spotify list
The 2013 list
The 2012 list

***EDIT-1/7/2015***

Given the lack of entries, I went ahead and took every album posted here. What you get is a list of 101 albums from 2014 worth listening to (as opposed to a true top 10). Multiple votes getters designated by parenthesis.

• Amaranthe - Massive Addictive
  
• Anberlin - Lowborn
  
• Aphex Twin - Syro
  
• Atmosphere - southsiders
  
• Bahamas Bahamad is Afie
  
• Banks - Goddess
  
• Beck - MorningPhase
  
• Ben Howard - I Forgot Where We Were
  
• Bleachers -Strange Desire
  
• Broods - Evergreen
  
• Brownout - Brown Sabbath
  
• Caribou - Our Love (2)
  
• Childish Gambino - Because the Internet
  
• Circa Survive - Descensus
  
• Circulatory System's bi-decade album
  
• Clean Bandit - New Eyes
  
• Cloud Nothings - Here and Nowhere
  
• D' Angelo - BlackMessiah
  
• Dan Croll Sweet Disarray
  
• Desert Noises - 27 Ways
  
• Eternal Summers - The Drop Beneath
  
• Ex Cops - Daggers
  
• Flying Colors - Second Nature
  
• Foo Fighters - Sonic Highways
  
• Foxygen - ...and Star Power
  
• Future Islands - Singles
  
• Generationals - Alix
  
• Glass Animals - ZABA
  
• Gruff Rhys - ST
  
• Guardians of the Galaxy- Awesome Mixtape Vol. 1 (2)
  
• Hans Zimmer - Interstellar
  
• Hiss Golden Messenger - Lateness of Dancers
  
• Hotelier - Home, Like No Place is There
  
• Hozier - Hozier (2)
  
• Hundred Waters -The Moon Rang Like a Bell
  
• J. Cole - 2014 Forest Hills Drive
  
• Jack White - Lazaretto
  
• Jessie Ware - Tough Love
  
• Jungle - Jungle
  
• Justin Townes Earle - Single Mothers
  
• Kelis - Food
  
• Lake Street Dive - Bad Self Portraits
  
• Lana Del Rey - Ultraviolence
  
• Lights - Little Machines
  
• Lindsey Sterling - Shatter Me
  
• Little Dragon - Nabuma Rubberband
  
• Lucinda Williams - Down Where the Spirit Meets theBone
  
• Mac Demarco -Salad Days
  
• Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives - SaturdayNight/Sunday Morning
  
• Migos - No Label 2
  
• Milky Chance - Sadnecessary
  
• Mr Little Jeans - Pocketknife
  
• Nothing More - ST (2)
  
• Opeth "Pale Communion"
  
• Parquet Courts - sunbathing animal
  
• Phantogram - Voices (5)
  
• Pharrell - G I R L
  
• Posse Soft Opening
  
• Real Estate - Atlas (2)
  
• Reigning Sound -Shattered
  
• RTJ - 2
  
• Run the Jewels - 2 (4)
  
• RX Bandits - Gemini, Her Majesty
  
• Ryan Adams - Ryan Adams
  
• Sara Jackson-Holman - River Queen
  
• Schoolboy Q - Voices
  
• Shakey Graves - And The War Came (2)
  
• Sinkane Mean Love
  
• Sir Sly - You Haunt Me
  
• Spoon - TheyWant My Soul
  
• St Vincent - ST (4)
  
• St. Paul & the Broken Bones - Half the City
  
• Starset - Transmissions
  
• Strand of Oaks - Heal
  
• Sturgill Simpson - Metamodern Sounds In CountryMusic (2)
  
• sun kil moon- benji.
  
• Sylvan Esso -Sylvan Esso
  
• SZA - Suburban Lager
  
• Taylor Swift - 1989 (2)
  
• Temples - Sun Structures
  
• The Antlers - Familiars
  
• The Bots - Pink Palms
  
• The Donkeys Ride The Black Wave
  
• The History of Apple Pie - Feel Something
  
• The Kooks - Listen
  
• The Mastersons - Good Luck Charm
  
• The New Basement Tapes Lost On The River
  
• The Orwells - Disgraceland
  
• The War On Drugs - Lost In The Dream (2)
  
• Tove Lo - Queen Of The Clouds
  
• Transatlantic - Kaleidoscope
  
• TV On the Radio - Seeds
  
• Wake Owl The Private World of Paradise
  
• Walk The Moon - Talking Is Hard
  
• Weezer - Everything Will Be Alright In The End (2)
  
• Wild Beasts - Present Tense
  
• Wild Cub - Youth
  
• Will Champlin - Borrowing Trouble
  
• Within Temptation - Hydra
  
• YG
  
• You+Me - rose ave.
  

Flying Colors - Second Nature
Transatlantic - Kaleidoscope
Foo Fighters - Sonic Highways
Lake Street Dive - Bad Self Portraits
Hans Zimmer - Interstellar

Opeth "Pale Communion"

Childish Gambino- Because the Internet
Run the Jewels- Run the Jewels 2
Guardians of the Galaxy- Awesome Mixtape Vol. 1

quote:

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quote:

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Hans Zimmer - Interstellar

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Run the Jewels - RTJ2
Migos - No Label 2
Taylor Swift - 1989

What a crappy year for music. Charli XCX dropped too late to save the year.

St Vincent - st vincent
Parquet Courts - sunbathing animal
Real estate - atlas
sun kil moon- benji.

Yeah, this was an overall sucktastic year for music. Nothing really stood out for me this year in any genre.

The War On Drugs - Lost In The Dream
Sturgill Simpson - Metamodern Sounds In Country Music
The History of Apple Pie - Feel Something

quote:

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Hans Zimmer - Interstellar

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Listening to film scores has always seemed weird to me..

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Hans Zimmer - Interstellar

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Listening to film scores has always seemed weird to me..

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Ehhh... Music is music.

St. Vincent

I came up empty too. Listening to my staple of indie rock stations like 3wk, KUTX were no help either. I could maybe nominate a couple tracks for best song of the year but that's it. Maybe we need "track of the year" threads for years like this. For crying out loud we saw Flaming Lips decide it was a good idea to collaborate with Miley effing Cyrus to ruin a Beatles song!

Sturgill Simpson - Metamodern Sounds In Country Music
Hozier- self-titled

Okay, to float what is usually a good thread, here's my offering:
Brownout - Brown Sabbath

Been thinking about this for a couple of days, and at this point I'm going with the following:

• Run the Jewels - 2
• Phantogram - Voices
• Shakey Graves - And The War Came
• Strand of Oaks - Heal
• TV On the Radio - Seeds

Next in...

• Schoolboy Q - Voices
• Cloud Nothings - Here and Nowhere
• Eternal Summers - The Drop Beneath
• Aphex Twin - Syro
• St. Vincent - St. Vincent
• Caribou - Our Love
• Weezer - Everything Will Be Alright In The End

Subject to change as I go back through my list of favorites, though.

Plenty of good music this year.

Within Temptation - Hydra
Nothing More - ST
Circa Survive - Descensus
Amaranthe - Massive Addictive
Lindsey Sterling - Shatter Me

Very close but not top 5..

Sir Sly - You Haunt Me
Banks - Goddess
Phantomgram

quote:

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quote:

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Hans Zimmer - Interstellar

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Listening to film scores has always seemed weird to me..

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Ehhh... Music is music.

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Listening to hans is always a good choice, some of his music matches the movie very well but isn't great to listen to for me (tdk, inception) and some of it is fun as stand alone music(king Arthur, last samurai, man of Steel, COD soundtrack).

Since we're struggling, I'll throw this one in there! Tyler Bates' score wasn't bad either.


Also, Sadnecessary by Milky Chance:

Ryan Adams - Ryan Adams
Lucinda Williams - Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone
Justin Townes Earle - Single Mothers
Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives - Saturday Night/Sunday Morning
The Mastersons - Good Luck Charm

Forgot phantogram. Very good.

Foxygen - ...and Star Power
RTJ - 2
Phantogram - forget name of album but the one that came out this year
Hotelier - Home, Like No Place is There
Gruff Rhys solo album
T Swizzle - 1989
Circulatory System's bi-decade album
YG album

I honestly think 2014 will prove to be a great year for new releases. I am only just beginning to scratch the surface on this year's music so keep them coming.

Also, I enjoyed apex twin, carribou and flaming lips sgt peppers re imagination but none of those belong on any best of lists imo.

Top 4 (in order)

The War On Drugs - Lost In The Dream
The New Basement Tapes Lost On The River
St. Paul & the Broken Bones - Half the City
Spoon - TheyWant My Soul


Tier 2 (no order)

Run The JewelsRun The Jewels 2
Phantogram-Voices
Beck Morning Phase
St. Vincent - St.Vincent
The Donkeys Ride The Black Wave
Sinkane Mean Love
Weezer EverthingWill Be Alright In The End
Caribou - Our Love
Shakey Graves -And the War Came
Ben Howard - I Forgot Where We Were
Hozier - Hozier
Jessie Ware Tough Love
D' Angelo Black Messiah
J. Cole 2014 Forest Hills Drive


Honorable Mention

Wild Cub - Youth
Wake Owl The Private World of Paradise
Real Estate -Atlas
Pharrell - G I R L
Wild Beasts - Present Tense
Posse Soft Opening
Future Islands -Singles
Dan Croll Sweet Disarray
Mac Demarco -Salad Days
SZA Suburban Lager
Kelis - Food
Little Dragon -Nabuma Rubberband
Sylvan Esso -Sylvan Esso
Temples Sun Structures
The Orwells - Disgraceland
Hundred Waters -The Moon Rang Like a Bell
Jack White -Lazaretto
The Antlers -Familiars
Jungle - Jungle
Bleachers -Strange Desire
Reigning Sound -Shattered
Bahamas Bahamad is Afie
Hiss Golden Messenger - Lateness of Dancers
Generationals -Alix

My dude

Ok, just naming every band who put out an album doesn't count.

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Ok, just naming every band who put out an album doesn't count.

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Haha. That was actually a narrowed down list for all the new albums I listened to this year (thank you Spotify). Plus I gave a top 4 and top rest before the long list.

More honorable mentions.

Walk The Moon - Talking Is Hard

Walk The Moon - Shut Up And Dance

Ex Cops - Daggers

Ex Cops - Black Soap

Mr Little Jeans - Pocketknife

Mr Little Jeans - Good Mistake

Glass Animals - ZABA

Glass Animals - Gooey

Clean Bandit - New Eyes

Clean Bandit - Rather Be

Anberlin - Lowborn

Anberlin - Stranger Ways

Desert Noises - 27 Ways

Desert Noises - Out Of My Head

Will Champlin - Borrowing Trouble

Will Champlin - Eye Of The Pyramid

Lights - Little Machines

Lights - Up We Go

Sara Jackson-Holman - River Queen

SJH - River Queen

RX Bandits - Gemini, Her Majesty

RX Bandits - Wide Open

Lana Del Rey - Ultraviolence

LDR - Shade Of Cool

Tove Lo - Queen Of The Clouds

Tove Lo - The Way That I Am

Broods - Evergreen

Broods - Never Gonna Change

You+Me - rose ave. (Pink & Dallas Green from City & Colour)

You+Me - Capsized

The Kooks - Listen

The Kooks - Bad Habit

Nothing More - Nothing More
Starset - Transmissions

Two great rock albums from this year. This is The Time (Ballast) from Nothing More is one of, if not the best rock song of the year.

Atmosphere - southsiders

The Bots - Pink Palms

NM