Listening Listfully 2014 - Ars Gratia Populi

And now another installment in the annual ritual of Listening Listfully: cataloguing album/EP-length recordings released in the past twelvemonth that most particularly tickled my fancy. Personal favorites, as always, rather than "bests"—although I would maintain that everything here is genuinely among the best things of the past year, and not simply because I have enjoyed it. The first ten items on each list are most especially strong, if you ask me.

For 2014, I have reverted to dividing the larger List in two, very roughly segregating these recordings by application of that old fugitive, "genre". Below is the portion of the List encompassing music that, like some high school sophomore of the 1950s, is essentially hip-to-be-hep-to-be-cool-to-be-Popular. The other portion of the List is here.

I should have more extended comment on a number of these recordings before the year is out, leading toward my resolution to treat 2015 as The Year of Writing Musically.

Flawed, entirely subjective, and internally contradictory as always, here continues The List:

1    Gabriel Kahane – The Ambassador

2    The Gloaming – The Gloaming

3    David Thomas Broughton and Juice Vocal Ensemble – Sliding the Same Way

4    Meshell Ndegeocello – Comet Come to Me

5    Ava Luna – Electric Balloon

6    St. Vincent – St. Vincent

7    Mr. Twin Sister – Mr Twin Sister

8    My Brightest Diamond – This Is My Hand

9    The NORTH Project – NORTH

10    Fripp & Eno – Live in Paris May 28, 1975

11    Sam Amidon – Lily-O

12    Smoke Fairies – Smoke Fairies

13    Damien Jurado – Brothers & Sisters of the Eternal Son

14    School of Language – Old Fears

15    Ellen McSweeney – The Wrong Idea

16    The War on Drugs – Lost In The Dream

17    Eno-Hyde – Someday World 
         Eno-Hyde – High Life

18    Quadraceratops – Quadraceratops

19    The Men – Tomorrow's Hits

20    Beck – Morning Phase

21    Joseph Arthur – Lou

22    Lorna Dune – Miamisphere EP

23    Anna Calvi – Strange Weather

24    Moodoïd – Le Monde Möö

25    Ramona Lisa – Arcadia

26    Richard Thompson – Acoustic Classics

27    Minus the Bear – Lost Loves

28    CFCF – Outsiders EP

28    Son Lux – Alternate Worlds EP

28    My Brightest Diamond – None More Than You EP

28    School of Language – More Fears EP

28    Gabriel Kahane – Haircuts & Airports EP