Best Albums Through February 28th, 2014

Bonnie Angel

1. Burn Your Witness For No Fire – Angel Olsen – With her sophomore album, Angel redefines her singer songwriter loner folk Billy “Prince” Billy approved experimental classic songs for electronic full band and it works on nearly every track. High five. 

2. Somewhere Else – Lydia Loveless –  As writerly and complete a rock album dissolving love into a series as temper tantrums as Get Happy!! or Exile On Guysville.

3. Between The Bars – The Civil War – Four covers, each one better than the other and “Sour Times”  best of all

4.  Adventures In Bluesland – Phil Gammage – A New Wave stalwart continues his career trajectory through Americana to an East Coasts rock and blues sound uniquely his own. Add to that one of the best rock and roll singing voices you’ll hear and a mean harp, Gammage’s album stands as an organic response to synthetic emotions.

5 Transgender Dysphoria Blues – Against Me! – As career moves go, changing genders is a little extreme but it worked for Laura Jane Grace who changed the good but obvious Florida punk band into this towering monument to freedom and sex/ Plus, the songs rocked.

6. Elevation (The Upper Air) – Bernie Worrell – Jazz classics rearranged for solo piano that are so great it reminds you this man was a child protegee once upon a time. Bill Laswell produced.

7. Little Red – Katy B – EDM storyteller of life after the lights go on at the danceclub

8. Post Tropical – James Vincent McMurrow – Like Bon Iver on Xanax

9.  Dirty Gold – Angel Haze – If you can get past the life lines, this is a brilliant rap album hiding out as a mainstream hip hop album

10. Blank Slate – Neneh Cherry – Recorded over five days, this has the immediacy of a profound though

11. Nirvana EP – Sam Smith – In the UK EDM Soul wars, singing with Taylor Smith at 02 and this EP puts Smith at the top.

12. Tribute – John Newman – Rudimental soul man already owns the UK and should do the exact same here on this disco beats album.

13. Days And Nights – Daley – Northern soul is alive and well and this guy is singing it

14. Croz – David Crosby – He almost cut his hair, ergo jazz inflected folk-rock where the melodies take forever to sink in but the voice is always there.

15. The Haden Triplets – The Haden Triplets – Three voices, one modern folk album echoing all the way back to the Carter Family.

16. Love, Marriage And Divorce – Toni Braxton And Babyface – 80s r&b greats deal with the D word.

17. Riser – Dierks Bentley – Strong new country boy album, Not as clever lyrically as Blake Shelton, but the songs are better.

18. St. Vincent – St. Vincent – Just because it is her most accessible album doesn’t makke it her best, but it doesn’t hurt.

19. Oxymoron – Schoolboy Q – This years Kendrick Lamar except not quite as mainstream.

20. The Crystal Method – The Crystal Method – Mainstream modern house, meaning LeAnn Rimes sings one song (not track) and Dia Frampton another.

21. Ledgers – Noah Gundersen – Superior sing songwriter and his family releases career defining album.

22. Drowners – Drowners – A modern day the Strokes without the rick kids ‘tude.

23. Choir Of Echoes – Peggy Sue – Indie pop, really lovely in places

24. Small Time Heroes – Hurray For The Riff Raff – Modern Americana resurrects the washboard

25. Morning Phase – Beck –  It feels like it may or may not be a masterpiece but if it is a not, it has enough strong songs to lift itself to one of his better efforts.

26. Held In Splendor – Quilt – An acoustic white blues with hints of folk psychedelia round the edges.

27. Eject – Cazzette – As close to straight up house as pop music gets.

28.  Rave Tapes – Mogwai – Scottish instrumental go electronic but sound about the same.

29. Live 1965 – The Rolling Stones – The girls in the audience scream so loud they sound like another instrument.

30. Cheatahs – Cheatahs – Buzz band deliver fuzzed out indie rock

31. All Love’s Legal – Planningtorock – Experimental rock album takes on misogynists and other haters.

32. Dizzy Heights – Neil Finn- Some great songs, shame about the production

33. Music Speaks – Candice Glover – American Idol releases a soulful debut