By Hendricks. Contrary to popular belief, my 1 to 5 music blog posts a year do not pay the bills, so my end of 2014 attention was unfortunately focused on other things than getting my year in review out to the masses.
Without further delay, here are my top 14 albums of 2014:
1. Hiss Golden Messenger – The Lateness Of Dancers
2. Run The Jewels – Run The Jewels 2
3. Parquet Courts – Sunbathing Animal
4. Sylvan Esso – Sylvan Esso
5. The Growlers – Chinese Fountain
6. Grouper – Ruins
7. Justin Townes Earle – Single Mothers
8. Future Islands – Singles
9. Mac DeMarco – Salad Days
10. Black Lips – Underneath The Rainbow
11. Shovels & Rope – Swimmin’ Time
12. Ezra Furman – Day Of The Dog
13. Together Pangaea – Badillac
14. Cloud Nothings – Here And Nowhere Else
Honorable Mentions: Ty Segall – Manipulator / Hurray For The Riff Raff – Small Town Heroes / Spoon – They Want My Soul / Bully – Bully / Sturgill Simpson – Metamodern Sounds In Country Music / Parquet Courts – Content Nausea
Shadows & Noise 
So tell me why Run the Jewels should shake me from my hip hop apathy.
It took me a good month before I would even listen to the album thinking it was just the next Pitchfork hip-hop darling of the moment. Then I listened to “Close Your Eyes”, that song blew me away, it was raw and aggressive. Then I listened to the entire album and it was all fantastic(actually there’s one song I could do without), but it’s been in on heavy rotation ever since.
For the record, I think this is my 5th year in review and a hip-hop album hasn’t been listed on any of them until now.
Finally got around to listening to Run The Jewels, and it’s the first hip-hop album I’ve enjoyed in a few years. To me, they’re the counterpoint to excessive Kanye praise: the production is more innovative than anything he’s done, with the added bonus that these guys can actually rhyme. The lyrics are weirdly inventive, and they’re far more rhythmically complex. That said, I will say that the rawness and aggressiveness that Chris praises might not be for everyone. There’s a lot of anger in these lyrics, and it can get a little grating after a while. Maybe that’s the kind of hip-hop that you and I have both been aging out of in recent years, Antony?
Spencer – I think the comparison to Kayne is perfect. Despite all the praise, his music never did much for me. And obviously Run the Jewels does.
I am guessing Run the Jewels still misses the mark with you Antony, but I am still interested to hear your take after giving the album a full listen.