Uncut's Top 75 Albums of 2014

After a prolific first decade as a recording artist—between the band Rilo Kiley, her solo efforts, and side collaborations, she released eight full-length albums—Jenny Lewis took her time working on *The Voyager*, her third solo album. The six years that followed her sophomore release (2008\'s *Acid Tongue*) let Lewis refine and polish these 10 buoyant tracks. Working with two producers who are worthy of her wickedly intelligent songwriting—Ryan Adams and Beck—she devised her most mature and confident album to date. Lewis has rarely sounded in greater command of her versatile vocal gifts, from the sharp, vaulting chorus of the beat-driven opener, “Head Underwater”—which chronicles her emergence from a dark period (“I put my head underwater, baby/I held my breath until it passed”)—to the classic soul melody of “She’s Not Me” and the pleading western noir “You Can’t Outrun ‘Em.” The effervescent, summery production contrasts thoughtfully with Lewis’ piercing lyrics, which find her surveying life with restlessness and resignation in equal measure.

These unusually masked and creepy Swedish psychedelia dealers play a mix of tribal rhythms, guitar riffs dominated by wah-wah pedals, and raw, garage-rock styled productions, over which a number of vocalists sing, chant, and yell from various positions. “Goatchild” perfectly distills the group\'s essence, while tracks like “Talk to God,” “To Travel the Path Unknown,” and “Gathering of Ancient Tribes” explore the numerous paths to high weirdness. There’s a looseness in these jams that sounds all-inclusive, as if the songs were just waiting for you to pick up an instrument and play along. *Commune* clearly succeeds in creating an alternate universe where everyone can party.

Though Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers are considered a raw, no-nonsense rock ’n’ roll band, they’ve also always understood the value of smart production. They love to rock—make no mistake—but they also love to make records. 2014’s *Hypnotic Eye* makes that obvious with the timely “American Dream Plan B,” where the band’s textures alter from verse to chorus with ease. It\'s the result of Petty, his right-hand man Mike Campbell (a multi-instrumentalist), and coproducer Ryan Ulyate knowing intuitively how to make basic rock sound multidimensional in the studio—and hopefully on the radio. “Full Grown Boy” provides a light, swinging touch from Benmont Tench’s jazzy piano hands, making the return of Campbell’s electric guitar riffs on “All You Can Carry” a powerful left hook. The sound is often aggressive, as if the guys were hammering things out in the garage out back (“Red River,” “Power Drunk,” “Forgotten Man”). Yet three years in the making suggests that great care and thought went into the emotional immediacy of another powerful and heartfelt Heartbreakers album.

By the \'90s, the ‘60s pop star Scott Walker had evolved into an avant-garde master. In 2014, it’s little surprise that he’s written *Soused* as a collaboration with underground drone-metallists Sunn O))). Anyone familiar with previous Walker albums such as *Tilt*, *The Drift*, or *Bish Bosch* will recognize the barking, musical theater–like baritone vocals and the postapocalyptic, scorched-earth instrumentation. And for *Soused*, Walker is joined by Sunn O))), including their third guitarist Tos Nieuwenhuizen. “Bull,” in particular, takes on the dark, grinding distortion, while other epics sound like a circus on fire. Singularly brilliant.

On her third album, Angel Olsen rides waves of emotional intensity that take her from the depths of despair to the heights of hope. *Burn Your Fire for No Witness* is a worthy successor to her 2012 breakthrough *Half Way Home*, revisiting many of the earlier album’s themes with greater focus and maturity. Tracks like “Forgiven/Forgotten,” “Lights Out,” and “Enemy” probe the subtle torments of love with an unflinching hand. Olsen’s phenomenal vocal range—shifting from murmurs to howls and yodels with impressive control—brings out the expansive vision of “Iota” and the confrontational power of “High & Wild.” The album\'s pervasive angst gives way to a desperate yearning for healing and peace in the convulsive “Stars” and the tender “Windows.” Olsen’s expressive guitar work is lent sympathetic support by bassist Stewart Bronaugh and drummer Joshua Jaeger, who help her leap from the distorted alt-country of “Hi-Five” to the Leonard Cohen–like folk balladry of “White Fire” and the French chanson feel of “Dance Slow Decades.” Finely crafted and fearlessly sung, *Burn Your Fire* smolders with dark brilliance.

On her newest LP, 'Burn Your Fire for No Witness', Angel Olsen sings with full-throated exultation, admonition, and bold, expressive melody. With the help of producer John Congleton, her music now crackles with a churning, rumbling low end and a brighter energy. Angel Olsen began singing as a young girl in St. Louis. Her self-released debut EP, 'Strange Cacti', belied both that early period of discovery and her Midwestern roots. Olsen then went further on 'Half Way Home', her first full-length album (released on Bathetic Records), which mined essential themes while showcasing a more developed voice. Olsen dared to be more personal. After extensive touring, Olsen eventually settled for a time in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood, where she created "a collection of songs grown in a year of heartbreak, travel, and transformation," that would become 'Burn Your Fire For No Witness'. Many of them remain essentially unchanged from their bare beginnings. In leaving them so intact, a more self-assured Olsen allows us to be in the room with her at the very genesis of these songs. Our reward for entering this room is many a head-turning moment and the powerful, unsettling recognition of ourselves in the weave of her songs.

The name The Delines may not ring an immediate bell, but its members certainly should. Amy Boone of the Texas-based Damnations is the singer, and Freddie Trujillo is the bassist. Songwriter/novelist Willy Vlautin (of Richmond Fontaine) and Portlanders Sean Oldham, Decemberists member Jenny Conlee-Drizos, and Minus 5 pedal steel man Tucker Jackson fill out the ranks. With these indie-Americana all-stars lined up, The Delines pull together for the skid row nocturnal narratives of *Colfax*, named after the classic Denver avenue that showed up in Jack Kerouac’s *On the Road*, with promises of kicks and postwar glory for the underbelly. The slow creep of “Flight 31,” the labored, struggling trudge of “He Told Her the City Was Killing Him,” and the left-field choice of Randy Newman’s “Sandman’s Coming” all make peculiar sense from a supergroup who defy supergroup expectations. The only song approaching an upbeat rhythm is “Wichita Ain’t So Far Away,” and even there is a hesitancy; Vlautin’s literary sense doesn’t allow for easy victories, just as his lyrics refuse easy clichés.

"Colfax" available here for download and in stores in Europe Apr 28 . USA stores Jun 17 facebook.com/thedelines decorrecords.com Now in Australia/NZ too www.jbhifi.com.au/music/Whats-Hot/country/colfax/621065/ The Delines Colfax Tour Continues in Australia, New Zealand, UK and Europe in Oct-Nov 2014. Check our tour page at thedelines.com

Despite it taking eight years for Roddy Frame to release a solo follow-up to 2006’s excellent *Western Skies*, it’s clearly been worth the wait. *Seven Dials* is one of the finest albums he’s ever made, on his own or with his band Aztec Camera. High praise indeed, but Frame’s music always suggested he’d only get better with age. As a smart songwriter with a strong introspective side, Frame is someone who\'s benefited from the capabilities of modern recording studios to achieve the intimate fidelity necessary for songs like “White Pony,” “Into the Sun,” and the Caribbean-breezy, Aztec Camera–reminiscent “Rear View Mirror.” Recorded at West Heath Studios, the home of AED Records—a label formed by Edwyn Collins in 2011 and produced by Frame and Sebastian Lewsley—*Seven Dials* features just drummer Adrian Meehan and keyboardist Mark Edwards, Frame’s longtime coconspirator, adding to Frame’s instrumental and vocal duties. “Postcard” shows he can still rock within his own limits, while “English Garden” is an honest, first-rate ballad that illustrates Frame’s graceful talents in just four minutes of beauty. 

Recorded in Memphis with the Hodges brothers—the core of the legendary Hi Rhythm Section, which backed Al Green and others in the \'70s—*Indian Ocean* embraces its nostalgia without getting mired in it. The relaxed, old-school soul of the music blends naturally with Frazey Ford’s honeyed vibrato tone and distinct phrasing. Her second solo release is removed from the country-folk of her former band, The Be Good Tanyas, yet taps the same mix of sweetness and melancholy, especially the gorgeous “September Fields” and “Runnin” and the transcendent, utterly charming title track.

Do to the Beast is the first new album by The Afghan Whigs in over a decade and a half. Founded in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1988, the band has long stood out from its peers, with their savage, rapturous blend of hard rock, classic soul, and frontman Greg Dulli’s searing obsessions. The new album serves as both a homecoming – it marks their return to Sub Pop, for whom the Whigs were the first signing from outside the label’s Northwest base – and a glimpse into the future of one of the most acclaimed bands of the past thirty years. Do to the Beast proves an appropriately feral title for one of the most intense, cathartic records of Dulli’s entire career – one that adds fresh twists to The Afghan Whigs canon. On it, one finds the film noir storytelling of Black Love, the exuberance of 1965, the brutal introspection of Gentlemen, but rendered with a galvanized musical spirit and rhythmic heft that suggests transcendence and hope amidst the bloodletting. “A lot of records I’ve done stemmed from epochal experiences in my life – and this time I’ve used them all,” Dulli says. “These new songs are very visual to me. They come from the neighborhoods of my mind. It’s like Rashomon, with the story told from different points of memory.” Do to the Beast was created in L.A., New Orleans, Cincinnati, and Joshua Tree – a virtual map of the band’s past and present homes. “The album was named in Cincinnati, which is especially fitting,” Dulli notes. “I was recording a beatbox track for the song ‘Matamoros,’ and my friend Manuel Agnelli (of Italian rock band Afterhours) was in the control room. After I finished, he said it sounded like I was singing ‘Do to the beast what you do to the bush.’ And I thought, ‘Brother, you just named the record.’” Do to the Beast features Dulli and Curley joined by the Whigs’ current core players – guitarists Dave Rosser and Jon Skibic, multi-instrumentalist Rick Nelson, and drummer Cully Symington. While original Whigs guitarist Rick McCollum does not appear on the record, a panoply of notable personages from the group’s past and present make memorable cameos: soul maverick Van Hunt, Mark McGuire (Emeralds), Usher’s musical director Johnny “Natural” Najera, Alain Johannes (Queens of the Stone Age, Arctic Monkeys), Clay Tarver (Bullet LaVolta, Chavez), Dave Catching (QOTSA, Eagles of Death Metal), Patrick Keeler (Raconteurs, Greenhornes), Ben Daughtrey (Squirrel Bait), Joseph Arthur, and a host of others. For Dulli, these outside collaborators add crucial dimension. “Someone like Alain is a great texturalist,” Dulli says. “He and Mark McGuire create these, womblike tapestries and nuances. And Johnny Natural blew our minds when we played with him and Usher at South By Southwest. They were all instructed to play guitar not as guitar, but to create a supernatural sound – and each one of them ran with that.” Likewise, “It Kills” contrasts its lush Gamble and Huff-style orchestration with Van Hunt unleashing a passionate virtuoso howl – transforming the song in the process. “We’d brought Van Hunt on tour with the Whigs, and began duetting on his song ‘Mean Sleep’ together every night.,” Dulli notes. “He’d do this scream live that he didn’t do on the recording; and I thought to myself, ‘Wow, he sounds like Bobby Womack!’ When I wrote ‘It Kills,’ I wanted another voice on it, like a Greek chorus, so I called Van. I said, “Do whatever you like, just try not to use actual words – and if you can do that Bobby Womack thing, do that, too!” Indeed, Do to the Beast takes The Afghan Whigs to previously uncharted zones. That’s clear from the Lennonesque primal screaming announcing album opener “Parked Outside” – one of the hardest-rocking Whigs songs ever, propelled by a pile-driving riff that would make Malcolm Young envious. First single “Algiers,” meanwhile, hotwires a pounding “Be My Baby” drumbeat with spaghetti-western atmospherics. Elsewhere, “Matamoros” – named after a town in Mexico cursed by a series of Satanic murders – finds Dulli at his most psychosexually sinister: over its relentless, Zeppelin-meets-disco groove, he coolly threatens to expose “every little crime that you hide.” Such themes of duality, viscera, and love destroyed echo throughout tracks that dynamically flow in and out of each other – from ambitious revenge fantasy “These Sticks” to album centerpiece “Lost in the Woods.” Here, Dulli imagines himself on his deathbed in an especially haunting lyric, set to a swinging melody evoking Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway. “That song resonates the most with me,” he says. “It reminds me of my childhood; sitting in the back of my parents’ Bonneville hearing ‘You’re My Best Friend’ by Queen on AM radio. I played a distorted Wurlitzer at the end to capture that feeling; I did a lot of little personal homages like that throughout this record.” That there’s even a new Afghan Whigs release at all comes as something of a surprise, even to its members. After the band initially split in 2001, Dulli went on to considerable notoriety with his bands The Twilight Singers and The Gutter Twins (the latter an ongoing collaboration with close friend Mark Lanegan). While Whigs songs would pop up occasionally in his sets, Dulli didn’t fully engage that material again until a solo acoustic tour in 2010, which Curley joined for a few dates. The Afghan Whigs subsequently reunited for a successful 2012 tour that found them headlining major festivals like Lollapalooza, curating their own All Tomorrow’s Parties gathering, and selling out prestigious venues throughout the U.S., Europe, and Southern Hemisphere. But once the tour was over, so, apparently, were the Whigs. “We played a final New Year’s Eve show in Cincinnati,” Dulli recalls. “And I assumed we were done. We’d completed the cycle.” That wasn’t actually the case, however. The Afghan Whigs were unexpectedly brought back into the ring by The Fader, which had arranged for them to play a surprise collaborative set with R&B superstar Usher at 2013’s SXSW conference. “That moment crystallized the possibility that we’d record together again,” Curley says. “Soon after, Greg began compiling the ideas he’d kept in his pocket that he felt were distinctly Whigs songs.” Reunited anew, The Afghan Whigs will tour worldwide in support of Do to the Beast – kicking off an extensive jaunt with a performance at Coachella 2014 in April. “It feels like a celebration, and the start of something new,” Curley says. “Something that’s exhilarating and scary at the same time.”

The second LP by Gazelle Twin. WAV download. Also available on Vinyl + CD at gazelletwin.tmstor.es

Composed of 11 stunning and emotive tracks, From Scotland With Love was released alongside a motion picture of the same name which explores the themes of love and loss, war, resistance, emigration, work and play; all themes that appear in the album itself.

Over the course of two astonishing albums, Perfume Genius, aka Seattle native Mike Hadreas, cemented his place as a singer-songwriter of rare frankness, creating songs that, while achingly emotional, offered empathy and hope, rather than any judgment or handwringing. Sparse, gorgeous and with Hadreas’ quavering vocals often only accompanied by piano, they were uncommonly beautiful tales of a life lived on the dark side – scarred, brutalised, yet ultimately, slowly but surely reclaimed. Too Bright, however, is something else altogether. Less self-conscious, and less concerned with storytelling and easily-digested melodies, it is a brave, bold, unpredictably quixotic exploration of what Hadreas calls “an underlying rage that has slowly been growing since ten and has just begun to bubble up”. Recorded with Adrian Utley of Portishead and featuring John Parish on several tracks, it is a stunning about-face which brings to mind audacious career-shift albums like Kate Bush’s The Dreaming or Scott Walker’s Tilt, records which walk the tightrope between pure songwriting and overt experimentation.

It’s no surprise that both *Rolling Stone* and Spin magazines named Columbus, Ohio’s Lydia Loveless an artist who readers need to know. Loveless captures an honesty in her songs and in her performances, demanding that people listen. She plays with her band flawlessly, as if she’s already been around the bar circuit for a lot longer than her 23 years. The electric guitars from Todd May sound like a cross between Keith Richards, Scott “Top Ten” Kempner, and Eric “Roscoe” Ambel of The Del-Lords, with a slicing rhythmic efficiency that’s been at the heart of rock ’n’ roll ever since Richards took Chuck Berry’s licks and worked them into his own signature five-string open tuning. Whether it’s “Wine Lips,” “Chris Isaak,” or “To Love Somebody,” the band comes together to seriously kick out these jams. The album’s opening cut, “Really Wanna See You,” sounds like a Stones song already in progress. Her previous recordings (2011’s *Indestructible Machine* and 2013’s *Boy Crazy* EP) were excellent, but *Somewhere Else* takes her music somewhere special.

This Swedish duo of sisters Johanna and Klara Soderberg play a sleek, pretty version of Americana that can only be achieved by outsiders who learn the music from the outside-in. Their harmonies are fresh and not always what one might expect from the Americana genre. Neither is the production, which is again handled by Bright Eyes’ Mike Mogis; songs like “Master Pretender” and “Cedar Lane” have gorgeous orchestration. The duo’s Fleet Foxes influence can still be heard, but the sisters veer closer to Handsome Family–styled Southwestern music on the mystical title track and the album opener, “My Silver Lining.” There’s also a Southern-style Bobbie Gentry/Jeannie C. Riley undercurrent; it\'s truly odd and fascinating coming from these young Swedes. “Shattered & Hollow” slows the tempo for the harmonies to shine even further. “The Bell” adds more bucolic instrumentation, which is enhanced by Mogis’ spacious production. “Waitress Song” imagines giving everything up to live in a small town and work in the food industry—as if these young women could ever turn away from the music they clearly love. 

From his days with Hüsker Dü and Sugar to the solo career that’s become his longest-running gig, Bob Mould has stuck to the mix of melody and deafening power chords that have made him an underground favorite since the early \'80s. Here, working with bassist Jason Narducy (formerly of Verbow, currently of Split Single) and drummer Jon Wurster (of Superchunk, The Mountain Goats, and elsewhere), Mould has more room than ever to make a huge noise. Songs like “I Don’t Know You Anymore,” “The War,\" and “Hey Mr. Grey” remind everyone of just how Mould can take a catchy pop song and whip it into a punk frenzy. His signature guitar sound and chording technique is everywhere on what’s counted as his 10th solo album. Mould’s dark side, always a compelling component of Hüsker Dü (“Hardly Getting Over It,” anyone?), is present from the opening grind of “Low Season” and can be heard recurring in the leaner approach of “Forgiveness,” where the older Mould teaches the young Mould a few things about life beyond hardcore.

Kettering, England’s Temples bring the psychedelic ‘60s to life. Just as the members of XTC once worked as The Dukes of Stratosphear to re-create a psychedelic glow of backward guitars, groovy organs, sitar-like 12-string guitars, thick rumbling basses, and oddly modulating harmonies all wrapped up in fuzztones, Temples now explore those sounds like “Jack Nitzsche on a DIY budget.” That\'s according to group leader and guitarist James Bagshaw, whose home served as the recording studio for *Sun Structures*. Praise from The Smiths’ Johnny Marr and The Soft Machine’s Robert Wyatt indicate they’re on the right track, and lysergic pop songs like “The Golden Throne” and “Mesmerise” illustrate how well this quartet can explore the outer reaches of their minds. Elements of *Nuggets* and *Pebbles* collections and countless late-\'60s lesser-knowns come to life with a dense, modern production that lets Bagshaw and Co. layer the sound with great intricacy. Whether it’s the jam (“Test of Time”) or the milder side of the ride (“Move with the Season”), welcome back to the future again.

“I wrote a song for thee,” frontman James Edward Bagshaw offers on this U.K. band’s debut. As his archaic address implies, Temples play mid-Sixties psych rock at its most archly transporting. Every swirling fuzz tone, cathedral-organ bleat and Harrisonian Rickenbacker run is perfectly placed. There are also shambling echoes of Britain’s Nineties “baggydelic” scene- Jon Doland of Rollingstone

Anyone who\'s seen Richard Thompson perform with just his acoustic guitar knows what the British guitar legend can bring to his songs. In the \'80s, Thompson released and recalled his solo acoustic live album *Small Town Romance*, and he’s provided his studio albums with acoustic moments. But *Acoustic Classics* does exactly what many fans have wanted for years—giving them an excellently recorded album where Thompson runs through his finest songs with just his voice and acoustic guitar. It’s such an accomplished work of genius that *Acoustic Classics* could also serve as a perfect introduction to Thompson’s music for those who\'ve somehow managed to avoid him all these years. Despite having played many of these songs hundreds of times, Thompson sings them here with the committed emotions of someone just unlocking their sentiments. And the guitar work? Please. Thompson’s been a rare player since the mid-‘60s, and he only sounds more brilliant when applying his skills to the likes of “Wall of Death,” “1952 Vincent Black Lightning,” “From Galway to Graceland,” and onward. It\'s essential in every way.