1. JESSIE WARE – Tough Love
Release: October 6th, 2014
Label: PMR / Island
For fans of: AlunaGeorge, Lykki Li or FKA Twigs.
Jessie Ware’s debut album Devotion appealed to so many people because Jessie is a natural pop melody maker who happens to be friends with producers and artists who are interested in the detailed side of music production. In particular, Sampha and Julio Bashmore had their fingerprints all over Devotion, but since then Jessie Ware has proven she can successfully work with just about anyone. A lot of that may be due to her very likeable personality; I can’t imagine it would be hard to work with her in a studio. There may be more pressure to succeed commercially with Tough Love, but that hasn’t appeared to faze her on the early singles such as ‘Tough Love’.
2. ICEAGE – Plowing Into The Field Of Love
Release: October 7th, 2014
Label: Matador
For fans of: Eagulls, White Lung or Nick Cave.
These days we don’t often talk about being intrigued by a band’s progression over the next five or ten years. We tend to judge and pigeonhole artists based on their latest release instead, but ever since Iceage emerged from Denmark in 2011 with the average age of just 20 years old, every release has left us immediately thinking about their next few. This is partly due to their age and partly because not many people know anything about the music scene in Copenhagen, but as the track ‘Forever’ from Plowing Into The Field Of Love proves, it’s probably because of Elias Bender Rønnenfelt‘s similar tendencies to Nick Cave - a musician who we are still trying to figure out 35 years after debuting.
3. CARIBOU – Our Love
Release: October 7th, 2014
Label: Merge
For fans of: Washed Out, Mount Kimbie or FaltyDL.
For a lot of people, Caribou’s last album Swim in 2010 was their first introduction to the work of Dan Snaith, despite the fact that he’s been making well received music since 2001 under the name Manitoba. So for those who see Our Love as his sophomore album (the make or break album), they will be a little disappointed by its lack of ambition compared to Swim. Instead, Our Love is focused more on being lush and intimate, along the lines of Washed Out’s second album Paracosm. The influential folktronica days of Up In Flames may be well behind him, but that’s okay when he’s now recording emotionally hard-hitting electronic songs such as ‘Back Home’.
4. FLYING LOTUS – You’re Dead!
Release: October 7th, 2014
Label: Warp
For fans of: Thundercat, Clams Casino or Teebs.
Steven Ellison AKA Flying Lotus has been releasing a steady stream of experimental, electronic, hip-hop beat influenced music since 2006. The difference now leading into You’re Dead! is that hip-hop appears to be the focus, especially since the rapper Captain Murphy in 2012 turned out to be Steven Ellison. Not only has Captain Murphy become an equal feature during his live set, but the persona actually features on two You’re Dead! tracks (a first for Flying Lotus). Although outside of guest rappers Kendrick Lamar and Snoop Dogg, You’re Dead! looks to be more instrumental hip-hop with 13 of the 19 short tracks not containing vocals.
5. Peaking Lights – Cosmic Logic
Release: October 7th, 2014
Label: Weird World
For fans of: Django Django, Metronomy or Neon Indian.
Along with last month’s TOPS album Picture You Staring, Cosmic Logic isn’t likely to make a huge impact, but it could easily become one of your favourite spring albums. The early single returns for Cosmic Logic have the husband and wife duo moving away from the long, sprawling, psychedelic dream pop of 936 towards shorter, sharper indie pop singles. It’s a bold move away from a sound that was uniquely theirs (along with maybe Sun Araw) to an overcrowded field of straight-down-the-line indie pop, but in late 2014, when listeners are tired of the recycled ‘indie pop’ formula for a couple of years now, Peaking Lights’ vibrancy may stand out as a refreshing alternative.
6. FOXYGEN – …And Star Power
Release: October 14th, 2014
Label: Jagjaguwar
For fans of: Jacco Gardner, Wampire or Morgan Delt.
Moving from psychedelic pop to psychedelic rock, but still sharing a similarity with Peaking Lights, Foxygen too have found themselves recently moving away from their more experimental background. In fact, the singles that took them to the next level of recognition, ‘No Destruction’, ‘No Shuggie‘ and ‘San Francisco’, barely contained a connection to psychedelic music outside of the dazed vocal deliveries. All three singles delivered in a calm controlled manner, quite a contrast from the wild antics of their live shows. It’s a rare mental ability they share with many of their influences; or at least the ones we still remember, the ones who could pull themselves together long enough to record a studio album that did their creativity justice.
7. ANDRAS & OSCAR – Everytime I Go
Release: October 17th, 2014
Label: Chapter Music
For fans of: Klo, GL or Banoffee.
Oscar Key Sung proved with the single ‘All I Could Do’ that he could write his own immediately-hitting song, but it’s when he teams up with a producer that a necessary dimension is added, one that allows him to release the more dynamic EPs such as For You he released as Oscar + Martin with Martin King. Andras Fox equally benefits from collaborating, and although I admire his ‘80s-inspired tracks such as ‘Rock On’, he needs Oscar Key Sung to bring him back to the present and into more exciting territories. A lot of collaborations only take place in the studio and never develop any real chemistry, but these two have been playing live together for years now and it shows on the first single ‘Everytime I Go’.
8. OUGHT – Once More With Feeling
Release: October 28th, 2014
Label: Constellation
For fans of: Protomartyr, Parquet Courts or Speedy Ortiz.
Sorry FKA Twigs, but my favourite debut album of 2014 so far is still More Than Any Other Day by Ought. Yes, they may sound a lot like Talking Heads or Television, but they do no disrespect to those names, especially on the track ‘Habit’, that’s right up there as one of the songs of the year. The Once More With Feeling EP contains four tracks; ‘Pill’ and ‘New Calm Pt.2’ are studio re-records of older self-recorded material, ‘New Calm Pt. 3’ is a new largely instrumental track and ‘Waiting’ somehow missed the cut for More Then Any Other Day. For those who couldn’t get enough of the debut album, the EP serves as a celebration expansion pack.
9. RUN THE JEWELS – RTJ2
Release: October 28th, 2014
Label: Mass Appeal
For fans of: Danny Brown, Schoolboy Q or A$AP Ferg.
They claim that the Run The Jewels project was never meant to take off, but how could two of most in-form rappers on the planet, who had just worked brilliantly on each other’s latest albums (R.A.P. Music and Cancer 4 Cure), not warrant at least two albums. The production on their self titled debut wasn’t as impressive as their individual albums, but there was no denying their (justified) confident energy. Now that Run The Jewels is a full time commitment, you can expect the armour on RTJ2 to be significantly restored, and that’s a scary prospect for the rest of the hip-hop community that was already playing catch up.
10. GROUPER – Ruins
Release: October 31st, 2014
Label: Kranky
For fans of: Julianna Barwick, Mount Eerie or Tim Hecker.
On the complete opposite end of the energy scale sits Liz Harris AKA Grouper, a bleak minimalist whose work could’ve featured in the early ‘90s T.V. series Twin Peaks alongside Mazzy Star, but she’s also an important artist in today’s current landscape, because of how disconnected she sounds compared to the majority of an industry always trying desperately to connect with listeners. Every album of hers is a reality check on everything else you’ve recently listened to. You may not play Ruins as many times as the other nine albums on this list, but when you do, you’ll not only question why you listened to the other nine albums, but you’ll question a lot of other things.