Cultured Vultures’ Top 25 Albums of 2014

5. Cymbals Eat Guitars – Lose

These guys refuse my advances for an interview, no matter how short my dress is or how many pairs of underwear I send. It’s probably a godsend as the transcript would just consist of me banging on about Lose being their epitaph and one of the greatest rock albums of the year. From the ethereal soundscape opening of Jackson through to the anthem for your rainy bus journey that is 2 Hip Soul, Lose wins. The guys may not have the kind of recognition they deserve, but at least they have their spot in the top 5 of our albums of the year and Single of the Week for Warning to show for their 2014. Jimmy Donnellan

 

4. Pharaohe Monch – PTSD

This album appeared on our midway 2014 list as well and wouldn’t you know it, here it is again. Pharoahe Monch has been a diligent, essential pillar of the hip-hop world for two decades and in PTSD we’ve been given his most personal offering to date. Touching on the hardships of depression, racial segregation, addiction and other hard, important topics, it walks the difficult line of plying our hungry ears with phat beats and mad rhymes whilst saying something deeply, deeply significant. ‘Damage’, a song written from the perspective of a gun and concerning itself with the wider issues of weapons in the USA (Trayvon Martin is mentioned in the first verse) closes out a trilogy of tracks on the subject that Monch has been compiling for years. With this release, Monch ensures his position as one of the most important MCs ever to take the stage. Callum Davies

 

3. Mono – The Last Dawn/Rays of Darkness

The post-rock landscape always becomes more interesting when Mono release a new cut. Over the years they’ve built on their humble beginnings as a collective of former Tokyo metal banders into a sheer force of nature, expanding from their original four-piece set up to include strings, gongs and even a full orchestra. The Last Dawn/Rays of Darkness eschews a lot of that grandness and offers something more stripped down, more akin to their earlier work. The former half of the LP houses the gorgeous melancholy sounds we’ve come to expect, whilst the latter delves into dark, frightening territory, drafting in unusual collaborators like trumpeter Jacob Valenzuela and snarling Envy front-man Tetsu Fukagawa. It’s a fascinating, spectral album full of contrast and compulsion. Callum Davies

 

2. Flying Lotus – You’re Dead!

Stephen Ellison (ie Flying Lotus) has a strong musical pedigree at his back, the great nephew of Alice Coltrane, his work has ranged from haunting, ambient electronica to abstract hip-hop and everything in between. In You’re Dead! he has gifted us with his finest body of work to date. Shades of jazz, funk and afrofuturism spill across a rapid-fire series of beautifully crafted melodies and unusual beats, it’s the kind of thing J Dilla would be making if he was still with us. A score of interesting featured artists appear, from Kendrick Lamar to Angel Deradoorian and the overall effect is a bizarre, fatalist, existential narrative; a masterpiece. Callum Davies

 

1.Run The Jewels – Run The Jewels 2

We gave this album an 8.5/10 in our initial review, but after testing its replay value over a couple months, we’d like to upgrade it to a 9.5.  Killer Mike and El-P gave their fans more of what they loved from the first album, and also added more of what we loved from their individual solo careers.  We get the same loud, ignorant mosh-pit music, but also some more introspective songs as well as social commentary on prevalent issues in 2014, such as police brutality.  This album is the perfect length at just under 40 minutes, as not one second is wasted and the music flows seamlessly from one song to the next.  It is available for free download here, so there’s no reason you shouldn’t have this on repeat for hours every day (unless you’re around young children). Shaun Yassin