3. D'Angelo and the Vanguard Black Messiah
D'Angelo is the man responsible for what on some days is my favorite album of all time,
Voodoo, but after that masterpiece's 2000 release, dude stayed real quiet punctuated only by some worrying legal troubles and changes in appearance. Although he took up the stage again back in 2012 or so, he had basically become an Azealia Banks situation for me where I was pretty set that I was never getting new D'Angelo music ever again. Maybe he was in the same camp too, but inspired by a tough year back home for race relations, he unleashed his long-in progress third album
Black Messiah on the world mid-December, Beyoncé style, sending every R&B lover scrambling to rearrange their year-end lists.
Black Messiah's timely subject matter definitely stands out, and tracks both confrontational ("1000 Deaths") and pensive ("The Charade"; "Till It's Done") packed enough power to really take me back and make me think about our world's issues in a slightly different way.
D'Angelo the Loverman though is still out in full force, and there are plenty of gorgeous moments as well as light-hearted ones on the album where we get to hear the
MASTER doing what he does better than possibly anyone else alive today. Maybe the most impressive thing on display here is the sheer musicality; every single track is immediately enjoyable and easy to listen to (although for the first time I would recommend a read-along with a lyrics sheet), but also at times stunningly layered and complex -- I know I'm still finding new little kicks in each track that keep me coming back to the whole thing. The album came out of nowhere still less than a month ago, and it can be dangerous to jump to conclusions on short notice, but after letting it take over my life I'm more sure than ever that this is peak D'Angelo, and that beyond its timeliness, it's absolutely stacked with rock solid classic material. Maybe 5 years from now I'll be able to look back and acknowledge that
Black Messiah was easily the best 2014 album release, but right now it's definitely earned its place fighting for top pick.
In "Another Life" things might be easier, but I'm still glad I live in this one where D'Angelo is releasing music again.
KEY TRACKS
AZEALIA BANKS @AZEALIABANKS ˇ Dec 14
There's no reason for YA Bussy to be lookin like nestle crunch
2. Lykke Li I Never Learn
Wasn't really
sad a lot in 2014, but doesn't matter because there was no better form of escapism and catharsis all year for me than Lykke Li's devastating breakup suite. Every song on
I Never Learn hits on a different (chronological) stage of the separation process, so by the time we come to the end of the ninth and final track "Sleeping Alone" and its kinda-maybe-a-chance-of-starting-to-heal-now phase initiation, there hasn't been any repetition or any filler. I love that this created a sense of momentum on the album, and let each song carve out its own unique identity on the track listing and in MY HEART. It is such a bleak listen — if you're looking for cheeriness, you should go to her first record! — but in the absence of any real optimism, in my opinion the back-and-forth between pained ballads and crushing midtempos proves for a very satisfying release of energy. Kind of like how 30 minutes into a bad situation things may not be any better than they were to start, but at least you've cried yourself out.
All the sadness though should be a turn off at all, not when the music is so pretty. So many of the melodies here are just perfect; the production work is gorgeously done as well and in my mind conjures some very appropriate imagery of empty, desolate landscapes to accompany the subject matter. The first single "No Rest for the Wicked" initially hit me as an alright middle of the road Lykke Li song, but as it's grown on me I've realized that Lykke is rocking a sound right now that no one else can really call their own. She's matured leaps and bounds with each consecutive release, and that's cool to me.
I Never Learn was never the super tough listen for me that some people found it, but even so I promise there's so much comfort to be found in it beneath the exterior. And I can see that lasting in ME personally for the rest of my life.
KEY TRACKS
AZEALIA BANKS @AZEALIABANKS
I promise, you don't hate Azealia Banks as much as you tell yourself. You actually love her and can't wait to see what she'll think of next.
DUH DUH DUH DUHHHHH
...
AND THE WINNER ISSSSS...
...
SO EXCITED
1. Run the Jewels Run the Jewels 2
Destroy me. Really. No other album this year made me feel like I was being pummeled with a bulldozer in quite the same way as RTJ2. Coming something like 15 months after RTJ1, an album that did everything it set out to do extremely well, this is one of those sequels that comes harder, aims darker, and just succeeds on a level significantly above that of its little brother. The synergy between El-P and OutKast affiliate Killer Mike is again just insane; they're playing off each other's strengths in ways that create a lot of entertaining parallels between their verses on any given song. It's hard to say they're still getting
better at rappers 15-20 years into their respective careers, but they definitely sound sharper now than on the previous album, delivering longer verses that match more effectively to the now more DIVERSE yet PUMMELING beats that provide the foundation for the songs here. They carry 9 songs on the standard edition pretty much all by themselves, but I need to give credit to the featured rappers on the other 2; Zach De La Rocha's (
) frantic and paranoid '
let's stage a prison riot' act on "Close Your Eyes (and Count to ****)" and Gangsta Boo's INSTANTLY LEGENDARY, hook-twisting '
what did she just say??' FEMINIST TAKEOVER of the raw as **** "Love Again (Akinyele Back)" both do a lot to spice up and mix some color into the affair.
So the thing comes BOOMING out your speakers dripping with charisma; that's already all we could have asked for, but there are moments where it even rises above. "Early," a team effort with Beyoncé producer BOOTS, is totally chilling, Mike and El taking turns describing spontaneous acts of police violence gone tragically wrong. Like pretty much on
Black Messiah it was supposedly recorded even before most of the big related U.S. news items this year reached their climaxes, which is sad on a couple levels, but just listen to the way Killer Mike describes his family members in the heat of the moment: "
my beautiful son”; "
my gorgeous queen." That's a sense of humanity often lacking from the most otherwise powerful political music. Then in the horrific ending to the fictional events of that verse comes up another emotion that wasn't present on
Run the Jewels #1: RAGE. This album plays ****ing awesome, but in addition it was the the only release this year that made me as a human being feel like I could
pick up a bulldozer and throw it at The Man, and for that it gets to sit at the top.
KEY TRACKS
AZEALIA BANKS @AZEALIABANKS ˇ Dec 3
AND I DARE THAT SHOE-SHINING COON T.I TO SAY SOMETHING.