2014 review

"The time has come," the Walrus said, "To talk of many things: of shoes, and ships, and sealing-wax, of cabbages, and Kings, and why the sea is boiling hot, and whether we should have a music roundup of 2014." No carpenters in this selection mind...

Gig-wise I've been very, very naughty but I hope to do much better in the new year with four already booked. The purchase of a Sonos system has meant that I spent a lot of time ripping my entire music collection to a NAS where it is now instantly available in two rooms, independently or together. But hey, vinyl is killing MP3s so this year I also got a turntable (technically it's a Christmas present, but I had to test it out!)

Out of 44 musical purchases this year my pre-2014 acquisitions totalled 22, 19 on CD and 3 on vinyl:

• Tales Of Mystery And Imagination by The Alan Parsons Project: I used to have this on vinyl, way back in the day, so this was a bit of a nostalgia purchase.
• End is Forever by The Ataris: I love the later stuff by The Ataris and as this was only 50p I thought I would dip my toe in some earlier material. Not disappointed.
• On The Sunday Of Life, Signify, Metanoia, and Stupid Dream all by Porcupine Tree: OK, I have to admit these were me being a complete-ist. Having said that, most of the material is really very good so I don't regret splashing out when the prices dipped enough to make it worth a punt.
• I have to say that I do like the Original Album Series. Usually there are four or five albums for an extremely good price. This year I picked up ELO, The Doors, and Jim Croce. Top stuff all of them.
• I heard Ben Howard on Later... and whilst waiting for his second album to be released managed to pick up his first, Every Kingdom, in HMV at a special price. Thoroughly recommended.
• This year I fancied trying North Atlantic Oscillation so I started with their Fog Electric album which was right up my street.
• In a similar vein, and because I like The Pineapple Thief anyway, I picked up Bruce Soord and Jonas Renkse's Wisdom of Crowds as well as TPT's One Three Seven. Both extremely good.
• Until The Colours Run by Lanterns On The Lake was recommended to me and turned out to be an excellent purchase.
• There were a few rockier albums which were released in 2013 but ended up on my Christmas list so failed to make my 2013 roundup. Fortress by Alterbridge was one such, a fantastic album.
• I was a bit disappointed with the Live in Tokyo album by Portnoy,  Sheehan,  Macalpine and Sherinian. It was, to me, very self-indulgent and no real improvement on the original tracks.
• On the other hand, I was very pleased with English Electric Full Power by Big Big Train and Like Clockwork by Queens Of The Stone Age.
• Finally, I thought The Temperance Movement's eponymous album didn't really live up to the hype.

Overall a very good haul and, despite slight disappointment with a couple, not an actual duff CD to be seen. The vinyl purchases, from a charity shop (I'm such a shameless hipster) were pure nostalgia:

• Rod Stewart's Foot Loose & Fancy Free from 1977.
• A little more current was Alf, the debut solo album of Alison Moyet from 1984.
• Spandau Ballet - The singles collection. Honestly, you can't go wrong with this stuff!

And so to the releases of 2014 of which I managed to pick up 22.

• I'll start with more from the Original Album Series which, whilst technically released in 2014, span earlier years and so won't qualify for inclusion in my top ten. Two excellent releases: Robin Trower who is a brilliant guitarist, and Runrig who are an awesome live band.
• Well, I love Thunder and the live Xmas Show 2013 was brilliant. Sadly I won't get to see them on tour in March as I'm on holiday but I'm so pleased that they've got a new studio album in 2015 and I've pre-ordered it as I just know that it's going to be fantastic.
• The Fall of Math by 65Daysofstatic was recommended by a friend a while back but I spotted the 2014 re-mastered edition and was very pleased with this.
• Another hyped, eponymous album was from Augustines and, I'm afraid, it too was slightly disappointing.
• Mystoria by Amplifier also didn't hit the heights I expected of them. The Octopus was such a great album in my opinion and they've struggled to reach that form again.
• Robert Plant seems to be doing well with his solo career and Lullaby...and the ceaseless roar was an excellent album.
• The Pineapple Thief had a new release with Magnolia which was every bit as good as I thought it would be.
• It's been a while since their last album but Engineers released Always returning which I bought with a bonus instrumental CD. Since their vocals are always very subdued anyway it's a bit like having two copies of the album that are practically the same, but hey ho it's a very good album so no complaints from me.
• I've always thought that I would probably like Bigelf so I tried their Into The Maelstrom, and I do. very much. Good purchase.
• A band that I do know and like, Transatlantic, turned out another fantastic album with Kaleidoscope.
• Finally in this section, I did enjoy the Pink Floyd release of The Endless River. Not classic Floyd but well worth having.

Here come the excuses. This my preferred order on this particular day, tomorrow it could be a slightly different list. It doesn't include any of the undeniably great albums which I failed to buy. I can't listen to everything; I have a full-time job, a family with grandchildren, other interests, and a limit as to how much I can spend on music. All this notwithstanding, here are my 2014 top ten albums:

• (10) Escape From The Shadow Garden by Magnum. Probably their best album since Brand New Morning, an outstanding return to form.
• (9) OK, it was a bit left-field for me but Splinter (songs from a broken mind) from Gary Numan came highly recommended by my oldest friend, a big Numan fan. I was a bit nervous that it wouldn't cut the mustard, but it turned out to be a masterpiece and I'm very grateful that he pestered me into buying it. Cheers Vin!
• (8) Different Shades of Blue, yet another album from the prolific Joe Bonnamassa. In fairness he does a lot of covers and tracks with other people so it was refreshing to have an album of his own material, and he never disappoints.
• (7) As I enjoyed North Atlantic Oscillation's debut album I just had to buy their latest, The Third Day which was stunning, please buy this.
• (6) A blast of the past came in the form of Brighouse band Embrace who released an eponymous album eight years after their last. I always loved Embrace although they never seemed to get the major breakthrough that they deserved, bit like Thunder in that respect. This album mixed things up a bit with classic Embrace riffs and electronica / dance rhythms. I really liked it and was really pleased that they were the 'house band' for the Yorkshire Grand Depart at the First Direct Arena in Leeds with Hope&Social in support.
• (5) Supergroups are usually inconsistent or transient so I'm hoping that Flying Colours are going to stick around for a while. This year saw them quietly release the brilliant Second Nature, surely destined to be a classic rock album?
• (4) Feeder are currently in hiatus although I understand that Grant Nicholas is working on new material with Taka, so that's something to look forward to. In the meantime he has released a solo album, Yorktown Heights, which ticks all my boxes. It's kinda stripped back Feeder with the emphasis on the lyrics. very, very good indeed.
• (3) And so to the top three (trumpet blast) and the nicely eponymous (using that word a lot) album from Royal Blood which really blew my socks off. Superb.
• (2) And in complete contrast is the beautiful and haunting Distant Satellites from Anathema which would have been my album of the year if it wasn't for that pesky chap...
• (1) ...Ben Howard and his incredible I Forget Where We Were. What a stunning album.