My Favourite Music Projects of 2014

After listening to a hours and hours of new music in 2014.



A couple of friends asked me if I could put a list together with my favourite music projects of 2014. It’s pretty hard to make just one list with all the music I listened to, as every album & genre is connected to different types of emotions. So to get a better overview I split up all genre’s and made a top 7 for each (with a couple of exceptions). It wasn’t easy to put all these top 7's together, but without further ado:


Indie Rock


  • Bombay Bicycle Club - So Long, See You Tomorrow*
  • Foster The People - Supermodel
  • Mac DeMarco - Salad Days
  • Mounties - Thrash Rock Legacy
  • Bored Nothing - Some Songs
  • The War On Drugs - Lost in the Dream
  • Devon Williams - Gilding The Lily

Bombay Bicycle Club - So Long, See You Tomorrow
The song sequence + the Indian samples + the summer sun made So Long, See You Tomorrow a fantastic listen & one of my “go to albums” during the summer of 2014. This album really grew on me. The remarkable thing about Bombay Bicycle Club is the totally different sound each album has. I’m really looking forward to what they’ll go for on the next album, until then I won’t mind listening to this one. A couple of favourites on the album: Overdone, It’s Alright Now, Luna and Feel.


Folk & Country

  • The Apache Relay - The Apache Relay
  • The Common Linnets - The Common Linnets
  • Jesse Marchant - Jesse Marchant
  • Passenger - Whispers
  • Ray LaMontagne - Supernova
  • First Aid Kit - Stay Gold
  • Sun Kil Moon - Benji*

Sun Kil Moon - Benji
Sun Kil Moon was by far one of my biggest discoveries of 2014. Benji is an amazing folk album. It’s dark and exposes both the beauty & tragedy of life. It’s also filled with intriguing personal stories. The way Mark Kozelek writes songs is very different from what I’m used to. Actually, I think I’ve never heard anything like this. Best way to describe it: spoken word + unfiltered/ raw/ transparent data without metaphors + in a way a person would tell you a story. I’m definitely going to check out more of his previous work in 2015. A couple of favourites on the album: All.


Electronica & Synthpop


  • Tycho - Awake
  • Banks - Goddess
  • iamamiwhoami — BLUE*
  • Flying Lotus - You’re Dead!
  • Darius - Romance
  • Little Dragon - Nabuma Rubberband
  • Chet Faker - Built On Glass

iamamiwhoami - BLUE
What can I say, BLUE is another great album by iamamiwhoami. These guys have been by far one of my favourite artists the past few years. BLUE is sonically on the same level as their first two albums. They pretty much stayed in the same lane and didn’t experiment a lot on this album. For people who are not familiar with iamamiwhoami, the amazing thing about them isn’t only their music. It’s also the way they create a visual album by combining the audio & visual. They did this for all their projects, check them out: bounty + kin + BLUE (Tip: Headphones + Full Screen HD). A couple of favourites on the album: chasing kites, fountain, hunting for pearls and dive.


Beats & Ambient

  • DrewsThatDude - KAMI*
  • Mr. Carmack - Dimebag
  • Mr. Carmack - Drugs EP
  • Stwo - 92
  • Sango - Da Rocinha 2
  • AFTA-1 - U N D E F I N E D
  • woob - Ambient Disaster Movie

DrewsThatDude - KAMI
KAMI by DrewsThatDude aka the SynthGod is a superb EP that combines Hip-Hop & R&B with Electronica. DrewsThatDude dropped aside from KAMI a lot of great music throughout 2014; from solo production, remixes to collabs (e.g. Fortune & Gravez). He already released a couple of new collabs this year, so check his souncloud for more music. A couple of favourites on the album: All.


Funk & Pop

  • Prince - Art Official Age
  • Pharrell Williams - G I R L
  • Ed Sheeran - X
  • Chromeo - White Women
  • Tom Misch & Carmody - Out to Sea EP*

Tom Misch & Carmody - Out to Sea EP
Tom Misch is one of my favourite discoveries of 2014. If it wasn’t for Soulection I wouldn’t have known him. Out to Sea EP is a collab between Tom Misch (producer + singer/songwriter) & Carmody (singer/songwriter). Everything about this EP is awesome; the production, the mood/themes and the combination of their voices. It’s just soulful music. You can stream Out to Sea EP. You can also check out Tom’s soundcloud, he has a lot of great songs on it. A couple of favourites on the album: All.


Jazz

  • Taylor McFerrin - Early Riser*
  • Terrace Martin - Times
  • Bugge Wesseltoft - OK World
  • Pat Metheny Unity Group - Kin (←>)
  • Brad Mehldau & Mark Guiliana - Mehliana: Taming The Dragon
  • The Miles Davis Quintet ft. John Coltrane - All Of You: The Last Tour 1960

Taylor McFerrin — Early Riser
Almost 8 years after his first release in 2006, Taylor McFerrin follows up Broken Vibes EP with Early Riser LP. This soul jazz/ electronica album sounds fantastic. Early Riser was one of the albums I had on repeat during the summer. Taylor has a lot of great guest appearances on this album; from Emily King, Robert Glasper, Thundercat, Nai Palm of Hiatus Kaiyote to even his dad Bobby McFerrin. A couple of favourites on the album: The Antidote, Degrees Of Light, Already There and PLS DNT LSTN.


R&B

  • Jesse Boykins III - Love Apparatus
  • K. Roosevelt - J O U R N E Y
  • Jhene Aiko - Souled Out
  • Ty Dolla Sign - Sign Language
  • Mar x Full Crate - Form
  • Anderson .Paak - Venice*
  • Majid Jordan - A Place Like This

Anderson .Paak - Venice
Venice is a very nice album. It will take you on a journey starting right away with Milk N’ Honey. First time I heard this track I had to repeat it a couple of times. Another banger on the album is The City which is produced by D.K. the Punisher (who’s also known for). I can keep on pointing out great tracks on this album, but you can also listen to it on soundcloud and judge for yourself. A couple of favourites on the album: Milk N’ Honey, The City, Already and Drugs.


Soul

  • Lee Fields - Emma Jean
  • D’Angelo & The Vanguard - Black Messiah*
  • Sam Smith - In The Lonely Hour
  • Mara Hruby - Archaic Rapture EP
  • Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings - Give the People What They Want
  • JMSN - JMSN (Blue Album)*
  • BJ The Chicago Kid - The M.A.F.E. Project

D’Angelo & The Vanguard - Black Messiah
There is not much to say, Black Messiah is straight up fish grease! D’Angelo made his come back after 14 years and dropped a perfect album (too early to say classic?) like it was nothing. A couple of favourites on the album: The Charade, Really Love, Back to the Future (Part I) and Another Life.

JMSN — JMSN (Blue Album)
I couldn’t choose between whether to write about JMSN or D’angelo so I decided to do both. Hip-Hop heads might know JMSN from appearances on Ab-Soul and Kendrick Lamar projects or collaboration with producers Kaytranada, esta. and Sango. JMSN (Blue Album) is his 3rd project after releasing †Priscilla† in 2012 and †Pllajë† in 2013. JMSN (Blue Album) is a tremendous Soul/R&B album filled with soulful tracks written & produced by JMSN himself. You can stream his album on soundcloud, it’s definitely worth listening. A couple of favourites on the album: Score, ‘Bout it, My Way, Ends (Money) and Delay .


Hip-Hop: Solo act (English)

  • J. Cole - 2014 Forest Hills Drive*
  • Big K.R.I.T. - Cadillactica
  • Asher Roth - RetroHash
  • Pharoahe Monch - PTSD: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
  • Kent M$ney - Crowned
  • Homeboy Sandman - Hallways
  • Bambu - Party Worker
  • Rapsody - Beauty and the Beast
  • Logic - Under Pressure

J. Cole - 2014 Forest Hills Drive
2014 Forest Hills Drive is in my opinion the best project J. Cole has ever dropped up until now. I really liked this album. I can clearly see J. Cole’s growth as an artist; I didn’t really like Cole World, Born Sinner was in my opinion a big step forward and with this album I think he really nailed it. For what it’s worth, the album sold 350k copies in its first week making Cole the biggest Hip-Hop first-week seller of 2014. A couple of favourites on the album: 03' Adolescence, A Tale Of 2 Citiez, No Role Modelz and Apparently.


Hip-Hop: Groups (English)

  • Freddie Gibbs & Madlib - Piñata
  • Dag Savage - E&J
  • Step Brothers - Lord Steppington
  • Run The Jewels - Run The Jewels 2
  • Statik Selektah - #WHATGOESAROUND
  • HS87 - We the Plug*
  • Low Pros - A-Trak & Lex Luger are Low Pros

HS87 - We the Plug
HS87 is pretty well represented in this 2014 list with We the Plug, K.Roosevelt’s J O U R N E Y and Kent M$ney’s Crowned. We the Plug is like its predecessor All I’ve Ever Dreamed Of a great record that showcases the talent that’s on the label. The thing I like the most about HS87 (as a crew & solo artists): there is really no one that sounds like them. The HS87 label dropped a couple of my favourite projects in 2013 & 2014 and I hope they can keep this up for 2015. A couple of favourites on the album: No Talkin’, Cold, Rude Awakening and Grindin’ My Whole Life.


Hip-Hop: International

  • Kohh - Monochrome (Japan)*
  • Norikiyo - 如雨露 (Japan)
  • Feis - Hard Van Buiten, Gebroken Van Binnen (The Netherlands)*
  • Typhoon - Lobi Da Basi (The Netherlands)

Kohh - Monochrome
Kohh is one of the rising stars in the Nihon Hip-Hop scene. He dropped his 2nd (recorded) album Monochrome as his debut album in July 2014. I don’t know why they did this; my Hiragana reading skills are still doo doo (I’m currently workingonit!). I really like Monochrome, the album has a couple of trap tracks but is overall well balanced. Kohh released his 1st recorded album 飛行機 (so now 2nd album) on January 1st 2015. A major plus of Kohh is that you can find his albums on iTunes, unlike a couple of other Japanese hip-hop artists like Han’nya. A couple of favourites on the album: 嘘つき, 貧乏なんて気にしない, Mind Trippin’ and Love.

Feis - Hard Van Buiten, Gebroken Van Binnen
I don’t really listen to a lot of Dutch hip-hop. So I didn’t even know this album was going to drop until one of my friends started talking about it. He sent the “Superman“ videoclip and I was really impressed. I was hoping that the album could keep up with Superman both beat wise & content wise, and it did. A couple of favourites on the album: Paar Minuten, Superman, Loslaten and Gebroken Van Binnen. Another awesome track is the skit/song Baby Van Een H**r, translated Baby from a Hoe. This song is about not wanting a baby from a hoe. I believe they should play it at the beginning of every last call for alcohol (in Dutch clubs). This way every guy is reminded to wrap up, so when shit hits the fan you can be as confident as Jose on Maury!


Did you hate or love the list? Any project(s) I should pay attention to in 2015? Or just want to say hello? Just shoot me a tweet @knrtiss. Or you can also ‘holla at a playa when you see him in the street’!

Thanks for reading. If you enjoyed reading this, please click “Recommend” below. This will help to share the story with others.