2014 in Music, Part 1

2014 offered up a handful of fantastic albums, together with an incredible number of very good ones.  It was far easier for me to identify my 10 favorites than to figure out the next 15 -- over 40 different albums moved in and out of my Top 25.  Albums that I thought were Top 10 mid-year slipped out of the Top 25 by year's end.  Albums with a couple of songs I absolutely love dropped considerably if the rest of the album didn't measure up.  With so many worthy albums, I decided to lengthen my list beyond the length I normally do.  In fact I'm doubling it.  But for those albums outside the Top 25, I'm sticking with an alphabetical list -- trying to rank within this group proved far too difficult.  Here are the albums ranked between 26 and 50:

Ryan Adams -- Ryan Adams

Damon Albarn -- Everyday Robots

*The Apache Relay -- Apache Relay

The Autumn Defense -- Fifth

*Andrew Bird -- Things Are Really Great Here, Sort Of...

Black Lips -- Underneath the Rainbow

*Benjamin Booker -- Benjamin Booker

Centro-matic -- Take Pride in Your Long Odds

EELS -- The Cautionary Tales of Mark Oliver Everett

Fear of Men -- Loom

FREEMAN -- FREEMAN

The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger -- Midnight Sun

Greyhounds -- Accumulator

*Hiss Golden Messenger -- Lateness of Dancers

Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings -- Give The People What They Want

King Tuff -- Black Moon Spell

Mimicking Birds -- Eons

The New Basement Tapes -- Lost on the River

Pixies -- Indie Cindy

Damien Rice -- My Favorite Faded Fantasy

*Roadkill Ghost Choir -- In Tongues

Angus & Julia Stone -- Angus & Julia Stone

Sun Kil Moon -- Benji

*Tweedy -- Sukierae

Sharon Van Etten -- Are We There

* -- Artist I saw in 2014

I also want to say how fortunate I was to make it to so many shows.  In 2014, I went to one festival on my own, another two with my family, and 15 other concerts.  My favorite sets were offered up by Charles Bradley, Courtney Barnett, Frank Turner, Drive-by Truckers, and Michael Franti.

So between the albums and the shows, this has been a heck of a year for me musically.  

Part 2 of my year-end summary is coming soon...