The 55 Best Albums of 2014 (45-55)

Back from vacation and back on the horse.  I will be attending Sundance next week and will keep on top of all the music shenanigans happening.  Until then, let's finish off 2014 the right way. Here are the 55 Best Albums of 2014 (45-55):

45. Kele - Trick
46. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Only Run
47. Phantogram - Voices
48. Metronomy - Love Letters
49. The Faint - Doom Abuse
50. Death From Above 1979 - This Physical World
51. PS I Love You - For Those Who Stay
52. Sharon Van Etten - Are We There?
53. Tom Petty - Hypnotic Eye
54. Chris Robinson Brotherhood - Phosphorescent Harvest
55. Pixies - Indie Cindy

Buy These albums now!!    

The 11 Best Songs By Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

 Fun Fact:  CYHSY's debut album was self-released and sold over 125,000 copies.

Here are The 11 Best Songs By Clap Your Hands Say Yeah:

1. Hysterical (Hysterical) 
2. The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah)
3. Upon This Tidal Wave of Young Blood (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah)
4. Is This Love? (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah)
5. Same Mistake (Hysterical)
6. Ketamine and Ecstasy (Hysterical)
7. Over and Over (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah)
8. Graceful Retreat (KCRW Morning Becomes Eclectic)
9. The Sword Song (Some Loud Thunder)
10. Yesterday, Never (Hysterical)
11. In This Home On Ice (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah)

Buy Clap Your Hands Say Yeah's new album, Only Run...now!!!

Don't forget to check out our blog's awesome new book The 111 Best Lists of the 2000s.  Available now!

The 11 Best Songs By Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

A recent article stated that most department stores a la Target, Best Buy, Walmart will completely remove CDs from their shelves by 2014.  It's crazy to imagine that the entire physical element of the music industry will be gone in less than three years.  It will exist in space, in a place between nowhere and our ears.  Some will go kicking and screaming...clutching the physical form until their fingers are pried from its cold dead plastic case.  Others have already embraced the future.

This is something I admire about CYHSY...they were one of the first to embrace the internet and use it to their advantage.  Without a label, they conquered the music world by manipulating the empty space between our CD players and our headphones.  They jumped on the blogosphere and rode it into our hearts.  Now, on their third album...they're not an indie rock underground secret...they're a main stream staple.  Rolling Stone and Spin are pimping CYHSY's new album...while ignoring Mick Jagger's newest supergroup.  And they did it without needed to buy space on the CD shelves.

Here are the 11 Best Songs By Clap Your Hands Say Yeah:

1. The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah)
2. Is This Love? (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah)
3. In This Home On Ice (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah)
4. Cigarettes (BBC - This Home On Ice)
5. The Sword Song (Some Loud Thunder Bonus Track)
6. Satan Said Dance (Some Loud Thunder)
7. Over and Over (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah)
8. Upon This Tidal Wave Of Young Blood (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah)
9. Graceful Retreat/Some Loud Thunder (KCRW - Morning Becomes Eclectic)
10.  Heavy Metal (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah)
11.  Mama, Won't You Keep Them Castles in the Air Burning? (Some Loud Thunder)

Buy the new CYHSY...Hysterical...now!!

The 11 Best Songs By Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

Starting tomorrow and over the next month, we're about to be introduced to all the big final releases of the year. So before the craziness is unleashed, I wanted to shortly stop and mention a couple of releases that have slid by unnoticed. Both releases feature Alec Ounsworth (singer of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah). First up is a full on solo release (Mo Beauty) on the Anti- label. Which is ironic considering that CYHSY is "anti-label."

But that's not all. Alec has also formed his own indie supergroup called Flashy Pyhton, featuring members of Dr. Dog, Man Man, and the Walkmen. Like CYHSY, Alec has chosen the label-less route...so...you can pick up their first release from their website.

Here are the 11 Best Songs By Clap Your Hands Say Yeah:

1. Upon The Tidal Wave of Young Blood (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah)
2. My Yellow Country Teeth (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah)
3. Is This Love? (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah)
4. The Sword Song (Some Loud Thunder)
5. Over and Over Again (Lost and Found) - (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah)
6. Some Loud Thunder (Tour EP)
7. Mama, Won't You Keep Them Castles in the Air Burning? (Some Loud Thunder)
8. Heavy Metal (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah)
9. Satan Said Dance (Some Loud Thunder)
10. In This Home On Ice (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah)
11. Cigarettes (In This Home On Ice)

Buy Alec Ounsworth's new solo album, Mo Beauty. Also buy Alec's new supergroup, Flashy Python.

The 111 Best Albums of the 00s (100-111)

With very few new releases of note coming out these next few weeks...I'm jumping the gun and heading into the uber list that every blogger has been waiting for since blogging was invented. Yes...that's right. It's the best of the decade...and this will be the first decade where bloggers get to weigh in on the count. Even though there's "Nevermind" or "OK Computer" this decade...there was a much stronger middle. Even chipping the list down to 111...I've left well over a 100 albums of equal quality and importance sitting on the sidelines.

And even though we have a solid 4 months of releases coming, there's no telling whether these albums will truly be the best of the decade for at least another few years. I mean what's left Jay-Z? Detox? Strong contenders...but in all honestly...only time can tell.

Here are the 111 Best Albums of the 00s (100-111):

100. The Streets - A Grand Don't Come For Free (2004)
- Mike Skinner's concept rap album was clever, inventive and unlike anything we'd heard....and have yet to hear. (It Was Supposed to Be So Easy)

101. Madvillain - Madvillany (2004)
- One of MF Doom's many monikers found the hip-hop rapper/producer re-inventing what a song should or could be. (Fancy Clown)

102. TV on the Radio - Dear Science (2008)
- Last year's newest offering from this dynamic group didn't have the impact of their previous release (spoiler) but it still pushed the boundaries of where music could go.

103. Common - Be (2005)
- For years, Common was known as the rapper with a conscious. Content at being just underground. But on this release...he merged his smart style with bigger production and created genre-bending classic.

104. Modest Mouse - Good News For People who Love Bad News (2004)
- Isaac Brock and crew dump their artistic side and shoot for commercial success. In doing so, they become the last of the Seattle greats. (Bukowski)

105. Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca (2009)
- Still a bit early to figure how mighty this album is...but its praise hasn't slowed yet.

106. Badly Drawn Boy - The Hour of the Bewilderbeast (2000)
- Though Damon Gough's career has been uneven over this decade, his first offering is still a solid offering, paving the way to the freak folk bands to follow. (The Shining)

107. Radiohead - Hail To The Thief (2003)
- The Head's anti-Bush album did very little to stop him from being re-elected, or invading Iraq...but it did provide us with some great music. (There There)

108. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (2006)
- CYHSY is the first of the next generation in rock bands. Their success is laid at the feet of the bloggers who spread the praise of their debut album to their readers. They are the first true success story of the blogger-age...and it's a damn fine album to boot. (Yellow Country Teeth)

109. Sufjan Stevens - Illnoise (2005)
- Soulful folk backed by orchestras? Who could have thought that would sound good? One man made it work.

110. Brian Wilson - Smile (2004)
- A hard album to list here. Not that it's not a fantastic album...but does it really belong in the 00s? It was a hard call...there's never a bad time for Beach Boys bliss...but it edges in for purely not getting it fair shot years ago.

111. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - The Last DJ (2002)
- Though it was panned by critics...had minimal sales...and barely any radio play, TP's inditement of the radio/music industry now sounds like an eerie premonition of the decade that would come. Bashing the DJ-less radio playlists, rock stars created from game shows, and soaring ticket prices that milk kids of their last dime, The Last DJ sounds less like a prediction and more like a warning. Too bad no one heeded it. (The Last DJ)

Buy These albums now at Best of the 00s.