Last year, when we decided to do a year-end roundup of the best Southern albums, we entered the process in a carefree way. We did it because we could.

Perhaps that attitude reflected our youthful arrogance. We were only about five months old at the time, and we thought, “Well, it doesn’t matter that much. Not that many people will care about it, anyway.”

This year, we’re a little scared because … well … y’all have expanded the Family a good bit. So the question becomes, do we still have the arrogance — the cojones, if you will — to hold forth about The Best Southern Albums of 2014?

Well, yeah, we do. We’re like that. We are the kind of people who look up and suddenly realize that it’s after midnight, we’re surrounded by empty whiskey glasses and a big pile of records, and that we’ve just spent the last four hours arguing about music. And this makes us happy.