To celebrate all that was wonderful in 2014, the staff of For The Win is counting down our favorite moments in sports, TV, movies and music. Here are our favorite albums of the year.

10. Team Spirit: Killing Time

Team Spirit is a pop punk band founded by former Passion Pit keyboardist Ayad Al-Adhammy, and Killing Time is ten songs of glorious, fist-pumping rock fun. Al-Adhammy still has a fine ear for a hook, but replacing the synths and falsetto of Passion Pit are roaring sing-alongs and barroom stomps. “I’m on my knees, I’m praying,” he sings on “Surrender,” the album’s first track. “I’m praying to you to save me. But it’s too late to save me.” Then a monster guitar solo comes in and saves him. – Nate Scott

Song to listen to: “Surrender”

9. Open Mike Eagle: Dark Comedy

The indie hip-hop emcee, who hails from L.A. via Chicago, crafted this gem that lyrically weaves personal introspection with pop culture references, all packaged under the guise of a comedy show. The album’s highlight is “Doug Stamper,” which namechecks the nefarious House of Cards character and features a verse from comedian-of-the-moment Hannibal Burress. – Chris Strauss

Song to listen to: “Doug Stamper”

8. Taylor Swift: 1989

The year’s best marketed album just happened to be its best pop album. 1989 was Taylor Swift’s official departure from country to the world of pop music, and while no big ideas are present here, the album is crammed with sugary songs that are difficult to resist. Swift cited her relocation to New York City as the inspiration for the album, and 1989’s easy pop does a great job at telling the story of one basic girl’s move to the Big Apple. – Nate Scott

Song to listen to: “Shake It Off”

7. Benjamin Booker: Benjamin Booker

Benjamin Booker stormed out of New Orleans this year on the back of a killer guitar riff and a voice that seemed to come from 70 years ago. The Florida-born singer’s debut album, Benjamin Booker, was a shout back to the original rhythm and blues, and Booker’s lyrics on drug use, escape, fear and loathing will shake you to your core — if you can ever figure out exactly what he’s singing. – Nate Scott

Song to listen to: “Violent Shiver”

6. Mac DeMarco: Salad Days

Mac DeMarco is not for everybody. Indie rock’s favorite gap-toothed goofball makes music that intentionally sounds twisted and off-kilter. His excellent album Salad Days was one that not everyone got, but for those who did, it became one that was hard to brush off. At times funky, sad and soulful, the album warps and winds. It’s telling that the only song DeMarco didn’t want on the album, “Let Her Go,” is the most accessible. For the rest of the album, it demands a little work. – Nate Scott

Song to listen to: “Blue Boy”

5. Isaiah Rashad: Cilvia Demo

The first label offering of Top Dawg Entertainment’s fifth starter came at the very top of the year, and good gracious, it delivered.

Isaiah Rashad is at once a kindred spirit and unlike anyone else on the Top Dawg imprint. He isn’t from California, and he didn’t come up on West Coast rap legends like DJ Quik, 2Pac, Snoop Dogg, or Dr. Dre. He was rumbling over potholes in his Civic in Chattanooga, Tennessee, listening to burned CDs featuring Master P, Lil Boosie, Webbie, and OutKast.

Rashad’s style is undeniably blue-collar, bracingly melodic, and he tends to spend a lot of time musing about the past, though he doesn’t get stuck there. He’s also got verses. In the title track, Rashad tackles the trials and tribulations of being black in America, music’s healing properties, and the levity of creative expression with six words that I thought on more than any other this year: “’93 Til, be cool for Emmett.” – Micah Peters

Song to listen to: “Soliloquy”

4. Against Me!: Transgender Dysphoria Blues

The punk band’s first album since lead singer Laura Jane Grace came out as transgender in 2012, this aggressive ten-track opus takes the listener along as she defiantly illustrates her personal journey on songs like “Drinking With the Jocks” and “True Trans Soul Rebel.” It’s challenging, revealing, riveting and also serves as one of the year’s standout rock records. – Chris Strauss

Song to listen to: “Transgender Dysphoria Blues”

3. The War On Drugs: Lost in the Dream



It’s hard to tell if this is one of the best albums of 2014 or if it’s actually just a really great Dire Straits impression. The answer is probably somewhere in between the waves. (See what I did there? No? Listen to “An Ocean In Between the Waves”.)

Grantland said Lost in the Dream would introduce War on Drugs to America’s “big rooms”, and therefore America to the War on Drugs. It kind of happened too, with the album peaking at No. 26 on the Billboard 200 and landing on everybody’s year-end list, Mark Kozelek be damned. – Jamie Mottram

Song to listen to: “Red Eyes”

2. Sturgill Simpson: Metamodern Sounds in Country Music



The singer-songwriter won over David Letterman and plenty of other new fans with his sophomore solo album, which is the perfect country record for your friends who claim to not like country music. Simpson channels legends like Waylon Jennings while giving the album a slightly trippy vibe that isn’t particularly common in his genre. For as incredible as his original songs are, Simpson’s reworked cover of When in Rome’s 1988 dance hit “The Promise” is an absolute revelation. – Chris Strauss

Song to listen to: “Turtles All The Way Down”

1. Run The Jewels: Run The Jewels 2

Be forewarned that Run The Jewels 2, like its forebear, is not for the faint of heart or narrow of mind. It’s loud, it’s brash, and it’s abrasive. It grabs hold of you and makes you pay attention. That’s what happens when El-P, one half of the Run The Jewels duo (along with Killer Mike), handles the production.

The best track on the album is “Early,” which kicks off with a Killer Mike verse in which he pleads with a faceless cop and hits you right in your soul: “Please don’t lock me up in front of my kids / And in front of my wife / Man I ain’t got a gun or a knife / You do this and you ruin my life.” Killer Mike’s verse, though delivered with his trademarked fervor, isn’t born of outrage. It comes from a place of exhaustion.

And it seemed only destined that RTJ would be performing in St. Louis the night that a grand jury decided not to indict Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown. Killer Mike spoke to the crowd before the show, and his words were at once tired, broken, furious, and yet, at the very end hopeful. It was a reminder that Run The Jewels 2 wasn’t just the album we wanted this year; it was the one we needed. – Micah Peters

Song to listen to: “Early”

Hon. Mentions:

Native America: Grown Up Wrong, Schoolboy Q: Oxymoron, Ex Hex: Rips, Caddywhompus: Feathering a Nest, Perfume Genius: Too Bright, alt-J: This Is All Yours, FKA twigs: LP1, Sam Smith: In The Lonely Hour, Hiss Golden Messenger: Lateness of Dancers, Hurray for the Riff Raff: Small Town Heroes, Iggy Azalea: The New Classic, Rick Ross: Mastermind, G-Eazy: These Things Happen, Future Islands: Singles, Glish: Glish, Gerard Way: Hesitant Alien, Wet: Wet, Cymbals Eat Guitars: Lose, Jenny Lewis: The Voyager.