UCLA Radio’s Top 10 Albums of 2014

It’s been quite a year in music. The station gathered up their opinions, put their top 10 albums in, and together, we created a list that very much defines the majority of the stations’ highlights in music for 2014. We hope you enjoy and if you haven’t listened to any of the albums listed, we highly recommend it. Happy Finals / Holidays from UCLA Radio!

1) Run The Jewels: Run the Jewels 2 (Mass Appeal)





“Blast your head off beats from the king of the underground and an underrated workhorse finally getting his due. El-P is a living legend, one of the greatest producers ever, and after years of features Killer Mike is finally rising from the shadow of Outkast to become one of the best in the game. The album snarls and squeals at every turn, bumping bass and shrill synths combining into non-stop, teeth-gnashing blasts. Above it all, the two float like rajahs, laying down intelligent, honest, head-shakingly good bars. Last year they claimed "there will be no respect for the Throne.” That doesn’t seem like such a ridiculous boast anymore.“ - Zach North

2) Mac DeMarco - Salad Days (Captured Tracks)





The gap-toothed, gruff-looking DeMarco doesn’t look like someone with such an angelic voice as his. In his sophomore album, Salad Days, with dripping emotions he sings mainly of a woman, while also doing some soul-searching in one of the best tracks on the album, "Chamber of Reflection.”

- Elizabeth Battey

3) FKA Twigs - LP1 (Young Turks)

“An easy choice for album of the year, Twigs mixes harsh industrial beats, warm R&B chords, pitch shifted vocals, and emotionally vigorous lyrics to craft the most compelling debut release (or any release, really) of the entire year. She has a knack for dense layering without creating stuffy compositions; her songs breathe with both space and intimacy. Twigs draws you in with breathy, falsetto-filled coos, as if she’s reading you passages from her diary, only to quickly push back with jarring lines like "live or leave me.” The constant line she walks between closeness and distance makes for a difficult, but immensely rewarding listen.“

- Gabriel Brenner

4) St. Vincent - St. Vincent (Loma Vista)

5) Freddie Gibbs & Madlib - Piñata (Madlib Invazion)

"Madlib and Freddie Gibbs are a great time, Madlib gives Gibbs a more dynamic sound, while Gibbs gives Madlib a much needed harder sound.”



- Esther Robinsun-Abrams

6) The War On Drugs - Lost in the Dream (Secretly Canadian)

7) Spoon - They Want My Soul (Loma Vista)

“Not too far off from Spoon’s earlier albums, but definitely has a grungier outlook than songs like "Don’t You Evah”. I’d classify the album as both eclectic, groovy, and just the slightest bit experimental for this normally vanilla band.“

- Eric Aberbook

8) Ought - More Than Any Other Day (Constellation Recordings)

9) Alex G - DSU (Orchid Tapes)

"Considering this is Alex G’s sixth LP on top of the many other tracks he has lying around the web and on his bandcamp page, I can honestly say the 21-year old’s songwriting skills only get better and better. Giannoscoli’s (Alex’s full last name) work on DSU definitely put me in a different atmosphere from first listen onward: at home in a suburban neighborhood on the midwest enjoying some time alone or at a backyard house show with best friends on break from school. Though I can never make out what Alex wants to thematically project in his songs (in my defense, Alex himself has stated in past interviews that he doesn’t see why people would try to make a concept or theme out of his own music as his writing is almost completely ambiguous and vague enough that it’s pointless to come up with a specific "meaning” of an Alex G song), I cannot give less of a shit. This album is my personal favorite of the year. Hope you all listen to this album and feel like :/ too"

- Eddie Hernandez



10) Against Me - Transgender Dysphoria Blues (Total Treble Music and Xtra Mile Recordings)

