I’ll probably post a combined list for my favorite records of the first have of 2014 overall, but for the time being these are the albums I’ve enjoyed over the past three months.

In no particular order (yet)

Andrew Jackson Jihad – Christmas Island

It says a lot for a band that an album as manic and strange as Christmas Island can be the most tame thing in their entire catalogue, but that’s where we are. A sense of sonic and thematic consistency (restraint?) seem odd for AJJ, but it’s working for me. I don’t think this is the best work they’ve ever done, but it holds together so much better than Knife Man. There isn’t a song that I don’t enjoy.

Andrew Jackson Jihad – Children of God
Andrew Jackson Jihad – Linda Ronstadt

Ought – More Than Any Other Day

Ought wears their mx80 Sound and Talking Heads influences plainly on their sleeves, but this album does those predecessors justice. Well, for the most part. Songs like Habit and the title track loom a bit too high over the rest of the album, but I still think it’s worth a listen.

Ought – More Than Any Other Day
Ought – Habit

Marissa Nadler – July

Nadler is probably going to be overlooked this year in favor of similar sounding records from the likes of Angel Olsen and Sharon Van Etten, but as far as I’m concerned July outdoes both of them.

Marissa Nadler – Dead City Emily
Marissa Nadler – Drive

Open Mike Eagle – Dark Comedy

As a longtime (and sometimes apologetic) Open Mike Eagle fan, it feels all too easy to label Dark Comedy as his best or even breakthrough work. At the very least it’s probably his most “album” feeling work. Which. . . is a bit of a backhanded statement, for as cohesive and consistent as these songs are, Dark Comedy is a bit lacking in punchy singles and standout moments, like Your Back Pack Past, The Financial Crisis that Wouldn’t Go Away, and Cobra Commander from 4NML Hsptl. Still, as a holistic experience, this is definitely Mike’s best work yet.

Open Mike Eagle – Qualifiers
Open Mike Eagle – Doug Stamper (skip to 1:33)

Tombs – Savage Gold

A lot of what made 2011’s Path of Totality stand out to me (and it’s no exaggeration to say that the album singlehandedly reignited my interest in metal as a genre) has since been absorbed into the collective black metal consciousness. As such, Savage Gold isn’t quite so much of a gamechanger, but it is still an excellently crafted album from some of the current masters of the genre. I liked it enough to snag the vinyl, so there’s that.

Tombs – Edge of Darkness
Tombs – Deathtripper

The Soft Pink Truth – Why Do the Heathen Rage?

It’s difficult to say where my appreciation of the actual music on Why Do the Heathen Rage? ends and my appreciation of its concept begins. Said concept has been muddled through numerous interviews and impromptu quotations, but we can filter out that it’s something about reinterpreting classic black metal through the lens disco/electronica/techno/etc and knowingly amping up the homosexual connotations. Off the walls conceptual experiment? Pure fun with engrained homophobia? Subversive artistic statement worthy of scrutiny and consideration? I don’t know, I just want to see a million AMV’s choreographed to this industrial cover of Venom’s Black Metal.

The Soft Pink Truth – Black Metal
The Soft Pink Truth – Let There Be Ebola Frost

How to Dress Well – “What Is This Heart?”

Speaking of breakthrough albums. How to Dress Well fits very neatly into the current scene of slightly experimental ambient R&B, but has always stood out to me from the likes of The Weeknd and Rhye. I absolutely adore 2010’s Love Remains, but by comparison it’s hard to view “What Is This Heart?” as anything but a major evolution. Tom Krell strips back his signature haze of distortion and effects, letting his falsetto hang front and center while the album itself traces a lonely, emotive journey of introspection that feels as much about the abstract nature of its subjects (only some of them are staples of the genre; love, relating to other people, growing up, depression, loneliness, bringing all of these things onto ourselves even when we realize we shouldn’t but for whatever reason we’re unable to stop) as it is the stories it tells. I could go on and on but the point I’m trying to make is that this one hit me really close to home, knocking me for a loop harder and faster than almost any other record I’ve heard this year.

How to Dress Well – Words I Don’t Remember
How to Dress Well – Face Again

Q1 list can be found here.