Years come and go. Some and great, some are greater and some are even greater; and 2014 hasn’t been at all bad (in terms of music releases), so I decided to sum up all the album reviews I’ve been procrastinating in a whole review, ranking them from 1 (being the best) to 10. I’m sure you’ll miss some albums here and there since I have sadly not listened to as many new albums as I would have liked to, so feel free to leave your own “top 10” list of albums on the comments down below!
1. “1989” by Taylor Swift
Ms. Swift reigns from
the top of this list with what’s her best album to date, transitioning from a Country inspired sound to her first officially labeled “Pop” album -something that didn’t affect at all her clever, epic songwriting-. Named after her birth year, the 25 years old artist was inspired by the “80s pop” sound, something especially notable on one of the best tracks on the record, “New Romantics”. The album, a huge record breaker, features 16 songs (plus 3 “voice memos” from her phone on which Taylor relates her creative process) on its “D.L.X.” edition, including powerful ballads, such as “All You Had To Do Was Stay” or “Clean” and dance off songs like the lead single of the album, “Shake It Off”. It doesn’t matter what music genre you’re into, you’ll fall in love with this album, from start to finish.
2. “Do It Again” by Röyksopp & Robyn
Reviewed earlier on this blog, 
the Scandinavian acts “Röyksopp” and “Robyn” joined forces together once again to create a dark, twisted and pretentious record and one of the most notorious sounds of the year. Despite being tagged as a “mini-album” or an EP, it lays on this list’s second place due to its magnificent production and its strong, extremely provocative visuals. The title track of the Grammy nominated album, “Do It Again”, refered to as an “accidental pop song” by its creators, sums up the sound of the whole composition and serves as some kind of “guide” for it. However, you’ll find this album, as every other Röyksopp and Robyn collaboration, insufficient. Five tracks and a total record length of 35 minutes may not be enough for you if you end up enjoying this project as much as I did.
3. “I Never Learn” by Lykke Li
An impressive
record you can read more about here. Lykke Li once again turns in an impressive, smart record. Melodies are carefully placed on this album, accompanied by an excelent job in the production yet Lykke Li’s incredibly sharp and clever metaphors become one of the biggest highlights of the album. Lykke Li has clearly evolved from her last record, published 4 years ago (“Wounded Rhymes”) to a more mature, cold and scheming sound, not necessarily better or worse, but strictly different, while remaining true to her own essence. If I were to point out a downside of this album, I’d say it’s the lack of a collection of visuals as outstanding as her previous work brought.
4. “Stay Gold” by First Aid Kit
The Söderberg 
sisters released their most ambitious album to date last June 10th. The record, named “Stay Gold”, shares a shade of folk-rock and features a very enveloping sound. The record sounds young, reckless and magical while leaving some space for classic country elements. Produced by Mike Mogis, who worked on their previous project, the album is complex, strong and full of different shades. Touches of sadness, joy and longing are all over this album, from its bests tracks, like “My Silver Linning”, “Stay Gold” or “Heaven Knows” to its less strong songs. If you’re a fan of the genre, you’ll certainly enjoy this swedish jewel from its first track to its very last sound.
5. “White Noise” by PVRIS
Releasing this
as their debut album last November 4th, Pvris surprised everyone. This album is everything you could ask for and more. Rock vibes and alternative influences mix up for a burning up ten-track project. Jewels like “St. Patrick”, “Fire” or “Mirrors” hide on this passive-aggressive powerful record, waiting for you to discover them. Tagging them, linking them to a certain genre, however, is hard when every songs sounds like a potential track of a Gotham City Sirens movie soundtrack. Lyrically influenced by bands like “Paramore”, the Massachusetts band has accomplished what others achieve after years of career. A force that cannot be stopped, this band marks history for female-led groups, being the first one to sign for Rise Records.
6. “Going To Hell” by The Pretty Reckless
Reaching a 
harder sound with this record, four years after their debut “Light Me Up”, the female-led band has accomplised to put out another “mainstream rock” masterpiece. Reviewed more in detail here, the band’s sophomore album is filled with sex, blasphemy and assertive lyrics. Songs like “Dear Sister”, “Why’d You Bring a Shotgun to the Party” and “Sweet Things” are some of its hidden jewels. The record’s also brought the best collection of videos by the band so far, two visual masterpieces for the lead singles “Going To Hell” and “Heaven Knows”. Dark and obscure, the album shows the direction the band is taking towards classic rock and its cover, suggestive and rebellious marks the way.
7. “Sucker” by Charli XCX
Breaking up 
from the sound she developed on her previous record, Charli has come back with a totally different style. This time, her record is more defined by “pop punk” and she’s reduced her lyrics to more simple, catchy, aggressive lines. Not exactly worse than the techno alternative style she developed on “True Romance” but way apart from that. The best of the album is brought by tracks like “Gold Coins”, “Breaking Up” or “London Queen”, with banging loud guitars and fun melodies. The downsides of this album -apart from its terrible artwork- are its “filling” tracks: “Doing It”, “Hanging Around” and “Need Ur Love”, which lower the album’s rhythm, being totally expendable. The rest of the album is really great, fun to listen to, even funnier to sing along to. Another great job from the very talented, 22 years old Charli XCX.
8. “X” by Ed Sheeran
English 
singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran released this year his anticipated sophomore album by the name of “X” (multiply). Led by a highly successful single, “Sing”, the album has a different touch than his previous record, being less simple and better produced. Despite being lyrically and sonically cohesive, few songs stand out from the rest such as “Don’t”, “I See Fire”, “Take It Back” (Ed Sheeran rapping? Apparently, he’s just a “singer with the flow”. The more you se…) and “Thinking Out Loud”. With this album, Ed didn’t only showcased his talent in a more precise way but also amplified his public to a bigger population. Hopefully the next time the ginger guitar master will focus on creating an album where his own songs won’t eclipse the rest of the tracks.
9. “Ultraviolence” by Lana del Rey
You may have
thought you saw the last of Lana Del Rey when she published the re-edition of her *cough* debut album, “Born To Die: The Paradise Edition”, but she came back. After releasing a thrilling, dramatical version of the classic “Once Upon a Dream” for the soundtrack of “Maleficent”, she announced the date of her anticipated (sophomore?) record: “Ultraviolence”. The lead single, “West Coast” was remixed to its core and back while for this record, Lana was produced by the one and only Dan Auerbach, and you can feel that in the album. Some of the most outstanding songs are “Brooklyn Baby” (featuring vocals from Barrie O’Neill), “Shades of Cool” (which has an AMAZING set of guitars) and “Florida Kilos” (present only on the “special” edition of the album).
10. “Cheek To Cheek” by Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga
The first 
collaboration of this bizarre couple was released on Tony Bennett’s “Duets II” and it just wasn’t enough for anyone. Lady Gaga’s chameleonic spirit and Tony Bennet’s natural elegance work perfectly togehter and make magic right from the core of the jazz genre (or traditional pop, however you wanna label this). The reason this collaboration isn’t higher on this list? There’s no original material on the album. This is a compilation of jazz standards, nothing more, nothing less yet it’s done a favor to the general public and introduced the genre to lots of us.
Lady I and J 
First things first: YAY YOU’RE BACK!
Now on to the top 10. I agree with most of all, though I’d add 1000 forms of fear by Sia and In the lonely hour by Sam Smith =)
Thanks for reading Sarah! Yes, I feel like Sam Smith should have made the list too, his album is truly amazing. Somehow chosing just 10 albums from 2014 was harder than ranking them.