{"id":1224,"date":"2015-01-20T10:05:42","date_gmt":"2015-01-20T15:05:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thedirtroad.net\/jeff\/journal\/?p=1224"},"modified":"2015-01-20T10:05:42","modified_gmt":"2015-01-20T15:05:42","slug":"my-favorite-music-of-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedirtroad.net\/jeff\/journal\/2015\/01\/20\/my-favorite-music-of-2014\/","title":{"rendered":"My Favorite Music of 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now that the year has wrapped up, it’s time to figure out my favorite music of 2014. It’s impossible to talk about music in 2014 without talking about Taylor Swift’s 1989<\/em>. The album dominated sales for the year and it some ways it reminds me of the year Adele dominated the music scene with 21<\/i>. Much like there is no shame in an old guy like me listening to 21<\/i>, I don’t think there should be any shame in listening to 1989<\/i>. That being said, while it is audio candy, it misses the list. The album style fits the title perfectly, I feel like I could have been listening to “Style” on my car radio on Power 99 in my Plymouth Horizon. However, it’s not lyrically very interesting to me, and maybe it shouldn’t be because I’m not a girl in my teens\/twenties. Much of the album sounds defeatist, the relationship is going to end poorly before it even begins. Maybe I’m too much of an optimist in my romance. So, great sounding album and very much hummable, but not on the list.<\/p>\n

On to the list…<\/p>\n

Kye Kye – Fantasize<\/i><\/b>
\nA terrific sophomore effect that is simply hypnotic in sound. Paper Route’s Chad Howat has done an incredible production job on an album that excites and soothes.<\/p>\n

The Choir – Shadow Weaver<\/i><\/b>
\nI have really enjoyed the recent increase in activity by The Choir in the last five years and each album that they have released since Burning Like The Midnight Sun<\/i> has been better than the album before it. This is the noisiest one with lots of Marc Byrd’s influence. Steve Hindalong’s lyrics are as quirky and creative as ever, no one does a turn of phrase like he does.<\/p>\n

Jeremy Casella – Death In Reverse<\/i><\/b>
\nCasella has near-singlehandedly created a gorgeous sounding album loaded with longing for paradise. It is an album that inspires. I think of joy when I hear this album and that is a rare thing in music these days. He has managed to make an album that is not cliched with Christian platitudes but it still loaded with a want and a need to connect with the Creator.<\/p>\n

Coldplay – Ghost Stories<\/i><\/b>
\nIt seems like ever since Coldplay released Parachutes<\/i> I have been wanting them to realize another one like it. This is as close to a second Parachutes<\/i> as we have gotten. The album sounds so good even if it is so sad with Chris Martin’s very public separation bleeding into the lyrics and even if “Sky Full of Stars” sounds like every anthemic song they have done before, it’s not possible not to dance along to it.<\/p>\n

Anberlin – Lowborn<\/i><\/b>
\nI’ve already written a review about this album<\/a>, but I’ll repeat myself a little bit. Lowborn<\/i> is a fine swan song for a band going out on their own terms and the bittersweet tone fits the situation perfectly.<\/p>\n

Lecrae – Anomaly<\/i><\/b>
\nIt’s past time to start taking Lecrae seriously. The album crackles with anger against injustice, sarcasm against social unbalance, and even gives some humor. Alongside artists like Propaganda, I am very happy to hear hip-hop artists taking on both their faith and social concerns in an upfront manner. <\/p>\n

Steve Taylor – Goliath<\/i><\/b>
\nThe tour from this album<\/a> was a whole lot of fun but the best part is that Taylor has moved back in the saddle with such ease reprising his role as the “clown prince of Christian music.” Taylor leaves no sacred cow unskewered on an album that snarls with loud guitars and drums and I hope there is more to come from this legend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now that the year has wrapped up, it’s time to figure out my favorite music of 2014. It’s impossible to talk about music in 2014 without talking about Taylor Swift’s 1989. The album dominated sales for the year and it … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-youre-a-rock-n-roll-star"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedirtroad.net\/jeff\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedirtroad.net\/jeff\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedirtroad.net\/jeff\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedirtroad.net\/jeff\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedirtroad.net\/jeff\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1224"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thedirtroad.net\/jeff\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1226,"href":"https:\/\/thedirtroad.net\/jeff\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1224\/revisions\/1226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedirtroad.net\/jeff\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedirtroad.net\/jeff\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedirtroad.net\/jeff\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}