DavesMusicDatabase.com is devoted to ranking, rating, and reviewing music of all genres and eras. The DMDB blog serves up album and song reviews, best-of lists, music history snapshots, and music-related essays.
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| First posted 12/31/2014; updated 1/8/2021. |
 | Dave’s Music Database:Top Albums of 2014 |
Based on a combination of year-end lists (see resources at bottom of page) and overall status in Dave’s Music Database, these are the top 25 albums of 2014. Be sure to also check out the DMDB post of the top 50 songs of 2014.
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| Dave’s Music Database:Top 50 Songs of 2014 |
These are the top 50 songs of the year based on their overall performance in Dave’s Music Database, which is determined by combining chart data, sales figures, streaming, video views, and aggregates from year-end lists. Check out “Top Songs and Albums of the Year” lists here.
DMDB Top 1%:
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First posted 12/31/2014; last updated 1/18/2023. |
Black Messiah |
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Released: December 15, 2014 Peak: 5 US, 14 RB, 47 UK, 17 CN, 50 AU Sales (in millions): -- Genre: R&B |
Tracks: Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts.
Total Running Time: 55:54 |
Rating:  4.430 out of 5.00 (average of 28 ratings)
Awards: (Click on award to learn more).
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About the Album: With 1995’s Brown Sugar and 2000’s Voodoo, D’Angelo made “two classics that twisted gospel, soul, funk, and hip-hop with aloof but deep-feeling swagger.” AMG Then he disappeared for fourteen years. That built up “impossible levels of anticipation for…Black Messiah, [but] was worth the wait.” RS’20 “D’Angelo retains the rhythmic core that helped him create Voodoo, namely Questlove, bassist Pino Palladino, and trumpeter Roy Hargrove, and adds many players to the mix, including guitarist Jesse Johnson and drummers James Gadson and Chris Dave. Q-Tip contributed to the writing of two songs, but a greater impact is made by Kendra Foster, who co-wrote the same pair, as well as six additional numbers, and can often be heard in the background.” AMG The album “invites comparisons to the purposefully sloppy funk of Sly & the Family Stone’s There’s a Riot Goin’ On.” AMG D’Angelo brings “a new political rage to deep-soul grooves” RS’20 to “the dreamy churn” AMG of “The Charade, responding to the Black Lives Matter movement: ‘All we wanted was a chance to talk / Instead we only got outlined in chalk.’” RS’20 There are also “societal ruminations within the fiery judder of 1000 Deaths” AMG and “the falsetto blues of Till It’s Done, fueled as much by current planetary ills and race relations as the same ones that prompted the works of D’Angelo’s heroes, strike the deepest.” AMG “Among the material that concerns spirituality, devotion, lost love, and lust, D’Angelo and company swing, float, and jab to nonstop grimace-inducing effect. On the surface, Sugah Daddy seems like an unassuming exercise in fusing black music innovations that span decades, and then, through close listening, the content of D’Angelo’s impish gibberish becomes clear. At the other end, there’s Another Life, a wailing, tugging ballad for the ages that sounds like a lost Chicago-Philly hybrid, sitar and all, with a mix that emphasizes the drums.” AMG “Black Messiah clashes with mainstream R&B trends as much as Voodoo did in 2000. Unsurprisingly, the artist’s label picked this album’s tamest, most traditional segment – the acoustic ballad Really Love – as the first song serviced to commercial radio. It’s the one closest to ‘Untitled (How Does It Feel),’ the Voodoo cut that, due to its revealing video, made D’Angelo feel as if his image was getting across more than his music.” AMG “In the following song, the strutting Back to the Future (Part I), D’Angelo gets wistful about a lost love and directly references that chapter: ‘So if you’re wondering about the shape I’m in / I hope it ain’t my abdomen that you’re referring to.’ The mere existence of his third album evinces that, creatively, he’s doing all right.” AMG |
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First posted 4/25/2022. |
A Love Supreme |
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Released: January 1965 Recorded: December 9, 1964 Peak: 21 US (catalog chart), -- UK, -- CN, -- AU Sales (in millions): 0.5 US Genre: jazz |
Tracks:Song Title [time]
Total Running Time: 33:02 The Players:
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Rating: 4.045 out of 5.00 (average of 24 ratings)
Quotable:“Easily one of the most important records ever made” – Jack LV Isles, AllMusic.comAwards:(Click on award to learn more).
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A Jazz MasterpieceJohn Coltrane’s A Love Supreme is “a four-movement suite about inspiration-musical, romantic, and spiritual.” EW’93 It is “his most fully realized artistic statement” TB and his best-selling album. It is “widely considered his masterpiece.” WK Jazz critic Tom Hull called it “the most perfectly plotted single piece of jazz ever recorded.” WK It is “an exemplary recording of modal jazz,” WK which focused on “modulating, or changing keys.” AK-102 “To rapidly change the harmonic base of a melody, not once, but repeatedly, is to invite an unsettling effect…[which] in the conxtext of A Love Supreme…fulfills a number of functions.” AK-102Irish singer/songwriter Neil Hannon said, “Every so often this ceases to be a jazz record and is more avant-garde contemporary classical.” WK Techno-DJ Moby said it “is probably one of the most beautiful and sublime recordings of the twentieth century.” AK-xvi Influence Beyond JazzIn addition to being “one of the most acclaimed jazz records,” WK A Love Supreme is “easily one of the most important records ever made” AM in any genre. German music journalist Joachim-Ernst Berendt said, “the album’s hymn-like quality permeated modern jazz and rock music.” WK “It extends way beyond the world of jazz to rock and fusion musicians.” TBThe QuartetThe quartet, rounded out by bassist Jimmy Garrison and drummer Elvin Jones, was “at the height of its considerable individual and collective power.” WR Coltrane “intentionally didn’t give…[them] much time to prepare and as a result they follow him into the unknown with tender acolyte steps.” TMThe Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide says “each man performs with eloquence and economy.” WK “The players get right inside the saxophonist’s thoughts, adding supportive gestures that send Coltrane higher.” TM They “created one of the most thought-provoking, concise, and technically pleasing albums of their bountiful relationship.” AM “From the undulatory (and classic) bassline at the intro to the last breathy notes, Trane is at the peak of his logical yet emotionally varied soloing while the rest of the group is remarkably in tune with Coltrane’s spiritual vibe.” AM The RecordingThe album was recorded at Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, on December 9, 1964, in a four-hour session from 8pm to midnight. Regarding the recording process, pianist McCoy Tyner said, “When we got to the studio, we liked to capture the live effect, just like we were playing live somewhere.” AK-67 To that end, producer Bob Thiele tried to stay out of the way as much as possible. Biographer Bob Golden said, “His job basically was, as decreed by Coltrane, ‘just make sure the lights are onand the tape is running.’” AK-86Coltrane’s Development from 1949 to 1964The album “compiled all of his innovations from his past [and] spoke of his current deep spirituality.” AM Coltrane got his first big break playing with Dizzy Gillespie, “one of the masters of modern jazz,” AK-15 from 1949 to 1951. He followed that with “one of his most fulfilling sideman roles” AK-16 alongside saxophonist Johnny Hodges. He played with trumpeter Miles Davis from 1955 to 1957 and then was fired for his heroin problem.He then worked with pianist Thelonious Monk, during which time he recorded 1957’s Blue Trane, his “first true outing as composer and album conceptualizer.” AK-32 He returned to working with Davis and was one of the players on 1959’s A Kind of Blue, often considered the quintessential jazz album. “Coltrane didn’t begin to concentrate fully on his own career until 1960.” TB Two weeks after recording A Kind of Blue, Coltrane recorded Giant Steps, his first effort as bandleader for Atlantic Records. After that point, he had taken his “powerhouse ‘sheets of sound’ approach to the tenor saxophone as far as he could go.” TL In what Down Beat called a “crusade against ‘anti-jazz,’ Coltrane stopped composing....[from 1961-62] and placating his audience and the critics with such conservative releases as Ballads, John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman, and Duke Ellington and John Coltrane.” NO His recording of “My Favorite Things” in 1961, now considered a jazz standard, exemplified Coltrane’s approach to “simplyifying well-known songs, then opening…them up with modal sections…a device Coltrane would use often over the next few years.” AK-44 A Love Supreme “represented a new approach – sparer, more fluid, more intense.” TL It “heralded Coltrane’s search for spiritual and musical freedom, as expressed through polyrhythms, modalities, and purely vertical forms that seemed strange to some jazz purists, but which captivated more adventurous listeners (and rock fellow travelers such as the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Cream, and the Byrds).” AZ Coltrane’s Gift to GodOn a personal level, Coltrane was “studying non-Western religions and practicing meditation.” NO A Love Supreme was “his attempt, as a reformed junkie at spreading the news that human transformation is not just desirable, but possible.” TM “It’s a pledge of devotion and surrender from a saxophonist who had every reason to feel like he owned the world.” VBColtrane called it “his gift to God” RV “which aims to bring listeners to a higher state of consciousness.” TM Coltrane wrote in the liner notes, “During the year 1957, I experienced, by the grace of God, a spiritual awakening…this album is a humble offering to Him.” PM He “lay the groundwork of spiritual jazz in a grand artistic tradition of experimenting with technique to find new ways to exalt.” PM The album “reaffirms music’s ability to embrace the spiritual” WR and “made it possible for Coltrane and others to express religious feeling in jazz.” NO One critic wrote that the album was “intended to represent a struggle for purity, an expression of gratitude, and an acknowledgement that the musician’s talent comes from a higher power.” WK “A Love Supreme is a suite about redemption, a work of pure spirit and song, that encapsulates all the struggles and aspirations of the 1960s.” AZ It “progressively describe in musical terms the course of Coltrane’s spiritual reawakening.” NO The Individual PiecesHere are insights into the four individual pieces on the album.“Acknowledgement” Coltrane solos with “variations on the motif until he repeats the four notes thirty-six times.” WK “At the end of this movement, as an expression of humility,” NO Cotrane offers up “the titular vocal chant ‘A Love Supreme,’ sung by Coltrane accompanying himself through overdubs nineteen times.” WK
“Resolution”
“Pursuance” “Pursuance is a search for that understanding” AM in which “Coltrane depicts his triumph over adversity through use of rapid tempo, truncated phrases, and consistently rising lines.” NO
“Psalm”
ConclusionThis is Coltrane’s best “attempt at the realization of concept – as the spiritual journey is made amazingly clear.” AM “Coltrane plays like no saxophonist before him, his instrument becoming a spirit-lifting vessel of permeating beauty.” RV “A Love Supreme remains one of the music’s most personal experiences. It is Coltrane opening his soul and laying it bare.” WR “It is almost impossible to imagine a world without A Love Supreme having been made, and it is equally impossible to imagine any jazz collection without it.” AMNotes:The 2002 deluxe reissue features a live performance of the suite at the Antibes Jazz Festival in France on July 26, 1965. There are also alternate studio takes from December 1964 of “Resolution” and “Acknowledgment.” A 2015 three-disc reissue of the album includes recordings from December 10, 1965, in which tenor saxophonist Archie Shepp and bassist Art Davis played as well. |
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First posted 12/9/2011; last updated 11/25/2024. |
| First posted 3/26/2008; updated 9/18/2020. |
Beatles for Sale |
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Released: December 4, 1964 Peak: -- US, 111 UK, -- CN, -- AU Sales (in millions): -- US, 1.0 UK, -- world (includes US and UK) Genre: pop/rock |
Tracks for Beatles for Sale: Song Title (Writers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. You can check out the Beatles’ complete singles discography here.
Songs by John Lennon and Paul McCartney unless noted otherwise. Total Running Time: 33:43 The Players:
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Rating for Beatles for Sale: 3.887 out of 5.00 (average of 22 ratings)
Quotable: “The group’s most uneven album” – Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide …but still with “enough moments sprinkled throughout for anyone to enjoy” - Adrian Denning, Adrian’s Album Reviews Awards for Beatles for Sale:
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Beatles ‘65
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Released: December 15, 1964 Peak: 19 US, -- UK, 1 CN, -- AU Sales (in millions): 4.0 US, -- UK, 4.0 world (includes US and UK) Genre: pop/rock |
Tracks for Beatles ‘65: Song Title (Writers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. You can check out the Beatles’ complete singles discography here.
Songs by John Lennon and Paul McCartney unless noted otherwise. Total Running Time: 26:10 The Players:
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Rating for Beatles ‘65: 4.380 out of 5.00 (average of 4 ratings)
Awards for Beatles ‘65:
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Beatles VI
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Released: June 14, 1965 Peak: 16 US, -- UK, 1 CN, -- AU Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, -- UK, 1.0 world (includes US and UK) Genre: pop/rock |
Tracks for Beatles VI: Song Title (Writers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. You can check out the Beatles’ complete singles discography here.
Songs by John Lennon and Paul McCartney unless noted otherwise. Total Running Time: 27:45 The Players:
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Rating for Beatles VI: 4.128 out of 5.00 (average of 4 ratings)
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About Beatles for Sale: ”With the release of Beatles for Sale…the constant spotlight glare of Beatlemania and the accompanying happy, shiny surface was beginning to bear heavily on the Fab Four. The album cover photo shows a very somber and tired-looking band, and the double meaning of the title was lost on only the very naïve.” CW ”It was inevitable that the constant grind of touring, writing, promoting, and recording would grate on the Beatles, but the weariness of Beatles for Sale comes as something of a shock. Only five months before, the group released the joyous A Hard Day's Night. Now, they sound beaten, worn, and, in Lennon's case, bitter and self-loathing.” STE ”The Beatles were rushed into the studios inbetween touring to make a new LP in time for the Christmas season of 1964” AD – a de facto deadline imposed by commercial considerations (see title).” JA “Only eight of the fourteen songs here were penned by The Beatles.” AD “In desperation, the band fell back on cover versions of 50s rock standards by Little Richard, Buddy Holly, Carl Perkins, and Chuck Berry.” JA ”It's well-performed” DBW – even “though their voices had been frazzled a bit by constant touring, they revved them up for some joyous shouting, and indulged their fondness for American country in subtle, playful ways.” DW Even so, “despite some experimentation with recording effects and instrumentation,” JA the covers are “ill-conceived” DW “and the originals are mostly lackluster.” DBW After writing everything for A Hard Days Night, “the very presence of six covers…feels like an admission of defeat or at least a regression.” STE “Beatles for Sale is usually regarded as a temporary step backwards.” AD “There are some important changes…most notably Lennon's discovery of Bob Dylan and folk-rock,” STE Lennon’s “opening trilogy…is the darkest sequence on any Beatles record, setting the tone for the album.” STE Those songs, “along with I Don't Want to Spoil the Party, are implicitly confessional and all quite bleak, which is a new development.” STE First up in that “1-2-3 opening punch” MU is the “moody No Reply” MU “sounds like a stronger song from With the Beatles.” AD This flows right into I'm a Loser, a ”brilliant, remarkably introspective number” JA that “displays a country influence in the guitar picking [and] has a fresh sound and wonderful lyrics throughout.” AD The trilogy wraps with “the harmony-drenched Baby's in Black,” MU which “is a weird semi-lilting song with strained sounding vocals perhaps reflecting the pressure these songs were recorded under. [There’s] a guitar solo that sounds all over the place, and not in a good way. Still, it triumphs despite these problems, because the song itself is just that strong.” AD “The most memorable [of the covers was] the…frantic” JA and “frenetic, inspired take on Chuck Berry's Rock and Roll Music.” CDU “A trip down memory lane for the group…it's a good performance but does give off the 'whiff' of something [the group] played literally hundreds of times and ran through 'just once more' for the sake of recording.” AD The “cheery I'll Follow the Sun” STE “is a pretty ballad Paul had written” DBW “pre-Please Please Me,” AD “but revived for this project as a last resort.” DBW It features “acoustic guitar [and] sweet vocals although lyrically is less sweet with such lines as ‘And now the time has come, and so my love, I must go / And though I lose a friend, in the end you will know, oh’: hardly the stuff of flowers and moonlit romances.” AD ”A tremendous medley of Kansas City and Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey…finds Paul McCartney's exuberant vocals comparing admirably to his hero Little Richard, providing a vibrant centerpiece.” CDU ”Some of the tracks ended up being among the most widely disliked by Beatles fans” JA – ”Lennon's cover of his beloved obscurity Mr. Moonlight winds up as arguably the worst thing the group ever recorded.” STE “The mid section of Beatles for Sale sags and suffers, so thank god for” AD “the dynamic” STE Eight Days a Week, a “true pop classic…The title of the song was inspired by something Ringo said describing their hectic work schedule.” AD A couple of cover tunes follow – Buddy Holly’s Words of Love and Carl Perkins’ Honey Don’t, with Ringo’s sole vocal lead on the album, before the “undeservedly unheralded Lennon/McCartney album track Every Little Thing.” MU The song is “a true underrated Beatles gem, a fabulous song led by Paul and mixing in cool clear guitar lines with catchy vocals.” AD George takes the lead on Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby, “an average Carl Perkins cover.” AD “Apart from the sound and style of the lead guitar - everything else is very tired and old sounding,” AD “leaving the impression that Beatlemania may have been fun but now the group is exhausted.” STE ”That exhaustion results in the group's most uneven album, but its best moments find them moving from Merseybeat to the sophisticated pop/rock they developed in mid-career.” STE Besides, even with a lackluster outing, Beatles for Sale “has enough moments sprinkled throughout for anyone to enjoy” AD and, “as a marker of where they were and where they were going, the album is revelatory.” CW After all, “the Beatles…instincts for what worked musically were so strong that they could basically do no wrong.” DW About Beatles ‘65: In the U.S., Beatles for Sale was broken up over two albums. The first seven cuts and “Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby” were kept for Beatles ‘65 but the other six were replaced with three different cuts. “I’ll Back” was leftover from the UK version of A Hard Day’s Night and the single I Feel Fine / She’s a Woman was used to flesh out the album. The latter are welcome additions, but still don’t make up for the omission of “Eight Days a Week,” the most recognizable cut on Beatles for Sale. About Beatles VI: The other six cuts from Beatles for Sale were held over in the U.S. until the June 1965 release of Beatles VI. Those songs included the “Kansas City/Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey!” medley, “Eight Days a Week,” “I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party,” “Words of Love,” “What You’re Doing,” and “Every Little Thing.” Three other songs were taken from the U.K. version of Help!, which wasn’t released until August 1965. Those were You Like Me Too Much, Tell Me What You See, and Dizzy Miss Lizzy. The other two songs were Bad Boy and Yes It Is. The former was never released on a UK album and the latter was the B-side of “Ticket to to Ride.” Notes: In 2006, the Capitol Records Vol. 2 box set gathered the U.S. albums The Early Beatles, Beatles VI, Help!, and Rubber Soul on CD for the first time. |
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