There's still about a month to go before 2014 comes to a close, and already the music magazines have begun to weigh in on the year's best music. Rolling Stone, American Songwriter, Uncut, Mojo, and Q have all published their lists of the Best Albums of the Year, and included among them are a number of Nonesuch releases: the latest from The Black Keys and Sam Amidon; the label debut albums from Robert Plant and Conor Oberst; and a special reissue from Emmylou Harris.
There's still about a month to go before 2014 comes to a close, and already the music magazines have begun to weigh in on the year's best music. Rolling Stone, American Songwriter, Uncut, Mojo, and Q have all published their lists of the Best Albums of the Year, and included among them are a number of Nonesuch releases: the latest from The Black Keys and Sam Amidon; the label debut albums from Robert Plant and Conor Oberst; and a special reissue from Emmylou Harris.
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The Black Keys' new album, Turn Blue, appears on a number of best-of lists, not least that of Rolling Stone, which places the album at No. 3 on its list of the 50 Best Albums of 2014. "The Keys and Danger Mouse spool out everything from Seventies funk to disco throb to drive-time guitar grind, making music that could evoke lonely late nights or burnt-rubber desert highways, jittery paranoia and boundless possibility," says Rolling Stone. "It's the sound of America's most innovative arena rockers in full command."
Back in May, Rolling Stone reviewer David Fricke called Turn Blue "the best, most consistently gripping album The Black Keys have ever made … as apocalyptic, in its way, as that Clash epic [London Calling]: loaded with risk, distress and payoff."
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The Black Keys also appear in the new issue of Uncut magazine, with Turn Blue featured its list of the Best New Releases of 2014. Following the album's release in May, Uncut named it Album of the Month, saying: "Turn Blue turns out to be The Black Keys’ sneakiest, subtlest and most seductive album."
Robert Plant's Nonesuch Records debut album, lullaby and… The Ceaseless Roar, is on the Uncut list, coming in at #6. Uncut gave it a rating of nine out of ten upon its release in September.
Uncut also picks the Best Reissues of 2014, and among them the three-disc reissue of Emmylou Harris's groundbreaking, Grammy Award–winning album Wrecking Ball.
Inside Llewyn Davis and Boyhood both landed on Uncut's list of the year's best films.
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Mojo magazine has published its list of the Best Albums of 2014 as well, which also includes Plant's lullaby and… The Ceaseless Roar, calling attention to "Turn It Up" as its standout track. Also in the issue, famed singer-songwriter Paul Weller picks Plant's album as one of his picks of "The Best Things I’ve Heard All Year." The magazine gave lullaby and… The Ceaseless Roar a four-star review upon its release in September.
Also on Mojo's list of the year's best is The Black Keys' Turn Blue, with the magazine choosing "Weight of Love" as the standout. Back in May, Mojo placed The Black Keys on its cover, celebrating the release of Turn Blue, which the magazine said "is a deeply satisfying record with richer textures and sharper pop hooks, and underlines the fact that The Black Keys are the most vital rock band in the world right now."
Mojo selects Sam Amidon's Lily-O for its list of the Top 10 Americana Albums. Following the album's release this fall, Mojo gave Lily-O four stars
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Q magazine includes Robert Plant and The Black Keys' albums in its list of 50 Albums of the Year as well, choosing Plant's "Pocketful of Golden" as the key track on his album—which, back in September, it called "his best solo album yet … a beautifully moving, soul-stirring, bravely genre-blurring album"—and The Black Keys' "Weight of Love" on theirs.
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American Songwriter places Conor Oberst's Nonesuch Records debut album, Upside Down Mountain, at number 15 on its list of the Top 50 Albums of 2014. The album is "one of his most consistently rewarding efforts since the heady early records," says the magazine. "Conor sounds more relaxed than ever before, even as his lyrics suggest that consistent comfort in these turbulent times is nothing but a pipe dream."
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Amazon UK's editorial team has put together its list of the Best Albums of 2014 and include two of the above: Robert Plant's lullaby and... The Ceaseless Roar and Conor Oberst's Upside Down Mountain. The list also includes Toumani Diabate's kora duets album with his son Sidiki, Toumani & Sidiki, released on World Circuit and distributed in North America by Nonesuch Records.
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All of these Nonesuch releases are now 15% off the everyday low prices listed in the Nonesuch Store as part of the store's ongoing anniversary sale. To have a look, click here.
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