This whole week, we’ve been counting down our Top 25 Albums Of The Year and for those just joining us, here’s a quick cheat sheet for our past few posts:
This whole week, we’ve been counting down our Top 25 Albums Of The Year and for those just joining us, here’s a quick cheat sheet for our past few posts:
Introduction & Honorable Mentions
#25 – #16
#15 – #6
#5 – #1
Contributor’s Top Five
We also wanted to take time this year to celebrate the best in Richmond music with our picks for top five Richmond records of 2014. Our choices below are unranked for a ton of reasons, but mostly for the fact that it’s nearly impossible to objectively rank music from a town with so much vibrant music going on all across the musical spectrum. There were a ton of artists making broad and worthwhile musical statements this year; Butcher Brown, Dead Fame, Heavy Midgets, Hoax Hunters, and Noah-O, to name a few. In the end though, there were five albums we kept circling around; so without further ado, here are our picks for the top five (unranked) Richmond releases from this year.
Avers – Empty Light
Take a bunch of members from different Richmond bands that are already hugely popular in their own right and put them together to form a new supergroup. It’s a genius move. Avers, which features members of The Head and the Heart, Hypercolor, Mason Brothers, Farm Vegas, and the Trillions, has been making psychedelic noise rock for only a short time, but the group’s debut album, Empty Light, thrust them into the national spotlight, where everyone has been taking notice. (Video: “Empty Light“)–Andrew Cothern
Lightfields – Junior
Despite the fact that they celebrated their fifth anniversary as a band this year, Junior is Lightfields’ full-length debut. However, if taking their time was necessary in order to release a debut this striking and memorable, it was 100% worth the wait. This triple-guitar alt-rock band harks back to Radiohead circa The Bends with their layered melodies and catchy choruses, but shows versatility in the abrupt transition from the post-shoegaze noise attack of “Heart Attack Heather” to the moody, psychedelic alt-rock ballad “Better.” “Atomic,” “Backseat,” and the title track are impossible to forget and point the way forward for a band bound to win plenty of new converts every time they take the stage in 2015.
(Video: “Heart Attack Heather“)–Andrew Necci
Sleepwalkers – Greenwood Shade
I had more excited conversations about Greenwood Shade than any other album this year, and the remarkable thing about them was how scattered they were. They’d dart from song to song–the breezy vibe and harmonized guitars of “Thinking About The Road,” the driving, early-80’s beat of “Run Right Back,” the 70’s rock perfection of “Breaking My Heart”… there are too many praise-worthy songs on Sleepwalkers’ first full-length to focus on any one. These conversations usually ended the same way, though: “It’s just so good.” A truly exceptional debut from a band that excels at every part of the music-making process, from writing and recording to performing. (Video: “Prey And Pressure“)–Davy Jones
Sundials – Kick
The most upfront, catchy, and poignant release of the year belongs to Sundials. On Kick, they took everything that we loved about them and crafted it to make it even more astonishing. “Stun Spore” still rings loudly in my eardrums and tugs at my heartstrings. Sundials are a prime example of seeing the evolution of Richmond music while paying ample tribute to the history of this city’s sonic capabilities. Kick is just another step in the direction marking the territory that Sundials can proudly call their own. (Video: “Dealin’“)–Shannon Cleary
White Laces – Trance
Simply put, Trance is the most ambitious record from Richmond in 2014. It might seem like hyperbole for some, but as you fan away the pensive fog that permeates much of the record, you’ll find an outstanding piece of work that sets its aspirations much higher than their contemporaries in the indie rock world. It’s the way they make the indie style sound so much more extraordinary and grander than the humble origins from which it comes. While so many other artists have utilized minimalist guitar melodies alongside ambient soundscapes, White Laces pull it off in a way that truly justifies the second part of the phrase “indie rock.” (Video: “Nothing Clicks“)–Doug Nunnally
That wraps up our year-end countdown over here at RVA Magazine. We’d like to thank all of our wonderful contributors one more time, and hope you all found something new and enjoyable to digest from this list. Hopefully 2015 will give us just as much quality as 2014 did.
