Top 10 underdog albums of 2014

In a year marked with monstrously popular and impossibly creative albums from indie newcomers (Sylvan Esso, Perfect Pussy), breakout novices (tUnE-yArDs, Angel Olsen, The War on Drugs) and stalwarts (Ariel Pink, Real Estate, Caribou) alike, some gems inevitably get buried in the hubbub. I’ll be wrapping up this year in music with a special list of 2014's most deserving underdog albums. 

10. Nikki Lane, “All or Nothin’”

An all-killer-no-filler collection of rocking outlaw country, Nikki Lane’s follow-up to her 2011 debut, “Walk of Shame,” is the antithesis of a sophomore slump. With Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach lending his uncharacteristically transparent production, every pedal steel swoon shines like the Nashville skyline and every chorus aims for the Grand Ole Opry’s rafters. Lane’s twanged voice, an instrument in its own right, drawls sweetly over honky tonk balladry (“Good Man”) just as confidently as it snarls atop southern-fried guitar riffage (“Sleep with a Stranger”). Given the ultimatum, you’d be wise to choose “all.”

Best tracks: “Love’s on Fire,” “Right Time,” “Sleep with a Stranger”

9. TOPS, “Picture You Staring”

Slight and slick, though never skeletal, TOPS’ “Picture You Staring” sounds as if it had been written, rehearsed and recorded in a garage that would have otherwise housed a DeLorean. Referencing the best of 1980s pop-rock without stooping to downright mimicry, the group’s nostalgic less-is-more approach is just that. With an effortless melodicism, vocalist Jane Penny’s breathy lyrics hover just above the dull neon glow of chorus-laden guitars and shimmering synths. If not for the grounding, and surprisingly jazzy, stickwork of drummer Riley Fleck, this dreamy song cycle might have floated off as the 100th “luftballon.”

Best tracks: “Way to be Loved,” “Sleeptalker,” “Change of Heart”

8. Steve Gunn, “Way Out Weather”

An outward expansion of the front-porch picking of last year’s gently euphoric “Time Off” LP, “Way Out Weather” proves to be Gunn’s most sonically ambitious effort yet. Gunn, a one-time member of Kurt Vile’s backing slackers The Violators, brings together his Americana, bluegrass and desert blues influences that had previously been exhibited individually on various collaborative and solo efforts. Rooted in the woodsy ramble of a turn-of-the-‘70s Grateful Dead, Gunn’s guitar explorations are inventive and hypnotic, without a hint of exhibitionism. Quaintly tied together by Gunn’s lackadaisical vocal delivery, the clever orchestration that underlies “Weather” takes his music far beyond the porch.

Best tracks: “Tommy’s Congo,” “Milly’s Garden”

7. Adult Jazz, “Gist Is”

On paper, it seems as though Adult Jazz doesn’t care whether you listen to them or not. The band’s moniker is an obtuse red herring, and “Spook,” the lead single from their introductory album, “Gist Is,” clocks in at almost 10 minutes, the longest song of the lot. Even when the needle drops, it’s still unclear what should be expected. The songs defy conventional structure: verses and choruses are often abandoned after their first passings, grooves warp and weave mercurially, and initially divine melodies are met with brassy, dissonant harmony if they are fortunate enough to be repeated. It’s a headphones album if there ever was one, and though it doesn’t fit neatly into any sort of categorization, isolated revisitations are met with worthy reward.

Best tracks: “Spook,” “Hum,” “Am Gone”

6. Quilt, “Held in Splendor”

While overzealous ‘60s psych-worshipping rockers Temples and Foxygen satisfied those pesky “they-just-don’t-make-‘em like-they-used-to” listeners this year with their contentiously derivative albums, Quilt quietly spun that same faux nostalgia into “Held in Splendor,” a wholly original work that transcends its lysergic influences. Clouded with rich choral harmonies, tinged with Eastern melodies and embellished with lush string and brass arrangements, “Held” is a record that needs no decade-specific context to deliver the confident, oft-gorgeous songs within. While the band’s aforementioned cohorts fixated on capturing exactly the timbres and tones first cut to tape nearly a half-century before, Quilt wisely knows that the songs carry the sounds, not the other way around. Gliding from hushed, orchestral finger-picked folk to fuse-blowing bombast and all points in between, the band eludes any attempts at pigeonholing, creating something truly splendorous.

Best tracks: “Tie up the Tides,” “Eye of the Pearl,” “Arctic Shark”

5. Hundred Waters, “The Moon Rang Like a Bell”

Amid all of the bass-dropping button-pushers in the roster of Skrillex’s EDM-heavy record label, OWSLA, Florida-based quintet Hundred Waters’ heady electropop aims more for the ears of the world’s wallflowers than the hips of molly-addled ravers. Cold sheets of sound billow and glitch. Stripped beats subtly thump and pop. Most definitively, vocalist Nicole Miglis’ lush, layered whispers icily accumulate to form ghostly choirs. Recalling the best of Björk, Alt-J and Bat for Lashes without resorting to apery, “Moon” is one of 2014’s finest experimental offerings.

Best tracks: “Murmurs,” “Cavity,” “Down from the Rafters”

4. Blake Mills, “Heigh Ho”

Playing like the best Ry Cooder record you’ve never heard, Blake Mills’ masterful second effort, “Heigh Ho,” is an amalgam of swampy blues, juke joint jazz and traditional Americana with the occasional, joyous burst of “mariachi picante.” Mills, a long-time session man and touring guitarist for the likes of Jackson Browne, Conor Oberst and Fiona Apple (who lends her voice on a pair of the album’s highlights), colors the album with instrumental virtuosity in every pick and strum. Not to be written off for his guitar prowess alone, Mills’ dustily delivered and unflinchingly direct lyrics make liner notes necessary for any first listen. It takes a hell of a lot of panache to sing the expletive-laden chorus of crown jewel “Don’t Tell Our Friends About Me” (“I know I fucked up/I know I fucked up …”) without sounding intentionally risqué, but Mills spins the tail-dragging yarn with the authenticity of someone who’s spent more than a couple nights on the couch.

Best tracks: “Don’t Tell Our Friends About Me,” “If I’m Unworthy,” “Seven”

3. PHOX, “PHOX”

Ah, the fruits of musical communes! PHOX, a septet of multi-instrumentalists who crafted their breakout debut in their shared house in Baraboo, Wisconsin, won major acclaim from bloggers everywhere for the irrepressible bounce of lead single, “Slow Motion,” this spring. The confectionary chamber pop of their eponymous introduction, buoyed by plucked banjos, Afro-centric polyrhythms and, wait for it, oboe solos, is a grab bag of band-geek instrumentation and arrangement. Topped off with the cherry of melodist Monica Martin’s feathery voice, “PHOX” is as sugary and refreshing as a hot summer day’s lemonade.

Best tracks: “Slow Motion,” “1936,” “Evil”

2. Sturgill Simpson, “Metamodern Sounds in Country Music”

In a year that pushed popular country music further into “ridonculous” territory with forced remixes and a growing obsession with bling, Sturgill Simpson rose above the sea of trucks, drunken mamas and “painted-on pants” with a stunning set of soul-searching honky tonk numbers. With a voice (and name) that wouldn’t seem the least bit out of place on a Highwaymen record, Simpson ably casts himself as the product of Kentucky dirt, though his muses go far beyond the farm. Leadoff “Turtles all the Way Down” sets the record’s tone with cosmic longing for capital-T Truth as he croons “Marijuana, LSD, psilocybin, DMT/They all change the way I see/But love’s the only that could ever save my life” and more than curiously references “reptile aliens made of light.” Put away your beer bongs; this is country music for the thinking man.

Best tracks: “Turtles all the Way Down,” “Life of Sin,” “Pan Bowl”

1. Landlady, “Upright Behavior”

Marrying a childlike whimsy with art-school experimentation, Landlady’s “Upright Behavior” is an erratic and often euphoric record, packing more toe-tapping and sing-along moments in its 40 minutes than most bands do in their entire discographies. An occasional member of gypsy freaks Man Man and guest saxophonist for the likes of Vampire Weekend and Sleigh Bells, Landlady bandleader Adam Schatz has a Midas touch to match his kitchen sink songwriting. From the anthemic, madcap opener “Above My Ground” to the glee club exuberance of “Maria,” every note is in its right place with a precision that could bring Brian Wilson to bang his head. Listeners ought to check their pretension at the door, however; if you can’t bring yourself to sing along to the booze-breathed chorale “Next to the tomato seeds/Is where I count my sheep” of “Under the Yard,” there’s a chance that “Upright Behavior” isn’t for you. Or maybe you just don’t have a pulse.

Best tracks: “Above My Ground,” “Dying Day,” “The Globe,” “Under the Yard”