It’s been an interesting year in music for me. So much great stuff tumbling out of Spotify, it’s been hard to keep up! (I did pull together mixes based on my favorite tracks from the spring, summer and fall.) With all of these great songs, there really haven’t been many albums that have kept my attention.

But the one that did were great! Here were my favorites:

Ex Hex – Rips

I love the meta description from their website: “Ex Hex is what your older brother’s friends listened to. It’s what your babysitters listened to.” My description (to my brother): the Ramones crossed with Sleater-Kinney. (His response, “isn’t that what Sleater-Kinney is?”)

St Vincent – St Vincent

As discussed before, it’s an electronic, rock, vocal mix of songs that really catch me.

Spoon – They Want My Soul

Great album from one of the all time great bands. If you haven’t read the New York Times Magazine article on them, I suggest you check it out.

Todd Terje – It’s Album Time

Loungy (loungey?), moody and strange. Caused my assistant to come into my office and say “what is that you’re playing.” But captivating at the same time.

Real Estate – Atlas

These ‘surf rock’ dudes fill an important ecological niche in my household: great sounding music that isn’t too ‘hard’ for the kids and Veronica. Managed to push Jack Johnson off the radio.

I took a quick gander at Metacritic and it seems that some top albums are represented on their Best of 2014 list: St Vincent was #2 and Ex Hex was #18. Well, at least I didn’t like A.K.A. by Jennifer Lopez, their lowest rated album of the year!