Every musical outlet out there has a year-end list. Little Lighthouse is not an exception, although the order should be understood conditionally. It does not rely on objective measurements, it simply compiles feeling towards albums that preoccupied my attention through 2014. Number one is Sweet Apple. Yours truly marginally participated in making of that record, and perhaps there’s a strong bias towards it for me. You would be right about that. But this particular record is a fun collection of songs without much pretension. What more can you ask from an LP? OBN IIIs and Liquor Store are great new bands which made ambitiously sounding records that rock. They even bring out a long forgotten idiom of hard rock, back into the modern rock’n’roll dictionary and it made me realize how much that sound is missed in the music world today. Together with some important reissues, these two albums mark the revival of that lost musical genre. Those two records are so rich with sounds and ideas that live performances of these two bands must be stripped down to a skeleton. Outragous Cherry has an astonishing return, with one of their best records ever. First Base and Strungs go back to the basic three chords and short songs – a formula that oh so often works great. Lydia Lunch calls out the ghost of Jeffrey Lee Pierce like no other artist before. Doug Gillard attempted to make a good easy listening record and ended up with a timeless masterpiece which will be remembered well in his opus. Billy Childs makes a loving tribute to Laura Nyro which borders madness and saccharine. Who’d have thought those two “lands” share a border? Kelley Mickwee and Haden Triplets show interesting ways to keep bluegrass alive and it trips my mind how most folks out there think negatively of this wonderful Haden Triplets record. Bonnie Prince Billy takes some old songs and brings in a new life to them with an incredibly focused interpretation… and so on. All the best in 2015, actually 2014 wasn’t that bad musically as it may appear on the surface.

01 Sweet Apple – The Golden Age of Glitter
02 OBN IIIs – Third Time to Harm
03 Liquor Store – In the Garden
04 Outrageous Cherry – The Digital Age
05 Billy Childs – Map to the Treasure Reimagining Laura Nyro
06 The Strungs – Nothing is Possible
07 Doug Gillard – Parade On
08 Lydia Lunch & Cypress Grove – A Fistful of Desert Blues
09 First Base
10 The Haden Triplets
11 Kelley Mickwee – You Used To Live Here
12 Bonnie Prince Billy – Singer’s Grave a Sea of Tongues
13 Harp Explosion Thee One Man band – 5 Years Later
14 The Lupines – Over The Moon
15 Cheap Wine – Beggar Town
16 Radio Moscow – Magical Dirt
17 Reigning Sound – Shattered
18 Danny And The Darleans – Stink
19 Nude Beach – 77
20 Mitski – Bury Me At Makeout Creek

Mitski – Carry Me Out;
Nude Beach – I’m Not Like You;
Danny And The Darleans – It’s About My Baby;
Regning Sound – Baby, It’s Too Late;
Radio Moscow – Got The Time;
Cheap Wine – Black Man;
The Lupines – Everlasting Man;
Harp Explosion Thee One Man band – I Don’t Know;
Bonnie Prince Billy – So Far and Here We Are;
Kelley Mickwee – Take Me Home;
The Haden Triplets – Oh Take Me Back;
First Base – Get A Taste Of Your Love Again;
Lydia Lunch and Cypress Grove – St. Mark’s Place;
Doug Gillard – Upper Hand;
The Strungs – You Will Be Forgot;
Billy Childs frat. Dianne Reeves – To a Child;
Outrageous Cherry – I Think She’s Alright;
Liquor Store – Big Wheels;
OBN IIIs – Brother;
Sweet Apple – Reunion;
Sweet Apple – Boys In Her Fanclub;
Sweet Apple – Let’s Take The Same Plane.