Biggest Bummers of 2014

This year's bummers really ache on my heart.  I love all these bands.  Four of them have ended up on my top ten lists in the past ten years.  Since I only listen to and write about music for fun, I'm not coming across so much hot garbage.  These are clearly not the worst albums of the year.  A lot of people probably have a good excuse to like them.  They're just the releases that let me down the most.

I'm adding little pictures of The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth items to these entires, because it cheers me up.
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NUMBER 5
Beck
Morning Phase

With a bite of the tongue, Beck just makes this list.  It's a bit unfair, because Morning Phase is a competent album.  It has good production, and follows through on its intent.  What that doesn't change is how terribly BORING it is.  An extra notch of disappointment goes to no "Odelay style" follow-up album in the fall.  I read that on the internet, it must be true!  Beck lied, funk died.

NUMBER 4
the telephones
SUPER HIGH TENSION!!!

It's a thin tightrope the telephones walk.  They've been miraculously squeaking by with "so stupid, it's good" music for years, but SUPER HIGH TENSION!!! is so stupid, it's stupid.  The broken English is just embarrassing ("I'm in Love You" - actual song title).  Even the better songs, like "Hyper Jump" have a flat and uninspired delivery.  I've got to say, they really phoned this one in!  HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

NUMBER 3
Foo Fighters
Sonic Highways

A few tracks off 2011's Wasting Light left me with warm and fuzzy feelings about Foo Fighters.  The 00' years of this band average out to middling, but maybe they're just doing whatever they want now. Nope.  Sonic Highways reeks of "commercial album" from top to bottom.  No personality whatsoever.

NUMBER 2
The Birthday
Come Together

This one stings the most.  If this blog is good for anything, it's to proselytize the good works of one Chiba Yusuke:  Rock music's best kept secret. The past three Birthday albums have been top ten material, but Come Together sounds like an amateur mess.  The slower songs are worth hearing, but most teeter on the edge of butt-rock, and that is not a sentence I'm happy to type.

NUMBER 1
TV on The Radio
Seeds

If there was one thing I could have told you was a guaranteed lock in 2014, it would have been TV on The Radio's follow up to Nine Types of Light.  Everything seems to have gone wrong with this release.  Poor lyrics, boring instrumentation, no convincing emotion...  at least that cover art is cool.