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08 // Katy B - Little Red

 

Standouts: 5 AM / Aaliyah (ft. Jessie Ware) / Crying for No Reason / I Like You / Everything / Still

 

It's not easy to follow up your debut album with a respectable amount of success, yet Katy B managed to do so when she debuted at #1 with Little Red. I absolutely adored On a Mission so I was keen to see what this album had to offer. The album gets straight to business with the Invisible Men-produced 'Next Thing' (who has worked with the very similar Girls Aloud and Iggy Azalea!), the house meets pop lead single '5 AM' and the Jessie Ware-featuring 'Aaliyah' - a song nicely described by NME as dance's answer to Dolly Parton's 'Jolene'. Then things are taken down with the beautiful 'Crying for No Reason'. This was a surprise hit for Katy and is perhaps what pushed Little Red to the top of the charts. She confesses the damage of bottling up her thoughts and feelings - in writing it seems too personal to fit in with its surrounding songs yet the synthy beat helps to tie the song in with the album without taking away the pain and emotion. It took me a while to appreciate the tracks from 'All My Lovin'' to 'Emotions' which is why Little Red is appearing lower than I'd rank it today but there's no denying that Katy B has a great knack of creating both club and radio friendly songs whilst bringing in her own experiences and personality.

 

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07 // Lily Allen - Sheezus

 

Standouts: Air Balloon / Our Time / Take My Place / Close Your Eyes / Hard Out Here / Somewhere Only We Know

 

Lily Allen's third album was certainly one I was majorly excited about and expecting big things for in 2014 this time last year. It had been four long years since the incredible, all-killer-no-filler It's Not Me, It's You and things seemed to be off to a great start with the success of John Lewis advert song 'Somewhere Only We Know' - a heart-achingly sweet cover of Keane's debut hit. Unfortunately, my first listen of Sheezus was not such a smooth reception. There seemed to be a very inconsistent sound throughout - I'm all for variety but I like my albums cohesive - and it felt like Lily had adopted a different personal; she didn't seem to be the open, heart-on-the-sleeve girl who produced her previous album. Thankfully, after listening to Lily talk through the album track-by-track, I realised that my latter point wasn't strictly true. The title track and 'Hard Out Here' showed her addressing the media and their view of woman, 'L8 CMMR' and 'Close Your Eyes' revealed Lily's sex life, 'Our Time' was Lily's answer to Miley's 'We Can't Stop' and, the most personal track, 'Take My Place' shows Lily's account of how she felt following her miscarriage. So it turned out that this was still very obviously a Lily Allen album, full of questioning, controversy and poignancy, however the up and down ride audibly is hard to overlook, which is really annoying as there's some great lyrical moments on here.

 

Sheezus was a fantastic album and not a disappoint for me at all like many seem to say. Incredibly happy to see Take My Place love because it's by far my favourite song on the album, incredibly heartfelt/touching and the melody is strong too. Our Time was a good single choice for me too and the video concept was well executed and funny. Glad we finally got Lily back to music anyway because she was sorely missed.

I've neglected this for the past week but I don't think I'm going to have a chance to regularly keep counting down any time soon either, so I've posted the rest of the singles/albums in the first post. Maybe next year I'll just do Top 5 commentaries and be able to finish! :lol:

Hey Liam!

 

Aw I know how time consuming these can be, so fair enough. Here are my favourites:

 

001 | 912 | 912 Sia - Chandelier 01 :heart:

002 | 765 | 765 OneRepublic - Love Runs Out 01

004 | 610 | 610 Ella Henderson - Glow 01 :heart:

005 | 584 | 584 Iggy Azalea featuring Rita Ora - Black Widow 04

006 | 575 | 575 Paloma Faith - Only Love Can Hurt Like This 03

007 | 561 | 561 Sigma featuring Paloma Faith - Changing [Original/Goldsmyth Edition] 02

008 | 542 | 542 Coldplay - A Sky Full of Stars 03

009 | 540 | 540 Kylie Minogue - Into the Blue 01

010 | 537 | 537 Clean Bandit featuring Sharna Bass - Extraordinary 01

011 | 535 | 535 Rita Ora - I Will Never Let You Down 01

012 | 519 | 519 Charli XCX - Boom Clap 02

013 | 460 | 460 Ella Eyre - Comeback 01

019 | 407 | 407 Iggy Azalea featuring Charli XCX - Fancy 03 :heart:

020 | 406 | 406 Katy Perry featuring Juicy J - Dark Horse 04 :heart:

022 | 400 | 400 Clean Bandit & Jess Glynne - Real Love 01

023 | 389 | 389 Ella Eyre - If I Go 04

026 | 371 | 371 Lorde - Team 02

030 | 334 | 334 Imagine Dragons - Demons 03

031 | 331 | 331 Sam Smith - I'm Not the Only One 05 :heart:

035 | 306 | 306 Nicki Minaj - Anaconda 03

036 | 304 | 304 Clean Bandit featuring Jess Glynne - Rather Be 11 :heart:

039 | 296 | 296 Ariana Grande featuring Zedd - Break Free 05 :heart:

040 | 292 | 292 A Great Big World & Christina Aguilera - Say Something 04

041 | 291 | 291 Lilly Wood & The Prick - Prayer in C [Robin Schulz Remix] 04

042 | 291 | 291 The Saturdays - What Are You Waiting For? 10

043 | 289 | 289 Ariana Grande featuring Iggy Azalea - Problem 05

044 | 285 | 285 Duke Dumont - Won't Look Back 05

046 | 283 | 283 Foxes - Let Go for Tonight 07

047 | 280 | 280 Tove Lo featuring Hippie Sabotage - Stay High [Habits Remix] 01

049 | 275 | 275 Calvin Harris featuring John Newman - Blame 11

050 | 275 | 275 David Guetta featuring Sam Martin - Lovers on the Sun 15

051 | 340 | 267 Britney Spears - Perfume 09 (04 in 2013)

052 | 266 | 266 Lady Gaga - G.U.Y 05

054 | 264 | 264 Meghan Trainor - All About That Bass 06

057 | 258 | 258 Take That - These Days 09

061 | 247 | 247 Jess Glynne - Right Here 10

064 | 243 | 243 Jessie Ware - Say You Love Me 06

065 | 242 | 242 Shakira - Empire 01

069 | 231 | 231 Olly Murs featuring Travie McCoy - Wrapped Up 08

070 | 229 | 229 Miley Cyrus - Adore You 02

071 | 228 | 228 Sigma - Nobody to Love 02

074 | 221 | 221 Kasabian - Eez-Eh 15 :heart:

075 | 216 | 216 Molly - Children of the Universe 02 :heart:

077 | 215 | 215 Ed Sheeran - Don't 05

084 | 206 | 206 MAGIC! - Rude 09

086 | 204 | 204 Lily Allen - Our Time 05

087 | 200 | 200 KONGOS - Come With Me Now 03

089 | 539 | 199 Iggy Azalea - Work 08 (05 in 2013)

090 | 198 | 198 Lykke Li - Gunshot 10

094 | 375 | 192 John Newman - Losing Sleep 03 (04 in 2013)

098 | 187 | 187 The Magician featuring Years & Years - Sunlight 11 :heart:

 

liamk97's Favourite 10 Albums of 2014

 

01 Sam Smith - In the Lonely Hour

02 Sia - 1000 Forms of Fear

05 Iggy Azalea - The New Classic

07 Lily Allen - Sheezus

08 Katy B - Little Red

09 Calvin Harris - Motion

10 Paloma Faith - A Perfect Contradiction

 

Ooh 'Chandelier' seems to be quite a Buzzjack staple, this is the second EOY chart I've seen that it's topped! Great song though, and some other gems included here!