This is the twenty-first year of posting this recap, and the 2014 listing — like the 1994 — will be rather brief, bookending the other nineteen. It will also be the final year.
So without further ado, here is a simple list of outstanding releases for 2014, in the format I had come to use as a temporary placeholder prior to elaborating a discussion:
These are, as was typical for that placeholder, in chronological order by when I received them. I had not been intending to name a Record of the Year this year, but since I found it so revelatory, I will go ahead and name Pipelare 1 as the final winner. It seems fitting.
There was a time when I very much looked forward to writing this yearly review, and so it is with some nostalgia that I call it quits after this run of 21 years.
There are three basic reasons that I am ending this project. One, the end of year period is hectic enough, and I've long found January to be almost overwhelming. Two, I'll be happy to stop worrying about receiving relevant items in time (or at all) for this summary. And three, this recap has included relatively little additional information in recent years — this could be a reflection of my enthusiasm, or of the previous two points, or simply that this sort of information is more easily provided on a spontaneous basis.
Specifically regarding the last point, my Remarks on Recent Recordings page (within the FAQ) will expand to include at least a year of remarks, beginning with 2015, so as to provide its own (implicit) yearly recap without me doing anything extra. I will also continue to update my list of personal favorites with its embedded comments. (These are found by clicking on the rating, if you haven't noticed that.) That section will continue to be updated whenever I have something new to say, and might reflect multiple layers of comments on a particular recording, over multiple years. (The problem with this approach is that I haven't been dating comments. Way back when, I saw a website as a way to have everything always up to date, and that turns out to have been a very silly thought, so I'm still dealing with that legacy.)
I hope the above will prove to be an adequate substitute for those who enjoyed this listing. It should be more flexible, and I think it will allow for more interesting commentary.
Happy 2015, and a fond farewell to this project!
To Recordings of the Years page
Todd M. McComb