Best of 2014
I love reading positive reviews of music and movies and books and stuff. Since I am a creative person, I find that I have an insatiable appetite for other people's creative work. I'm a music nerd, a movie nerd, a book nerd, an internet nerd, a cooking nerd--I think you get the picture. So, I thought I would recap my favorite things from 2014, things that I loved so much that I plopped down good ol' fashion dollars (and that means a lot considering you can find a lot of this stuff for FREE in the dark corners of the interwebs) or were given as gifts because a loved one plopped their hard-earned money down. Nothing says I love you more to an artist or musician or writer or company than paying for their stuff. There are a ton of "Best of 2014" lists but here's mine and, without further ado, here's all (well, most anyway) the stuff I loved in 2014.
Music
Run the Jewels
Without a doubt, Run the Jewels 2 was my favorite hip hop of 2014, if not my favorite music of all. Endlessly repeatable and fun with great beats, this album pickups immediately where the first Run the Jewels album left off but with better production, better songs, just as skilled rapping, and a fully-formed group identity and persona. El-P and Killer Mike were good rappers before they joined forces but their collaboration brings out the best in both, more swagger and bravado, more humor, more of everything. Killer Mike even knows the power they possess when he says "The gates of hell I'm pugnaciously pacin' / Waitin' / I give a fuck if I'm late, tell Satan be patient / But I ain't here for durations, I'm just taking vacations / And tell him fuck him, I never loved him and salutations." A biblical throw down. Fuck boys, be warned.
