Music Chart - August 2014

One of the best months of the year for new albums and a 2014 return for some great bands. One of the biggest releases of the year is Alarms In The Heart by Dry The River - a solid, yet sadly inferior second-best to the brilliant Shallow Bed. I'll give it time but it lacks not only the songs but much of the wide-eyed wonder of its predecessor. The Gaslight Anthem get heavy with the New Jersey charm with Get Hurt...for me not quite as slick as Handwritten but plenty of commitment and passion, as always. One of the new shining lights this year finally follows up a bunch of EPs, and the intriguing Film Songs, with the excellent The Fire Inside - a marvellous début featuring one of the best songs of the year: Bottled Up Tight. And another new act promising so much - and delivering: Royal Blood release their eponymous début; kicking off with the astonishing Out Of The Black and blistering Figure It Out. Echoes of White and Homme everywhere but the startling combination of vocals, drums and bass guitar performed by a duo is truly exhilarating. Last but no least, Thea Gilmore's right-hand man Nigel Stonier, a brilliantly talented songwriter and performer who doesn't release enough albums of his own, has made Built For Storms - filled with stark observations, smart lyrics and beautiful poignant reflections.

Elsewhere, Frightened Rabbit take time out for Owl John, The Raveonettes bring back the bleak, Slow Club attempt to engage, Howling Bells pull the Heartstrings and Honeyblood get feisty.

1. Lost In The Dream by The War On Drugs
2. Augustines by Augustines
3. Rave Tapes by Mogwai
4. Morning Phase by Beck 
5. Gach Sgeul (Every Story) by Julie Fowlis
6. Forgetting The Present by Remember Remember 
7. Built For Storms by Nigel Stonier
8. While 1 is less than 2 by Deadmau5 
9. The Fire Inside by Luke Sital-Singh
10. Royal Blood by Royal Blood
11. Beauty & Ruin by Bob Mould
12. Smoke Fairies by Smoke Fairies 
13. The Gloaming by The Gloaming
14. Tales From The Realm Of The Queen Of Pentacles by Suzanne Vega
15. You Chose These Woes by Model Village
16. Beautiful Desolation by Paul Thomas Saunders
17. Alarms In The Heart by Dry The River
18. Owl John by Owl John
19. Mandatory Fun by Weird Al Yankovic
20. 48:13 by Kasabian
21. Indie Cindy by The Pixies 
22. Running With Scissors by Janet Devlin 
23. The Voyager by Jenny Lewis
24. The Cautionary Tales Of Mark Oliver Everett by Eels
25. Pe'ahi by The Raveonettes
26. Grinning Streak by Barenaked Ladies
27. Upside Down Mountain by Conor Oberst 
28. Teeth Dreams by The Hold Steady
29. Burn Your Fire For No Witness by Angel Olsen
30. The Take Off And Landing of Everything by Elbow
31. Lazaretto by Jack White 
32. Get Hurt by The Gaslight Anthem
33. Word Of Mouth by Seth Lakeman 
34. So Long, See You Tomorrow by Bombay Bicycle Club 
35. Heartstrings by Howling Bells
36. Honeyblood by Honeyblood
37. Futurology by Manic Street Preachers
38. IX by Corrosion Of Conformity
39. Into The Lime by New Mendicants 
40. 9 Dead Alive by Rodrigo y Gabriela
41. A Letter Home By Neil Young
42. In The Silence by Asgeir
43. Held In Splendor by Quilt
44. Wilderness of Mirrors by Lawrence English
45. Ultraviolence by Lana Del Rey
46. Salad Days by Mac Demarco
47. Blood Red Shoes by Blood Red Shoes 
48. Alvvays by Alvvays
49. Supernova by Ray LaMontagne
50. Echoes by Emily Smith 
51. Everyday Robots by Damon Albarn
52. Atlas by Real Estate
53. Croz by David Crosby
54. Benji by Sun Kil Moon 
55. St. Vincent by St. Vincent
56. Cursing The Sea by September Girls
57. Wildewoman by Lucius
58. Luminous by The Horrors
59. High Hopes by Bruce Springsteen
60. Songs About This And That by Karin Krog & John Surman
61. Waking Lines by Patterns
62. Unrepentant Geraldines by Tori Amos 
63. Complete Surrender by Slow Club
64. The Future's Void by EMA
65. Here And Nowhere Else by Cloud Nothings
66. Wig Out At Jagbags by Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks
67. Total Strife Forever by East India Youth
68. Too Much Information by Maximo Park
69. Warpaint by Warpaint
70. Are We There by Sharon Van Etten
71. To Be Kind by Swans
72. Eagulls by Eagulls 
73. Education, Education, Education & War by Kaiser Chiefs
74. The Crystal Method by The Crystal Method
75. Kid Face by Samantha Crain
76. None The Wiser by The Rifles
77. Oh My Sexy Lord by Marijuana Deathsquads