A great reason to use the free service last.fm is that it tracks your music listening habits across many platforms like Spotify, Pandora, and iTunes. With this database of records the site then gives you insightful analysis to your listening habings. For instance, you can sort your music by most-played in the past 12 months.
Using, this data from last.fm, here’s a look at the top albums I discovered (or re-discovered) in 2014. They include a range of genres: Mashup, 90s, pop dance, hip-hop jazz, rap, techno soundtrack, Muppets, German pop, and British hip-hop. I’m actually quite surprised by this range, because these ten albums are strictly ordered by how often I listened to them in 2014. I didn’t specifically pick them to give a diverse range of music types, it just so happened to fall that way.
1. Bruneaux — Pure Magic
A mashup album tops my 2014 new albums. With 115 plays in 2014 it demolishes the 67 plays from the second place album. Although “Pure Magic” was released January 9, 2012 I didn’t discover it until November 2013.
It’s an obscure album, according to last.fm, this album has been listened to by only 1,003 people.
Although technically, this is not my most listened-to album of 2014. There are four other albums that had more listens than “Pure Magic.”:
* Torpeedoh — Party People
* E-603 — Torn Up
* Daft Punk — Tron: Legacy
* Torpeedoh — Buckwild
But I had been listening to those albums already before 2014. This is a 2014 new album list, so “Pure Magic” gets the top album for 2014.
Favorite track of “Pure Magic”: Get It Right
2. INXS — Welcome To Wherever You Are
Technically I listened to this INXS album when it was released in 1992. But since 2007, this album sat dormant on my playlists–until this year when my cousin Peter Kreten asked about my most influential college albums. This being one of them on that list (I have yet to post that influential college album list).
Favorite track: Not enough time
3. Havana Brown — When the Lights Go Out
Honestly, I didn’t even know what this album is when it appeared on my top five list. I had to look it up. Early in 2014, the track “Big Banana” made it onto my “2014 discovered” playlist, helping this album get more plays throughout 2014. The snappy song with goofy lyrics made for a fun 2014. There’s a couple other fun pop dance songs on this album, like “We run the night” and “You’ll be mine.”
Favorite track: Big Banana
4. Us3 — The Third Way (Hand On The Torch Vol II)
Loved this album in college, with the hit single “Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia).” Twenty years later, Us3 releases the second volume of “Hand on the Torch.” A nice review on Exclaim.ca.
Favorite track: I want one of those
5. DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince — Code Red
Another college album, while I would exclude it from my 2014 list, because I regularly listen to “Boom! Shake the Room,” there is a song on this album that I discovered in 2014, “I wanna rock.” This track is great, because it has that original Fresh Prince vibe when he played in the clubs.
Favorite track: I wanna rock
6. Joseph Trapanese — TRON: Uprising
The Tron Legacy soundtrack is one of my top albums of all time. This particular “Uprising” album is for the follow-up animated series, which is also one of my top five favorite animated series of all time.
Favorite track: Lightbike battle (Really any of them are good, so I picked the first one)
7. Christina Grimmie — Must Be Love
A single-track album makes it onto my list, because I really like this song. She does have an 11-track album from 2013, but it does not include this song.
Favorite track: Must be love
8. The Muppets — The Muppet Show: Music, Mayhem & More!
Does not need any explanation.
Favorite track: Muppet Show Theme
9. Lena — Stardust
German pop artist, Lena.
Favorite track: Bliss Bliss
10. Rizzle Kicks — Roaring 20s
British hip-hop.
Favorite track: Skip to the good bit
This blog post is inspired by my cousin Peter’s 2014 top ten album list. What is your favorite album of 2014? Please let us know in the comments on this (or Peter’s) blog post.
I didn’t realize that Last.FM complied all of that data. That is really neat and super useful when you compile lists such as this one.