Happy new year, everyone. Since we’re into 2014 now, and (perhaps more pertinently) since all of our 2013 charts generated so much traffic to www.www.uncut.co.uk last month, I thought it’d be useful/cynical to post a Best Of 2014 (Thus Far) list.

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The practical bit of this exercise, I guess, is that I’ve scanned the last few playlist blogs of 2013 and fished out all the salient 2014 releases I really like, so that this scam should also act as a taster for some interesting forthcoming albums (there are plenty of things to listen to embedded, as well). I’ll grudgingly admit that it may be rather early to put them into any kind of order, so I’ve run the list alphabetically. Apologies, too, for the redacted Number 16; as far as I can recall, that album hasn’t been formally announced as yet.

I should also flag up the imminent arrival of our first Uncut of 2014, which arrives in UK shops tomorrow (maybe some subscribers have received it already?). The issue features extraordinary new interviews with Ray and Dave Davies, David Crosby, Smokey Robinson, Robert Wyatt, Mogwai, Davy O’List, Jason Isbell and John Sinclair, plus a big preview of plenty of 2014 albums not mentioned here, and an authoritative Richard Williams review of the new Springsteen album that comes with a lengthy Q&A with the key collaborator on “High Hopes”, Tom Morello. Full details here.

Let us know what you think. Just put on another new album, which I wasn’t expecting much from, and which is shaping up surprisingly well. Chances are, then, the list below may turn out to be incomplete. It’s a start, though…

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1 Black Dirt Oak – Wawayanda Patent (MIE Music)

2 Bill Callahan – Have Fun With God (Drag City)

3 Rosanne Cash – The River & The Thread (Decca)

4 Hans Chew – Life And Love (At The Helm)

5 Morgan Delt – Morgan Delt (Trouble In Mind)

6 Drive By Truckers – English Oceans (ATO)

7 East India Youth – Total Strife Forever (Stolen)

8 Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks – Wig Out At Jagbags (Domino)

9 Mark McGuire – Along The Way (Dead Oceans)

10 Metronomy – Love Letters (Because)

11 Mogwai – Rave Tapes (Rock Action)

12 New Bums – Voices In A Rented Room (Drag City)

13 Angel Olsen – Burn Your Fire For No Witness (Jagjaguwar)

14 Doug Paisley – Strong Feelings (No Quarter)

15 Linda Perhacs – The Soul Of All Natural Things (Asthmatic Kitty)

16 [Redacted]

17 D Charles Speer & The Helix – Doubled Exposure (Thrill Jockey)

18 Suarasama – Timeline (Space)

19 Tinariwen – Emmaar (PIAS)