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Photos: Randall Roberts’ best pop albums of 2014

Los Angeles Times pop music critic Randall Roberts picks 2014's best pop albums, including Beck's "Morning Phase" and "St. Vincent."

Los Angeles Times pop music critic Randall Roberts picks 2014’s best pop albums, including Beck’s “Morning Phase” and “St. Vincent.”  (Interscope Records; Smalltown Supersound; Michael Chavez / Los Angeles Times; Grant Singer; Mass Appeal Records; Young God)

By Randall Roberts

Los Angeles Times pop music critic Randall Roberts picks 2014’s best pop albums, including Beck’s “Morning Phase” and “St. Vincent.”

A record that continues to blossom six months after its release, Beck's breathtaking 12th studio album is a rush of California guitar pop with precisely honed melodies, inventive structures and surprising, yet logical, instrumental diversions.

A record that continues to blossom six months after its release, Beck’s breathtaking 12th studio album is a rush of California guitar pop with precisely honed melodies, inventive structures and surprising, yet logical, instrumental diversions.  (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

A breathtaking debut album with nearly as much silence as sound, "LP1" strips British R&B down to its skeletal essence, like Portishead mixed with pure oxygen or Laurie Anderson's "O Superman" reimagined as a set of soul jams.

A breathtaking debut album with nearly as much silence as sound, “LP1” strips British R&B down to its skeletal essence, like Portishead mixed with pure oxygen or Laurie Anderson’s “O Superman” reimagined as a set of soul jams.  (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

Compared with most rap albums, the second from the duo Run the Jewels sounds like men making music amid a bunch of schoolkids. Hard, insistent, melodic, lyrically accomplished and dense with thematic intent, it's the best rap album of the year.

Compared with most rap albums, the second from the duo Run the Jewels sounds like men making music amid a bunch of schoolkids. Hard, insistent, melodic, lyrically accomplished and dense with thematic intent, it’s the best rap album of the year.  (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

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Annie Clarke's artistic ascent has been a series of graceful steps up the grand staircase, and her self-titled fourth album is her most significant yet. Art pop that's as brilliantly arranged as it is thick with ideas, "St. Vincent" and its creator delivered one surprise after another.

Annie Clarke’s artistic ascent has been a series of graceful steps up the grand staircase, and her self-titled fourth album is her most significant yet. Art pop that’s as brilliantly arranged as it is thick with ideas, “St. Vincent” and its creator delivered one surprise after another.  (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

On a better rock album than more prominent releases this year by Jack White and the Black Keys, Los Angeles rock artist Segall mixes garage, punk, glam, British invasion and grunge into one glorious whole.

On a better rock album than more prominent releases this year by Jack White and the Black Keys, Los Angeles rock artist Segall mixes garage, punk, glam, British invasion and grunge into one glorious whole.   (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

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Randall Roberts

Former staff writer Randall Roberts covered Los Angeles music culture for the Los Angeles Times. He had served various roles since arriving at The Times in 2010, including music editor and pop music critic. As a staff writer, he explored the layered history of L.A. music, from Rosecrans and Sunset to Ventura Boulevard and beyond. His 2020 project on the early Southern California phonograph industry helped identify the first-ever commercial recording made in Los Angeles.

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