Ahead of their Australian tour next month, we caught up with Josh Lovelace from the band NEEDTOBREATHE, who let us in on the five bands (other than his own, of course) who he reckons we all need to see live...

Earlier this month we revealed our top 40 albums of 2014, which included 14 albums from Australia (including The Smith Street Band as our number one!). As we did last year, however, we want to make sure as many Australian albums are highlighted as possible! So, we've gone back to our list of votes from AU's fine contributors and put together a list of the top 40 Australian albums (LPs and EPs both eligible) of 2013!

After an incredible year of new Australian music in 2014, we have an incredible array of records in the pipeline for the new year. Some are from bands who we've been waiting to hear from again for years... some for the first time... others are continuously pumping out incredible music and we have no desire for them to stop! In no particular order, here are the fifteen Australian albums (some confirmed, some still to be...) that we can't wait for (or at the very least are hoping for...) in 2015:

The year may have started off slow for hip hop in 2014, but this year has ended up giving us some excellent projects ranging from stunning, experimental debuts to some of the best one-producer albums we have seen in years. Some albums may not have one stand-out single, but surpass the competition when taken as a whole, hence the differences seen in our top hip hop and R&B tracks of 2014.

The year may have started off slow for hip hop in 2014, but this year has ended up giving us some excellent projects ranging from stunning, experimental debuts to some of the best one-producer albums we have seen in years. Some albums may not have one stand-out single, but surpass the competition when taken as a whole, hence the differences seen in our top hip hop and R&B tracks of 2014.

And we have arrived at the top ten! What an incredible year for music it's been, especially on the album front. We're excited to have so many Australians make the top ten, including our number one! But we won't spoil it for you... head through the top ten after the jump! And if you missed any of the past album lists, head to the end of the piece for links to the rest of the series...

We waste no time and continue our top 40 list, looking back at what our contributors have voted as the best albums of 2014. We start off with a little known band from the UK... In case you missed it, look back at our choices for 30-21 and 40-31.

the AU review's Larry Heath sits down with Karl S Williams backstage at Festival of the Sun in Port Macquarie, NSW, to find out his highlights of 2014 and his favourite record of the year, Sharon Van Etten's Are We There.

Yesterday we kicked off our best albums of 2014 countdown, and today we continue, starting things off with Michael Gira's iconic group at number 30...

Kat Czornij counts down her five favourite motion picture soundtracks of 2014. To avoid any confusion, this list only takes into account the original soundtracks - the ones that feature the film scores and original compositions - rather than the soundtracks inspired by a motion picture. You know, the one that has 14 tracks that probably weren't in the film. This is the music that made the film...

Now that we've brought our best songs of 2014 countdown to an end, it's time to get to the albums. And what an incredible year it's been for the album - this was definitely the harder of the two lists to put together. Both at home and across the globe, 2014 was an amazing year for the record. And this list will prove why... We start our list in New Orleans:

Today we conclude our list of best songs of 2014, as voted by the AU's amazing group of contributors... in case you haven't been keeping up to date on where we've gotten to so far, you can check out 40-31, 30-21 and 20-11.

We continue on with our best songs of 2014, as voted by the AU's amazing group of contributors... in case you haven't been keeping up to date on where we've gotten to so far, you can check out 40-31 and 30-21.

2014 closes in a matter of weeks, and with its end comes a myriad of reflective best of lists that serve as a good way to round up the array of sounds that really made an impact this year. Undoubtedly you'll be seeing a bunch of these lists published on the AU in the coming weeks, but I wanted to kick mine off with a round up of 50 tracks I feel were the best moments of hip hop and R&B - what some people call 'urban music' - this year.

Following on from yesterday's first ten tracks, today we bring you the next ten songs that have been voted as the best of the year by the AU review contributors. So, without any wasted time...