Here are the top 12 1/2 albums of the year, without too much of an intro, which you can read in the first post, here.
SO, with that in mind, here are what I considered to be the remainder of the best albums in 2013, which was truly a fantastic year in music. After a short summary of the album, click on the title of the two must-listen tracks to get a glimpse of the music.
12.) The Foreign Exchange - Love In Flying Colors
Why: What I found myself enjoying most about this FE album, and what I enjoy about so much of their work, is the exploration of relationships, and not in the broad sense. Unlike the past two (fantastic) FE albums, this one seems a little more settled in it's airy, hypnotic atmosphere. A lot more sure of itself. Lastly, it goes without saying, but also cannot be said enough. Nicolay is incredibly, incredibly gifted.
Must-Listen Tracks: "Dreams Are Made For Two", "Listen To The Rain"
11.) Neko Case - The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You
Why: I appreciate the embracing of age, especially as I find myself getting older. I've always thought Neko Case's work seemed to be honest about all but that, so this album holds a special place for me. It balances both a tender sound, with extremely tough content. In a year where women in music were as fierce and bold as they've ever been, I think Case wins out, in a lot of ways, by just finding yet another avenue, another way to keep her sound fresh. Even after all of her years in the game.
Must-Listen Tracks: "Wild Creatures", "Man"
10.) Death Grips - Government Plates
Why: I like Death Grips way better when they're making music, and find myself less concerned with what comes out of the times when the aesthetic of the group allows itself to be called into question. Mostly, by not putting a penis on the cover, if nothing else, so much of this album's appeal finally lies solely in the music itself. Both an expression and justification of paranoia, the sounds on the album are scattered, jarring, and almost comical, in some ways. It's kind of an ink splatter of an album, if nothing else, not only in sound, but in lyrical content, with MC Ride smearing together language and imagery, to leave the most pressing things up to the imagination of the listener. Which has kind of always been what we turned to these guys for, right?
Must-Listen Tracks: "Whatever I Want", "Big House"
9.) Savages - Silence Yourself
Why: Listen, I get it that no one believes in post-punk anymore as an actual thing, but here's a very real truth. Sleater-Kinney isn't walking through that door. At least not in 2013 (though 2014 looks promising), and there was a void, for me. Savages aren't necessarily a reheated version of S-K, though there is obvious influence, but they are somehow both quieter and more demanding with their messages and expectations. The title of the album, paired with the opening track ("Shut Up") send the clear message of listen, quit all of the bullshit and enjoy something artistic for once. I haven't heard an album this aggressive in a while, which is a major accomplishment considering the nuance of it, and the obvious care taken by the musicians. It doesn't sound like they just showed up and beat the hell out of their instruments, though I'm not sure I would have minded that, either.
Must-Listen Tracks: "Marshall Dear", "Strife"
8.) Boards Of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest
Why: This is an album I actually started the year incredibly high on, and then found myself cooling as more releases popped up. I think what I initially loved about the album, the claustrophobic sounds, the obvious sense of crisis, became too intense for my palette, but not so intense that I could drop this fantastic, fantastic album out of my top ten. It's down about six slots from my mid-year forecast, but it is still a triumph.
Must-Listen Tracks: "New Seeds", "Reach For The Dead"
7.) Thundercat - Apocalypse
Why: I trended more towards intriguing and daring instrumental work this year, if it isn't evident by the choices at the top end of this. With that said, I found the universally hailed Settle (by Disclosure) to lack some of the free flying risk that I found consistently popping up on this album. Thundercat has done better than almost anyone at completely separating himself from any sort of barriers. The album is unpredictable, but also calming, in an odd way. You feel a call back to some of the influences that were previously tapped to, I'd say influences reaching as far as the Minutemen's Double Nickels On The Dime album. Criminally under-talked about album, this one.
Must-Listen Tracks: "Special Stage", "Tenfold"
6.) The National - Trouble Will Find Me
Why: I always enjoy watching what a band does on the album AFTER the album that made them popular. The National always had themselves a small following, but after 2010's High Violet, things got real, in a very big way. I would say with this release, the band finds themselves holding serve, if not topping the prior effort. When climbing the ladder, it's rare that a band gets a firm grasp on the rungs, and an effort like this must be rewarded.
Must-Listen Tracks: "Graceless", "Demons"
5.) The 1975 - The 1975
Why: And here lies the "surprise" pick of the year. I don't intend to do this annually, and this isn't even the most surprising, compared to the past three years (in 2010 I fought recklessly for The Dream's Love Vs. Money as the #1 album of the year. Which is reflects more on the year, and my desire to make a name for myself, at the time, as a music journalist willing to be "edgy"). The seemingly overnight success story of The 1975 generates plenty of sideeye, and perhaps rightfully so. When the mid-2000's found itself exploding with piano-rock bands, it was a good time, sure, but no one really expected anything would come out of it. We've all had flings. The 1975, however, amount to the fling that sticks around for a while, meets the parents, and remembers your birthday. The album is ambitious, just based off of numbers alone. After releasing a handful of quietly solid EPs, this is a debut indie pop album with 16 tracks. Which gives us maybe about four more tracks than most people have time for when it comes to such releases. But the genre jumping within those 16 tracks give listeners a taste of everything. And the way the genres are maneuvered, sometimes within the same songs. It finds itself being a pop album only in aesthetic, but more importantly, it finds itself being already timeless. Also, their cover of this One Direction song is pretty wild.
Must-Listen Tracks: "Is There Somebody Who Can Watch You", "Menswear"
4.) Run The Jewels - Run The Jewels
Why: In the interest of full disclosure, the gap between #5 and everything else, this year, is very, very wide. I think the top four albums of this year stood out so far from the rest of the pack that it was hard to place them in order. Run The Jewels is so intriguing, if you're into hip-hop, because you have two guys who made two of the most interesting hip-hop albums of 2012 (Killer Mike's R.A.P. Music, and El-P's Cancer 4 Cure) joining forces. The fusion of Killer Mike's more foot-on-gas approach mixed with some of the daring/art-driven production of El-P creates an interesting mix of subtle, nuanced tracks that can also shut down the block when blared with the windows down on a slow drive. And if you have the time, the content is also challenging, refreshing, and unique in its approach. What's best is that, unlike the hype mountain of Watch The Throne, you don't get the vibe that either of these guys coasted here. And both come out of the project seeming more grown, as artists. This is the most complete hip-hop album of the year, by far.
Must-Listen Tracks: "Banana Clipper", "D.D.F.H."
3.) Deafheaven - Sunbather
Why: I saw Deafheaven in 2011, on the back of their debut album Roads To Judah, and I remember leaving a bit let down, due to the hype I'd heard about the group redefining and/or revolutionizing black metal. I heard a lot of unrealized promise, and a lot of risks left on the stage, and on the four track album. Two years later, Sunbather drops to widespread acclaim, and again, I was skeptical. But, then, I heard rumblings from the "metal purists" about how much they hated the record, which led me to believe I would enjoy it immensely. (Because, if I haven't said it enough throughout these things, there are no music fans in the world worse than metal purists. None. None. None. ICP fans, no matter what people may say about you, there are always worse people to talk music with. And it's metal purists. Anyway.) Sunbather doesn't necessarily LOOK like a black metal album, aesthetically, with its gentle title, and soft pink album cover. But it sounds like a band who finally found out that their lane was greater than a sub-genre. There are seven tracks. The album lasts an hour. Along the way, we're treated to some early Explosions In The Sky-like tricks, a bit of shoegazing, and entire walls and waves of noise. Where Deafheaven has always succeeded is in their incredible control of all of these sounds, of this dynamic. They are as close to metal's version of Phil Spector as we may see. Everything has its place, even the messiest of sections that stumble into a 14 minute opus like "Vertigo". Some metal is heavy from the start, and never slows down. What Deafheaven does here is slowly build it's weight, and it's a real treat when it finally crashes down. This album is a masterpiece. It is for those who like metal and those who do not. I like the two above it more, however, this is the album I most frequently found myself recommending this year.
Must-Listen Track (one due to length): "Dream House"
2.) Janelle Monae - The Electric Lady
Why: I still feel like there's a desire for Janelle Monae to fail, or at least a question of whether or not she will. I think whenever an act arrives as beloved by the "right" names as Monae did, there's a bit of curiosity that doesn't allow one to fully consume the music. It didn't help that at times, Monae's efforts, even at their most impressive, had a tendency to be disjointed, or hard to engage with for casual listeners. What this album brings together is a laser-like attention to detail which makes it sharp, and the realizing of Monae's sky-high ambition, and how to best make it work within the musical climate she exists in. It's a brave album. An incredibly brave album, and more importantly, every single leap of faith works.
Must-Listen Tracks: "Q.U.E.E.N.", "PrimeTime"
1.) My Bloody Valentine - m b v
Why: Maybe a bit unfair, since a portion of this album was recorded before the band's breakup in 1997, but the first full length release of original material from the group in over two decades warrants the number one slot here mostly due to how it, even after all of these years, was kind of an extension of 1991's Loveless, and not a dramatic leap, still maintaining the things that we loved about their sound. Loveless changed the way I heard music. It changed the way I listened to instruments. I heard it on the bedroom floor of a girl I was kind of interested in during my sophomore year of college. I put on headphones, and sat on her floor with that record for two hours, until she kicked me out of her room, and I knew my relationship with sound had shifted. This time around, I stayed up well after midnight, sitting up alone in my bed, listening to the album over and over, and imagining the madness that went into it. Allowing myself to get lost in that space. MBV has always allowed for the losing of one's self. Allowed for an almost forgettable passing of time. This album triumphs in that, and does so over a decade after its creators were written off for dead.
Must-Listen Tracks: "Is This And Yes", "New You"
THE 1/2 ALBUM
For those unfamiliar, I add a 1/2 album every year. This is an album I truly enjoyed, but enjoyed while understanding that it wasn't one of the 25 best pieces of music released in the year. Or, just an album by an artist I am a shameless fan of, and want to talk about. So, naturally, this year...
Fall Out Boy - Save Rock N' Roll
Why: I don't know how to tell 20 year old scene kids that the bands they love right now are going to get older, and it is often times going to be messy, unappealing, and potentially annoying, which is where Fall Out Boy were, for me, at the end of 2008, on the back of the album Folie A Deux. An album that I enjoyed, but most other fans of the band hated, but not nearly as much as they hated watching the group (quite literally) dissolving on stage. One hiatus and 4.5 years later, FOB came back with a mature, fun record that doesn't pretend to not care what people think while actually REALLY caring what people thing. It truly doesn't care. Pete Wentz's lyrics read less like diary/blog entries for the first time ever, and more like genuine meditations on guilt, aging, and failed relationships. The songs tackle the sometimes difficult realities behind being an adult, which is a far cry where the band was at when we last left them. The hardest thing for a band to do, especially when the band has a fan base rooted in youth, is to age gracefully, and take its fans with them. This album did as good of a job as possible in letting that happen. Patrick Stump steals the gold star on the album, however, with his voice much improved from his toe dipping in the waters of soul and funk during his solo endeavors. There are straightforward pop songs here. There are funky songs here. And there is genuine vintage soul here. But, for the nostalgic, there are still splashes of what worked way back in 2002, when I saw them play live for the first time as teenagers in a basement in Chicago with about 15 other people. I went to see them when they came through Columbus this year, and I was blown away by seeing the wide range of ages in the crowd. The new wave of teenagers. The slightly older hit-chasers. And, of course, those of us in our late 20s, who were there at the start, and are now wise enough to stay out of the pit and just take in the music.
Must-Listen Tracks: "Where Did The Party Go?", "Save Rock N' Roll"
I hope you were able to dig out a few good albums you were unfamiliar with through this. It's been a killer year, and while I don't think 2014 can keep pace, here's hoping.
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