Your favourite albums of 2013.

[Alkaline]

i think uk release was this year. CLUTCHINGATSTRAWS.

[Jaaakkkeee]

 

i think uk release was this year. CLUTCHINGATSTRAWS.

 

Another fantastic contribution to the website.

 

I think loads of great albums have came out this year that just passed me by. i've been catching up with older music really. My favourite album of the year, or at least the one I listened to most this year was from last year. But I didn't know about it until this year.

[Alkaline]

Another fantastic contribution to the website.

 

I think loads of great albums have came out this year that just passed me by. i've been catching up with older music really. My favourite album of the year, or at least the one I listened to most this year was from last year. But I didn't know about it until this year.

 

I've made a lot of fantastic contributions to this website. You haven't, not by any stretch. Now quit whining like a schoolgirl with a skinned knee and get back to talking about feces.

[KarmaTsunami]

This was hard because there were about 22 albums I wanted to put in my Top 10. 

 

 

1. Nils Frahm - Spaces

2. Marnie Stern - The Chronicles of Marnia

3. Paramore - Paramore

4. Speedy Ortiz - Major Arcana

5. Waxahatchee - Cerulean Salt

6. PINS - Girls Like Us

7. John Grant - Pale Green Ghosts

8. Julia Holter - Loud City Song

9. Neko Case - The Harder Things Get, The Harder I Fight

10. CHVRCHES - The Bones of What You Believe/The Haxan Cloak - Excavation

 

The last one I still had about 5 albums I really wanted on the list which is why it's a tie. Although I'll need to choose one as I suspect Hercules Moment won't let me cheat like that. I missed off Beyonce because she released her album so late it felt unfair to the others which were shortlisted for a while beforehand. I have a list of honorable mentions as well, including Laura Veirs, 65daysofstatic, Janelle Monae, Charlie XCX, Moonface, DJ Koze, Swearin and Joanna Gruesome. 

[KarmaTsunami]

Except the Neko Case album is actually called 'The Worse Things Get, the Harder I Fight, the Harder I Fight, the More I Love You'.

 

I am just being really daft in that I couldn't figure out a way to edit that earlier post?

[Paranoid Android]

If you find a big lump of coal in your stocking on christmas morning that'll be from me on behalf of charlixcx because of this glaring omission. 

[KarmaTsunami]

In fairness, I felt REALLY bad about leaving her off. The only reason was that I came to it later than the others. It could still make my final list for Hercules Moments since it was a three-way tie for Number 10 between Charlie XCX, CHVRCHES and The Haxan Cloak but then I left Charlie off for the stated reason and now I don't even know.

[Paranoid Android]

Chvrches are good too so I wont complain to much about it being above it but I've not heard any of your top 9 therefore they must all be worse.

[KarmaTsunami]

They are all stone-cold stoaters. 

[Paranoid Android]

Well if you can't be convinced how do I write to Hercules Moments and tell them to print top 11s instead of 10?

[KarmaTsunami]

@herculesmoments on Twitter and you can always harass them on Facebook. I've put her in my 'honorable mentions' though. 

[Alkaline]

Here's my top 10:

 

1. Chvrches- The Bones of What You Believe

2. Disclosure- Settle

3. Red City Radio- Titles

4. Jon Hopkins- Immunity

5. Daft Punk- Random Access Memories

6. Deafheaven- Sunbather

7. The Murderburgers- These Are Only Problems

8. Alunageorge- Body Music

9. The Knife- Shaking the Habitual

10. Lorde- Pure Heroine

[KarmaTsunami]

Jon Hopkins and Deafhaven are another two I really enoyed. I'm also annoyed I missed off Thundercat's 'Apocalypse'. 

[Paranoid Android]

Here's my top 10:

 

1. Chvrches- The Bones of What You Believe

2. Disclosure- Settle

3. Red City Radio- Titles

4. Jon Hopkins- Immunity

5. Daft Punk- Random Access Memories

6. Deafheaven- Sunbather

7. The Murderburgers- These Are Only Problems

8. Alunageorge- Body Music

9. The Knife- Shaking the Habitual

10. Lorde- Pure Heroine

 

Nice group, I like most of these but mostly my attention has been drawn to the fact there is a bang called The Murderburgers.

[Alkaline]

Nice group, I like most of these but mostly my attention has been drawn to the fact there is a bang called The Murderburgers.

 

They're a Scottish Punk band. Well worth a listen if you're even slightly into that sort of thing!

[givemeasmile]

Was the FIDLAR album not released last year?

 

Sorry just saw this now. A quick search on wikipedia says it was released on January 1st in Canada, then it came out in the UK in February. Either way it's a really strong album!

 

Did anybody like the Daft Punk album? I thought it was pretty horrible apart from maybe one or two songs. Not a patch on the older stuff.

[Paranoid Android]

I like it. Some of it anyway. I won't pretend I've listened to it a whole lot but it's decent. I don't think there's much point comparing it with their older stuff really.

 

 

And honestly no matter how many times I hear it I'm not tired of Get Lucky.

[Old Gold]

Yeah, as much as the album has fallen off my radar, Get Lucky is probably all things considered my favourite single of the year.

 

I can't be fussed ordering them, but some of the albums I liked this year:

 

• Speedy Ortiz - Major Arcana
• Low - The Invisible Way
• Deafheaven - Sunbather
• Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Push the Sky Away
• Danny Brown - Old
• Daft Punk - Random Access Memories
• Quelle Chris - Niggas is Men
• Marnie Stern - The Chronicles of Marnia
• Waxahatchee - Cerulean Salt
• California X - California X
• Swearin' - Surfing Strange (bit of a letdown compared to the previous one, but still pretty solid)
• Jesu - Every Day I Get Closer To The Light From Which I Came

 

Twisting my arm, I'll give Speedy Ortiz the crown.  Good year.  Lots more to check out by the looks of things.

[maud 'dib]

the new queens record really got me bad. new mark lanegan as well. but mainly radio 4 for me. next year I'll stop buying music altogether. I bought and downloaded stuff fae local bands but that disnae count. 

the GVSB ep was good. fat goth record was good, but too many bits not enough tunes.

mostly everything sounds like shit-core to me at the moment. 

 

 

sad face.

[Lemonade]

<p>

Those you could place in an arbitrary order on a list:-

• Danny Brown, "Old": A beautiful autobiographical mess that didn't quite grab me like his last release, but still excited. It was cool to hear him reach into his past sound on the first half of the album, then dive into a pile of amped-up EDM/trap-influenced music on the second.
• Freddie Gibbs, "ESGN": Pure gangsta rap from an incredibly consistent midwesterner. He switched his beat selection up and there are a lot more booming 808s and snappy snares on this than his mixtapes, but its clearly his best project. Songs like "Eastside Moonwalker" are the sound of an artists reaching his next level.
• Flatbush Zombies, "Better Off Dead": I think two of these gadgies have only been rapping for two years, which is absolutely insane to me, given how accomplished this mixtape is. Three MCs with perfect voices for hip-hop coming aggressive from the start. Dark, pulsing production. A real original sound, and it's hard to think of an MC who outshined Meechy Darko this year.
• Ghostface Killah, "12 Reasons to Die": Another strong release from the greatest rapper who ever lived. A corny crime story over Adrian Younge's lush, live instrumentation. Outstanding guest appearances. Very cohesive. I just expect Ghost to piss excellence at this stage, and projects like this really hammer home the art of the album as a whole.
• Pusha T, "My Name is My Name": The marketing for this album blew me away. The first few listens disappointed me. Now, it's one of my favourites of the year, apart from the stupid, shitty Kelly Rowland track. Murky crime raps over some absolutely ridiculous production, and he's about the only MC to not get completely bodied by Kendrick Lamar this year ("Nosetalgia").
• Mr. MFN eXquire, "Kismet": Another release that is much better than any free release has any right to be. He's always been a skilled MC, but he sounds excellent over his own production. I don't think there are many who can match him at the moment.
• Billy Woods, "Dour Candy": This was a fucking treat. Produced entirely by Blockhead and dark as hell. Onion-like, layered lyrics spat in an almost spoken-world kinda style. Deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.
• CZARFACE, "CZARFACE": I listened to a lot of hard-nosed East Coast hip-hop this year, and this took the cherry. 7L on the boards, Esoteric and Inspectah Deck (!!!) spitting bars. For what it is, it's almost perfect. Non-stop bars and absolutely monstrous bangers. Try putting this on and walking down the street -- if you don't end-up walking with a massive, accidental swagger then you probably lack a soul.

The undisputed best thing I heard this year:-

• Run the Jewels, "Run the Jewels": Madre de dios, this was almost perfect. Imagine "Watch the Throne" if "What the Throne" was made by a couple of fierce, underground spitters rather than a couple of lazy rich dudes. El-P and Killer Mike sound like they've been making music together for decades, such is their chemistry. When they put-out "R.A.P Music" together last year, I thought they'd never top it, but this is a completely different beast. You get Killer Mike with his gruff, southern swagger and El-P's paranoid, schizoid bars bouncing off one another for 10 tracks, and El's production is typically brilliant. A great variety of sounds from start to finish and an insane amount of quoteables. 33 minutes of fire, venom and hunger from the most vital force in hip-hop today.

I'm going to listen to all of these. Good post. Thanks. You obviously know your shizzle.

[Lemonade]

There's maybe a bit of scottish pride factoring into some of the praise?

Not that it's a bad album - I think it's really good actually. But I wonder if the CHVRCHES mentions would be so high had if they weren't from Scotland or sung in the accent.

For me it started when that story broke about her being sexually harassed. Not that that in particular made me want to listen to them but next time I was browsing music I saw the name and thought "oh I've heard people talking about them. I'll give them a listen". It's a decent album, not brilliant but good IMO.

[The Milner]

There's maybe a bit of scottish pride factoring into some of the praise?

 

Not that it's a bad album - I think it's really good actually. But I wonder if the CHVRCHES mentions would be so high had if they weren't from Scotland or sung in the accent.

 

Thats the way i see it. I personally find nothing interesting about them at all, the music is boring, the vocals are decent enough tho. They just seem like a band where the two guys made a heap of electronic music and threw a fit bird on the front to sing them. Nae my thing at all. 

[Jaaakkkeee]

I've submitted my list to Hercules Moments. It was really hard this year actually. Had a list of about 25 to begin with. Whittled it down to 10.

[Hog]

Sahg- Delusions of Grandeur

Ulver- Messe I.X- VI.X

Fleshgod Apocalypse- Labyrinth

[Teabags]

Fleshgod Apocalypse- Labyrinth

Still haven't listened to this. Gonna have a listen now. Agony is a fucking amazing album.