Our Favourite Albums of 2013

Scout Tafoya

1. Besnard Lakes - Until In Excess, Imperceptible UFO

2. Phosphorescent - Muchacho 

3. Gauntlet Hair - Stills

4. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Push The Sky Away

5. Akron/Family - Sub Verses

6. Kadavar - Abra Kadavar

7. My Bloody Valentine - m b v

8. Rogue Wave - Nightingale Floors

9. Flaming Lips - The Terror

10. Uncle Acid And The Deadbeats - Mind Control

11. British Sea Power - Machineries of Joy

12. David Bowie - The Next Day

13. Dirty Beaches - Drifters/Love Is The Devil 

14. Ty Segall - Sleeper

15. Ghostface Killah - Twelve Reasons To Die

16. Austra - Olympia

17. Iceage - You're Nothing

18. Windhand - Soma

19. Okkervil River - Silver Gymnasium

20. Neko Case - The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I love You

Chloe Stewart

1. Wire - Change Becomes Us
2. Moby - Innocents
3. Joan Jett - Unvarnished
4. Elvis Costello & The Roots - Wise Up Ghost
5. Hugh Cornwell - Totem & Taboo
6. Crocodiles - Crimes of Passion
7. Savages - Silence Yourself
8. Pere Ubu - Lady from Shanghai
9. Wymond Miles - Cut Yourself Free
10. Adam Ant - Adam Ant is the Blueblack Hussar in Marrying the Gunner's Daughter

Fox Johnson

1. Neko Case - The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You

2. Kavinsky - Outrun

3. Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City

4. Daft Punk - Random Access Memories

5. Jake Bugg - Jake Bugg

6. Tegan and Sara - Heartthrob

7. Laura Marling - Once I Was an Eagle

8. Charles Bradley - Victim of Love

9. Arcade Fire - Reflektor

10. Jake Bugg - Shangri La

11. Rush - The Clockwork Angels Tour

12. Justin Timberlake - 20/20 Experience (Part 1)

13. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Push the Sky Away

14. Bob Dylan - Another Self Portrait

Ash Redbone

1. Kurt Vile - Wakin' on a Pretty Daze
2. Steve Gunn - Time Off
3. Widowspeak - Almanac
4. Unknown Mortal Orchestra - II
5. William Onyeabor - Who is William Onyeabor?
6. Bombino - Nomad
7. Midlake - Antiphon
8. Washed Out - Paracosm
9. Savages - Silence Yourself
10. Lumerians - High Frontier
11. Quasimoto - Yessir Whatever
12. Ty Segall - Sleeper
13. Kadavar - Abra Kadavar
14. William Tyler - Impossible Truth
15. Four Tet - Beautiful Rewind


Marissa D'Elia

1. Iron Chic - The Constant One
-Part of the placement of this record at the top of my list stems from my undeniable bias with this band. Iron Chic is and has been my favorite band for the past couple of years. Their records don’t do anything radical, technically or musically speaking, but the way the songs all come together creates a feeling that you really can’t find anywhere else.  That being said, The Constant One was the most ideal progression from their first LP, Not Like This, another record jam-packed with heavy choruses and chill-inducing lyrics. I can’t really find the words to describe the feeling these songs give me.  A must listen for anyone who was ever a fan of Latterman and older (original) pop-punk bands.
2. Beyoncé - Beyoncé
-There are so many reasons why this album is number 2 on my list. As a marketing student, I marvel at the brand that is Beyoncé. A secret album that sold over 80,000 units in the first three hours of its release is enough reason to put this at the top at any AOTY list. With that being said, this album really surprised me.  I love Beyoncé as much as the next person but I never really found that I enjoyed her records as a whole. Every single song on this is completely different from the next with perfect collaborations with Frank Ocean, Drake and Blue Ivy herself. But the most addicting aspect of this album is the strong feminist undertone to a couple of songs, especially “Flawless” which features Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche. I had watched Adiche’s talk on “Why everyone should be a feminist” so I had heard the excerpt before but somehow the way it was paired with the music made it that much more powerful. If there was ever a time to listen to this beautiful goddess, it’s now.
3. Kelsi Grammar - Being Petty
-The best band you’ve never heard of. That’s really it. This EP slays just as hard as their full-length from 2012. If you aren’t listening to this band you are screwing your entire life up. Gritty. Angsty. Vocals that don’t sound like every other band you listen to.
4. The National - Trouble Will Find Me
-This record is so sad. The National are so sad. I’m so sad. I recently put in on in a car ride with someone who had never listened before and their first reaction was that it sounded like something gloomy from the 80s. I love this because it’s that album you go out of your way to buy the 180 gram vinyl and then put it on and lay in bed all day questioning every decision you’ve ever made.
5. Drake - Nothing Was the Same
6. Marietta - Summer Death
7. Balance and Composure - The Things We Think We’re Missing
8. Iron Chic - Spooky Action EP 
9. Old Gray - An Autobiography

Dan Khan

1. Dirty Beaches - Drifters/Love is the Devil

2. Baths - Obsidian 
3. Arcade Fire - Reflektor 
4. My Bloody Valentine - m b v  
5. Phosphorescent - Muchacho
6. Washed Out - Paracosm
7. Jagwar Ma - Howlin’
8. Fuck Buttons - Slow Focus
9. Deerhunter - Monomania
10. The Besnard Lakes - Until in Excess, Imperceptible UFO
11. Atoms for Peace - Amok
12. Kanye West - Yeezus
13). Eleanor Friedberger - Personal Record
14. Wire - Change Becomes Us
15. Neko Case - The Worse Things Get, The Higher I Fight, The Harder I fight, The More I love You
16. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Push the Sky Away
17. Cults - Static
18. Justin Timberlake - The 20/20 Experience (Part 1) 
19. Smith Westerns - Soft Will
20. Janelle Monae - The Electric Lady

Honorable Mentions:
The National - Trouble Will Find me
Sigur Ros - Kveikur
Black Joe Lewis - Electric Slave
Daft Punk - Random Access Memories
Paul McCartney - New
David Bowie - The Next Day
Beck - Song Reader

Elias Ianacone

1. Drug Church - Paul Walker
2. Deafheaven - Sunbather
3. Nails - Abandon All Life
4. Wives - Wifes EP
5. Anciients - Heart of Oak
6. Full of Hell - Rudiments of Mutilation
7. Pissed Jeans - Honeys
8. Diarrhea Planet -  I'm Rich Beyond Your Wildest Dreams
9. Fuzz - Fuzz
10. All Pigs Must Die - Nothing Violates This Nature
11. (alternate) Besnard Lakes - Until In Excess, Imperceptible UFO

Ashley Tryba

1. My Bloody Valentine - mbv
2. Kurt Vile - Wakin' on A Pretty Daze
3. Pissed Jeans - Honeys
4. Motorhead - Aftershock
5. Mazzy Star - Seasons of Your Day
6. Black Sabbath - 13
7. Sigur Ros - Kveikur
8. Black Flag - What the...
9. Dr. Dog - B-Room
10.  Meat Puppets - Rat Farm

Beccah Ulm

1. Xenia Rubinos - Magic Trix

2. Arcade Fire - Reflektor

3. Neko Case - The Worse Things Get, The Higher I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I love You

4. The Knife - Shaking the Habitual

5. Beyoncé - Beyoncé
6. Lady Gaga - Artpop
7. Colleen Green - Sock It To Me
8. Mannequin Pussy - Gypsy Pervert
9. Blouse - Imperium

Lucas Mangum

1. David Bowie - The Next Day

2. Fall Out Boy - Save Rock n Roll

3. Panic at the Disco - Too Rare to Live, Too Weird to Die!

4. Justin Timberlake - The 20/20 Experience (Part 1)

5. Avenged Sevenfold - Hail to the King

6. Black Veil Brides - Wretched & Divine

7. Bastille - Bad Blood

8. Knife Party - Haunted House EP

9. Skinny Puppy - Weapon

10. Arcade Fire - Reflektor

11. Lady Gaga - Artpop

Tim Earle

1. Paramore - Paramore

2. I the Mighty - Satori

3. Kanye West - Yeezus

4. The Wonder Years - The Greatest Generation

5. Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP 2

6. HAIM - HAIM

7. Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City

8. Fall Out Boy - PAX AM Days

Noah Lyons

1. MIA - Matangi
2. Chelsea Wolfe - Pain Is Beauty
3. David Lynch - The Big Dream
4. Moby - Innocents

Blair Elliot

1.Goat - Live Ballroom Ritual
2. Blood Ceremony - Eldritch Dark
3. Neko Case - The Worse Things Get, The Higher I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I love You
4. Purson - The Circle & The Blue Door
5. The Black Angels - Indigo Meadow
6. Lumerians - High Frontier
7. Bombino - Nomad
8. Lee Ranaldo & The Dust - Last Night On Earth
9. Midlake - Antiphon
10. Wooden Shjips - Back On land
11. Kadavar - Abra Kadavar
12. Blues Pills - Devil Man EP
13. Night Beats - Sonic Bloom
14. Sigur Ros - Kveikur
15. Chelsea Wolfe - Pain Is Beauty
16. Mount Moriah - Miracle Temple
17. True Widow - Circumambulation
18. Mudhoney - Vanishing Point
19. Black Sabbath - 13
20. Charles Bradley - Victim of Love
21. Savages - Silence Yourself
22. Fuzz - Fuzz
23. Anciients - Heart of Oak
24. Besnard Lakes - Until In Excess, Imperceptible UFO

Commitment to Sound

I like music criticism about a fifth as much as I like music, which is still a lot. I love reading about albums, I love misguided and wrongheaded music lists because I have fun disagreeing with people probably more than I do having my opinions validated by folks in high places. My friend Tucker Johnson's running Rolling Stone's astonishingly stupid 500 best albums list right now and I like reading his take as much because I disagree with the list as I do because I want to hear him eviscerate/agree with their choices. And to be frank the list is a joke; there are more best ofs than proper albums and no distinction between live and studio and probably one black artist for every ten whites (to say nothing of the dearth of music from the continents of Africa, Asia and South America). It shows no creativity and an embarrassing lack of periphery from a bunch of people who claim to be the authority on rock and roll. Though, in their defense I know their MO and still repeatedly go looking for things they publish knowing they'll make me furious. They're euro/ameri-centric and pretty patriarchal as well, so expecting that they'd place The Scientists or Sister Carol or Mulatu Astatke in the same esteem as Eric Fucking Clapton isn't worth the effort. You have to get a grip on the style of the source before you can take issue with their bias. There's just going to be no real music reporting from Rolling Stone - their focus is on .08% of the music put out today.

One of my favourite sources for music criticism (in fact it's become nearly exclusive) is The A.V. Club. I figured I already got all my film reviews there (I do enjoy the frankness of Dave White at movies.com as well) I might as well see how their attitude toward music gels with mine. I've figured out that what they applaud more than a catchy song is commitment to a style or aesthetic. Just as head film writer Scott Tobias applauds ideological or stylistic decisions more than he does technical acumen, discerning direction or great acting, their music critics like it when someone picks a mode and sticks it out to the bitter end. This is sometimes a good thing as you know who's made a solid 'album' in the old fashioned sense like The Yardbirds or Miles Davis or even The Cure, a record that sounds like itself all the way through, the production doesn't change, it doesn't sound like a collection of songs by the same person given individual treatment to bring out the best in each song. They like it when someone sits down and makes a record in the same space that doesn't change rapidly from end to end. Know that and how your own tastes match up, and you and The A.V. Club can get along nicely. Case in point, my new favourite record Badlands by Dirty Beaches. A record that has the fuzzy expansiveness of early Suicide and the claustrophobic production of Sparklehorse, Badlands starts out awesome and stays that way, rarely straying from its chosen course. In defense of The A.V. Club's grade A review, the production and the attitude of its cooler-than-cool author make sure that the quality doesn't dip. I agree entirely with the review. It's a great album, but I could also see someone digging in and being weirded out based on the review and its high marks. They expect readers to be willing to sympathize with their appreciation of aural commitment, which I can sympathize with, as I myself have expected more from albums given the same grade based on their creators sticking with a chosen idiom. For instance Lisbon by The Walkmen wasn't quite the masterpiece they touted it as, but its sound is solid throughout. Love Remains by How To Dress Well is impressively produced and spooky to boot, but really isn't the sort of thing I want to listen to twice. Similarly the dour-to-boring High Violet by The National was compared to the Arcade Fire but has nothing of their dynamism. But they are just as committed to boring me to tears as Arcade Fire are to rocking the paint off the walls. The A.V. Club aren't as willing to go to bat for something like 100 Lovers by Devotchka which admittedly doesn't have the brains of say, Dirty Projectors, but a few of the songs simply outshine the most committed deep cuts from the under-appreciated producers they champion. That we agreed about Badlands is probably to do with coincidence as anything else. What usually happens is I'll listen to the records that they've given A grades to and appreciate/respect the record and agree that they deserve praising. And then I promptly forget to ever listen to them again. Staying power is something the AV staffers and I strongly differ on. Oh and I should say now that differences of opinion notwithstanding they are amazing writers and I visit the site ten times a day and constantly inspire me and I'm hugely in your debt.

But the reason I love Badlands has more to do with its influences, Link Wray and Suicide. It's the things that Dirty Beaches are committed to rather than that its sole member Alex Zhang Hungtai is as infatuated with them that draws me to listen again and again. Sounding like Bloodshot Bill as imagined by David Lynch, the record is an enthralling if haunting listen, but unlike How To Dress Well, its progressions and Hungtai's cracked howl are enough to warrant repeat listens even if you aren't in the mood for a nightmare. To paraphrase Tobias' on films like Oldboy and Army of Darkness, it's cool and that's more important than having discernible lyrics or depth. I would also argue that the same is true of The Kills who've made a career on being the badasses in leather you desperately want to like you. Alison Mosshart's dropped a touch in my estimation from unknowable leather jacket-clad cypher to girl who maybe also likes being liked, as evidenced by her less-than-stellar collaboration with Jack White on The Dead Weather, a band that sounded like a high school Kills cover band trying out new material for the first time. Mosshart belongs in The Kills because Jamie Hince understands her strengths and builds her a stage better than White did over two hastily recorded Dead Weather albums. Mosshart sounded out of her depth in The Dead Weather because they weren't cool, they were trying to be cool. All they ever managed was a kind of ugliness that has its charms if you'd thought The White Stripes were too polished and pretty. Die-hards wanted White back in the Stripes, but that dream's been forever shattered. At least there's a new Kills album to fall back on.

I'm interested to see what The A.V. Club makes of their latest, Blood Pressures, when it's released on Tuesday. I predict that it won't get the A- of more committed aesthetes even though at the end of the year I doubt I'll have heard songs I like too much more than "Pots and Pans" or "Future Starts Slow" sure there are ups and downs, but I think that this record is more winning than even Badlands because it's human and because there are some songs that you can listen to any day of the week in any mood. Badlands is what it is, but it's only what it is. "Pots and Pans" is a song that is bigger than the album it closes, not unlike "Dancin' on our Graves" by Cave Singers, a song so good it shed its initial context (the credits of Cabin Fever 2) and is now one of my favourite songs. I applaud someone like Dirty Beaches and I love his album, but I think that imperfection has its charm. Humans make mistakes and I like it when one song can be the best thing about a record, rather than the whole thing being pretty even from start to finish. I like it when an album is good but gives me one or two songs I know I'll revisit years from now. Maybe it could have used a more uniform style or more commitment to any one of its stylistic devices, but I think it's pretty cool the way it is.

Note: I was right.