The Year in Music - 2013

At the risk of boring you all to death with a blow-by-blow, here’s the top of the list:

1)       Trouble Will Find Me – The National

2)       Sunbather – Deafheaven

3)       Centralia – Mountains

4)       Immunity – Jon Hopkins

5)       Monomania – Deerhunter

6)       Dream River – Bill Callahan

7)       Julia With Blue Jeans On – Moonface

8)       Muchacho – Phosphorescent

9)       Chance of Rain – Laurel Halo

10)     Virgins – Tim Hecker

11)     Dysnomia – Dawn of Midi

12)     MCII – Mikal Cronin

13)     AM – Arctic Monkeys

14)     Shaking the Habitual – The Knife

15)     Pull My Hair Back – Jessy Lanza

16)     DJ Kicks – John Talabot

17)     Livity Sound – Various Artists

18)     Cold Mission – Logos

19)     Engravings – Forest Swords

20)     Cerulean Salt – Waxahatchee

21)     Hummingbird – Local Natives

22)     John Wizards – John Wizards

23)     Wakin on a Pretty Daze – Kurt Vile

24)     Event of Your Leaving – Raum

25)     R Plus Seven – Oneohtrix Point Never

And here also is an aggregated summary of some thoughts about the list: The National were never really in danger of not being at the top this year.  That album was so good I had to force myself to stop listening to it for fear that I would wear it out and ruin the memory.  Elsewhere, it was for me a year of discovering the twinned wonders of metal and electronica in ways I had not previously experienced. The combined pleasure of Sunbather, Centralia and Immunity was almost enough to cause some kind of sensory overload in my basement on occasion over the last twelve months.  These artists have taught me to enjoy pure sound, and the structure of sound, in a way that “songs” can’t quite do.  Speaking of songs, though, Monomania, Dream River, Julia With Blue Jeans On, and Muchacho offered up some of the strongest pure songs of the last five years, and they all came from completely different artistic contexts (it took me about ten months to appreciate Muchacho, having spent most of the year feeling disappointed in an album that came with so much hype, but once the light went on for me, it went on in the most beautiful way, and the album just keeps revealing its wonders with each new listen – proof that patient pays off when listening to music that isn’t immediately obvious). Moonface (Spencer Krug) made an album that recalled John Cale’s Paris, 1919, but without quite the menace.  Bill Callahan seems like a poet who happens to set his words to music with the most exquisite good taste.

Music without words became very important to me in 2013, and there were no better exponents of pure mood and tone than the genius of Laurel Halo and Tim Hecker.  The latter seems to be making the closest thing to contemporary classical/art music that we have in the popular realm.  And in terms of art, there was no more challenging and defiant statement than the remarkable trio Dawn of Midi’s Dysnomia.  You could be forgiven for thinking that it was made with machines, and yet, it was simply piano, double bass and drums.  This points up a certain paradox in some of this year’s best music.  You might have expected Phosphorescent, given Matthew Houck’s rootsy track record and the title of his new album, to have given us some kind of organic mandolin-filled affair, but it sounds surprisingly plastic and is, I think, better for it. 

While the lack of words in much of my favorite music from 2013 led to one of the more unusual rosters of albums I have chosen in the last few years, there was still some fantastic catchy pop music being made, and it didn’t need to sell out its principles to do so.  Mikal Cronin and the Arctic Monkeys put together two beautiful albums of perfect pop music with a great deal of skill and charisma.  You don’t have to put up with all the nonsense that the radio still tries to palm us off with.  There is a lot better pop music out there than that would lead you to believe.  These are two great examples.

The solid core of albums made by The Knife, Jessy Lanza, John Talabot, the boys from Livity Sound, Logos, and Forest Swords, demonstrates just how healthy, vital and varied contemporary music is.  While The Knife’s sound is, at least on the surface, quite terrifying, the experience becomes progressively more intimate the more you expose yourself to it.  Jessy Lanza manages, with the help of production from Junior Boys, to make an eminently accessible album with some very innovative sounds.  John Talabot perfects the mix with his contribution to the DJ Kicks series, and Livity Sound and Logos offer us two really satisfying views of the current and ever-changing grime scene.  I was a little frustrated by how long it took for the Logos album to take off, but it was worth the wait.  Some of these experiences require patience and persistence.  But they reward your attention. It took me a while to shake the feeling that the Forest Swords album would have made a really excellent soundtrack to Game of Throne, but after a while, I was even able to put that aside and appreciate the soundscape created by Matthew Barnes.  Who knew the Wirral could produce such electronic beauty, after the decades-long abomination of OMD?

Waxahatchee produced some classic indie sounds that managed to stay fresh; Local Natives took up the Grizzly Bear gauntlet with aplomb, and John Wizards, who came to my attention very late in the year, managed to make a totally original sound out of what almost seemed like found ingredients.  I was disappointed ,initially, with the new Kurt Vile album, but it too repaid my perseverance.  There’s something about his sound that gets under your skin.  Some reviews speak of his music as if it’s just boring stoner fare, but there’s a lot more going on that that.  I think he might be doing this minimalist groove thing on purpose.  You just have to stick with it long enough for that groove to take over, and enjoy the sound he makes.

And speaking of sound, Raum and Oneohtrix Point Never made an ambient sound that was deeply meditative, but never boring.  This is the kind of music you can pay as much attention to as you like, but the more you do, the more dividends it will yield. 

So that rounds out the top 25 albums of my year.  The rest of my favorite albums follow, without commentary (because life is too short) here:

Pure Heroine – Lorde
Flower Lane – Ducktails
mbv – My Bloody Valentine
Ritual Tradition Habit – The Belle Game
The Man Who Died in His Boat – Grouper
Torres – Torres
Major Arcana – Speedy Ortiz
If You Want – London Grammar
Wise Up Ghost – Elvis Costello & The Roots
Nexus – Young Echo
Sky Song – Colorlist
Long Enough to Leave – The Mantles
Cut 4 Me – Kelela
Saint Heron – Various Artists
Cupid Deluxe – Blood Orange
Junip – Junip
Woman – Rhye
Days Are Gone – Haim

There were also some great EPs and singles in 2013.  Here are some I especially liked:

The Double EP – A Sea of Split Peas – Courtney Barnett
Truant/Rough Sleeper – Burial (ok, this technically came out in late 2012, but I didn’t hear it until 2013)
Emancipated Hearts – Dean Wareham
Empty Estate – Wild Nothing
Expanding Dub – Bill Callahan
it’s a big world out there (and i’m scared) – Kurt Vile and the Violators
Metal and Dust – London Grammar
Rival Dealer – Burial

Some albums, needless to say, would have been much better if they had been shortened to EP length, particularly the tantalizing offering from Sky Ferreira.  Some of that album was really good.  But a lot of it was bloated radio pap. 

And here, finally, are some albums that I liked, but that didn’t quite make it to the upper echelon of my attention.  I’m still listening to them and trying to get a handle on whether I really like them or if they’re not quite going to endure.  Time will tell.

Silver Gymnasium – Okkervil River|
The Next Day – David Bowie
Retrograde – James Blake
Repave – Volcano Choir
Body  Music – Aluna George
Pale Green Ghosts – John Grant
Love’s Shining Diamond – Mutual Benefit
Reflektor – Arcade Fire
Sky Burial – Inter Arma
Miracle Temple – Mount Moriah

Tomorrow’s Harvest – Boards of Canada
Settle – Disclosure
Factory Floor – Factory Floor
We Are The 21^st Century Ambassadors of Peace and Magic – Foxygen
Fade – Yo La Tengo
Regions of Light and Sound of God – Jim James
The Distance Is So Big – Lemuria
The Bones of What You Believe – Chvrches
Random Access Memories – Daft Punk
Comedown Machine – The Strokes
The 20/20 Experience – Justin Timberlake
New History of Warfare, Vol. 3 – Colin Stetson