The year is coming to an end and its time to have a look back at 2013's greatest albums. Here are 20 of my personal favourites.
20 – 10
20. Incitare – Volto!
Prog rock/jazz fusion album, featuring Danny Carey - the drummer from Prog metal band, Tool. Its pretentious, instrumental show-offery but I love it nonetheless.
Favourite tracks: 'Drumbeaux', 'Tocino'
19. The Marshall Mathers LP 2 – Eminem
Shady’s back, bringing with him hyper-speed flows and brilliantly entertaining wordplay. The legend reaffirms his position as king of rap - or should I say, 'rap god'.
Favourite tracks: 'Love Game' (ft. Kendrick Lamar), 'Evil Twin'
18. Drenge – Drenge
This is angst-ridden, moody, British grunge. I like my rock
n roll to be rock n roll and this holds back no punches, teeming with raw riffs
to smash up your bedroom to and utterly unromantic track titles like 'People in
Love Make me Feel Yuck' and 'I Want to Break you in Half'.
Favourite tracks: 'Bloodsports', 'Let’s Pretend'
17. Abandon All Life – Nails
Only 17 minutes in length, Abandon All Life makes up for its
brevity by cramming its 17 minutes with some of the heaviest, loudest, most brutal
grindcore ever created. A face-melting, bone-crushing thrill ride that will probably
just sound like plain, old noise to most sane people.
Favourite tracks: 'God’s Cold Hands', 'Suum Cuique'
16. The Night’s Gambit – Ka
Thinking man’s hip hop. Ka delivers some truly poetic
wordplay over dark yet subtle beats. Definitely give the last track, 'Off the
Record', a gander if you’re a hip hop fan. It’s an entire song made up of famous
rap album titles.
Favourite tracks: 'Jungle', 'Off the Record'
15. Random Access Memories – Daft Punk
If you haven’t heard of Daft Punk, WHO ARE YOU??? WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN HIDING??? The
French house music giants have been dominating the radio airwaves this year,
reviving disco music. A great album to chill and unwind to and a fantastic
tribute to the roots of electronic music.
Favourite tracks: 'Doin it right' (ft. Panda Bear), 'Contact'
14. Anything in
Return – Toro y Moi
Toro y Moi continues to push forward his signature chillwave style, incorporate more of a house sound. The production is bright and soothing with enough of a groove to get the head bobbing. His wistful voice is gorgeous as ever.
Favourite tracks: 'Harm in Change', 'Say That'
13. Target Earth – Voivod
Prog/thrash metal band Voivod deliver a barrage of dissonant chords and
riffs that will make you want to scrunch up your face like you're eating sour sweets.
Despite losing lead guitarist, Piggy, the band have managed to maintain their
identifiable sound and honour his memory.
Favourite tracks: 'Target Earth', 'Mechanical Mind'
12. Overgrown – James Blake
Ethereal, soft, electronic r&b with some beautifully tortured
vocals from James Blake, drenched in ghostly reverb. There's nothing out there like it.
Favourite tracks: 'Overgrown', 'Retrograde'
11. Government Plates – Death Grips
As forward-thinking as ever, Death Grips continue to pump
out their brand of experimental, hyper-aggressive hip hop, this time making the
instrumentation the emphasis. The beats are more 'noided' than ever.
Favourite tracks: 'Anne Bonny', 'Whatever I Want (Fuck Who’s
Watching)'
10 – 1
10. Like Clockwork… - Queens of the Stone Age
Stoner rock band, QOTSA, get a little gloomier and less aggressive,
delivering what might be their best album yet in my opinion. No track feels
redundant and Josh Homme really plays with his vocal range.
Favourite tracks: 'The Vampyre of Time and Memory', 'Kalopsia', 'I Appear Missing'
9. The Next Day –
David Bowie
Favourite tracks: 'The Stars (Are Out Tonight)', 'If You Can
See Me', 'Heat'
The Odd Future, cockroach-eating rapper is still as obnoxious
as ever but I think you’d be equally obnoxious to ignore his talent. Two of the
tracks see him really getting fairly emotional and there’s none of the OTT 'Kill
People, Burn Shit, Fuck School' shock value of Goblin. His jazzy, melancholy beats
are brilliant too. I'm slowly becoming a Tyler fanboy.
Favourite tracks: 'Jamba', 'Answer', 'Tamale'
7. Nostalgic 64 – Denzel Curry
Floridian up-and-coming rapper Denzel Curry plays with hard-hitting trap
and cloud-rap beats, spitting some truly gritty bars. 'Your mama ain’t shit,
your daddy ain’t shit, and then you realise that life is a bitch'. Pretty
dismal but a refreshing break from all the glorified gangsta arrogance of other
current hip hop artists.
Favourite tracks: 'Parents', 'N64', 'Denny Cascade'
6. MBV – My Bloody Valentine
This is the shoegaze rock band’s first album in 21 years
(that’s my entire lifetime!). Loud and distorted guitars play beautiful
melodies creating a dreamlike state that no other band can imitate. Listening
to this, I imagine myself stood on a clifftop, the music echoing at me across
the sea from God’s 300ft speakers. These dudes overwhelm me.
Favourite tracks: 'Only Tomorrow', 'Who Sees You', 'Wonder 2'
5. The Terror – The Flaming Lips
Hands down, the trippiest, goddamn thing I’ve ever heard!
The album lives up to its name, The Terror, playing out like a nightmare. Psychedelic rock group, The Flaming Lips, are known for their avantgarde tendencies, but this is on a separate plain of reality.
Favourite tracks: 'Look… the Sun is Rising', 'Be Free, a Way', 'You Lust'
4. Altered State – Tesseract
Tesseract take the dissonant prog metal style of “djent” and
manage to make it so melodic, that at times it feels almost ambient. The band
do away with cookie monster vocals, employing new vocalist Ashe O’Hara. His
clean, high register vocals expertly contrast the bassy, highly distorted
guitar riffage. Metal album of the year.
Favourite tracks: 'Nocturne', 'Eclipse', 'Singularity'
3. Settle –
Disclosure
Disclosure revive the feelgood factor of 90s house and
garage music, giving it modern production, to create some awesome, summery, glossy, energetic, babymaking music. The synth chords are
smooth and sweet as hot chocolate and the vocal contributions are all flawless.
Favourite tracks: 'When a Fire Starts to Burn', 'White Noise' (ft. AlunaGeorge), 'Voices' (ft. Sasha Keable)'
2. The Electric Lady –
Janelle Monae
Dizzying in its sheer variety, Janelle has managed to make
an r&b odyssey that plays out like a movie, interspersed with orchestral
interludes, comical robot radio station skits, epic guitar solos, rapped verses
and whatever else she can throw at the listener. It’s a truly impressive
record, due to Janelle’s divine ability to replicate pretty much every r&b
vocal style out there, and it’s so fast paced that it never grows dull.
Favourite tracks: “Electric Lady”, “Dance Apocalyptic”, “Ghetto
Woman”
1. Run the Jewels –
Run the Jewels (MY ALBUM OF THE YEAR!)
This hip hop masterpiece is the work of El-P and Killer
Mike, two veteran underground rappers who have decided to team up for double-awesomeness.
The flows on this thing are insane, the lyrics are witty and the beats
are massive. They're able to get political without getting preachy, while countering this with wholly fun diss tracks. The duo have already suggested doing more albums
together in the future under the same name. I’m psyched at the prospect of more Run the Jewels!
Favourite tracks: 'Banana Clipper feat. Big Boi', 'Ddfn', 'Sea
Legs'
WHAT'S YOUR FAVOURITE ALBUM OF THE YEAR?
HONOURABLE MENTIONS:
13 - Black Sabbath
Comedown Machine - The Strokes
Doris - Earl Sweatshirt
Acid Rap - Chance the Rapper
Vexovoid - Portal
Vapor City - Machinedrum
Ed Rec, Vol. X - EdBanger Records (Various Artists)
WHAT'S YOUR FAVOURITE ALBUM OF THE YEAR?
HONOURABLE MENTIONS:
13 - Black Sabbath
Comedown Machine - The Strokes
Doris - Earl Sweatshirt
Acid Rap - Chance the Rapper
Vexovoid - Portal
Vapor City - Machinedrum
Ed Rec, Vol. X - EdBanger Records (Various Artists)