We’ve made it, loyal readers (and people stumbling upon this website in your unending search for best-of lists). With the calendar year almost in the books, it’s time to add our voice to the choir with our round-up of the 25 Best Albums of 2013.
As with any list, these picks aren’t based on a scientific scale of high-brow elitism. I (Ryan Reed, the editor) simply picked the 25 albums that thrilled me the most — the 25 that kept me listening months after their release date. There are biases in there, naturally: You’ll notice the lack of hip-hop (Yeezus is overrated, and I didn’t hear a lot of rap that thrilled me on an album-wide basis), and country (unless “alt-country” counts), and lots of surely amazing albums that I simply didn’t have time (or knowledge) to investigate. (Also, there’s no Arcade Fire — very disappointed in that album.)
The goal of this list is to (hopefully) expose some fellow obsessives to some new gems. So sit back, strap on those headphones, and check out my picks for the year’s best.
(Note: This list was compiled on my own, without any contribution from my amazing writers. I’m still fairly new around these parts, and my staff is still growing — hopefully by this time next year, we’ll be able to do a more expansive list that includes the opinions of the entire Hidden Track staff.)
(And since we’re on the topic, check out Brice Ezell’s list of the year’s best metal albums. And Mark Pursell’s list of the best albums from female musicians.)
(Editor note: Somehow in the editing process, Midlake’s Antiphon got left off. Total accident — now updated.)
Honorable Mention:
Scale the Summit – The Migration
Chvrches – The Bones of What You Believe
Deafheaven – Sunbather
25. Blood Orange – Cupid Deluxe
24. Volcano Choir – Repave
23. Toro y Moi – Anything in Return
22. The Flaming Lips – The Terror
21. Atoms for Peace – AMOK
20. Jim James – Regions of Light and Sound of God
19. Paramore – Paramore
18. Zorch – Zzoorrcchh
17. Bosnian Rainbows – Bosnian Rainbows
16. Kings of Leon – Mechanical Bull
15. Phoenix – Bankrupt!
14. Indians – Somewhere Else
13. Empire of the Sun – Ice on the Dune
12. Steven Wilson – The Raven that Refused to Sing
11. Vampire Weekend – Modern Vampires of the City
Me, reviewing the album for Diffuser.fm: “In interviews, Vampire Weekend have described this album as ‘the culmination of a trilogy.’ Really, it sounds like the start of a vibrant, vivid new chapter.” My thoughts haven’t changed in the past seven months. Highlights: the explosive “Diane Young,” the folky gallop of “Unbelievers.”
10. Midlake – Antiphon
Midlake lost their longtime frontman/founder Tim Smith, but they bounced back splendidly with Anitphon, an epic set of free-flowing folk-prog majesty.
9. Local Natives – Hummingbird
Me, reviewing the album for the late Boston Phoenix (RIP): “Local Natives are no longer indie-rock over-achievers; with the stunning, heart-wrenching Hummingbird, they’re officially the real fucking deal.” Highlights: the spine-tingling “Colombia,” the brooding epic “Bowery.” Also, the rest of it.
8. Typhoon – White Lighter
Kyle Morton and his 10 bandmates deliver a borderline masterpiece. White Lighter is a triumph on every level — sonically, emotionally, lyrically, conceptually. As I wrote in my recent Paste feature, it’s an album “built on the urgency of death and the beautifully fleeting nature of life,” as Morton contemplates his own mortality and the vastness of the universe over fittingly grand backdrops of piano, guitars, multiple drum kits, and tear-jerking orchestrations.
7. Daft Punk –Random Access Memories
Finally, a Daft Punk album worth the hype. Yeah, yeah, yeah — we all know about the disco awesomeness of “Get Lucky,” but the rest of the LP is equally brilliant (and also really fucking weird). Highlights: the funk-prog odyssey “Motherboard,” the indescribably schizophrenic “Giorgio by Moroder.”
6. Justin Timberlake – The 20/20 Experience (part 1 — not part 2, which was pretty meh)
The year’s most inventive pop album, from start to finish. Me, quoting my Paste review: “Like FutureSex before it, the deceptively weird The 20/20 Experience works best as an immersive sonic journey—a headphones album for an earbud generation.” Highlights: the Indian sci-fi psychedelics of “Don’t Hold the Wall,” the Off-the-Wall-on-LSD voyage “Let the Groove Get In,” the heavenly Radiohead-meets-Usher climax “Blue Ocean Floor.”
5. Queens of the Stone Age – …Like Clockwork
These grimy hard-rock icons delivered their most powerful LP since Songs for the Deaf. Every track on this bad-boy delivers a black-eye punch — from the crunchy ooze of “I Sat By the Ocean” to the ballad-turned-prog voyage of the title-track.
4. James Blake – Overgrown
This electro-soul chameleon’s sophomore LP fulfills the promise implied on his acclaimed debut. With Overgrown, Blake has taken a warmer, more organic approach to songcraft, expanding his emotional range as a singer, producer, and songwriter. Highlights: The Brian Eno-assisted headfuck “Digital Lion,” the mind-melting, psychedelic crescendos of “Retrograde.”
3. Tegan and Sara – Heartthrob
Working with a gang of A-list producers (Greg Kurstin, Mike Elizondo, Justin Meldal-Johnsen), twin Canucks Tegan and Sara Quinn gave their scrappy indie-rock a glistening pop makeover. Indulging their inner new-wave divas, the duo go for broke in the hooks department, abandoning sonic quirks and compositional detours. Every track is single-worthy – from the electro-pop miracle “Closer” to the arena-sized piano-ballad “Now I’m All Messed Up” to the R&B slow-jam “Shock to Your System.”
2. Sigur Ros – Kveikur
Following last year’s largely shapeless Valtari (and the subsequent departure of keyboardist Kjartan Sveinsson), these Icelandic post-rock icons rebounded in a major way with Kveikur, their darkest, proggiest LP to date. Writing as a trio has recharged the band’s creative batteries — from the brooding avalanche of ”Brennisteinn” to the title-track’s metallic assault, they sound sonically (and emotionally) reinvigorated.
1. Night Beds – Country Sleep
Back in 2011, college drop-out Winston Yellen ventured to the outskirts of Nashville, rented a cabin once owned by Johnny Cash, and submerged himself in blissful acoustic melodrama. The result is the enigmatic Country Sleep, one of the year’s most underrated LPs. Across 10 cohesive tracks, Yellen layers his warm tenor over lush backdrops of pedal-steel, brushed drums, and ramshackle orchestras. It’s a bit folk, a bit country, a bit jazz, a bit psychedelia – and completely immersive. From the wall-of-sound hymn “Ramona” to the pin-drop atmospherics of “Was I For You?,” every track is a legitimate knock-out.
