Best of 2013 Part 1

Holy cheese and rice it's almost 2014. I'm not sure how time has moved so quickly but I suspect I'll be saying the same thing a decade from now. What a wild year it was, ups and downs, ins and outs, too much cheese and not enough bacon. Mmm... bacon...

In terms of music, it hasn't really been that exciting. There have been some standout tracks and a couple new emerging artists on the scene, but as a whole it there weren't a lot of true contenders for greatness. Of course if you're an indie addict or trashy hip-hop fan you might have had a great time, but then you probably aren't reading this right now either.

Before we get into it, the usual disclaimer: this is entirely subjective and it's simply a list of the best albums that I felt deserved recognition, nothing more. Here you will find no country music, no cookie-cutter pop music, and certainly no fricking Kanye West.

Get it? Got it? Good. Now let's proceed.

If you need a recap of the past, here are the Best of 2010,  2011, and 2012.

#21

Nine Inch Nails

Hesitation Marks

I'm a huge and unabashed fan of Trent Reznor, so it's a delight that his first and greatest project returns to full power after a five year hiatus. On first listen it seemed a bit average, but on closer inspection it's a quality release. While it certainly doesn't reach the incredibly lofty heights set by "The Fragile", it easily holds up against more recent efforts like "With Teeth" and "The Slip". 

The album starts with a bang and chugs along but the pacing seems a little off at times, floating up and down at points with some songs sticking out a little too much. Perhaps the track order could have been a little better? In any event, there are some truly memorable tracks, and Reznor has raised the bar once again with his otherworldly live presentation. To top things off, there are a couple awesome remixes on the bonus disc if you happened to pick up that version. If you haven't, I suggest you do.

Disappointed

Find My Way

Copy Of A

#20

Lorde

Pure Heroine

Certainly if you were going to pick one artist who shot up through the music-sphere to stardom in 2013, it would be this precocious talent from Auckland. Sure, it might on the face look like pop, and her marketing team has kicked into high gear in recent months, but you can't deny talent when it's there. There aren't too many 17 year olds that sound like this, look like this, or act like this. She's an impressively mature head on young shoulders.

Of course the biggest track on the album, and thankfully the only one carried over from "The Love Club" EP (which was also very good) is the biggest song of the year and the one you'll see first below. It was covered by numerous wannabes (and one superbly grandiose clown) and really picked up traction in the latter months of the year despite being released more than a year ago. There are lots of great moments beside that one, however, and it's well worth spending 37 minutes of your time to ingest.

Royals

Buzzcut Season

Team

#19

Clutch

Earth Rocker

I've been following these guys for some time but for whatever reason they've never quite broken through the "above-average" barrier, until now. This is their second album released on their own Weathermaker label, and the word is they spent a lot more time in pre-production getting the songs just right. The result is a torrential downpour of hard rocking awesome. In short, it kicks ass.

This improved direction has helped to really tighten the sound of the band, and the production throughout is super clean and crisp making this sound great on your headphones or your floor speakers. While these guys might be on the wrong side of 40 now, there's no reason to think they can't get even better, especially given the age of some other star performers on this list. If there's any criticism to be had it's that they're not necessarily the most exciting live act in terms of stage presence, but they still sound great so it's a small complaint and not one worth missing out over.

Earth Rocker

Crucial Velocity

The Face

EP #7

Glass Animals

Psylla

Admittedly I know very little of this group, except that they are a quartet from Oxford and have been signed by Paul Epworth, a producer of extremely high regard in the industry. The sound is an interesting one, there are influences of all kinds such as Radiohead, Alt-J, and even a little Massive Attack. If this four-track EP is anything to go by, they have a very promising future, and I may well look back and wonder why I didn't rate this higher. It continues to grow on me as I type this.

Black Mambo

Exxus

Psylla

Back tomorrow with part 2...