We looked at top albums lists from the following publications to come up with our super-scientific list of the state of music in 2013: AV Club, CMJ, Consequence of Sound, Filter, Mojo, The New York Times, NME, NPR, Pitchfork, Popmatters, Pretty Much Amazing, Rolling Stone, Spin, Stereogum and XLR8R. The result of our exhaustive efforts, as well as links to the albums we reviewed, are listed below and at bit.ly/musicmad.In alphabetical order, what we reviewed that landed on “Best Of” lists:Austra: OlympiaDevendra Banhart: MalaBlondes: Swisher David Bowie: The Next DayNeko Case: The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love YouNick Cave and the Bad Seeds: Push The Sky AwayChvrches: The Bones of What You BelieveDaft Punk: Random Access MemoriesFactory Floor: Factory FloorFoxygen: We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & MagicThe Haxan Cloak: ExcavationJulia Holter: Loud City SongThe Julie Ruin: Run FastThe Knife: Shaking the HabitualCate Le Bon: Mug MuseumLow: The Invisible WayLaura Marling: Once I Was an EagleJohnny Marr: The MessengerJanelle Monáe: The Electric LadyMy Bloody Valentine: m b vColin Stetson: New History Warfare Vol. 3: To See More LightThee Oh Sees: Floating CoffinKurt Vile: Wakin’ On a Pretty Daze (Also check out our Vile cover interview.)Waxahatchee: Cerulean SaltChelsea Wolfe: Pain Is BeautyYeah Yeah Yeahs: MosquitoYouth Lagoon: Wondrous Bughouse
Alibi Listmas Self-Critique
Compfight cc via Fred Rockwood
Things we probably should have reviewed The homogeneity of music reviews can get eye-bleedingly obnoxious. I don’t necessarily disagree with the assessments I’ve read of the same handful of albums that are being shoved into the limelight as the best of 2013, but after a while it reeks of circle jerk/Human Centipede shit. Nevertheless, we’re not above admitting when we’ve dropped the ball. Nor are we above being heaped with praise for skipping over easy targets. However you look at it, we missed the boat review-wise on these critically acclaimed titles.The Arcade Fire: Reflektor (Merge)The bulk of music mags were falling all over themselves to once again sing the praises of the Canadian group that can do no wrong. Like they pretty much always do, but you know, whatever. We missed the review boat, but lucky for us, Mark Lopez was keeping tabs on them in his Rooster Roundabouts. More albums from the Buckethead Pikes Series (Bucketheadland) While we were all busy sitting slack-jawed in front of our laptops listening to that stealth album Beyoncé dropped, experimental guitarist Buckethead released 31 albums in 2013. Thirty-one. By comparison, only 10 installments in the series were released in 2012. Granted, they’re concept albums about an “abusement park” kiosk (WTF?!), and they all clock in at 30 minutes or less. Still, we should have been reviewing these based on quantity alone.Haim: Days Are Gone (Polydor) Los Angeles sister pop trio Haim is comprised of everything the music world loves to talk about: cute, outrageous-onstage, seasoned musicians under 30. And talk they all most certainly did, in glowing reviews of their debut album, Days Are Gone. Mark Lopez gave us his two cents during his Rooster Roundabout. Savages: Silence Yourself (Matador/Pop Noire)If you came upon Silence Yourself in a vinyl bin and gave it a listen, unaware that it was a present-day release, you could be forgiven for mistaking British all-female band Savages for a forgotten 1980s post-punk band. It’s there in the Siouxsie vocals, the choreographed percussive chaos and the Delta 5-esque lyrics, like those from “Shut Up.” “Perhaps, having deconstructed everything, we should be thinking about how to put it back together.” Please, ladies, do not silence yourselves. Once again, ever-vigilant Lopez and his Rooster Roundabout kept us abreast of those wild and crazy Savages.Kanye West: Yeezus (Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam)Ignore Kim K. Ignore their infant daughter, destined for a life of mockery thanks to her unfortunate first name, North. Ignore the fact that God gets second billing songwriting credits on “I Am A God.” Just listen to Yeezus and understand why people won’t shut up about this egocentric man-child from Chi-Town. It’s everything we’ve come to expect. Personally, I think Kanye’s not given enough credit for being hilarious. Randomly selected honorable mentions: Maria Bamford: Ask Me About My New God!; Chance The Rapper: Acid Rap; Deafheaven: Sunbather; Earl Sweatshirt: Doris; The National: Trouble Will Find Me; and Queens Of The Stone Age: … Like Clockwork
