Welcome to The List 2013.

Every Christmas my friend and Adam and I rank and review our top 20 studio albums of the year.  To qualify, an album needs to be full-length, studio and released this year.  All very simple.

This is my list.  I hope you enjoy reading it.  I’ve also – for the first time – included a link to a sample track for every album.  So enjoy hearing it too.

A merry festive period to all.

20.

Bruce Soord and Jonas Renkse

Wisdom of Crowds

Birthed from a union of The Pinapple Thief’s bandleader and Katatonia’s vocalist, Wisdom of Crowds is what might be thought of as ‘soft-prog’.  There are lots of ideas on show, and it certainly is progressive music, but it also would be capable of some serious radio-bothering.  This is the ‘soaring choruses’ end of prog, and at times on this record they really do soar.  Standout track ‘Frozen North’ strips the formula down further, to a prolonged acoustic intro with some string accompaniment, before morphing into a thumping rock ballad.  Renkse has a great voice, Soord plays a mean guitar, and the inventive use of samples helps to set this apart from others in the genre.  Ultimately, I prefer this significantly to previous offerings by either The Pinapple Thief or Katatonia, which probably says a lot.

Sample track: ‘Frozen North’

19.

Noah and the Whale

Heart of Nowhere

Sadly Heart of Nowhere marks the end of a great run that Noah and the Whale were on, where every album marked an improvement on their previous one – something I guess all bands aspire to but few achieve.  This, their fourth record, is unfortunately not as good as their third (the now career benchmark of Last Night on Earth).  Nonetheless, it’s still brimming with catchy folk-rock tunes, all tinged with a little bit of the 80s.  Not too much, mind.  In some ways this record harks back a little to their debut – the fiddle is again more prominent, and the welcome reintroduction of female backing vocals at various points (especially on the excellent title track) – all evoke 2008’s Peaceful, the World Lays Me Down.  However, this is a more mature effort, which shows the band’s song-writing progression over 4 albums and 5 years.  It just sadly doesn’t quite have the same number of gems as their previous effort did.  

Sample track: ‘Heart of Nowhere’

18.

Wolf People

Fain

This ambitious album provides a wonderful mixture of sounds, all of which evoke the early 70s: psychedelia, folk and prog are all blended here to produce something special.  The rubbish bits of those genres are left out (no references to halls of mountain kings, bardy bowmen or goblin marauders here), while the good bits (odd tempo changes, ethereal guitar solos and harmonised vocals) are all employed to the max.  At times things take a turn for the straight, with a surprise riff thrown in (see the middle section of ‘Athol’).  At other times, Wolf People sound like a lethargic Kings of Leon.  Most of all, though, this evokes a modern Jethro Tull or something similar.  Without the flutes. There’s significant scope on offer here, and a maturity to the song-writing.  Super.

Sample track: ‘When the Fire is Dead in the Grate’

17.

Pelican

Forever Becoming

Instrumental post-metal from Chicago.  I’ve been a big Pelican fan for years, but Forever Becoming is probably now my favourite of their records.  Reminiscent of an angry Mogwai (a Gremlin – ?), or I suppose more accurately bands like Maybeshewill, Pelican produce layered and inventive heavy music, which twists and turns its way into a world far beyond the powerhouse riffs of most metal bands.  Not to say that there aren’t some damn heavy riffs on show.  Cause there are.  And they’ll kick your butt.  Just that there’s plenty else too.  The main change from previous Pelican releases is the introduction of delicate acoustic sections, which adds to the mood of the overall piece and means that when the hammer falls, it hits all the harder.  The multiple guitars playing different variations across octaves add depth, and you never once notice that Pelican don’t have a singer.  Heavy as hell, but with melody and originality – and not a vocalist in sight.   

Sample track: ‘Immutable Dust’

16.

Red Fang

Whales and Leeches

Another really rather heavy record.  In fact, this makes Pelican sound like ELO.  In 10 years, Whales and Leeches may well be considered a sludge classic, at least by those for whom that filthy niche of the metal landscape is a place to call home.  I’m not a sludge aficionado by any means, but this is so good it found its way on to my radar.  I know that some sections of the metal press have gone rather weak at the knees for it.  If you want some under-produced, high tempo riffs, then this is the place to come.  Red Fang are like the aural equivalent of a bull in a china shop, and be assured that every last piece of porcelain is getting broken.  There’s a comparative (comparative) commercial edge here, when this is stood next to other sludge bands, which is probably why it has escaped its genre binds, sounding at times rather more Recover (at least on tracks like ‘Blood Like Cream’) than Iron Monkey.  It remains migraine-inducingly good throughout, though.

Sample track: ‘Blood Like Cream’

15.

Volcano Choir

Repave

With Justin Vernon saying that he’s now finished with his Bon Iver moniker, it is – for now at least – necessary to seek out his work with Volcano Choir to secure a new fix of Vernon.  Which initially was a point of some concern for me, because Volcano Choir’s debut, Unmap, was uneven, disjointed and distinctly so-so.  Fortunately, the sophomore effort by Vernon and co avoids all of the pitfalls of its predecessor, and heads in a distinctly more Bon Iver-like direction.  Having said that, there’s plenty of new stuff in the mix too.  The soft acoustic guitar lullaby of opener ‘Tiderays’ is firmly in For Emma, Forever Ago territory, but ‘Comrade’ comes across like a hippy Daft Punk, and album highlight ‘Byegone’ is a rolling anthem that evokes Broken Social Scene.  One of the most talented individuals in music right now keeps up the good work.

Sample track: ‘Byegone’

14.

Unknown Mortal Orchestra

II

There’s much to enjoy on Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s uninventively named second record.  From the ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’ tinged opener ‘From the Sun’ to the psychedelic wah wah of ‘One at a Time’, this is heavily 60s influenced.  Cue lots of Beatles, Small Faces and Hendrix elements: Unknown Mortal Orchestra are self-aware throwbacks that wear their influences on their sleeves.  It’s all held together by Ruban Nielson's simple but effecting guitar and his delicate vocals.  Occasionally they move up through the gears, like on the funky ‘No Need for a Leader’, but this is generally a calm and, at times quite spacey, trip.  A great new discovery that I made right at the start of 2013, this record has been played with at least some regularity for the whole year.  Worth investigating.

Sample track: ‘From the Sun’

13.

Melt Yourself Down

Melt Yourself Down

Brass-led, guitar-based, largely instrumental, manic dance music from London.  Without the superb brass section, it perhaps wouldn’t amount to all that much, but those horns give Melt Yourself Down with a very distinctive sound.  This is fast paced and aggressive, but not exactly ‘heavy’ music.  At times it comes across as what might be called ‘world music’ (whatever that means – I’ve never quite been sure), at least in terms of the central African style rhythms.  It’s the record that has most made me want to move my feet in 2013.  Melt Yourself Down are cool as hell; this is both weird and catchy stuff.  As such, it was quite sad to hear one of the tracks from this album underscoring a fajita advert.  That dropped them ever so slightly in my estimation, because this is a band that I thought of as being too cool for the advertising of generic Mexican food kits…

Sample track: ‘Fix My Life’

12.

The Bronx

The Bronx (IV)

I bought The Bronx’s self-titled debut back in 2004, and while I liked it, it wasn’t enough to make me buy their second record; and I’ve entirely ignored them since.  That was until I heard a track from their fourth record (named with a similar lack of effort to the second Unknown Mortal Orchestra album).  I not sure what happened between albums 1 and 4, but this is a big change.  The debut was a proper hardcore album with little in the way of melody or concession to palatability.  The Bronx (IV) is a mainstream rock record.  And all the better for it.  There are still some heavy elements, but this is a long way from the band’s metal/hardcore roots.  There’s significantly more in common here with Against Me! than with Biohazard.  The choruses are what make it, with virtually every track inviting a sing-along.  Unpretentiously great straight rock.  The brilliant ‘Pilot Light’ starts with the line, ‘I’m Coming Up for Air’ – The Bronx certainly have.

Sample track: ‘Youth Wasted’

11.

Manic Street Preachers

Rewind the Film

Something of a curve-ball from the Manics, this record joins Journal for Plague Lovers and Postcards from a Young Man as part of their significant revival after the horrific wilderness years of the mid-2000s.  The stripped down brilliance of acoustic melancholia that is opener ‘This Sullen Welsh Heart’ leads into a simple but expansive album.  Based on the reviews at that time, I thought it was all going to sound like ‘This Sullen Welsh Heart’.  However, while much of the record remains acoustic, there are some more traditional (This Is My Truth, Tell Me Yours era) Manics songs in the mix too (‘Anthem for a Lost Cause’), as well as some notable exploration (I love weird electronica-meets-Spanish guitar of ‘Manorbier’).  Depressed without ever being depressing, Rewind the Film is challenging for a mainstream band, and demonstrates that recent quality releases have been no fluke.

Sample track: ‘Manorbier’

10.

Drenge

Drenge

As close to grunge as music in 2013 gets without sounding dated.  The debut from whippersnapping brothers Drenge is a great way to start the top 10.  Highlights include the rockabilly-gone-bad snap of ‘Gun Crazy’ (complete with ‘woahoa’ chorus and persistent snare action); lazy Libertines style album closer ‘Fuckabout’ (featuring one of the lyrics of the year: ‘when I put the kettle on, you put heavy metal on’); and the epic ‘Let’s Pretend’ (8 minutes of grubby glam).  Best of all, though, is the spiky-yet-lilting ‘Bloodsports’ (math grunge?), which exudes awkward brilliance.  Drenge is suitably low-fi in terms of its production, and the tracks are sensibly short.  Get in, make the point, get out.  This is raw garage music with the emphasis more on passion than skill, but with the key actually being excellent song-writing and an underlying pop sensibility.  The likes of Cobain and White would be proud.

Sample track: ‘Bloodsports’ 

09.

Clutch

Earth Rocker

No surprises but plenty of alarms on Clutch’s zillionth – and possibly best – album, Earth Rocker.  Clutch have been making grooving, riff-laden trucker rock for ages now.  They know what formula works for them; and, boy, do they stick to it.  The opening title track sets the scene with a rolling riff that explodes into a pounding chorus.  They slow down only once, for acoustic twanger ‘Gone Cold’ (which sounds an awful lot like one of the mellower entries in Kyuss’ back catalogue – but no harm in that).  The rest is pretty relentless high-octane stuff, packed full of stupid lyrics and dance inducing riffage.  Every time that I have cut the grass this year, I’ve done so with this album as the soundtrack to the mower – I swear it speeds up the process significantly.  No different to any other Clutch album, other than that the quality is a bit higher and the tracks are more consistent.  Far from a classic based on any objective assessment, but one of the most fun rock records of the year.

Sample track: ‘Earth Rocker’

08.

Foals

Holy Fire

Foals’ best record to date, Holy Fire, begins – after a mesmeric prelude – with the brilliant ‘Inhaler’, a track that starts with a tinkling guitar refrain reminiscent of their earlier work before surprisingly bursting into a pugilistic assault on the senses.  It’s easily Foals at their heaviest and most vital, and acts as a significant statement of intent.  However, the album doesn’t then stick to that blueprint: things are thoroughly mixed up by the likes of the floaty ‘Bad Habit’, the dripping ‘Moon’, and of course the brilliant power-pop of ‘My Number’.  I know many Foals fans hated ‘My Number’, because it was ‘too commercial’ and didn’t fit the more experimental vibe of the rest of the record.  For me, though, it is an utter classic, and one of the best stand-alone tracks of 2013.  Its place on Holy Fire injects a welcome seam of catchiness in an otherwise initially opaque set of songs.  It was my way in, and I still think it’s the best track on show.  Overall, this record is more challenging and varied than what they have done before, shows progression in virtually all respects, and slow burnt its way – over a number of months – from an album that I liked to one that I loved.

Sample track: ‘My Number’

07.

Biffy Clyro

Opposites

The first eligible record that I bought this year, Opposites has lasted the course fairly well seeing that it came out in January.  Given that it’s a double album, there’s so much on show here that it was always likely that a good chunk of it would stick.  They’re too talented for it not to.  But that’s also the downfall of Opposites: there’s no quality control, and 20 tracks (22 on my iTunes special release version!) is just too many.  The record could have been cut by 6 or 7 tracks and it probably would have come closer to the top of the list had it been.  The dreary ‘The Fog’, for one, could have been lost and I’m sure nobody would have noticed.  There are a few others.  I’m not even an especially big fan of the overplayed ‘Black Chandelier’ (although the chorus is admittedly pretty good).  For every duffer, though, there are three or four absolutely essential tracks on Opposites, and overall it’s a super record that I have played an awful lot.  My favourites are the pounding riff of ‘Stingin Belle’, the soaring ‘Victory Over the Sun’, and – best of all – ‘Sounds Like Balloons’, which has a jarring riff that’s as good as anything on Only Revolutions.  This record as a whole doesn’t come close to competing with that one, but it’s still another super offering by a band that’s both mainstream and experimental all at once.  

Sample track: ‘Victory Over the Sun’

06.

Amplifier

Echo Street

Amplifier’s worst record still comfortably makes the top 10.  The story behind Echo Street helps to understand its comparative lack of quality.  During the long and meticulous process of writing and recording the follow up to The Octopus, Amplifier decided to take a break and write and record an album, from scratch, in just a couple of weeks.  So, on-going material was shelved and new songs were recorded as they were being written; the result was Echo Street.   Given the circumstances of its creation, the album understandably sounds a little rushed at times, and the depth and general quality of Amplifier’s usual sound isn’t always present.  Considering it was produced in essentially no time at all, however, Echo Street further highlights just how awesome this band is: Amplifier’s experiment of guerrilla album-making has more quality to it than most bands could manage over a period of years.  And, when they really hit their stride – for example on the album’s best track, ‘Where the River Goes’ – Echo Street is utterly superb.  Breath is now well and truly held for Mystoria, the ‘proper’, crafted album that they’ve been working on since early 2010 and that they’ve now returned to after this enjoyable dalliance.  Expected early 2014, and expected to be right near the top of this list in 12 months’ time.

Sample track: ‘Where the River Goes’

05

Arcade Fire

Reflektor

The first single/title track/album opener is quite simply the best individual song of 2013, and I’d already played it a million times before the record was released.  As such, initially I was quite disappointed with the album as a whole, because none of the rest of it comes close to ‘Reflektor’ itself in terms of brilliance.  However, repeated listens have revealed that the rest of it certainly is brilliant; just not quite as brilliant.  The glam of ‘Joan of Arc’ is a pleasure, and the riff at the heart of the scathing ‘Normal People’ reminds me of The Pixies at their best.  There’s an increased electronic presence here, which fits in well and has changed the dynamic somewhat. For me, Reflektor is a notable improvement on The Suburbs (which I know The Grammys adored but I had a lukewarm reaction to), but is not quite up to the standard set by albums 1 and 2.  I wonder if, a little like with Opposites, there needed to be a little more quality control here – a slightly shorter and more honed record may have been closer to topping my list.  Nonetheless, this is a band that’s consistently right near the top of the tree, straddling both commercial success and artistic quality/integrity with ease.  A band to be cherished.

Sample track: ‘Reflektor’

04.

Crazy Arm

The Southern Wild

The post-hardcore/punk revolutionaries from Plymouth (with a crap band name) are back.  Crazy Arm’s third album is every bit as good as the first two, but it is also a very different beast.  The Southern Wild is pretty much entirely acoustic, and draws its inspiration from a wider range of influences than its predecessors, building on some of the more ‘out there’ moments from Union City Breath.  There are elements of gospel, Americana and Irish folk all notably present here, but it’s all still underpinned by the trademark Crazy Arm sound.  Meaning that, at its core, this is essentially a post-hardcore album performed on an acoustic guitar.  Which is weird.  Their sound remains huge, but their musical landscape has significantly grown since Born to Ruin (which is a great record, but for me the worst of the three), something which is particularly evident here despite of the decision to go un-electric.  Lyrically, Crazy Arm are still militantly left, with the likes of the EDL and BNP firmly in their sights.  More power to them. 

Sample track: ‘A Pocketful of Gold’

03.

Everything Everything

Arc

For a long time the list was a three horse race this year: until late October, when one album broke away from even that pack, there were three records that clearly stood above all others for me in 2013, as being equally awesome.  The first of these is the second record by art-pop adventurers Everything Everything.  This was my introduction to the band – thanks to my brother – and I’ve played it again and again.  I now know that the general consensus is that Arc isn’t as good as their Mercury Music Prize nominated debut, Man Alive.  But when I then got a copy of Man Alive I was actually quite disappointed: for me, Arc is the far superior record.  Maybe it’s just because I heard it first.  For what is essentially a pop band, Everything Everything are about as inventive as it gets.  They structure their dense and dynamic songs around a wide range of styles, including R&B, electronica, rock and dance.  Everything (everything!) is driven by Jonathan Higgs’ distinctive falsetto vocals (Higgs also writes the songs), and it’s his voice that holds the record together.  From the primal stomp of opener ‘Cough Cough’ to the odd-tempo of 80s glam styled ‘Radiant’, there is a huge amount on offer here – all of it catchy as hell.  The standout track for me is the brilliant single ‘Kimosabe’, which I regularly wail along to horribly (my voice just can't get that high!).  A genius album.

Sample track: ‘Kimosabe’

02.

Queens of the Stone Age

…Like Clockwork

This is QOTSA’s best record for a decade.  Literally: it was terrifyingly 2003 when they released the mighty Songs for the Deaf.  …Like Clockwork is an amazing album from a band that had gone a little stale for me with good but comparatively so-so offerings like Lullabies to Paralyze and Era Vulgaris.  What makes it so great, aside from the simple strength of the songs, is the willingness to experiment rather more: it’s not awesome because it sounds like Rated R or Songs for the Deaf, but precisely because it doesn’t try to do so.  This record lessens the heavy and piles on the swagger.  Confident and cool, this is hip-shakingly great stuff.  I think the introduction of spacier elements, including a significantly increased use of keyboards, further helps this stand alone as a fitting entry into their impressive back catalogue.  Listing favourite tracks is hard, because there are so many, but the grinding ‘I Sat by the Ocean’, the heavy reminder of Queens of old ‘My God is the Sun’ and the garage rock glam of album-best ‘Smooth Sailing’ are probably my favourites on a record of gems.  Finally, they’ve once again shown what they can really do.

Sample track: ‘Smooth Sailing’

01.

Arcane Roots
Blood and Chemistry

When I got this in the summer I immediately knew it was going to end up somewhere near the top of the list, but towards the end of the year I starting playing it significantly more than any other record.  By October top spot was essentially assured (basically barring the late-in-the-year release of Reflektor, which did turn out to be super but didn’t challenge).  I already had Arcane Roots’ mini-album/EP, Left Fire, from 2011, which was a fairly decent metal record but not much more than that.  I was therefore not in any way expecting what I got from their debut full-length.  Every track on Blood and Chemistry is astounding.  Arcane Roots have morphed from a metal band into something else.  There are still times when they turn to massively thumping riffs and howling vocals, but there are just as many parts of this record where they sound like Fleet Foxes.  This is truly progressive heavy music, but I’m not sure I’d call it ‘prog’ as such, because there’s too much focus on simple song-writing and melody.  The choruses all absolutely soar, the mellow sections worm into the head (I always seem to hum the mellower refrains), and the riffs are weird but instantly hook.  I think perhaps the album that I can best compare this to from recent years is Biffy Clyro’s Only Revolutions, in that it is inventive and challenging while being catchy and melodic at the same time.  But this has its own voice and sound.  And it’s significantly better.  Brilliant guitar playing, twist after unexpected turn: for me, Blood and Chemistry will stand as a classic for years to come.

Sample Track: ‘Hell and High Water’

To round things off, some more listing of my favourite things of 2013

Ineligible 2013 releases

3. Lonely the Brave – Backroads (ep)

2. Dave Grohl et al. – Sound City (soundtrack)

1. The Pixies – EP1 (ep)


Singles

3. Everything Everything – ‘Kimosabe’

2. Foals – ‘My Number’

1. Arcade Fire – ‘Reflektor’ 

Gigs

3. Deep Purple, NIA Academy Birmingham, 15/10/13

2. Soundgarden, 02 Brixton Academy, 18/09/13

1. Two Gallants, 02 Oxford Academy, 18/07/13

Comedy Gigs

3. Peacock and Gamble, Soho Theatre, 01/06/13

2. Eddie Izzard, Wembley Arena, 11/05/13

1. Louis CK, 02 Arena, 20/03/13

Films

3. Iron Man 3

2. Only God Forgives

1. Gravity

Games

3. The Walking Dead: 400 Days

2. Bioshock Infinite

1. Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag

Ghosts of Christmases Past

That’s all for another year...

However, you can review previous years (going back to when these first went online).

2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005