Year-End Critics' Polls 2013

Surprised there has been no mention of Wildewoman on ILM while she already ranked on two major (perhaps not?) EOY lists, Paste and NPR.

Ah yes, there is some stuff in the Rolling Indie 2013.

Here is that PopMatters Albums list:

75. Thee Oh Sees - Floating Coffin
74. The Uncluded - Hokey Fight
73. Chelsea Wolfe - Pain is Beauty
72. Boards of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest
71. Josh Ritter - The Beast in Its Tracks
70. The Flaming Lips - The Terror
69. Jagwar Ma - Howlin'
68. John Grant - Pale Green Ghosts
67. Washed Out - Paracosm
66. Superchunk - I Hate Music
65. The Icarus Line - Slave Vows
64. Studio Killers - Studio Killers
63. Lorde - Pure Heroine
62. The Haxan Cloak - Excavation
61. Justin Timberlake - The 20/20 Experience (Part 1)
60. Icona Pop - This Is . . . Icona Pop
59. In Solitude - Sister
58. Paramore - Paramore
57. Suede - Bloodsports
56. Popstrangers - Antipodes
55. London Grammar - If You Wait
54. Russian Circles - Memorial
53. Baths - Obsidian
52. Caitlin Rose - The Stand-In
51. Mount Moriah - Miracle Temple
50. SubRosa - More Constant Than the Gods
49. Los Campesinos! - No Blues
48. Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP2
47. David Bowie - The Next Day
46. King Krule - 6 Feet Beneath the Moon
45. Speedy Ortis - Major Arcana
44. James Blake - Overgrown
43. Run the Jewels (Killer Mike and El-P) - Run the Jewels
42. Julia Holter - Loud City Song
41. Alice Smith - She
40. Waxahatchee - Cerulean Salt
39. Deafheaven - Sunbather
38. Rhye - Woman
37. Jon Hopkins - Immunity
36. Mikal Cronin - MCII
35. The Head and the Heart - Let's Be Still
34. Pusha T - My Name is My Name
33. The Lone Bellow - The Lone Bellow
32. Laura Marling - Once I Was An Eagle
31. Eleanor Friedberger - Personal Record
30. The Devil Makes Three - I'm a Stranger Here
29. OMD - English Electric
28. Arctic Monkeys - AM
27. Queens of the Stone Age - Like Clockwork
26. Ashley Monroe - Like a Rose
25. Palma Violets - 180
24. Tegan and Sara - Heartthrob
23. Bastille - Bad Blood
22. Chance the Rapper - Acid Rap
21. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Push the Sky Away
20. Okkervil River - The Silver Gymnasium
19. Arcade Fire - Reflektor
18. Phosphorescent - Muchacho
17. Autre Ne Veut - Anxiety
16. Savages - Silence Yourself
15. John Wizards - John Wizards
14. Tim Hecker - Virgins
13. Kacey Musgraves - Same Trailer, Different Park
12. The National - Trouble Will Find Me
11. Janelle Monae - The Electric Lady
10. My Bloody Valentine - MBV
9. Haim - Days Are Gone
8. Chvrches - The Bones of What You Believe
7. Daft Punk - Random Access Memories
6. Kanye West - Yeezus
5. Jason Isbell - Southeastern
4. Disclosure - Settle
3. The Knife - Shaking the Habitual
2. Neko Case - The Worse Thing Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You
1. Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City

33. Maurice Deebank – Inner Thought Zone (1972 Records)

^ this from the FACT list is sounding really cool.. instrumental guitar, sort of durutti column-ish or ducktails-ish.

"Dance Of Deliverance" appeared on the Felt greatest hits comp "Absolute Classic Masterpieces", it's a great track, good album!

I usually roll my eyes at The Quietus but that Grumbling Fur album they voted at #1 is really good. Kinda like if Delia & Gavin made a psychedelic rock album.

― Matt DC, Tuesday, December 10, 2013 9:58 AM (Yesterday)

Whoa, would not have taken the time if not for that description, Matt; cheers.

xp Yeah, I don't want to take anything away from Solange there. It's more down to her than Hynes but he facilitated her repositioning. Seems obtsue to deny that Losing You and Everything Is Embarrassing helped those singers find a new audience and confidence after years of label bullshit. Personally I've heard enough from him but that's not the point.

solange was already positioned as Indie Knowles well before her work with hynes (like, to the extent that it's been her nickname on pop messageboards for years). that was the entire narrative around her previous album (regardless of it not being that accurate w/r/t the music) and since then she'd been cultivating her indie-friendliness assiduously. their brands aligned rather than he did anything to redefine hers.

"everything is embarrassing" was the first sky ferreira song that clicked with anyone but it wasn't exactly a big hit, and now just seems like a superior example of the years of pissing-around-on-a-major-label-budget she did before actually finding her voice/confidence with the new album.

Lex, I interviewed Solange so this is coming straight from her. The path from Sol-Angel to last year's EP was tough - remember Fuck the Industry? - and meeting Hynes was the turning point.

I was trying out a lot of producers in the hope that one would fit. Dev wasn’t actually part of the original cast. I was working with three other producers. He was the second to last producer who came down but it became evident to me that chemistry-wise there was something really special there.

well yeah, alignment. but he didn't help change or redefine her. i interviewed her circa sol-angel and she was pretty emphatic then about aligning herself with alternative culture (lots of talking about wanting to be the black björk iirc)

Well we'll never know if she'd have got the audience she got at Glastonbury, for example, if her comeback hadn't been Losing You so it's a moot point but that song was the reason most people were there, even though it's inferior imo to Sandcastle Disco. Alignment matters - it's not about whether she needed him to introduce her to alternative culture (she didn't), it's about finding the right song to introduce alternative culture to her.

'losing you' was still way better than her differently-but-equally twee pre-dev cobblers, however much it may not have warranted the adoration it received

brass tacks she is just not a strong artist basically

Amazing surprise entry @ #8 in the Guardian EOY

John Wizards fyi

that's a pretty strange record from what i've heard.

Blimey that is a genuine surprise, although I do remember the Graun raving about it a while back.

it's #15 on the Popmatters list too. I don't unconditionally love it or anything and it would probably drive a lot of ppl up the wall but it definitely succeeds in sounding like itself y'know

The next 10 from FACT:

21. PRURIENT - Through The Window
22. THE HOUSE IN THE WOODS - Bucolica
23. CHANCE THE RAPPER - Acid Rap
24. GRUMBLING FUR - Glynnaestra
25. MGUN - The Near Future
26. SYCLOPS - A Blink Of An Eye
27. RON MORELLI - Spit
28. DANNY BROWN - Old
29. THESE NEW PURITANS - Field Of Reeds
30. EARL SWEATSHIRT - Doris

can't tell if i genuinely dislike that ron morelli record or if it's just the litany of interviews in which he fails to distinguish himself from every other techno artist with an "attitude" and a mental age of 12.

wasn't into the morelli album at all, i've liked bits and pieces on l.i.e.s but their outsider shtick is as eye-rolly as outsider shticks always are

great to see prurient so high up, love that album

Hard to love that Morelli record, it's true. Syclops and Mgun sound interesting though.

Trying to think of apt comparisons for the genre-mangling on the John Wizards record?

there are some great l.i.e.s. artists, despite the critical worm turning in the last few months. interesting to see what three-adjective dismissal is used to taint every single l.i.e.s. artist or cohort retrospectively, over the next year or so.

i mean interesting like hearing your neighbours distant shouting matches.

Trying to think of apt comparisons for the genre-mangling on the John Wizards record?

It's kind of Shangaan Electro-meets-Rustie in places I guess?

Wanna know who won the Wire poll?

The Wire - Best albums 2013

1 Julia Holter - Loud City Song
2 Laurel Halo - Chance of Rain
3 Rashad Becker - Traditional Music of Notional Species vol 1
4 Richard Dawson - The Glass Trunk
5 Tim Hecker - Virgins
6 Oneohtrix Point Never - R Plus Seven
7 RP Boo - Legacy
8 Wolf Eyes - No Answer: Lower Floors
9 Graham Lambkin & Jason Lescalleet - Photographs
10 The Knife - Shaking The Habitual

Trying to think of apt comparisons for the genre-mangling on the John Wizards record?

That Frisk Frugt guy?

I just can't bring up the enthusiasm to listen to the Julia Holter album. I know I should really, but pgffff...I've heard all the other albums on the Wire list except Richard Dawson - what's that?

First time ever The Wire's #1 has been in my Top 10. I thought it would be Laurel Halo.

"hello stranger" off the julia holter album is gorgeous

it's a little...distant for me to put it in my top 10 (solid top 30 i guess) but it's the first of hers i've really enjoyed

Not heard the Richard Dawson either but definitely sounds interesting:

A much-loved musical spectacle in his native Newcastle for many years now, Richard Dawson is a skewed troubadour who sings and plays guitar with a rare intensity and singular style. Dawson’s music is a collision of opposites, his hoarsely cracking voice suddenly rising to a magical soar that’s been compared to Tim Buckley, John Martyn and Richard Youngs, while his battered acoustic guitar veers from stumble to sublime in a way that can recall Sir Richard Bishop or Captain Beefheart.

Richard has taken inspiration from photographs, letters, newspapers and illustrations from Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums collections to create The Glass Trunk. Comprised of seven startling unaccompanied songs delivered with a peculiar intensity and off-kilter virtuosity, each interspersed with a couplet of electrified acoustic guitar and pedal-harp (played by the legendary Rhodri Davies), the album is a devastating, wholly idiosyncratic meditation on death and life, violence and love, memory and fog - a rousing Northumbrian song-painting like nothing else you will hear.

RD = folk singer from Newcastle, not inherently 'avant' but informed by that side of things. that album is on his bandcamp. he is a really really nice guy and I can't say enough good things about him basically

First listen and Richard Dawson kinda sounds like a cross between Richard Youngs and Ivor Cutler

now that sounds worth a listen

rhodri davies rules and all but 'legendary' is pushing it a bit

yeah, was gonna say that Ivor enthusiasts should esp have a look

Rhodri Davies played harp on Charlotte Church's album 'Tissues & Issues', a pretty legendary release iirc

that changes everything

I'm thinking of getting the Lambkin / Lescalleet album for someone for Chrimbo but I'm a bit confused about the many many formats. Anyone more fmailiar with it than I am? Sounds like there's something like 8 different ways you can buy it. And not many places seem to sell it either?

Bon Ivor Cutler

Wire - Top 50 Albums

1 Julia Holter - Loud City Song
2 Laurel Halo - Chance of Rain
3 Rashad Becker - Traditional Music of Notional Species vol 1
4 Richard Dawson - The Glass Trunk
5 Tim Hecker - Virgins
6 Oneohtrix Point Never - R Plus Seven
7 RP Boo - Legacy
8 Wolf Eyes - No Answer: Lower Floors
9 Graham Lambkin & Jason Lescalleet - Photographs
10 The Knife - Shaking The Habitual

11 Kanye West - Yeezus
12 DJ Rashad - Double Cup
13 Autechre - Exai
14 Matana Roberts - Coin Coin Chapter Two: Mississippi Moonchile
15 Dennis Johnson - November
16 Pharmakon - Abandon
17 Okkyung Lee - Ghil
18 These New Puritans - Field Of Reeds
19 eMMplekz - Your Crate Has Changed
20 Main - Ablation

21 My Bloody Valentine - mbv
22 Fire! Orchestra - Exit
23 Boards Of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest
24 Alasdair Roberts - A Wonder Working Stone
25 Young Echo - Nexus
26 Dean Blunt - The Redeemer
27 Holden - The Inheritors
28 Sleaford Mods - Austerity Dogs
29 Eliane Radigue - Psi 847
30 Autre Ne Veut - Anxiety

31 Else Marie Pade & Jacon Kirkegaard - Svaevninger
32 The Dead C - Armed Courage
33 V/A - The Outer Church
34 Earl Sweatshirt - Doris
35 Forest Swords - Engravings
36 Jessy Lanza - Pull My Hair Back
37 AtomTM - HD
38 Ashley Paul - Line The Clouds
39 The Necks - Open
40 Endless Boogie - Long Island

41 G*Park - Sub
42 Juana Molina - Wed 21
43 Chance The Rapper - Acid Rap
44 Special Request - Soul Music
45 Stella Om Source - Joy One Mile
46 John Wizards - John Wizards
47 James Ferraro - NYC, Hell 3:00am
48 Call Back The Giants - The Marianne
49 Grumbling Fur - Glynnaestra
50 Jem Finer & Andrew Kötting - Visionary Seascapes

Wire list is the only one I save to savour in print form, so will bail from this thread

It looks shit in print tbh, not sure why they make the album covers so small on the page

fRoots albums

1. Catrin Finch & Seckou Keita Clychau Dibon (Astar Mwldan)
2. Bassekou Kouyaté & Ngoni Ba Jama Ko (OutHere)
3. Lisa Knapp Hidden Seam (Navigator)
4. Anais Mitchell & Jefferson Hamer Child Ballads (Wilderland)
5. Martin Simpson Vagrant Stanzas (Topic)
6.= Tamikrest Chatma (Glitterbeat)
The Full English The Full English (Topic)
Linda Thompson Won’t Be Long Now (Topic)
9. Çiğdem Aslan Mortissa (Asphalt Tango)
10. Kayhan Kalhor & Erdal Erzincan Kula Kulluk Yakisir Mi (ECM)
11. The Garifuna Collective Ayo (Cumbancha)
12. Mulatu Astatke Sketches Of Ethiopia Jazz Village
13.= Bombino Nomad (Nonesuch)
Fanfara Tirana Meets Transglobal Underground Kabatronics (World Village)
Bella Hardy Battleplan (Noe)
June Tabor, Ian Ballamy & Huw Warren Quercus (ECM)
17.= Gavin Davenport The Bone Orchard (Haystack)
Jupiter & Okwess International Hotel Univers (OutHere)
Melrose Quartet Fifty Verses (Melrose Quartet)
Rant Rant (Own label)
Tal National Kaani (Fatcat)
Rokia Traoré Beautiful Africa (Nonesuch)
Chris Wood None The Wiser (RUF)

xps

My Rashad Becker prediction was *almost* there, should have placed an each-way bet. Nothing particularly surprising in that list, though I hadn't heard of Richard Dawson before and I'll definitely check him out.

I didn't really get into the John Wizards album, it sounds too much like an appropriative ILM strawman for me to embrace it completely.

I liked the last Julia Holter a lot more than this one, which I couldn't find a way into at all. Also I'm starting to find her vocal mannerisms extremely irritating.

the last one probably has a bit more to it, but i liked the sound she went for on the recent one.

Wire Archive Releases of the Year:

1. William Parker - Wood Flute Songs
2. Peter Jeffries - The Last Great Challenge in a Dull World
3. Robbie Basho - Visions of the Country
4. Alastair Galbraith - Cry
5. David Tudor - The Art of David Tudor 1963-1992
6. I Am The Center: Private Press New Age Music in America 1950-1990
7. Ákos Rózmann - Images of the Dream and Death
8. Miles Davis Quintet - Live in Europe 1969
9. Laraaji - Celestial Music 1978-2011
10. Devo - Hardcore
11. Eduard Artemiev - Solaris OST
12. William Onyeabor - Who is William Onyeabor?
13. Bernard Parmegiani - De Natura Sonorum
14. Trevor Jackson Presents Metal Dance 2: Industrial New Wave EBM Classics and Rarities 1979-1988
15. Greek Rhapsody: Instrumental Music from Greece 1905-1956
16. Craig Leon - Nommos
17. Patrick Cowley - School Daze
18. Mammane Sani et Son Orgue - La Musique Electronique du Niger
19. Longing For The Past: The 78rpm Era in Southeast Asia
20. Robert Wyatt - '68
21. John Martyn - The Island Years
22. The Velvet Underground - White Light/White Heat 45th Anniversary Edition
23. Roky Erickson - The Evil One
24. Arthur Russell - Another Thought
25. Hailu Mergia - Hailu Mergia and his Classical Instrument: Shemonuanaye
26. Scott Walker - The Collection 1967-1970
27. Idea Fire Company & BRRR - The Terrible Comet Salt
28. Theo Parrish - Black Jazz Signature
29. Leven Signs - Hemp is Here
30. Shuggie Otis - Inspiration Information/Wings of Love
31. Adam Bohman - Music and Words
32. Charles Cohen - The Middle Distance
33. Cabaret Voltaire - Red Mecca
34. Eliane Radigue - Adnos I-III
35. Bob Dylan - The Bootleg Series Vol 10: Another Self Portrait 1969-1971
36. Henry Flynt - Graduation
37. Jacqueline Humbert and David Rosenboom - Daytime Viewing 1979-80
38. Saada Bonaire - Saada Bonaire
39. Vox Populi - Half Dead Ganja Music
40. Public Image Limited - First Issue
41. Marcos Valle - Vento Sul
42. Skullflower - Kino I-IV
43. Scattered Melodies: Korean Kayagum Sanjo From 78rpm Records
44. Harry Nilsson - The RCA Albums Collection
45. Bea Benjamin - African Songbird
46. London is the Place For Me Vols 5 & 6
47. Mike Ratledge - Riddles of the Sphinx
48. The Young Tradition - Oberlin Live 1969
49. Traxbox: The Trax Records Box Set
50. Dan Bikoff - Celestial Explosion: Composia for 6 String Guitar

American Songwriter Albums of the Year
http://www.americansongwriter.com/2013/12/american-songwriters-top-50-albums-2013/5/

1. Jason Isbell- Southeastern
2. Patty Griffin- American Kid
3. Phosphorescent- Muchacho
4. Guy Clark- My Favorite Picture of You
5. John Murry- Graceless Age
6. The National- Trouble Will Find Me
7. Kacey Musgraves- Same Trailer, Different Park
8. Paul McCartney- New
9. Elvis Costello & the Roots- Wise Up Ghost
10. Sarah Jarosz- Build Me Up From Bones

Wire list is the only one I save to savour in print form, so will bail from this thread

I hope you're British otherwise we won't see you 'til January! I see the Grumbling Fur just squeaked in. I'm going back and forth with John Wizards. Loved it on first impression, then it sort of goes out of focus and sounds like a mess. I think it'll make my list somewhere, need more time. Been listening to Juana Molina, Endless Boogie (growing more lately), Forest Swords (meh), Autechre, etc.