Year-End Critics' Polls 2013

both dustin wong albums left me cold :-(

Disappointing that Uncut did a list of 80 albums but couldn't find a place for the Goldfrapp album.

Paste Magazine - 50 Best Albums of the Year
http://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/lists/2013/12/the-50-best-albums-of-the-year.html

20. Kacey Musgraves – Same Trailer Different Park
19. Waxahatchee – Cerulean Salt
18. Arcade Fire – Reflektor
17. Volcano Choir – Repave
16. Kanye West – Yeezus
15. Daft Punk – Random Access Memories
14. Savages – Silence Yourself
13. Lucius – Wildewoman
12. The National – Trouble Will Find Me
11. Jason Isbell – Southeastern

10. Haim – Days Are Gone
9. El-P and Killer Mike – Run the Jewels
8. CHVRCHES – The Bones of What You Believe
7. Vampire Weekend – Modern Vampires of the City
6. Kurt Vile – Walkin on a Pretty Daze
5. Deerhunter – Monomania
4. Janelle Monae – The Electric Lady
3. Foxygen – We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic
2. Mikal Cronin – MCII
1. Phosphorescent – Muchacho

I think Song for Zula is wonderful but I'm not sure about the whole Phosphorescent album. Nice to see Run the Jewels so high - I guess that's the non-Yeezus consensus rap album.

SPIN's 50 Best Albums of 2013
http://www.spin.com/articles/best-albums-2013/

slideshow hell but here's the top ten:

1 Kanye West, Yeezus (Def Jam)
2 Chance the Rapper, Acid Rap (Self-Released)
3 Vampire Weekend, Modern Vampires in the City (XL)
4 Haim, Days Are Gone (Columbia)
5 Disclosure, Settle (Island)
6 Tim Hecker, Virgins (Kranky)
7 Boards of Canada, Tomorrow's Harvest (Warp)
8 Ka, The Night's Gambit (Iron Works)
9 The Knife, Shaking the Habitual (Mute)
10 Kurt Vile, Wakin on a Pretty Daze (Matador)

Ha ha Paste. Phosphorescent is the quintessential bland band for them, but with boobies (cover). OTOH I do really like the Arctic Monkeys and Vampire Weekend albums, which are consistently rating. I'm also getting into the MBV a bit more. Not so much the Bowie.

Q Magazine's 50 Albums of 2013

1. Arctic Monkeys - AM
2. Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City
3. David Bowie - The Next Day
4. Daft Punk - Random Access Memories
5. Jon Hopkins - Immunity
6. Manic Street Preachers - Rewind the Film
7. Cass McCombs - Big Wheel and Others
8. Bill Ryder Jones - A Bad Wind Blows in My Heart
9. John Grant - Pale Green Ghosts
10. Haim - Days Are Gone
11. Jagwar Ma - Howlin'
12. My Bloody Valentine - MBV
13. Steve Mason - Monkey Minds in the Devil's Time
14. Queens of the Stone Age - Like Clockwork
15. Foals - Holy Fire
16. Laura Mvula - Sing to the Moon
17. Matthew E White - Big Inner
18. Laura Marling - Once I Was an Eagle
19. Factory Floor - S/T
20. Biffy Clyro - Opposites
21. Palma Violets - 180
22. Suede - Bloodsports
23. Disclosure - Settle
24. Empire of the Sun - Ice on the Dune
25. Boards of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest
26. Kanye West - Yeezus
27. Bill Callahan - Dream River
28. Franz Ferdinand - Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action
29. Daniel Avery - Drone Logic
30. Pet Shop Boys - Electric
31. Janelle Monae - The Electric Lady
32. Savages - Silence Yourself
33. Parquet Courts - LIght Up Gold
34. Prefab Sprout - Crimson Red
35. Devendra Banhart - Mala
36. Kurt Vile - Walkin on a Pretty Daze
37. The National - Trouble Will Find Me
38. Goldfrapp - Tales of Us
39. Alunageorge - Body Music
40. Run the Jewels - S/T
41. Neon Neon - Praxis Makes Perfect
42. These New Puritans - Field of Reeds
43. The Knife - Shaking the Habitual
44. Pearl Jam - Lightning Bolt
45. Sigur Ros Kveikur
46. James Blake - Overgrown
47. The Strokes - Comedown Machine
48. Cate Le Bon - Mug Museum
49. Primal Scream - More Light
50. Mazzy Star - Seasons of Your Day

the Arctic Monkeys record has some jams.

PopMatters' The 75 Best Songs of 2013
http://www.popmatters.com/feature/176773-the-75-best-songs-of-2013/

Spin's list is up. Slideshow format unreadable/unworkable for me. Perhaps someone who can navigate it can post it here?

used it fine on Firefox

No way am I clicking 50 times to read the Spin list but nice to see Chance the Rapper so high - it was my #2 as well.

turn off ad blocker to combat spin site problems

Here's the whole Spin list:

1 Kanye West- Yeezus
2 Chance the Rapper - Acid Rap
3 Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City
4 Haim - Days Are Gone
5 Disclosure - Settle
6 Tim Hecker - Virgins
7 Boards of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest
8 Ka - The Night's Gambit
9 Knife, The - Shaking the Habitual
10 Kurt Vile - Wakin on a Pretty Daze

11 M.I.A. - Matangi
12 Brown, Danny - Old
13 Tegan and Sara - Heartthrob
14 Haxan Cloak - Excavation
15 Nine Inch Nails - Hesitation Marks
16 Omar Souleyman - Wenu wenu
17 Musgraves, Kacey - Same Trailer Different Park
18 Mikal Cronin- MCII
19 Daft Punk - Random Access Memories
20 Waxahatchee - Cerulean Salt

21 El-P & Killer Mike - Run the Jewels
22 Deafheaven - Sunbather
23 Oneohtrix Point Never - R Plus Seven
24 DJ Rashad - I Don't Give a Fuck EP
25 Caitlin Rose - The Stand In
26 Rhye - Woman
27 Migos - Young Rich Niggas
28 Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP 2
29 Rudimental - Home
30 2 Chainz - B.O.A.T.S. II: Me Time

31 Earl Sweatshirt - Doris
32 Justin Timberlake - The 20/20 Experience [1 of 2]
33 Laura Marling - Once I Was an Eagle
34 Kvelertak - Meir
35 Ashley Monroe - Like a Rose
36 Kelela - Cut 4 Me
37 Arcade Fire - Reflektor
38 Janelle Monae - The Electric Lady
39 My Bloody Valentine - m b v
40 Bill Callahan - Dream River

41 Colin Stetson - New History Warfare Vol. 3: To See More Light
42 Holden - The Inheritors
43 Death Grips - Government Plates
44 William Tyler - Impossible Truth
45 Superchunk - I Hate Music
46 Pusha T - My Name Is My Name
47 Neko Case - The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You
48 Body/Head - Coming Apart 
49 Queens of the Stone Age - …Like Clockwork
50 Drake - Nothing Was the Same

That Spin list is pretty good.

All the Yeezus love makes me want to vomit.

Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP 2

I'm gonna post my AOTY 2013 essay because i'm starved for attention

http://www.spin.com/articles/kanye-west-yeezus-album-of-the-year-enter-the-void/

Some nice stuff, a huge load of predictable rubbish, same as any EOY list. Chance The Rapper I would like to hear though, Sound Of 2014 longlist notwithstanding.

Glad to see Run the Jewels picking up steam. That album was good and they had a gnarly logo too.

*continues to wait for a list that features dawn richard, k michelle, fantasia, amel larrieux or ariana grande*

(spin gave kacey and ashley props but not brandy clark?!)

i really have tried with chance the rapper and i guess i admire it but it's just not getting to me, siiiigh

the two 2013 albums i really WISH i loved are probs chance and paramore

There isn't even a Brandy Clark browser marker in Oxford Circus HMV, nor in any other London record shops. I had to get my copy via Amazon - yes, the tax situation, yes, the workhouse deal, but WHERE'S THE ALTERNATIVE?

*coughs*

Remarkably fine and inventive record, the Brandy Clark album, and arrestingly performed.

I need to go back and give Chance another go. Didn't get very far last time cos the first song sounded like Randy Newman iirc.

though i think the spin list probably has the lowest ratio of smh-worthy inclusions - vampire weekend obv, rhye wtf, justin timberlake lol, kelela siiiiigh, and what is disclosure doing so high, but that's about it. (i assume drake right at the bottom is a zing tbh)

would place Ashley Monroe over Musgraves.

man I really tried to love the Neko Case album. It still sounds like her most leaden.

Same Trailer Different Park is one of my favourites of the year but I couldn't get into the Brandy Clark album at all.

the craftsmanship on the brandy clark blows me away, and i think very few songs hit as hard emotionally as "just like him" and "what'll keep me out of heaven" this year

i played "just like him" for my housemate and she pretty much had to leave the room to cry and play it on repeat by herself

I am pretty much fine with the Spin list but BOOOOOOOO for Daft Punk ending up rated above Run The Jewels

Deafheaven are turning up on a lot of these lists now. I'm not totally sold on that one, but the very last seven or eight minutes of the album are just fucking great (and very pretty too) and are a really emotionally satisfying way of ending a fairly epic album, so I do come away with good feelings towards that record.

what Al said about Neko...her worst album ever, one I wish I could love.

No need to say much more about Yeezus, except that it's not the best album of the year, he's not the best artist, and it's not his best album.

I would be so much more on board with Yeezus if track 5 wasn't a massive momentum killer and track 7 wasn't full-on unlistenable; between those two I really can't have anything to do with the album as a whole, despite loving the first 4 tracks

well, that and his whole personality

DJP otm

Surprised Mount Moriah's Miracle Temple and the Lee Ranaldo and The Dust record didn't make any of the lists so far. Definitely both in my top ten for the year that I've discovered so far. Unknown Mortal Orchestra is another one that is seemingly underrated on these lists.

Rolling Stone
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/50-best-albums-of-2013-20131202

1 Vampire Weekend
2 Kanye West
3 Daft Punk
4 Paul McCartney
5 Arcade Fire
6 QOTSA
7 Lorde
8 The National
9 Arctic Monkeys
10 John Fogerty

djp otm about yeezus but after the stupidity of the praise lavished on the stupid MBDTF, i'm fine with it getting some props. hugely flawed album but it does feel like a vital release

The first four tracks might be the best album of the year but I don't know how it could be anyone's top choice on a song-for-song basis. The idea of Yeezus >>>> the reality of Yeezus.

Surprised by McCartney and Fogerty over Bowie in RS.

what Al said about Neko...her worst album ever, one I wish I could love.

Weird. It's the first Neko solo album I actually do like.

The idea of Yeezus >>>> the reality of Yeezus.

kanye post-2005 summed up

well, that and his whole personality

his personality doesn't automatically bother me; usually I find what he's doing musically to be compelling enough to make it worth my while to grapple with and parse through the grosser aspects of his artistic persona but "Blood on the Leaves" is just a visceral top-to-bottom NO

Jake Bugg at 12 on the RS list btw

kanye's personality is fine, he's a good pop star

people really overreact to it, in both directions

but "Blood on the Leaves" is just a visceral top-to-bottom NO;

Not really ready to let him off the hook for the "I'm In It" either. I'm sure that's exactly what Kanye wants me to do, too. But I don't think that makes him or his music more interesting or provoking.

Was surprised that DaftPunk wasn't higher in the SPIN poll, actually.

Isn't this Kanye's fourth Spin AOTY?

DJP and dandy otm re: Blood on the Leaves and I'm In It. Can't listen to either of those.

I'd make a crack about RS putting John Fogerty in the top 10, but Arctic Monkeys above it at #9 is actually way more egregious

"I'm In It" is ignorable compared to the deathslog that precedes it and the wholly misconceived mistake that follows it.

I salute you for being able to ignore those lyrics. They leap out and punch me in the face "like a civil rights sign".

yeezus' worst lyrics are probably on the songs i like. this is actually a pattern throughout kanye's career for me :/

thinking of the hampton spouse one and the croissants one

I salute you for being able to ignore those lyrics. They leap out and punch me in the face "like a civil rights sign".

well quite honestly I've only listened to it recently because Rev mentioned on another thread that he liked it; aside from that I have intentionally not played anything past the first 4 tracks on the album since release day