Year-End Critics' Polls 2013

Dansktoppen Møder Burkina Faso I Det Himmelblå Rum Hvor Solen Bor, Suite

That record's pretty good actually if you like the thought of ramshackle scandinavian folk music meets fake west african-style congotronicsy thumb piano stuff.

Honestly that sounds like the most insufferable thing imaginable but I like the sound of the Grumbling Fur record at #1.

that doesn't sound too bad, does it? i mean... how?

i haven't heard it, it just seems like that description doesn't make me instantly think "bad".

I did find it a bit too upbeat and quirky over the length of the whole thing tbh but I do try and make allowances for the fact that I'm a miserable git at heart.

Playful is what it is.

It immediately conjured up visions of wacky Scandinavians throwing stuff against the wall to see what sticks. I accept this might be unfair.

The mix of styles actually sounds a lot less forced than it looks on paper

30. A$AP Rocky - Long.Live.A$AP (RCA)

31. A$AP Ferg - Trap Lord (Columbia)

WRONG WAY ROUND

(well a$ap rocky shouldn't be on any lists but it boggles the mind to think anyone prefers it to ferg's)

and yay for the first dawn richard sighting

The mix of styles actually sounds a lot less forced than it looks on paper

― exciting vampire castle (NickB), Tuesday, 3 December 2013 10:47 (3 minutes ago) Bookmark

new quietus masthead

The "I've Only Got So Much Time On This Planet" list there.

― Here he is with the classic "Poème Électronique." Good track (Marcello Carlin), Tuesday, December 3, 2013 10:13 AM (31 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the "game recognise game" post there

Grumbling Fur definitely has it's moments when it veers towards this odd poppy Depeche-Mode-leading-a-pagan-field-ritual thing, kind of like a folkier Coil, but Alexander Tucker's voice is still a bit of a chore to listen to.

its

I listened to the K. Michelle album and it probably suffers from holding over most of the really good tracks until the second half (the Fantasia album does that as well but I put that down to ineptitude rather than confidence). Like the first half was alright if pretty boilerplate in places and definitely not delivering on the aggression promised in the opening song, but then it got to VSOP and Sometimes and suddenly it was totally hairs-standing-on-end.

Then I heard the comedy operatic porn script that followed up Sometimes and went on for as long as the actual song did and I spent most of the (mostly excellent) second half just outraged that anyone would break the spell like that.

has there ever been a more biting existential poetry than deciding of which out of asaps rocky and ferg get to be 30 or 31 on a quietus eoy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0KFVgTxCiQ

i actually think the first half of the k michelle album is stronger, and the coochie interlude is too r kelly-esque ridic to hate on. (pro-tip, bonus track "the right one" is AMAZING). i don't really have any complaints about the album at all now, not even the sequencing gripes like i have with fantasia

thirty years ago a child would kick a big daddy kane 12 in the street.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUUCHDD06TI

^ Dunno why I didn't check this out sooner but this Katie Gately stuff is great, like a brutalist Julia Holter or something

68. Tal National - Kaani (Fat Cat)

My fave of the Quietus guitar bands from Africa. This group from Niger put on a wild show as well live (with a Chicago based producer echoing and feeding back aspects via the soundboard)

I don't usually like any EoY lists, but that Quietus list does look pretty good to me, honestly.

Though... Chrome Hoof released an album this year? How did I not know this?

Also The Blow album isn't making any lists but is really good... I guess nobody likes wimpy electropop any more (I really like wimpy electropop).

^otm, i've been meaning to either start a new thread for The Blow s/t or to post about it to one of the rolling threads. i'm completely smitten by it.

So I finally got round to listening to Yeezus and after four tracks I was all "why on earth didn't I listen to this before" and by the end of the album I was more "ah, that's why".

this is so OTM, lol

otm he just cant help himself

despite being an avid Quietoid, i can't really get into the Grumbling Fur album at all I'm afraid to say.

"Black Skinhead" has been growing on me each time I hear it on a different year-end playlist, but I'm still afraid to touch the album.

i wish the quietus wrote some new shit for their year-end list, because it's gonna take a lot more than "this makes me want to take drugs" to explain to me why this grumbling fur album is the best album of the year.

^^^

I assume that's a side-effect of only having 4 of them compile it.

ok fair but we can't even get one lil essay for the album of the year?

I like solo Alexander Tucker much better than Grumbling Fur but that's just me.

It's a pretty terrible blurb but the bit after the drugs bit On their second album Glynnaestra, the duo of Alexander Tucker and Daniel O'Sullivan conjure up a wonderfully evocative and distinctly British kitchen sink psychedelia, an intimate shared space where the whistle of a kettle and the clatter of pots and pans can sit seamlessly alongside heavily reverbed 80s pop synths, expansive rural landscapes, delectably ludicrous choruses and invocations to imaginary deities gives a pretty good idea of what to expect, no?

yeah, i guess i wanted it placed in a larger context of some kind, idk

it's neo-druidic drone pop

Stereogum:
http://www.stereogum.com/1567541/the-50-best-albums-of-2013/list/

01. Kanye West - Yeezus (Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam)
02. Deafheaven - Sunbather (Deathwish)
03. Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires Of The City (XL)
04. Disclosure - Settle (Cherrytree)
05. My Bloody Valentine - m b v (Self-released)
06. Sky Ferreira - Night Time, My Time (Capitol)
07. Danny Brown - Old (Fool's Gold)
08. HAIM - Days Are Gone (Polydor)
09. Daft Punk - Random Access Memories (Columbia)
10. Arcade Fire - Reflektor (Merge)
11. Volcano Choir - Repave (Jagjaguwar)
12. Run The Jewels - Run The Jewels (Fool's Gold)
13. Kurt Vile - Wakin On A Pretty Daze (Matador)
14. Savages - Silence Yourself (Matador/Pop Noire)
15. Kvelertak - Meir (Sony Music Scandinavia/Roadrunner)
16. Waxahatchee - Cerulean Salt (Don Giovanni)
17. Windhand - Soma (Relapse)
18. Chance The Rapper - Acid Rap (Self-released)
19. Tegan And Sara - Heartthrob (Warner Bros.)
20. Blood Orange - Cupid Deluxe (Domino)
etc

a rare sighting of the Field @ #33

I lost interest in Run the Jewels after August. It's due for another spin.

So it looks like a KDeDaHV kind of year? As opposed to that GAPDY year. I'm seeing Kanye, Deafhaven, Daft Punk, Haim and Vampire Weekend pop up on pretty much every list.

20 best cassette releases of 2013 http://www.factmag.com/2013/12/02/the-20-best-cassette-releases-of-2013

awesome, thanks!

seems like tape ppl mostly listen to drone & noise stuff. my 2 fav tapes of 2013 were by reg old bands needle gun and deformity

This is a weird way round of doing things - Magnet haven't published their list yet, but they're already running this poll online:

http://www.magnetmagazine.com/2013/12/03/what-record-didnt-deserve-to-make-our-top-25-albums-of-2013/

Wonder why the deafheaven album is getting non-rock/metal crit love over say Ghost or Asg , In Solitude, Kylesa or Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats?
Those seem more like what they would normally pick than a shoegazy black metal album on Converge's label. ( is that why? Converge got a lot of crit love the past few years.)

What a boring list. However, everyone should flood that poll with votes for Foxygen.

it has nothing to do with converge

it is because it is shoegazy

and has buzz

MAGNET’s Andrew Earles picks the best metal releases of the year.

1 Kylesa Ultraviolet (Season Of Mist)
2 Deafheaven Sunbather (Deathwish, Inc.)
3 Carcass Surgical Steel (Nuclear Blast)
4 Innumerable Forms/Blessed Offal split LP (Painkiller)
5 Jesu Everyday I Get Closer To The Light From Which I Came (Avalanche)
6 Windhand Soma (Relapse)
7 ASG Blood Drive (Relapse)
8 Red Fang Whales And Leeches (Relapse)
9 Moss Horrible Night (Metal Blade)
10 Subrosa More Constant Than The Gods (Profound Lore)
- See more at: http://www.magnetmagazine.com/2013/12/03/best-of-2013-metal/#sthash.FMzoIv56.dpuf

I need to get that Moss album. Forgot to buy it. Hardly bought any music this year.

For all the dichotomy people have drawn between the first four tracks on Yeezus and the rest, I listen to "I'm In It" and "Bound 2" and "Send It Up" way more than any of the opening tracks these days.

The first four are certainly noteworthy, but I like the whole record. ymmv

Also, that Magnet poll has already been yanked.