Year-End Critics' Polls 2013

I voted Kacey, Chance and Haim. Glad Kacey placed so high - I know she has three big fans in the Guardian camp (all ILXors btw) but wasn't sure if she had any more.

The Autechre fan in the comments box clinging to the hope that Exai might make the top ten is quite sweet really.

it usually doesn't take much more than that to place highly - sadly i don't think kacey has any fans at the guardian other than the ones i know about, so this seems about right.

i really have no idea what will be top 10 but i think at best i'll only have one vote in it (only two of mine - kacey and miley - have shown up so far)

unless the pop crew came out in force for ariana grande as they should have done? i know she got one other vote :/

Entertainment Weekly:

01. Kanye West - Yeezus
02. Drake - Nothing Was the Same
03. Miley Cyrus - Bangerz
04. Kacey Musgrvaes - Same Trailer Different Park
05. The Weekend - Kiss Land
06. Paramore - Paramore
07. Local Natives - Hummingbird
08. Pusha T - My Name is My Name
09. Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City
10. Earl Sweatshirt - Doris

Singles:

01. Daft Punk - Get Lucky
02. Lorde - Royals
03. HAIM - The Wire
04. Kendrick Lamar - Backstreet Freestyle
05. Katy Perry - Roar
06. Palma Violets - Best of Friends
07. Rihanna - Stay
08. Florida Georgia Line Feat. Nelly, Cruise (Remix)
09. David Bowie, The Stars (Are Out Tonight)
10. Disclosure, When A Fire Starts To Burn

their singles list is... something

ctrl+f indicates that ariana grande has in fact only shown up on the complex trax list and the gorilla vs bear (!) albums list so far SIIIIIIGH. of all the albums i've loved this year it's weird to think that FUCKIN' BANGERZ has been one of the only ones to garner any sort of critical traction outside of myself

So the Guardian Top 10 must involve Kanye, Daft Punk, John Grant and VW for sure, then six more from QOTSA, Nick Cave, Arcade Fire, Disclosure, Run the Jewels, MIA, Boards of Canada, MBV and Foals. There's going to be some complaining.

I guess from the EW & RS lists that When the Fire Starts to Burn had an extra push in the US?

Wrong six, Dorian. I'd say there are two proper surprises to come in the top 10.

I'd guess a rush of votes on someone like Omar Souleyman or Tim Hecker or someone.

a commenter is repping for dawn richard! *hugs sole ally close*

I'm basing this on the fact that the Rustie album made the top 10 a couple of years ago.

Shitfucker ftw

Would be awesome to see Tim Hecker make it but I don't think they even reviewed that.

I think we can all agree it has been Shitfucker's year

they didn't review DJ Rashad or Autre Ne Veut either

pretty sure neither of those will make the top ten though

AV Club's The least essential albums of 2013

SPIN's 20 Best Metal Albums of 2013
http://www.spin.com/articles/best-metal-albums-2013/

that least essential list is such a missed opportunity to slag off albums that anyone gave a shit about

Yeah I didn't necessarily mean those two particular albums, just something of similar stature, like Dawn Richard for that matter.

nahhhh excavating obscure weird bad records >>> potshots at easy famous targets (xp)

Idolator - Best albums of 2013
http://www.idolator.com/7496751/2013-10-best-albums-idolator-editors

10. M.I.A., Matangi
9. Selena Gomez, Stars Dance
8. Kacey Musgraves, Same Trailer Different Park
7. Tegan And Sara, Heartthrob
6. Charli XCX, True Romance
5. Pet Shop Boys, Electric
4. Kanye West, Yeezus
3. Lorde, Pure Heroine
2. Haim, Days Are Gone
1. Sky Ferreira: Night Time, My Time

SPIN's 20 Best Metal Albums of 2013
01 Deafheaven - Sunbather
02 Kvelertak - Meir
03 Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats - Mind Control
04 Locrian - Return to Annihilation
05 Carcass - Surgical Steel
06 Windhand - Soma
07 Gorguts - Colored Sands
08 Whores. - Clean
09 Inter Arma - Sky Burial
10 Dillinger Escape Plan - One of Us Is the Killer
11 SubRosa - More Constant Than the Gods
12 Black Sabbath - 13
13 ASG - Blood Drive
14 Red Fang - Whales and Leeches
15 Power Trip - Manifest Decimation
16 Voivod - Target Earth
17 Palms - Palms
18 Wrekmeister Harmonies - You've Always Meant So Much to Me
19 Portal - Vexovoid
20 Nails - Abandon All Life

18 Wrekmeister Harmonies - You've Always Meant So Much to Me

^ i love that one

Tegan and Sara left me cold. It felt like indie people playing at "perfect pop" and ending up with an outdated shop-mannequin version. Closer's good but I can't remember the rest of it.

yeah i felt the same about them

Overall, I'm pleased there's no Kaputt this year - no high-scoring album that I really hate. Yeezus and AM aren't my favourites but they're both inside my top 40.

uncle acid over carcass, hmmm

Pazz & Jop ballots should go out very soon...

Kind of feel that Random Access Memories is this year's Kaputt, even if I like it a lot more.

You're probably right. I love RAM though.

i find this year's lists boring rather than hateable. combination of being all talked out about the year's tedious ~event albums, long-term objects of hatred like arctic monkeys and vampire weekend who i try to ignore completely these days, and new acts who don't interest me either way like lorde and haim. but i do think 2013's consensus albums are the worst in some years, there's something really...inevitable and obvious about a lot of them

lioke, i'd almost rather have an "aaargh RAGE" reaction to these lists than my eyes glazing over as my brain mutters "don't care, don't care, don't care..."

I can understand being bored but no way are this year's consensus albums worse than the GAPDY tyranny.

Didn't mind it at first but I've been mercilessly subjected to RAM on every car journey so far this year, and every trip we make I loathe it a little more. Somebody else please release an album my wife likes, Daft Punk you are slowly killing me.

the thing i find depressing about years like this is how many of the records on the lists are just well-regarded albums by established artists, but not, like, widely held to be their best yet or some kind of big breakthrough. just ho hum, Kanye and Daft Punk and The National and Vampire Weekend and Bowie made records and they're not terrible, AOTY then.

Loving this Portal album from the Spin list.

Conversely I didn't listen to RAM for several months and then put it on the other day and was suddenly "hey this is awesome, why don't I listen to this all the time?" I think the discourse and hype wore me out to the extent that I was just prepared to accept the backlash through osmosis even though I didn't agree with it.

yeah Portal is fantastic

I'm checking some of the stuff I hadn't heard on the Juno list and quite enjoying Stellar Om Source and Karen Gwyer, for starters. But like factoring in Tim Hecker, Julia Holter, Laurel Halo, pretty strong year for the more experimental end of electronic music.

yeah al sums up what i was vaguely trying to grasp at. i feel ennui when i read these lists.

with maybe two exceptions the Spin metal list kind of... conforms to type tho

xp I see your point in most cases somedude - I don't think Kanye, Arctics, Bowie, QOTSA, the National or Arcade Fire are at their peak - but a ton of critics, including me, think this is Vampire Weekend's best album by a long chalk, and RAM is a law unto itself.

Weak year for debuts though. The balance is off.

I consciously avoided most of the RAM discourse. Glad I did, as it resonates with me in a very personal way.

with maybe two exceptions the Spin metal list kind of... conforms to type tho

you'll probably have to unpack that for me

Pop Matters The Best Metal of 2013
http://www.popmatters.com/feature/176995-the-best-metal-of-2013/P1/

20 Dark Tranquility - Construct
19 Heaven Shall Burn - Veto
18 Atlantean Kodex - The White Goddess
17 Exhumed - Necrocracy
16 Shooting Guns - Brotherhood of the Ram
15 Lycus - Tempest
14 Kataklysm - Waiting for the End to Come
13 Deafheaven - Sunbather
12 Russian Circles - Memorial
11 Clutch - Earth Rocker
10 Skeletonwitch - Serpents Unleashed
09 Kvelertak - Meir
08 Oranssi Pazuzu - Valonielu
07 Altar of Plagues - Teethed Glory and Injury
06 Darkthrone - The Underground Resistance
05 Gorguts - Colored Sands
04 Shining - One One One
03 Carcass - Surgical Steel
02 SubRosa - More Constant Than the Gods
01 In Solitude - Sister

I can understand being bored but no way are this year's consensus albums worse than the GAPDYX tyranny.

fixed

Weak year for debuts though.

kacey musgraves, ariana grande, brandy clark, k. michelle, creep, sky ferreira, maya jane coles, om'mas keith...eight debuts in my top 20 isn't a bad strike rate

I didn't mean your favourites, or even mine. I meant the records that are impacting on list after list. Not many debuts punching through.

That list of metal band names reminds me to post this thing I saw yesterday, which contains some of the best fake names of all time:

http://ow.ly/rthKj