Year-End Critics' Polls 2013

I need to give Acid Rap a third listen and try to grasp the appeal - it's just eluding me.

You're either down with his voice or you're forever on the fence. It took me a long while to get over his babytalk.

i thought noz lightweight killed it in his pitchfork blurb of the album

for their year end list

Yeah, I loved that blurb.

You're either down with his voice or you're forever on the fence. It took me a long while to get over his babytalk.

― Johnny Fever, Thursday, December 19, 2013 5:14 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it's not really his voice that's the issue - don't love it but don't hate it. more like what rtc said at the time, he doesn't make me care enough about what he's saying to get build up an affinity for the voice

chance and paramore (and kelela) are certainly the 2013 albums i WISH i loved, that i've spent a lot of time trying to love, that a lot of people w/similar taste to me seem to love, and they're all stuck at the three-star "this is alright i guess?" level

Fastnbulbous, those are some great lists you have on your site! (Bit late reply, but it's a lot to take in.) Thanks to your write-up I'm really enjoying Beastmilk at the moment - for some reason I never expected a band with such a name to be post punk. Also nice to see Motorpsycho up there, although I haven't really liked anything they made in this century.

http://thequietus.com/articles/14145-best-hip-hop-albums-review-2013

That Floorplan record could well be a last minute entry into my EOY. It's always so frustrating compiling these lists because I discover probably about 20% of my annual music listening in the Dec/Jan period thanks to everyone else's recommendations and don't really have an opinion about a lot of stuff til March the following year. My 2012 top 5 contained at least two records I hadn't heard until December.

John Grant at #2 in the Guardian. Really wanted that to beat Kanye to #1 because seriously who wants to read another Yeezus thinkpiece at this stage.

lol, Yeezus is one of my least played rap albums this year.

i just need to see a yeezus thinkpiece that acknowledges the wildly diverging quality between its two halves

Good luck on that when everyone's making it AOTY.

xp ArchCarrier, thanks. Motorpsycho have such a huge catalog. I eventually heard most of their stuff, but keep returning to the most recent albums. I also belatedly finished making Spotify playlists for each of the 16 genre groups in the breakdown.

It f'd up the # in the link: http://fastnbulbous.com/lucky-13/#breakdown

Simon Reynolds still hates M.I.A.

food for puke
M.I.A. "Come Walk With Me"
Paris Hilton featuring Lil Wayne, "Good Time"
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, "Ceiling Can't Hold Us"

"you fill me with... inertia"
vaporwave
nu-grime
post-step
Julia Holter
Floorplan
Hookworms

Rock-A-Rolla Top 50 Albums Of 2013

01. Jesu - Everyday I Get Closer To The Light
02. Deafheaven - Sunbather
03. Tomahawk - Oddfellow
04. Secret Chiefs 3 - Book Of Souls: Folio A
05. Corrections House - Last City Zero
06. Cult Of Luna - Vertikal
07. The Body - Christ, Redeemers
08. Carcass - Surgical Steel
09. The Ocean - Pelagial
10. Boards Of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest
11. Altar Of Plagues - Teethed Glory & Injury
12. Tim Hecker - Virgins
13. Pelican - Forever Becoming
14. Gnaw - Horrible Chamber
15. Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats - Mind Control
16. Nails - Abandon All Life
17. Palms - Palms
18. Ensemble Pearl - Ensemble Pearl
19. True Widow - Circumambulation
20. Russian Circles - Memorial
21. Mammifer & Circle - Enharmonic Intervals
22. Beastmilk - Climax
23. Survival - Survival
24. Melvins - Tres Cabrones
25. Black Sabbath - 13
26. Coliseum - Sister Faith
27. Vista Chino - Peace
28. Kylesa - Ultraviolet
29. Chelsea Wolfe - Pain Is Beauty
30. Clutch - Earth Rocker
31. Mutation - Error 500
32. Queens of the Stone Age - ...Like Clockwork
33. Shining - One One One
34. Wooden Shjips - Back To Land
35. Ulcerate - Vermis
36. Teeth Of The Sea - Master
37. Castevet - Obsian
38. Autechre - Exai
39. Red Fang - Whales And Leeches
40. Kawabata Mokoto's Mainliner - Revelation Space
41. Man's Gin - Rebellion Hymns
42. Melt-Banana - Fetch
43. Fire! - (Without Noticing)
44. Vaura - The Missing
45. Colin Stetson - New History Warfare Vol. 3: To See More Light
46. Cathedral - The Last Spire
47. Explosions In The Sky and David Wingo - Prince Avalanche OST
48. Celeste - Animale(s)
49. Arabrot - Arabrot
50. Bardo Pond - Peace On Venus

Always an interesting list, there's a few things I gotta check out, like Secret Chiefs 3 and Ensemble Pearl. Not sure what they see in Tomahawk. They must really miss Jesus Lizard. Would have guessed they'd have SubRosa, Pinkish Black, Author & Punisher, Domovoyd, Deveykus, Kayo Dot, Oranssi Pazuzu, Kvelertak, Vhöl, oVo, Sungod, Darkside and/or Locrian. But good list overall.

not my fave rock-a-rolla list :/

That Deafheaven album is a scorcher.

The Tomahawk album was abysmal.

Or is. Whichever.

rock a rolla is always my favorite list

one of these days I'm gonna move to England and do a hostile takeover of that mag

Other than it's appearance on the Quietus list I was beginning to think I am the only person who rates Ensemble Pearl.

yeah, that album is awesome.

44. Vaura - The Missing

YES

Mordy made me post this
http://blogs.forward.com/the-arty-semite/189459/top--middle-eastern-metal-albums-of-/
http://blogs.forward.com/the-arty-semite/189455/top--jewish-albums-of-/

Yeezus is #1 in the Guardian and the outrage below the line is beautiful.

shaypeshyfter
20 December 2013 10:25am

This dribble from a guy with no black rap roots? An originator? Delusions of granduer, yes, paragon of rap? I need only point you back to it's roots in the form of The Sugarhill Gang, Grandmaster Flash, Run-DMC, Wu Tang Clan, NWA, et al. Don't get me started about Missy Elliott, Nas, Busta Rhymes, Dizzee Rascal, Tupac Shakur! All of whom existed before this cum stain declared there were "no black rappers before me".
For the record I middle aged (51) and white.

David C James shaypeshyfter
20 December 2013 10:42am

I don't think you had to tell us you were middle-aged and white. It was pretty obvs.

lol irl

Akiba

20 December 2013 7:59am
Recommend
68

A rap album no.1? Oh dear oh dear.

I find it rather tragic that the best pop music was written long before I was even born, in the 1960s. The 70s was pretty good too. By the time we reached the 80s, the decline was already in evidence, with most music being incredibly lightweight. The 90s was pretty much the end of music and everything after that has been white noise. How people talking over a background rhythm is now considered music is totally beyond me.

I thought you were supposed to like the music you grew up with? Not I it seems, I like good music, which hasn't been made in many decades.

Akiba SouthgatesNose

20 December 2013 8:07am
Recommend
35

"ignorant"?

I don't regard talking over a beat to be music. Music needs a melody, a tune, it needs talent behind it.

That's my opinion. If you enjoy talking "music" then knock yourself out.

reminds me of something. Just cant think who

Isn't this thread long enough without C&Ping every fuckwit from the Guardian comments box?

The David C James smackdown is beautiful though.

Guardian comments box ain't nuthin' ta fuckwit

LWE tracks of the year:
http://www.littlewhiteearbuds.com/chart/lwes-top-25-tracks-of-2013-5-1/

top ten >>>

10. Huerco S., “Apheleia’s Theme”
09. Levon Vincent, “???”
08. Terekke, “Bank 3″
07. Marcel Fengler, “Jaz”
06. Elgato, “We Dream Electric”
05. KMFH, “Crushed”
04. Florian Kupfer, “Feelin”
03. DJ Fett Burger & DJ Speckgürtel, “Speckbass”
02. PJOTR, “True Spirit”
01. The Mole, “Lockdown Party” (Sprinkles’ Crossfaderama)

cool #1

http://pitchfork.com/features/staff-lists/9294-guest-list-best-of-2013/

^^^ emil.y you need to read page 2 of that feature :) ^^^

Billboard best albums:
http://www.billboard.com/articles/list/5840321/15-best-albums-of-2013-critics-picks

15. Chance the Rapper - Acid Rap
14. Lady Gaga - ARTPOP
13. Chvrches - The Bones of What You Believe
12. Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City
11. Justin Timberlake - The 20/20 Experience
10. Kacey Musgraves - Same Trailer Different Park
9. Arcade Fire - Reflektor
8. Rhye - Woman
7. Daft Punk - Random Access Memories
6. Haim - Days Are Gone
5. Drake - Nothing Was the Same
4. Lorde - Pure Heroine
3. Disclosure - Settle
2. Kanye West - Yeezus
1. Beyonce - Beyonce

note the number one

haha its been out a week?

The Fact tracks list:
http://www.factmag.com/2013/12/16/the-100-best-tracks-of-2013/

nice to see "lay down in swimming pools" at #12

John Grant at #2 in the Guardian. Really wanted that to beat Kanye to #1 because seriously who wants to read another Yeezus thinkpiece at this stage.

― Matt DC, Thursday, December 19, 2013 8:12 AM

the "no-more-yeezus-thinkpieces" part is otm, but yeezus has been no. 1 on far fewer lists than i would've figured. that modern vampire album (lol) seems to have topped more lists (lol).

sadly, this

17 Dirty Beaches - Drifters / Love is the Devil

___________________________________

standout album, but probably will be largely overlooked in year-end polls.

― Daniel, Esq 2, Wednesday, November 20, 2013

turned out to be, otm, too. it only appeared on three lists cited here (all of whom are edgy/prominent record shops).

Reading that FACT list, I challenge anyone to find a less exciting 2013 musical trend than "minimal grime".

they seem to be really into it

slackk's stuff is really really great

I like that Dirty Beaches album ok, but it's incredibly derivative of various other things. Dude needs to work harder at getting his own thing going.

i get that, but "incredibly derivative of other things" is an albatross you can hang around the neck of a lot of universally-loved acts. also, with the right sound, it tends to bother me less (e.g., the raveonettes, when they sounded more vital).