December 31, 2013

2013 Year-End Lists and Thoughts

My plans for a 2013 wrap-up were, as usual, a bit too ambitious. A set of favorite photos never came together, and a list of favorite performances simply didn’t have time for a proper writeup. Nonetheless, I tried to give my top 20 albums their due diligence and list off a few of my favorite live moments of the year before 2013 draws to a close.

Top 20 Albums of the Year:

I continually debate the validity of producing a year-end top albums list every time I make one. Writing such a strictly personal list based on a year’s worth of listening and declaring it the “best” of anything is totally ridiculous in some sense. It’s impossible for one person to hear and properly digest every worthwhile record released in a year. Therefore, I present my personal picks with the disclaimer that they represent a snapshot of a particular moment in time. If I’m not unsatisfied with my choices and rankings by next month, I assuredly will be by the end of next year. That said, here are 20 records I was particularly fond of in 2013, and a bit about why that was so.

20. Low – The Invisible Way

Low’s Jeff Tweedy-produced 10th studio record felt unfairly overlooked this year, but the band’s unerring consistency over the course of a 20-year career has allowed us to take them for granted at this point. The Invisible Way is a collection of beautiful and understated songs entirely consistent with the Low aesthetic, and that’s precisely what makes it such vital listening. Bias note: the band’s performance of “Plastic Cup” at Wilco’s Solid Sound Festival back in June may have singlehandedly bumped this record upwards a few spots.

19. The Haxan Cloak – Excavation

This sophomore record from U.K. producer Bobby Krlic was a late discovery for me, but it’s a piece of work that’s quick to leave an impression. Excavation is a harrowing 50 minutes of cavernous bass, disembodied voices and general unease; a droning dark ambient concept piece that often sounds like being stalked by the specter of death. The record is an accomplishment in pure eeriness, but it also possesses a sense of structure and pacing that makes it engaging on a musical level beyond atmosphere. Not necessarily a fun listen, but certainly a fascinating one.

18. Tim Hecker – Virgins

Virgins is a continuation of the sound that experimental noisemaker Tim Hecker has been subtly shaping and refining since his 2001 debut. Flashes and loops of static, fuzz, warped piano and instruments of all other shapes and sizes fall together and burst apart in hypnotic patterns that could only be Hecker’s doing. Virgins operates with a more broad and colorful palette of sounds than 2011’s also-excellent Ravedeath 1972, and feels more accessible for it. This is ambient music at its most grand and sweeping, and well worth investigating even for those not typically enthralled by the genre.

17. The Flaming Lips – The Terror

The Lips took a break from releasing an endless stream of collaborative EPs, 24-hour songs and other oddball experiments this year to release their first proper studio record since 2009’s Embryonic. Unexpectedly, it turned out to be their most cohesive effort in years. The Terror reverses Embryonic’s double-album sprawl and constant stylistic shifts by sustaining one bleak, harrowing tone from front to back. The droning synthesizers and angular stabs of electric guitar – best exemplified in the 13-minute centerpiece “You Lust” – draw upon a darker side of drug-fueled psychedelia than the Lips of yore. It’s a lonely, ominous trip of an album, but it also feels like a restatement of purpose for the band. Gimmick releases and general fucking around aside, they can still pull together a brilliant gut-punch of an album.

16. Deerhunter – Monomania

Deerhunter have long been a band to embrace distortion, noise and general dissonance, but never before have they sounded quite this ugly. Monomania is all about aesthetics, from the neon-soaked artwork to the leather jackets, motorcycles and perfectly unpolished sound. It dials back the scope of comparatively huge-sounding records like Microcastle, but still manages to engage with its retro style and the strong songwriting of frontman Bradford Cox and foil Lockett Pundt.

15. Arcade Fire – Reflektor

Between the NBC concert special, the nonstop late-night appearances, the limited capacity “Reflektors” gigs, the concert dress codes and the million other promotional stunts they pulled this year, Arcade Fire have been literally everywhere. The album you couldn’t avoid in 2013 built up the sort of hype that nothing short of a masterpiece could live up to. Reflektor is not that masterpiece, but it is a very good record from a band whose unrelenting media presence still threatened to wear out their welcome. The larger-than-life nature of Reflektor’s promotion extends to the album itself, which stretches across two discs and an hour-and-a-quarter length. That sprawl (no pun intended) is ambitious and risky, and admittedly fails in places, but yields enough excellent songs, and a surprisingly high replay value, to still make it one of 2013’s most notable records.

14. Atoms for Peace – Amok

This year saw Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke teaming up once more with the talented individuals he recruited to tour solo effort The Eraser in 2009 and finally form a proper band under the name Atoms for Peace. Their debut effort together is the funky, groovy Amok. Though it was written off as Yorke by-the-numbers by many, the record is actually anything but. Flea’s restless, melodic bass lines underpin Nigel Godrich’s textured electronic backdrops, while punctuating percussion from Joey Waronker and Mauro Refosco complements them both with a subtle intricacy. Amok embodies a collaborative spirit, and Yorke’s piano, guitar and vocals are part of the puzzle rather than the center of attention. It’s a strong record from an intriguingly diverse group of musicians, and easily one of the year’s most underrated releases.

13. Vampire Weekend – Modern Vampires of the City

In some sense, it genuinely frustrates me that Modern Vampires is as good as it is. Though their first two albums are solidly enjoyable pieces of work, Vampire Weekend’s universal critical acclaim has always struck me as far too enthusiastic for a moderately talented and slightly annoying indie pop band. Modern Vampires, it seems, is the record that sells me on them. It scales back the twee tendencies and exceedingly clever try-hard vibes of their earlier work in favor of songs that actually feel relatable and human. Tracks like “Step,” “Hannah Hunt” and “Ya Hey” are the rare pieces of pop music that feel earnestly uplifting, wistfully nostalgic and undeniably catchy all at once. Much as I hate to admit it, Vampire Weekend have perfected the art of those songs, and they released a damn good set of them this year.

12. Iceage – You’re Nothing

The sophomore record from Danish punks Iceage maintains the frantic momentum of their 2011 debut and takes it to bigger, heavier places. You’re Nothing exceeds New Brigade’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-it runtime by just four minutes, but the songs still feel more dynamic and developed. Thrashing chaos hits first, but repeated listens reveal a keen sense of melody and compositional skill that elevates Iceage beyond just another group of pissed off young dudes. You’re Nothing shapes the band’s sense of general misanthropy into a sharper and more deadly point.

11. Superchunk – I Hate Music

When Superchunk returned from a nearly decade-long hiatus in 2010 with the sunny, upbeat Majesty Shredding, they sounded happy and rejuvenated. Three years later, I Hate Music sees them in a darker place. The hooky songwriting and overdriven guitars are still present (note the insanely catchy “Me & You & Jackie Mitoo”), but they’re balanced out with more pensive songs and heavier themes of nostalgia and loss. Still, it never loses the optimistic underdog spirit that’s been at the heart of this band from its start. I Hate Music is among Superchunk’s most mature and resonant work.

10. Bill Callahan – Dream River

The enigmatic Callahan is now four records removed from his Smog moniker, and continues to pursue his muse with increasingly patient grace. Dream River is often sonically sparse, but still warm and inviting in its unhurried acoustic strums and brushed percussion. Right down to the vintage Callahan lyrics, this is one of 2013’s most unassuming and quietly brilliant records.

9. James Blake – Overgrown

Overgrown is British wunderkind James Blake’s bigger, bolder followup to his self-titled 2011 debut. While that record worked its magic with a mix of minimalist downtempo electronica and Blake’s devastating vocal turns, Overgrown goes for broke with a more expansive sound and his most grandiose songs yet. “Retrograde,” the record’s centerpiece and lead single, is soaring and triumphant. It’s the work of a much different James Blake than the ghostly, downcast voice of his first LP, but the change is one that reflects a growing and maturing artist with an ever-expanding range of talents.

8. Kurt Vile – Wakin’ on a Pretty Daze

The unassuming Kurt Vile delivered one of 2013’s most nonchalant epics with Wakin on a Pretty Daze. It’s the Philadelphia folk-gaze songwriter’s fifth solo album, and his most fully realized piece of work thus far. More than half of the record’s 11 tracks extend past the six-minute mark, yet they still feel like the kind of songs you don’t want to end. Vile’s zen lyricism and increasingly freewheeling songwriting made this an indispensable soundtrack for 2013’s lazy afternoons, summer road trips and contemplative evenings.

7. The National – Trouble Will Find Me

Trouble Will Find Me is assuredly not the sound of melancholic Brooklynites The National reinventing themselves. Instead, it sees them continuing to whittle down the science of being The National. For adherents to their moody, wine-soaked sounds, that’s perfectly satisfying. “Don’t Swallow the Cap,” “Demons,” “Graceless,” “Pink Rabbits” and the like are instantly classic National tunes that stand up to their best material, and while it’s their longest record to date at 13 songs and 55 minutes, Trouble never feels aimless or bloated. It’s further proof that The National are one of the most vital and consistent bands of the last decade.

6. Yo La Tengo – Fade

The latest from the beloved Hoboken, NJ trio abandons the genre-traversing model that characterized their last two records for a more quiet, cohesive set of songs. Fade is in the vein of more restrained YLT records like Summer Sun and …And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out, with songs that tread the line between sweetness and melancholy in ways that few other artists can pull off. It’s a tight and endlessly replayable record, bookended by a pair of brilliant slow-burning jams in “Ohm” and “Before We Run.”

5. The Knife – Shaking the Habitual

One of 2013’s most anticipated records was also one of its weirdest. Anyone expecting an accessible LP in the tradition of previous Knife records (or even Karin Dreijer Anderson’s solo work as Fever Ray) was in for a culture shock with this near-100 minute behemoth, which fused the dancefloor rhythms of days gone by with ominous drones and abrasive experiments. Shaking the Habitual feels like the electro, feminist equivalent of last year’s similarly voluminous Swans record The Seer, which also spanned multiple discs in its convention-denying savagery. The material here is often the very epitome of challenging – see the ultra-minimalist “Old Dreams Waiting to Be Realized” and the grating “Fracking Fluid Injection” – but taken as a whole, it’s brilliant and enthralling stuff. Shaking the Habitual confuses at first, but it’s quick to draw you into its unsettling world.

4. My Bloody Valentine – m b v

It wouldn’t be accurate to call m b v another of 2013’s most anticipated records, since most people naturally assumed that 2013 would be yet another year in which we wouldn’t hear it. Kevin Shields spent two decades intermittently teasing the followup to My Bloody Valentine’s adored masterpiece Loveless, but seeing the nine-track LP actually surface on the band’s website in early February was still positively shocking. Less shocking, though, was the dreamy beauty contained within the long-awaited and near-mythical album. m b v is vintage MBV, from the swirling guitars to the skillfully half-submerged vocals, but tosses in some surprises as well (no one could’ve seen the avant-drum looping experiment “Nothing Is” coming from afar). The record does the seemingly impossible by functioning as both a worthy successor to Loveless and an unpredictable step forward for the band. Ideally, the next step will not take another 20 years.

3. Kanye West – Yeezus

What more is there to say about one of the year’s most discussed and debated records? Yeezus is everything it’s hyped up to be and more; an abrasive, angry, evil, and compulsively listenable rejection of hip-hop convention. On the heels of accessible and radio-friendly work on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Watch the Throne and Cruel Summer, Yeezus is the sound of Kanye tossing accessibility out the window while struggling between embracing his demons and fighting them off. Even within its 40 minute runtime (around half the length of Twisted Fantasy), Yeezus is packed with utterly stunning moments: the breathless chorus of “Black Skinhead,” the heart-stopping Frank Ocean-featuring coda of “New Slaves,” the massive drop of those TNGHT horns in “Blood on the Leaves.” This is surely not what anyone expected from Kanye in 2013, but perhaps it’s what we needed: a reminder that behind the pop-rap guest verses and half-assed collaborative albums (looking your way, Cruel Summer), there still lurks one of modern music’s most restlessly creative minds.

2. Deafheaven – Sunbather

2013 gradually became a year in which I further immersed myself in metal, and Deafheaven’s sublime Sunbather was certainly one of the reasons why. Sunbather builds on and perfects the black-metal-via-shoegaze sound of 2011’s promising Roads to Judah, fusing post-rock song structures with ferocious drumming, anguished vocals, soaring guitars and cinematic interludes. From the moment the ascending riff that opens “Dream House” is lacerated by a pummeling blast beat, Sunbather both demands and rewards your attention. It’s a nuanced and perfectly paced balance between tranquility and chaos; beauty and anger. There’s a reason this record became 2013’s most talked-about metal release even among those who typically avoid anything with this much screaming involved. Sunbather is one of the year’s most gripping releases in any genre.

1. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – Push the Sky Away

Nick Cave has spent the last several years of his career under the primal spell of his garage-rocking Grinderman project. The band functioned as a kind of Bad Seeds-lite, with fewer members and less commitment to sincerity or common decency. Its two self-titled records, and even the 2008 Bad Seeds LP in between, were brash and electric guitar-heavy, and Cave’s lyrics veered between Dig, Lazarus, Dig‘s high-concept fusion of Greek and biblical mythology to the lasciviously dangerous diatribes of Grinderman. Push the Sky Away shakes it all off with a sharp turn and a quick drop into a haunted post-modern abyss.

The record is Cave’s most minimal work in years, driven by ghostly loops and skeletal melodies on keys and guitar. The Bad Seeds dial back the pounding rhythms and general fire-and-brimstone vibes that have become their trademark in order to create something that’s more fever-dream than waking nightmare. Cave’s writing follows suit with impressionistic musings that weave together references both obscure and contemporary. Robert Johnson, Miley Cyrus, Wikipedia and mermaids are just a few of the elements that populate the tangled, endlessly fascinating webs of these songs. It all coalesces into one of the most singular and surprising entries in the storied Bad Seeds catalog, and a masterwork from one of our most consistently brilliant songwriters. A close call, but for me, it’s 2013’s finest record.

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Honorable Mentions:

Boards of Canada – Tomorrow’s Harvest

Danny Brown – Old

Neko Case – The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You

Chelsea Light Moving – Chelsea Light Moving

Darkside – Psychic

Drake – Nothing Was the Same

Jon Hopkins – Immunity

Kvelertak – Meir

Savages – Silence Yourself

Speedy Ortiz – Major Arcana