Top 50 Albums 2013
Usually only do top 25, but i listened to a lot of music-limiting to 50 was rhard enough. I also rrrrrrrrrrmade an effort to listen to a lot more ambient music this year and it showed in my rlistening rrrrrrrrrexperience. |
| 50 |  | M.I.A.
Matangi
Hip-hop/Electro. M.I.A being M.I.A |
| 49 |  | Benoit Pioulard
Hymnal
Ambient/Folk/Indie |
| 48 |  | William Basinski and Richard Chartier
Aurora Liminalis
Ambient/Drone |
| 47 |  | Future of the Left
How To Stop Your Brain In An Accident
Post-hardcore/Noise Rock |
| 46 |  | The Sun And The Ocean
Distant Light/New Darkness
Indie Electronica/Pop. |
| 45 |  | Nine Inch Nails
Hesitation Marks
Industrial/Alt-Rock/Electronica |
| 44 |  | Jolly
The Audio Guide to Happiness (Part 2)
Alt. Metal/Prog. |
| 43 | | Tera Melos
X'ed Out
Indie/Math Rock |
| 42 |  | Chelsea Wolfe
Pain Is Beauty
Folk/Experimental |
| 41 |  | Cloud Boat
Book of Hours
Ambient/R&B |
| 40 |  | Varth Dader
Tice Nitties
Hip-Hop/Cloud Rap. Awesome rap collective from North Carolina. |
| 39 |  | Palms
Palms
Shoegaze/Post-Rock |
| 38 |  | Julia Holter
Loud City Song
Ambient/Pop/Indie Jazz |
| 37 |  | Zeroh
Bred: A Dedication
Hip-Hop/Experimental |
| 36 |  | Sadistik
Flowers For My Father
Hip-Hop |
| 35 |  | James Blake
Overgrown
R&B/soul/Dubstep |
| 34 |  | Kronos Quartet
Aheym
Classical |
| 33 |  | Steven Price
Gravity
Movie Soundtrack |
| 32 |  | Shad
Flying Colours
Hip-hop |
| 31 |  | Majical Cloudz
Impersonator
Electro/Indie/Minimal Pop |
| 30 |  | Nails
Abandon All Life
Hardcore/Sludge/Noise/Metal/Brain Smashing for 17 minutes |
| 29 |  | How To Destroy Angels
Welcome Oblivion
Electronic/Downtempo/Industrial |
| 28 |  | Jon Hopkins
Immunity
Electronic/Techno/Ambient |
| 27 |  | Local Natives
Hummingbird
Indie Rock/Folk |
| 26 |  | Death Grips
Government Plates
Hip-hop/Electronic/Experimental |
| 25 |  | Matthew Collings
Splintered Instruments
Noise/Post-Rock/Experimental. The sound of all your instruments being played frantically as they are falling apart. |
| 24 |  | Janelle Monae
The Electric Lady
R&B/Soul/Pop. My R&B soul queen drops another amazing project. This women seriously deserves to be on top of the musical
charts. |
| 23 |  | Bibio
Silver Wilkinson
Electronic/Folk/Ambient. Summertime.....where the livin's easy. Defintely his most chilled works and cohesive project to date. |
| 22 |  | Norma Jean
Wrongdoers
Metalcore/Post-Hardcore. Well this was certainly a surprise, NJ to me at best released just above average metalcore. But with
this, they took everything and juiced it up, the sounds, the songwriting, etc. Arugably their best record to date. A real
surprise. |
| 21 |  | Run The Jewels
Run The Jewels
Hip-hop. El-P + Killer Mi......im not even going to bother finishing, if you seriously haven't heard this record and like hip-hop in
any capacity go find it-it's free on the internet. Two dope MC's just going at it to El-P's unique production. |
| 20 |  | Kyary Pamyu Pamyu
Nandacollection
J-Pop. Cynics be damned, this is a great project. Yea this album is the equivalent of swimming in a gigantic sea of really sweet
candy-but it's crazy aesthetic and the chipper voice of Kyary is matched perfectly with Yasutaka Nakata excellent high energy
pop production. Almost every detail in the verses and choruses adds a slight changes as the songs progress. |
| 19 |  | Julia Kent
Character
Classical. Give a cello player who has an excellent sense of mood/ambiance a delay and loop pedal-and watch the beautiful
results unravel. |
| 18 |  | Animal Flag
The Sounds Of Sleep
Indie Electronica/Indie Pop/Folk. I met the main man of this group Matt Politoski at a show in Orange County NY, he's a
genuine guy that has the making of being the next big indie pop star. At the ripe young age of 21, the dude has already
released 3 full lengths and several EP's-all of which are of high quality songwriting. The Sounds Of Sleep is easily his
best work yet, straying from his typical folk sound and opting for a more electronic driven sound. This album seems to
combined the experimental elements of The Age Of Adz and the melancholy feel of Copeland's You Are My Sunshine into a
wonderful cohesive project. Oh and you acquire said album for pay-what you want on his bandcamp.
http://animalflag.bandcamp.com/album/the-sounds-of-sleep |
| 17 |  | Mr.-Muthafuckin-eXquire
Kismet
Hip-Hop. Improving big time from Lost In Translation. Exquire voice, aesthetic, and somewhat puzzling yet dark personality
matches perfectly with the dark spacey production that drives this mixtape. |
| 16 |  | Takeshi Nishimoto
Lavandula
Ambient/Acoustic/Folk. Acoustic guitar ambient driven pieces, beautiful stuff. |
| 15 |  | Ben Lukas Boysen
Gravity
Ambient/Post-Rock. The clear highlights here are the noctures, those big spacious reverb drums are absolutely gorgeous. |
| 14 |  | The Darien Venture
A Kite, A Key and A Storm
Math Rock/Indie Rock. Self described "Math Pop", this is a highly infectious album experience with a sweet alt-rock sound with
post-hardcore esque driven drums and sweet multi harmony vocals. |
| 13 |  | Ocoeur
Light as a Feather
Electronic/IDM/Ambient. A neat mix bag of tasteful Electronica driven based tracks with wonderful diversity. |
| 12 |  | Olafur Arnalds
For Now I Am Winter
Classical/Ambient. Following a largely ambient-esque two albums, Olafur Arnalds goes a little more "pop" in his sound. A definitely
more appealing sound but one that I think is opening up his sound for a new chapter. |
| 11 |  | ERAAS
Initiation
Post-Punk/Indie/Post-Rock. Really creepy dark subtle post-punk music that is beautifully cohesive/smooth listen. Title track is a
highlight of the year. |
| 10 |  | The Dillinger Escape Plan
One of Us Is the Killer
Metalcore/Hardcore/Experimental. This is DEP as usual, but damn they still know how to wreck. The opening of the title track
should convince you. |
| 9 |  | The Knife
Shaking The Habitual
Electronica/Experimental/Psychedelic. 100 minutes of insane electronic noise music. I swear I hated the single for this album for
months, and then one day it clicked and I love it and it's a wonderful record. |
| 8 |  | FKA Twigs
EP2
Experimental/R&B/Soul. Takes the sound of Purity Ring and pushes it further left. The 4 tracks on here are truly immaculate. |
| 7 |  | Hotel Neon
HOTEL NEON
Ambient/Drone. Simple-basic drone ambient with a strong dose of melancholy, it's straightforward nature allowed me to relax
and completely focus and/or space out without heavily accented embellishments. |
| 6 |  | Over The Ocean
Be Given To The Soil
Post-Rock/Shoegaze/Post-Hardcore. David Bazan esque lyricism meets a beautiful dark post-rock backdrop. Though the lyricism
seeks optimism in it's spiritual yearnings, it never comes off over-indulgent. Just very honest and human. |
| 5 |  | Tim Hecker
Virgins
Ambient/Experimental/Drone. This record was a SLOW grower, the variety of woodwinds and electronic pianos intertwined in
abstract ambient chaos is a truly encapsulating emotional experience. |
| 4 |  | Karnivool
Asymmetry
Alt/Prog Metal. The fluidity of this record is nothing short of fascinating. An alt. metal record that has such an off-kilter flow
with dodgy guitar licks and "heavy" grooves, and impassioned vocals. |
| 3 |  | The Haxan Cloak
Excavation
Dark Ambient. You know those chew five gum commercials, this basically brings that to an audio experience, and tints your
vision extremely dark. |
| 2 |  | Disperse
Living Mirrors
Prog Metal/Ambient. Young awesome band that is young and awesome. Disperse take the prog pieces of their first album and
focus it into more concise song structures w/o sacrificing musical substance. The guitar textures and lush vocals with a ambient
feel behind the entirety of the album makes this a unique prog record. |
| 1 |  | TesseracT
Altered State
Prog Metal/Ambient. Taking the sound of One, and focusing it for a more straight-forward and immediate sound proved to be a
success for Tesseract. The sounds here are familiar, but it's the song structure and vocal power of Ashe O Hara that really
makes this record truly shine. Altered State doesn't shoot to be one of the best records ever, but it's near perfect approach to
ebb and flow really gives this record a power of truly solid musicianship. |
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