2013 Albums ----------- This is probably the last year in my life where my musical taste will be anywhere close to "on trend." It was the last year that I attended a music festival, and it was the last time I got excited about a new mainstream pop artist. This is the end of my youth. .. image:: images/2013.jpg :width: 900 :alt: My favorite albums from 2013 .. raw:: html - *Reflektor* by **The Arcade Fire** - This was the highpoint for one of the most important acts of the indie era. It isn't their best record, but it is the band executing perfectly at the peak of the time in the popular consciousness. I felt so smart for having listened to them since 2002. ;) [*Memory*: The marketing push for this record was huge. I remember a high profile performance on SNL and a bunch of social media things. This was indie's peak.] - *AM* by **Arctic Monkeys** - This has the distinction of the first retroactive addition to this project, and therefore in not in the picture above. I didn't include it at first because this isn't a strong record throughout, but the first few songs are incredible, especially "Do I wanna Know?". [*Memory*: Another of the tentpoles of peak indie. The massive popularity of records like this made me think the scene would last forever. It would last about another year] - *Until In Excess, Imperceptible UFO* by **The Besnard Lakes** - There are a lot of husband/wife indie bands operating out of Canada. These guys are a hidden gem in the genre. I don't know why I stopped paying attention after this, which was the third great album in a row. I think it is because they stuck with the same noisy post-rock meets dream pop formula and I didn't feel like I needed anymore than I already had? [*Memory*: When I made this list, I remembered that I really liked this album, but not much else] - *Tomorrow's Harvest* by **Boards of Canada** - I kind of hope we never get another record from these guys. I want their catalog to be bookended by two mysterious masterpieces. Without question I have listened to this record the most out of any from this bunch. [*Memory*: This is exactly the kind of thing I want to listen to first thing in the morning, and I have dozens of times] - *The Next Day* by **David Bowie** - I was very much a fan of millennial Bowie, and I love 90s Bowie. This was the album that finally got the critics and the general public back on board the Bowie train. In retrospect, I'm not sure what made this better than something like *Heathen*, perhaps it was just marketed better. That said, it is another extremely solid record to close out a sequence where he was exploring his past sounds. [*Memory*: At the time I assumed this was the beginning of another string of successful Bowie records, but he would disappear again, and it would not work out that way] - *Caveman* by **Caveman** - This is an excellent, if very straightfoward indie record. In many ways it speaks to both the peak of indie rock's influence, but also its impending demise. It isn't a criticism of these guys who are the utmost of professionals, but the music being produced by the small labels had converged to a sound indistinguishable from countless major label acts of the day. Even the self-titled label on the disk seems to point to a more refined new beginning for the band after the rougher nature of their prior releases. That said, I do prefer this over those rawer earlier efforts. That said, the world was moving on from this kind of music, and those making it were no longer concerned about differentiating themselves from the mainstream. I think this record has been unjustly overlooked, as it got lost in the fading relevance of indie. "In the City" and "Shut You Down" are a particularly impactful sequence on the A side. [*Memory*: I saw this band at the bugjar the year before this album came out, and then shortly after its release at the Crossing Brookly Ferry festival. It was quite striking how far they had come as a band in that time. You really felt like they were polishing the act for bigger and great things to come. It is a shame they never got the attention they deserved. Given that they didn't make my original list and were added years later, I didn't give them the attention they deserved. I've worn the really cool looking tour shirt I got at that bugjar show, way more times than I have listened to their records.] - *Random Access Memories* by **Daft Punk** - This will be the last release to win the Album of the Year Grammy to appear on my list. I say this not just because of my "getting old" but because of trends in popular music that I do not expect to ever significantly change. The way this walked a tightrope between indie electronic and mainstream pop is masterful. One of the most deserving albums to ever win that award. [*Memory*: I was at the headquarters of the company I worked for at the time, and I heard someone humming "Get Lucky" at the photocopier. I felt hip for being in line with prevailing pop trends for once.] - *Sticky Wickets* by **The Duckworth Lewis Method** - Neil Hannon makes a second record about cricket with his collaborator. It's not quite as good as the first one, but still way better than it seems like it should be. The best track is "Judd's Paradox" which revisits the concepts and themes from the first album regarding social class and cricket, and recycles the melody from a **Divine Comedy** record released only a few years prior. [*Memory*: It was shocking to learn there was not one, but two solid concept records about the sport of cricket] - *Infestissumam* by **Ghost** - When I discovered this band, this was their newest release. It was their weakest record then, and still is. I almost have this on my list solely for the prog metal epic "Ghuleh/Zombie Queen" which is pretty much the only song from this record they bother to play live at this point. [*Memory*: Back when this was the new Ghost record, I took it as a sign that they were not going to have staying power. I was wrong about this record, I was wrong about the band.] - *Pure Heroine* by **Lorde** - Around this time I was attending the "Alternative Music Film Series" at the Memorial Art Gallery, and they would play videos for recent alternative hits before the feature. It was in this context that I heard "Royals" for the first time, and I was a bit embarrassed by how much I liked it. It didn't seem like the kind of music I should be in to. Time would show that Lorde was very much the kind of music I am into. [*Memory*: "Team" will always be my Sunday morning Wegman's jam] - *Warm Blanket* by **Dent May** - For a very brief moment this guy found an interesting XTC meets lounge singer sound that was indie pop gold. I can't get into his new stuff, but this record is what I want to hear when I am sitting on the porch sipping a cool beverage. [*Memory*: I was really excited about the sound of this record, and was very sad that he would soon move on from this] - *New* by **Paul McCartney** - Beatle Paul starts paying attention to indie and attempts to integrate what he sees into his own music. This has virtually nothing to do with 2010s indie, but it is stunning. "Queenie Eye" is an especially fresh and quite unexpected single. This the start of an ambitious, if inconsistent late career push. [*Memory*: It was startling how fresh and vibrant McCarney seemed all of a sudden when this record came out. We were only a few years from that horrid covers record.] - *The Electric Lady* by **Janelle Monae** - [**2013 FAVORITE**] It's a huge bummer that we will never get a proper end to the Cindy Mayweather epic. Monae has clearly gone in a different (mildly disappointing) direction. This record does an amazing job balancing modern pop idioms with dozens of ideas from the past. I really wonder if we will ever see anything like this again. [*Memory*: The Prince estate has continually allowed and disallowed streaming of the track "Givin' 'Em What They Love" which features the purple one. This is a shame because it is a hell of a way to start the record.] - *Trouble Will Find Me* by **The National** - In retrospect *High Violet* was a massive pivot for these guys, and every record since has been the same low key collection of dirges and love songs. It never feels as samey as it should because it is so textured and delicately beautiful. "Pink Rabbits" is the definitive track from this era of the band. [*Memory*: This is the album when I finally allowed myself to be a sensitive indie bro National fan] - *Lanterns* by **Son Lux** - By far the most accessible record by Ryan Lott, and that was a smart move. After the visibility his friends at NPR provided, this was the record that built the fan base that would sustain his art rock endeavour. "Lost It To Trying" was a clear effort to write a pop single that totally worked out. [*Memory*: I was mildly ashamed of myself for liking "Lost it To Trying" because it indulged in the "Woah-oh-oh!" chorus trend that was a cliche of mainstream pop in those days] - *The Raven That Refused to Sing (and Other Stories)* by **Steven Wilson** - Wilson was in the process of producing remasters of the **King Crimson** discography when this album was made, and it shows. This is the kind of jazz influenced "heavy prog" that Crimson were up to in the early 70s. [*Memory*: The cover of this album will always remind me of Lakeshore Record Exchange, a record store that was walking distance from my first apartment in Rochester. They had a special edition LP of this in stock for the last five years of their existence. That record store always smelled great. When I think of this album I smell a record store of my past...] - *Uzu* by **Yamantaka//Sonic Titan** - I discoverd this record while preparing to attend the 2014 Polaris Music Prize Gala in Toronto. For several years I had been streaming the gala online and had enjoyed the window it gave me into the wildly experimental indie scene of 2010s Canada. It was a remarkable time for Canadian music, and this band were one of the most out there acts. They didn't win or even perform at the ceremony, but this was the pick of the litter for me. This is theatrical, progressive metal that manages to never feel cheesy, and was a real breath of fresh air. [*Memory*: Seeing this band perform at the 2012 Polaris Prize was incredibly memorable]