Also side note, is Stereogum not putting other site's lists up like they've done in previous years? It was always kind of nice that I could come here and discuss other opinion lists.
Looking at this list and ones made by other publications, 2013 seems to be one of the most divisive years in music. Usually there tends to be some consistency among certain lists, but hardly any top 10 looks the same this year, let alone top 50. I'm not entirely sure what this says about music culture in general at the moment, or what music has become this year specifically, but its definitely left me scratching my head. I'm also really surprised to see albums that generally received a lot of praise from this site and critics in general completely absent from this list (Laura Marling, Foals, These New Puritans, The So So Glos, Sigur Ros, Rhye, Queens of the Stone Age, Arctic Monkeys, Nick Cave, David Bowie, Factory Floor, Charli XCX, Baths, Majical Cloudz, just to name a few). Perhaps this year just had too many "good" albums and not enough that really stood out from the crowd.
I grew up listening to U2. I've been a fan of theirs for nearly my entire life, so I may be a little biased in saying that I'm glad articles like this exist to remind people that U2 used to be an innovative and daring band. It's been disappointing to watch them slowly grow older and abandon their risk taking ways, but for most of their career they were a band that constantly took risks as they rode the line between mainstream and fringe movements. I think Zooropa definitely leans a little more to the fringe side, but there is still an incredible album here. Much like Ryan, I'm still hoping for one more daring album from them before they throw in the towel, but I have a hard time believing the U2 of today is capable of making albums like the U2 pre-2000 once did.
Kind of surprised to see Era Vulgaris so low. Some of Homme's best work is on that album in my opinion.But no Eagles of Death Metal? That group has Josh Homme written all over it.
Vampire Weekend's album is definitely my favorite of the year so far, but I want to give an honorable mention to The So So Glos. Their album was probably the most fun one to listen to so far this year.
The first thing I thought of after reading this comment was LCD's line from Losing My Edge, "I hear that you and your band have sold your turntables and bought guitars", which feels pretty fitting for this album, specifically saturnian's take on it.
It's a solid effort, but overall I feel pretty underwhelmed. I don't understand why the band would say this is a more aggressive album, because it seems to be the exact opposite nearly all the way through. In fact, a lot of these tracks I'm having a hard time telling apart as many sound so similar. In albums before they always struck a nice balance between their somber music by having very energetic, more anthem like tracks mixed in, but those latter tracks seem to be completely absent on this album, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it makes the 55 minute run time feel a lot longer and a lot less interesting than it should. I really do enjoy The National, and this is an album I've been looking forward to for a while now, but I think I was expecting too much after High Violet. Hoping Tom is right and that this is more of a slow burner, something I'll come to appreciate, but for now it seems to be their weakest effort since their pre-Alligator days.
Great choice, but I'm sad to see you guys ignored Bored Nothing's debut album that also came out this week. I've been playing that for a couple days now, and while it's not going to blow you away, it is a pretty enjoyable album.
I love High Violet, it may even be my favorite National album, but this list is omitting so many great songs from them. Having 6 out of the 10 songs come from their last 3 years is really confusing to me considering they've had such a strong track record over nearly their entire career. Songs like "Rylan", "Lemonworld", and "Green Gloves" are all great, but how did they beat out classics like "All the Wine", "Slow Show", and "Apartment Story"?
I have to agree. I'm a huge YYYs fan, and I was so looking forward to this given that It's Blitz! was my favorite album from 2009. In comparison to that, and their albums prior, this one does feel a little boring. Too many ballads here, and while some are good, it all makes for a very unexciting record. As copy_paster_cat put it, when they do speed it up on songs like "Mosquito", it sounds too forced or silly to really enjoy. I agree that the YYYs shouldn't go back to their old sound, but I felt like they found a perfectly good new one with It's Blitz! Moving into synth-dance territory was a great move on their part, but it seems like they've totally abandoned it on here. It's not a bad album, there are solid songs on here such as "Sacrilege", "Under the Earth", and "Wedding Song", but a lot of these songs are throwaways. Maybe my expectations were a little too high, but in my opinion, this one was a pretty big letdown.
I've been waiting for this announcement all year long. Savages was far and away my favorite new act of last year and this single gives me high hopes that they will continue to deliver. This Spring is shaping up to be an incredible time for music.
As a huge fan of NIN and Reznor's work, it has been hard for me to get into How to Destroy Angels' stuff. The more upbeat tracks are great, but the slower songs, and particularly the instrumentals, feel off. I always have faith in Reznor, but I think he needs to experiment a little farther to make a good HtDA's album.
I change it constantly, but Rubber Soul would have to be my answer. It is the perfect blend of their early pop records and their following experimental albums.
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