Your top 3 albums of the year 2013

Posted by: Bruce Woodhouse on 24 December 2013

Discipline yourself. Your three faves only. Get people interested in new music they can pick out of the Sales after Xmas.

 

Bill Callahan 'Dream River'. Wry, melodic and rich. His best ever. Head and shoulders best of the year for me.

 

Yo La Tengo 'Fade'. Yo La Tengo in great form early in 2013. A really good place to start if you have never dipped your toe in their (large) back catalogue as has a bit of most of their styles with an emphasis on the calmer and gentler tracks especially in the second half. One of their best 3 or 4 albums.

 

Nick Cave 'Push The Sky Away'. Gothic gloom and subtle menace, back to the darkness of Boatman's Call but with Warren Ellis embellishing the sound to great effect. Much more my thing than the raucous Dig Lazarus Dig or Grinderman.

 

(Track of the year 'Billy' by Prefab Sprout on 'Crimson Red'. Joyfully exuberant and proof Macaloon's talent is undimmed. Could have been written any time in his last 25 years).

  

Hope somebody finds something fresh from this list and gives it a go.

 

Bruce

Posted on: 08 January 2014 by winkyincanada
Originally Posted by totemphile:
Originally Posted by joerand:

The only thing I heard from 2013 that I care to buy so I can hear it again.
 

Jimi Hendrix. People, Hell and Angels

 

Yep, great album!

 

Wanted to post it just now but you beat me to it.

Really? Not a cash-grabbing collection of sub-standard out-takes, then?

Posted on: 08 January 2014 by joerand

Not in the least, Winky. Give it a listen on-line then you decide. I'm not up on all of Jimi's post-mortem releases so this could well be variations on similar material. Supposedly this will be the last release of "previously un-released" material in the vaults. I think it sounds fantastic. High quality sound, very funky and soulful. I've got the vinyl on order.

Posted on: 09 January 2014 by winkyincanada
Originally Posted by joerand:

Not in the least, Winky. Give it a listen on-line then you decide. I'm not up on all of Jimi's post-mortem releases so this could well be variations on similar material. Supposedly this will be the last release of "previously un-released" material in the vaults. I think it sounds fantastic. High quality sound, very funky and soulful. I've got the vinyl on order.

I'll look into it. Thanks.

Posted on: 14 January 2014 by TommayCat

Braids - Flourish.  A sweet and tricksy gem of an album that just aches to be played on Naim kit.  Hang onto your seats as the final track reaches its climax!

 

Goldfrap - Tales of Us, because the stunning extended video that accompanies Annabel made me cry, plus lots of other good stuff that sounds like Felt Mountain

 

Samaris - Hljóma Dú (except the D is an Icelandic character I can't type on the iPad), because this astonishing debut EP from a young Icelandic trio promises such great things in the future.

 

Runners up include John Grant - Pale Green Ghosts, London Grammar, Midlake etc. etc. also Gary Numan - Splinter, because it's great to see the old softie make a comeback. 

Posted on: 14 January 2014 by TommayCat

I found out how to type Icelandic, so it should be Hljóma þú 

Posted on: 16 January 2014 by lutyens

I have taken a little time to get down to three but these are the three that have been on my turntable most this year. I have enjoyed the new David Bowie, Arcade Fire, Arctic Monkeys amongst others but these got the most plays

 

 

 

 

 

and these are my two favourite reissues

 

 

 

Posted on: 19 January 2014 by Fabio Volpe

Not many jazz posts.. this is mine. Actually, from a jazz perspective, I don't think 2013 was as good as 2012 (or there are some gems I haven't yet discovered?).

These are my 2013 favourites:

1. Burn
Sons Of Kemet

2. Almah
Avishai Cohen

3. I hear the sound
Archie Shepp

Fabio

Posted on: 20 January 2014 by teww

My 2013 favourites:

 

1. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Live from KCRW

2. Bill Callahan - Dream River

3. Arctic Monkeys - AM

 

teww

Posted on: 23 January 2014 by YanC
  1. Rainier Lericolais - Dots Per Image (Sound Art/Musique Concrete, Brocoli)
  2. Samuel Blaser, Benoît Delbecq, Gerry Hemingway - Fourth Landscape (Non idiomatic Jazz, Nuscope)
  3. Stephen Cornford & Samuel Rodgers - Boring Embroidery (Improv, Cathnor)

 

Plus 3 more you'll find under classical contemporary

  1. Jacob Ullmann - Fremde Zeit Addendum 1-4 (Contemporary Minimal, Edition RZ)
  2. Luigi Nono - A Pierre. Dell’' Azzurro Silenzio… (Chamber Music, Neos)
  3. Mario Formenti - Notturni (Piano Music, Col Legno)
Posted on: 27 January 2014 by Tan y Draig
Originally Posted by joerand:

Not in the least, Winky. Give it a listen on-line then you decide. I'm not up on all of Jimi's post-mortem releases so this could well be variations on similar material. Supposedly this will be the last release of "previously un-released" material in the vaults. I think it sounds fantastic. High quality sound, very funky and soulful. I've got the vinyl on order.

Sounds awesome on vinyl. You will enjoy I'm sure, definitely no filler. I agree 

Posted on: 28 January 2014 by vlada

1) Kuniko Kato - Cantus

2) Ludovico Einaudi - In a Time Lapse

3) Daft Punk - Random Access Memories

3.5) Daniel Hope - Spheres