Thankfully the “album” is still a relevant way to package and release music in 2013, and once you look past mainstream pop and (ugh) new country, the quality of music being released from established and new acts is enough to inspire any true music fan.
Here is a list of my favorite 30 “albums” of the past 12 months.
- Once I Was an Eagle – Laura Marling
- Push the Sky Away – Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
- Silence Yourself – Savages
- Trouble Will Find Me – The National
- Modern Vampires of the City – Vampire Weekend
- Yeezus – Kanye West
- Random Access Memories – Daft Punk
- AM – Arctic Monkeys
- The Next Day – David Bowie
- Dream River – Bill Callahan
- Muchacho – Phosphorescent
- …Like Clockwork – Queens of the Stone Age
- mbv – My Bloody Valentine
- Pushin’ Against a Stone – Valerie June
- Sunbather – Deafheaven
- The Marshall Mathers LP2 – Eminem
- The Worse Things Get, the Harder I Fight… – Neko Case
- Victim of Love – Charles Bradley
- Pale Green Ghosts – John Grant
- Reflektor – Arcade Fire
- More Light – Primal Scream
- 13 – Black Sabbath
- Overgrown – James Blake
- 180 – Palma Violets
- Wakin on a Pretty Daze – Kurt Vile
- Doris – Earl Sweatshirt
- Settle – Disclosure
- Old – Danny Brown
- Cupid Deluxe – Blood Orange
- The Bones of What You Believe – Chvrches
Honorble mentions go out to…
- If You Leave – Daughter
- Pearl Mystic – Hookworms
- Sistrionix – Deap Vally
- Howlin’ – Jagwar Ma
- Holy Fires – Foals
