Top 20 Albums of 2013

Another year and it’s time for another snapshot of my music favorites. Lists seem such an evil to me at times – they feed into the hype cycles and can direct and redirect attention in a way that may be harmful to smaller artists. Awards are distributed in some bizarre frenzy of groupthink (look at the film industry), and who is to say that we shouldn’t frame our reference window seasonally, or monthly, or decennialy? But in the same breath, I think documenting personal preferences can be valuable to mark growth, guide future investigations, and reflect on what has been meaningful in my world.

There are never “final” lists or finalized versions of anything in life. We can spend hours in the studio perfecting music or years thinking that a marriage will finally work once it gets over a certain hump. Like photographs, life is a series of snapshots or moments. Making a list is like taking a polaroid picture of a specific year of music and what it meant to me as it was ending.

After that far too off-topic ramble, it’s time for the list where everything’s made up and the rankings don’t matter.

1	The Appleseed Cast	Illumination Ritual	Graveface Records
2	Wooden Wand	Blood Oaths of the New Blues	Fire Records
3	My Bloody Valentine	M B V	self
4	Tim Hecker	Virgins	Kranky
5	Lumerians	The High Frontier	Partisan Records
6	Disappears	Era	Kranky
7	Kurt Vile	Wakin On A Pretty Daze	Matador Records
8	Wooden Wand and the World War IV	Wooden Wand and the World War IV	Three Lobed Recordings
9	The National	Trouble Will Find Me	4AD
10	Lucrecia Dalt	Syzygy	Human Ear Music
11	Jenks Miller	Spirit Signal	Northern-Spy Records
12	Esmerine	Dalmak	Constellation
13	Julianna Barwick	Nepenthe	Dead Oceans
14	Aidan Baker	Already Drowning	Gizeh Records
15	Mountains	Centralia	Thrill Jockey
16	Thee Oh Sees	Floating Coffin	Castle Face Records
17	Chelsea Light Moving	Chelsea Light Moving	Matador Records
18	Youth Lagoon	Wondrous Bughouse	Fat Possum Records
19	Gnod	Chaudelande	Rocket Recordings
20	Gabriel Saloman	Soldier’s Requiem	Miasmah Recordings

What a wonderful year of music it was. See you in the new year,

Adam

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Top 20 Albums of 2012

It’s time for my end-of-year list. I really didn’t listen to as much new stuff this year as I did in 2011, so the list is cut to 20. Generally tried to limit to one album per label, but I didn’t really follow that rule (go 12k!?). Anyway, maybe I’ll add some comments at some point. Really beautiful stuff, and I look forward to diving into some other great albums based on other year-end recommendations soon.

Like I said last year, if you are struggling to find out more information about a specific release, let me know and I can possibly direct you in the correct direction. But for the most part, I would recommend searching for these fantastic labels and their online websites.

1	Swans	The Seer	Young God Records
2	Gareth Dickson	Quite A Way Away	12k
3	Nuojuva	Valot Kaukaa	Preservation Records
4	Deep Listening Band	Great Howl At Town Haul	Important Records
5	En	Already Gone	Students of Decay
6	Fire! With Oren Ambarchi	In The Mouth – A Hand	Rune Grammofon
7	Steve Peters + Steve Roden	Not A Leaf Remains As It Was	12k
8	Strategy	Strategy	Peak Oil
9	Hakobune	The Cowboy Across the River	Constellation Tatsu
10	From the Mouth of the Sun	Woven Tide	Experimedia
11	Gabriel Saloman	Adhere	Miasmah Recordings
12	Sujo + Sun Hammer	Fistula	Inam Records
13	Neptune	msg rcvd	Northern-Spy Records
14	Electric Bird Noise	Live at the Basement	Silber Records
15	Brian Eno	Lux	Warp Records
16	Mount Eerie	Ocean Roar	P. W. Elverum & Sun, Ltd.
17	Sharon Van Etten	Tramp	Jagjaguwar
18	Thee Oh Sees	Putrifiers II	In The Red Records
19	Gultskra Artikler	Abtu/Anet	Miasmah Recordings
20	White Hills	Frying On This Rock	Thrill Jockey Records