Starcadian

Looking back, I won’t remember 2013 as a particularly strong year for music. But I did enjoy a handful of new and retro albums and have fond memories of listening to all of the below, ordered by most played to least played. 

1. Sunset Blood. Fun to dance, work out, and sing along to; finishes strong with really good “ear movie” music.
2. Bankrupt. Side A is the strongest of any on my list, good enough to atone for the weaker Side B.
3. More than just a dream. What an album! So many singles on this one.
4. Nighttiming. Six years late to this party, but from front to back, this is 35 minutes of bliss.
5. Modern Vampires of the City. Although not as seminal as their first two albums, a good Vampire Weekend album is more creative, original, and listenable than others’ best effort.
6. Ice on the Dune. Will make you dance more than any other work on my list.
7. The Essential Elvis Presley. 50 years late to this party; blown away by Elvis’s talent. More than deserving of his title of “King.”
8. The Lumineers. Good driving music on a cold winter’s day.
9. Legend of the Wu-Tang (clean). I can in no way relate to this music, but the clean version lets me enjoy the beats with my kids while shielding us from the seedier things in life.
10. Django Django. If lesser Beach Boys had access to computers, it might sound something like this.
11. The Royal Concept. Nice Phoenix clone.
12. Capital Cities. Nice electro pop.
13. Random Access Memories. Had its heart in the right place but flew too close to the sun; a handful of fun songs, but nothing comes close to Daft Punk’s past work.
14. An Awesome Wave. Lovely singing and acoustic sensibilities with modern sounds; their live stuff is even better than their studio work, however.
15. Dept. of Disappearance. Grandaddy is back! Sort of.
16. Yours Truly, The Commuter. Grandaddy is back part II! Still sort of.
17. Conquer. Nice EP to work out to.

I realize not all of those were released this year, and I’m sure I’ve missed many. What albums did you enjoy most this year?