Here they are: My favorite albums of the year
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.
- Sunset Blood. Fun to dance, work out, and sing along to; finishes strong with really good “ear movie” music.
- Bankrupt. Side A is the strongest of any on my list, good enough to atone for the weaker Side B.
- More than just a dream. What an album! So many singles on this one.
- Nighttiming. Six years late to this party, but from front to back, this is 35 minutes of bliss.
- 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.
- Ice on the Dune. Will make you dance more than any other work on my list.
- The Essential Elvis Presley. 50 years late to this party; blown away by Elvis’s talent. More than deserving of his title of “King.”
- The Lumineers. Good driving music on a cold winter’s day.
- 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.
- Django Django. If lesser Beach Boys had access to computers, it might sound something like this.
- The Royal Concept. Nice Phoenix clone.
- Capital Cities. Nice electro pop.
- 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.
- An Awesome Wave. Lovely singing and acoustic sensibilities with modern sounds; their live stuff is even better than their studio work, however.
- Dept. of Disappearance. Grandaddy is back! Sort of.
- Yours Truly, The Commuter. Grandaddy is back part II! Still sort of.
- 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?