AudioFemme’s Top 50 Albums of 2013, Part 1

From elaborate roll-outs to surprise releases, 2013 was a banner year for comebacks, break-outs, break-ups, and overnight sensations.  The fact that the most oblique content could cause rampant controversy to reverberate through the blogosphere made turned every song into a story and made every story seem epic.  At the heart of it all are the sounds that defined this particular calendar year, from electronic pop to punk rock  to hip-hop to hardcore and everything in between.  Here’s a list of LPs we’ll forever associate with 2013.
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 50. Kiran Leonard – Bowler Hat Soup

Another wunderkind from jolly-old-England (not to be overshadowed by King Krule’s Archy Marshall), 17-year-old Kiran Leonard constructs tracks so complex it’s puzzling to imagine the youthfulness of the source. With influences ranging from Albert Ayler to Sufjan Stevens to Beach Boys to Godspeed, Leonard enlists some 22 instruments – including a radiator and various kitchen appliances – to flesh out diverse, complicated, and intoxicating tracks. Leonard’s voice is often a note below shrieking, but connotes a young Billy Joel or Ray Davies. The eccentricities on Bowler Hat Soup run wild but are refreshing to say the least.
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49. Phédre – Golden Age

Phedre’s sophomore release, was worth the wait. The ever-glamorous electropop duo emerged a few years back with their self-titled debut, like a meteor racing across a skyline, letting us catch a fleeting glimpse, only to vanish into the night. Golden Age picks up where they left off, however with a more focused and intentional direction regarding their sound. They’ve honed in on what exactly they want to be, and the album as a result is teeming with tracks that perfect their dancy, electrosynthpopdisco amalgam. Daniel Lee’s drawling, sexy vocals find their place on each track, and integrate seamlessly with the heavy bass lines and tinny drum machine beats. April Aliermo half whispers, half sings her way through the album, beckoning us in until we are fully seduced if not smitten.
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48. Autre Ne Veut – Anxiety

Arthur Ashin has been making music under the dare-to-pronounce-it-without-embarrassing-yourself oo-TRAY-new-voh since 2010, but with Anxiety he takes the elements he’s been toiling with for three years and masterfully expands. Never before has his falsetto showed such range, never before has he layered minimalist production techniques to such explosive extremes. On a single track, you might hear whole choirs and chipmunk-voiced pitch-shifts, while Ashin’s lyrics explore the longing, apprehension, and frustration that complicate connectivity between human beings.
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47. Pity Sex – Feast Of Love

Ann Arbor’s quartet of shoegaze-tinged pop-punk purveyors are definitely living in a moment, one that defines 2013 as much as it did 1994. This year saw a lot 90’s grunge revivals, and Feast of Love managed to capture that (teen) spirit perfectly in just under thirty minutes of fuzzy, headlong riffs and jaded, love-weary, co-ed vocals.
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46. Pinkunoizu – The Drop

While this album from Danish experimentalists embraces elements of krautrock, psych, surf, and shoegaze, it never once feels scattershot or half-assed. In fact, it pans genres so expertly it could by an authoritative syllabus for anyone interested in listening to music on headphones (whether or not you also have an interest in doing drugs). There are some incredibly bold choices in pitch-shifting and textural production, making the Japanese term for pink noise a fitting epithet for the band.
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45. Crystal Stilts – Nature Noir

Just as neo-psychelia was reemerging among new, upcoming bands with such gusto that it was all beginning to sound annoyingly regurgitated and just a bit too derivative of everything Cream, Crystal Stilts came along with Nature Noir in the early fall and it could not have arrived at a more perfect moment. The fifth full-length record from the BK rockers is totally stunning, signaling to all the newbies that this is how it’s done. Each track strikes a perfect balance between throwback electric guitar melodies accented with tinny percussions and nebulous, echo-heavy vocals that somehow stay focused and poignant in their intent. All is enhanced by beautifully composed string accompaniments, cementing Crystal Stilts as the most artful of their ilk.
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44. Janelle Monáe – The Electric Lady

The Electric Lady may be Janelle Monáe’s sophomore full-length, but it packs the punch of a veteran artist confident in her vision and assertive in her aim. Using sci-fi tropes to examine ideas of identity, otherness and human relationships, Monae again casts herself as Cindi Mayweather, the titular ArchAndroid from her debut, now doomed to disassembly. The innovative blend of musical influences ranging from funk to soul to classic rock ‘n roll boldly illustrate her futuristic concepts with several nods to African American cultural history and the singer’s own heritage, making this album sonically fun and conceptually important, a duality rarely seen in pop music.
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43. Mikal Cronin – MCII

Cronin has honed his ear during years of playing guitar in a handful of garage-pop bands and backing up genre heavyweight Ty Segall, but only began releasing solo material a few years ago.  MCII is his second record (or third, if you count Reverse Shark Attack, a collaborative LP with Segall) but represents a lifetime of melodic sensibilities taking root in beautifully rendered fuzz. The songs are (in most cases) delightfully hyper and ultra-catchy, tailored for the energetic live performances he gave in touring behind them for the better part of this year. It sounds more like vintage Shins than Oh Sees, with Cronin lyrically navigating what it means to hit the late twenties and begin the process of growing up.
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42. Forest Swords – Engravings

Matt Barnes, who nearly gave up on music after developing severe tinnitus that distorted his perception of his own music, waited three years to release his follow up to 2010’s acclaimed Dagger Paths, choosing not to capitalize on the hype and risk burnout from touring and endless collabs. In deciding to do so he’s transformed his intricate soundscapes into an unsuppressed art form.  Every part of the product is his own, from artwork to recording to mixing, the latter of which he did on a windswept hill working each day until the battery on his laptop died. The process of making the record is felt rather than heard, in that it anchors swooning loops, muted, glitchy beats and faux samples – in which he manipulates and chops his own vocals into mere syllables, distorting them, or both.
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41. Speedy Ortiz – Major Arcana

Sadie Dupuis provides quirky, poetic lyrics atop the 90’s-vintage lo-fi grunge sound of her Boston-based band.  Laden with catchy hooks that make the album one of the year’s most infectious and lyrically personal records, Major Arcana received major critical acclaim, transforming their underground status into that of rising act to watch.  They’re at the forefront of this year’s phenomenal outcropping of lady-led punk.
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40. M.I.A. – Matangi

On her fourth record, Maya Arulpragasm, aka MIA, studies her spiritual roots, invoking the Hindu goddess of music for its title, referencing reincarnation on “YALA” (you always live again), and merging karmic concepts with the Christian reckoning of souls. Her beats are as precise as ever, having referenced a well-curated collection of collaborators and producers including Switch, the Weeknd, Hit-Boy, Danja, and Partysquad. There are elements from each of M.I.A.’s prior (and often contradictory) incarnations as innovator, activist, fashionista, and revolutionary rolled into one prolific figure. Musically, she revisits ideas from each of her previous albums, re-constructing them here with new flourishes.
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39. James Blake – Overgrown

Although James Blake’s second full-length album is consistently filtered into the somewhat ambiguous category of “post-dubstep,” it certainly throws more light on the direction electronic music is traveling. The mesh of hip-hop, sampling, digital production techniques, classical piano lines and Blake’s decidedly soulful vocal dexterity have created an album that feels quilted in its intricacy. From the cascading immediacy of first single “Retrograde” to the RZA-featuring love lost anthem “Take a Fall For Me,” Blake makes urgent pleading and heart-wringing en vogue. And the bonus track, Big Boi-sampling “Every Day I Ran” makes the deluxe album worth purchase for (possibly) the first time in human history.
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38. Iceage – You’re Nothing

Elias Bender Rønnenfelt and crew have returned with a follow up to 2011’s New Brigade that managed to harness the band’s aggressive appeal while adding a depth and structure that was missing from their convulsive, cathartic Scandanavian hardcore. Signing to Matador doesn’t mean the Danish teens have lost their edge in any way; in making their work slightly more accessible (singing in English this time around, for instance, or adding piano to standout track “Morals”) they’re able to deliver the punches with more impact. Whatever subtleties they explore only make the detonations more charged.
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37. Vampire Weekend – Modern Vampires of the City

For their third, aptly-titled studio album, Vampire Weekend tightened down some of their art school looseness and delivered a record tightly woven with melancholic and euphoric tones. There are still plenty of their signature offbeat percussion and polyrhythms indebted to Afrobeat, as well as an endless supply of self-reference. “Step” cribs from Souls of Mischief’s “Step to My Girl” and though that sample is the most obvious, there are many more layered in the shifting strings, harmonies and guitars. But the religious references outweigh the rest with puns like the wordplay of Yahweh in “Ya Hey,” the unbridled enthusiasm of “Worship You” and thick casing of doubt on “Unbelievers.” Of all the records released this year, its the only one eclectic enough to feel like a real reflection of the city in which these vampires roam.
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36. Tyler, The Creator – Wolf

Odd Future’s main instigator offers yet another album lyrically populated with sometimes vulgar, always dark, highly imaginative stream-of-consciousness verses exploring the “beautiful nightmare of fame”, his grandmother’s death, his absent father, and s’mores. Tyler’s not fully there yet, relying too heavily on shock value by way of homophobic slurs, but at least he’s no longer concerning himself with using rape as a gimmick to sell records. The most promising aspect of Wolf are Tyler’s inventive beats, reminiscent of Madvillain or Neptunes production. With a star-studded list of contributors ranging from Erykah Badu to Pharrell Williams to fellow Odd Future grads Frank Ocean and Earl Sweatshirt, potential is there for Tyler to shed his immature tendencies as he comes into his own.
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35. Kurt Vile – Wakin On A Pretty Daze

Kurt Vile hails from Philadelphia, but he taps into a West Coast sound with Wakin On A Pretty Daze, his lazy drawl floating over meandering guitar solos. The album incorporates some electronic elements without straying far from the lo-fi keystones of his earlier records, while Vile’s lyrics grapple with the disparate lives he lives on the road and at home as a young family man. Even as the songs linger over a thought, phrase, or instrumental exploration, there’s a sense that Vile is intently focused on the album’s unravelling qualities, winding it all back in before it grows too tangled.
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34. Fuck Buttons – Slow Focus

On an album whose shortest song is still over four minutes long, gestation is everything. The textures that leap from repeated loops, meticulous layers building and then sloughing away, the bubble that comes to a boil – these things take time. Like the autostereograms in Magic Eye books, the longer you spend immersed in the pattern the more you’re able to uncover. Slow Focus is about culmination in other ways, too; it sees experimental musicians Andrew Hung and Benjamin John Power coming into their own as the architects of a wholly unique brand of gorgeous noise influenced equally by Steve Reich and hip-hop.
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33. Justin Timberlake – The 20/20 Experience

Justin Timberlake returned to music with more than a dozen movie credits under his belt, releasing a double album of expansive R&B numbers. Of the two discs, the second is largely unlistenable, but that makes the brilliance of the first ten tracks that much more sublime. He’s collaborated once more with Timbaland, the producer who made 2006’s FutrueSex/LoveSounds such a resounding success. The seven-minute-average length of these tracks challenge the normality of today’s ADD-addled pop song structure, hearkening back to the glory days of soul, funk and R&B. Timberlake is unafraid to revisit these genres and more than capable of pulling off his references; his voice has never been better and neither has his pop sensibility.
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32. Cults – Static

Madeline Follin and Brian Oblivion had a lot to live up to in following their critically claimed debut, and a lot of emotional baggage that ran perpendicular to that task. The former couple broke up after riding the tidal wave of internet buzz their self-titled LP generated, but time away from each other proved to be as formative as the time they spent immersed in touring life. Packing in more guitar, more energy and a professional sound curated by time on the road and time spent working closely with other musicians, these otherwise introspective meditations on failed expectations feel anthemic.
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31. Laura Mvula – Sing To The Moon

This expertly arranged debut from the Birmingham-based composition major bucks neo-soul comparisons from the first listen; elements of it visit individual tracks from time to time but the record’s carefully composed structure is more akin to that of Van Dyke Parks. Mvula’s voice blooms front-and-center, drawing comparisons to Amy Winehouse and Nina Simone alike, sounding both modern and timeless within contexts of its jazz-tinged moments or contemporary orchestral touches as the case may be. This resplendent record’s title may make nocturnal references but the sound has all the drama of sunrays bursting through clouds on a grey day.
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30. No Age – An Object

No one ever really expected to hear strings on a No Age record unless the art punks were feeding a cello into a wood-chipper as some sort of performance piece, but that’s what makes An Object so compelling; it sees Dean Spunt and Randy Randall making deliberate, thoughtful choices about composition and craft – even down to the hand-made packaging, every aspect of which the band produced and assembled by themselves. What that means sonically for a band who started out making noisy punk with wild, experimental abandon is that those elements are reigned in, restrained, and reformed, but never lacking in bite. There’s plenty of fuzz and feedback alongside surprisingly catchy melodies, the juxtapostion of the two making for an enthralling LP.
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29. Jon Hopkins – Immunity

Jon Hopkins brought a tactile, human feel to a genre that’s defined by its relation to technology; the London producer is at the peak of his ability to summon moods and feelings out of what often feels like thin air. Hopkins began his career as  keyboardist for Imogen Heap, has produced an entire film soundtrack and has collaborated with the likes of Brian Eno, King Creosote and Coldplay. But Immunity feels like its own beast – or even its own species – in a year that was heavy in electronic releases. Amidst endless switch ups, scratching, dawning and setting of piano, organ and keyboard sounds, slithering beats and ambient bleeps and bloops, Hopkins centers it all with a sense of icy stillness. It’s as if he carved a pristine, elaborate sculpture, only to reveal himself living and breathing at the heart of it.
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28. The Julie Ruin – Run Fast

It’s been a big year for Kathleen Hannah. With the late-stage Lyme disease that kept her out of the spotlight since Le Tigre’s last tour now in remission, she’s archived all of her Bikini Kill and Riot Grrl-related legacy at NYU, starred in Siri Anderson’s moving documentary The Punk Singer, and revived her 1997 home-recording project Julie Ruin by adding a THE and four incredible bandmates. Less political but more triumphant, the record takes major cues from keyboards and cultural references provided by Kenny Mellman, long active in NYC’s queer performance scene.
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27. King Krule – 6 Feet Beneath the Moon

It’s easy to be overwhelmed by Archy Marshall’s talent. Released on his nineteenth birthday, 6 Feet is a showcase for his earnest, intelligent songwriting, innovative arrangements, and deep, rumbling vocals. But more than that, he’s truly contemporary. It’s not that the roots of his musical influences aren’t palpable; it’s just that he’s repurposed them in such original ways. Few records brim with as much integrity and even fewer are this astonishingly bereft of irony. Beautiful jazz-inspired guitar and drum work highlight Marshall’s wise-beyond-years sensibilities and offer a calming salve to his sometimes raw growl.
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26. Belle Mare – The Boat of the Fragile Mind

Channelling the timid presence of female folk greats like Sibylle Baeir, Karen Dalton or Vashti Bunyan, Belle Mare builds delicate songs from classic elements – tinkling piano strains, barely-there strings, Thomas Servidone’s warmly strummed guitar, and most essentially Amelia Bushell’s dreamy vocals. Listening to Bushell sing is like being trapped in a cave, unsure if you’re hearing ghosts or your own echoes, and her words have the power to startle. But it’s the unusual production choices which give the record a modern update; every so often, these elements are pulled apart with tiny touches of distortion and glitch like jagged stone pointing up through the moss.
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Keep reading for our top 25! >>

And check out our Top Albums of 2013 Playlist on Spotify.

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