This year’s been an interesting one for music. Mostly for live music, mind you, thanks to a few amazing festivals and a whole load of gigs that shouldn’t really be, and the usual Alcopop! Vs Big Scary Monsters Pav Tav/Great Escape show, which obviously sets the festival season’s bar pretty high early on. It’s been a fairly decent year for albums too, especially early on in the year. So without futher ado, here’s my albums of the year.
10) Anamanaguchi – Endless Fantasy
Anamanaguchi are one of those bands who I’ve always known I should like, but never really managed to get into, despite my best efforts. With their new album Endless Fantasy out on Alcopop! records, I felt it best to give them another go, to see whether there was some spark. From the first synth line from the title track, I was instantly hooked. Despite the mostly 8 bit style synthesisers there’s a hell of a lot of depth in this track alone, and even the vocal samples used in tracks like ‘Prom Night’, which wouldn’t usually be my cup of tea work perfectly with the glitchy pop underneith.
9) Scholars – Always Lead, Never Follow
I had a lot of hopes for Scholars debut full length; Spotify once recommended I checked out their demos, and I got hopelessly hooked into ‘Office Idol Champion’, so it was a massive relief that Always Lead, Never Follow maintained the fun of the demos. The bass line in ‘Rage Concern’ just kept me locked in, and it was only a few weeks before I found myself jumping along to it catching them live.
8) The JCQ – Mechanical Young
A bit of a latecomer to my top albums of the year, Mechanical Young didn’t really click with me at first. I was probably expecting it to sound just like That Was Then, This Is Now, but after giving this a second listen a couple of months ago it clicked; this album is the result of a band maturing massively over time – the new sound is phenominal, it just sadly took me a while to realise this. At times the guitars sound a bit Queens Of The Stone Age-esque, but the vocals are remarkably unique, with a great range from the yells to the great singing. There’s riffs aplenty (‘Plainview’ features one of the best, towards the end of the song) and few catchy hooks (‘Love’s No Good‘). Great stuff.
7) Daughter – If You Leave
Slightly more downbeat than the other albums mentioned so far, the debut full length from Daughter does a pretty amazing job at conjuring up a whole tonne of feelings thanks to Elena’s emotive vocals and the huge amount of space in the instrumental mix. The drums reverberate around the room while the beautiful sounding guitar parts often carry the song alone. ‘Smother’ is the perfect example of how strong this album is, most of the track belonging entirely to lone chords and vocals while more “upbeat” tracks like ‘Human’ still seem to tug on your heart.
6) Humanfly – Awesome Science
The first of the bands in this list to release a great album and then announce that they’re splitting up, Humanfly released what is likely the best progressive album of the year in Awesome Science, with more riffs than almost every album in this list, massive build ups and a whole lot of contrast over the course of a six track album. ‘Poetry Of Light’ starts with some great clean licks layered with a vocal cry you’d expect in a stoner rock track. Meanwhile ‘The Armour of Science’ starts out with big heavy riffs and works it’s way through fifteen minutes passing even more riffs, quieter instrumental sections and yet more riffs.
5) Screaming Maldini – S/T
I had huge hopes for Sheffield’s Screaming Maldini’s debut full length; it’d be an understatement to say that ‘Life In Glorious Stereo’ was my favourite track of 2012, so off the back of that we actually put the band on in Colchester alongside Icebreaker Promotions. This album doesn’t disappoint – it starts upbeat and fun with ‘The Awakening’ straight into ‘Life In Glorious Stereo’, while tracks like ‘Minor Alterations‘ and ‘Summer Somewhere’ showcased the fantastic vocal talent of Gina. Something for everyone then!
4) Sigur Ros – Kveikur
Sigur Ros usually fail to disappoint, but Kveikur was a pleasant suprise, an album which seemed to focus on the sound Sigur Ros create at their heaviest, where the guitars are at their loudest and most distorted, the viola bows causing the strings to constantly weep. The albums still contains as much dynamic range as the rest of their back catalogue, but it it somehow made my mouth drop even more than their last album. Tracks like ‘Isjaki’ have the most emotional chorus, even if I can’t understand a word of it.
3) Arcane Roots – Blood & Chemistry
‘Energy Is Never Lost, Just Redirected’ has to be the best way to start and album in quite a few years. The guitar intro with reverb soaked harmonised vocals would be misleading if you’d never heard the band before but then just over a minute in one of the biggest riffs of the year just assaults your ears. It’s not the only track with insane riffs, neither is it the best rest of the song (that comes around three minutes fourty-five seconds in), but it’s the contrast which works so well. The vocals are even better than in Left Fire, ‘Slow’ being a prime example. If you like loud guitars just give this a go, it justifies the hype.
2) Stagecoach – Say Hi To The Band
It was about bloody time that Stagecoach graced us with a debut album and, thank god, it didn’t disappoint. ‘Work! Work! Work!’ and our onetime Radio 1 review show track, ‘Action’, give the album a strong start while the energy of tracks like ‘Threequel’ really push the album far into album of the year territory. Classic tracks like ‘We Got Tasers’ are given a new life in this incredibly polished release. Unfortunately the band announced their split shortly after the release, leaving just one more gig at Brixton Windmill on the 21st of December. You should probably be there.
1) Jetplane Landing – Don’t Try
Jetplane Landing reforming, and touring again, was possibly the single best thing about 2013. I would have settled for just a tour, if I’m honest, but the fact they came back and released Don’t Try which, it turns out, is one of the strongest records they’ve done. The lyrics are fantastic, and the music itself is just what I would want from a new Jetplane record. ‘Cheapskate Tricks For Worn Down People’ is an incredible strong start, with a fantastic break half way through. The highlight for me though has to be ‘Broken By People’, with it’s fairly poppy intro before the guitars kick in and vocals come through in all their glory.
Other highlights of 2013
Best Festival: ArcTanGentTrack of the summer: Dingus Khan – Hiahwayhay
Festival food of the summer: Pieminister (keeping me going at least once at every festival attended)
Gig of the year: This is a bit of a hard choice, so to name a few: Sigur Ros – Camden Roundhouse, David Bazan – The Lexington, Fang Island – Birthdays
2013 in Photos
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