Over the last couple of years my lists have gotten deeper and longer as I try to distill a whole year into which albums are best. This has involved exhaustive listening of 25+ albums over the course of December, redactions based on other year end lists and last minute switches due to hearing albums I hadn't heard yet. NOT THIS YEAR FOLKS! This year I am simplifying my list to what I have listened to and why I've liked the albums I've listened to. If I didn't thoroughly examine the lyrics before December, I won't start now (or not just for the sake of this list at any rate.)
ENOUGH PREAMBLE! TO THE MUSIC!
SHAMELESS PLUGS!
Two records I produced/engineered were released this year, and I am very proud of both of them and think you might like them (I hope you do!) Check them out below (links in the titles)!
Derrival - Youth Captured
Derrival are an awesome bunch of guys from the Langley BC area that I had the pleasure of meeting through the "Best Teen Bands" Competition (2012) put on by youthink Magazine. They were super fun to record and write some really great songs in the pop/indie sort of genre. Super catchy and fun, but also using some nicely complex syncopations and great harmonies, I found them to be a real breath of fresh air. Keep an eye out for these boys, and go to their killer live shows. They just started tracking their next release so keep an eye out for that too!
The Monarch - World Without End
Jesse Janzen and I met in kindergarten and have been best friends and sometimes friendly rivals for 20 years since. Last year I had the honour and great pleasure of collaborating on this gorgeous and crushingly heavy solo project which has been distilling in his brain for a number of years. This is BIG music with a lot of soul. Countless hours were put in to crafting this and I am incredibly proud of this accomplishment. Jesse plays all the instruments on this record (with some additional cello by Vancouverite Alex Hauka) and composed the whole thing by himself. It was a real pleasure being part of bringing these songs to life!
P.S. It's free on bandcamp - so go get it!
FAVOURITE ALBUMS OF THE YEAR (Alphabetical)
Altar of Plagues - Teethed Glory and Injury
Produced by Jaime Gomez Arellano
Something about the sharp opening drone that begins this album captured me almost immediately. The deep, dead, drums. The cutting guitars. All of the terrible and violent beauty that this album explores is foretold in the first four minutes of "Mills." And then the torrent is unleashed in a fury of drums and angular guitar chords that is "God Alone." The album continues to explore the contrasts of violence, pain, beauty and strength throughout, incorporating electronic sounds, choral sounds, vast spaces, and claustrophobic chaos. The broad sound palette really sets
Teeth Glory apart from a lot of black metal these days. However, while it is explorative, it never meanders, which means each element pops and has it's own time and space, without outliving its welcome. And this record sounds gorgeous! The tones, production, and mixing are all very high quality, which could have pushed away some of the more kvlt (hardcore) fans of black metal, but I find that by having a very rich production style, the chaotic moments scream out all the harder. It truly is a shame that this is the band's last album, but what a way to go out!
The Haxan Cloak - Excavation
Self Produced
This album is a bottomless well. A dark, electronic, and lonely journey into spacious cavern in which there is no light. In some respects it feels like
Teeth Glory was knocked unconscious and left deaf and mute, hanging upside down and being lowered endlessly into the earth. While the whole experience feels in hindsight like one huge drone, there are visceral beats, spastic shudders and fluttering noises, like nightmares at the corners of your vision which you can never quite see. But you're never terrified, you're too drowsy and apathetic to feel frightened. This is a gorgeous and evocative album, rich in textures and should definitely be listened to on good headphones and in the dark. From pretty much my first full listen of
Excavation, I knew it would be in my top ten of this year.
Tim Hecker - Virgins
Self Produced
Tim Hecker made it into my top ten list of 2011 with his excellent
Ravedeath, 1972, and returns with an even stronger record. Hecker is obsessed with how things sound in a space. And this album is a wonderful collage of loops and sounds which he recorded and then arranged. There are so many facets to this music, so many details, all swirling and enveloping you. There are individual songs, yes, but I can't listen to this album except as a whole. Each new movement expands or contrasts or complements the rest of the whole. If
Ravedeath was a walk through the fog, this is as if you are drifting and tumbling simultaneously through water, fire, blizzards, and earthquakes, and yet you remain pure and unscathed. Could be my favourite album of the year.
The Knife - Shaking the Habitual
You can read my extensive review of
Shaking the Habitual here. This spent most of the year as my favourite album, but is now getting some strong competition from
Virgins.
Melt-Banana - Fetch
Self Produced
In case you were starting to think that this whole list was going to be dark and moody music (thanks alphabetical order), THINK AGAIN!
Fetch was the single most startlingly refreshing album of the year. FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN! (Like Tigger, but ... Japanese.) High pitched vocals, crazy drums, and catchy tunes make this just a great record. Do you remember ever getting in a fight with your best friend? Rolling around and hitting each other but everyone is laughing and having fun so it's ok? This should be the soundtrack to that moment.
Janelle Monae - The Electric Lady
Produced by Janelle Monae, Sean "Diddy" Combs, Big Boi, and a ton of others
Janelle Monae is probably the single most interesting pop/r&b artist currently active. She has crafted an alternative reality filled with androids, an oppressive government system, and crazy parties: kind of like a vibrant theme park version of
Blade Runner... or something equally bizarre. She melds pop styles from throughout the ages into her own creation. Whether it's Ennio Morricone style guitars with classical, or Stevie Wonder type harmonies with the sexual funk of Prince, Monae continues to find ways to recreate pop music. This isn't mere recycling of sounds, this is reinterpretion and recreation. She writes her music in suites, telling the story of the Archandroid (part's II and III were found on the amazing album of the same name). I will say this, I felt that
Archandroid was stronger, it's influences more seamlessly fused together. On
The Electric Lady it is easier to go, "Oh, this song is really Stevie Wonder," or "This song sounds a lot like a Jackson 5 song." While this slightly diminishes the impact of the synthesis she has established, it nonetheless feels fairly fresh and new, and there are some massive tracks on here. "Give 'Em What They Love" featuring PRINCE(!!) is a bold opening statement with killer guitars (duh! Prince!) and a really dirty groove. "Q.U.E.E.N." and "Dance Apocalyptic" are both upbeat dance tracks with all the different ear candy she can throw at you, but are really fresh compared to anything you hear on the radio. One of my favourite tracks tho is "Primetime" featuring the current king of sexy R&B (sorry R. Kelly): Miguel. This is a gorgeous love song which somehow brings the 90's slow jam into the future and make it not only bearable, but plain old sexy and gorgeous. Seriously, if you only listen to one track on this album, listen to "Primetime." Lyrically this album combines futuristic themes, messages of a rebellion of positivity ("While you're sellin dope, we gon keep on selling hope") and self love. This is the strongest pop album (and plays like an album, not just a collection of singles) of the year.
Nails - Abandon All Life
Produced by Nails and Kurt Ballou
I'm not entirely sure, but I think
Abandon All Life may have been the album I listened to the most times this year. Not because it's my favourite, but because it is 17 minutes and 22 seconds long. Ten songs, 17 minutes!
Shaking the Habitual has a single song which is longer than this whole album! But what a 17 minutes. Easily the most aggressive release I heard this year, this is pure vitriol: blood-spitting, teeth-kicking hatred and rage and pain. I don't know if I understood a single lyric (except for the two expletives at the end of the 24-second-long "Cry Wolf") but I don't need to, everything is right there in the undeniable emotion of this record. This is powerful catharsis.
Run the Jewels - Run the Jewels
Produced by El-P
Sorry Kanye, and I'ma let you finish this list, but
Run the Jewels was the greatest hip hop record of 2013.
Killer Mike and
El-P both had really great records in 2012 (Mike's
R.A.P Music made my honourable mentions list) but when they came together as Run the Jewels things got really good. El-P's hardcore, left-field, and aggressive beats/ production mastery combined with his bizarre, complex, violent and often hilarious lyrics and flows are well documented on his solo work, but something about this hard hitting Brooklyn-based sound smashing into the dirty south, Atlanta, GA. hip hop stylings of Killer Mike brings new life to both their styles. Mike's lyrical delivery is much more straight forward than El-P's but the two of them tag team and mix and match and play in and around each other's flows creating some really special and creative flows. Both of their solo records from last year were intense, and
RTJ is no less intense, but it has something beyond intensity: it's FUN. These boys are having a blast. And they have a lot of respect and love for each other. On "Banana Clip" (featuring Big Boi of Outkast) Mike raps "Producer gave me a beat/ said it's the beat of the year/ I said El-P didn't do it/ so get the f*** outta here" and you know what? He's right.
I don't know if I've heard a hip hop record released in the last year which hasn't in some way responded to, ripped off, or been directly influenced in some way by
Watch the Throne, and Run the Jewels is no exception, except that they've done it better. The name, the fact that two well established and respected solo artists are joining together, and the line "there will be no respect for thrones." And then
this: "I stand on towers like Eiffel, I rifle down all your idols/N***as will perish in Paris, n***as is nothing but parrots." But unlike haters or Throne worshippers, Killer Mike and El-P don't come off as obsessed. It's a jab, but then it moves on. It's a humorous way to deal with, and move on from, the subject. You feel like they didn't need to respond like some other people, but chose to, because it would be fun.
All in all, one of my favourite records of the year, one which continues to reveal more nuances and jokes with every listen.
If you want to know how much fun these dudes are having, watch this:
Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City
Produce
d by Ariel Rechtshaid
Vampire Weekend have grown on me. I was impressed with, but didn't fall in love with, their baroque stylings, their witty lyricism, and their creative songwriting on their debut, but maybe I wasn't ready. on
Contra, their 2010 sophomore effort, there were some more chaotic and visceral songs which made me pay more attention but I still didn't dive in as hard as I could have. It's sometimes hard to say what puts a band over the edge of interest and into the playing field of enjoyment for me. But while Vampire Weekend's cover of Springsteen's "Going Down" was a step in that direction, ironically it wasn't until the song "Unbelievers" that I began to believe. The driving groove, the wonderful melody, the little hymnic interlude in the bridge, the lyrics which proudly proclaim his unbelief at the same time as they question it.
Other songs deal with God and belief in interesting ways too, but if I'm honest, it's the sound of this record which held me, after the lyrics of "Unbelievers" captured me. So many ideas: The Bach-like keyboards on "Step." The bouncing synth bass and guitar staccato interplay and the vocal effects on "Diane Young." The strange found-sounds collage which disappears into the minimalist reverbed piano and dead sounding bass on "Hannah Hunt." The distorted mispronunciation of YHWH on "Ya Hey." Every track has a number of brilliant ideas and an interplay of sounds, and yet the album sounds extremely homogenous. Brilliant work.
Kanye West - Yeezus
Produced by way too many people, including: Rick Rubin, Hudson Mohawke, Daft Punk
"Yeezy season approaching/ f*** whatever y'all been hearing!" Kanye came out swinging hard this year with
Yeezus. The album opens with waves of distortion and a glitchy beat courtesy of Daft Punk and just rips right in. Compared to the brilliantly composed and arranged
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, this is guerilla warfare. Samples being thrown in between verses with no regard to whether they fit stylistically or even emotionally, lyrical themes of slavery, an inverting of the american dream, and a reappropriation of white supremacist symbols like the the KKK hoods, or the confederate flag: this is an assault. And that's not all. "I am a God/ hurry up with my damn massage/ in an french ass restaurant/ hurry up with my damn croissants" Kanye declares on "I am a God." "I just talked to Jesus/ he said what up Yeezus?/ I said, Shit I'm chillin/ tryin to stack these millions." Kanye really stepped up his delusions of grandeur on this one, but if you listened to the screams and the distortion on this track, it sounds like the responsibility he feels in his "divinity" is a sort of torture.
That's what I love about Kanye: the dichotomy. On "New Slaves" he's wrestling with hating that the status symbols of his success feel like a new form of class slavery, while also bragging about his wealth. Same with "I Am a God": he feels like he has unlimited potential but feels frustrated and angry at his limitations. While this album has some really powerful moments, it is far from perfect. Apparently Kanye recorded and wrote most of the lyrics in the last couple of days of the recording process and some of the tracks on the second half feel sloppy in the lyrics department, even if the sounds continue to be amazing. And then the album ends with "Bound 2," a throw back to some of Kanye's earlier work, and a love song for Kim Kardashian, which feels somewhat out of place on this album, but also works as a tonic for the vitriol of the previous album. It also regains some of the lyrical wit which some of the later tracks lack. The sample is great, some of the word play is awesome, and it's just a feel good track. I believe in Kanye as an artist and as a creative mind and look forward to wherever he takes us next, whether in this angry vein or maybe in more of the direction implied by "Bound 2."
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
Arcade Fire - Reflektor
Arcade Fire put out a sprawling and admirable record this year, chock full of great production ideas.
Autre Ne Veut - Anxiety
"Play by Play" was one of my favourite tracks of the year, and the rest of the album has some really great melodies, and heartfelt (and appropriately anxious) vocal performances.
Danny Brown - Old
Danny Brown is one of the most versatile and impressive voices in hip hop currently, as proven by the Side A part of
Old. Side B had more club bangers a lost a bit of my attention, but if Side A was released on it's own as an EP it would have easily been in my top 10. Check out the track "Wonderbread."
Bill Callahan - Dream River
Bill Callahan put out another wonderful collection of dreamy and rich songs which cover territory from Neil Young to Van Morrison. A wonderful voice and wonderful songwriting.
Chance the Rapper - Acid Rap
Chance is a young rapper, with a goofy voice, but some thoughtful lyrics. The star here tho is the gospel infused production, reminiscent of
College Dropout.
Drake - Nothing Was The Same
Drake has a lot of haters, but I love that he continues to transcend radio-friendly styles for his own moodier artistic vision. Not as strong as
Take Care, but still excellent.
Phosphorescent - Muchacho
This is a great collection of Americana. "Sun, Arise! (An Invocation)" and "A Charm, A Blade" were two stand out tracks of the year for me. A kind of stoned out, desert dwelling, Springsteen.
Pusha T - My Name Is My Name
Produced mostly by Kanye, Pusha T brought a bunch of great tracks this year, especially "Numbers on the Board" which was easily one of my favourite tracks of the year, and "Nosetalgia" featuring Kendrick Lamar.
Queens of the Stone Age - ...Like Clockwork
QOTSA bounced back this year, with some great sounds, and some really excellent lyricism. Not quite my favourite record by Joshua Homme, but definitely a strong release.
Vhol - Vhol
Vhol is a metal supergroup of sorts made up by remnants of Ludicra and members of Yob. Great blasts of black metal will some more melodic vocals (though there are still the wretched vox of black metal.) Super catchy for black metal but still aggresively delicious.
