2013 Favorite Albums (10-1)

And finally, here are my top ten favorite albums of 2013:

10. Jon Hopkins - Immunity

Over the course of three solo releases, UK producer Jon Hopkins made beautiful yet fairly unmemorable techno that never seemed to push him into the next level of electronic artists. It wasn't until high profile collaborations with Brian Eno, Coldplay and Underworld and his collaboration with King Creosote on the 2011 Mercury Prize nominated album Diamond Mine that finally started getting him name recognition. These opportunities seemingly have jump started his creative juices, leading him to create his best album so far, and not only that, one of the best techno releases of the year. Immunity is a self-described journey through a night of clubbing, taking the listener through the highs and lows of a evening out on the town, where music is both a release, a tormentor, and ultimately a savior.

9. Disclosure - Settle

UK production duo Disclosure, brothers Guy and Howard Lawrence, occupy a strange position in dance music. They aren't a straight up dance act, their strengths definitely lie more in the pop song area, however, they aren't necessarily solidly in the traditional pop song structure world either, letting things go on occasion with straight up house tracks. It's this tension and flirtation between the two areas that makes them so fascinating. Not to mention, they know how to come up with some killer hooks. Before the release of their debut album Settle, Disclosure release a torrent of hot singles, the slamming club track "White Noise" with AlunaGeorge, R&B leaning "Latch" with Sam Smith, and kooky UK garage referencing "You & Me" with Eliza Dolittle. My fear was that the album would be these singles plus a lot of filler, but Settle actually goes beyond that, revealing itself to be a surprisingly cohesive journey from the duo, flowing like a good DJ set, with lots of highs mixed in with different styles.

8. Boards of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest

Almost outclassing Daft Punk in the marketing department, Boards of Canada slyly reappeared after a 7 year absence with a viral ad campaign that had secret 12"s being left in record bins, strange bar codes, a Tokyo billboard announcement, and a desert listening party, with everything adding to the mystery of what BoC were up to, and now we are left with the final product, their fourth album Tomorrow's Harvest. Possibly named after a website that deals with food production and preparation for emergency situations, and appears to cater to doomsday minded people, Tomorrow's Harvest has a slightly sinister and dark quality to it that permeates all of the 17 tracks. Likewise, brothers Mike Sandison and Marcus Eoin have indicated that their influences this go around went to soundtracks from John Carpenter, Wendy Carlos, and Mark Isham, creating a tension and almost off-putting edge to these tracks that gives the album an uncomfortable air of dread and unease. It is like they wanted to completely distance themselves from the pastoral IDM they put forth on their last record, The Campfire Headphase, and delve further into the darker territory they were mapping out on Geogaddi. The resulting record plays like a compendium of all their works, fractured through their current mood and viewpoint. Instead of drastically reinventing the wheel, Sandison and Eoin have made what is undeniably a Boards of Canada record, but one that expands upon the legacy created and adds a new, almost twisted spin to things.

7. Pet Shop Boys - Electric

Last year's record from the Pet Shop Boys, Elysium, their final record for longtime label Parlaphone, felt like a death knell for the venerable pop duo. Full of lyrics about fading away and aging, the dour atmosphere of the record was a far cry from their more upbeat and fun records. So it was a surprise when they announced the quick follow up to that record, Electric. Promised as a return to their dance roots, the boys enlisted the help of producer Stuart Price (Madonna, Killers) who knows his way around a dancefloor. Over these 9 club friendly tracks, Electric pulses and swoons with dark beats and majestic synths, harking back to their glorious dancefloor masterpiece Introspective. Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe seem incredibly inspired this go around, turning out their best record since Very, and while it is not as eclectic, its sleek and consistent tone more than make up for it.

6. Forest Swords - Engravings

On 2010's almost album length EP Dagger Paths, British producer Matthew Barnes expertly blurred the lines between electronic and organic music, seamlessly incorporating elements of house, dub, dubstep, folk, drone, and R&B. It was fascinating listening to how he put rhythms and sequences together, and how just as tracks seemed to verge on too repetitious, he was would slightly alter things to put focus on new or even lesser elements, changing your perspective as one walks around a sculpture. There has been nothing since that adventurous release until now, Barnes suffering through some almost permanent hearing problems (since rectified) and also the bold attempts at creating his music out in nature, which he reluctantly scrapped in favor of studio recording, but subsequently mixed out in the open. Not much has changed with Barnes' musical approach and outlook in those three years, his debut full length Engravings is essentially cut from the same mold, but Barnes' focus has become razor sharp and the way he mixes all the various elements together into a seamless whole is practically brilliant. All of the tracks are built upon loops that gradually unfold, allowing you to hear their purpose, going in certain directions only to be pulled back from again, or driven against expectation, the lines between natural and electronic constantly blurred. Engravings is a deeply emotional and spiritual listen, taking you deep inside your head and thoughts; it is big music, and important music, but never less than grounded.

5. Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires Of The City

At times, Vampire Weekend seem to be the easiest band to hate in the world. Dismissed a lot of times as upper-class, pretentious posers who wrongfully appropriated Afro-pop, few have ever really dared to look at how such appropriation itself was an wry, ironic take on just such appropriation. Despite all this hatred towards their J.Crew take on such musical genres, few could really deny that the band has its chops, and the juicy lyrically interplay was enough to stump even the most scholarly of critics. While there is nothing overtly different on Modern Vampires of the City, multiple listens of the record reveal a staggering jump in confidence and approach to their sound. For the first time, Vampire Weekend have dropped their snooty archness and reveal a truly emotional and warm heart that permeates the record. Ezra Koenig inhabits these characters and stories as if they are his second skin. Lyrically, there are still the usual arcane references, in-jokes, puns, and elaborate catalogs of events and place names, but instead of used in a pat-my-own-back style, they are used in a way that integrates fully with the characters and stories. Modern Vampires of the City is Vampire Weekend's most emotionally mature and "adult" record, a chronicle of growing up and realizing that the young always want to be older and the old want to be younger, never fully experiencing life in the moment and with purpose, but sadly with regret.

4. Braids - Flourish/Perish

Braids' debut album Native Speaker was not one of my favorite records of 2011, I will admit. All the elements were there, but for some reason it never really came together as a whole for me. Mainly, singer Raphaelle Standell-Preston's voice tended to fly off out of control, never bringing me into the music, always holding me back from truly connecting me with their sound. Of course, with second record Flourish/Perish, I was not holding out hope that there would be any specific alteration of their aesthetic for me to change my opinion. Somehow my expectations of the record, low as they were, were completely shocked by such a controlled and skilled almost masterpiece of a record. Raphaelle Standell-Preston, whose voice is actually quite lovely, keeps her voice almost firmly in check this go around, which draws you in instead of smacking you across the face with her vocal flights of fancy. And this record, aside from one track, eschews guitars and focuses exclusively on keyboards and electronics, forging a record that appears to almost be a merger of Radiohead's glitchy masterpiece Kid A and Bjork's quiet electronic hymnal Vespertine.

3. James Blake - Overgrown

James Blake almost lost me. Over the course of his initial EPs, Blake showed that he was a new voice in electronic music that needed to be listened to closely. His unique take on UK bass music, adding a more soulful and even folkier vibe, made him stand out from his contemporaries. When he dropped his amazing take on Fiest's song "Limit To Your Love," showing the world that in addition to his sublime production skills he was also an extremely talented singer, I knew I had to play close to attention to whatever Blake would subsequently do. When his debut James Blake was released I was crushingly disappointed with the finished product. Instead of using the EPs and his new found love of the singer-songwriter aesthetic as a jumping off point, Blake fell flat, releasing a record of almost barely formed sketches. It was like Blake was stuck between both of his muses, not knowing how to reconcile them. I tried over and over again to get my head around what he was doing, and just couldn't connect with it. His subsequent EPs did nothing to assure me that this was a mere misstep and that brilliance would be around the corner. Overgrown finally shows that Blake has the balls to do what he wants, and backs it up time and time again with songs that toy with your expectations and emotions. This is music that is expertly constructed, but never goes where you think it will go, making you work for a connection but always providing immense release when you do. Overgrown is a hauntingly sad record, full of regrets, missed opportunities, and deep melancholy; however, it is not a depressing record, the music is too alive and intricately plotted for it to be mired in cheap sentiment. His debut was similarly situated but the songs never felt concrete or purposeful, tending to deal with oblique, looping fragments, never coalescing into something meaningful. Here, almost every track feels like it is carrying the weight of the world, Blake shouldering intense emotion.

2. Local Natives - Hummingbird

The album cover for Local Natives' sophomore album Hummingbird shows a man desperately clinging to the roof of a building, legs dangling out into the clouds, surrounded by two faceless men who seem unable to help. The image sets the tone for the record, a melancholy and bleak collection of tracks full of doubts, fears, and loneliness. A far cry from the upbeat and joyously goofy debut album Gorilla Manor, Hummingbird comes from a darker place, influenced by the departure of bassist Andy Hamm and the death of singer Kelcey Ayer's mother. The characters that inhabit these songs fear abandonment, live through abusive relationships, suffer crippling self-doubt, essentially being thrown out into the cold world unprotected by the youthful dreams of their counterparts in Gorilla Manor. Fittingly, this bleaker and more realistic view of the world comes with a more mature musical and production approach. While Gorilla Manor was loose and free and very lo-fi, Hummingbird, produced by The National's Aaron Dessner, amps up things considerably, featuring a clearer and more polished technique, giving these songs breadth and depth not apparent on their debut. It also seems that touring with The National and with Arcade Fire has given the band greater confidence to expand their sound into grander territory.

1. Chvrches - The Bones Of What You Believe

Scottish trio CHVRCHES burst on the scene last year with two hard hitting electro-pop tracks, "Lies" and "The Mother We Share," which paired dense, over the top club tracks with Lauren Mayberry's soft yet confident vocals adding a nice organic contrast to the machine created sounds. With each subsequent single they kept raising the bar higher and higher for themselves, and now with the release of their debut full length, The Bones Of What You Believe, we now have a year's worth of work to evaluate, and what they have ended up with is the best pop album of the year. Working from a limited palate, merely keyboards and drum programming, CHVRCHES are able to put together a remarkably cohesive sound with subtle changes from track to track that provide textural and atmospheric interest while still smacking you left and right with some of the tastiest pop hooks. While there may be stronger albums released this year, none were as addictive as this record, which I found myself consistently going back to again and again.