Why I Loved Music in 2013 (albumz edition)

This year, perennial LB favorites the Avett Brothers, Iron & Wine, Pearl Jam, and even David freaking Bowie released albums. All of them were great. None of them cracked my Top Ten.

That’s how incredible it was to love music in 2013. It seemed like, whether it was Beyonce dropping a record in the middle of the night or a sixteen year old from New Zealand becoming an international sensation or a Beatle releasing his strongest solo effort in years, there was wonderful music lurking around every corner.

This was the year that Jay-Z and Jack White collaborated on the soundtrack to The 3D Great Gatsby (I had to type that sentence because I still can’t believe that it actually happened). This was the year that Daft Punk conquered the world, without saying a single word. This was the year that Justin Timberlake released not one but TWO albums and even reunited N’sync for about thirty seconds. Oh, and about that Beyonce person? She also broke the Super Bowl this year.

Suffice it to say, it was exceptionally difficult to narrow it down to a list of ten. And that, in and of itself, is a reason to be joyful.  Because more than any other year in recent memory, 2013 was a great one full of inventive artists pushing boundaries and creating amazing music.

Still, I'm not one to shy away from a challenge, so here are my TEN FAVORITE ALBUMS OF 2013. 

10. KURT VILE- WAKIN ON A PRETTY DAZE

No other album in 2013 was as aptly titled as the fifth LP from Philly’s own grungy folk-lord Kurt Vile. With its gorgeous layers of guitars unfurling under Vile’s effortless lyricism, the entire album occupies that mental space in between sleeping and waking.  A lot of these tracks hit the six-minute mark or beyond, but they never seem to feel it, perhaps because they lull the listener into a hypnotic or often meditative state.  The ghost of Lou Reed hovers in the air, especially when Vile delivers deadpanned poetry like “Don’t worry about a thing, it’s only dying.” But the real star, as always, is Vile’s guitar, which is so simple and yet so highly emotive, it makes you want to stay in this dreamworld forever.

9. MILEY CYRUS- BANGERZ

While everyone else was debating whether Katy or Gaga would be the reigning pop queen of 2013, Miley Cyrus slipped in with a foam finger and a fearless attitude and stole the throne from under them. Say whatever you like about the way that Cyrus dresses, her Kardashian-like manipulation of the media, or Hannah Montana, but the music speaks for itself. Bangerz is kind of a masterpiece. It’s a total amalgamation of everything that’s going on in popular music right now. It’s hip-hop, country, EDM, glam-rock, R&B and Miley sings the shit out of all of it. Screw the haters. Let Miley do her thang.

8. THE LONE BELLOW- THE LONE BELLOW

If I told you that the Lone Bellow consists of three people, you would not believe me. Their songs are so powerful and so intense; it’s easier to think that they’ve got an entire gospel choir backing them. Perhaps its because they are rooted in an almost uncomfortable level of emotional honesty (lead vocalist and songwriter Zach Williams started writing music after a tragic horseback riding accident left his new wife paralyzed). I saw these folks play a show last spring and even without a drummer, it felt as though a locomotive tore through the room. Of course, there are inevitable comparisons to new folk royalty like Mumord and Sons and the Lumineers, but The Lone Bellow’s country-gospel-soul music is in a league of its own. This is the strongest debut of the year, by far, and I can’t wait to see what these guys do in the future.

7. NEKO CASE- THE WORSE THINGS GET, THE HARDER I FIGHT, THE HARDER I FIGHT, THE MORE I LOVE YOU

Neko Case has been everywhere and done everything. She has ties to Virginia, Seattle, Canada, Chicago, and Arizona. She’s been a country singer, an indie-rock babe, a punk rocker, a New Pornographer, and one of my favorite Twitter feeds of all time. But this year, she was mostly just a great songwriter and a great singer. The Worse Things Get is the best thing that she’s ever done and not coincidentally, it’s also the most personal. Case has always hid behind the veil of abstraction and fantasy rather than opening up about her own life.  This time around, everything feels autobiographical. It’s easier to connect with, even when the result is an acapella number about a mother telling her child to “get the fuck away” at a bus stop in Hawaii.

6. JIM JAMES- REGIONS OF LIGHT AND SOUNDS OF GOD

A solo album for My Morning Jacket’s Jim James seems outrageously excessive at first. After all, the man has been the engine of MMJ for a decade and a half, as well as part of the indie-folk super group Monsters of Folk. He even released tributes to George Harrison and Woody Guthrie under the pseudonym Yim Yames. After all of that, is a solo album really necessary? Of course it is. Less a record than it is a symphony of sorts, Regions of Light is thematically and sonically different from anything else that James has ever done. It sounds like the future and the past at the same time. On one hand, there are the blips and beeps of modern technology. On the other, it’s the doo-wappy optimism of “A New Life.” MMJ has always sounded otherworldly, but this is the first time that James has been borderline celestial. And with a title like Regions of Light and Sounds of God would you expect anything less? This is straight up 70’s soul and R&B meets hip-hop with a bit of eerie electronica mixed in. My Morning Jacket never could have gotten away with it, but Jim James certainly can. It’s brave and weird and ultimately incredible.

5. THE CIVIL WARS- THE CIVIL WARS

When a band’s name recalls the greatest internal crisis in American history, it probably shouldn’t be surprising that they spontaneously combusted on the eve of great success. But what an explosion it was! It kind of blows my mind that more people aren’t listing this record among the year’s best. It’s a modern day, country-folk Rumors, simmering with sexual tension and naked confessions. On the surface, it’s the year’s prettiest record, full of gorgeous harmonies, Joy Williams’ stunning voice and John Paul White’s immaculate guitar work.  It’s just as much of an accomplishment for producer Rick Rubin, who manages to explore new ground for the duo without overpowering the melodic sensibilities that made Barton Hollow so endearing. But where Barton Hollow was gentle, the self-titled follow up is sharp and rough.  The desperation and longing and bitter regret that accompany the end of a relationship is all there for the world to see. It’s no surprise at all that the duo isn’t even on speaking terms. We may never know what happened. We may never get another Civil Wars album. But somehow, that makes this record even more compelling. 

4. DAFT PUNK- RANDOM ACCESS MEMORIES

RAM was not the Daft Punk album that I was expecting. In fact, my first reaction to it, after months of hype and listening to thirty seconds of “Get Lucky” on an indefinite loop, was: This isn’t a Daft Punk album. Maybe it’s not. But maybe that doesn’t matter. In 2001, Daft Punk reinvented the notion of what successful pop music could be on Discovery. Here, two French guys in ridiculous robot costumes brought EDM to the masses, spawned an army of vocoder clones, and managed to do it all while seeming more human than 99% of the artificial, manufactured pop music that dominated the charts. In 2013, they reinvented what Daft Punk could be, and in doing so, transformed popular music for the second time. RAM is a disco record, complete with Niles Rogers. It is much more a collaborative effort than anything they have ever done. It keeps the synthesizers to a minimum, opting instead for live performance-based tracks in the vein of Led Zeppelin or The Eagles. While their other albums were characterized by what they could do with computers, RAM is characterized by what they did without them. And what they did was craft an expansive, sonically astounding record of which the highlight is an eight minute spoken word track. Sometimes defying expectations is a beautiful thing.

3. THE NATIONAL- TROUBLE WILL FIND ME

On “Don’t Swallow the Cap” Matt Berninger quips that he “has only two emotions/ fearful fear and dead devotion.” And if you’ve listened to The National’s last three brilliant albums, it’s hard not to think, “Well, duh.” That kind of vague, self-awareness is rampant on the band’s latest great release. By now, these guys have firmly established themselves as the current most prolific band in rock and roll. But, seriously, have they ever sounded better than they do on Trouble Will Find Me? Berninger’s regal baritone is more resonant, Bryan Denendorf’s percussion more inventive, the songs are streamlined and more efficient, and the lyrics are as clever as ever. This is the sound of a band that is comfortable in its own skin. It’s the sound of a band that is 100% confident of what kind of band it should be. The result is their most direct and accessible album yet. It may not be breaking any new musical ground for them, but its full of the kind of songs that will seduce you and stick around for weeks, or maybe years, on end. 

2. VAMPIRE WEEKEND- MODERN VAMPIRES OF THE CITY

I never really understood why people were so crazy for Vampire Weekend, until I heard "Diane Young" for the first time. "Okay, boys," I felt like saying. "You have my attention." By the time that Modern Vampires was released, they had more than just my attention. Vampire Weekend has grown up. They've gotten philosophical. They've tossed off that indie-rock, Ivy League pretentiousness that everyone accused them of and replaced it with questions about mortality and spirituality and honest to god soul-searching. It suits them. It really does. Especially because they've miraculously managed to keep their music as effervescent and fun as it was before. How does a band manage to get heavier and lighter at the same time? How do you make lyrics like "We know the fire awaits unbelievers, all of the sinners the same," sound like a carnival instead of a death march? How do you write a break up song about god? Vampire Weekend figured all of that out, and they did it exuberantly. 

1. JASON ISBELL- SOUTHEASTERN

Everyone's a sucker for a good redemption story and Jason Isbell had the best one of the whole year. He had the best damn album of the year too, but I'll elaborate on that in a bit. You've probably never heard of Isbell, but he's been around for a while. He's an Alabama native who inadvertently joined the Drive-By Truckers at the age of 22 and wrote a few of their most memorable songs. He also liked to drink. A lot. He estimates that during his time with the Truckers, he was drinking a fifth of whiskey a night. By the end of the live shows, he could barely stand. He was kicked out of his marriage, as well as the band, in 2007. He kept drinking, got bloated, and picked fights with Dierks Bentley on Twitter until now-wife Amanda Shires (who is also a songwriter/fiddle-player) got him into rehab. Once sober, he married Shires and filled his life with positive influences (like Ryan Adams, who took Isbell with him on an international acoustic tour) and wrote an entire album of confessional, incredible songs. It's called Southeastern and it's kind of a marvel. There's no technical wizardry here. This doesn't sound like anything new. It is, simply put, phenomenal songwriting. Every single track is the kind of song that you want to replay as soon as it's finished, even though many of them are equivalent to emotional sucker punches. The first track, "Cover Me Up" is Isbell's firsthand account of the night that he decided he needed to quit drinking. In the hands of a less capable songwriter, that would have been maudlin, but here it is a delicate love story. It doesn't get any lighter.  The song "Elephant" is play of mortality about a friendship between a man and a woman that is dying of cancer. "Yvette" is about a young boy who levels a gun at a female classmate's abusive father. Life is hard, Isbell says over and over again on Southeastern, but it's not hopeless. In the final and best track on an album full of standouts, he sings, "You should know compared to people on a global scale, our kind has had it relatively easy." And something about that simple message has stuck with me more than any other thing I've heard this year. "Here with you there's always something to look forward to, my lonely heart beats relatively easy." 

Amen. With all of the great things that happened in 2013, it's easy to look forward to 2014.