Top 10 Albums of 2013

Right, I've done the best songs of 2013 - now it's time for the albums. These are my ten favourite albums of the last 12 months, and each one is an outstanding testament to the album as a format. Some scale the highest of high concepts with subtlety and aplomb, while others simply succeed by filling a CD with corkers from one rim to the other.

One side note before we get started: The Crimea's Square Moon is noticeably absent from this list, but not because it's not good enough for the top ten. The band's double-length swansong was officially released this summer, but since I got a pre-order version way back in autumn 2011 (ner ner na-ner ner), I don't really count it as an album of 2013. If you like, you can read my tribute to Square Moon - and The Crimea generally - by clicking here.

Right, now that that's out of the way, let's crack on with that all-important list...

#10 - Reflektor by Arcade Fire
There are plenty of reasons to dislike it (not least its inescapable promotional campaign, which certainly ruffled the feathers of one Trent Reznor), but it's hard to deny that Reflektor is one of the best albums of 2013. It's easily been among the most talked-about, and that kind of hype will often lead to disappointment when things actually get released, but fortunately, the music on those two discs more than justified it. It was a more daring, more ambitious, and altogether more exciting album than The Suburbs, with songs like Afterlife and Here Comes the Night Time making up for the slight lack of truly brilliant tunes on the band's previous release. Oh, and even if it could quite easily have fit on one CD,  the second one makes it feel a lot bigger, and a lot more important.

Top 20 Songs of 2013

2013 has less than a fortnight left in it, so it's high time I started making some lists. I'll be sharing my favourite albums of  the year on Friday, but I figured I'd build up to it a little bit first.

To that end, here are my top twenty songs of twenty-thirteen. Some are from albums that I've been banging on about for months; some are from records that I've never even mentioned on the blog before. It was quite difficult to decide on the right order, but lists like this are so much better when somebody wins, don't you think?

One more note before we get started: I considered limiting myself to one song per artist, but then I decided to scrap that idea because, hey, if your album contains two really spectacularly amazing songs, I want to reward that. Reward it with kudos from my piffling little music blog.

Anyway, enough explanation. Let's rock...

#20 - Lately I've Found Myself Regressing by The Superman Revenge Squad Band
(from There is Nothing More Frightening Than the Passing of Time)
My list starts with the opening song of an album I've blogged about a lot recently. More or less every song on There is Nothing... is a lyrical corker, but on Lately I've Found Myself Regressing, they really knock it out of the park musically as well. The frantic drums, the warm-sounding instrumentation, and the "let's pack in as many syllables as we possibly can" stanzas come together to create something truly magical: a magnificent musical meditation on getting back to one's roots that bursts out of its two-minute runtime and leaves debris strewn about your mind for hours afterwards.

Fifty Songs for Summer

Summer wouldn't be the same without music; for me, walking around in the sun with headphones on is the very definition of summertime. There are several albums that I've already earmarked as this year's Summer Favourites (La Costa Perdida, Partygoing, AWOO), but it's also nice to equip the old iPod with a summer playlist, a mixture of stuff that I can throw on whenever I'm feeling sunny.

So here's my summer mix for this year. Put this badboy on shuffle and it'll be sunshine and smiles a go-go. It's 50 tracks long, but don't worry - while they're all highly recommended, I won't talk about all of them.

• Please Don't Kill Me by Reptar (from Body Faucet)
• George by Suckers (from Candy Salad)
• California English by Vampire Weekend (from Contra)
• Queen of Hearts by Fucked Up (from David Comes to Life)
  
  
  
  
  Can a song this angry-sounding really be described as 'summery'? I think so. I love the boy/girl vocals, and was a little disappointed that David Comes to Life didn't have more of that going on. In spite of the shouting, this is actually one of the album's more cheerful tracks, about two people meeting and taking a liking to each other. "Hello my name is David!/Your name is Veronica!/Let's be together!/Let's fall in love!"
  
  
• California Girls by The Magentic Fields (from Distortion)
• Apollo and the Buffalo and Anna Anna Anna Oh! by Sunset Rubdown (from Dragonslayer)
• 3's & 7's by Queens of the Stone Age (from Era Vulgaris)
• Still Young by Allo Darlin' (from Europe)
• Red Light by The Strokes (from First Impressions of Earth)
• Meet Me in the Basement by Broken Social Scene (from Forgiveness Rock Record)
• A Little Less Sixteen Candles, A Little More "Touch Me" by Fall Out Boy (from From Under the Cork Tree)
  
  
  
  What can I say? This takes me back to the Summer of '06, when I did two weeks of work experience in a Save the Children charity shop. They always had Radio 1 on, and this song got played a lot. See also: Smile by Lily Allen, Smiling Faces by Gnarls Barkley, that really annoying Busta Rhymes song.
  
  
  
• Mrs Playing Dead by The Crocketts (from The Great Brain Robbery)
• Hang the Noose by Woodenbox with a Fistful of Fivers (from Home and the Wildhunt)
• It's Over Already by The Murderburgers (from How to Ruin Your Life)
• Tanks by Let's Wrestle (from In the Court of the Wrestling Let's)
• Theme from PSB by Public Service Broadcasting (from Inform-Educate-Entertain)
• Peaches in the Summertime by Camper Van Beethoven (from La Costa Perdida)
• In a Small Body by Titus Andronicus (from Local Business)
• Breathless by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds (from Abbatoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus)
• Make Me by Fang Island (from Major)
• Despair by Yeah Yeah Yeahs (from Mosquito)
  
  
  
  "My sun is your sun/My sun is your sun/My sun is your sun/My sun is your sun..."
  
  
• Without a Backing Track by Kid Canaveral (from Now That You Are a Dancer)
• Olé! Tarantula by Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3 (from Olé! Tarantula)
• Sensitive New Age Guy by John Grant (from Pale Green Ghosts)
• Sleep Forver by Motorifik (from Secret Things)
• Banging Camp by The Hold Steady (from Separation Sunday)
• The Only Living Boy and Girl by The Crimea (from Square Moon)
• Steel Your Girl by Neon Neon (from Stainless Style)
• Clone by Metric (from Synthetica)
• Bocata de Sangre by Siesta! (from Terroruterino)
• ESP by Hooded Fang (from Tosta Mista)
• In The Now by Edwyn Collins (from Understated)
• Saturday by Sparklehorse (from Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot)
• Gator by Cave Painting (from Votive Life
  
  
  
  That's a live session in the video, but it doesn't deviate too far from the album version. I love the xylophone sound that kicks this song off; it makes me feel like I'm on a tropical island. Or it makes me wish I was on a tropical island, at least.
  
  
  
• San Francisco by Foxygen (from We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace and Magic)
• New Alphabet by Eels (from Wonderful, Glorious)
• Light And Day by The Polyphonic Spree (from The Beginning Stages of...)
• Disenchanted by My Chemical Romance (from The Black Parade)
  
  
  
  I know, I know. I felt that way too, once, back when I was the right age for My Chemical Romance. Instead of joining the army of dyed-black fans, I joined the army of people who made jokes about the dyed-black fans, thinking that I was clever and cool for disliking a band who sang about having emotions. But dislike turned to guilty pleasure, and now that I've grown up a little, that guilty pleasure has turned to unencumbered enjoyment. The Black Parade is brilliant, and this track in particular makes me feel like a fourteen-year-old in the height of summer. If you wrote MCR off years ago, give them another try today. Go on, the video's right there; give that play button a click.
  
  
  
• All The Small Things by blink-182 (from Enema of the State)
• Tell Me What's Shaking (Except This Building) by Spencer McGarry Season (from Episode 1)
• Maureen by Young Knives (from Oh Happiness)
• Juxtapozed With U by Super Furry Animals (from Rings Around the World)
• Blood Orange Sun by Cherry Poppin' Daddies (from Susquehanna)
• Living, Loving, Partygoing by Future Bible Heroes (from Partygoing)
  
  
  
  I've talked about it before, but I definitely think that this is my song of the summer. A lot of people I know have come back from university for the holidays, and this little ditty complements my sudden increase in social activity rather well.
  
  
  
• Pretty Pink Ribbon by Cake (from Comfort Eagle)
• Am I Wrong by Mikal Cronin (from MCII)
• Brooklyn's On Fire! by Nicole Atkins (from Neptune City)
• Learning the Lie by The Hidden Cameras (from AWOO)
• No Tic, All Tac by Tullycraft (from Lost in Light Rotation)
• Let's Pretend by Tindersticks (from Curtains)

Which songs are heavy in your headphones this summer? Suggestions in the comments, or you can tweet them to me if you'd prefer. I'm @TheAlbumWall.

The Magnetic Fields vs. Future Bible Heroes

Images taken from music.newcity.com (left) and elefant.com (right)

As I mentioned on Monday, I recently acquired a copy of Partygoing by the Future Bible Heroes. And, as it turns out, it probably should have been on my 'Best of 2013 So Far' list. Sadly, I put together that list before I'd listened to this album, so tough luck Merritt et al.

Now I'm a huge fan of The Magnetic Fields, but until this week I knew very little about Future Bible Heroes, one of Stephin Merritt's many, many side projects. For one thing, I wasn't really sure of the difference between FBH and the Mags themselves. They certainly have a lot of things in common: Stephin writes the songs, he and Claudia Gonson share the vocal duties, each track is littered with synthesisers and broken hearts, et cetera, et cetera.

So what is the difference between The Magnetic Fields and Future Bible Heroes? Well, if we're just talking about their most recent releases, then it's simply this: Future Bible Heroes have better songs. Love at the Bottom of the Sea, the last Mags album, was good fun, but it was a bit clever for its own good at times. Stephin Merritt has said in the past that sincerity has absolutely no place in his songs, but he knows how to tug at the heartstrings (even if he doesn't really mean it) and the affecting, emotional numbers that The Magnetic Fields are usually so good at were all but absent from LatBotS (heh, 'latbots'). Instead, we got smirking humour, subverted rhymes, and a generous helping of goofiness. It felt a little throwaway compared to previous glories, and the highlights were the songs that still had a little bit of longing and melancholy comin' thro' the wry. This was one of my favourites:

See? It's still rife with wordplay, but beneath the cleverness lies a sad little tale of unrequited love in the shape of a triangle.

Partygoing, ironically, sounds more like a classic Magnetic Fields album than the last Magnetic Fields album did. Sure, Merritt's trademark sense of humour is still present, but songs like Keep Your Children in a Coma manage to be funny without ruining a good tune. Where LatBotS sometimes felt laboured, like everybody was trying a little too hard to be funny, Partygoing strikes a balance between cleverness and actual emotion.  It sounds more like the Magnetic Fields of old; there's even a song with the word 'moon' in the title!*

I haven't said much about the actual songs yet, have I? Almost all of them are knockouts, but my personal favourites are Sadder Than the Moon, All I Care About is You (which contains a breakdown in the middle that reminds me of I Think I Need a New Heart from 69 Love Songs), and the life-affirming Living, Loving, Partygoing. Anthem of the summer, methinks:

So it's a cracking album, and if you take a look to the right-hand side of the page, you'll see that it's ousted Fang Island's Major as my current favourite. I've already got all the Magnetic Fields albums, which has been a source of great sadness for some time, so I'm exceedingly eager to investigate the FBH back catalogue.

One final note: I couldn't blog about Partygoing without mentioning the astounding and entirely unexpected David Bowie impression that pops up in Drink Nothing But Champagne. Seriously, have a listen:

*Once upon a time, every song Stephin Merritt wrote contained a reference to the moon. Check out the fabulous Stephin Songs for a comprehensive (if slightly out-of-date) list.