Year-End Critics' Polls 2013

As with last year we'll start with non-crit list Rough Trade Shops.

01 John Grant - Pale Green Ghosts
02 Savages - Silence Yourself
03 Matthew E White - Big Inner
04 Daniel Avery - Drone Logic
05 Thee Oh Sees - Floating Coffin
06 Jon Hopkins - Immunity
07 Valerie June - Pushin' Against A stone
08 Moderat - 2
09 Parquet Courts - Light Up Gold
10 Jessica Pratt - Jessica Pratt
11 Jagwar Ma - Howlin
12 Caitlin Rose - The Stand-In
13 My Bloody Valentine - MBV
14 Connan Mockasin - Caramel
15 Factory Floor - Factory Floor
16 Charles Bradley - Victim Of Love
17 London Grammar - If You Wait
18 Queens Of The Stone Age - ...Like Clockwork
19 Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds - Push The Sky Away
20 Mazzy Star - Seasons Of Your Day
21 Arctic Monkeys - AM
22 Public Service Broadcasting - Inform - Educate - Entertain
23 Arcade Fire - Reflektor
24 Haim - Days Are Gone
25 Daughter - If You Leave

http://www.roughtrade.com/aoty2013

Who's John Grant

who's half of this list

all lists published before the britney spears and r kelly albums are released = null and void

(rough trade list null & void anyway because look at it)

John Grant was in Czars, who I really liked, but I lost track of his solo stuff. Apparently some people really rate him still. I guess Midlake is his backing band now?

The list actually goes to a hundred this year, but I wasn't about to type it out. See link if interested. It's a unique list for sure. Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Sigur Ros, Maps, Goldfrapp, Boards of Canada, Darkside, Foals, National, Vampire Weekend, Atoms For Peace, Hookworms.

I love your keeping of the Britney fire burning like that album isn't going to blow donkeys. xp

Nothing says unique like putting The National on your year-end list.

The Savages album is great, and I like Daniel Avery one too. Went off the Jon Hopkins a bit but it's decent enough. These lists get earlier and earlier don't they?

if you've already decided it will then that's on you but great lead singles tend to heighten my anticipation, personally

xp

jon hopkins and moderat must be the most boring, polite electronic choices imaginable

I'm typically a Britney agnostic and can be swayed by good singles, but neither of the ones I've heard from this project flip any switches for me.

The last one was good!

I didn't necessarily say unique in a good way! I'd say overall it looks 'tasteful' and mature to a fault.

Haim too low. Jagwar Ma in about the right spot. The Parquet Courts album feels like it's about five years old to me at this point (because it was re-released this year).

re: rough trade list, i saw John Grant (and, incidentally, savages!) at a festival last night not knowing a thing about him. Turns out he's a gay HIV+ guy who used to front some indie band and is now doing a solo thing. The set was really weird, half plodding indie balladry (w/ very self-deprecating lyrics), some of which threatened to turn into Queen-territory. The other half were these big pop numbers with heavy synth riffs. Pretty sure Midlake weren't the backing band, though I may be wrong.

who's half of this list

Nothing says unique like putting The National on your year-end list

Usual mixture of the good, the bad and the boring. Daniel Avery and Haim probably my pick of that top 25.

That Jessica Pratt album is great but def 2012. At least in Amurica.

That John Grant album is fucking amazing and you should all listen to it immediately

^

was p disappointed by queens of the stone age, but really don't think that band's ever gonna capture what it had for me again :/

Valerie June record is super-boring in an 'aiming for the critic table' way

Caitlin Rose is good though.

Two albums in here are in my preliminary top 10.

yeah i've returned to the Caitlin Rose record here and there and it's growing on me

one or two of the songs of each album above (that i've heard) are pretty great but, as albums, nah. john grant's voice is singular and committed; psb have a nice motorik feel (but forgettable); savages - cripes, i find them so over-rated. agree with parquet courts (good clean punky fun) but juana molina, white denim and buke and gase albums have more to offer than this lot.

This really is a collection of particularly uninteresting records and Haim

is retro soulster Charles Bradley the only African-American on the Rough Trade shops list?

really looking forward to having another record store in nyc where the rap section is just madlib projects

that is a global issue tbf, probably got yesterdays new quintet lps bobbing around in the philippines right now as we speak

As usual I haven't heard half the list but the John Grant album is great.

Midlake backed him in 2010, monotony, but this tour has an Icelandic band.

always think that the rough trade list is going to be a lot more leftfield that it actually is, but this is based solely on me going there 20 years ago to buy borbetomagus albums

Jesus Christ why do people like Haim? I think I might kill myself during the EoY polls if this is consensus. FFS.

no self-haiming on my watch plz

Yeah the John Grant album is sort of flawed but also brilliant with it. Rough Trade's dance picks are almost comically indie-centric there though. Caitlin Rose is great as well.

I always assume the Rough Trade list is shaped by ahem commercial imperatives considering how early it comes out each year, but looking at it it could be genuinely representative of people who work at Rough Trade as well.

rough trade epitomises corporate indie though right? it's a shop.

i really wanted to like the john grant album given how much i loved his previous but despite trying very hard i never got over the clunkiness of the added electronics and ended up not going back to it ever.

god i almost want every other outlet to hurry up with their lists so we can discuss something other than this thuddingly safe & dull thing

i really can't get over choosing JON HOPKINS and MODERAT as your token electronic picks, i don't even hate either but it sums it up right there

I don't think commercial imperatives come into play but there are certain albums that the staff love and have pushed hard to customers this year, which explains the kind of low-key indie records that I haven't even heard of. That's not a "corporate" list in the top 15, although it suddenly becomes one when you get to the very dull London Grammar album and a handful of alt-rock heavyweights who aren't at their best.

I like the Jon Hopkins album OK but I share Lex's bemusement that it's become the consensus electronic pick when it's very similar to five-year-old Holden and Nathan Fake albums.

I think it's only really clunky on two tracks (and everyone seems united on what those are) but its high points are very high indeed. There's enough good stuff on this list that I'm at least vaguely interested in checking out the albums I don't know, despite how boring the Savages/QOTSA/Daughter records are.

Guys you forgot the Daniel Avery album, which has a couple of good tracks but mostly sounds like a 12 year old with no rhythmic sense producing My First Acid House Record.

london grammar definitely seem like this year's "guys the industry is really pushing this one" favourite repped only by our most PR arse-kissing colleagues

the funny thing about hopkins getting so much praise is that holden himself has actually released a genuinely brilliant album this year that does not sound like he did in 2005-07!

london grammar did top the album charts tho. am curious to learn how exactly but not enough to actually find out

rt list is obv a conflation of narrowing record pool and, like many ilx posters, narrowing taste as age takes its toll on the staff's mental faculties. never was much cop tbf but an increasingly pathetic sight all the same

My music teacher sister-in-law is very much into london grammar, probably about the only new thing she's bought all year?

Daniel Avery's not as bad as Matt makes out, but it is a bit weird picking that one above e.g. Factory Floor

yeah i feel like i missed where lg's in was this year - had assumed like an advert spot or some such but then the xx didnt have one either iirc

for something that gets characterised as unthinking the coffee table pull is deceptively puissant among the masses really

I've listened to it all the way through, it's not terrible but it's kind of dull and the vocalist has some dreadful stage school mannerisms. It's sort of splitting the difference between Jessie Ware (complete with appearance on the Disclosure album) and I dunno Anna Calvi or Florence's quieter moments or something. It's hit directly in the middle of a venn diagram so I'm not surprised it's doing well. I would say Dido but that's too loaded in this day and age.

I've heard maybe 5 albums on this list, only MBV is awesome, the others didn't make my own top 25.

Splice Today will have our own list once again, sometime in mid-December

feel like our american chums are missing out if we don't share a london grammar photo:

http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/624x351/p01gb9nv.jpg

I went back and forth on voting for VW but won't/haven't in a top ten way (though it made my top 25 for MAGNET). It's a good album, a really good album, but not stellar on the level of what a bunch if other people got up to this year

This year I'm totally using the Wire list as a buying guide

I keep telling people I like London grammar because I keep thinking that London grammar are clean bandit

Sister Ray Staff end of year staff chart:
SAVAGES – SILENCE YOURSELF
NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS – PUSH THE SKY AWAY
HOOKWORMS – PEARL MYSTIC
ARCTIC MONKEYS – AM
ONEOHTRIX POISANT NEVER – R PLUS SEVEN
MOGWAI – LES REVENANTS
DANIEL AVERY – DRONE LOGIC
WIRE – CHANGE BECOMES US
FUZZ – FUZZ
TIM HECKER – VIRGINS
JOHNNY MARR – THE MESSENGER
FUCK BUTTONS – SLOW FOCUS
UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRA – II
SPECIAL REQUEST – SOUL MUSIC
SALVIA PLATH – BARDO STORY
POND – HOBO ROCKET
TY SEGALL – SLEEPER
LAUREL HALO – CHANCE OF RAIN
KURT VILE – WAKIN' ON A PRETTY DAZE
JON HOPKINS – IMMUNITY

xp that is an unfortunate blunder. but on the plus side it does kinda correctly exalt the latter in a way - like if awkward wite well-meaning uni poshos are going to get together and make music then why are only clean bandit bright and honest and capricious enough to sound like clean bandit?

http://u.jimdo.com/www38/o/sda0c94d89b4b9f1b/img/i69ddcf493ec8d261/1378388479/std/get-your-kicks-with-kiko-the-kangaroo-and-puddy-too.jpg

i was talking about the metal kids in the real world not the kids in general.

albeit the really big bands like avenged sevenfold mix screaming with singing.

you mean "clean" vocals and "unclean" vocals, in metalcore parlance

I'm not fed up with shoegazy atmospheric black metal!

clean, unclean and don mclean

haha "unclean vocals"

Idk JF I know a lot of kids who are down with metalcore and death metal. They're not hard to find

dont blame jf for staying away from metalcore & deathcore kids tbh. worst music ever

It's not a critic poll, but I found the results of this year's Metacritic User Poll rather amusing:
http://www.metacritic.com/feature/best-of-2013-user-poll-results?page_comment=1

Sometmes you forget how rabid an artist's fanbase can be at times.

Haha, the little monsters are pretty good at focusing their collective power.

okay lol

lol i love how even "venus" made the songs list

sad thing is if artpop was doing better i doubt there'd be such an effort by her fanbase to get her at the top of at least one chart somewhere. born this way barely scratched the top 20 back in 2011.

Not a critics' poll but here apparently are the top selling VINYL albums of 2013 (presumably in the US?):

01. Daft Punk – Random Access Memories
02. Vampire Weekend – Modern Vampires of the City
03. Arcade Fire – Reflektor
04. Mumford & Sons – Babel
05. Mumford & Sons – Sigh No More
06. Queens of the Stone Age – …Like Clockwork
07. Bon Iver – For Emma Forever Ago
08. Lumineers – Lumineers
09. The National – Trouble Will Find Me
10. Justin Timberlake – The 20/20 Experience

http://www.tinymixtapes.com/news/daft-punk-vampire-weekend-and-arcade-fire-top-the-vinyl-charts-for-2013

So basically, people who buy new vinyl albums have even more boring taste than everyone else

TWO Mumford albums????????

(I originally typed "Mufmord", almost left it because that sounds like a death metal band name)

http://static1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120124175850/muppet/images/5/5c/TheAmazingMumford-tumblrPicture2.png

muffmorte

ItsFabianAndres

Jan 7, 2014 8:09PM

ARTPOP was a fantastic album and one of the best pop albums of 2013. You pretentious hipsters in your stupid ass beanies can stay pressed like cuban sandwiches. Go fist yourselves with one of your indie rock vinyls.

now that's just a lot of confusing imagery

I do agree that ass beanies are stupid, tho

Go fist yourselves with one of your indie rock vinyls.

intend to repurpose this line at an appropriate time, possibly vampire weekend related

but ARTPOP was just as terrible as Vampire Weekend, is the thing

having trouble fisting myself with the Neu! box set

Go fist yourselves with one of your indie rock vinyls.

Most offensive thing here is use of 'vinyls'.

but ARTPOP was just as terrible as Vampire Weekend, is the thing

yeah which is why i'll be repurposing it later and not in defence of artpop!

having trouble fisting myself with the Neu! box set

when I think about you I fist myself - Da Vinyls

kudos

Haha

http://www.soulexpress.net/deep1_2014.htm

TOP-10 in 2013 *

(Full-length, new official releases)

1. Otis Clay: Truth Is
2. Latimore: Remembers Ray Charles
3. Johnny Rawls: Remembering O.V.
4. Jeffrey Osborne: A Time For Love
5. Charles Bradley: Victim Of Love
6. Vel Omarr: Cookin’ With Vel Omarr
7. Wendell B: Get To Kno’ Me
8. Will Downing: Silver
9. The Mighty Clouds Of Joy: All That I Am, Chapter 1
10. Lola: Cleaning House
© Heikki Suosalo

http://www.nashvillescene.com/nashville/the-results/Content?oid=4034364

Christgau weighs in

http://bnreview.barnesandnoble.com/t5/Rock-Roll/The-Consensus-Has-Consequences/ba-p/12189 his essay

http://bnreview.barnesandnoble.com/t5/Rock-Roll/The-2013-Dean-s-List/ba-p/12191

85 albums with the following top 10 ones

1. Vampire Weekend: Modern Vampires of the City (XL)
2. The Uncluded: Hokey Fright (Rhymesayers)
3. The Julie Ruin: Run Fast (TJR)
4. Jeffrey Lewis & Peter Stampfel: Hey Hey It's...the Jeffrey Lewis & Peter Stampfel Band (self-released)
5. Live from Festival au Desert Timbuktu (Clermont Music)
6. Lady Gaga: Artpop (Streamline/Interscope)
7. Eminem: The Marshall Mathers LP 2 (Deluxe Edition) (Aftermath)
8. Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni ba: Jama Ko (Out Here)
9. Gogol Bordello: Pura Vida Conspiracy (ATO)
10. The Knife: Shaking the Habitual (Mute

Complained on xhuxk's wall that both the absence of a singles list and the squishy "It takes all kinds. And we're healthier as a culture when we agree on a bunch of them."

Boy does xgau love Gogol Bordello

Has there ever been a Peter Stampfel project he hasn't liked?

It felt that way to me but I see he says:

the 75-year-old Stampfel's best record since the even more cooperative Have Moicy! 38 years ago,

He expresses his unhappiness that Maura and others don't like the Lady Gaga as much as he does

No interest in ILM's in house poll? I find that puzzling.

I'm feeling guilty I didn't find the time to vote. But I did start looking at it and I saw this below which means I need to check out your ballot:

Rudipherous's ballot is awesome in both spirit and content

I'm so glad ppl voted for the selma oxor & neneh cherry tracks I nommed & then negged, I was feeling guilty

― chekhprivan (wins), Friday, January 24, 2014 1:40 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I didn't even see that.

Oh I see it picked up a lot of posts since I looked at it before going to bed last night.

Well, I will have to see if Christgau fave African albums also have shown up on the ILM in-house poll

Albums haven't been rolled out yet.

Spotify playlist for the track winners (with some missing) here:

https://play.spotify.com/user/forksclovetofu/playlist/6aanFh0UkiNJlrvg3kZgmI

(If that doesn't open for your properly, try put it into the search box in Spotify.)

Or youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRHeAwiD-CsRG-9rOfi3PLC9Rcw2R06lC

There definitely are some good tunes missing from Spotify, notably Lulu James's "Closer."

Boy does xgau love Gogol Bordello

And Kimya Dawson. The Uncluded is her with a rapper I had never heard before named Aesop Rock. As a Dean acolyte I bought it. Love the stuff with Kimya but that guy's voice is not my cup of musical tea.

i would like to see a slatepitch about the lack of audience overlap between kimya dawson and aesop rock, because i can believe that i would be going to never believe how much there was

man kimya dawson plus aesop rock is some heavy 2001 shit

http://fuckyouhipsters.blogspot.fr/2014/01/fuck-you-hipsters-podsumowuja-dobre.html

Pretty good list of best polish records. Stara Rzeka is present obviosuly, along with his two other projects: T'ien Lai (http://tienlai.bandcamp.com/) and Alameda 3 (http://alamedacountydeathcult.bandcamp.com/).

Blurbs are in polish but you can find most of these on bandcamp/soundcloud/spotify easily. Some of them:
https://soundcloud.com/kirkkirk/sets/z-a-krew - kIRk 'Zla krew' (winner)
http://open.spotify.com/album/3ozjrP9lQG5MUBYn9QphFQ - Super Girl & Romantic Boys (number 2, super kitschy 80s electro)
http://open.spotify.com/album/4N3qM5HIHD8aqL3r44qd4R - Kixnare (number 3, electronic/instrumental hip-hop, "Gucci Dough" is the obvious hit song but all of it is worth a listen)
http://kaseciarz.bandcamp.com/ - Kaseciarz, "low budget rock and roll"
https://lxmp.bandcamp.com/ - LXMP, take on "Future Shock" by two of the best polish musicians, commisioned for the Unsound Festival.
http://open.spotify.com/album/4w6BLeGIfTvuc2XepFXUaI - RSS B0ys (great, dark techno)

Awesome. Thanks for posting that!