My favourite albums of 2013

It has been an excellent year for new music, and in the end I struggled to limit myself to just a top 10, but here goes.

1) Roomrunner - Ideal Cities: As I said here, "if riffs could kill then Roomrunner would be a weapon of mass destruction". Ideal Cities is a crushing, hook-ladened and sonically inventive record. They're also a fantastic live band where something memorable seems to happen each time I've seen them (4 times so far).



2) Föllakzoid - II: Not only is II one of my favourite records of the year (reviewed here), it spawned my interest in Chilean rock music, which has some of the most incredible bands of the last decade. There is a new space-rock champion and their name is Föllakzoid.



3) Anna Calvi - One Breath: Having been a fan since before her debut album came out (profile), I was pretty confident that Anna wouldn't suffer from second-album-syndrome and she justified my faith with the wonderful, One Breath. I managed to catch her recent show in New York as well which was fantastic. 



4) John Grant - Pale Green Ghosts: This one crept up on me a little bit, but Pale Green Ghosts is perhaps my most played album of the year, and contains some of the best, most bitingly sarcastic lyrics I've heard in a long time. I managed to catch his recent show in New York, which I reviewed here. 



5) Mikal Cronin - II: This is one of those records where every song is so consistently strong that there isn't really a focal point or highlight. He plays almost everything on the album, the melodies are instant, perhaps so instant that the depth of the lyrics are missed on first listen, with lines like "Faith is just a lover I don’t own. Love is just an answer I don’t know".



6) The Men - New Moon: I reviewed this album earlier in the year here, my enthusiasm has not waned since it was released back in March. 

7) Weekend - Jinx: Slumberland have a great roster of acts at the moment, with Joanna Gruesome, Veronica Falls, Girls Names all releasing material worthy of consideration for this list. The pinnacle however, is Weekend's second album, Jinx, an assured and meticulously crafted record with as wide a colour pallette as you'll hear. 



8) Sisu - Blood Tears: Sandra Vu is better known as the drummer in Dum Dum Girls, but Sisu's output is more impressive, imo, debut album, Blood Tears was released the previous EP also got a re-issue. The album is filled with what are essentially dark, post-punk pop songs, highly recommended (artist to watch profile here and live review here).



9) Wymond Miles - Cut Yourself Free: This shouldn't come as much surprise (artist to watch profile here, live mention here), Wmon is one of those people that can't seem to write a bad song.



10) Mark Kozelek and Jimmy LaVelle - Perils from the Sea: Another album I reviewed earlier in the year, Kozelek moves out of his comfort zone to wonderful effect.

Top 10 gigs post coming soon...

The Men - New Moon album + Bowery Ballroom review

The Men have described New Moon as "their most intensely personal album" and they certainly serve up both an enchanting and complex record that will demand effort from any listener.

The record opens with a low-key country number, Open the Door before we're served up a double whammy of raucous Americana-like workouts with Half Angel Half Light followed by Without a Face. It's as if someone ripped up the country-rock rule book, sped things up and turned all the amps up to 11, like someone held a gun to Tom Petty's head and told him to put together a real fucking rock and roll record by the morning or they would blow his brains out (note - this record does not sound like Tom Petty...), the songs are raw and haven't been laboured over. There's definitely a Neil Young and Crazy Horse vibe on some of the songs, like I Saw Her Face, which would fit seamlessly onto Zuma, complete with raging guitar solo. 

High and Lonesome gives us a couple of minutes to catch our breaths and reflect with a forlorn slide guitar taking centre stage. It isn't long before before you're caught up in another whirlwind, as The Brass does its best to melt your brain.

Lead single, Electric, is probably closest the band come to sounding like previous record, Open Your Heart.

The album closes with Supermoon, which features more of that crazy, crashing and burning wig-out that that gives your brain a real workout, not in a look at us type way, just a band that is pushing themselves to their very limit, dragging the listener along with them whether they like it or not. The only thing missing is an actual kitchen sink! I haven't been left reeling like this by a closing song in a long time, while the band may have gone in a slightly more traditional direction they have not substituted any of their intensity and in some ways have even upped it, they have to play even harder in this setup. For me, New Moon is the strongest record of 2013 so far. 

I managed to pick up bonus EP, Campfire Songs at their record release show, a 5 song set, which sounds like the title suggests, a bunch of guys sat around a campfire with acoustic guitars. It's a lovely accompaniment to the record, the vocals are distant, almost demo-like. 

At their sold-out Bowery Ballroom show, openers Parquet Courts impressed me greatly, I had listened to their record, Light Up Gold, which did pass me by a little bit but off the back of their support slot I will certainly revisit. 

Nude Beach were also on the bill, who I had seen the previous night supporting The Babies at the Knitting Factory, they play an unashamed retro garage rock that is infectious, thankfully that night they played their best song, Some Kinda Love, which they hadn't played the night before.

This was the first time I had seen The Men, and they do not excel at subtlety! It must be a difficult job to get the sound right when you've got 5 guys going full-on all the time, the vocals were way too low in the mix but aside from that small complaint the band absolutely rifled through their set, even the slow numbers seemed to give little respite.

The set was obviously tilted towards the new material, but we still got a smattering of material from the previous two records, the venue erupted when they stormed through Open Your Heart, in particular. They are an impressive live act, and I'll certainly be hoping to catch them again now that I've had a chance to immerse myself in the album.