It is time once again, fair blog readers, for the last remaining “year-end” list that I still do: music. I’ve been making these lists since 2007, but the first few were on my MySpace blog, which has been destroyed, but you can see past Notes From the Fire music lists here:
If you are a person who regularly receives CDs from me in the mail, you’ll be getting a mix disc representing this list. Don’t get discs from me and want one? Drop me an e-mail/ text/ blog comment and I’ll send you one. Oh, and just to be clear, this is my favorite music that was released in 2013, not just the music I loved the most during the year. That list would look a bit different.
I had to make it a top 11 list, I was unable to take any of these artists off the list. So, without further ado, in order, the albums I liked most in 2013:
11. Elvis Costello and The Roots, “Wise Up Ghost”
What seems like an unlikely pairing when you first hear about it turns out to be something that seems like it should have happened all along. All snarl, no filler.
10. Editors, “The Weight of Your Love”
These British whiners just keep finding ways to whine that feel like they’re punching you in the goddamn throat. And they keep building on previous albums and boldly evolving.
9. Kings of Leon, “Mechanical Bull”
We’re obviously never going back to the shit-kicking jambalaya balling rock of the band’s youth, but this new, outsized punching bag swing will do just fine.
8. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, “Push the Sky Away”
An album a little short on excitement, but 100% dripping in atmosphere, as well as what this band does best: the saddest sex songs on Earth.
7. Deerhunter, “Monomania”
The creepy indie shoegazers are back, and NOT weirder than ever! Bradford Cox and company get a little more structured on this disc, which suits them just fine. Have four minutes? Watch this. All the way through.
6. Kinski, “Cosy Moments”
The little-known drone-rockers (I just made up that term) get all vocal-y on their best album yet. Unlike anything you’ve ever heard.
5. “Oblivion” soundtrack by M83
The French electronica duo M83 have here crafted the most jarring, emotionally resonant film score since Hans Zimmer’s “Inception”.
4. Willis Earl Beal, “Nobody Knows”
Willis Earl Beal
Probably the most thrilling, humbling, disquieting debut from a solo artist that I have ever been witness to. Please get on the Willis Earl Beal train. His music is soulful, disturbing, beautiful, and pummeling. In addition, he’s a personality with clear potential to ascend to the next level in the cultural zeitgeist. Get on the train early, you heard it here first. Plus, watch this.
3. Arcade Fire, “Reflektor”
Perennially one of my favorite bands, most years this album would have taken my #1 spot, but the competition was stiff this year. Like their previous outings, “Reflektor” is a true work of artistic genius, both analytical and guttural, not afraid to come at modern topics through academic approaches, and canvassing world music and deep rock history for influences, resulting in a rounded, eclectic-sounding collection of contemplative ass-kickers.
2. 
The National, “Trouble Will Find Me”
If I were to, right this moment, make a list of my favorite bands, The National would almost certainly be #1. Matt Berninger’s wickedly free-associative lyrics uncover profound things within me, and the band’s perfectly balanced approach to squeezing life through a hole in a tomato aligns precisely with my temperament. This album (the first new one to come out since I became a fan of the band) was no disappointment. I’ve listened to its melancholy bathtub bleedout tunes hundreds of times this year. Click here to watch the lyric video I made of my favorite song on the album, “Don’t Swallow the Cap”. It references the Beatles and Nirvana’s “Nevermind”. You’ll like it, but listen to it twice in a row.
1. Man Man, “On Oni Pond”
Man Man are a band like no other. They are most often termed “experimental”, but some of the more memorable labels that have been adhered to them are “Viking swing”, “carnival rock” and “voodoo funk”. They must be experienced to be understood.
While I am always excited for a new Man Man album, they have always been more about the live experience for me. I do believe this is even the first time one of their albums has made one of my year-end lists, let alone topped it. I was never expecting “On Oni Pond” to blow me away the way it did.
Here the band actually attempts to “mature” while maintaining their signature quirkiness. It works in ways I wouldn’t have thought possible. Honus Honus (the moniker lead singer Ryan Kattner goes by) sings in turns about seemingly silly things like “pink wontons” or Wolf Blitzer (in the song “End Boss”) and then turns around and gently reminds us “nobody knows/ where the time goes./ nobody knows” (in “Fangs”). The combination of calculated buffoonery and genuine affectation left me wanting more, dancing around my living room.
Notes From the Fire 