The Top 10 Albums of 2013

10.  Haim
Days Are Gone

Days Are Gone is the sumptuous throwback debut that was unexpected in every way. These girls are talented beyond belief, and their 80s-fem-rock acumen is beyond compare. Their songwriting, lyrical structure, and musicianship are above reproach, and they have crafted an album that is part goodtimes fun, part regretful past, and all heartfelt arena rock.

09. Nine Inch Nails
Hesitation Marks

For his first album in five years, Trent Reznor employed an unheard of technique in the NIN catalog...letting other people help. Doing so has resulted in Reznor's finest effort since 1999's The Fragile; eschewing the bombastic rock anthems that seem to make his previous efforts feel like tired nostalgia, and exchanging them to dance beats and minimalist glitch. The closest thing to a classic NIN song was the single "Came Back Haunted," which was nowhere near the best on the album. Reznor's lyrics, as always are introspective, but this time with a twist: how he sees his younger self during the Downward Spiral years. And let me tell you, the view is not pretty, but goddamn is it mesmerizing.

08. Fuck Buttons
Slow Focus

If you don't think Fuck Buttons is the loudest dance act around, it's because they long ago shattered your eardrums, and you just didn't know it. The duo with the unspeakable (in polite company) name somehow found a way to improve on their sophomore effort, Tarot Sport--make bigger beats. Essentially, FB was an experimental metal outfit that only used synths and programmers, but now that they found Crystal Castles' drum machine, nothing will stop them. Sure, you can talk about your Daft Punks, Basement Jaxxs (Jaxxi?), and Tiestos, but these guys will start a rave and then fight everyone inside of it.

07. Arcade Fire
Reflektor

Arcade Fire's senior effort is dense, complex, and long. You won't get it, and I'm not a hipster saying that self-importantly; I don't get it either. It's hard to listen to, but when you finish Reflektor, you have completed a great work, like sculpting David out of granite with a prison shank. You are tired from the effort, but fulfilled by the accomplishment. This album didn't win many awards: it's too confusing. It won't sell as many copies as The Suburbs: it's too inaccessible. What it will do is--like Funeral did so many years ago--transform how independent, low-budget bands write and record their music. Like so many art museums, Reflektor isn't fun, but it is beautiful, and full of wonder.

06. David Bowie
The Next Day

Is there anything to write here that hasn't already been written about David Bowie? He isn't exactly releasing music for street cred anymore; nor is he doing it for the money (there is no tour to accompany The Next Day). It's obvious that Bowie is just a straight-up musician who can't help but write some of the most intriguing, bizarre, catchy, rocking songs out there. The Next Day is full of surprises, given Bowie's most recent previous efforts: the title track is straight out of his Berlin period, "Valentine's Day" is a post-industrial blues song commenting on the rise of mass shootings, and "Boss of Me" is oddest love song written since "Heart's Filthy Lesson."

05. Queens of the Stone Age
...Like Clockwork

After a six-year hiatus, Josh Homme and crew have returned to deliver one of the best hard rock albums in over a decade (probably since their own Songs for the Deaf in 2002). ...Like Clockwork is tightly written and executed, despite a list of guest stars that reads like a fanboy's wet dream: Trent Reznor, Dave Grohl, Alex Turner, Jake Shears, and the self-described "actual queen from the stone age" Elton John. The songs here are dark, heavy, and better than anything the band has done since Songs. I would say this is the best thing Queens has ever done, but only because it's a completely different sound from the one pioneered on Rated R and Songs so long ago. It's like two different bands competing through time: one has the best alt-rock album of the millennium, one has the best stoner rock album of the millennium.

04. Janelle Monae
The Electric Lady

It would seem that Janelle Monae can only improve. After releasing an essentially flawless album in 2010's The ArchAndroid, Monae has kicked it up a notch with funkier, fresher beats and sucker-punch lyrics that will make you dance right out of your shoes. "Prime Time" is obviously the showstopper here, a melodramatic love song so heartbreakingly well delivered you could cry yourself to sleep, but singles "Q.U.E.E.N." and "Dance Apocalyptic" provide the guest-star power and popping rhythm for which Monae is rightly and justly famous.

03. Kanye West
Yeezus

While many critics and other reviewers describe West's lyrics as evidence of his persecution complex and seemingly anti-white political views, I read into them differently. While Twisted Fantasy made many references to Kanye's own faults, the lyrics on Yeezus see him move from self-deprecation to full-on misanthropy. West has an issue with humanity, it's failings and hard truths the subject of nearly every line. But if Kanye's lyrics are something to marvel at, then the music over which he rhymes is beyond comparison to anything else in Hip-Hop. Here he makes good on his statement from years before where he named Trent Reznor and Thom Yorke as inspirational figures. The instruments and samples are loud and angry, distorted by overblown fuzz and walls of static.The production is stellar, the effects are mind-blowing.

02. Parquet Courts
Light Up Gold

This Brooklyn outfit decided to break all the rules of punk (isn't that what it's about anyway?) and make it surfer-y, and trance-inducing. Great for rocking out or driving long distances, Light Up Gold is full of political alt-rock that is both scathing and funny, as well as fun party songs and "let's kick their asses" anthems. Their over-the-top energy and speed make the perfect combination for a sound that's far better than any of Parquet Courts' contemporaries. Brainy, arty, hazy, and punchy, these songs will make you feel compelled to bounce out of your chair until they leave you wanting more. For a first album, you can't really ask for much more than that.

01. Deafheaven
Sunbather

A story: when I listen to albums to "review" them, I do so in the car on my way to and from work. My car speakers, though standard, are better than any set of headphones I've ever used, and I can't just sit and listen to music by itself, so the car is the perfect place. That said, on my way home one day in mid-June, I put on Sunbather, Deafheaven's second album, and having not turned down the volume from my NIN playlist, "Dream House" opened with an ear-shattering loudness. I quickly adjusted the knob to a more manageable (and bystander friendly) setting, but as I drove up I-95 I began to realize something: it wasn't loud enough anymore. So I turned it up. A minute later, it wasn't loud enough again. This pattern continued until the volume in my car was above the original "ear-shattering" level, and it was just getting good. No, it wasn't road noise, or crappy production that made the music continually softer, it's just that Sunbather begs to be played at the loudest possible setting--Spinal Tap's mythical "11". So, an hour later, with my car windows shattered and blood coming out of my ears, I came to a realization: with its wall of sonic noise and indiscernible screaming, this is what metal is supposed to sound like.

The Top 20 Songs of 2013

20. Glass Candy

"Warm in the Winter"

Glass Candy, one of the many projects of Johnny Jewel, is exactly what it's name suggests: a sweet, glossy pop that's both tantalizing and deadly. And while the duo has been around for years, "Warm in the Winter" is quite possibly their best effort.
Listen

19. Wavves

"Nine Is God"

Wavves has moved from bizarre experimental, to surfer, to just straight up rock in the span of four albums, but this offering, written specifically for Grand Theft Auto V's soundtrack, is their most hard core yet. Rock out!
Listen

18. Ceo

"Whorehouse"

Ceo has always been the red-headed stepchild of chill-wave, but this track, released to promote his forthcoming new album, is dance-able, complex, and catchy as all hell.
Listen

17. Yeasayer

"Don't Come Close"

The second on this list of many from the Grand Theft Auto V soundtrack. Whoever produced that thing is a genius above and beyond any musical talent I have heard before. That said, Yeasayer make dumping your girlfriend (or, the inability to do so) sound like the most fun thing ever.
Listen

16. Drake

"Hold On, We're Going Home"

Was there some sort of question about this being on a year-end list? This is the most mournful "we should totally bone" song in existence. How long has it been, Drake?
Listen

15. Arcade Fire

"Afterlife"

Arcade Fire have a way with words: "Afterlife, Oh my God, what an awful word." Doesn't really give you much hope for the future does it? But if anyone can make nihilism sound stylish, it's this group.
Listen

14. Nine Inch Nails

"Came Back Haunted"

The single from Trent Reznor's "return" to music (did he ever leave?) is NIN's best attempt at being Daft Punk. Fortunately for everyone, everywhere, unlike Daft Punk, it's not overrated and boring. Besides, how could anyone not like a song that is clearly about "The Call of Cthulhu"?
Listen

13. Queens of the Stone Age

"I Appear Missing"

For what must be QOTSA's most personal song, Josh Homme sings about the feeling of drowning while being clinically dead, and the hope that you keep, in the back of your shutting-down-forever mind, that your friends and family don't pull the plug too soon. So much for Queens being a party band.
Listen

12. David Bowie

"The Next Day"

Who knew 67-year-old guys could still rock out? This songs has all the punch of Bowie's best, with just enough of his trademark weirdness to keep it interesting and fresh. The best surprise of the year.
Listen

11. Fuck Buttons

"Brainfreeze"

I don't think there's an electronica act out there louder than Fuck Buttons. "Brainfreeze" is the duo at the top of their game: awesome beat, crazy hook, gnarly distortion.
Listen

10. Haim

"The Wire"

Haim are a glorious throwback of a band, recalling the best of Heart and Pat Benatar, while adding a little funk and sophistication of their own. If this song doesn't hook you on first listen...there's something wrong with your ears.
Listen

09. Favored Nations

"The Set Up"

I had never heard of Favored Nations before GTA V, and a quick Wikipedia search will yield you precisely zilch. However, "The Setup," with it's glitchy, ultra-repetitive lyrics and in-your-face guitar hook, is one of the most fun songs to listen to.
Listen

08. Janelle Monae

"Prime Time"

One of my favorite musical discoveries of all time is Janelle Monae, and "Prime Time" is the perfect example why. While she's known for her fun and funky rhythms, here she croons with the best of them to create the most soulful and melodramatic love song of this decade.
Listen

07. Parquet Courts

"Stoned and Starving"

Parquet Courts exploded out of the Brooklyn scene with a fresh take on punk: make it fun. And while that sentiment may make "Stoned and Starving" feel like a guilty pleasure, it's actually a fantastic long-form ode to the joys and frustrations of being utterly, totally bored.
Listen

06. Nine Inch Nails

"All Time Low"

If you thought Trent Reznor would let himself slip into the realm of nostalgia, you were horribly wrong. If there's one thing the man who fronts NIN has proven again and again, it's that he's not afraid of reinventing his sound. "All Time Low" is a fantastically addictive funk song, spliced with the classic Nails texturing and glitch. The best song he's written since the Fragile days.
Listen

05. Arcade Fire

"Reflektor"

Speaking of funky songs, Arcade Fire's first single and title track from their new album is begging to form a conga line. Despite the heavy topic (and heavy-handedness of the topic), "Reflektor" makes for amazing fun, with a drum-and-bass sound that will have you shaking in your seat.
Watch the insane video!

04. Deafheaven

"Dream House"

Before Deafheaven's "Dream House," never had screaming been so bafflingly listenable or startlingly beautiful. I'm usually not a fan of the high-pitched wail, but there's something about how this band presents it--the wall of sound and guitar distortion mixed far in the front--that makes you unable to turn it off. I never felt like crying while listening to metal before, but this could make me start.
Listen

03. Queens of the Stone Age

"If I Had a Tail"

Queens of the Stone Age are masters at making the creepiest topics sound ass-kicking awesome. While Homme has written one song about becoming a vampire, and another about worshiping the sun...on the same album, the latter can't shine a light (YEEEAAAHH!) on the former. "If I Had a Tail" starts with the drone of the a thousand years of nighttime living and ends with the most bone-chilling outro in music history.
Listen

02. Kanye West

"Black Skinhead"

Much has already been said about West creating a song saying he's not for sale (as seen above), then immediately selling said song to Motorola for an untold sum ("vast" is what I've heard). No matter, the drum beat alone is worth millions, the breathlessness sample used as a backing hook is priceless. This is Kanye at his very best: loud, brash, earworming, unforgettable, and exceptional. "Black Skinhead" will go down as one of his very best.
Listen

01. Age of Consent

"Colours"

Minimalism is underrated in the world of dance. Here, Age of Consent do their best New Order impersonation and create a party anthem that is better than "Blue Monday." As the singer drones on about going out all night, he also, quite sarcastically, states the qualities he expects of his fellow clubbers, all over the simplest beat and a seizure-inducing synth chop. The song ends with a declaration of permanence: "I will never fade away;" such a statement, with its inferred pleading, is second only to that of Ozymandias in both its scale and its desperation.
Listen! Dance!

Album of the Week (10/29/2013)

Arcade Fire
Reflektor
Merge

If other albums are Frost-ian poetry, Reflektor is Kant's Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. By that I mean Arcade Fire's senior effort is dense, complex, and long. You won't get it, and I'm not a hipster saying that self-importantly; I don't get it either. It's hard to listen to: you hear the fun beats and bass lines of "We Exist," but there's something weighing you down, pulling you into any abyss of self-doubt and fear. "It's Never Over (Oh Orpheus)," perhaps Arcade Fire's greatest song, is the 900-page textbook for your favorite subject in school--so many interesting and fun facts hidden beneath a metric ton of minutiae and intricate calculations. When you finish Reflektor, you have completed a great work, like sculpting David out of granite with a prison shank. You are tired from the effort, but fulfilled by the accomplishment. This album won't win many awards: it's too confusing. It won't sell as many copies as The Suburbs: it's too inaccessible. What it will do is--like Funeral did so many years ago--transform how independent, low-budget bands write and record their music. Like so many art museums, Reflektor isn't fun, but it is beautiful, and full of wonder.

Album of the Week (9/13/2013)

Janelle Monae
The Electric Lady
Wondaland Arts Society

On The Electric Lady, Janelle Monae continues on her quest to reinvent R&B. And not only does she do just that, but she burns down any semblance of the old version. Picking up where 2010's outstanding The Arch Android left off, Lady lays down funky beats over Monae's sob-worthy lyrics (listen to "Primetime" alone in your room and you'll see what I mean) about loneliness and a failure to connect with humanity, fully capturing the Metropolis feeling as well as her own insecurities. Beautifully written, gorgeously arranged, and sumptuously recorded, Monae never disappoints with Electric Lady, and it's high time she got recognition for her brilliance.

The Best Albums of 2013...So Far

This year is looking to be one of the best in recent memory for music. So many artists are coming out with their best work at the same time, it's like a fireworks finale for your ears.  And the best part is, there's still six more months to go.

Shall we...

5. The National

Trouble Will Find Me

Supposedly inspired by the birth of guitarist Aaron Dessner's daughter, The National's newest effort is noticeably lighter and simpler than 2010's High Violet. However, that doesn't mean it's not as good, or unrecognizable. Each sound is more precisely chosen, the lyrics more tuneful and elegant than ever. Also, just look at that album art; it's pretty sweet.

4. Parquet Courts

Light Up Gold

"Beachy," "fun," and "completely childish" are not words you would normally associate with punk rock, but Parquet Courts know what they're doing. Technically this album was released last year, but it's reissue in 2013, and the fact that no one heard of it in 2012, means it makes the list, and boy does it deserve to be here. There's not a single bad song; whether it's 45-seconds long or 6-minutes long, every one will have you bouncing up and down in your seat as you drive down the highway.

3. Kanye West
Yeezus

Kanye has made some bold moves (musically) to release this album: there's no actual single, no album art, it was recorded in a Paris hotel room. The bass is bombed out, the beats are awkward and off-time, the lyrics are controversial at the best of times. But all that just adds up to what is not only Kanye's best album, but on of the most stylish and unflinching Hip-Hop albums of all time.

2. Queens of the Stone Age
...Like Clockwork

Surprised? I know, me too. As much as I've been talking about this album it only made it to #2. That doesn't mean it's not the best thing Queens has done since 2002's Songs for the Deaf, because it is. Dark and minimally produced, Clockwork is the craziest turn QOTSA could have taken that doesn't include polka, but it's crazy awesome.

1. Deafheaven
Sunbather

A story: when I listen to albums to "review" them, I do so in the car on my way to and from work. My car speakers, though standard, are better than any set of headphones I've ever used, and I can't just sit and listen to music by itself, so the car is the perfect place. That said, on my way home one day in mid-June, I put on Sunbather, Deafheaven's second album, and having not turned down the volume from my NIN playlist, "Dream House" opened with an ear-shattering loudness. I quickly adjusted the knob to a more manageable (and bystander friendly) setting, but as I drove up I-95 I began to realize something: it wasn't loud enough anymore. So I turned it up. A minute later, it wasn't loud enough again. This pattern continued until the volume in my car was above the original "ear-shattering" level, and it was just getting good. No, it wasn't road noise, or crappy production that made the music continually softer, it's just that Sunbather begs to be played at the loudest possible setting--Spinal Tap's mythical "11". So, an hour later, with my car windows shattered and blood coming out of my ears, I came to a realization: with its wall of sonic noise and indiscernible screaming, this is what metal is supposed to sound like.

Yeezus: Album of the Week (6/20/2013)

Kanye West
Yeezus
Genre: Industrial Hip-Hop

To say that Kanye West is a controversial figure is the same as saying Lady Gaga's fashion choices are only slightly questionable. However, that doesn't mean the man can't produce a mean beat, smooth rhyme, or earwig hook. Yeezus is no different; in fact, it's the best material West has ever produced.

While many critics and other reviewers describe West's lyrics as evidence of his persecution complex and seemingly anti-white political views, I read into them differently. While Twisted Fantasy made many references to Kanye's own faults, the lyrics on Yeezus see him move from self-deprecation to full-on misanthropy. West has an issue with humanity, it's failings and hard truths the subject of nearly every line.  The best examples here are "New Slaves," which obviously points out America's prison system as racist, but also includes sly references to how rap culture feeds the system, creating a vicious, never-ending cycle of poverty and oppression; and "Blood on the Leaves," which uses the classic West sampling technique overlaying his own relationship study on top of Nina Simone's rendition of "Strange Fruit," a song about lynchings in the 30's-era American South.

If Kanye's lyrics are something to marvel at, then the music over which he rhymes is beyond comparison to anything else in Hip-Hop. Here he makes good on his statement from years before where he named Trent Reznor and Thom Yorke as inspirational figures. The instruments and samples are loud and angry, distorted by overblown fuzz and walls of static. "Black Skinhead" is clearly the masterpiece here, warping background vocals to the point where they sound like guitars, drums pounding louder and faster than anything from 808's. The production is stellar, the effects are mind-blowing.

Here's a controversial statement for you: If you thought Kanye was the new Michael Jackson, you're wrong...Kanye's better than Michael Jackson.

Album of the Week (6/05/2013)

Queens of the Stone Age
...Like Clockwork
Genre: Desert Rock

This feels great to say...Queens of the Stone Age are BACK! After a six-year hiatus, Josh Homme and crew have returned to deliver one of the best alt-rock albums in over a decade (probably since their own Songs for the Deaf in 2002). ...Like Clockwork is tightly written and executed, despite a list of guest stars that reads like a fanboy's wet dream: Trent Reznor, Dave Grohl, Alex Turner, Jake Shears, and the self-described "actual queen from the stone age" Elton John. The songs here are dark, heavy, and better than anything the band has done since Songs, apart from maybe "Little Sister" and "Misfit Love" off 2005's Lullabies to Paralyze and 2007's Era Vulgaris respectively, both of which had good tunes, but weren't particularly good albums. Lullabies had hit-makers, but became bogged down by experimental sludge at the end. Vulgaris was faster, but became too obsessed with blasting you at full volume in the hopes it could loud it's way to the top of the charts.

Clockwork however, is perfect; the songs are each great in their own right, but together they form a mesmerizing, beautiful whole. Sure, you can pull favorites, "I Sat by the Ocean" and "My God Is the Sun" are classic QOTSA, along with heart-stopping "I Appear Missing," which washes the album in a bath of noise before the title-track closer.  The absolute highlight, as I'm sure you'll read everywhere, is "If I Had a Tail," a creepy, metal ode to the creatures of the night that Homme so desperately wants to join. I would say this is the best thing Queens has ever done, but only because it's a completely different sound from the one pioneered on Rated R and Songs so long ago. It's like two different bands competing through time: one has the best metal album of the millennium, one has the best stoner rock album of the millennium. It's up to you to decide which one is which.

Back at It: Album of the Week (5/13/2013)

Deerhunter
Monomania
Genre: Indie Rock

For their sixth studio album, Deerhunter (now basically just Bradford Cox) has finally become the band they promised they could be in those early flashes from Cryptograms. The ambient droning is gone, the babbling brook sound effects have been thrown out, Monomania is pure garage rock, with Deerhunter doing its best Strokes impersonation. The sound is heavier (even with the lo-fi recording method) and more accessible, more immediate. This the Deerhunter album we've been waiting for.

"Monomania"

The Top 10 Albums of 2012

This was a pretty awesome year for music, and while Queens of the Stone Age still hasn't released their sixth record, I am inclined to say it was still great given what did come out.

If the Top 20 Songs are any hint, this list won't be all that surprising, but 2012 had a lot of pleasant surprises, great new discoveries, and some balls-out rock.

Anyway, here goes...

10. DIIV
Oshin

DIIV has produced one of the best debut albums I've heard in a while. Pulling from chill-wave influences like Neon Indian, and more electro-pop, like Mute Math, imagine if Sufjan Stevens used more electronic instruments. That is DIIV's Oshin, a loud-yet-pretty, bass-driven album full of catchy, repetitive hooks and choruses that will carry this band for quite a while.
"How Long Have You Known"

9. Matthew Dear
Beams

If there's one thing you can count on, it's for Matthew Dear to make some creepy, but totally wicked dance beats and lay the most extreme loops over top of them. Beams builds on the more experimental sound of 2010's Black City and utterly kills while doing so. This should be the soundtrack to every club. No one makes better ethereal dance music than Matthew Dear, and this album is no exception.
"Earthforms"

8. Purity Ring
Shrines

When I first heard of Purity Ring, I thought that a band with that name couldn't be very good. I was very wrong. Despite the flack dub-step gets these days (and much of it rightly so), Purity Ring has made an album of futuristic pop, not the bogged-down dub your used to, with flighty vocals and cleanly produced beats that transport you to a Blade-Runner-esque science-fiction.
"Fineshrine"

7. Cloud Nothings
Attack on Memory

Since Nirvana shot to fame in early 90s, music has changed drastically...or has it? As bands came and went trying to copy the Seattle Grunge sound and then it seemed to be left behind forever, as the "indie" sound moved on to smaller production, and more experimental sounds. Not Cloud Nothings. Attack on Memory is a shocking kick-in-the-pants to an otherwise humdrum indie scene. Powerful chords, big bass, massive drums, angsty lyrics--this is what all those post-Nirvana bands were supposed to sound like.
"Wasted Days"

NOTE: From this point on, not one of these albums has a single downside.

6. Deftones
Koi No Yokan

As terrible as it sounds, Deftones have been better since the loss of bassist Chi Cheng. Their music is more angry, less self-pitying. The sad, somber turntable is gone, metal is king. This is the heaviest that desert rock can sound without becoming sludge metal. This is the darkest nu-metal can get without being Tool. The songs are challenging, but delivered effortlessly, and create a cohesive, textural experience that crushes you with it's weight while lifting you with its messages. Deftones is a masterful band finally coming into their own, redefining the genre that made them, crafting a record that blends ass-kicking rock and melodic soul into a single sound.
"Goon Squad"

5. Crystal Castles
(III)

Not so long ago, there was a duo that made fun-sounding dance music out of old Nintendo cartridges and weirdly distorted vocals out of B-movie samples ("Don't worry, dear Pamela. I'll do my scientific best to command your fleet"). That duo was Crystal Castles, and judging from the sound of (III), that duo is dead. Instead of partying to the point of loneliness, (III) touches on subjects as lighthearted as bride burning, equal access to medication, the persecution of homosexuals, political oppression, and the regimented slaughter of hundreds of thousands whose only crime is desiring freedom. To say that this new Crystal Castles is dark is to say that Syria is stable. These are the depths of despair, the graphic bottom of the world's most horrific crimes laid out before us in all their 8-bit glory. There is no "good times keep rolling" on this album, only the plague.
"Kerosene"

4. A Place to Bury Strangers
Onwards to the Wall EP

I would tell you that this is the best music APTBS has written so far, but that is only half of the truth. What is showcased in Onwards to the Wall is the best music any shoegaze band has ever written. It is louder, it is heavier, the guitars crash more and create more static-filled noise. It is not enough to say that the cacophony of noise hits you like a ton of bricks; it's more like driving full-speed into, well, a wall. Never before has there been a more appropriately named album (except maybe APTBS' 2010 effort, Exploding Head). What is taking place within this band--new bassist, new drummer, both of whom are allowed to write songs now--is a complete overhaul, speeding up the pace and throwing the sound back at you more fiercely than ever. Onwards is more complete, better organized, and just more awesome than almost anything else out there...and it's only five songs.
"Drill It Up"
"I Lost You"

3. Chromatics
Kill for Love

Somewhere, in the depths of our collective conscience, ice has a sound, Christmas lights glinting off melting snow has a score, driving through a city at night in the dead of winter has a particular beat. This is what Chromatics have given us access to, that sound, that score, that beat. Too often we push away the dark and mysterious in exchange for fun and simple. Chromatics have shown here that complex and hazy can be just as engrossing, just as mind-numbing as any pop song, transporting you to a world built out of glass and candy. The woozy, drone-like loops are only enhanced by Ruth Radalet's absinthe-soaked vocals. Listening to Kill for Love makes you feel like you're in a movie.
"Lady"
"At Your Door"

2. Bat for Lashes
The Haunted Man

I think I've probably said enough about Bat for Lashes in the past couple months, and over the past few years, but even more is there to be discussed. While many critics derided Natasha Khan for eschewing her old ways--lush orchestral arrangements, mythical lyrics, complex drumming--this new version makes the music, and the themes behind it, more visceral and accessible than ever.  Khan's vocals are softer, more hurt, and resonate long after the closing of "Deep Sea Diver." The stripped-down beats and overall dearth of strings bring you closer, like story time, to the tales of loves lost. Her voice sails over massive drums on standouts "Horses of the Sun" and "Marilyn," which sound more like something off of Fur and Gold than off of her last effort, the luxurious Two Suns. And previously mentioned "Deep Sea Diver" is the best album-closer Khan has ever delivered; a fitting end to an uplifting tale of tragedy, discovery, and triumph.
"Marilyn"
"A Wall"
"Rest Your Head"

1. Beach House
Bloom

Knowing that Beach House is from Baltimore may make it seem like I'm biased towards them. You're not wrong, but that doesn't mean Bloom isn't the best album of the year. They should be considered, even by  those whose hometowns are not the same as the dream-pop duo, to have majestically woven a tapestry of music so detailed that no words can truly describe them. "Myth," the album opener, alone is better than anything you heard on the radio this year. The songs offered here are so immensely descriptive and beautifully crafted that they transport you to another plane, one where anything is possible. The entire record is a dream-scape that is both ethereal and corporeal, blending cryptic fragments into a smoky whole. The sound--no--the experience of Bloom is one where Beach House lays out questions like a breadcrumb trail, letting you discover the answers on your own. The precisely chosen delivery of every note and syllable gives you enough clues to enjoy the full range of music, without spoiling the ending.
"Myth"
"Wild"
"Lazuli"
"Irene"