Top Ten Albums of 2013

Honorable Mention: Chance the Rapper- Acid Rain
A pressure cooker like Chicago and its looming summer can't do anything else *but* produce a prodigious mixtape from a kid desperate to keep everyone calm and alive until the mercury drops. Stakes don't get higher, responses don't get craftier or more empathetic.

Runner-Up: Malkovich- Great Expectations
Redemption-Sunday soundtrack.  An IV of Clarity into your veins: inspired lyricism and the freshest boom bap. You will get your shit done with a smile on your face.

10. Daft Punk- Random Access Memories
The coolest kids in class were also pulling the long con.  Of course they were.

10. Forest Swords- Engravings
Crazy inventive without ever sounding forced.  Run if you would like Burial to make a soundtrack for playing capture the flag in the forest with all your friends and some stoners you just met.


9. Tim Hecker- Virgins
What if an entire cathedral rested on your shoulders yet didn't crush you?  The choirs would reverberate through your skull.

8. Steve Hauschildt- S/H
My Emeralds bros carry me.

7. Lady Gaga- ARTPOP 
Leeegit her duet with Kermie crushed me.  Better falsetto than Neil Young. (sidebar Jim Henson was a bigger loss than JFK, agree?)

6. Burial- Rival Dealer
If you have to ask, you're streets behind.

5. Thundercat- Apocalypse
Holy wooly shit are there some great pop songs on here.  And some freaky future-jazz to keep up appearances.

4. Califone- Stitches
Have ya met Ted? (Ted is Ben)

3. Kanye West- Yeezus
He doesn't make it easy.  He wants to believe we're better than that.


2.Friendzone- DX
Not so much music as an alternate state of existence:  dazed happiness and clear blue light under your feet.

1. CHVRCHES- The Bones of What You Believe
Cranberries+New Order=done deal