Best of 2013

cafreema

It's that time again! Folks are starting to release their best of lists, so here is a thread to keep them together. So far I've seen:

SPIN
Paste
Stereogum

Stereogum and SPIN agree on #1 (you're not going to like it GP).
Stereogum has Paste's #1 at #50 (SPIN doesn't list it in the top 50), Paste has Stereogum/SPIN's #1 at #17

Craig

bremble

Here are four more:

The Quietus
Q Magazine
Rolling Stone
Mojo

The last three are courtesy Brooklyn Vegan. They have other lists (Decibel - probably metal). RS has Spin's #1 at 2, and it's lower in the UK.

cafreema

Thanks bremble! I'm confused by Rolling Stone having Beck's "Song Reader" at #50. It's just unrecorded sheet music, so the average person can, at best, pluck out the right hand melody on a piano.

Craig

Doofy

Ted Gioia is rolling out his wonderfully extensive and inclusive not-just-jazz list: http://tedgioia.com/bestalbumsof2013.html

(you're not going to like it GP)

Personally, I am waiting for his follow-up album, "Yumpin' Yiminy".

amclark2

Yeah, I love this game; I have, from each:

Paste - 4
Stereogum - 6
Spin - 5
Rolling Stone - 4
Quietus - 4
Q - 6
Mojo - 5

Although I might have a couple of free mix tapes kicking around that I didn't unpack yet. This is looking like my coolest year yet!

cafreema

SPIN - 18
Paste - 23
Stereogum - 21
Quietus - 12
Q - 25 (mostly thanks to the Domino drip)
Rolling Stone - 21
Mojo - 15

Craig

Brighternow

The Quietus - 4
Q Magazine - 1
rolling - 1
mojo - 3

- The rest: 0 - as usual I feel so untrendy . . .

ETA: Oooops
Spin - 1 (#6)

bremble

Q - 2
Rolling Stone - 4
Paste - 4
Mojo - 7
Spin -2
The Quietus - 2
Stereogum - 3

About all of the 2013 releases they'd consider that I purchased are here. I've cut back on a lot of purchases, relying on Spotify to listen to most new releases instead of purchasing them (e.g. Daft Punk and David Bowie).

Bad Thoughts

Beat ya, BN:

Spin -- 0 (1)
Paste -- 0
Stereogum -- 0
Quietus -- 2
Q -- 0
Rolling Stone -- 0
Mojo -- 0 (1)

() = denotes albums I have been seriously considered purchasing in the last five days.

greg

Typically I have 3 or 4 in most lists, heavily scored by Vampire Weekend, Bowie and Arcade Fire, showing my reliance on emusic UK which has few from most lists!

BigD-Bluez

I'm still a contender....... I only had the patience for four lists but my status as cantankerous musical dinosaur remains untarnished. Were it not for dear Neko Case it would be a shut-out on SPIN and Paste, Stereogum's icons are too damned small but they didn't look familiar, and Rolling Stone I had two - Neko and Bowie. I have bought some new albums this year but nothing that's hip or cool mostly - and I like it.

Germanprof

Zero. I have no albums from any of these lists. I found four that I might want to check out (in particular I was not aware that Teeth of the Sea had a new one out).

And I bought way too much music this year. See, that's the problem with these lists, everyone's listening to the wrong music.

Miley Cyrus? Seriously?

(you're not going to like it GP)

Get your tenses straight, I already didn't like it. not even a little :-).

cafreema

I don't remember if I posted it here or not, but I actually tried to listen to the Miley Cyrus album. Thought I should know what people were talking about. Got about a minute into the first track and just couldn't go any further.

You know what's weird? In my general life I feel like an outlier because I listen to stuff that isn't mainstream. Here I feel like an outlier because I listen to stuff that *is* mainstream comparatively. I just don't belong anywhere... :~~(

Craig

Bad Thoughts

See, that's the problem with these lists, everyone's listening to the wrong music.

However, it seems that I (and probably you) did better last year because Amazon made it cheaper for us to buy albums with high visibility.

Germanprof

True. Was it last year that they had that sale where a bunch of popular albums were 99 cents? I think I bought about five just to give them a spin; have listened to almost none of them since.

Germanprof

@craig, we're all outliers here. It's because we are outliers in different directions that it's always interesting.

Brighternow

Bleep top 10 albums
1 (the Hecker album)

Muggsy

I have four albums that appeared on one or more of those lists (My Bloody Valentine, Tegan & Sara, Savages, Johnny Marr). A few others I'm sure I'll get eventually (Neko Case, Bowie, Superchunk). Many I've never even heard of. That's OK with me.

greg

we're all outliers here. It's because we are outliers in different directions that it's always interesting

And maybe that is why we are here! It is that that makes emusers so great, and we need you Craig, with your interests, as much as anyone else...

I'm waiting for Jonah's BiTW list - I'm sure to have a few of those!!

Germanprof

Fluid Radio was far and away the best list for me last year (where best = pointed me to lots of things that were really interesting to me)...not up yet this year, but that's the one I'm most waiting for.

cafreema

Oh, don't get me wrong GP and greg. I know that's what makes it interesting around here. Just an oddity!

Craig

Doofy

Zero. I have no albums from any of these lists.

I actually have one...Savages, originally brought to my attention by Craig. It's the number one alt/indie/rock album on my list this year, because it's probably the only one I've bought!

I'll have more matches once the jazz lists come out, though I'm more prone to use end-of-year lists as guides to interesting things I may have missed.

greg

though I'm more prone to use end-of-year lists as guides to interesting things I may have missed.

Yes I did that too last year with a couple of jazz lists - perhaps I shouldn't go on hold this coming month at emusic as a consequence

Doofy

Ted Gioia's full list is up - Now that's a #1 I can get behind! (You too, GP)

Germanprof

Oh absolutely. Think I'll listen to it now...
Its the only one on that list that I have...I guess I picked the right one.
(I also have one from his honorable mentions list - the Ballak

Brighternow

Ted Gioia's full list is up

- Ah ! that's more like it:
#5 - The Knells - obviously . . .
#16 - Big Farm - Yes !
#37 - Nadia Sirota - absolutely !
#95 - David Lang - should have been in the top 10
#100 - Caleb Burhans - This is a disgrace ! - should have been in the top 3

amclark2

Ted Gioia - 1/2 - (that's one half of one album)- I have Shuggie Otis's Inspiration Information from when it was last released without all the extras.

cafreema

Ted Gioia - 1 (Villagers via Domino Drip)

NME is now out.

25 for me on that list.

Craig

Germanprof

NME must stand for Not ME - zero there too. I am actually starting to wonder if I really bought very many 2013 releases. I'll have to check next time I am on the home computer, where everything lives. Many of my Guvera-tons were old jazz.

amclark2

1. Come to think of it, I think I do have Villagers from the Domino Drip too. Yay; 1.5!

2. NME - 5, so generally in line.

3. I do have Government Plates! I forgot about it; just listened; loved it. So that bumps me up on some of the lists I think...

amclark2

I got lazy/overloaded this year; there were a lot of albums by artists I already had albums by, so instead of buying the new album, I just listened to the old one, which invariably I hadn't spent enough time with.