{"id":2278,"date":"2014-01-02T19:23:38","date_gmt":"2014-01-02T19:23:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.davidbelbin.com\/?p=2278"},"modified":"2014-01-03T16:37:03","modified_gmt":"2014-01-03T16:37:03","slug":"the-best-of-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.davidbelbin.com\/blog\/2014\/01\/the-best-of-2013\/","title":{"rendered":"The Best Albums of 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here are my top thirty albums of the year. Tracks from many of them are in the post below.<\/p>\n

1\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 John Murry – The Graceless Age<\/strong><\/p>\n

2 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Prefab Sprout – Crimson\/Red<\/p>\n

3\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Vampire Weekend – Modern Vampires Of The City<\/p>\n

4 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Laura Marling – Once I Was An Eagle<\/p>\n

5\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Kanye West \u2013 Yeezus<\/p>\n

6\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Arctic Monkeys \u2013 AM<\/p>\n

7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Daft Punk \u2013 Random Access Memories<\/p>\n

8\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Arcade Fire \u2013 Reflektor<\/p>\n

9\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Tamikrest – Chatma<\/p>\n

10 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0David Bowie – The Next Day<\/p>\n

11 Roy Harper \u2013 Man And Myth<\/p>\n

12 Slaid Cleaves – Still Fighting The War<\/p>\n

13 Kurt Vile – Wakin’ On A Sunny Day<\/p>\n

14 Jason Isbell – South Eastern<\/p>\n

15 Rod Stewart – Time<\/p>\n

16 Sigur Ros – Kveikur<\/p>\n

17 The National – Trouble Will Find Me<\/p>\n

18 Steve Mason – Monkey Minds In The Devil\u2019s Time<\/p>\n

19 The Stepkids – Troubador<\/p>\n

20 Haim – Days Gone By<\/p>\n

21 Caitlin Rose – The Stand In<\/p>\n

22 Suede – Bloodsports<\/p>\n

23 Janelle Monae \u2013 The Electric Lady<\/p>\n

24 Pet Shop Boys – Electric<\/p>\n

25 James Blake – Overgrown<\/p>\n

26 Billy Bragg – Tooth and Nail<\/p>\n

27 Mogwai – Les Revenants OST<\/p>\n

28 Unknown Mortal Orchestra \u2013 II<\/p>\n

29 Lady – Lady<\/p>\n

30 Boz Scaggs – Memphis<\/p>\n

Since my old chum Mike has published his top fifty<\/a>, here are my 31-50. Not in any kind of order, as some – like Bill Callahan or Beyonce – I haven’t listened to enough yet: had I done so, they may have made the top 30. The top thirty is based purely on how much I’ve enjoyed stuff, not how ‘important’ or worthy I consider the album to be.\u00a0Some of the next twenty – like the first one – feel more than a year old. Others, like John Grant or Richard Thompson, have some outstanding tracks but aren’t consistent enough for me to rate them more highly as whole albums. \u00a0And the last album – no 51 – contains some rerecordings but I had to mention it anyway. Matthew E White – Big Inner, Beyonce – Beyonce, White Denim – Corsiciana Lemonade,\u00a0Luke Haines – Rock And Roll Animals, Elton John – The Diving Board, Basseke Kouyate & Ngoni Ba – Jama Ko, Boards Of Canada – Tomorrow\u2019s Harvest, Laura Cantrell – No Way There From Here, Linda Thompson – Won\u2019t Be Long Now, Jonathan Wilson –\u00a0 Fanfare, Savages – Silence Yourself, Bill Callahan \u2013 Dream River, Primal Scream – More Light, Richard Thompson \u2013 Electric, Mavis Staples – One True Vine, Elvis Costello & The Roots – Wise Up Ghost, Broadcast – Berberian Sound Studio,\u00a0Unknown Mortal Orchestra – II, John Grant – Pale Green Ghosts, Anna Calvi – One Breath, Charles Bradley – Victim Of Love, Glen Campbell – See You There.<\/p>\n

Any of the top 7 could have been an album of the year, I think, but here’s the opening\u00a0track from the one I’ve enjoyed most, one that I only started listening to late in the year but is, I’m sure, a keeper:\u00a0The Graceless Age<\/em>. Not for everyone, but if you like Americana, Warren Zevon or dark confessional songs with strong hooks, I urge you to check John Murry out.<\/p>\n

John Murry – The Ballad Of The Pyjama Kid<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here are my top thirty albums of the year. Tracks from many of them are in the post below. 1\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 John Murry – The Graceless Age 2 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Prefab Sprout – Crimson\/Red 3\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Vampire Weekend – Modern Vampires Of The City 4 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Laura Marling – Once I Was An Eagle 5\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Kanye West \u2013 Yeezus 6\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Arctic Monkeys \u2013 AM 7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Daft Punk \u2013 Random Access Memories 8\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Arcade Fire \u2013 Reflektor 9\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Tamikrest – Chatma 10 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0David Bowie – The Next Day 11 Roy Harper \u2013 Man And Myth 12 Slaid Cleaves – Still Fighting The War 13 Kurt Vile – Wakin’ On A Sunny Day 14 Jason Isbell – South Eastern 15 Rod Stewart – Time…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-songs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidbelbin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidbelbin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidbelbin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidbelbin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidbelbin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2278"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidbelbin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2287,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidbelbin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2278\/revisions\/2287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidbelbin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidbelbin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidbelbin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}