Albums
of the year
2013
Every year I spend doing this list I say to myself “Why bother, no one reads all this”, and rightly so I guess? Why would anyone care what I think – and being so longwinded on top of it all? So every time I start this list I intend fully to simplify. But in the end, the complete opposite happens. And on top of it all I stress about getting it all done – over something most people don’t even read at all (are you even reading this?!) – even though I started working on this in late August, and now it’s the middle of November as I finally wrap it up. I guess it’s the excitement of sharing or something that drives me to do this? Or maybe I’m just bored. Who knows. I think it’s the former. Hopefully. And because I’m tired and actually have some other things to attend to – I am going to quote myself from last year for most of the rest of this introduction. Oh and one more thing I want to add before I get to quoting myself – my favorite songs of the year? Katy Perry’s ‘Roar’, Chvrches’ ‘Gun’ and My Bloody Valentine’s ‘New You’. What I wouldn’t give to hear MBV cover ‘Roar’, and even for Katy Perry to cover ‘New You’. That is potential brilliance right there, my friends. Ok …. quoting myself now … “So, here you go, my favorite albums of the year. I guess technically they are what I consider to be “the best”, but by saying that it means these then have to be put in some sort of order, and quantified some way. But I really can’t do that. Depending on the mood of the day, each one of these albums is “the best” at one time or another, so really out of all the albums I’ve listened to over the past year, these are my go to albums – my favorites – my “desert island discs” of sorts. I’ve shared one track from each album as well, songs that I think not only represent what is great about the entire album, but what may spark an interest in you to checking out the whole thing, because to me they are all worth your time and quite rewarding indeed. Enjoy with aloha, and as always, turn it WAY the hell up, and for crying out loud use headphones. Laptop speakers = death.”
1
Boards of Canada
Tomorrow's Harvest
There wasn’t much doubt this was going to be my album of the year (until Chvrches’ album was released, of course), and not really because I am a huge fan or obsessive like so many Boards of Canada fans out there, but because this is simply an incredible album. It ends there. I don’t even really think of listening to them often, they are hardly my go to band, or a desert island discs kind of band, but they consistently put out strong, unique electronic music that is always distinctively “Boards of Canada”. What always was lacking for me with them was a coherent vision. Something that made an album an ALBUM, and for me, for the first time, they’ve done it here. In a sense they’ve latched onto that fad of recent years of cinematic, hazy sounds of the 80’s and turning them into perfect, nostalgic little pop songs, a fad I am a very big fan of. But instead of turning those aural relics of a bygone era into something positive and happy like most musicians have been doing, they’ve gone the other direction and made something downright creepy, sort of re-creating, in the form of an album, the intended vibe and reaction of seeing an ominous 80’s horror movie on a warped, distorted and fading VHS tape. Listening to this the first time and really every subsequent listen, I can see the movie playing out in my head, each track clearly scoring a scene or act in a movie that I am surprised as of yet this has NOT become the soundtrack for. I think this is truly the first “score” I can sit through and listen to on it’s own and fully enjoy, and it’s not even a soundtrack. At the time it came out I thought it sounded like if they and John Carpenter got together back in 1983 to score Halloween III: Season of the Witch, and still this is how it sounds. Its creepy and odd and COLD but still Boards of Canada through and through. So, Halloween III with beats, basically. Hopefully the track I’ve shared above, ‘Come to Dust‘, will give you a good idea of the overall sound of this album. This album is a complete vision, executed perfectly, and I can’t recommend it enough. Modern day classical, I say.