S.H.S. Best of 2013

2013 was yet another incredible year for music. If this trend continues, the future as a fan and artist is looking very bright. This year, I decided to change up the format to include more releases & little to no commentary. A lot of these selections won't surprise you if you take a look at the posts throughout the year. Remember though: this will cover all genres, despite the blog's typical focus on punk, hardcore, and metal.

The Top 25 LPs of 2013

25. APMD - Nothing Violates This Nature

24. Night Birds - Born To Die in Suburbia

23. Cloud Rat - Moksha

22. Cult of Luna - Vertikal

21. Deltron 3030 - Event 2

20. Pinkish Black - Razed to the Ground
19. Weekend Nachos - Still

18. The Arcade Fire - Reflektor

17. DJ Rashad - Double Cup

16. Jungbluth - Part Ache

15. Church Whip - Psychedelic Nightmare

14. Noisem - Agony Defined 

13. My Bloody Valentine - mbv

12. Atoms For Peace - AMOK

11. FIDLAR - FIDLAR
10. Daft Punk - Random Access Memories

9. Darkthrone - The Underground Resistance

8. Modern Life Is War - Fever Hunting

7. Oathbreaker - Eros|Anteros

6. Run The Jewels - Run The Jewels

5. CHVRCHES - The Bones of What You Believe

4. Pissed Jeans - Honeys 

3. Deafheaven - Sunbather

2. Boards of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest

1. iceage - You're Nothing 

  Honorable Mentions:

 (in no particular order)

Full of Hell - Rudiments of Mutilation

Touche Amore - Is Survived By

Gorguts - Colored Sands

Castevet - Obsian
Kayo Dot - Hubardo
Northless - World Keeps Sinking
Inter Arma - Sky Burial

Four Tet - Beautiful Rewind

Zomby - With Love

King Krule - Six Feet Beneath The Moon

Swans - Not Here Not Now

Medicine - To The Happy Few

The Top 10 EPs & Splits of 2013

10.YAITW/Withdrawal Split

9. Burial - River Dealer EP

8. Enabler - Flies EP

7. Heartless - Certain Death

6. Noothgrush/Coffins Split

5. Anne - Jerusalem

4. Anasazi - Anasazi

3. Dutchguts/Ubasute Split

2. Old Wounds/Trenchfoot Split

1. Sex Cross - Seasons of Decay 

Comments: 

Again, what a year! Two of my favorite bands released new albums, Night Birds and APMD, and my thinking for putting them on this list mainly is that I am just very excited that they have peen pushing onward and improving despite being busy with other projects or lineup changes.

Cult of Luna just announced a hiatus, which is upsetting... Vertikal was great and they are true legends in my opinion. Geeks like myself relished the return of Deltron Zero, and while the album was satisfying, especially with collaborations from people such as Damon Albarn and Zach De La Rocha, it didn't quite hit as hard as the original. Other mega bands got put in a lower position for similar reasons, but don't get me wrong, the deserve to be in the best of the year list! I feel bad for snubbing Swans two years in a row...

I enjoyed some of the new trends in electronic music, such as Arcade Fire's brash new direction, good on them for making a smart career move before going stale, and also for people like DJ Rashad, Four Tet, Zomby, and the unmentioned Death Grips, James Blake, RL Grime and Machinedrum for pushing us past brostep and EDM.
PS- I don't think the new Arcade Fire would have succeeded as much as it did if Daft Punk didn't pave the way earlier in the year.

CHVRCHES literally opened my mind to pop music in 2013. I can't believe how much I love this group. In the indie realm, FIDLAR brought a stoner garage band vibe that I have been into, with similar bands Wavves, Parquet Courts, The Drums, Palma Violets, etc...

The top 3 are simply my undeniably favorite albums of the year. There just can be no debate about how good these are. Others close to the top: In my last post I gushed about Oathbreaker, and how 'bout the return of Modern Life is War and Darkthrone! The latter doing their best stuff in years. Love the new NWOBHM sound.

-Black Metal has continued to be the vessel for the most creative metal music with the likes of Deafheaven, Church Whip, and other innovators such as Aosoth and Altar of Plagues, both which released good albums this year. It's quite devastating that Altar of Plagues unfortunately broke up this year as well. I believe at least the drummer is in another band already though.

-In general, there were so many good metal albums this year, see 'honorable mentions.'

-Run the Jewels is the best hip-hop album of the year, no doubt, and it will continue to be the best for some time I'm sure...