Top 25 Albums of 2013 6 - Wrap up

Here is the full list of the top 25 albums of 2013 based on The Music Geek's unique combination of sales, fan and critic data.

Rank	Artist	Album	Source
1	My Bloody Valentine	m b v	Critics + Fans
2	Vampire Weekend	Modern Vampires of the City	Critics + Fans
3	Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds	Push the Sky Away	Critics + Fans
4	The National	Trouble Will Find Me	Critics + Fans
5	Daft Punk	Random Access Memories	Critics + Sales
6	Jon Hopkins	Immunity	Critics + Fans
7	Queens of the Stone Age	...Like Clockwork	Critics + Fans
8	Kurt Vile	Wakin on a Pretty Daze	Critics + Fans
9	Julia Holter	Loud City Song	Critics + Fans
10	Kanye West	Yeezus	Critics
11	Sigur Rós	Kveikur	Fans
12	Justin Timberlake	The 20/20 Experience	Sales
13	Run the Jewels	Run the Jewels	Fans
14	Taylor Swift	Red	Sales
15	Arcade Fire	Reflektor	Critics
16	Boards of Canada	Tomorrow's Harvest	Fans
17	One Direction	Take Me Home	Sales
18	Gorguts	Colored Sands	Fans
19	Bruno Mars	Unorthodox Jukebox	Sales
20	Mumford & Sons	Babel	Sales
21	Imagine Dragons	Night Visions	Sales
22	Tim Hecker	Virgins	Fans
23	Arctic Monkeys	AM	Critics
24	Florida Georgia Line	Here's To The Good Times	Sales
25	Haim	Days Are Gone	Critics

It's a pretty diverse list. There's pop, country rock, indie, ambient, hip hop, speed metal, shoe gaze, art rock, post rock and more.

The albums from this list that have really stayed with me and begged multiple plays are from Haim, Boards of Canada, Justin Timberlake, Kanye West, Julia Holter and Daft Punk.

Are any of these likely to make the all time top 100? My pick of the most likely to succeed are Yeejus and Random Access Memories.

Top 25 Albums of 2013 4 - Numbers 10 to 6

We continue our countdown of the top 25 albums of 2013 with numbers 10 to 6. This group includes three great experimental works.

Rank

Artist

Album

Source

10

Kanye West

Yeezus

Critics

Wow! If there is such a thing as post hip hop, this is it. One critic likens Kanye to Salvador Dali. Maybe. I was surprised by how much I liked this.

9

Julia Holter

Loud City Song

Critics + Fans

This is the first of the top 25 to be selected by two of the three sources. Think Bjork does ambient. Bjorkish in some places, ethereal in others - always beautiful.

8

Kurt Vile

Wakin on a Pretty Daze

Critics + Fans

I tried to like this but couldn't. Better to pull out your old REM or Nick Drake.

7

Queens of the Stone Age

...Like Clockwork

Critics + Fans

A good enough homage to late 70s Bowie, Eno, Iggy but without as interesting a voice. Some tasty guitar work.

6

Jon Hopkins

Immunity

Critics + Fans

Great to see some really nice industrial/techno/ambience rating so highly.

Top 25 Albums of 2013 3 - Numbers 15 to 11

Here are the next 5 albums in our countdown of the top 25 albums of 2013.

Rank	Artist	Album	Source
15	Arcade Fire	Reflektor	Critics
14	Taylor Swift	Red	Sales
13	Run the Jewels	Run the Jewels	Fans
12	Justin Timberlake	The 20/20 Experience	Sales
11	Sigur Rós	Kveikur	Fans

My spirits sank when I saw this was a double CD. But they lifted with the first track, Reflektor, which is a killer dance number. I first listened to it in a single sitting and by the end, however, I was thinking, "Is this ever going to end?" There are a bunch of great tracks here and some not so great. This could have been truly outstanding if it had been edited down to vinyl LP length - say 45 mins. A quick scan of other reviews shows I'm not the first to criticise the length and inconsistency. Maybe history will view this as Arcade Fire's White Album.

It's six years since the release of her first album, so I was hoping for more. It's quite pleasant when the production backs off and her natural voice is given a chance to breath. But most of the time her voice is subject to gratuitous and egregious processing - presumably to help it "cut through" on radio and computer speakers. That and the over produced, over compressed, over dense backing tracks make it a really hard listen for me.

And now for something completely different...an album that isn't even on iTunes or Spotify at the time of writing. No worries, it was available as a free download from the artist. Probably as good an example of the state of hard core hip hop as you'll find anywhere. 

Contemporary R&B done right!! The true heir of MJ? Ok, well not quite that catchy, but you get the drift.

In isolation a good and interesting album that probably deserves a position in the chart. But from the perspective of their previous output, doesn't advance the ball. 

Top 25 Albums of 2013 2 - Numbers 20 to 16

Here are the next 5 albums in our countdown of the top 25 albums of 2013.

Rank	Artist	Album	Source
20	Mumford & Sons	Babel	Sales
19	Bruno Mars	Unorthodox Jukebox	Sales
18	Gorguts	Colored Sands	Fans
17	One Direction	Take Me Home	Sales
16	Boards of Canada	Tomorrow's Harvest	Fans

The Mumford & Sons is pleasant enough - it's nice to hear a big selling album that is at least a bit organic and without a totally compressed and cluttered production style.

I didn't have high hopes for Unorthodox Jukebox but was quite pleasantly surprised by the range of stylistic influences. 

I couldn't say the same thing about Take Me Home. It was pretty much what I expected - expertly crafted pop music. Guilty pleasure when it pops up on the radio - but nothing that makes me want to listen to an album of it.

The fan selections in this bracket are pretty interesting - and divergent. Colored Sands is intense death metal - not a genre that I listen to much. I have a particular aversion to Cookie Monster vocals (AKA screamo) - although I can appreciate a certain artistry therein. Notwithstanding, Colored Sands is worth checking out for fans of the genre, or newbies wanting to know what it's about.

Tomorrow's Harvest is one of my personal favourites of 2013. "Downtempo" is the emergent label encompassing many subgenres that have sprung up in the wake of Massive Attack and Portishead. Tomorrow's Harvest is an excellent example - there are elements of trip hop, ambient, IDM (intelligent dance music). I have listened to a lot of new music. The majority only get one or two listens - but I have kept coming back to Tomorrow's Harvest.