Best Album of the Year:
The Electric Lady – Janelle
Monae
Once again, Janelle Monae has wowed
listeners with a complex, fully formed, and musically stunning conceptual
album. Following on from her ravishing (and grossly underrated) 2010 debut The ArchAndroid, Monae’s sophomore album
continues with more adventures of Cindi Mayweather in her Metropolis series, focusing on an alternative universe of
machinery, cyborgs and technology. This album is once again ideologically
complex, with the alternate universe being a metaphorical palette for issues including
race, gender, religion and “the other” in a way that is trail blazing not only
in the modern R&B milieu but in popular music generally. This is all
completed seamlessly within a kicking sound track, with musical ambition, rich
production, humour, instrumental diversity and a host of impressive guests
(Prince being a personal favourite). This album is dirtier, looser, and more
danceable, with less variance and mood changes than her first record, but this
almost makes for a more consummate body of work, filled with drive, purpose and
success.
Also Worth a Mention:
Sing to the Moon – Laura Mvula
This stunning album works more like a
musical tapestry, interweaving a multitude of timbres to outstanding effect.
Each of Sing to the Moon’s twelve
tracks are utterly sophisticated compositions, with beautiful and unusual sounds
weaving around Mvula’s softly soulful vocals in genuinely unique and innovative
ways. A demure, delicately melancholic and musically dynamic debut.
Tally All the Things that You Broke - Parquet Courts
Tally… is a messy, roughly cut EP
filled with joyful moments of whimsy and curiosity amongst the knarly guitars
and knotted, throaty vocals. This upbeat body of work from Brooklyn miscreants
Parquet Courts easily slots into the sexy/crude blues-punk vibe currently so
popular in indie/hipster circles, but this is so successful and fun in its endeavours,
with it’s tightly wound rhythm section, careless attitude and perfectly placed
timbres, including an inspired usage of the recorder (oh yes!), it is hard not
to love it.
Worst Album of the Year:
Bangerz – Miley Cyrus
An obvious choice, perhaps, but I
really have found every single utterance, action and musical incident that
Miley Cyrus has been involved with this year pretty abhorrent. This is not just
a criticism of her music – effectively under-developed, R&B infused pop –
it is a criticism of her whole conduct as a human being. And aside from the
cover, which I kind of dig, this album is the justification – the vehicle for
this problematic and offensive “star”. Miley has been so desperate to reinvent
herself this year as an adult that
she has indulged in incredibly crass and embarrassing behaviour, effectively
becoming an international skidmark on the reputation of both women and the music
industry in the process. Furthermore, the production of Bangerz is obscenely dull for a modern pop record, and every track
is effectively filler. No Miley, go away and just rethink everything please.
Also Worth a Mention:
The Marshall Mathers LP 2 – Eminem
Remember when Eminem’s work was funny,
irreverent, controversial and, well, good? No, me neither. Released 13 years
after the famously excellent Marshall
Mathers LP version 1, this sequel album could not be further in quality and
ethos from its predecessor. Filled with showboating, harsh vocal acrobatics,
and far more gratuitous, humourless
anger that is fair for any successful multi-millionaire rapper to justify, this
album is a complete disappointment.
AM – Arctic Monkeys
Oooh, controversial. Listed as NME’s
best album of the year (for what that’s worth), for me the Arctic Monkeys
continue to under-deliver. Both critics and audiences alike still seem to fawn
over this band, who, aside from a handful of standout tracks are perhaps the
most derivative act in present day popular music. Each supposedly innovative
incarnation is yet another obvious rehash of another band, another genre,
another time. Sorry, but they just aren’t that good.
See this at HCE at: http://herecomeseveryone.org/post/73618470598/2013-albums-of-the-year
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