Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Best Releases Of 2013: #50-41

#50: Voivod - "Target Earth"
This album surprised me. Usually when groups had their heydey years ago, they tend to just keep going through the motions of making boring albums, if they even make any new music at all. I especially like that they don't really stick to the same style of metal throughout the album, and have different sounding songs. It makes for a more interesting listening experience than most metal albums are for me when the albums are generally more homogenous in scope.

#49: RP Boo - "Legacy"
This is a nice set of songs from the inventor of the juke/footwork style of music. A little more progressive sounding than a lot of other stuff from the genre. Lots of polyrhythms and rapidly repeated samples.

#48: AM & Shawn Lee- "La Musique Numerique"
Solid set of feel-good songs that make you wanna dance without being electronically based. Sometimes when I listen to this album and i'm not in the right mood for it, some of the songs come off slightly corny, but when i'm in the right mood, this album is gold. It makes me happy that new music is being recorded that sounds like this.

#47: The Delfonics- "Adrian Younge Presents...The Delfonics"
I love it when older groups that have disappeared for years are able to come back and reinvent themselves like this. Adrian Younge did a superb job of producing this. The sound and feel of the production is perfect. It's gritty sounding while still being crisp and clear at the same time.

#46: Franz Ferdinand - "Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action"
Normally, I don't generally go for pop rock, but this album is wonderfully produced, and a lot of the songs are extremely catchy. The amount I enjoy this album might have been my biggest surprise to myself this past year.

#45: Major Lazer- "Free The Universe"
I think this was an improvement on the first Major Lazer album. I appreciate how they are doing a Handsome Boy Modelling School style, 'let's see how many different artists we can get to collaborate on this album' project, and really make it work within the vague borders they have set for styles.

#44: Cook Classics- "Cook Classics vs. Now Again"
I really enjoy the 'vs. Now Again' series. They let certain producers pillage their catalogue for samples and create new songs out of them. This one turned out way different than any of the others, and shows the versatility Cook Classics possesses as a beatmaker. A very nice journey.

#43: James Blake - "Overgrown"
This album is oddly comforting for me. I didn't really like it the first time I heard it, but after subsequent listens, it got ingrained in my brain, and I keep coming back for more.

#42: Traxman- "So Damm Whattt!!!!"
Unfortunately, I was so overloaded with new music, I never got to fully peep his full length that dropped last year. I just listened to some songs I had been hearing in DJ sets recently. I did get the chance to check out this weird little EP he dropped, and while I don't enjoy it nearly as much as his first full length, this is still a solid release worthy of bumping.

#41: Ministry- "From Beer To Eternity"
This is supposedly the final Ministry album (for real this time), and they definitely went out with a bang. This is probably my favorite release by them since "Dark Side Of The Spoon", and I really appreciate how it seems like they tried to integrate all of the styles from their career into one album.

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