II… Aye aye!

100 best albums of 2013 countdown: 70-61

Published on December 28th, 2013 | Jonny Abrams

You’re darn tootin’ – it’s Rocksucker’s 100 best albums of 2013 countdown festive end-of-year special bonanza! Waaauuurrrggghhh!

We listened to a buttload of albums this year and conferred varying degrees of merit, in quail form, upon them based on our own spurious criteria…

…and now we bring you our favourite hundred of them, counted down in order arbitrarily/for fun. Now, let’s have a look at positions 70 to 61…

70. Gary Numan – Splinter (Songs from a Broken Mind)

What we said…

Numan remains in touch with everything that ever made him great: dark, raging blasts of synth, mean fuzz bass and architecturally piled-up elements, all expertly deployed within a quiet/loud dynamic that drives creeping wilderness into explosions of electronic drama.

Click here to read our review of Splinter (Songs from a Broken Mind) in full!

69. Oneohtrix Point Never – R Plus Seven

What we said…

Daniel Lopatin has woven together a patchwork of disparate ideas somehow stitched together with sudden movements and tangents; it’s kind of avant-garde, as long as prefacing the term ‘avant-garde’ with ‘kind of’ doesn’t puncture the notion completely.

Click here to read our review of R Plus Seven in full!

68. Nightmares on Wax – Feelin’ Good

What we said…

Feelin’ Good will leave you feeling as much with its laid-back stoner funk, sweet applications of organic orchestration, its warmth-dispensingly plonking bass lines and all-round sense of the luxurious, the exotic and the luxuriously exotic. Oh, and the exotically luxurious.

Click here to read our review of Feelin’ Good in full!

67. Jagwar Ma – Howlin

What we said…

Sounds like compatriots Tame Impala by way Liars’ WIXIW album of last year, all shot through with a strong dose of Screamadelicalicious acid house. That is to say it’s a fizzing, rattling club night deferring to a set of instantly winning melodies and harmonies.

Click here to read our review of Howlin in full!

66. Men Among Animals – Buried Handsome

What we said…

Utterly sublime, euphoric pop smothered in luscious harmonies, drenched in sunny good vibes and home to some gloriously wibbly weird sounds… Experimental pop music is alive and well and has family in Denmark.

Click here to read our review of Buried Handsome in full!

65. Grumbling Fur – Glynnaestra

What we said…

Willing to try almost anything, safe perhaps in the knowledge that they invariably – nay, always – come out smelling of roses… A masterful convergence of electronic and organic, dripping with lysergic goodness,

Click here to read our review of Glynnaestra in full!

64. Spider 72 – Seven.

What we said…

High quality psych-pop that’s not too in thrall to the psych to forget the pop, showing also a clear shoegaze influence… Simon Berry’s talents may be fuzzy and a little eccentric, but that’s all the more reason to take them very seriously indeed.

Click here to read our review of Seven. in full!

63. Pond – Hobo Rocket

What we said…

In an age where Australian psychedelic music is booming, Pond’s relentless energy and thrilling boisterousness marks them out as so much more than just a Tame Impala side-project.

Click here to read our review of Hobo Rocket in full!

62. Darwin Deez – Songs For Imaginative People

What we said…

Smart, playful and thoroughly delightful odd-pop, although its near-total absence of attention span is bound to rub up the wrong way those who see ‘focus’ and whatnot as being necessary to making a good album.

Click here to read our review of Songs For Imaginative People in full!

61. Moderat – II

What we said…

Somehow manages, even while wallowing, to get those little neck hairs standing to attention with sheer rapture… A synaesthetic delight of a record, despite being anchored in minor-key-dom.

Click here to read our review of II in full!

Previously on our 100 best albums of 2013 countdown: 100-91 – 90-81 – 80-71

Artists: darwin deez, gary numan, grumbling fur, jagwar ma, men among animals, moderat, nightmares on wax, oneohtrix point never, pond, spider 72

About the Author

Jonny Abrams Editor of Rocksucker and the website's founder, Jonny is passionate about the music he listens to, both good and bad, as well as interviewing his favourite musicians.