Below is an embedded Spotify playlist of my favourite 50 tracks of 2013 (well, 47 of them anyway -- 3 are not on Spotify and are listed separately below). As ever, I'll be assuaging my very slight guilt at using Spotify (ridiculous nowadays given that most music can be streamed legally by other means any way, and the best way to support a band is to go see them live) by buying up those tracks on my festive 50 that I don't already own.
We managed to see 8 of the acts on this year's list, either in Norwich or at the Green Man festival. Julia Holter was a revelation, as was Phosphorescent and his performance of Song for Zula (one of my favourite songs of 2013), while getting to see Low, Midlake and Jonathan Wilson perform live made for some really memorable nights this year.
The list isn't in any particular order, but I did notice a few trends in 2013:
- Influence of early Pink Floyd: the excellent Föllakzoid album (recommended by friends) is full of incredible Chilean space jams, combining a motorik beat with interstellar wanderings. Pulsar in particular is a direct homage to the live version of Astronomy Domine on Ummagumma. Another song on this year's list, Papi by Dean Blunt, brilliantly uses a sample from Floyd's Meddle. Then there's Holydrug Couple and the latest Flaming Lips LP, The Terror, which both mine that early Floyd sound, with a menacing twist in the latter's case.
- There was some great use of synths, reminiscent of 80s horror flicks, notably on Boards of Canada's Tomorrow's Harvest and the title track of one of my favourite albums of the year, John Grant's Pale Green Ghosts.
- Another superb year for folk & country, whether that's 70s psych-folk revivalism from Wolf People or the real deal himself, Richard Thompson; modern multi-instrumentalists like Basia Bulat or old-fashioned country from Laura Cantrell; stoner lo-fi from Kurt Vile or Appalachian folk from Glenn Jones. Then there was the pick of them all, Bill Callahan's Dream River.
Here are the three non-Spotify tracks:
We managed to see 8 of the acts on this year's list, either in Norwich or at the Green Man festival. Julia Holter was a revelation, as was Phosphorescent and his performance of Song for Zula (one of my favourite songs of 2013), while getting to see Low, Midlake and Jonathan Wilson perform live made for some really memorable nights this year.
The list isn't in any particular order, but I did notice a few trends in 2013:
- Influence of early Pink Floyd: the excellent Föllakzoid album (recommended by friends) is full of incredible Chilean space jams, combining a motorik beat with interstellar wanderings. Pulsar in particular is a direct homage to the live version of Astronomy Domine on Ummagumma. Another song on this year's list, Papi by Dean Blunt, brilliantly uses a sample from Floyd's Meddle. Then there's Holydrug Couple and the latest Flaming Lips LP, The Terror, which both mine that early Floyd sound, with a menacing twist in the latter's case.
- There was some great use of synths, reminiscent of 80s horror flicks, notably on Boards of Canada's Tomorrow's Harvest and the title track of one of my favourite albums of the year, John Grant's Pale Green Ghosts.
- Another superb year for folk & country, whether that's 70s psych-folk revivalism from Wolf People or the real deal himself, Richard Thompson; modern multi-instrumentalists like Basia Bulat or old-fashioned country from Laura Cantrell; stoner lo-fi from Kurt Vile or Appalachian folk from Glenn Jones. Then there was the pick of them all, Bill Callahan's Dream River.
Here are the three non-Spotify tracks:
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