Stinger Press
2. Vampire Weekend, Modern Vampires of the City
1. Arctic Monkeys, AM
3. Justin Timberlake, The 20/20 Experience (Part 1 & 2)
4. Janelle Monáe, The Electric Lady
5. Jake Bugg, Shangri La
6. Daft Punk, Random Access Memories
7. Childish Gambino, Because the Internet
8. City and Colour, The Hurry and The Harm
9. Lorde, Pure Heroine
10. Kanye West, Yeezus
Though some seem to be complaining that it should have come with a complimentary not for the sensitive of ears/easily offended warning, others are embracing the fact that Yeezus is Kanye West – aggressive, audacious and unapologetic. The once tightly-knit mob of unraveling Kanye West fans are sending a salad bowl of reactions around the ten-track June release, but the general public is receiving the album more graciously than any of his others. It’s a given that between the amazing production and addictive beats of the tracks underlies the fact that Kanye West is not a poet, but you don’t have to have a deep connection with Yeezus’ lyrics to put on a good pair of headphones and simply enjoy the forty minutes of raw dynamism and edge.
Record Label: Def Jam Recordings
Featured Track: Black Skinhead [Warning: Explicit]
Photo Source: dieboltdesigns.files.wordpress.com
A majority of listeners will agree that The Hurry and the Harm may not have been this artist’s best showing in the lyrical department (though it is still quite good), but it definitely exhibits what City and Colour (Dallas Geen) does best – write absolutely beautiful ballads. Saying that though, it is not a consistent issue – The Hurry and the Harm does features some of Dallas’ best songs to date. This year has been filled with albums that are very in-your-face, but Green brought an album to the table that was gently woven with simple tracks of (his signature) bright acoustic guitar, subtle string sections, occasional percussion appearances, and a focus on Dallas’ melodic dips into his gorgeous head voice.
Record Label: Dine Alone
Featured Track: The Hurry and the Harm
Photo Source: Original Album Art
With the release of her first single (‘Royals’) off the album, Lorde caught our attention this past summer with her quirkiness, her unapparent adolescence, the vocabular maturity of her songs and her incredibly unique voice. She was consistent with this through all thirty seven minutes of the full length album release, Pure Heroine. As a whole, the ten track record was a melting pot of (majorly) indietronica, art pop and synth, but the instrumentals were quite minimal compared to the thick texture of vocal overlays that are woven into each piece. From personal story pulling, to the stable themes of the critiquing of mainstream culture and the lifestyle of aristocracy, Lorde is sipping inspirations from a well that doesn’t run dry, so it would be safe to expect some amazing things from her soon.
Record Label: Universal Music Group
Featured Track: Team
Photo Source: Official Album Art
September, the Arctic Monkeys proved that they are absolutely not a band of any genre – they are artists, they are creators, they are inventors and they are absolute geniuses of modern music. The success of their fifth studio release, AM, is floating in Alex Turner’s melodies and heavily laced with surreal lyricism and metaphors from beginning to end. Though this album’s classified genre is indie rock, Arctic Monkeys have drawn influences from everything from psychedelic, to blues, to RnB, to hip-hop. It’s easy to say that this emotional, love-lust-and-loneliness driven album has been the group’s most well-received release to date, but is this the climax of these artists careers? Is this the most that will seep from their creativity? Not even close.
Record Label: Domino Recordings
Featured Track: Arabella
Photo Source: Official Album Art
The late spring release of Vampire Weekend’s third studio album, Modern Vampires of the City, marked the enriching, intensifying, and maturing of this indie rock group’s sound and the evolution of an entirely different fan base. Each of the twelve tracks is an exceptionally dynamic piece of art on its own, driven by its never-before-explored (by Vampire Weekend) themes of mortality and spirituality, layered in thick textures and laced with tightly sewn harmonies. From delicate and airy, to thumping, tattooed-on-your-brain hooks, Modern Vampires’ unpredictable energy makes this junior release the group’s best yet, and it enduringly captivating from ‘Obvious Bicycle’ to ‘Young Lion’.
Record Label: XL Recordings
Featured Track: Step
Photo Source: Official Album Art
After the fifteen minute Video Music Awards spectacular, minds all over the world were pondering the thought that Justin Timberlake could easily be the most amazing showman of our time. More and more fans guiltily pulled out their (slightly-too-tight) *NSYNC tees from 2000 and waited impatiently for the month following for the second edition to the two part experience. The 20/20 Experience has been harshly depicted as a weird pop album, when in reality it isn’t a pop album at all - to describe everything that has been included in this album would be to label it with a neo soul genre, frosted thickly with electronics. From gentle and sensuous to the busy texture of the more muscular tracks, it is easily one of the best vocal albums of the year. This is apparent through every track as our talented vocalist sweeps between the spectrum extremities of his voice, between deep tenor and seventies-style falsetto. In 2013, JT released two albums that represented him bursting through the weary seams of today’s mainstream radio music. The 20/20 Experience is undoubtedly timeless.
Record Label: RCA Records
Featured Track: Pusher Love Girl
Photo Source: Original Album Art
Though her breakout studio release hit stores in 2010, a majority of mainstream listeners would pin their first encounter with Janelle Monáe on fun.’s 2012 major breakout single, ‘We Are Young’. With that success, more were aware of who exactly Monáe was when she released her sophomore release, The Electric Lady. The nineteen track record has been named part IV and V of a seven part concept inspired by 1927 sci-fi epic, Metropolis, under which Monáe claims the alias of android Cindi Mayweather. The vintage style album has the familiarity of Elton John’s interstellar orchestral rock with blankets of soul, funk, R&B, jazz, gospel and rock lining it. Underneath thriving guitars, partnered voices, and sultry rhythms, Monae embraces her identity through themes of sexual liberation and equality, race, and feminism.
Record Label: Bad Boy Records
Feature Track: Electric Lady
Photo Source: Original Album Art
Daft Punk has always been one of those groups whose name you hear, but never take the time to see what they’re about. This past spring, we were introduced to their first major global hit, ‘Get Lucky.’ Now, love or hate the song – it doesn’t even come close to giving Random Access Memories the reputation it deserves. Their fourth studio release, who’s title is a reference to a computer hard drive (keeping it close to their robotic identities), is motivated by seventies and eighties funkadelic, with hopes to connect to a more futuristic level of music. It is apparent that Daft Punk intended for this album to be more musically based than vocally and sought inspirations from rock groups like Fleetwood Mac and Pink Floyd. They twisted and turned these roots around completely into an unconventionally beautiful string of courageous and artistic works of art, with a genre that could be described as disco, progressive and soft rock seeping from the pores of the French duo’s electronica roots.
Record Label: Columbia Records
Featured Track: Instant Crush (ft. Julian Casablancas)
Photo Source: Original Album Art
Early winter 2013, a 19 year-old Nottingham boy (spiked with a shot of Americana) graced the shelves of music stores everywhere with his second studio release. The twelve track release, Shangri La, is an intimate relationship between folk and rockabilly, topped off with exactly what we expect from Bugg’s voice: originality and edge. We can hear the weight to the context in which Jake Bugg has been mentioned, with Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan, when through the album he switches gracefully between galloping rock (like ‘There’s a Beast and We All Feed It’) and body chilling goosebumps (like in ‘A Song About Love). Shangri La is authentic, emotional and down-to-earth.
Record Label: Virgin/VMA Records
Featured Track: There’s A Beast and We All Feed It
Photo Source: Original Art
To write enough songs for a full length album is one thing - writing nineteen of them is another. Finding a concept to revolve those songs around is one thing - doing it successfully is another. What Donald Glover did, under the alias of Childish Gambino, was successfully publish a seventy-five page, Hollywood-movie-style script (becausetheinter.net) that heavily pushed the internet themes of his album Because The Internet, with light dialogue lined with online slang, popular emoticons and emoji’s, dipped heavily in modern hip-hop culture. This engaging and undeniably fascinating rap album experiments heavily with more than just music – aside from the obvious motivations from soul, R&B and club (etc.), there was a commendable amount of work that went into making this album not only auditorally musical, but an auditory narrative. In saying that, instead of attempting to personally relate to, or even understand Gambino’s story and becoming unbelievably frustrated, feel the way the production takes you on its own and enjoy it even more.
Record Label: Glassnote Entertainment Group
Featured Track: I. The Party [Warning: Explicit]
Photo Source: Official Album Art
