An ambitious anthology of innovative tracks streaked with sheer pop brilliance.
Laura Marling – Once I Was An Eagle
Laura Marling’s fourth record in six years is a diverse, intelligent masterpiece.
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Dungeonesse – Dungeonesse
Even if this ends up being just a fanciful one-off from Jenn Wasner and Jon Ehrens, it has been a splendid and stunning sonic detour.
Sam Amidon – Bright Sunny South
While this album is by no means a huge leap forwards for Amidon it embodies so perfectly the traditions with which he is enamoured, and of which he is slowly becoming a part.
Crystal Fighters – Cave Rave
They mostly eschew the synthetic in favour of organic, world noises and create a record that, from start to finish, is a delirious pleasure.
Brazos – Saltwater
The second album by NYC-via-Austin’s Martin Crane as Brazos is a freewheeling pop odyssey, inspired in part by Herman Melville’s Moby Dick.
Daft Punk – Random Access Memories
The French duo have not only made a career-defining album, but the smartest dance album since disco. – a perfectly imperfect vision of humanity as seen through the eyes of two androids.
Boats – A Fairway Full Of Miners
Boats’ capacity for concentration is small. The only thing they seek to dominate is the madcap universe inside their collective imagination but it’s worth a visit.
Baths – Obsidian
Baths returns with a more accessible but thoroughly downbeat second offering which he considers his “weird version of a pop record”.
Primal Scream – More Light
On their long-awaited tenth album, the compellingly inconsistent Primal Scream sound genuinely determined to prove themselves but whether they pull it off or not is another question.
The Fall – Re-Mit
Uncompromising and challenging, Re-Mit is as focused a vision as Mark E. Smith and co have produced in a while and ultimately, it’s exactly what you’d expect them to sound like in 2013, with 30 albums under their belt.
Mark Lanegan & Duke Garwood – Black Pudding
By plunging impassively into their own hearts of darkness, Lanegan and Garwood demonstrate that there’s still plenty of life lurking muddy waters of blues.