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Old 12-22-2013, 11:51 AM  
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***2013 Edition of Reaper's Favorite Albums of the Year***

It's time of the year again. It's everyone's favorite holiday present. Etc.

As always, this is a list of my personal favorite albums of the year. It's not meant to be an objective "best-of" list, because while I listen to hundreds of new albums each year I still fall far short of listening to enough to feel comfortable making an objective claim. My usual genre tendencies towards metal and hip-hop are as present as ever. Hopefully you'll find some albums you will come to dig through this list.

I'll be posting it out over the next day. I'm doing 30 albums this year.

30. The Knife – Shaking the Habitual
29. Rittz – The Life and Times of Jonny Valiant
28. The National – Trouble Will Find Me
27. Arcade Fire – Reflektor
26. Chvrches - The Bones of What You Believe
25. Ces Cru - Constant Energy Struggles
24. DGM – Momentum
23. Action Bronson – Blue Chips 2
22. Kvelertak – Meir
21. A$AP Rocky – Long Live A$AP
20. Brandy Clark – 12 Stories
19. Mr. Mother****in eXquire – Kismet
18. Death Grips – Government Plates
17. ST 2 Lettaz – The G…Growth & Development
16. Ayreon – The Theory of Everything
15. Kacey Musgraves – Same Trailer, Different Park
14. Magic Circle – Magic Circle
13. Gorguts – Colored Sands
12. Beyonce – Beyonce
11. Daft Punk – Random Access Memories
10. Haim – Days Are Gone
09. Pusha T – My Name Is My Name
08. Dessa – Parts of Speech
07. Danny Brown – Old
06. Deafheaven – Sunbather
05. El-P & Killer Mike – Run the Jewels
04. Jason Isbell – Southeastern
03. Rokia Traore – Beautiful Africa
02. Kanye West – Yeezus
01. Janelle Monae – The Electric Lady

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Old 12-22-2013, 09:00 PM   #31
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10. Haim – Days Are Gone





I didn’t expect to like this album at all. It has plenty of red flags: a sudden wave of hype, a faux-indie sensibility (they are a major label band), and a sound seems entirely a nostalgic throwback. Surprise, surprise: the hype is deserved, it is catchier than any other pop album this year, and they aren’t JUST a throwback group. You can probably tell from the album art that Haim is inspired by 90s music. Indeed, they sound just like Wilson Phillips filtered through early 90s R&B. Add a healthy dose of Fleetwood Mac, and you’ve got a recipe for delicate melodies. These three sisters don’t just look backwards at influences though. There’s just enough understanding of modern hip-hop production to add interesting wrinkles to things. Listen to album opener “Falling,” which adds this final, heavy layer of rap drums to the mix on the final verse and chorus. Or take “My Song 5,” which throws down heavy, distorted backing vocals and massive bass swells. Mostly, I don’t have to think about these things. The songs just capture me from the start. The delicate, wordy vocal lines and hooks. The jangly guitars. The smart percussion. I love these pop songs. I love this album. I’m kind of pissed at myself for putting another pop album above Beyonce’s, but it is what it is.
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Old 12-22-2013, 09:02 PM   #32
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09. Pusha T – My Name Is My Name





We’ve been waiting so long for this, the solo debut album from one half of Clipse. Pusha T has long been one of the best wordsmiths in rap. The references and rhymes pile on top of eachother so densely on this album; you’d better remember what Pusha said 4 lines ago, because he does and the full impact of the wordplay won’t register if you don’t. This album has everything that a commercial rap album should have: “King Push” has a spectral beat that wouldn’t be out of place on a A$AP Rocky album; “40 Acres” has introspection, desperation, and a great chorus from The-Dream; “Suicide” reunites Pusha with his Re-Up Gang costar, Ab-Liva. But this IS a commercial rap album. His label wanted it that way. So there are more commercial beats, with features from the likes of Future, Big Sean, and 2 Chainz. Despite the obvious anchors, those songs don’t sink. Pusha is so damn good as to keep them afloat somehow.

What makes this album one of my top 10 favorites of the year are the ways in which this album fights against the expectations of commercial rap. There’s a ridiculous song called “Let Me Love You” that features Kelly Rowland on a low-key hook; I say that track is ridiculous because Pusha raps the entire song in the world’s best Mase impression. He sounds just like Mase and he’s absolutely nailed Mase’s signature flow. Weird, fun song. Another way this album defies expectation is in a couple of sparse songs – “Numbers on the Boards” and “Nosetalgia.” OK, well, they don’t defy expectations lyrically. Mostly in his career, Pusha raps about the manufacture and sale of crack. Mostly, that’s what he’s always done. But nobody on earth does it better. I say these two songs defy commercial rap expectations because the beats are ****ing austere. Minimal sounds beyond drums. They are a natural extension of the difficult beats that the Neptunes made Clipse learn to rap over. Basically, if you like rap I can’t see how you’d dislike this album.
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Old 12-22-2013, 09:05 PM   #33
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08. Dessa – Parts of Speech





I’ve been a huge advocate of Dessa’s music for a long time now. Best female rapper there is, period. Her technical ability is obvious, and her ability to tell literary narratives in rap verse has few peers, male or female. She also is an accomplished singer. It’s that side of Dessa that shines on this album. There’s only two, maybe three, out-and-out rap tracks on this new album. Instead, Dessa and her band record delicate ballads and slow narratives and even a cover of Bruce Springsteen’s oft-forgotten “I’m Going Down.” “Call Off Your Ghost,” and “Sound the Bells” exemplify this album’s tendency to put down layers of haunting vocals from Dessa and backup singer/Minneapolis superstar Aby Wolf to support the words. “Skeleton Key” shows that Dessa has an ear for a catchy pop hook. “Warsaw” and “Fighting Fish” prove that she hasn’t lost a step when it comes to rapping, absolutely killing a Paper Tiger and Lazerbeak beats, respectively. If you already know Dessa then you’ll like her new album. If you don’t know Dessa, well, that’s what this list is for.
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Old 12-22-2013, 09:07 PM   #34
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07. Danny Brown - Old





What I loved about Danny Brown’s previous album, XXX, was the album-length arc. It began with the club songs about popping molly and having lots of sex; the songs that Danny Brown and his high-pitched rapping voice are known for. But the second half of the album became increasingly aware that Danny was turning 30 years old, and that this partying shit has to come to an end for his own good. He even started rapping in his “normal” voice. I bring this up because Old also has a ‘Side A/Side B’ mentality. It starts off with some tales of what it was like growing up in Detroit. It’s “the old Danny Brown,” before he gained a following and a larger-than-life personality. It’s coming from the same place as where XXX left off – a place of maturity. But on Side B, the album switches to molly-soaked club bangers. Some people were disappointed that the album reverted to what they perceive as a party music crutch. But listen closer: those club songs, lyrically (and sonically) aren’t anywhere near as fun as the ones on XXX. Danny, our album character anyway, is back in the party scene but he’s not enjoying it. He came back to the club because talking about “the old Danny Brown” was depressing. Even though he knows its not good for him, he starts partying again. And all it is is dangerous. And all it is is a cycle of behavior that he can’t get out of. Get depressed about partying. Get depressed about real life, so back to partying. Old is full of enjoyable songs. But the album-length narrative is so finely realized that I had to spend this whole paragraph talking about it. You’re a fool if you write off Danny Brown as a “molly rapper.” Danny Brown is one of the most ambitious artists in hip-hop.
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Old 12-22-2013, 09:08 PM   #35
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06. Deafheaven – Sunbather





This is Metacritic’s highest-reviewed album of the year. It’s in nearly every major top 10 list. Also, this is a black metal album. Usually, this would be a red flag suggesting that this is the worst, most palatable black metal album ever. I don’t know why critics appreciate this album but not black metal as an entire genre. Maybe there’s just enough shoegaze here, or maybe it’s because Deafheaven come out of hipster-approved San Francisco instead of Norway or Poland. Shame on you, critics, for lauding this album while ignoring every other black metal release. All that said, the critics got this right. Sunbather is indeed the best metal album of the year, for my money anyway. What makes this album stand out is its use of major chords. Black metal is bleak, harsh, depressing. It’s about a cold, jagged atmosphere and about hearing the attack of the pick on the guitar strings. Deafheaven, instead, used black metal songcraft and instrumentation to try and make happy, uplifting music. This isn’t a post-rock album, but it gets to emotional places that a Sigur Ros or Godspeed You! Black Emperor can. And Deafheaven does it through black metal, just flipping the ratio of minor chords to major chords around. It’s not a perfectly-realized concept, as the black metal vocals sound just as cold and harsh here as they do on a proper black metal album. But those vocals help the sound from getting too saccharine. Again, I shouldn’t like anything about this project. It seems almost anti-metal. A subversion of metal. But I listen to “Dream House” and I know that it just does what a lot of metal does (and is unfairly ignored for it): make compelling art.
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Old 12-22-2013, 09:10 PM   #36
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05. Killer Mike & El-P – Run the Jewels







Last year, El-P released a killer solo album, Cancer 4 Cure. Last year, Killer Mike released R.A.P. Music, an album that would have been an easy #1 favorite if not for the unexpected quality of Kendrick Lamar and Death Grips. This year, they teamed up to release a free album. Run the Jewels is basically ten tracks of Killer Mike and El-P trying to out-rap each other. The beats are done by El-P and they are the bombastic, skitter, paranoid, heavy kind that he used on Cancer 4 Cure. On those beats, the two rappers say the craziest shit, boast the biggest boasts, and have plenty of fun. Sure, there’s some social commentary to be found on this album. “DDFH”, short for Do Dope **** Hope is 2013’s best rap song about 2013. It might be the best song about 2013, about contemporary life, of any genre this year. But mostly, this album is about insane bars. It’s about to rappers going hard. I mean HARD. Within the first minute of the album Killer Mike has already shot a poodle to death. It’s crazy. Admittedly, this isn’t as conceptually strong as Danny Brown’s Old. No album on this list is. I enjoy Run the Jewels more because of the consistency of production, and because this album is ****ing fun. I could just type that word over and over: funfunfunfunfunfunfunfunfun. This shit rules.
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Old 12-22-2013, 09:11 PM   #37
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04. Jason Isbell - Southeastern







Jason Isbell always could write an amazing song. He proved it during his stint with the Drive-By Truckers (an aside: my mom and brother hated DBT when they opened for Tom Petty. I, however, enjoyed their set very much). But with his two albums with The 400 Unit, his songs were hit & miss. He’ll tell you today that his addiction to alcohol was to blame. Sober and focused, Isbell put out this proper solo album: a stripped-down country record of stories. Singer/songwriter material. Americana, if you will. These songs lack the epic sweep of “Decoration Day” or the full band beauty of “Alabama Pines.” What are they? A man and his guitar and lyrical narratives without peer this year. “Cover Me Up” is about redemption, vis a vis two lovers in a winter’s cabin (“So go leave your boots by the bed, we ain’t leaving this room/ til someone needs medical help or the magnolias bloom./ It’s cold in this house and I ain’t goin out to chop wood./ so cover me up, and know you’re enough to use me for good”). “Different Days” shows all the self-awareness of the recovered addict and all the frailty they’d rather not admit. Every song is so tight and focused lyrically. There’s nothing innovative on this album. It’s all about execution. There are a couple of tracks that get too big, too expansive with different instruments, too loud. But apart from that the focus leads to impressive execution. I think I said earlier in this list that Kacey Musgraves’ “Merry Go Round” was the best country song I’ve heard in decades. Jason Isbell’s “Elephant” gives that song a run for its money; it’s the most honest depiction of losing a friend to cancer that I can ever remember hearing. This album kills me, and I returned to it time and time again.
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Old 12-22-2013, 09:12 PM   #38
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03. Rokia Traore – Beautiful Africa







Rokia Traore is from Mali. She’s from the Bambara people. And she’s one of the most gifted musicians and songwriters that I’ve been introduced to in years. This album is sung mostly in French and Bambara. Lyrically, from what I’ve been told by the interwebs, it’s an album detailing the state of modern Africa, the good and the bad. But I don’t care about that. I care about how groovy and complex the melodies are. Traore lays down guitar tracks to contrast against n’goni (a traditional West African string instrument). Her vocals have a percussive quality to them at times. She can sing her ass off too. The song structures are not simple. This is layered, complex rock/folk music. Progressive, at times. There are many points in this album where I’m reminded of The Mars Volta. Yes, you read that correctly. Look, just click on the YouTube links. “Lalla” begins with a familiar electric blues riff, throws an n’goni riff on top of it, uses backing vocals to create a spiritual sort of mood, then uses her verses to rhtymically punctuate things and keep the song grounded. It’s a high-wire act. “Melancollie” is unrelentingly beautiful as it shifts and squirms. The title track breaks into powerfully-phrased English all of a sudden to claim “My faith doesn’t know failure.” Rokia Traore is the artist on this list that the least amount of people will have heard of, so she is the artists that I most want people to check out. This album took me by complete surprise and forced its way into a debate for my very favorite album of the year. It’s stunning.
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Old 12-22-2013, 09:16 PM   #39
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02. Kanye West - Yeezus







Yeah, yeah. You’re sick of Kanye. He doesn’t care. He’s going to **** with all of our shit. He doesn’t care. And that’s what I love about Yeezus. OK, I love many things about this album. First of which is how much it grows on you. My first impression was “Was that it? All that aggression, and for what? Seems half-formed.” Also, it was hard for me to get over the fact that this album is inspired directly by Death Grips. Kanye is usually a trend-setter. Drake wouldn’t have a career in music if Kanye hadn’t invented Drake’s sound for him on 808s and Heartbreak. Kanye’s previous album was forward-thinking in all of the best ways. Yeezus by comparison sounded a year too late; Death Grips ruled 2012 with the same sonic principles. The truth, though, is that Death Grips were a year too early (and, again, Kanye gives me proof that I was right to rank The Money Store #1 last year). This album is actually quite catchy once you spend time to figure out its movements, or to realize when it jarringly moves for no purpose.

The album’s arc is fascinating: Kanye is writing some of the most political, angry material of his career. “Black Skinhead” and “New Slaves” lack the polish of Kanye’s previous material. You have to understand: Kanye West is a musical perfectionist. He demands perfection from himself. So that these two songs, debuted on SNL, are as raw as they are is the first punk statement Kanye has allowed himself to make. Musically, anyway. This album, more than anything, is about finally merging Kanye’s public persona with his musical identity. But an interesting thing starts to happen while Kanye is calling himself a God. He starts to get upset at his relationship history. He starts to realize that some of this anger he’s feeling is psycho-sexual in nature. He realizes that if his long-term relationship with Kim is going to work, he’ll have to get some things off his chest first. And, yes, they are absolutely for her to hear. The sexual conquests of “I’m In It” are depraved, sure, and Kanye uses dancehall samples & Beenie Man vocals in such a way as to create a tense, freighting vibe. “Blood on the Leaves” is one of the most powerful songs I heard all year; in it, Kanye goes over the beginning and end of his relationship with Alexis Phifer (it has been the cause of nearly everything he’s put out since 808s and Heartbreak), using Nina Simone singing “Strange Fruit” as a bleating alarm, and using some intense horns from TNGHT to punctuate things and the emotions get ramped up to one of the most intense boiling points in hip-hop history. Is this even hip-hop, actually? I don’t even know. I don’t even care. Kanye is in a realm of his own when it comes to the art of the sample. The album closes with “Bound 2,” which feels like vintage Kanye in sound. Charlie Wilson delivers perhaps the best Kanye chorus ever. Lyrically, it wraps up the theme of the album: Kim, you need to know where this anger comes from so that we understand how to be with each other. I have to finally let myself be angry about Alexis instead of just depressed, so that I can finally move on and be with you.” Personally, I don’t have much faith that Kanye can move on. But that’s neither here nor there. What’s here is an album that I think is rightly topping many best-of lists. In a weak year for music, I think Yeezus is the best album I listened to. But there was one other album that I actually enjoyed more…
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Old 12-22-2013, 09:19 PM   #40
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01. Janelle Monae – The Electric Lady







Kansas City represent. Janelle Monae’s meticulous 2nd album – a double-album, actually – is so damn good. 19 tracks, and there’s no filler! Every song slays. Thematically and lyrically, this is another edition in Janelle’s expansive concept album series about an android named Cindi Mayweather. Musically, Janelle is duplicating every significant period of R&B music from the early 60s through the 90s. But always with a modern twist to the instrumentation and arrangements. This doesn’t feel like an old album, even when “It’s Code” wears its Jackson 5 influence on its sleeve and “Ghetto Woman” feels like an 80s shopping mall, and “Givin Em What They Love” is so much a Prince song that Prince himself does a guest verse. Monae is basically a neo-futurist in philosophy, and she applies that to her music and production. It’s hard to explain. I mean, she complains here about being “tired of Marvin asking me what’s goin on” but in order to achieve freshness in R&B she uses like all of the past and makes a R&B cyborg. This album is goddamned R&B Voltron. Janelle Monae has made a 19 track musical Megazord, and everything is so good. “Primetime,” featuring Miguel, is an incredible duet. “Victory” is a gospel track that every atheist slash robot can get behind. “Sally Ride” and “Dorothy Dandridge Eyes” are the culmination of the album’s synthesis. This album is in many top 20 lists and it is still underrated. Impeccable songcraft and musicianship. By the time you reach the album’s closer, the 90s radio R&B-evoking “What an Experience,” you’ll be thinking and feeling that song’s title. If you’ve read my lists ever before, you know that I’m rating these as album-length listens. Two years ago I dropped Doomtree’s last album from what would have been #1 to #3 because of one song that should have been sequenced earlier in the album. I get nitpicky. The Electric Lady is 19 tracks and I can’t find enough nits to pick to drop it from this spot. “Give me back my pyramid, I’m trying to free Kansas City.” This album is a treasure.
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Old 12-22-2013, 09:21 PM   #41
Reaper16 Reaper16 is offline
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Whew. There it is. All done.
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Reaper16's taste in beer, music, and literature are unmatched on this message board.
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Reaper16 has enough rep power to blowy ou to bits.Reaper16 has enough rep power to blowy ou to bits.Reaper16 has enough rep power to blowy ou to bits.Reaper16 has enough rep power to blowy ou to bits.Reaper16 has enough rep power to blowy ou to bits.Reaper16 has enough rep power to blowy ou to bits.Reaper16 has enough rep power to blowy ou to bits.Reaper16 has enough rep power to blowy ou to bits.Reaper16 has enough rep power to blowy ou to bits.Reaper16 has enough rep power to blowy ou to bits.Reaper16 has enough rep power to blowy ou to bits.
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Old 12-22-2013, 11:18 PM   #42
Sofa King Sofa King is offline
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I don't see Hail to the King on there.

So dislike.
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Old 12-23-2013, 06:37 AM   #43
Reaper16 Reaper16 is offline
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I don't see Hail to the King on there.

So dislike.
I'm about to travel to KC for the holidays, but remind me to tell the story about the time I made M. Shadows cry onstage.
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Reaper16 has enough rep power to blowy ou to bits.Reaper16 has enough rep power to blowy ou to bits.Reaper16 has enough rep power to blowy ou to bits.Reaper16 has enough rep power to blowy ou to bits.Reaper16 has enough rep power to blowy ou to bits.Reaper16 has enough rep power to blowy ou to bits.Reaper16 has enough rep power to blowy ou to bits.Reaper16 has enough rep power to blowy ou to bits.Reaper16 has enough rep power to blowy ou to bits.Reaper16 has enough rep power to blowy ou to bits.Reaper16 has enough rep power to blowy ou to bits.
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Old 12-23-2013, 08:57 AM   #44
NewChief NewChief is offline
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Nice addition on the Jason Isbell. Some albums I loved that you, evidently, didn't:

Chance the Rapper, Acid Rap
Foals, Holy Fire
Vampire Weekend
Laura Marling, Once I was an Eagle
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Old 12-23-2013, 09:16 AM   #45
KCUnited KCUnited is offline
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Awesome write ups, especially the ones I'm not familiar with. Wholeheartedly agree on this being a down year for metal. Typically, I have an internal conversation with myself about whether a genre is having a bad year or maybe it's just my tastes being cyclical, but this was definitely a stagnant year for metal.

Some of my favs for 2013:

Sex Prisoner - State Property
Spine/The Repos split
Sea of Shit - s/t
Ultra//Negative/IRA Graves split
Budd Dwyer - Never Satisfied
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