My Personal Best of 2013 in Music

Between my Major Life Activity, a two-year-old and everything else, my once small reserve of time for kicking back and relaxing has dwindled to the point where it’s as ephemeral as those stars you can see out of the corner of your eye but which disappear when you try to look straight at them. Nonetheless, sitting at my desk working long hours every day, I can still enjoy music--and here’s my personal best of 2013.

The hands-down best music I encountered this year was Lucius (new album), noted for its two lead female vocalists who often sing in unison. I’m reminded of when a band performed traditional Irish music at the Harbor Bar in Portrush, Ireland when I was at university. Sometimes, a female vocalist would join for a few songs and a reverential hush would settle over the bar. Lucius is like that. The group's best songs and recordings are a moment within which something intimate occurs, something carved out of all the surrounding clamor. A lot of fans came to Lucius through a Tiny Desk Concert for NPR (here), but I just can’t get “Two of Us on the Run” out of my head:

 

 

Perhaps the biggest force in my listening habits this year, however, was The Roots. It all started when I read drummer Questlove’s memoir Mo’ Meta Blues: The World According to Questlove. I kept notes as he mentioned his favorite albums from soul and R&B to rap and hip-hop, and then I began tracking down as many of them as I could, from Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life to N.W.A.’s Straight Outta Compton to De La Soul classics like De La Soul Is Dead. And, of course, I devoured just about anything The Roots have touched: studio albums, live albums, collaborations, and even songs merely produced by the group or featuring its members as guests. Here’s an official video medley from the 2006 album Game Theory:

 

While I definitely prefer the late 80s/early 90s hip-hop style--the groups, social commentary, danceable beats and gritty production--my quest for the best in rap and hip-hop also led me to download more recent albums like NAS’s Life Is Good, Kanye West’s dark fantasy Yeezus, and, just last week, Busta Rhymes and Q-tip’s free mixtape The Abstract & The Dragon (here). These recent albums show that the genre ain’t what it used to be, but it can still be engaging.

In 2013, a lot of my favorite groups came out with new albums--AFI, Avenged Sevenfold and Linkin Park--but they all tended to be good rather than great. One artist who redeemed herself in my eyes, however, was M.I.A. Maya, her last official release, left me with the feeling she was rehashing old tricks instead of breathing new life into them, but this year I discovered the Vicki Leekx mixtape, and soon after, this year’s Matangi. Together, the two releases show that M.I.A. has the creativity to back up her swagger. Nothing sounds like her, and that isn’t an easy feat in today’s music industry.

 

All of that is a far cry from the usual heavy alternative and metal that usually moves me, but it wasn’t that kind of year. Go where Euterpe leads, and you can’t go wrong.