Albums of the Year 2013
- by Bob Coyne Release Date: Label:

You know it's a strange year when Johnny Borrell releases a good album! Yet that's exactly what he did with his debut solo effort. It's not the album of the year but still, it surprised everyone and makes you wonder if he'll return to the Razorshite days ever again.
With our list pages not live yet on this new version of the website, we're tackling the end of year list a little differently. There's no particular order, just a list of the albums that deserve a mention, along with a few pulled out with album artwork.
2013 was one of the best years for music in recent times. Maybe you had to dig a bit deeper to unearth the gems but it was well worth it. No doubt we've missed a few and we'll keep adding to the list based on your suggestions, so read on and Blab to tell us what we've missed. Also click on an album to read the original Soundblab review.
The Big Releases
Some of the established bands returned this year with possibly their best work. Arctic Monkeys proved they're not afraid to do what they want with the RnB tinged AM. Arcade Fire went a little bit disco while Foals stepped up to headliner status with their heaviest album to date. While Nick Cave proved he still had it at the ripe old age of 56.
Arctic Monkeys
AM |
Arcade Fire
Reflektor |
Foals
Holy Fire |
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Push the Sky Away |
The Comebacks
Speaking of old age, David Bowie practically came back from the dead if most gossip mongering arseholes were to be believed these past few years. The Next Day is without doubt the greatest comeback ever and his best album since Scary Monsters. My Bloody Valentine's Kevin Shields finally gave us what we wanted, it just took him 22 years to do it, thankfully mbv didn't disappoint. Even Suede proved there was still life in old Brett yet.
David Bowie
The Next Day |
My Bloody Valentine
mbv |
Suede
Bloodsports |
Medicine
To the Happy Few |
The Psych Revival
Following the likes of Tame Impala and Goat in 2012, the psych revival threw up some modern classics this year. MGMT continued to rid themselves of their early fans while releasing arguably their best album. Hookworms released possibly the debut album of the year but if you're looking for something utterly bonkers, go and dig out the Gnod album.
![]() |
|||
Pond
Hobo Rocket |
Foxygen
We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic |
Hookworms
Pearl Mystic |
Gnod
Chaudelande |
![]() |
|||
Fuzz
Fuzz |
Unknown Mortal Orchestra
II |
The Flaming Lips
The Terror |
MGMT
MGMT |
The 90s Alt Rock Revival
At times this year it felt like it was 1991 all over again. In fact the quality of some of the albums you see below was better than some of the originals that inspired them.
Milk Music
Cruise Your Illusion |
Parquet Courts
Light Up Gold |
Coke Weed
Back to Soft |
California X
California X |
![]() |
![]() |
||
Speedy Ortiz
Major Arcana |
Waxahatchee
Cerulean Salt |
Courtney Barnett
The Double EP |
Purling Hiss
Water on Mars |
Electronic
Electronic music came in many forms this year and continued to push the boundaries. Four standout albums came from Fuck Buttons, Autre Ne Veut, Forest Swords and Tim Hecker.
Autre Ne Veut especially gave us something new with their alt RnB sound. A genre that's been bubbling under for the last few years but seemed to really make sense with 'Anxiety'.
![]() |
![]() |
||
Fuck Buttons
Slow Focus |
Autre Ne Veut
Anxiety |
Forest Swords
Engravings |
Tim Hecker
Virgins |
...and then there was this lot
Aidan Baker | Always Drowning |
Anna Calvi | One Breath |
Atoms For Peace | AMOK |
Balbec | Two Sides to Every Story |
Bardo Pond | Peace on Venus |
bEEdEEgEE | Sum/One |
Black Sabbath | 13 |
Bleached | Ride Your Heart |
Bosnian Rainbows | Bosnian Rainbows |
Cate Le Bon | Mug Museum |
Charlie Boyer and the Voyeurs | Clarietta |
Chelsea Light moving | Chelsea Light Moving |
Christopher Owens | Lysandre |
Connan Mockasin | Caramel |
Cults | Static |
Darwin Deez | Songs For Imaginative People |
Daughn Gibson | Me Moan |
Daughter | If You Leave |
David Lynch | The Big Dream |
Dean Wareham | Emancipated Hearts |
Deerhunter | Monomania |
Doldrums | Lesser Evil |
Drenge | Drenge |
Ducktails | The Flower Lane |
Eleanor Friedberger | Personal Record |
Empty Pools | Saturn Reruns |
Everything Everything | Arc |
Factory Floor | Factory Floor |
Fat White Family | Champagne Holocaust |
Fear of Men | Early Fragments |
Fidlar | Fidlar |
Future of the Left | How to Stop Your Brain in an Accident |
Girls Names | The New Life |
Gold Panda | Half of Where You Live |
Greg Boring | Heavy Syrup |
Grouper | The Man Who Died in His Boat |
Gun Outfit | Hard Coming Down |
Haim | Days Are Gone |
Iceage | You're Nothing |
Indians | Something Else |
Islet | Released By The Movement |
Jackson Scott | Melbourne |
James Blake | Overgrown |
Jamie Lidell | Jamie Lidell |
Jaws | Milkshake EP |
Johhny Dowd | Do The Gargan |
Johnny Borrell | Borrell 1 |
Jon Hopkins | Immunity |
k-x-p | II |
King Krule | 6 Feet Beneath the Moon |
Kurt Vile | Wakin on a Pretty Daze |
Laura Marling | Once I Was an Eagle |
Local Natives | Hummingbird |
Los Dos Hermanos | Bourbon, Blood & Seafoods |
Low | The Invisible Way |
Lower Plenty | Hard Rubbish |
Lule Kaine | Quiet Volcanoes |
Mazzy Star | Seasons of Your Day |
Merchandise | Totale Nite |
Moodoid | Moodoid |
Mudhoney | Vanishing Point |
Neon Neon | Praxis Makes Perfect |
Night Beds | Country Sleep |
Nine Inch Nails | Hesitation Marks |
No Age | An Object |
No Joy | Wait to Pleasure |
Oneohtrix Point Never | R Plus Seven |
Orchestra of Spheres | Vibration Animal Sex Brain Music |
Pantha du Prince | Elements of Light |
Parquet Courts | Light Up Gold |
Parquet Courts | Tally All the Things That You Broke |
Peace | In Love |
Phoenix | Bankrupt! |
Pinkunoizu | The Drop |
Pins | Girls Like Us |
Pissed Jeans | Honeys |
Pixies | EP1 |
Polica | Shulamith |
Pond | Hobo Rocket |
Primal Scream | More Light |
Purling Hiss | Water On Mars |
pvt | Homosapien |
Quasi | Mole City |
Queens of the Stone Age | …Like Clockwork |
Scott & Charlene's Wedding | Any Port in a Storm |
SHABDA | The Electric Bodhisattva |
Smith Westerns | Soft Will |
Sneeze | I'm Going to Kill Myself |
Solar Bears | Migration |
Splassh | Comfort |
Suuns | Images du Futur |
Swearin' | Surfing Strange |
Teeth of the Sea | Master |
The Cosmic Dead | Inner Sanctum |
The Fall | The Remainderer EP |
The Fall | Re-mit |
The Flaming Lips | Peace Sword EP |
The Julie Ruin | Run Fast |
The Knife | Shaking the Habitual |
The Men | New Moon |
The National | Trouble Will Find Me |
The Orwells | Other Voices EP |
Thee Oh Sees | Floating Coffin |
These New Puritans | Field of Reeds |
Thought Forms | Ghost Mountain |
Toro Y Moi | Anything in Return |
Torres | Torres |
Toy | Join The Dots |
Travis Bretzer | Making Love |
Twin Peaks | Sunken |
Tyler, The Creator | Wolf |
Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats | Mind Control |
Vampire Weekend | Modern Vampires of the City |
Wavves | Afraid of Heights |
Weekend | Jinx |
White Fence | Cyclops Reap |
Widow speak | Almanac |
Wolf People | Fain |
Wooden Shjips | Back to Land |
Yeah Yeah Yeahs | Mosquito |
Yo La Tengo | Fade |
Younghusband | Dromes |
Youth Lagoon | Wondrous Bughouse |
Yuppies | Yuppies |
Zomes | Time Was |
Overrated
Every year there's a handful of bands that are hyped to the hills, only to release a debut album that falls a little short of expectations, I'm looking at you Palma Violets. As we're doing the list a little differently this year, here's our albums that we're not sure what all the fuss is about.
Palma Violets | 180 |
Savages | Silence Yourself |
Deep Vally | Sistrionix |
The Strokes | Comedown Machine |
Franz Ferdinand | Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action |







