Albums of 2013: The Top 20

We've made it! You're most likely reading this looking forward to most of 2014 and we'll bring you that soon, but this was important for us to finish. It's been a pretty strange year for all of us here at Sound Influx and we hope you're still there.
If you are, we're rewarding you. Here's a bucket tonne of music links from our top 20 albums of the year!

20. Queens of the Stone Age - Like Clockwork


19. Boards of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest



18. Foals - Holy Fire



17. AlunaGeorge - Body Music



16. Unknown Mortal Orchestra - ii
"The dreams that creep through his unconsciousness seem to be a recurring theme on ‘II’ and with its imagery of drifting away on the sea they find their most impressive outlet here." Max Sefton



15. Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City
"Vampire Weekend have done it again. With ‘Modern Vampires Of The City’ they have created a beautiful, infectious and strange record. And ‘record’ seems the right word. It is the last chapter in a trilogy, a record of the lives of characters first visited on their self-titled debut in 2008. It is a chapter sound tracked by tracks laden with hooks, peppered with infectious rhythms and more measured harmonies and melodies. Singer Ezra Koenig’s voice is also shown off to a greater extent on this record than any other. And it really does sound effortless." Holly Read-Challen



14. Waxahatchee - Cerulean Salt
Waxahatchee's record is truly the surprise story of the year. The kind of sound that Ms Crutchfield creates is not the kind that usually spikes the interest of those 'in charge' of hype and yet Cerulean Salt became one of the 'buzz' records of the year. The simple truth? Because it's brilliant. It's the kind of album that doesn't require you to be anywhere or in any mood, because it sets the mood for you. For that, it earns a place in the top 15!



13. The Front Bottoms - Talon of the Hawk
(Braden's Album of the Year)
There's little I can say about this record before I start gushing about it. As such; if you want an honest rock and roll record that makes you happy that passionate music about one man's every day struggles, look no further than Talon of the Hawk.



12. DJ Koze - Amygdala


11. Parquet Courts - Light Up Gold
Democracy dictates that this was released in the UK in 2013, so here it is.



10. Disclosure - Settle
You're no one until you make our top 10, but try telling Disclosure that at this point.



9. Daniel Avery - Drone Logic



8. CHVRCHES - The Bones Of What You Believe


7. Justin Timberlake - The 20/20 Experience Pt.1



6. Phoenix - Bankrupt!
"There is every chance this could be the album which pushes Phoenix out to more ears than ever before and in doing so may mean they are lost forever to those who have held the secret so close to their chests for so long. Only time will tell."  Paul Shiernecker



5. Everything Everything - Arc
"They’ve done it then, the Manchester foursome. They’ve made an album that manages to balance the indie/dance/pop/experimental with radio playability and pure integrity. It’s not perfect, but we’ll be hard pressed to remember 2012 if more albums come like Arc this year."  Braden Fletcher



4. Arcade Fire - Reflektor




3. Kanye West - Yeezus



2. The National - Trouble Will Find Me

1. JAMES BLAKE - OVERGROWN

Holy fuck, the Mercury's got it right. We're here at the top of the list with what our staff voted as the best record of 2013 and it's the one that won the Mercury Prize. We didn't see this coming, but when James Blake makes music as good as he does, was this ever really a surprise?


That's that then.
See you in the right year!

Albums of 2013: Part Two

So this is it. This is the antithesis of what we should be doing as a music site. That's probably the worst way to start any post ever, but when we're less than 10 days away from February and only just finishing our records of the year from the year prior; we have to put our hands up and say it.

We're going to do better for you some time, we promise. There's change coming, we'll inform you all about it soon.

In the mean time, here's the biggest and best rundown we can muster whilst we're on hiatus.

39. Connan Mockasin - Caramel

38. Matthew E White - Big Inner
Stream here


37. Deafheaven - Sunbather
Stream here


36. The Men - New Moon


35. Sigur Ros - Kveikur
"In recent years, viking funerals in which the deceased is sent out to sea on a burning pyre have somewhat decreased in popularity. However, if a standard cremation simply isn't your thing, Sigur Ros' latest release 'Kveikur' will serve as the perfect soundtrack." Lewis Shaw ()


34. Kavinsky - Outrun
I (Braden) maintain that if Daft Punk had made a concept album with the amount of power Kavisnky pushes in Outrun and then whacked their collaborators in there, we'd all be heralding it as one of the albums of the decade; but it wasn't to be. Luckily, Kavinsky made this record anyway.


33. The Haxan Cloak - Excavation


32. Janele Monae - The Electric Lady


31. The Pastels - Slow Summits


30. Deerhunter - Monomania


29. Volcano Choir - Repave



28. Blue Hawaii - Untogether 




27. Drenge - Drenge




26. Candy Claws - Ceres And Calypso 




25. Daft Punk - Random Access Memories 



24. My Bloody Valentine - m b v


23. Frightened Rabbit - Pedestrian Verse 




22. John Grant - Pale Green Ghosts 

21. Charli XCX - True Romance