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!

The Problem With... Yeezus

 Once a week, Braden will be writing a new column for Sound Influx. Most weeks, it will be entitled ‘The Problem With’ and will feature a certain aspect of what’s been going on in music and culture recently. He’s described it to us as Ten O’Clock Live for a music website but he also describes burritos as family. It’s probably best if we let him take it from here with his first piece (which we’re dubious of) on Yeezus.

When your name is Kanye West certain things are true that are not if you’re my friend John Edwards. Most noticeable of these things will of course be that John isn’t an internationally famous, controversial, millionaire hip-hop icon; John works in a high street store in Leeds and he’s most famous for winning the pub quiz a few weeks back. It’s safe to say that John’s claim that he was a God that night was false.

Kanye West however, in his sixth album has passed through his registration, graduation and his ascension to the fantasy world via a short film in which he meets an angel and is now a higher power himself. To him, the shouts of “Illuminati” and “conspiracy” aren’t so much unfounded as they are insulting to his status as a deity. With all of the hype, THAT interview and the resulting online pandemonium, the focus has been as much on the music as it has been the character (and he is most definitely a character) that created it.

As such, that is both the problem and the genius of Yeezus. Most conversation requires mutual knowledge. If you were to attempt to talk to the cast of Made in Chelsea about the current problems in Syria, it’s doubtful that they’d be able to fully engage. Similarly if you were to try talk to a Syrian about how Jamie (the one that looks like the Milky Bar kid but is actually a McVitties kid) and the blonde one that looks exactly like his twin but actually fancies him, had a talk about ‘them’, they’d rightly tell you to go away. Kanye West’s sixth record doesn’t require this. At its core, there’s an album, which features some of Yeezy’s best and most average work. Surrounding that, however is an entire world of discussion, a surface level of heated debate and an atmosphere in which the omniscient Kanye West himself views it all from next to Miss Kardashian and fellow Lord and Patrick Bateman impersonator Scott Dickstick. Incidentally the first track sounds like it was written by someone as tone deaf as a Kardashian, as if West allowed all of them at his MIDI pads at the same time and simply rapped over it (Daft Punk produced, sadly awful).  Not to bring it up again, but has Kanye listened to State of Grace? Now that’s quite the album opener (if pop mixed with loosely narrative country is your thing.)

Perhaps that’s what it’s all about though. Hooking the fish in with the hype, pulling them in with the controversy, slapping them in the face with On Sight and turning them into tasty sticks whilst declaring your divinity for the rest of the record. The problem with Yeezus is that you don’t need to listen to it beyond this point to know if you like it. The rest of the record is West being West. If you like him, you’ll most likely like this dip into darkness. If you don’t, you don’t have a choice; you’ll be subjected to his words and sounds regardless. Turn your phone off (and/or/don’t turn someone’s grandfather on) and take a walk. If you’re out in Leeds on a Tuesday morning, you might even catch my pub quiz team and I having a celebratory breakfast, demanding our croissants.

Braden Fletcher

Jay Z & Kanye West - Watch The Throne

Jay-Z and Kanye West need absolutely no introduction whatsoever. This collaborative album between two of rap’s biggest has been in the making for nine months. Despite featuring together on a couple of tracks, most notably Jay-Z’s "Run This Town" and West’s "Monster", this is the first full-length album to be released by the duo. Originally planned to be a five-track EP, ‘Watch the Throne’ apparently took three attempts to finally complete, and while it is phenomenal in places, it is evident that, judging by previous efforts, the duo could have done better.

The album does have highs, the musicianship showcased on the album being just one of them. The music on every track is bold, vast and dark, similar to West’s excellent ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’. The production is distinct and compliments each track well, showing both rappers’ unique taste and style. The album’s main highlight, "Lift Off", is an outstanding track featuring none other than Mrs Jay-Z herself. The soaring introduction heralds Beyoncé’s arrival before the outstanding chorus kicks. It’s an obvious choice for a single, but the correct one. It deserves to top singles charts all over the world. Other highlights are provided in the form of "No Church in the Wild" featuring Odd Future’s Frank Ocean, "New Day" which contains an auto-tuned sample of Nina Simone’s "Feeling Good", and "Murder to Excellence" which broadcasts the most serious message on the whole album.

However, it’s the moments where both artists have nothing important to say that bring the album down. Occasionally on the album, the lyrics focus around the rich, luxurious lifestyle of the duo, and while it is the lifestyle that most would love to have, it doesn’t make for good listening. Other lows on the album are provided when the music and the lyrics become cluttered and sound disjointed. The lead track "Otis" ends at the right moment, if it had gone on for longer, the sample would have became annoying. Thankfully, the album only has a small of number of flaws, which can be overlooked.

With a collaboration this big, you would have been hoping for album of the century. But the best rap album of the year will do just fine. Now, will there be a follow-up and will we have to wait ages for that to happen?

7/10
By Calum Stephen

Jay Z & Kanye West - Otis



"I invented swag" boasts Jay-Z on ‘Otis’, the second track to be released from the highly-anticipated collaboration between himself and Kanye West; a rap supergroup dubbed as The Throne. With the modern rap scene currently populated by shock factor lyrics spat out by kids barely out of their teens, the two titans are back to show who is still best. This track heavily samples Otis Redding’s ‘Try a Little Tenderness’, showcasing both Jay-Z and Kanye’s love of sampling older music. Both artists, Hova and Yeezy as they are referred to in this track, swap verses, slowly building up to a climax where Kanye announces "We killin’ ‘em".

With razor-sharp lines and a strong chemistry between them, it’s clear that both artists are intending on taking back the limelight, and it seems no one is fit enough to stop them.

By Calum Stephen