Your favourite music of 2013

[The Fish 8947]

Aye but that's still only available with the premium subscription, tenner a month I think?

If you're fairly musicy, it's totally worth it.

[ewerk 26165]

I have a 2 min commute in the car so rarely listen to music on my phone these days.

[ChezGiven 0]

The Parky MBv album review.

 

 

They took away your witchcraft and gave you science...You've been bored ever since..

 

The great space sunburst heater glows white through ignorance and reveals all your homemade stealth machines. Somewhere in the Northern forest a boy waits for his first kill...Sudden delight courses through his 'other self'....The one that comes only at night.

 

Sacred plans hatched at 14 through windows of other peoples houses..Dusty collapsed lives you never believed in in the first place. In the park where we played RISK with doubtful onlookers who were willingly converted across glasses of lager - working class chandeliers to pain and forbearing.

 

She understood that the light of the universe had screamed out in a fearful moment of birth but it carried no word..The words waited silent in that blackness..Just light no spokane...Your speaking self a surprise to us all...Where do your words come from? I want your back story baby! Gott liebe Gott!

 

The universe is blind. It cannot see us and I cannot see you...Your little blue veins stand out for you are all animal inside and I am animus within..We've spoken the spokane and wait for the first word from the dark chicane....

 

I hear it coming.

 

 

 

Marvelous!

[Christmas Tree 3997]

 

Have you provided bank details?

 

If you do go for a premium trial you should get a 30 day free trial of the unlimited access so I don't know where 48 hours would come from.

 

 

EDIT: Ah, it's a continuation offer....

 

https://www.spotify.com/int/legal/48-hour-free-trial-continuation-offer-terms-and-conditions/

 

So you must have already had your 30 days?

 

 

I tried it last year but when I heard it was free I downloaded the app again. Im guessing theres a non premium version so I will look at what that does compared to this premium one.

[Happy Face 29]

If you're fairly musicy, it's totally worth it.

 

I think it's ok. But I don't like the lack of ownership after spending £120 over a year.

 

I reckon they should offer a £20 a package where you can listen unlimited AND then they'll send you 2 cd's of your choice at the end of every month.

[desmondTUTU 0]

[The Fish 8947]

 

I think it's ok. But I don't like the lack of ownership after spending £120 over a year.

 

I reckon they should offer a £20 a package where you can listen unlimited AND then they'll send you 2 cd's of your choice at the end of every month.

 

£15 and we've got a deal.

[Christmas Tree 3997]

Spotify in shuffle mode.

 

If I search whitney Houston does it just play lots of random whitney songs.?

[Tom 13804]

I really liked Ed Harcourts album 'Back into the woods' plus he played a class show at the Sage.

 

[Happy Face 29]

Spotify in shuffle mode.

 

If I search whitney Houston does it just play lots of random whitney songs.?

Aye, you can shuffle an artist, an album or a playlist.

[Bonamental 0]

Given what has been posted here so far, I'm not sure there will be all that many takers for this. But my absolute favourite stuff this year is Alter Bridge - Fortress. It's just epic - superb rhythm section, Myles Kennedy further reinforcing his place as THE modern rock singer and Mark Tremonti, well he's a demon of a guitar player. Since it came out I've listened to it over and over and over, cracking stuff. First song from the album:

 

[The Fish 8947]

Added

[Happy Face 29]

 

I've found that over 3g on my Nexus 4 Spotify fails to jump to the next track most of the time. I have to skip to the next track myself manually 90% of the time. It's fine on Wifi though.

 

Not a data signal problem because Google play goes from track to track seamlessly and I'm using high quality streaming.

 

I've worked out my issue. Was doing my head in that I had a 3G signal strong enough to watch Sky Go at work, but it would say "no internet" after a single song every time.

 

It was Juice Defender. When the screen times out Juice Defender disables wifi and 3g to save energy. The daftee. Stopped it and now my playlists are shuffling like a dream.

[Gemmill 34166]

You can change the settings in juice defender so that if Google play music is running, JD won't disable connectivity. Is that what you've done or have you just turned JD off altogether? Cos your battery will suffer if the latter.

[Happy Face 29]

I was going to see if I noticed the battery draining quicker without JD. Couldn't find the setting and was getting annoyed so just uninstalled altogether

 

I only had the free version though so maybe need the full version to ignore for Spotifty.

[Gemmill 34166]

Aye possibly. It makes a huge difference on my phone having juice defender running, but see how you get on. I think I've got the "ultimate" edition of it.

[Happy Face 29]

I thought my view of it being a poor year was tainted by having the new kid and not listening to as much as usual, but I do have 25 of the 33 albums that made most critic's top 10s....

 

http://www.metacritic.com/feature/critics-pick-top-ten-albums-of-2013

 

Yeezus being number one on almost twice as many lists as any other album is daft as far as I'm concerned. In the 'Listening' thread when it came out I said...

 

 

His production and sampling can be to notch.. But his lyrics/flow are dire. They also tend to be scant too.

 

 

 

I stand by that. I would enjoy an insrumental version of the album far more.

 

Vampire weekend deserve to be in there.

 

I think I was too kind to the Daft Punk effort when it arrived...as were most. Get Lucky is an all time great, obviously, but then Nile Rodgers is a genius. There are a few other good songs on there. One great song with a few good ones is usually enough of a sign that an album will become a classic over time, but I already tend to skip half the songs on the album if they pop up. I skip nowt on Homework and much less on Discovery.

 

Arcade Fire should have made a double album when they were on Funeral form, not current form.

 

Chance the Rapper grates on me with his high pitch...as does Kurt Vile with his moany low one.

 

Disclosure and Parquet Courts deserve to be in there with Vampire Weekend.

 

..and now I'm boring myself. I was going to go through the whole list with where they felt like let-downs, but who could be arsed to read it.

 

My top 10 albums not among the critics choices follow. Click the names for full reviews

 

Claude VonStroke

Crenshaw is always one to leave on a high, and "Can't Wait" is a hairs-on-end closer rendered with a soaring build, its pseudo-trance riffs toned down into piano-led tech-house. It's a sumptuous close to an album that occasionally sees Crenshaw at his most experimental, and though he might not always hit the mark, in some moments he's utterly sublime.

 

Colin Stetson

As otherworldly as he sounds when he let’s out a yawp and his saxophone starts ravenously chewing on some baritone notes like a hungry dog, there’s a direct connection to who Stetson is, his emotions, his beliefs. He’s closer to Tuvan throat singing than Albert Ayler, and maybe closer to Swans’ noisy dramas than to John Coltrane, but the language of all of those artists melt into his work. It’s the closest thing to a universal language music has to offer — and you’ve never heard anything like it.

 

The Dodos

Carrier is sad, its melancholy almost oppressively palpable at times, but the Dodos refuse to wallow – if anything, Carrier is a learning experience in eleven songs. The Dodos have always been a subtle band, even with all the dizzying drumming and blistering acoustics, but Carrier, whether it’s because of the electric guitar’s welcome textures or the band’s deliberate pacing, rarely fails to connect. What could have been a morbid, circular examination of loss is instead a reflection on life, friends, love, and how to deal with the kind of gaping hole that opens under one with no warning.

 

Earl Sweatshirt

The morbid horror-show rapper heard previously has grown into an observational maverick-style artist, offering downtrodden and even dour rhymes that come off like MF Doom recounting his visit to the Grand Guignol.

 

Eminem

There is confidence and maturity here; introspection and regret are balanced with a clear idea of his place in rap's history. His flows are exceptional (Rap God contains an unbelievable feat of double-time rhyming) and the wordplay dazzling. The jokes, in places offensive, are relentless and ribald. There is no apology, though, no concession; just a considered, virtuoso application of talent.

 

Fuck Buttons

Every sound on Slow Focus is smooth, polished, and lovingly molded, like a factory-shaped piece of steel. The album's tone is a curious mix of juiced and muted, like Hung and Power have rewired the maximalism of stadium EDM to arrive at the minimalist emptiness of someone like Detroit's Robert Hood. This is perfectionist's music. Power and Hung have made either the year's most introverted party album or the most expansive loner's album; either way, there are few albums this year that offer this much space to get lost in.

 

Ludovicio Einaudi

In a Time Lapse instead focuses on driving dynamics, prominent violins, and underlying percussion to create Einaudi’s most purposeful work yet. It is a release that will undoubtedly solidify Einaudi’s place as one of the greatest pianists and composers of our era.

 

RJD2

A consummate crate-digger and sample hunter, RJ lines the path in between nu-disco, dusty soul, rock ‘n’ roll, spiraling organ runs, and brash hip-hop. As the title suggests, its 16 tracks are a cacophony of aesthetics pulled from the producer’s myriad inspirations. However, unlike other mad scientists, RJD2′s creations are beautiful offshoots of their distorted components rather than monster mashes.

 

The Thermals

The production from John Agnello, who’s done terrific work with Dinosaur Jr. and The Hold Steady, can’t be overlooked. The grit found on The Thermals’ early records has returned, and it gives Desperate Ground a proper snuff-film graininess. There are no harmonies, leaving Harris’s vocals to cut through like a rusty saw blade. And guitars are thoroughly cranked, held taut by Foster’s fuzz bass and Westin Glass’s slappy drumming. Desperate Ground is easily the best Thermals record since The Body, The Blood, The Machine. It’s a return what the trio does best: Making your body move to pogo, while your brain quietly weeps for humanity. Nothing like a little bloodshed to get the blood, and the fists, pumping.

 

Villagers

Like many a gifted writer garlanded with lavish acclaim at the outset of their career, Villagers' Conor J O'Brien was wracked with self-doubt when the time came to follow up his Mercury-nominated, Ivor Novello Award-winning debut. The treadmill of two years' touring had all but crushed his creative spirit, and he hated the songs he was writing with a guitar. So he adopted an entirely different approach, re-immersing himself in youthful penchants for electronica, krautrock, funk and jazz-fusion, and creating groove soundscapes as the basis upon which to build new songs. Whether it's buffing the Bon Iver-esque sheen of "My Lighthouse" with sleek harmonies, or building "The Waves" from its staccato tattoo into a maelstrom of snarling guitar, pulsing synth and sweeping orchestration, these songs fizz with the excitement of creation.