First of all I must mention a few albums that are not on the list, even though they're in my opinion really good. The reason why they're not on the list is that I can't really rate them objectively. These albums are Vronsky's Throat Specific Mixture by Vronsky, Pimeä Saari by Risto Juhani and Trains by Johannes Laitila. Vronsky is my own band, so it's clear that even though I would like to shamelessly call it the best album of the year, it's hard to be objective. Risto Juhani on the other hand is one of my best friends, as is Johannes Laitila, who is also my flat mate. Even though these albums do not appear on my list, I recommend them warmly and truly think they are among the best albums of the year. Listen to Vronsky here, Risto Juhani here and Johannes Laitila here.
But after saying this, let's get on with the top 15 albums of 2013 (well-excluding those three mentioned above).
London-based band The History of Apple Pie was introduced to me at London's Rough Trade East. I was flipping through albums of the month and the cover with an ice cream van caught my eye. The music proved to be really interesting. The melodies are cute and pop-oriented, but the sounds make the music truly interesting. There are buzzing guitars in a shoe gaze style over the songs and the vocals are otherworldly. The vocals sound a bit like someone, who's inhaled helium just before singing. The best song and a natural choice for a single is brilliant See You. The History of Apple Pie walks in the footsteps of 80's shoe gaze rockers, but does not drown the beautiful melodies under too much guitar-wall and you can really just enjoy great pop-rock music. Listen to the album on Spotify.
Woodpigeon was until early this year, unknown to me, even though they've been music for quite a while and they get all of their influences from the kinds of bands I listen to all the time. Thumbstacks + Glue does not have the band's best individual songs on it, but as a whole, it's a great album. The musical styles range from folk to indie rock. The instrumentation is mostly very traditional, but some more experimental sounds have also found their way onto the album. There are great melodies throughout the album. The vocal harmonies also succeed beautifully in producing goosebumps. This album unfortunately lacks the jackpot song like the band's song For Paolo from previous EP, but it's still very good album altogether. Listen to the album on Spotify.
This must be the only band I know from Santiago, Chile. A bout two years ago, I was lucky enough to get to know a few Chilean people, so finding a Chilean band earlier this year, was really interesting. Föllakzoid has a weird name for a band, but I guess it's a part of this mystery. The music is really fantastic psychedelia in footsteps of early 70's Krautrock. But there is much more here. The melodies and hypnotising guitar jams range from minimalist one note quiet bits to explosive bangs. Throughout the album there are interesting guitar effects and other space sounds that are extremely tastefully made. Since my friends' band Kiki Pau released their album Pines last year, I've been interested in new wave of psychedelia and Föllakzoid is one of the best examples of interesting music out there in this genre. Listen to the album on Spotify.
In the beginning of 2000's I was introduced to the first bands I liked with strong electronic sounds. I'm now talking about Kid A era Radiohead, but especially Grandaddy. The Boy Least Likely To is my latest finds in this genre of synthesiser using indie pop. The melodies on this album are absolutely brilliant and the sounds combine more traditional band instruments to synths and electric drumming. The result is really as endearing as the naive album covers of this band. The Great Perhaps is their best album to this day. This band is a result of about twenty years of wuss-indie starting from band's like Belle and Sebastian. I will be really interested to see how the future of this band will turn out. It can still improve a bit further, even though this album already is pretty much what i'm looking for in this kind of music. Listen to the album on Spotify.
In past two years I've found a whole bunch of new singer-songwriter women playing sad and melancholic folk-rock. Torres is one of the most wrist-slittingly melancholic artists of these. The sounds are a bit more rock oriented than your average folk. There are quite a lot of electric guitars involved. The crying violin above some of the songs furthers the impact of these songs. Torres is just a little older than twenty years and it makes me feel really old, considering someone has made something this great so young and I still haven't really accomplished that much. For all you friends of dark melancholic melodies and quiet indie sadness, I recommend this debut album most warmly. It will be really interesting where Torres' career takes her with a debut album like this. Listen to the album on Spotify.
A few years ago, the whole indie world went crazy with Fleet Foxes' debut self-titled album. Since then there have been numerous folk bands that have tried to achieve the similar sound, but a lot of them unsuccessfully. I'm not saying that Night Beds would be the new Fleet Foxes, since it would undermine their unique sound. There are a lot of acapella singing bits on this album spiced up with a lot of echo. The band, however, also plays amazingly. Ramona is an amazing hit song with a great melody. There's something airy, fresh and beautiful In Night Beds' music. This was one of my first finds this year, but it's kept its place among the most interesting albums of the year. Right from the first time I listened to the album, I knew that this is something I'm going to listen to a lot. Listen to the album on Spotify.
In a couple of last years, I've gotten a bit bored with post-rock genre. In early and mid 00's there were great post-rock bands from Mogwai to Sigur Ros and Explosions In the Sky, but later on it all just started to sound the same. Esben and the Witch from Brighton came to change all that. They use big guitar walls just like the bands I mention and their vocals are filled with echoes, but they manage to build a different kind of sound still. There are more clean guitars involved and the etheric female singer brings novelty to this music. Deathwaltz is my favourite song from this album. The album cover captures the feel of the album beautifully. This is dark and melodic post-rock with a lot more emphasis on vocals than in most bands of the genre. Listen to the album on Spotify.
Sometimes a human voice can be so special that it makes you cry by just its beauty. There have been numerous great baritone singers in indie music over the past years, such as Bill Callahan, Matt Berninger of The National and John Grant. Dan Michaelson continues this great line of baritone singers. The songs are melancholic and beautiful ballads using mostly clean electric guitars, authentic piano and some subtle strings. Blindspot does not offer a huge range of different songs, but what it does is, it gives a great selection of songs for those moments when you want to cry. His voice along with great performance from the band is filled with emotion. This, more than anything, lifts this album among the best of the year. Listen to the album on Spotify.
I was introduced to Nadine Shah when she was playing as a support act for Tom McRae earlier this year. Her singing was really impressive and sounded great on stage with just her playing the piano. Her album, on the other hand, managed to reveal a whole new world into her music. This wasn't just average singer-songwriter stuff, but the sounds are a lot bigger. There are menacingly dark sounds in some of the songs. Aching Bones sounds a bit like Massive Attack's Mezzanine. Nadine Shah is one of the most confident singers this year. Her vocals are absolutely astonishing. The style of the music could be described as a combination of Massive Attack, Radiohead and Aimee Mann. I almost thought at some point that I was over the phase, where I was drawn to miserably sad music, but Nadine Shah made it clear I still love it. Listen to the album on Spotify.
Mikal Cronin was one of the last artists I found before making this list. He is however one of the best new artist finds of this year. Cronin's music is pretty basic indie singer-songwriter rock-pop, but the melodies, sounds and songs hit just the right spots. The album kicks off really impressively with Weight and Shout It Out, which are probably my favourite songs from the album. The styles range from Ben Kweller-like pop-songs to almost 90's Nada Surf-esque college rock. Even though he uses quite a lot of buzzing guitar walls, the melodies are on the surface and take the main stage. Some folkier acts appear also on the album, such as acoustic guitar driven Peace of Mind, which also features a violin. Great singer-songwriting all together. Listen to the album on Spotify.
The Head and the Heart sounds a lot like many other bands I've been listening to for the previous ten years. this familiarity does not matter, because these melodies give me goosebumps and from the right beginning of the album it's clear that this is one hell of an album. The sound could be compared to bands such as The Decemberists, Arcade Fire or Iron & Wine. This range tells, that it's not just about one sound. There are both male and female vocals, folk, indie rock, pop and beautiful string arrangements. The songs also range from melancholic sad songs to more upbeat songs suitable for happier moments and dancing. Let's Be Still is pure beauty from the first notes to the last and even though the album is quite long, there are no dull moments. Listen to the album on Spotify.
Veronica Falls was one of my first new finds this year. They had made one album before, but listening to it, made me decide, that for me this is their first great album. Waiting for Something to Happen is filled with upbeat indie hits, that I could imagine playing at indie clubs all around the world while hipsters dance around. The band does not, however, fall into a trap of drowning the sounds to electronic beats. The instruments sound just as they should sound like. Teenage is an instant hit in my mind and I'm really surprised if the radio channels haven't found this jewel already. I wouldn't know, since I don't really listen to radio and I never know what's in at the moment. Veronica Falls is music for great nights out and their melodies compare to band's like The Shins or The Smiths. Listen to the album on Spotify.
Keaton Henson pretty far away from commercial music as I understand it, but still I saw a billboard in London advertising his new album earlier this year. His music is really minimalist for most parts. Only his surreal high pitched delicate voice and echoey clean electric guitar. Some background vocals here and there. However, this album knows the drama of constructing an album and not just a collection of individual songs. In few songs the minimalist quiet voice rises to explosive post-rock outbursts. Some people call melancholic indie music I listen to a bit whiny. This is whiny in all the word's sense, but that is exactly why I like it. Sadness and fragile voice lift up the hairs in my neck from sheer beauty. This is one of the most intimate albums of recent years. Listen to the album on Spotify.
This is one of the most impressive albums of the recent years. The musical styles draw influences from folk, country, rock, blues, r&b and afro-beat. Valerie June's previous albums were really stripped-down country albums with just her nasal voice and an acoustic guitar, but now she brought about an album filled with wild horns, excellent bass lines, amazingly wild blues jams and just great music. The songs are really versatile, but still the sound is coherent throughout the album. In few of the rockier songs she almost sounds like The Black Keys, but in my opinion she only does it better. This album completely took me by surprise. It's a bit different from the music I normally listen to, but it's still one of the absolutely best albums of the year. I can't wait to see her live as soon as I get the possibility. Listen to the album on Spotify.
Satellites sounds like a band, but it's actually just an alias of a singer-songwriter. He is an Englishman living in Copenhagen. I was fortunate enough to see him live at a small club with a band (including cello) and a choir. This was one of the most beautiful gig experiences of this year. The sound of the singer has been time and again compared to Matt Berninger of The National. But where The National made a somewhat boring album this year, Satellites takes the first place on my list. The reason is hard to explain. His voice and quiet songs just make the shivers run down my spine. His second album has more electronic sounds than his first album, and it's quieter. This quietness makes the album really intimate. Unfortunately the the album is not available online as it is on the album, but you can still listen to some of his songs on two websites dedicated to his music here and here. Some of the same songs appear on the album as different versions.
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