Arts Fuse Critics pick the best in music albums this year. Feel free to agree, disagree, and add your own favorites.

The Ten Best Rock Albums of 2013

The construction of this list cost me more sleep than I’d care to admit. Hours that I could have devoted to dreaming about a fourth Super Bowl victory for the Patriots (I can feel it friends) were instead spent battling nagging thoughts like, “Are these really the year’s best or just a bunch of albums you personally liked and talked yourself into believing are the best?” “Did you honestly give that Chvrches record enough attention?” “Was the fact that the Parquet Courts LP was originally released on a smaller label in 2012 truly a good enough reason to disqualify it?” “Are you sure you can’t find room for the Strokes? You’re not just giving into peer pressure are you? It’s not because nobody else liked the album is it?”

I never answered any of these questions definitively, but I eventually came up with my “Ten Best Rock Albums of 2013” list anyway and I’m actually pretty happy with it. Or at least I’m sleeping better now that it’s done. Feel free to go down to the Comments and tell me how much you agree or disagree. After all, what else are these lists for?

10. Daft Punk, Random Access Memories

Nothing released in 2013 was more highly anticipated than French electro-duo Daft Punk’s fourth studio album, Random Access Memories. Lead single “Get Lucky” was omnipresent, but hardly the album’s only offering. Check out “Instant Crush,” sung by Julian Casablancas of the Strokes, and “Doin’ it Right,” featuring Panda Bear, for two other examples of why this album was one of the year’s best.

9. Arcade Fire, Reflektor

If Random Access Memories was “highly anticipated,” then the release of Arcade Fire’s fourth album, Reflektor, was “an event.” In the end, the sprawling, two-disc record has proved to be fairly divisive, but it has some moments of real beauty (“Afterlife”), some songs you can dance to (the title track, “Here Comes the Night Time”), and a few songs that wouldn’t have sounded all that out of place on previous Arcade Fire albums (“Joan of Arc”).

8. Haim, Days are Gone

Haim (rhymes with “chime”) is considered an “indie pop” band. If this term existed before 2013 (which I’m sure it did), I never paid attention to it. But regardless of the subgenre it falls under, the group’s debut is a wonderful ride. Days are Gone’s “The Wire” just might be my favorite single of the year (edging out even “Get Lucky”), but it’s the non-single “Honey & I” that bowls me over every time I hear it. I know it’s dangerous to throw around words like “perfect,” but for “Honey & I” it might actually be appropriate.

7. David Bowie, The Next Day

In an era when it’s damn-near impossible to keep anything secret, David Bowie successfully hid the fact that he was recording his first new album since 2003 FOR TWO YEARS! The initial song from The Next Day to be sent out into the world was “Where Are We Now?” a poignant look back at Bowie’s days in Berlin in the late ‘70s. But the rest of the album is remarkably forward-looking. The title track is a scorching rocker, “I’d Rather Be High” is a tight, completely unpretentious anti-war song (no small feat), and “You Feel So Lonely You Could Die,” the album’s greatest triumph, is a blue-eyed, Elvis-indebted gem. Now, if only we could get The Thin White Duke to tour.

6. Palma Violets, 180

I’ve seen enough “best of” lists these past few weeks to know that nobody likes this album, Palma Violets’ first, nearly as much as I do. This strikes me as a tragedy. For those of you who think this is a case of me confusing a personal preference for an actual “best of 2013” album, I’ll just say that if I was simply making a list of my favorite albums of the year, 180 would rank even better than number six. The truth is I believe in this album, both as a rock fan and as a rock critic. It’s together when it needs to be and sloppy (in the best possible sense) everywhere else. Traditional song structures? Who needs those when you can make a really great racket! To me, 180 is what rock and roll is all about and if no one agrees with me, so be it.

5. Savages, Silence Yourself

I know I’m in the minority with Palma Violets, but when it comes to Savages and their debut album Silence Yourself, I’m on pretty solid ground. As practically everyone agrees, the band is spectacular, and they have been since their first single, the double A-side “Husbands”/“Flying to Berlin,” was released last year. Silence Yourself takes the intensity of “Husbands” (which also features on the album) and the atmosphere of “Flying to Berlin” (which doesn’t) and spreads it over eleven tracks. The result is a fully formed, masterful work.

4. Arctic Monkeys, AM

The Sheffield-bred (though recently Los Angeles-based) band’s fifth full length is their heaviest and danciest to date. Songs like “Do I Wanna Know?” and “R U Mine?” bring the guitars, while “Knee Socks” and “Fireside” feature a locked in groove. “Arabella” offers the best of both worlds as its space funk verses give way to Sabbath riffing in the chorus. But if you’re looking for that old, reliable, melodic Monkeys sound, look no further than “No. 1 Party Anthem” and “Mad Sounds.” Whether or not AM is the “best” Arctic Monkeys album is an argument for another day, but what’s certain is it’s the band’s most successful release, at least in America. Not only did AM land the group a spot in the Billboard top ten for the first time since 2007, but the record got to number six, the band’s best Stateside showing so far.

3. Kanye West, Yeezus

As with all of Ye’s albums, Yeezus has moments of humor (the line “Don’t judge ‘em Joe Brown” still hasn’t stopped being hilarious to me), extreme braggadocio (the third track on the album is called “I Am a God” after all), and brilliant sampling (“Blood on the Leaves” samples “Strange Fruit”). But the album also boasts lines like “Put my fist in her like a civil rights sign,” and “Eatin’ Asian pussy all I need was sweet and sour sauce.” These lyrics are tough to defend, so I’m not going to bother trying. I will argue though that they are most likely meant to be off putting (and if so, mission accomplished!), just as the aggressive, minimalist, electronic sounds that dominate the album are meant to be. Basically, Kanye is daring us to still like him, and dammit, I can’t help it. I do.

2. The National, Trouble Will Find Me

There’s no obvious classic, no “Mr. November” or “Bloodbuzz Ohio,” on the National’s sixth release, Trouble Will Find Me. There are simply thirteen equally strong songs. Pick any track you like and you could have a single, a “greatest hit,” or a concert staple. Forced to pick a few standouts among an album of standouts, I’ll take “Don’t Swallow the Cap,” “Sea of Love,” and “Pink Rabbits.” If I’m feeling a little weepy, I’ll take “Hard to Find,” which pushes me right over the edge every time.

1. Vampire Weekend, Modern Vampires of the City

From the moment “Diane Young” and “Step” appeared online in March, it was obvious that Vampire Weekend’s third full length (released in May) would be the album to beat this year. Some fine records came out in the weeks and months that followed, but still nothing topped Modern Vampires of the City or even came close. If 2013 produced a classic, this is it.

The album tackles big ticket items like God and mortality, though it’s never so heavy-handed that you can’t simply sit back and enjoy the tunes. It’s defiant (“Unbelievers,” “Worship You”), bleak (“Hudson”), meditative (“Hannah Hunt”), scared (“Everlasting Arms”), and upbeat (“Diane Young,” “Finger Back”). “Step” and “Ya Hey” are still rock/pop but they take their cues from hip hop, while the album’s bookends, “Obvious Bicycle” and “Young Lion,” gently ease the listener in and out of the whole experience. Even when Modern Vampires of the City hits the listener with some hard truths (“Don’t Lie”), it does so in a way that is strangely comforting. Forget 2013, this is one of the best albums of the twenty-first century.

— Adam Ellsworth

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The Best Jazz Albums of 2013

Every year I am asked to assemble various best lists. Here I’ve expanded a bit from the more typical ten best. I’ve also favored musicians I’ve heard live recently, a reminder that there is no substitute for live music. My vocal choices include two eccentric collections: Rene Marie’s tribute to the unearthly Eartha Kitt, and Petra Haden’s tribute, often wordless, to movie scores, beginning with Rebel Without a Cause.

Terri Lynne Carrington, Money Jungle: Provocative in Blue (Concord-34026)
Gary Burton, Guided Tour (Mack)
Fred Hersch/Julian Lage, Free Flying (Palmetto)
Geri Allen, Motown and Motor City Inspirations (Motema)
Oscar Pettiford, Lost Tapes: Germany 1958/1959 (Jazz Haus 10719)
Roger Kellaway and Eddie Daniels, Duke at the Roadhouse: Live in Santa Fe (IPO)
Charles Lloyd/Jason Moran, Hagar’s Song (ECM)
Craig Taborn, Chants (ECM)
Carla Bley, Trios (ECM)
Billy Bang, Da Bang (TUM Records)
Wayne Shorter, Without a Net (Blue Note)
Kenny Garrett, Pushing the World Away (Mack)

Reissues:
Classic Earl Hines Sessions, 1928-1945 (Mosaic)
Muhal Richard Abrams, The Complete Remastered Recordings on Black Saint and Soul Note (CAM)
Roscoe Mitchell, Live at “A Space” (Sackville)

Vocals:

Petra Haden, Petra Goes to the Movies (Anti)
Tierney Sutton, After Blue (BFM)
Rene Marie, I Wanna Be Evil (Motema)

Latin:
Chucho Valdes, Border Free (JV)

— Michael Ullman

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Arts Fuse – Top-10 Classical Recordings of 2013
By
Jonathan Blumhofer

2013 has been a terrible year for a number of classical music organizations – New York’s City Opera folded in October, Osmo Vänskä resigned as music director of the beleaguered Minnesota Orchestra (which remains mired in a fourteen-plus-month lock-out), the Brooklyn Philharmonic is all but shuttered, and the Milwaukee Symphony suddenly appears in dire financial straits. All is also not well among most of the big recording labels (see Deutsche Grammophon’s misguided attempt at a reboot – dual releases of mind-numbing treacle by Sven Helbig and Karl Jenkins – for one example of a former mainstay of the industry losing its rudder).

Even so, there have been a number of quality releases this year worth celebrating, some of which may well come to be considered landmarks. A century ago, Theodore Roosevelt wrote in his autobiography about the folly of compiling lists like these, but this is a temptation hard to resist: here are my top-10 classical albums of 2013.

*****

10. Bach, St. Matthew Passion; Soloists/Akademie für alte Musik Berlin/Jacobs (Harmonia Mundi)

It’s not often that a new recording of a piece as canonical as Bach’s Matthäuspassion makes such a powerful impression, but that’s just what happens with René Jacobs’ fluid, dance-like account, which utilizes the spatial set-up of the Good Friday Vespers service of Bach’s day. This is an interpretation that captures all the inherent drama of the Passion story without losing the music’s devotional aspect or getting bogged down by any extramusical weight.

9. Lindberg, EXPO, Piano Concerto no. 2, Al largo; Yefim Bronfman/New York Philharmonic/Gilbert (Dacapo)

Surely Magnus Lindberg’s tenure as composer-in-residence of the New York Philharmonic was one of the most productive of any orchestra/composer pairing in recent memory. That’s certainly the sense one takes away from this superb album featuring the spectacular curtain raiser EXPO; the iridescent, lyrical Al largo; and the boldly drawn Piano Concerto no. 2 (heroically played by Yefim Bronfman). Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic have rarely sounded more confident or dazzling than they do here.

8. Bach, Goldberg Variations; Jeremy Denk (Nonesuch)

Denk’s second album for Nonesuch picks up just where his first (a pairing of music by Ligeti and Beethoven) left off. The musical mountain he climbs this time is no less than the Everest of keyboard literature and he reaches the summit with oxygen to spare. Glenn Gould’s’ two recordings may remain the gold standard (and there are some fine recent accounts from Perahia, Hewitt, and others), but Denk’s accomplished something really special here.

7. Eisler, Songs, Piano Sonata; Matthias Goerne, Thomas Larcher, and Ensemble Resonanz (Harmonia Mundi)

Few composers can claim to have written two Academy Award-nominated film scores and the East German national anthem, but Hanns Eisler could. None of that music turns up here, but what does is fascinating: cabaret-inflected songs; brooding, angst-filled lieder worthy of Brahms, Mahler, and Schoenberg; and a caustic piano sonata announcing a major new musical voice. Yes, it’s an album that appeals to the intellect, but the performances by baritone Matthias Goerne, Ensemble Resonanz, and pianist Thomas Larcher are so deeply felt that they ensure the music speaks to the heart, as well.

6. Mahler, Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, Kindertotenlieder, Rückert Lieder; Christian Gerhaher/Montreal Symphony/Nagano (Sony Classical)

Nearly a quarter of a century ago, Thomas Hampson recorded these three song cycles with an aging and highly subjective Leonard Bernstein. Those accounts (especially Kindertotenlieder) remain, for me, the gold standard in this repertoire, but this new album is an alternative equal, magically played and sung with great feeling and beauty by an inspired team of Gerhaher, the MSO, and Nagano.

5. Britten, Complete Works; Various (Decca)

There was no shortage of Britten performances to celebrate the composer’s centenary this year (including a stunning BSO War Requiem last month). Decca took the anniversary as the opportunity to release this set of his complete works, many conducted by Britten, himself (and yet to be topped). In his lifetime and even thereafter (he died in 1976), Britten’s music wasn’t always fashionable, but it’s heartening to see him now secure as one of the 20th century’s greatest composers.

4. Lutoslawski, Complete Symphonies; Salonen/Los Angeles Philharmonic (Sony Classical)

The year’s other centennial wasn’t nearly as thoroughly marked (at least in this country), but Witold Lutoslawski is anything but forgotten. Esa-Pekka Salonen finally completed his survey of the Polish composer’s four symphonies and the live recording of the First (made in December 2012) was paired with the previously recorded nos. 2-4 and the Fanfare for the Los Angeles Philharmonic and released by Sony Classical. They’re performances that marry fire and ice and this is some of the most deeply moving music to come out of the last seventy-five years.

3. Bartók, Violin Concertos; Isabelle Faust/Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra/Harding (Harmonia Mundi)

Isabelle Faust can do no wrong in her playing of these two extraordinary scores. The Violin Concerto no. 1 has rarely sounded more natural, affable, or inevitable than it does here and the Second – which closes with Bartók’s spectacular, original orchestral ending – is simply stunning. Daniel Harding and the Swedish RSO are with her every step of the way.

2. Dutilleux, Correspondances, “Tout un monde lointain…,” The Shadow of Time; Barbara Hannigan and Anssi Karttunen/Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France/Salonen (Deutsche Grammophon)

Henri Dutilleux died shortly after this album was released, so there’s a kind of valedictory quality to the set. The playing (and singing) is simply staggering: no composer could ask for more committed or insightful performers than Hannigan, Karttunnen, and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, all expertly directed by Salonen.

1. Adams, John’s Book of Alleged Dances, String Quartet, Fellow Traveller; Attacca Quartet (Azica Records)

This is a brilliant disc that accomplishes the very challenging feat of standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the peerless premiere recordings of two of these pieces (Alleged Dances and the String Quartet) while adding a practically definitive account of the previously-unrecorded Fellow Traveller. The Attacca’s – who graduated from Juilliard this year, too – have everything going for them: their technical chops are more than capable of handling Adams’ virtuosic writing and they bring their own, fresh ideas to this very engaging music.

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2013 has been a terrible year for a number of classical music organizations – New York’s City Opera folded in October, Osmo Vänskä resigned as music director of the beleaguered Minnesota Orchestra (which remains mired in a fourteen-plus-month lock-out), the Brooklyn Philharmonic is all but shuttered, and the Milwaukee Symphony suddenly appears in dire financial straits. All is also not well among most of the big recording labels (see Deutsche Grammophon’s misguided attempt at a reboot – dual releases of mind-numbing treacle by Sven Helbig and Karl Jenkins – for one example of a former mainstay of the industry losing its rudder).

Even so, there have been a number of quality releases this year worth celebrating, some of which may well come to be considered landmarks. A century ago, Theodore Roosevelt wrote in his autobiography about the folly of compiling lists like these, but this is a temptation hard to resist: here are my top-10 classical albums of 2013.

*****

10. Bach, St. Matthew Passion; Soloists/Akademie für alte Musik Berlin/Jacobs (Harmonia Mundi)

It’s not often that a new recording of a piece as canonical as Bach’s Matthäuspassion makes such a powerful impression, but that’s just what happens with René Jacobs’ fluid, dance-like account, which utilizes the spatial set-up of the Good Friday Vespers service of Bach’s day. This is an interpretation that captures all the inherent drama of the Passion story without losing the music’s devotional aspect or getting bogged down by any extramusical weight.

9. Lindberg, EXPO, Piano Concerto no. 2, Al largo; Yefim Bronfman/New York Philharmonic/Gilbert (Dacapo)

Surely Magnus Lindberg’s tenure as composer-in-residence of the New York Philharmonic was one of the most productive of any orchestra/composer pairing in recent memory. That’s certainly the sense one takes away from this superb album featuring the spectacular curtain raiser EXPO; the iridescent, lyrical Al largo; and the boldly drawn Piano Concerto no. 2 (heroically played by Yefim Bronfman). Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic have rarely sounded more confident or dazzling than they do here.

8. Bach, Goldberg Variations; Jeremy Denk (Nonesuch)

Denk’s second album for Nonesuch picks up just where his first (a pairing of music by Ligeti and Beethoven) left off. The musical mountain he climbs this time is no less than the Everest of keyboard literature and he reaches the summit with oxygen to spare. Glenn Gould’s’ two recordings may remain the gold standard (and there are some fine recent accounts from Perahia, Hewitt, and others), but Denk’s accomplished something really special here.

7. Eisler, Songs, Piano Sonata; Matthias Goerne, Thomas Larcher, and Ensemble Resonanz (Harmonia Mundi)

Few composers can claim to have written two Academy Award-nominated film scores and the East German national anthem, but Hanns Eisler could. None of that music turns up here, but what does is fascinating: cabaret-inflected songs; brooding, angst-filled lieder worthy of Brahms, Mahler, and Schoenberg; and a caustic piano sonata announcing a major new musical voice. Yes, it’s an album that appeals to the intellect, but the performances by baritone Matthias Goerne, Ensemble Resonanz, and pianist Thomas Larcher are so deeply felt that they ensure the music speaks to the heart, as well.

6. Mahler, Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, Kindertotenlieder, Rückert Lieder; Christian Gerhaher/Montreal Symphony/Nagano (Sony Classical)

Nearly a quarter of a century ago, Thomas Hampson recorded these three song cycles with an aging and highly subjective Leonard Bernstein. Those accounts (especially Kindertotenlieder) remain, for me, the gold standard in this repertoire, but this new album is an alternative equal, magically played and sung with great feeling and beauty by an inspired team of Gerhaher, the MSO, and Nagano.

5. Britten, Complete Works; Various (Decca)

There was no shortage of Britten performances to celebrate the composer’s centenary this year (including a stunning BSO War Requiem last month). Decca took the anniversary as the opportunity to release this set of his complete works, many conducted by Britten, himself (and yet to be topped). In his lifetime and even thereafter (he died in 1976), Britten’s music wasn’t always fashionable, but it’s heartening to see him now secure as one of the 20th century’s greatest composers.

4. Lutoslawski, Complete Symphonies; Salonen/Los Angeles Philharmonic (Sony Classical)

The year’s other centennial wasn’t nearly as thoroughly marked (at least in this country), but Witold Lutoslawski is anything but forgotten. Esa-Pekka Salonen finally completed his survey of the Polish composer’s four symphonies and the live recording of the First (made in December 2012) was paired with the previously recorded nos. 2-4 and the Fanfare for the Los Angeles Philharmonic and released by Sony Classical. They’re performances that marry fire and ice and this is some of the most deeply moving music to come out of the last seventy-five years.

3. Bartók, Violin Concertos; Isabelle Faust/Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra/Harding (Harmonia Mundi)

Isabelle Faust can do no wrong in her playing of these two extraordinary scores. The Violin Concerto no. 1 has rarely sounded more natural, affable, or inevitable than it does here and the Second – which closes with Bartók’s spectacular, original orchestral ending – is simply stunning. Daniel Harding and the Swedish RSO are with her every step of the way.

2. Dutilleux, Correspondances, “Tout un monde lointain…,” The Shadow of Time; Barbara Hannigan and Anssi Karttunen/Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France/Salonen (Deutsche Grammophon)

Henri Dutilleux died shortly after this album was released, so there’s a kind of valedictory quality to the set. The playing (and singing) is simply staggering: no composer could ask for more committed or insightful performers than Hannigan, Karttunnen, and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, all expertly directed by Salonen.

1. Adams, John’s Book of Alleged Dances, String Quartet, Fellow Traveller; Attacca Quartet (Azica Records)

This is a brilliant disc that accomplishes the very challenging feat of standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the peerless premiere recordings of two of these pieces (Alleged Dances and the String Quartet) while adding a practically definitive account of the previously-unrecorded Fellow Traveller. The Attacca’s – who graduated from Juilliard this year, too – have everything going for them: their technical chops are more than capable of handling Adams’ virtuosic writing and they bring their own, fresh ideas to this very engaging music.

— Jon Blumhofer