10x10: Best Albums 2013

For those of you just getting back to school, we feel your pain of the slow and painful boredom that is syllabus week. We also know that 2013 was a pretty intense year for music and that you probably didn't get around to listening to everything you've been hearing about. So, to relieve you of your boredom and make the vast and swirling abyss of new music somewhat more manageable, ten of our DJs and staff members to compiled of a list of what they though were the 10 best albums released in 2013.

Natalie RaphaelJanuary 14, 2014music review, best of 2013, album review, Oneohtrix Point Never, R Plus 7, Young Thug, 1017 Thug, DJ Rashad, Double Cup, Visionist, I'm Fine, Thundercat, Apocalypse, Kanye West, Yeezus, Yellow Loveless, RP Boo, Legacy, Cassie, Rockabye Baby, Blood Orange, Yuck, Glow and Behold, Vampire Weekend, Modern Vampires of the City, King Krule, 6 Feet Beneath The Moon, Baths, Obsidian, GRMLN, Empire, Sky Ferreira, Night Time, My Time, Best Coast, Fade Away, Beyoncé, Beyonce, Rhye, Woman, The Pizza Underground, My Bloody Valentine, mbv, Darkside, Psychic, Dirty Beaches, Drifters, Love is The Devil, Love Is The Devil, Deerhunter, Monomania, R Plus Seven, James Blake, Overgrown, Kirin J Callinan, Embracism, The Flaming Lips, Savages, Silence Yourself, The Field, Flying Lotus, ideas+drafts+loops, Cupid's Head, Franz Ferdinand, Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action, Settle, Disclosure, This Isn't Happening, DJ Koze, Amtgdala, Arcade Fire, Reflektor, Bill Callahan, Dream River, Dessa, Parts of Speech, Amok, Foxygen, We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic, Burial, James Holden, The Inheritors, Immunity, Jon Hopkins, R plus Seven, These New Puritans, Field of Reeds, La Femme, Psycho Tropical Berlin, Portugal, The Man, Evil Friends, FIDLAR, Psycho tropical Berlin, Alexander Von Mehren, Aeropop, Cate le Bon, Mug Museum, Cactus Channel, Wooden Boy, Tookah, Junip, The Melodic, Effra Parade, FKJ, Time For Change, Cat Nap, Bonobo, The North Borders, CocoRosie, Tales of a Grasswidow, Vieux Farka Toure, Mon Pays, Kurt Vile, Walkin on a Pretty daze, Porter Ray, RSE GOLD, RSE GLD, WHT GLD, BLK GLD, Bibio, Silver Wilkinson, Mala, Four Tet, Beautiful Rewind, AMOK, Atoms For Peave, Ultraista, KT Turnstall, Invisible Empire, Crescent Moon, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Chance The Rapper, Acid Rap, Black Radio 2Comment

Album Review: Beautiful Rewind

Four Tet, a.k.a. British producer Kieran Hebden, has been a vanguard of emotive electronica since his 2003 breakout Rounds. On that record, he created a sample-based potpourri of jazz, hip-hop, and folk that came to embody “folktronica,” a genre tag Hebden has been working to shed ever since. Recent Four Tet releases have leaned heavily on the 4/4 kick of house and techno; nearly every track on 2010’s brilliant There Is Love in You thumped with a confident momentum, graceful in its presentation of each sonic idea. Meanwhile, the 2012 singles compilation Pink offered several undeniable “bangers” that paired Hebden’s keen ear for melody with floor-filling rhythmic aggression.

With Beautiful Rewind, the Four Tet sound takes another left turn into thornier territory, swapping the emotional nakedness of There Is Love in You for something more guarded and mysterious.

Natalie RaphaelOctober 9, 2013Four Tet, album review, music review, Beautiful Rewind, Negative FunComment

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