2013 Recap: Craig's Top Albums

Here we are at the end of 2013, which means it is time for another annual compilation of my favorite records I listened to this year. This year features one of the strongest crops of Album of the Year contenders I can remember, and as such I had a really difficult time putting my list together. If your favorite record isn't represented here be sure to tell me why and try to convince me to give it another shot, or give it a shot for the first time. I can't possibly listen to every album that comes out in a year so I may possibly have missed it. For those readers who want to check out an album I talk about below, but don't have time or energy to listen to the each of the records, I have provided key tracks for each album. These key tracks are represented in the handy Spotify widget below, where you can give each album a quick two song preview. Enjoy!

Best of the Rest

30. Alcoa- Bone and Marrow
29. Saves The Day- Saves The Day

28. Citizen- Youth

27. The Neighbourhood- I Love You

26. Tegan and Sara- Heartthrob

25. The Story So Far- What You Don't See

24. The World Is a Beautiful Place and I am No Longer Afraid To Die- Whenever, If Ever 

23. The National- Trouble Will Find Me

22. Touche Amore- ...Is Survived By

21. Senses Fail- Renacer

The Top 20:

20. AFI- Burials

In the four years since AFI released Crash Love, an uneven but promising experiment that attempted to answer the question, "What would an AFI album sound like if it ventured even more into mainstream rock?" the band returned with the aptly-titled Burials, a dark, occasionally ambient, occasionally in-your-face record, that has the band sounding downright pissed off. The lead single "I Hope You Suffer" is vintage, angry AFI, while 17 Crimes wouldn't be out-of-place on the band's breakthrough album Sing the Sorrow.

Key Tracks: "I Hope You Suffer", "17 Crimes"

19. Vampire Weekend- Modern Vampires in the City 

The indie darlings Vampire Weekend released their third full-length album, Modern Vampires in The City, and it's the first of their albums that has taken me by the throat and made me care deeply. While I found the band's first two albums a little too scatter-shot and unfocused to catch on with me, Modern Vampires seems to take the band's already great songwriting and refine it to perfectly mesh with vocalist Ezra Koenig's unique lyrical perspective.

Key Tracks: "Hannah Hunt", "Diane Young"

18. Kanye West- Yeezus 

In a year where many hip-hop albums were very impressive, this was by far the very best of them all. The production is top-notch, as one of the world’s top producers enlists an A-list crew of producers including Rick Rubin, Daft Punk (who truly ruled the music world this year), and frequent collaborator Hudson Mohawke. Kanye’s wild, sometimes unfocused ramblings may not be the best of his career, but his perspective on racial relations is wildly interesting to track over the course of Yeezus’ running time, from the high octane “On Sight” to the Nina Simone-sampling “Blood on the Leaves.”

Key Tracks: "Black Skinhead", "Blood On The Leaves"

17. Hands Like Houses- Unimagine
Saosin fans take note: Hands Like Houses may be your new favorite band while you wait for that next Saosin album that’s never coming. Rise Records continues its hot streak over the past two years, as Hands Like Houses shows tremendous growth on their sophomore release.  To continue the Saosin comparisons, the band seems equally adept at “Sleepers”-like driving post-hardcore (See the devastating “Introduced Species”) as they are emo ballads like “You’re Not Alone” (the stunning album closer “Fire on a Hill”).

Key Tracks: "Introduced Species", "Weight"

16. Bastille- Bad Blood
This maybe looked back on in a few years as the album I put way too low on here.  The arena-ready indie rock (as my co-host Donald Wagenblast has termed it) follows in the footsteps of Imagine Dragons and AWOLnation on the path to mainstream success. But the band retains a unique sound and tremendous vocal harmonies on the way to one of the best pop releases of the year.

Key Tracks: "Pompeii", "Laura Palmer"

15. Paramore- Paramore

All year, I have been inundated with people telling me how bad the new Paramore album is, but I don’t give a damn. This is an album, though inconsistent, full of some of the most powerful, and well-written pop-rock songs of Paramore’s career. Sure, it is basically a glorified Hayley Williams solo album, but to me there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. She has never sounded better in her career than she does on the bridge of “Still into You,” while the riotous “Ain’t It Fun” is a giant send-off the Farro Brothers-era of the band in the most tongue-in-cheek way.

Key Tracks: "Still Into You", "Daydreaming"

14. The Dangerous Summer- Golden Record 

The third-best album by a band that has three albums, but notice that I didn’t say “worst” album. Golden Record is still a tour-de-force in emotional songwriting, vocalist AJ Perdomo puts together a heart- and throat-shredding vocal performance, and there are still those defining climactic moments which make for such great sing-alongs (See “the chorus right after the big, drum fill in “Miles Apart” for one particular moment.) 

Key Tracks: "Catholic Girls", "Knives"

13. Lydia- Devil 

Those readers who read my favorite albums of all-time feature know the potential this band has for creating an album that hits me in a particular way. Devil is not that album, and Lydia may well never come close to achieving that same potential again. But it is the second best album by Lydia, and that is, in this particular case, good enough. The album is carried by the powerhouse voice of Leighton Antelman, which can make even the most droll musicianship seem evocative and emotionally-gripping (see his other band The Cinema for reference.) Devil luckily combines this vocal prowess with a refreshed lyrical approach. Whereas the band’s last two releases have gotten stale overtime, Devil proves itself to be a grower.

Key Tracks: "Knee Deep", "Devil"

12. Cartel- Collider

Cartel proved on Chroma that a pop-rock band that new exactly what it wanted to be could find success without interference from outside parties. Their subsequent release, a self-titled album, was tarnished by a massive major label budget and the tampering of one Dr. Pepper-sponsored bubble. But 2013 gave us a marvelous thing, a Cartel album free from expectation. And boy did it deliver. Collider is pure pop-rock gold. Hopefully, this is the album that revitalizes Cartel’s fading career, although initial sales projections do not seem to indicate such a resurgence.  If this is the last album we get from Cartel, then Collider is a damn good way to go out. 

Key Tracks: "Uninspired", "Sympathy" (*Collider not available on Spotify*)

11. Silverstein- This Is How The Wind Shifts 

Struggling band leaves label that only cares about them as a money-making entity instead of an artist, joins a label that allows the band to maintain their artistic vision and releases their best album in a number of years. Stop me if you’ve heard this script before. Though this very well could’ve been the tale of All Time Low’s 2012, instead it is their Hopeless Records labelmates Silverstein who return to form with the pseudo-concept album This is How The Wind Shifts, a dynamically heavy master stroke in lyrical storytelling.

Key Tracks: "Stand Amid The Roar", "Massachusetts"

10. A Day To Remember- Common Courtesy 

Speaking of bands who left Victory Records for greener pastures, here comes the surprise of the decade. A Day To Remember looked dead in the water, their single, debuting almost a full-year before the album, was an atrociously generic bungling of the band’s metalcore roots, the band was embroiled in a nasty legal dispute, and the release of the new album seemed inevitably distant on the horizon. Yet somehow, A Day To Remember found a way to release Common Courtesy- and what’s more, somehow it was really, really good. Not only does Common Courtesy build on the band’s previous three albums in almost every conceivable way, it keeps the band's momentum moving upwards- an idea no one thought possible before the album's improbable and sudden release. 

Key Tracks: "City of Ocala", "Sometimes You're The Hammer, Sometimes You're the Nail"

9. Balance and Composure- The Things We Think We're Missing

I’m not sure exactly what it is I love so much about Balance and Composure. It seems near impossible to explicate what it is that draws me to their music. Vocalist Jon Simmons doesn’t have the most objectively appealing or commanding voice, though his vocal delivery did improve drastically on this release. The musical backing is greatly indebted to the grunge stylings of Nirvana and other like-minded bands- yet here they are in 2013 having released their second eviscerating release in a little over two years. There doesn’t seem to be another band out there making music that I can connect to spiritually in the same way I do with Balance and Composure. They get me.

Key Tracks: "Reflection", "Tiny Raindrop"

8. Jimmy Eat World- Damage 

This may well be Jimmy Eat World’s most straightforward release in their history. It may not have the same spark that the band’s classic Clarity or fan favorite Futures have that make them connect with new audiences so many years later, but what it does have is a decidedly focused lyrical narrative. Jim Adkins described the record before its release as an “adult breakup record,” and that description proves stunningly accurate for the record's sub-38-minute run time (the shortest of their career). The band’s lyrical approach continues to be its greatest strength, balancing adeptly along the delicate tightrope that is writing about heartbreak.  

Key Tracks: "Damage", "I Will Steal You Back"

7. Letlive. The Blackest Beautiful

Initially, I had written a write-up for this album that included the line “If it wasn’t for the production issues, this could perhaps have been a top 5 release.” However, I have decided to completely expunge that line of thinking from my perception of this album. Yes, the production is muddled, yes the drums sound like they were recorded underwater, and yes, it is not as clean or “produced” as the band’s previous album Fake History. But the question I am now asking myself is, “Why would I want it to be?” Letlive. is not widely regarded as the most “tight” live band, but I would venture to say they are among the two or three most energetic and entertaining bands I have ever witnessed live. That same liveliness courses through the tracks on The Blackest Beautiful, and it is electrifying.

Key Tracks: "Banshee (Ghost Fame)", "White America's Beautiful Black Market"

6. Moving Mountains- Moving Mountains

In case you, dear reader, did not hear the news, Moving Mountains announced shortly after this album was released that they would be going on an indefinite hiatus.  Those who are long time viewers of the blog or long time listeners to the show know that Moving Mountains know they are among my favorite bands. It is with a heavy heart then that I write this album write up. But I, for one am thankful that we got one last release before the hiatus, however long it lasts. Their self-titled release is one that is worthy of carrying the band’s name as its title, as it is absolutely the definitive record to sum up the 8 year career of a band that was constantly innovating. It, in and of itself, charts the course of an evolution, an evolution from a band that was unsure of themselves and the band that they could be- one that would lean on their collective inspirations too heavily at times- into a band that was so self-assured that it eschewed all those inspirations in favor of a sound that is uniquely suited to them.

Key Tracks: "Eastern Leaves", "Swing Set"

5. twenty.one.pilots.- Vessel

On the second of three occasions that I saw twenty.one.pilots perform live this year, vocalist Tyler Joseph said a very peculiar thing on stage. He said, “Thanks for buying into these weird songs we make.” Joseph may have been speaking from the perspective of a self-aware artist, but he has a fair point. The music twenty.one.pilots makes defies classification. While it is undoubtedly a pop album, it also displays elements of dance, hip-hop, punk, screamo, emo and countless other genres. The deeply introspective lyrics would not be out of place on a Jimmy Eat World album, yet here they are on an album that also contains the lyrics “lean with it rock with it, when we gonna stop with it.” And somehow, even with all this contradiction and binaries, it all just works.The band successful eschews the ideology that all pop music must exist in a neatly defined box to find success, and I hope more bands follow suit.

Key Tracks: "Car Radio", "Holding On To You" 

4. The Wonder Years- The Greatest Generation

The best album by a band that once released my Album of the Year 2011, and it doesn’t even make the top 3? 2013 was rough like that. This is nothing against The Wonder Years, who crafted the most well-written pop-punk album since the genre’s heyday in the early 2000s (In fact, in a tweet, I believe I called it the greatest pop-punk album since Tell All Your Friends), it is just a simple testament to how strong the Album of the Year candidates were this year. On The Greatest Generation, an album that vocalist Dan Campbell has called the “third in a trilogy about growing up” the band takes on the difficult tasks of setting a bildungsroman to music, and do so in a way that would make even the master of the form, Charles Dickens, proud. Whether it is the understanding of parents doing anything they can to provide a child a better life than they themselves had (“Teenage Parents”,) or the difficulties associated with battling depression (“The Devil In My Bloodstream”), or even the simple inevitability of dealing with death and tragedy (“Dismantling Summer”), The Wonder Years convey the experience of the human condition in such visceral and acute detail that it’s a wonder they became musicians and not psychologists.

Key Tracks: "I Just Want To Sell Out My Funeral", "The Devil In My Bloodstream"

3. The Front Bottoms- Talon of the Hawk

I mistakenly failed to listen to The Front Bottoms debut full-length, a self-titled album released in 2011, until 2012, resulting in the album not being included in my countdown the year it came out. I would like to apologize for that mistake and offer this album write up as a sort of apology. However, little did I know that my love for The Front Bottoms would only grow with the release of their second full-length, Talon of the Hawk- an album that arguably contains the band’s two best song “Twin Size Mattress” and “Funny You Should Ask.” The band has always had a penchant for releasing catchy, quirky anthems (see the single on their first album, “Maps”), but on Talon of the Hawk they add to that quirk, adding an even deeper dimension of heart and sentiment to the at times chaotic nature of their lyrics. This isn’t the same band that released the self-titled two years ago, they have grown both in maturity and in number (the band has added two more members to their lineup), but all the same characteristics that made listeners, including myself, fall in love with The Front Bottoms in the first place are present on this release in spades. And if it continues to grow on me just as much as their first record has, I may one day regret putting Talon of the Hawk even this low on this list.  

Key Tracks: "Twin Size Mattress", "Funny You Should Ask"

2. Fall Out Boy- Save Rock and Roll 

Fall Out Boy wins reunions forever, end of discussion. But in all seriousness, who could possibly have seen this coming? February 4^th was the fateful day, and on that day they could’ve just announced a Take This To Your Grave tour/show and been done with it, but instead they came back with a bang. Three reunion shows right away (one which Don and I were lucky enough to attend), a full tour playing a selection of songs from their full discography, a new song, and most importantly and album announcement. That album was Save Rock and Roll, and it opened up the discussion of what Fall Out Boy’s best album is. Hopping from hip-hop influenced rock with arena flare, like “My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark,” to campfire sing-along-esque tracks like “Young Volcanoes,” to poignant, piano-led ballads like the title track, Save Rock and Roll is a diverse and unique pop album from a band that has diverted further away from their pop-punk roots with each subsequent release, with great success. This is, in essence, a perfectly written pop-rock album. Yes, it doesn’t have the same straightforward “intensity” as the band’s debut, the aforementioned Take This To Your Grave,” but it replaces it with scathing lyrics hidden under pop-song exteriors, such as the biting gem hidden within the seemingly 80s style jocking “Miss Missing You”: “Sometimes before it gets better, the darkness gets bigger. The person that you’d take a bullet for is behind the trigger.” It is this toying with conflict and binaries that makes Save Rock and Roll so interesting to analyze, and what makes the album one of the year’s best albums.

Key Tracks: "The Phoenix", "Save Rock and Roll"

1. The 1975- The 1975

In a year full of surprises, a year in which Fall Out Boy not only reunited and toured, but released a new album, a year in which Cartel and Silverstein released their best albums in seven years, a year in which Relient K and Transit disappointed us all with surprisingly atrocious releases, while A Day To Remember did the reverse with their album, perhaps the biggest surprise of them all is how a little band from Manchester, England that I had never heard of before when 2013 kicked off ended up releasing my favorite album of the year. The band’s self-titled album is as good a debut as I’ve heard since I heard Moving Mountains’ Pneuma, or perhaps even earlier than that. Never has a band’s debut record struck me as so self-assured in vision and aesthetics as The 1975. Perhaps this is a product of the band’s extensive pre-the 1975 history (it has gone through several lineup and name changes in years past) or perhaps it is a product of their release history (with four EPs preceding this album release over the past two years), but The 1975 know exactly who they are, and they do what they do better than anyone else.

Key Tracks: "Sex", "Chocolate"
 

Album Review: Fall Out Boy- Save Rock and Roll (Donald's Take)

As someone who reviews albums, and takes a significant amount of pride in my work (no matter how bad it may actually be), I try and set guidelines for myself to make sure my writing is up to my own standards. One of them is to be wary of how often I bring in words that directly reflect my opinion on the album, and present an objective, professional approach. However, there are times when I can't help but bring in my personal experience with an album, and especially in this case, I think it reflects how a lot of us feel about the album I'm reviewing.

Because the truth is, when I started this blog, I never thought I would see the day where I could post a review of a new Fall Out Boy album. But here we are.

Save Rock and Roll is one of the most aggressive, in-your-face albums you will ever hear. While there is more of an emphasis on string arrangements and electronic production, the album is seething with swagger, and a confidence the band have always shown throughout their career. Fans of the band who endured their grueling hiatus will see this album as the full realization of what the band was trying to do on Folie a Deux, with influences from all over the musical spectrum driving the songs. This point is clear from the first time the strings come in, and Patrick Stump shouts "Put on your war paint" for the first time on the soaring opener "The Phoenix." The song has it all: a chorus ready to be screamed by crowds of countless thousands, one-liners you'll see on Twitter for years to come, and musicianship that showcases each individual member's stylings. With one fell swoop, Fall Out Boy, and everything you ever loved about them, is back. But the band are just getting warmed up.

Up next is the track the band deemed worthy of being the first new song anyone would hear in the last four years. In true Fall Out Boy fashion, the title is ridiculously long. "My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light 'Em Up)" is a pulverizing track, and begins to showcase two of the major improvements that Fall Out Boy have made: Patrick Stump's ever-improving vocal prowess, and the gang vocals, which are provided by the entire band for the first time in their career. The result is an on-point "oh-oh" section, supporting Stump through a powerful, album-long assertion that he's got the best voice in rock music. And it might not be close.

After the one-two punch of pre-released singles, Save Rock and Roll begins to transition from Fall Out Boy's comeback album to Fall Out Boy's best album. The third track, "Alone Together," has one of the most invigorating choruses of the band's career, as Pete Wentz's lyrics continue to be a rallying cry for the outcasts. Arguably the quality of the band that set them apart from everyone else, Wentz's lyrical themes are on-par with all of the other releases, with standouts such as the 80s pop-influenced "Miss Missing You" and the track that will soon become a staple for any acoustic campfire sing-along, "Young Volcanoes." Wentz's lyrics are great, but what truly drives them home this time around is the all-out assault that Stump unleashes with his delivery of those lyrics. While it didn't gain much credibility at the time of its release, the singer's solo effort Soul Punk will prove vital to the growth Stump shows on Rock and Roll. Stump's intriguing and highly creative endeavor didn't strike the same chords with fans that songs like "Sugar, We're Going Down" did, but it allowed him to experiment and hone his voice, and that mastery is truly what sends Save Rock and Roll above and beyond anything the band have ever done. The discussion of this album would be incomplete, however, without noticing the often-overlooked work of Andy Hurley and Joe Trohman, who both turn in phenomenal backing vocals, and even bigger work with their instruments. With an album so driven by its arrangements and production, it would have been easy for the pair to be lost in the shuffle, but each member blends perfectly with the rest of the album, making Save Rock and Roll an all-around landmark effort.

Fall Out Boy are visionaries. This may be a moot point that many are already aware of, but it bears repeating. The band simply know what they're doing when it comes to creating an image for themselves when they release an album. This time around, the stakes were higher, and fan anticipation was at an all-time high. Based on the direction the band appeared to be going in after Folie was released, all bets were off for the band's sounds. And that was exactly what they wanted. Because of this mystery, the band's reunion album became more than just a release; it became an event. And Fall Out Boy treated it as such. This is readily seen from the four collaborations on the album, each of them progressively more absurd and amazing as its predecessor. Appearances by British folk singer Foxes, Kanye West prodigy and Commander-in-Swerve Big Sean, Queen of Controversy Courtney Love, and a man who needs no introduction, Sir Elton John. The presence of each artist is placed well in the context of the album, but it's the least-known of the group, Foxes, whose contribution to "Just One Yesterday" adds a breath of fresh air towards the end of the track that drives it straight into the listener's heart. Each of these collaborations add another layer of uniqueness to the album, and works toward building the album into the behemoth of ambition the band wanted it to be. This does have its drawbacks, however. If there is a flaw in Save Rock and Roll, it is that at times, Fall Out Boy's ambition outweighs their execution. Sure, it's a great idea to put a notoriously superficial rapper on a track with an emo band, but can it really work? Does adding a name as polarizing as Courtney Love's to a tracklist pose too much risk? Did there really need to be a dubstep interlude in "Death Valley"? These questions all merit some thought, but while you're asking yourself those questions, make sure you ask yourself this one, too: Does any other band in the world have the courage to pull any of that off? The answer is no. And that answer becomes abundantly clear when the album closer and title track comes to a close, with Patrick Stump harmonizing with Sir Elton John. It's a moment almost too surreal for words: a band that was once thought to be so buried in their hiatus that they may have never come back, releasing their best album to date, and achieving this new peak while making the exact album they wanted to make at this exact point in time, alongside one of the biggest artists and most creative minds of his generation. There is a feeling of pride instilled in the listener by the end of it all, as a band whose fans stuck it out as the rumors swirled of a reunion, and a band who wanted to make sure that reunion was done on their terms, at all costs. Now, everyone has what they want: the fans have their favorite band back, and the band has the piece of mind and creative control that only they can handle with such precision and perfect execution.

As Save Rock and Roll sees its release to the general public, many will look to the bold statement the album title makes, and measure the album by that claim. Given the ever-sarcastic nature of the band's titles, perhaps that's not the line that fans should measure the album up to. Instead, let it be a line from "The Phoenix": "I'm going to change you, like a remix. Then I'll raise you, like a phoenix." It's true, after all: the Fall Out Boy we remember is long gone, and likely never to come back. But in the sonic shifts of the band, they have changed forever, and for the better. And now, from the ashes of a hiatus that was the result of the band being crushed by the weight of their own ambition, Fall Out Boy have emerged with the album that just may define their career.

The Bottom Line: I have successfully run out of good things to say about this album, so I will put it as simply as possible: it is one of the best albums of the year, and any other year. You would be a fool not to get yourself a copy of it.

Recommended if you Rock: The Killers' Hot Fuss, Panic! at the Disco's A Fever You Can't Sweat Out, Bon Jovi's Slippery When Wet, Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'"