Top 5 Albums of 2013

5. David Bowie The Next Day

2013 began with the year's biggest surprise: a new album from David Bowie, his first of new material in ten years. Every song on The Next Day seems to be inspired by one of the pop chameleon's former phases. Give it a few years and we may look back upon The Next Day as the best album of the year. It certainly is the best of the many come back albums to spring up ( beating out Prefab Sprout, Wire, Mazzy Star and My Bloody Valentine among others)

4. Janelle Monae Electric Lady Suites IV and V

The modern pop album is a cinematic effort and Janelle Monae is the most inventive of the mainstream pop stars I'm hearing these days. She's making the kind of music you'd hope Prince would be releasing. 

3, Bob Dylan Another Self Portrait ( 1969-1971)

1970's mellow and family-oriented New Morning is one of my all time favorite Dylan albums and you get a half dozen alternate takes on those tunes, including two versions of "Went to See the Gypsy" about meeting Elvis Presley. There's an immediacy to the Self Portrait recordings which somehow failed to impress many in its released form back in the day. Glad I got this one!

2 Vampire Weekend Modern Vampires of the City

It doesn't matter how fine your prep school was, at some point even the most precious prepster has to grow up and that's what Vampire Weekend has done of their third and most accomplished album.

1. Parquet Courts in Light Up Gold

This generation's Pink Flag. If I didn't live--musically--in 1973, I'd be listening to this all the time. 

Top 10 Albums of 2013 : 10-6

As my readers will know, I spent most of 2013 listening to the music of 1973. But that doesn't mean I can't appreciate some of this past year's releases. It just means my standards are higher than those who fetishize new music just because it's new. That said, my heart belongs to the artists among whom I've grown up.

10.  Mark Mulcahy Dear Mark J Mulcahy, I Love You

Branford Connecticut's Mark Mulcahy first got my attention as the leader of Miracle Legion whose debut EP wore its REM influences a bit heavily before becoming one of the East Coast's most thoughtful bands. Mulcahy's 2013 album , his first since the death of his wife,  is an exuberant return to form.

   9. Lloyd Cole Standards

  On the crowd-funded Standards, Lloyd Cole brings out the rocking side that made his 1990 debut so great. Matthew Sweet, Fred Mahar and Commotions keyboardist Blair Cowan, who all played on the '90 album, join Cole on this expertly crafted effort

8. Neil Finn and Paul Kelly- Goin' Your Way

These two master craftsmen from Down Under shared the stage and reinvented their songs in one of the must-see concert tours of the year. Goin' Your Way is a live document of the duo's achievement and it's packed with pleasurable tunes.

7. Kacey Musgraves Same Trailer Different Park

  My wife listened to this in the car a lot this Summer. Insightful Kacey Musgraves and her songwriting partners write about life in fly over country with plenty of humor while withholding judgement. Filed next to our Miranda Lambert and Kelly Willis albums.

6. Allen Toussaint, Songbook

Displaced by Hurricane Katrina, Allen Toussaint took up a residency at the NYC piano bar Joe's Pub. The lucky people who wandered in got to see the New Orleans legend revisit his most famous songs. Now, with Songbook, the rest of us can at least pretend we were smart enough to be among those in attendance.