Hype Starts Here's Top 50 Albums of 2013 (30-21)

30. Watching Home Movies with the Sound Off (Deluxe Edition)---Mac Miller

        You know that one frat boy you knew in college, the one who had that same machoism as the others, but a goofy streak or a soft side that made him kind of lovable? His name is Mac Miller, and he just recorded one of 2013's finest hip hop albums. Watching Home Movies is unrepentant in any sense of the word: its starry production credits are all across the board, crude humor and juvenilia are everywhere the eye can see, and the runtime creeps up on and hour and twenty minutes. And, oh yeah, it's one of the year's most fun listens, perhaps a guilty pleasure, but a pleasure nonetheless.  

29. Versions---Zola Jesus

        It's not exactly a coincidence that Versions sounds strangely familiar upon first listen. Five of the album's nine tracks appeared on Zola Jesus' most recent LP, Conatus, here trading in the 2011 offering's electronic pulse for a positively gorgeous smattering of violins and cellos. For my money, Nika Roza Danilova's songs are far more impactful in this orchestral setting, the opening surge of Hikikomori gaining immediacy since we last heard it, the crescendo of Fall Back nearly blowing the roof off.

28. Wakin On A Pretty Daze---Kurt Vile

        So I was a little exuberant on my initial review of Wakin On A Pretty Daze; sue me, why don't you? In my defense, the highs of Kurt Vile's latest are deliriously high, from the jam-session bookend of Wakin on a Pretty Day and Goldtone, to the gleeful self-depriciation of Shame Chamber, on down to the moody-as-can-be Girl Called Alex. Perhaps Daze isn't as much of a track-by-track triumph as I'd initially alluded, but the album still contains many a track to get lost in, and Vile himself is an absolute virtuoso on that six string.

27. Long.Live.A$AP (Deluxe Edition)---A$AP Rocky
        The only thing that I don't really love about A$AP Rocky's major label debut is... well... A$AP Rocky. The guy's not exactly a stiff, but he's in some pretty damn fine company, rapping atop stellar production from the likes of Hit-Boy and Clams Casino, trading verses with Kendrick Lamar and Drake, bouncing off hooks sung by Santigold and Florence Welch. It may be empty calories, but it's delicious, catchy as hell, and far and away the best Stupid Party Rap album of the past year.

26. Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action---Franz Ferdinand

        Yeah, I know, you stopped listening to Franz Ferdinand around five years ago, but seriously, Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action rocks! An unmitigated dose of the surging, fun-first, everything-else-last approach that garnered the band attention in the first place, RTRWRA serves as a  a chunky, catchy return to form. Employing the, 'album as concert,' conceit championed on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Franz's latest ushers you straight up to the front row, inviting the affections of all on Love Illumination, sending bodies into motion with Evil Eye's creepy groove.

25. Overgrown---James Blake

        James Blake's self-titled debut was a classic on arrival, fusing dubstep with R&B and pop, all presented with beguiling nocturnal minimalism. Needless to say, Overgrown had its work cut out for it, but on tracks like the swirling, enveloping Digital Lion, or the love-ballad-from-another-planet Retrograde, the British wunderkind actually manages to do himself one better. Overgrown confirms what we should have known all along; Blake is no fluke, and he's here to stay.

24. Cupid Deluxe---Blood Orange
        On the second album of his Blood Orange project, Dev Hynes serves more as of a curator than anything else. Chairlift's Caroline Polachek features on the album's lead single, Dirty Projectors' Dave Longstreth croons on No Right Thing, Samantha Urbani snags the albums' juiciest hook on It Is What It Is, yet Hynes remains the protagonist. Cupid Deluxe is his vision; kinetic, emotive, and unnervingly honest through-out all of its almost-ready-for-the-dance-floor runtime.

23. Junip---Junip

        Hey, everybody; I found José González! The soulful Swede, who hasn't crafted an LP in his own name since 2007's In Our Nature, has found a new home in his (apparently pre-exiting?) band Junip, and while previous releases under the moniker showed promise, Junip steps it up a notch. Check out the muscles on seemingly subdued Your Life Your Call, and while you're at it, get bowled over by the grandeur of Line of Fire and So Clear.

22. MGMT---MGMT
        If you're looking to get another Kids or Time to Pretend out of MGMT's self-titled latest, you'll be sorely out of luck. Where their previous disc, Congratulations, toiled in an uncomfortable middle ground between their famed twee pop and the boys' more psychedelic inclinations, MGMT lets its freak flag fly, and might just be the best album of the band's career. Willfully loony and filled with tiny oddball flourishes, Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser's 2013 offering has no apparent interest in scaling the pop charts again; when you can take listeners on wierdo trips to space and back again in under 45 minutes, hit singles must seem boring.

21. AM---Arctic Monkeys
        The Arctic Monkeys have never sounded so plodding, and somehow, I mean that as a big compliment. Trading in their fleet-of-foot dance rock in favor of billowing power chords and a chunky rhythm section, AM is a rollicking 40+ minutes that's far more ready for bobbing heads than moving feet. Almost everything here sticks, from the sordid opening trudge of Do I Wanna Know? to the chant-and-stomp of Knee Socks; these guys know how to throw a party, gyrating hips be damned.

Hype Starts Here's Top 50 Albums of 2013:

50-41

40-31

30-21

20-11

10-1

Hype Starts Here's Top 100 Songs of 2013:

100-71

70-46

45-26

25-11

10-1

Hype Starts Here's Top 50 Albums of 2013 (40-31)

40. Sunbather---Deafheaven

        A mysterious middle-ground where metal, post-rock, and screamo can all fuse and become one, Sunbather is just as beautiful as it is punishing. Drums pummel, vocal chords are splayed, and yet there's a majesty in these tracks, as well as a feeling of grand catharsis.

39. Herein Wild---Frankie Rose

        It's about time Frankie Rose wrote a tune entitled Into Blue; every song she makes seems to be positively drenched in the color. Voice and guitar ever-swaddled in layers upon layers of reverb, HW is a dreamy, nighttime effort that wraps you up like a warm blanket.

38. Days Are Gone---Haim

        The sisters of Haim were among 2013's most savvy song writers, their debut album stocked with one delectable earworm after another. Days Are Gone dabbles in R&B, country, pop, rock, and everything else under the sun; the only constants are quality and fun. 

37. Mala---Devendra Banhart

        It's been four years since we last heard from Banhart, and low and behold, the guy's still just as much of a smart ass as before. And yet there's nothing overtly pessimistic about Mala; the album is more interested in poking fun at the general goofiness of the human condition, as on the the laugh-out-loud ditty Your Fine Petting Duck, or the sunny sway of Never Seen Such Good Things.

36. Patterns EP---Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.
        One of the year's finest pop entries, Patterns consists of four rock-solid tracks, and is out the door in under fifteen minutes. It's an all-killer-no-filler approach that works wonders, the giddy electro of If You Didn't See Me (Then You Weren't on the Dance Floor) dovetailing perfectly into more relaxed numbers like Dark Water.

35. Holy Fire---Foals
        Holy Fire might not quite reach the delirious heights of the band's previous disc, Total Life Forever, but the Oxford boys can still make towering arena rock with the best of them. The opening one-two punch of Inhaler and My Number pits intensity against immediacy to sublime effect.

34. Carrier---The Dodos
        Dedicated in part to the late Women guitarist Christopher Reimer, who had toured with the band on their previous outing, Carrier is a far more emotionally earnest effort than we're used to from these guys. Their kinetics can still raise pulses and fill up a room, though even the enormity of lead single Confidence can't really shake that pervasive feeling of lovely melancholy.

33. Silence Yourself---Savages
        Savages is right; the debut album of the London-based four-piece is a furious forty minutes that refuses to play nice, and loves you kick your ass. Vocalist Jehnny Beth's punk howl is miles removed from Karen O's comparatively polite yelps, as jagged and dangerous as the music itself.

32. Hummingbird---Local Natives
        Hummingbird largely forsakes the world-conquering largeness of the band's debut, Gorilla Manor, in favor of a smaller, more emotionally complicated sound. But while the smooth sailing of Ceilings and the balladry of the album's final section come to define the LP, singles Breakers and Heavy Feet still have no problem blowing the damn doors off.

31. Reflektor---Arcade Fire

        I almost feel guilty for having Arcade Fire this low on the list, but Reflektor falls a bit short of the Album of the Year standards the band has set for themselves. Sprawling and ambitious (perhaps even to a fault), Reflektor sure isn't the sound of a band resting on its laurels, and some late tracks can go toe-to-toe with the group's best work to date.

Hype Starts Here's Top 50 Albums of 2013:

50-41

40-31

30-21

20-11

10-1

Hype Starts Here's Top 100 Songs of 2013:

100-71

70-46

45-26

25-11

10-1

Hype Starts Here's Top 50 Albums of 2013 (50-41)

50. Half of Where You Live and Trust EP---Gold Panda

        One year, two solid releases form Gold Panda, both champions of a swirling, atmospheric type of dubstep that sides-steps bombast in favor of groove.

49. Paracosm---Washed Out

        Lathered in a heavy dose of reverb, Paracosm is the perfect album for the lazy, contented days of summer, its magnanimous pop as inviting as it is lush.

48. 0181---Four Tet

        Stuck somewhere in between a song and an album, 0181 consists of a single track that cycles endlessly through woozy, moody, and nocturnal movements.

47. The Wack Album---The Lonely Island

        Andy Samberg's mock hip-hop group is back with their third disc, complete with absurd humor, rampant guest spots, and ironic beats that are unnervingly similar to those heard on radio.

46. Nepenthe---Julianna Barwick

        Less a proper album than a series of beautiful, layered sounds, Barwick's latest piles synths, strings, voices and all other manner of soft sounds on top of each other until they billow out into etherial majesty.

45. Prince Avalanche Original Soundtrack---Explosions in the Sky & David Wingo
        Not the exercise in sky-scraping grandiosity that one might have expected from Explosions' first film score, Prince Avalanche OST is gorgeous in its smallness, twinkling pianos and emotive chords strewn through-out.

44. Loud Sound City---Julia Holter

        Inspired by 1958's Best Picture winner, Gigi, LSC takes listeners on a journey through an unknown, enchanting land, covered in mist and whispered affections (word of advise: skip the movie, go straight to the album).

43. Settle---Disclosure

        Among both the simplest and best albums of the year, Disclosure's debut fills out dance floors minimal vocal samples and undeniably propulsive beats that reach up to the ceiling.

42. Blue Chips 2---Action Bronson & Party Supplies
        A sequel that bares the same DIY production lunacy of its predecessor, Blue Chips 2 is a an hour-plus of the year's most unlikely hip-hop samples, Bronson's absurdist tales of excess fitting them like a glove.

41. Engravings---Forest Swords
        A strange, stark, and enveloping experience, Engravings is instrumental music like you've never heard before, utilizing electronics and manual instrumentation to craft something angular and foreboding.

Hype Starts Here's Top 50 Albums of 2013:

50-41

40-31

30-21

20-11

10-1

Hype Starts Here's Top 100 Songs of 2013:

100-71

70-46

45-26

25-11

10-1

Dallas Buyers Club (Limited Release Date: 11-1-2013)

        I'm convinced that Matthew McConaughey had a brain transplant somewhere around the summer of 2009, and it's simply taken us this long to notice. Up through that point, the romantic comedy veteran's name was almost synonymous with Hollywood smut, embodied by such eye-rolling classics as Failure to Launch and Ghosts of Girlfriends Past. The last few years, however, have seen the thespian turn his career around in one of the most stark and improbable 180's in recent memory. The last two years alone have already seen McConaughey shine in no fewer than five movies (Bernie, Magic Mike, Killer Joe, The Paperboy, and Mud), with buzzy upcoming collaborations with Martin Scorsese (The Wolf on Wallstreet) and Christopher Nolan (Interstellar) next on the docket. But even with all his solid work of late, there was still nothing that could have convinced me that the star of How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days was capable of the spellbinding performance at the center of Dallas Buyers Club.

        Ron Woodroof (McConaughey) is a hard-partying good ol' boy, an electrician who moonlights as a rodeo bull rider in 1985 Dallas. His endless cycle of drugs, sex, and other forms of debauchery is thrown for quite a loop when, upon a visit to the hospital for a work-related injury, Woodroof learns that he has HIV, and only about a month to live. Very much a mystery disease at the time, Ron is immediately shunned by his homophobic friends (see: everyone he knows) who cannot conceive of another way to pass the sickness. After toiling through an American health system still working out the kinks of the situation, Woodroof looks across boarders and over ponds to attain the medicine he needs, eventually setting up the make-shift dispensary from which the film receives its name.

        For screenwriter Craig Borten, Dallas Buyers Club represents 20 years of commitment and perseverance. Having driven down to the lone star state to meet his film's subject more than two decades ago, Borten had to sweat through potential directors (Marc Forster, Craig Gillespie) and stars (Brad Pitt, Ryan Gosling, Gael García Bernal) before McConaughey and Helmer Jean-Marc Vallée finally committed to the picture. Budget limitations then restricted the film to a 25-day shoot in which no artificial lighting was used; to say that DBC is a labor of love would be an understatement, and the desire to do right by both the history and the material at hand is evident in every handsome frame.

        The most obvious praise goes to the actors, McConaughey and Jared Leto each likely headed for Oscar nominations come the beginning of next month. Leto, who plays Rayon, a drag queen who becomes Woodroof's unlikely business partner, avoids easy caricature and stereotypical bigness for a performance at once subtle and scene-stealing. The grace that he carries with him is palpable, his every movement exacting and specific. Body mechanics are actually right at the heart of the film's pair of towering turns, each actor having lost north of 30 pounds to make their diseases believable. We've never seen McConaughey anywhere near this vulnerable, his character's anxieties and animalistic drive to live just as prominent as his bones and veins. His journey from quick-witted bigot to Robin Hood-like con-man is a marvel to watch, gradual and messy enough to believe, powerful and emotional enough to get swept up in. I've still got a few left to see, but from where I sit now, it's the single most impressive performance of 2013.

        A common argument against Dallas Buyers Club labels the film as yet another movie about a minority group told from a majority stand point. An epidemic most often witnessed in racially-themed pictures like The Blind Side or The Help, filmmakers too often employ a straight, white protagonist as an avatar for the audience, making the tale at hand more relatable. While this is often a near-necessary observation, I can't help but find the argument futile in the case of Dallas Buyers Club, a film that outs itself as notably heterosexual with its carnal opening images, and never veers off course. DBC isn't concerned with providing any sort of definitive chronicle of the early AIDS crisis; the picture is a deep, penetrating character study of a resourceful huckster who unwittingly found himself right in the middle of an epidemic, and had to scratch and claw for his right to survive. Those disappointed that the film doesn't bare a larger cultural weight on its shoulders miss the point altogether. Dallas Buyers Club is a portrait of a unique man living in an under-discussed time and era, one with ample intrigue and emotional heft, and an absolute pulverization of everything you thought you knew about Matthew McConaughey. It also happens to be one of the best films of the year.

Grade: A-