| 1. We Are The 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic Foxygen |
 The Rolling Stones, Velvet Underground, The Kinks; arguably some of the 20th Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic, are all in this debut album from Californian rock duo Foxygen. Some listeners may find it irksome at first to hear a young band brazenly wearing their influences on their sleeves, but if you’re going to pay homage to anyone through your music then those three iconic groups are a great place to start. We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic is delivered at pace (less than 37 minutes) and with swagger seamlessly flitting between garage, indie and psych-rock. The first half of the album is where you’ll find a couple of early classics in the making, in the form of “San Francisco” and “No Destruction”, and serves a reminder that the album belongs to the kids of today as well as the rock gods of yesteryear.
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• "Pushes the boundaries of the psych-pop revival." Mojo, "Genuine musical brilliance and weirdness." NME |
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£8.78) | Vinyl (
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| 2. Random Access Memories Daft Punk |
 Propelling a 1970s disco style into the 21st century mysterious French electronic DJ duo Daft Punk finally provide us with certainly the most talked-about album of 2013 but also undoubtedly the most played. Building on vocals from the likes of Pharrell Williams and Julian Casablancas Daft Punk surprise us again with an unexpectedly soulful album.
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• "A masterpiece complete with flaws." The Guardian, "Once Random Access Memories unravels, it is, at its best, pretty magnificent." Resident Advisor |
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• CD (
£9.99) | Vinyl (
£17.02) | MP3 (
£7.49) | More from Daft Punk |
| 3. Big Inner Matthew E White |
 A startling, soulful debut album from the hirsuite Richmond, Virginia singer with a jazz background, A Big Inner references some of the soul and gospel greats and announces Matthew E. White himself as a possible new great.
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• “"Big Inner's seven tracks are full of moments…where you sense that a genuinely great artist might have arrived almost out of the blue" 5/5 Guardian, “White's songs burst with Cosmic American ambition, referencing everything from Otis Redding to Gene Clark… a genuine classic, in fact.” Independent on Sunday |
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• CD (
£8.37) | Vinyl (
£15.58) | MP3 (
£4.49) | More from Matthew E White |
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| 4. The Next Day David Bowie |
 Bowie used January 8, his 66th birthday, to announce The Next Day, an unexpected album very few knew was being recorded. Working again with producer Tony Visconti Bowie created his first UK number one album in 20 years.
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• "An album that's thought-provoking, strange and filled with great songs." 4/5 The Guardian, "This album is, foremost, about songcraft." 8/10 NME |
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• CD (from
£8.00) | Vinyl (
£17.94) | MP3 (
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| 5. Muchacho Phosphorescent |
 The sixth LP from Matthew Houck, AKA Phosphorescent, Muchacho builds on his critically acclaimed 2010 album Here's to Taking it Easy to deliver a one-man Americana masterpiece, adding a synth-driven warmth to his perennially accomplished melodic songwriting.
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• "Listening to Muchacho often feels like being warmed by afternoon sun as it floods your window" 8.8/10 Pitchfork, "A...magnificent beast, mixing country jams with claustrophobic electronica and mournful Mariachi horns to create a beautiful but discomforting album." 4/10 Uncut |
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• CD (
£8.07) | Vinyl (
£13.34) | MP3 (
£7.49) | More from Phosphorescent |
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| 6. MBV My Bloody Valentine |
 Fans of shoegaze have waited a long time for this album. A very long time. As the streets lay littered with failed comebacks, My Bloody Valentine step over the fallen to produce one of the finest releases of 2013. Swirling, giddy, emotional and unstoppably powerful in its beauty, m b v grabs you by the ears and doesn't let go.
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• "MBV leaves all other post-rock experimentalists looking like trivial dilettantes. If jet engines could sing, these would be their hymns." Independent on Sunday "It’s an album that 22 years of speculation and analysis haven’t come close to matching the reality of. It sounds amazing, and represents an astounding return." BBC |
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| 7. Light Up Gold Parquet Courts |
 Putting garage rock back on the map, the debut album from the Brooklyn quartet drew almost universal acclaim for its fresh, energetic--at times gloriously ramshackle--approach to a genre that hasn't seen new life in over a decade.
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• "One of the best debut albums you'll hear all year" 9/10 NME, "oth instantly addictive and lastingly rewarding: a smart, snappy concoction of worldly wisdom and garage-rock gratification." 5/5 Guardian |
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• CD (
£7.67) | Vinyl (
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£6.49) | More from Parquet Courts |
| 8. Monkey Minds In The Devil's Time Steve Mason |
 Behold the beauty of this solo album from the former front man of Mercury Prize-nominated 90s outfit The Beta Band. Granted, he’s released albums over the years with other line-ups, and even released his debut solo album in 2010, but this is the kind of fodder that may well get him another nod from the Mercury elite. It’s full of subtle, slow-burn melodies and punctuated with imaginative skitz that go easy on the ear, like dubby instrumentals overlaid with Portuguese car-race commentary. But after softening you up with songs like “A Lot of Love” Mason then packs a punch with more socially conscious tracks that bristle with talk of rebellion and revolution.
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• "A soulful, adventurous, state-of-the-nation classic." Uncut, "Testament to his songcraft." Independent on Sunday |
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• CD (
£8.37) | Vinyl (
£15.59) | MP3 (
£4.49) | More from Steve Mason |
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| 9. Yeezus Kanye West |
 A mish-mash of styles, words and beats from the outset Yeezus was likened to a sucker punch by Lou Reed. "No one's near doing what he's doing, it's not even on the same planet." Who would have thought an album of only 40 minutes could present such variety whilst remaining in synchronicity?
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• "Each fluorescent strike of noise, incongruous tempo flip, and warped vocal is bolted into its right place across the record's fast 40 minutes." Pitchfork, "Styles and genres smash into each other. At first listen it sounds messy, but the more you play it, the more inspired and essential each brutal interruption becomes." 5/5 The Telegraph |
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£10.00) | MP3 (
£6.49) | More from Kanye West |
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| 10. Push The Sky Away Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds |
 Nick Cave delivers yet again with arguably the finest work in his three-decade long career, expertly wielding the experience garnered from projects since Lazarus to rejoin the Bad Seeds and conjure this haunting, majestic masterpiece.
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• "They've made their best album, a thoughtful, oceanic work that sucks one in, its hidden currents exerting a subtle but strong undertow" 5/5 The Independent, "A masterpiece that merges the experimentation and freedom of their side projects with Cave's most tender songcraft." 9/10 NME |
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• CD (
£7.97) | Vinyl (
£16.75) | MP3 (
£5.99) | More from Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds |
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