The Finest Vinyl of 2013

Mid December; time to look back at the year's best vinyl releases.
And i dare say it's been a darn good year in music. I found it pretty hard to compile a Top 10, because there were so many good releases this year. It was a tough choice between #1 and #2, for example, but also i had a shortlist of 20+ albums that i honestly think were just really good. Had to narrow that list down to less than half of them. It's only fair to mention the ones that nearly made it here, i think.

These are the ones that didn't make it to my Top 10 of 2013, but only just.
In alphabetical order: Austra - Olympia / Besnard Lakes - Until In Excess, Imperceptible UFO / Deafheaven - Sunbather / Edweena - Solar Days And Lunar Nights / Esben And The Witch - Wash The Sins Not Only The Face / Girls Names - The New Life / Still Corners - Strange Pleasures / Team Ghost - Rituals / The Knife - Shaking The Habitual / Tropical Popsicle - Dawn Of Delight / Younghusband - Dromes.

And this, my friends, is The Finest Vinyl of 2013:

01. My Bloody Valentine - mbv
Just when you thought it would never happen anymore, MBV makes a glorious comeback.

02. David Bowie - The Next Day
Berlin (and therefore his best work) revisited. Best Bowie album since Scary Monsters.

03. Stargazer Lilies - We Are The Dreamers
Hands down the best dreampop album of the year. Or even: of the past decade.

04. Sigur Rós - Kveikur
Ég elska bara þá.

05. Yuck - Glow & Behold
"Difficult second" passes the test without any problems.

06. Medicine - To The Happy Few
Really, really good. And really, really underrated, unfortunately. Hence the title, perhaps?

07. The Flaming Lips - The Terror
Weird but beautiful. As always.

08. Primal Scream - More Light
100% back at the top of their form.

09. Chvrches - The Bones Of What You Believe
Totally worth the hype.

10. Black Hearted Brother - Stars Are Our Home
Slowdive frontman going into the right direction again.

The Knife - Gender Bender [10"]

This GENDER BENDER 10" EP by THE KNIFE is nowadays a pretty rare item, and it goes for steep prices on sites like Discogs and eBay. I bumped into it at the Utrecht record fair a few weeks ago for a very reasonable price however, so it was hard to leave it standing in the crate. The only song that i didn't have yet was Manhood; the others are from the Deep Cuts album. It's a limited numbered release. I couldn't find anywhere online how many copies were made, but my copy is # 0986, so at least 1000 i assume.

Label: Rabid Records
Cat.nr.: RABID022
Year of release: 2004

SIDE A:
01. Handy-Man
02. Manhood

SIDE B:
01. You Make Me Like Charity
02. Hangin' Out

Anne - Dreampunx [12", LP]

This LP by the band ANNE is actually a compilation of various demo and mixtape recordings from 2010 and 2011. It's a really cool shoegaze/dreampop album, released on A389 Recordings, which is otherwise home to hardcore and metalcore bands like Ringworm and Integrity. Perhaps that's how they came to the title DREAMPUNX. Anyway, the title may be a bit silly, but the music's certainly not. I knew the band's name from a split 7" they did with Whirr (still looking for the thing, actually) and stumbled upon this LP some time ago. So after double-checking if it was the same band, i decided to take a chance buy it. Turned out to be certainly worth it! And not only is their sound great; the beautiful album artwork and coloured vinyl top it off.

Label: A389 Recordings
Cat.nr.: A389-081
Year of release: 2011

SIDE A:
01. All Your Time
02. Virginal Plight
03. Thrush
04. Lower Faiths

SIDE B:
01. Tarvantovaara
02. Get It How You Live
03. Perfect Teeth
04. Summer Babies
05. Punk Bike

The Flaming Lips - The Terror [12", 2LP, Bonus 7"]

After releasing The Flaming Lips And Heady Fwends last year, THE FLAMING LIPS decided that this year the time was right to release a new album completely on their own. The result is just great. Weird and psychedelic as ever. It's even so that THE TERROR has become one of my favourite Flaming Lips albums ever. It took a while to grow on me, but songs like Try To Explain and Be Free... A Way are among the best the band has ever done. The vinyl edition has one track extra compared to the CD (We Don't Control The Controls, which fills the whole D-side) and there's a bonus 7" as well, with an extra track and a Beatles cover. Together with the beautiful shiny cover artwork it makes a really nice package.

Label: Bella Union
Cat.nr.: LP388
Year of release: 2013

SIDE A:
01. Look The Sun Is Rising
02. Be Free... A Way
03. Try To Explain

SIDE B:
01. You Lust
02. The Terrror

SIDE C:
01. You Are Alone
02. Butterfly, How Long It Takes To Die
03. Turning Violent
04. Always There In Our Hearts

SIDE D:
01. We Don't Control The Controls
mashed-the-fuck-up-remix
Dan Deacon and Electric Worms insight violence

Label: Bella Union
Cat.nr.: BU7666
Year of release: 2013

SIDE A:
01. Sun Blows Up Today

SIDE B:
01. All You Need Is Love

Chvrches - The Bones Of What You Believe [12", LP]

Before CHVRCHES released their debut full length THE BONES OF WHAT YOU BELIEVE a few months ago, the band was hyped quite a bit. They had some pretty strong singles/videos out (The Mother We Share, Lies and Recover) that had caught the attention of various magazines and blogs. Some critics say that the album hasn't got any other songs of the same quality; well, i totally disagree. We Sink is one of my favourites; catchy as hell. Gun is another one. These people sound like they're influenced by both ABBA and M83, and simply delivered an album with great pop tunes. Funny fact: Iain, one of the band members, used to be in a band called Aerogramme. I have their split EP "In The Fishtank" with Isis. Great stuff, but completely different from what Chvrches is doing.

Label: Vertigo
Cat.nr.: 3748517
Year of release: 2013

SIDE A:
01. The Mother We Share
02. We Sink
03. Gun
04. Tether
05. Lies
06. Under The Tide

SIDE B:
01. Recover
02. Night Sky
03. Science/Visions
04. Lungs
05. By The Throat
06. You Caught The Light

Death In Vegas - Satan's Circus [12", 3LP]

SATAN'S CIRCUS by DEATH IN VEGAS is pretty different from the other Death In Vegas albums, in that it is completely instrumental. Also musically it's not as diverse as the other albums: it's pure krautrock and not much anything else. Which is, when done properly like it's done here, not at all a bad thing of course. Perhaps a little cheesy for a krautrock album, but a lot of song titles are related to Germany: Ein Für Die Damen, Kontroll, Sons Of Rother (must be referring to Neu's Michael Rother), Reigen (a controversial play by Arthur Schnitzler) and Anita Berber (a bisexual drug-addicted and alcoholic actress/nightclub dancer from Berlin, during the Weimar period). I found this 3LP for a really good price at the record fair in Utrecht, a few weeks ago. It's been on my wishlist for quite some time so i'm glad i finally have it now.

Label: Drone
Cat.nr.: DRONELPONE
Year of release: 2004

SIDE A:
01. Ein Für Die Damen

SIDE B:
01. Zugaga
02. Heil Xanax

SIDE C:
01. Black Lead
02. Sons Of Rother

SIDE D:
01. Candy McKenzie
02. Reigen

SIDE E:
01. Kontroll
02. Anita Berber

SIDE F:
01. Head

David Bowie - The Next Day [12", 2LP]

A lot has been written already about DAVID BOWIE's majestic return this year with THE NEXT DAY, his first album since 2003's Reality. So i won't go into that too much. It truly is a masterpiece, and the references to parts of his impressive oeuvre in the lyrics, album artwork (obviously) and even the videos are witty to say the least. Of course i already had this album from day one, but since there was (rightfully) such a buzz around it, i didn't feel the urge to write something about it on my blog. But hey, the end of the year is approaching and i'm compiling my yearlist, so.... You feel it coming, right? In a few weeks you'll know where exactly it ended up in my Top 10, but it's definitely going to show up in there. An amazing piece of work.

Label: Columbia
Cat.nr.: 88765461861
Year of release: 2013

SIDE A:
01. The Next Day
02. Dirty Boys
03. The Stars (Are Out Tonight)
04. Love Is Lost

SIDE B:
01. Where Are We Now?
02. Valentine's Day
03. If You Can See Me
04. I'd Rather Be High

SIDE C:
01. Boss Of Me
02. Dancing Out InSpace
03. How Does The Grass Grow?
04. (You Will) Set The World On Fire

SIDE D:
01. You Feel So Lonely You Could Die
02. Heat
03. So She
04. Plan
05. I'll Take You There