Not just a bunch of boring production deadlines

So, another year, another 52 CDs. After this ‘experiment’ in 2012, I didn’t think I’d repeat it again in 2013, but then there were so many great releases this year that I had to put some kind of a limit on myself again. And again, although I planned on balancing new purchases against back-catalog stuff on my ‘whenever’ list, there’s been so much good new stuff that I’ve barely picked up any old stuff. Out of the 52 albums, 31 of them were released in 2013, and a further 11 are from 2012 (mainly bought during the beginning of 2013 when there weren’t a lot of new releases. And 32 of the 52 were by bands that were new to me – that is, I didn’t have anything by them, previously.

I’m still mocked for my insistence on buying physical CDs (where possible – a couple of this year’s selection were download only), but I still maintain that a physical CD is a solid (pun intended) backup, and are also easier to share. Being a chip off the old block, my youngest son (Gil, 8) has taken to falling asleep to music, and it’s convenient for me to pop a CD into his boombox after we’ve read (versus putting a SONOS Play 1 in his room and streaming to that…). Recently he’s been soothed to sleep by Everest, Local Natives, and Okkervil River. I swear, one of them is going to grow up with decent taste in music…

I’m also mocked for still buying whole CDs, and not just downloading the one track I’ve heard on the radio (typically the wonderful 3wk.com or Sirius XMU satellite radio), but I still get more surprises than disappointments that way. Although the Daughter album If You Leave was disappointing on the whole (when it turned up I couldn’t even pick out the one track I had heard and liked…), and Limits of Desire by Small Black did indeed to turn out to have only one decent track (Free At Dawn), there have been some other great finds. The Sun Dogs by Rose Windows is outstanding, both Local Natives‘ Mockingbird and The Temper Trap‘s eponymous albums are pretty solid throughout, and even Indigo Meadow by The Black Angels has some great album cuts (Evil Things, Holland) hidden behind the disappointing lead ‘single’ Don’t Play With Guns.

I did note with interest that Australia produced more than its fair share of decent bands this year, with 6 of my purchases being from antipodean artists. This compares pretty favorably with that hot-pot of indie cool, Brooklyn, which produced 5 of them (although to be fair to Brooklyn, that’s quite a feat for one area of one city, versus an entire country…). The US and the UK dominated, as expected, although I managed to find decent music from Greece (Keep Shelly In Athens), Iceland (the wonderful Sigur Ros back on form), Denmark (The Raveonettes), and even Canada (John K Samson).

Anyway, overall, despite the continued warnings of the death of the music industry, it’s been a very satisfying year for (indie) music. And 2014 promises to be another good year (I already have a couple of new releases penciled in – Broken Bells, Dum Dum Girls and the mighty Mogwai all have new albums coming out in January alone. So here’s to another 52 corkers…

That list in full:

1. The Jezabels – Prisoner
2. The Temper Trap – The Temper Trap
3. Parquet Courts – Light Up Gold
4. Dirty Ghosts – Metal Moon
5. Local Natives – Mockingbird
6. My Bloody Valentine – m b v
7. Foals – Holy Fire
8. Fleetwood Mac – Rumors (Deluxe Edition)
9. The Joy Formidable – Wolf’s Law
10. Built To Spill – Keep It Like A Secret
11. Porcelain Raft – Strange Weekend
12. Dan Deacon – America
13. Palma Violets – 180
14. Tame Impala – Lonerism
15. Glorie – Glorie
16. Pinback – Information Retrieved
17. Kurt Vile – Wakin On A Pretty Daze
18. The Black Angels – Indigo Meadow
19. Husky – Forever So
20. The Breeders – Last Splash 20th Anniversary Reissue
21. The National – Trouble Will Find Me
22. Norma – the Invisible Mother
23. The Raveonettes – Observator
24. Boards of Canada – Tomorrow’s Harvest
25. Sigur Ros – Kveikur
26. No Joy – Wait To Pleasure
27. Daughter – If You Leave
28. Rose Windows – The Sun Dogs
29. Heliotropes – A Constant Sea
30. Russian Circles – Geneva
31. Beach Fossils – Clash The Truth
32. True Widow – As High As the Highest Heavens and From the Center to the Circumference of the Earth
33. Ringo Deathstarr – Color Trip
34. Bob Dylan – Bootleg Series Vol 10, Another Self portrait
35. Plants and Animals – The End Of That
36. Arctic Monkeys – AM
37. Small Black – Limits of Desire
38. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – Specter At The Feast
39. Yuck – Glow and Behold
40. The Orwells – Who Needs You / Other Voices
41. John K Samson – Provincial
42. Smashing Pumpkins – Oceania
43. LCD Soundsystem – Sound of Silver
44. Telekinesis – Dormarion
45. Deer Tick – Negativity
46. Dead Heart Bloom – We made It
47. Morrissey – Southpaw Grammar
48. Keep Shelly In Athens – At Home
49. Lee Ranaldo and the Dust – Last Night On Earth
50. Cocteau Twins – Treasure
51. Wolf & Cub – heavy Weight
52. Okta Logue – Tales Of Transit City