Who will judge the judgers? I will! NPR have put up their top 50 albums of 2013 and I have only two questions 1) Do I know it and 2) is it any good… no wait here is 3) Where is Queen Bey!. Well, let’s take a look at what the lefty muckety mucks have been listening to, 11 of em, in alphanetical orde, only one of which is a true revelation
BILL CALLAHAN – DREAM RIVER – a deep voiced like American Idol country teen voice with pleasant but boring folk songs – C+
BLOOD ORANGE – CUPID DELUXE –One of the best r&b albums around, this year’s Frank Ocean minus all the sales and better, as in better songs – A
BOMBINO – NOMAD – Pretty good rock and roll from Niger of all places – V+
BRANDY CLARK – 12 STORIES – Low key country folk, “What’ll Keep Me Out Of Heaven” as good as it gets – B+
BRYAN FERRY ORCHESTRA – THE JAZZ AGE – Authentic, sure, but there doesn’t seem much reason to rearrange em as 1920s jazz – B
BUIKA -LA NOCHE MAS LARGA – New to me, a husky deep bluesy singer singing in French – B
CALEB BURHANS – EVENSONG – Incredible new compositions from a guy I haven’t heard of but blame this because this sounds amazingly beautiful Church music. To quote Tom Huizenga of NPR: “Old vocal forms — from plainchant to polyphony — get filtered through the 33-year-old composer’s eclectic past, emerging fresh with touches of minimalism and mysticism “– A
CHANCE THE RAPPER – ACID RAP – It is like Grime meets new r&b but more than just funny accents – B+
DANIEL AVERY – DRONE LOGIC – This is why my friends think NPR is too hip for their own goods, and I’d agree if they were selling this as a pop album but they aren’t: this is an experimental electronic bip album with elements of dance – B
DARCY JAMES ARGUE’S SECRET SOCIETY – BROOKLYN BABYLON – Post-modern jazz elements to highly experimental compositions – B
BRYCE DESSNER, NICO MUHLY, OWEN PALLETT & SHARA WORDEN – LANG: DEATH SPEAKS – Haunting lo-fi compositions, fascinating stuff