Austin B. Harvey presents: The Liquid Diet writesCHIRP Radio Best of 2013: Austin Bainard Harvey

Throughout December, CHIRP Radio presents its members’ top albums of 2013. Our next list is from DJ Austin Bainard Harvey.

1. Connections – Private Airplane and Body Language (Anyway)
   BUY: Reckless / Permanent / Insound / iTunes / eMusic
   
   This is what we all wanted the reunited Guided By Voices to sound like. Snotty, slapdash, and catchy as hell, this Columbus quintet brought us not one, but two half hours (plus a couple killer 7-inches) of delightfully fun indie-bar-rock. To say the band has melody for miles is probably an understatement. Major chords and booze-soaked wistfulness soak the fuzzed-up outer shell of all these songs, giving the listener a soundtrack for rocking out or crying into one’s whiskey. At the end of a long year, either sounds fantastic.
2. The Lemon's – Hello, We're the Lemons (Tripp Tapes)
   BUY: Reckless / Permanent / Insound / iTunes / eMusic
   
   Fourteen songs in fifteen minutes about “animals, friends, and foods.” If you have the chops for pop of The Lemons, a Chicago quintet with citrus-themed pseudonyms, it’s your recipe for success. With a production style that’s part-Phil Spector and part-White Light/White Heat, The Lemons introduce themselves with sunny guitar lines and singalong tunes that sound like the greatest songs you never heard at summer camp. Going through this a time or two in the morning was the most fun you could have on your commute this year.
3. My Bloody Valentine – m b v (Self-Released)
   BUY: Reckless / Permanent / Insound / iTunes / eMusic
   
   Did we really expect My Bloody Valentine to release another record again, even with their reunion and multiple tours? And after over 20 years since Loveless, could anyone have suspected it would be this incredible? Kevin Shields likely had an inkling. Starting with tracks similar to his previous album’s aesthetic and spiraling outwards, MBV have created another record that creates an aural atmospheric womb around the listener, at once soothing and still slightly disjointed. The biggest surprises on m b v are the tremendous forward leaps, incorporating drum ’n’ bass, krautrock, and some Madchester beats from the past to deliver a more cohesive statement than one would expect from a group that had previously fallen from the map.
4. Savages – Silence Yourself (Matador)
   BUY: Reckless / Permanent / Insound / iTunes / eMusic
   
   Perhaps the most intense and suspenseful record of the year, the London quartet pulled out some of the most satisfying squawks and squeals from their guitars on their debut album. Lead singer Jehnny Beth’s oeuvre is part-political-roustabout and part-film-noir-antihero, with an underlying sense of urban dread brilliantly running as an undercurrent to the record. Though decidedly post-punk in songwriting and overall sound, the tone is intense, stark, and rocked harder and more convincingly than anything else coming across the ears in 2013.
5. Dissapears – Era (Kranky)
   BUY: Reckless / Permanent / Insound / iTunes / eMusic
   
   On their fourth record in four years, Disappears have made their most fully-realized record of their buzz-filled existence. The Chicago four-piece went much darker to achieve their ends, with echo-soaked deadpan vocals to fuel the claustrophobia. The breathing room afforded to tracks like “Ultra” and “New House” yields beautifully terrifying results, while the no-wave danceable pop of “Power” and “Weird House” fills the gaps and gives us CHIRP folks some great radio tunes. It’s not so much a leap forward as it is the best use of the band’s influences and inherent strengths, with the result being the band’s best work to date.
6. Danny Brown – Old (Fool's Gold)
   BUY: Reckless / Permanent / Insound / iTunes / eMusic
   
   The best hip-hop record of 2013 was all over the place, with arena-rock bombast and sitar/flute samples in the first five minutes. Moving beyond the kitchen-sink approach, Old is a confessional, drug-addled party record that at once illustrates the dangers of its vices while still providing the ideal soundtrack for the high and the comedown. Brown still utilizes fairly minimal beats by modern hip-hop standards, but the symphony comes from the variety of his voices and source material. Not since OutKast have we been confronted with so many sounds and rhyming styles on a single record. It’s about time. Also, “Dip” is the best track of 2013 to sample a 90’s novelty hit.
7. Factory Floor – Factory floor (DFA)
   BUY: Reckless / Permanent / Insound / iTunes / eMusic
   
   This record is a blast. Channeling the Chicago house of Frankie Knuckles and Mr. Fingers through the ESG-worshipping lens of the DFA, this London band made the record that most satisfies those who wish James Murphy hadn’t retired LCD Soundsystem. The manipulated vocals and chirping synths also remind one of a good portion of 80’s-era Factory Records. Combining all these elements with some live drums, and you have the most productivity-inspiring music since the first Battles album. Each song varies just enough from its predecessor to keep all 53 minutes fresh in the ears, but most of the tracks are great enough to warrant dozens of listens.
8. Medicine – To the Happy Few (Captured Tracks)
   BUY: Reckless / Permanent / Insound / iTunes / eMusic
   
   Not content to rest on the laurels of Captured Tracks’ lovingly-curated reissues of their first two records, Brad Laner’s most recognized project also released a record of brand-new material in 2013, and it’s marvelous. Shoegaze and dream-pop are the starting points here, but the song ideas bouncing around from track to track seem to suggest something far more experimental. Swirling guitars bounce from ear to ear while Laner’s vocals harmonize with Beth Thompson to form the complete whole. Is it the poor man’s My Bloody Valentine? Perhaps, but that would make one quite rich, indeed.
9. Arcade Fire – Reflecktor (Merge)
   BUY: Reckless / Permanent / Insound / iTunes / eMusic
   
   A critique I heard from a good friend regarding this record went something like this: “sexless disco bongos”. And I hear that, loud and clear. It’s tough to make Arcade Fire sound crazy, sexy, or cool. But their pinched-voice, jangly take on punk somehow married Caribbean and disco elements to make a highly anticipated album interesting, if a ramshackle, sprawling mess. Reflektor, on paper, is annoying: costumes, sequins, drum circles, and dress codes. But when the piano takes control on the outro of the title track, it’s all over. There are a few moments like that on this record, and they make you forgive everything.
10. Jaguar Ma – Howlin' (Mom + Pop)
    BUY: Reckless / Permanent / Insound / iTunes / eMusic
    
    Madchester enthusiasts from Sydney make probably the second best Happy Mondays record we’ve never heard. Deliriously fun and great for road trip singalongs, I really hope indie rock moves in this direction next year.

Honorable Mentions

• 11. Shuggie Otis / Wings Of Love / Epic/Legacy - Combining guitar-shred theatrics, Prince-esque love-man tendencies, synth-fueled freakouts, and an overriding lo-fi sound that would make the indie-R&B progenitors of the current decade sound like pretenders, this album would be essential in any of the past 40 years, including this one.
  12. Janelle Monae / The Electric Lady / Bad Boy - The fourth and fifth part of Ms. Monae’s Metropolis concept feature her biggest choruses and widest range yet. She’s the next Prince.
  13. Shrimpss / Shrimpss / self-released - This local indie supergroup-of-sorts made a one-off, cohesive record of marvelously folk-rock-inflected tunes.
  14. Pharmakon / Abandon / Sacred Bones - The soundtrack to your next primal scream therapy session. Cathartic, brutal, and cavernous. Not for the timid.
  15. Primal Scream / More Light / Ignition - The Scream’s first in five years sniffs the greatness of Screamadelica and XTRMNTR while still writing original slogans to bellow.
  16. Jon Hopkins / Immunity / Domino - The Londoner brings the “dance” into IDM by throwing backbeats back into the glitches. Shockingly catchy.
  17. Run The Jewels / Run The Jewels / Fool’s Gold - El-P and Killer Mike revive an unlikely and absolutely killer friendship on these 10 tracks. Ridiculous beats and foreboding rhymes.
  18. Anna Calvi / One Breath / Domino - The Londoner branches out, incorporating drum machines and electronics into her massive guitar and vocal tones.
  19. Chance The Rapper / Acid Rap / self-released - Chance combines the best elements of Chicago hip-hop with his off-kilter tenor. Guest spots galore, all of them a hoot.
  20. Sigur Rós / Kveikur / XL - The Icelandic now-trio continue to hit soaring highs from a variety of angles. “Brennistein” is a gigantic tune and the best of the bunch.
  21. Yo La Tengo / Fade / Matador - Ira, Georgia, and James came to Chicago, hung out with John McEntire, and made one of the best records of their career. The bookends are the highlights.