Top 30 Albums of 2013

30. Deer Tick - Negativity

29. Majical Cloudz - Impersonator

28. Mount Moriah - Miracle Temple

27. Sarah Jarosz - Build Me Up from Bones

26. Deerhunter - Monomania

25. Alela Diane - About Farewell

24. Boards of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest

23. Iceage - You're Nothing

22. Iron & Wine - Ghost on Ghost

21. Haim - Days Are Gone

20. Chvrches - The Bones of What You Believe

19. Tomahawk - Oddfellows

18. Queens of the Stone Age - ...Like Clockwork

17. Richard Thompson - Electric

16. Janelle Monáe - The Electric Lady

15. Wire - Change Becomes Us

14. Fuck Buttons - Slow Focus

13. Bill Callahan - Dream River

12. Julia Holter - Loud City Song

11. Merchandise - Totale Nite

10. My Bloody Valenine - m b v

9. Run the Jewels - Run the Jewels

8. Lady Lamb the Beekeeper - Ripely Pine

7. Torres - Torres

6. Braids - Flourish/Perish

5. Throwing Muses - Purgatory/Paradise

4. No Joy - Wait to Pleasure

3. Deathfix - Deathfix

2. Polvo - Siberia

1. Arcade Fire - Reflektor

Related:

Top 30 Albums of 2013: Honourable Mentions

Polvo - Siberia

Bill Callahan - Dream River

Torres - Torres

Richard Thompson - Electric
My Bloody Valentine - m b v
Lady Lamb the Beekeeper - Ripely Pine

Polvo - Siberia

"No bell will chime to celebrate an aspiration past its prime" - so wrote Ash Bowie in Polvo's "Time Isn't On My Side" in 1993. Siberia calls bullshit on that. Ash Bowie is in his mid 40s, which admittedly seems like nothing when I see that my top whatever for this year will include My Bloody Valentine, Deathfix (ft. Brendan Canty) and Richard Thompson and makes it read more like a list from 1991. In any case, Siberia sounds like the work of musicians who mentally travelled back to their 20s and got to make an album that captures their youthful exuberance while benefiting from everything they've learnt in the two decades hence. 2009's In Prism was a worthwhile comeback album after 12 years broken up, and it, too, built on Polvo's past without lazily rehashing it. Siberia, however, is more fully realised. The songs are sturdily structured, but manage to find a place for Ash Bowie's circuitous guitar playing, whether he's going off on Neil Young-esque tangents or taking his time and anchoring the song with an arresting arpeggio. His voice, too, has matured and come to embody the wisdom he's accrued over the years. Siberia is one of the strongest cases for bands reuniting; if you can be this good after more than 20 years on and off, why wouldn't you?