A few thoughts on some of your albums:

 

50 John Grant 'Pale Green Ghosts'

 

"Pale Green Ghosts" is the best E.P of the year. What I mean is, if the album shed half its tracks it would be close to flawless.

 

38 Franz Ferdinand 'Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action'

 

I liked this a lot more than you did, although how it took 4 1/2 years to come to fruition I have no idea.

 

32 Daft Punk 'Random Access Memories'

 

I actually liked "Touch", but given that it was co-written by the guy who wrote the songs for The Muppet's Christmas Carol, I might be a bit biased. Try not imagining it as a Daft Punk track, then it should click.

 

30 Primal Scream 'More Light'

 

Produced by the legendary Mr David Holmes. Decent, but no Screamadelica or XTRMTR.

 

27 Maps 'Vicissitude'

 

An album I shamefully haven't listened to, despite "We Can Create" being one of my favourite ever albums.

 

18 Vampire Weekend 'Modern Vampires of the City'

 

A brilliant album, and a perfect closure to the 2nd best opening trilogy of albums ever.

 

07 Arctic Monkeys 'AM'

 

Probably more consistent than their debut. Should become their seminal album at some point.

 

01 Public Service Broadcasting 'Inform - Educate - Entertain'

 

I ruddy love this band and this album.

I still haven't seen Public Service Broadcasting yet because I am a bit of a flop trying to organise things- some of my friends (who I recommended them to) did though so I got them more ticket sales: YAY. Woo for the album topping your chart though - I love "Everest", "Signal 30", "Night Mail" and "Spitfire" - and the opening track with all the elements is also a joy, a very consistently solid/decent album.

 

Very much looking forward to the singles because frankly it is ALL ABOUT the singles baby. :D

Thanks for the comments :D

 

B-B, you should definitely listen to the new Maps album, it's probably not as good as 'We Can Create' but it's all in the same vein as usual so I suspect you'd enjoy it if you'd enjoyed his previous ones.

 

Dr, I do like the opening track of PSB album, it's a nice way of starting the album off, mixing elements of the rest of it together.

So I've now cut down my list of 494(!) singles from this year to be able to make a top 100 which I'm quite happy with.

 

Seven songs never made my personal chart at their time of release, no act has more than two songs as lead artist, the first time that's ever happened, though two acts do feature more than twice, one of them four times. Four songs make UK number one and two of the songs are remixes.

 

A small selection of songs that just missed out:

 

CHVRCHES 'Recover'

Daughter 'Still'

Henry Krinkle 'Stay'

James Blake 'Retrograde'

Joe Goddard 'She Burns'

Los Porcos 'Sunshine'

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis 'Same Love'

San Cisco 'Beach'

Zedd feat. Foxes 'Clarity'

494 wot

 

I'm feeling SILLY now with my 310+ oops.

The first 50 in one post as I don't want to write too much about them or take too long on this, all linked.

 

100 -

(#05 - chart peak) (01 - number of End of Year appearances)

099 -

(N/A) (01 / 03)

098 -

(#03) (01)

097 -

(#16) (01 / 01)

096 -

(#12*) (01)

095 -

(#06) (01)

094 -

(N/A) (01)

093 -

(#07) (01 / 01)

092 -

(#07) (01)

091 -

(#13) (01 / 01)

 

090 -

(#05) (01)

089 -

(#06) (02)

088 -

(N/A) (01)

087 -

(#04) (01)

086 -

(#16) (01)

085 -

(#04) (01)

084 -

(#08) (01)

083 -

(#22*) (02)

082 -

(#05) (07)

081 -

(N/A) (01 / 01)

 

080 -

(#05) (02)

079 - M83 feat. Susanne Sundfør 'Oblivion' (#23) (05 / 02)

078 -

(#09) (01)

077 -

(#07) (02)

076 - Say Lou Lou 'Better In The Dark' (#07*) (02)

075 -

(#07) (01)

074 -

(#10) (01)

073 -

(N/A) (01)

072 -

(#06) (01)

071 -

(#18*) (04)

 

070 -

(#10) (04 / 01 / 04)

069 -

(#03) (01)

068 -

(#07) (06)

067 -

(#08) (01)

066 -

(#07) (01)

065 -

(05*) (07) - appearance in 5 consecutive years

064 -

(05) (01)

063 -

(04) (06)

062 -

(#08) (01 / 01)

061 -

(#08) (01)

 

060 -

(#06) (01)

059 -

(#04) (01)

058 -

(#08) (01)

057 -

(#18) (05)

056 -

(#02) (05)

055 - Julio Bashmore feat. Jessie Ware 'Peppermint' (#03) (01 / 05)

054 - Lulu James 'Closer' (#02) (01)

053 -

(#14*) (01)

052 -

(#02) (02)

051 - Ejecta 'Afraid of the Dark' (#02) (01)

Edited December 22, 201311 yr by RabbitFurCoat

50 - Vampire Weekend 'Unbelievers' (#05)

 

 

Along with previous single 'Diane Young', probably the most instant song on their third album, one of the catchiest they've ever done but that tends to be when they're at their best.

 

Previous entries:

Oxford Comma (#84, 2003)

A-Punk (#13, 2008)

Cousins (#70, 2009)

White Sky (#70, 2010)

Giving Up The Gun (#15, 2010)

Diane Young (#73, 2013)

 

49 - Ghosts 'WLVS' (#06)

 

 

Hailing from Ireland, 'WLVS' is three and a half minutes with an insane amount going on, incredibly atmospheric, with comparisons to the likes of Burial and Disclosure not incorrect.

48 - Foals 'Bad Habit' (#05)

 

 

The singles from 'Holy Fire' have been incredibly varied and wide ranging, from as rock as Foals have ever got ('Inhaler') to about as pop as they've got ('My Number') to about as dull as they've ever got ('Late Night'), 'Bad Habit' is something that's a closer fit to the material from their previous album.

 

Previous entries:

Mathletics (#40, 2007)

Cassius (#56, 2008)

This Orient (#91, 2010)

Blue Blood (#51, 2010)

Spanish Sahara (#11, 2010)

Inhaler (#04, 2012)

My Number (#82, 2013)

 

47 - Rachel Zeffira 'The Deserters' (#06)

 

 

Certainly one of the most beautiful tracks I've heard all year, Rachel has a wonderful voice which suits the type of song so well, and the strings in this are hypnotic.

Edited December 22, 201311 yr by RabbitFurCoat

46 - Public Service Broadcasting 'Signal 30' (#19)

 

 

It took me a while to really appreciate this, hence its low personal chart peak. I thought this might have been when they became a bit too much but a lot of listening to the album made me see it in a different light. As rocky and as fast paced as they get.

 

Previous entries:

Everest (#31, 2012)

 

45 - M.I.A. 'Come Walk With Me' (#06)

 

 

It's been a long while since M.I.A. released anything that was really worth caring about, but that changed this year with the release of the second single from her most recent album 'Matangi'. It takes a minute and a half to properly get going but get going it certainly does, and will stick in the brain for ages. Back with powa!

 

Previous entries:

Jimmy (#80, 2007)

Paper Planes (#11, 2008)

O…Saya (feat. A.R. Rahman) (#32, 2009)

 

44 - Deptford Goth 'Union' (#03)

 

 

Not a million miles away from the likes of James Blake, beautifully ethereal and moody.

43 - Jagwar Ma 'Man I Need' (#03)

 

 

Following up one of the best singles in years is a tough job, especially when it was your debut, but 'Man I Need' proved Jagwar Ma had a lot to them and the album had a great deal of potential. More polished than previous tracks, if anything on 'Howlin'' were to be a hit, this would be most likely.

42 - dan le sac vs Scroobius Pip 'You Will See Me' (#20*)

 

 

The main focus of this song is definitely Pip's voice, the beat seeming like it was almost an afterthought in the background, particularly for the first half, but it suits it so well. It's the type of song where he really comes into his own showing he's a great lyricist. The video is excellent too.

 

Previous entries:

Though Shalt Always Kill (#72, 2007)

 

41 - Pulp 'After You' (#02)

 

 

Coming 11 years after their final single 'Bad Cover Version', 'After You' was a standalone new Pulp song which owes a lot to their 90s heyday. You sense with its chorus and catchy riff it could've been a decent sized hit in the mid-90s however it went largely ignored in 2013. It's been a good year for acts from the 90s, with Gaz Coombes and Tim Burgess already appearing with excellent solo efforts.

Great stuff so far Mark.

 

Following Blur's return last year it was great to have a brand new single from Pulp - it could have easily like you say been a minor hit in the late 1990s but yes sadly in 2013 was totally ignored (except maybe on 6Music). My only criticism with it was that the chorus was quite lazy, but I enjoyed it enough more so just because it was good to have Jarvis back (though we did of course get a whole album of Jarvis back in late 2006) and everything the James Murphy was involved with this year turned out predictably great.

 

Jagwar Ma are indeed amazing and "Man I Need" was a nice single, but it got swamped with my continuing adoration for that song.

 

Great to see Foals and Public Service Broadcasting making appearances, I expect another PSB single much higher of course!

 

"Unbelievers" is brilliant, one of my favourite singles of the year - a great song about religion/beliefs.

Thanks. You are of course correct in you assumption, and I agree that whilst 'Man I Need' is excellent as is the vast majority of their album, there is one song that is much better than the rest.

40 - Cloud Boat 'Wanderlust' (#10)

 

 

Probably the most gorgeous and stripped back song I've heard all year, it's utterly haunting although that didn't transfer to others when I entered it into UP!

39 - The Juan MacLean 'Feel Like Movin'' (#02)

 

 

A song is always good when it doesn't feel like it lasts anywhere near as long as it does, and this 8 minute slice of disco inspired house/pop always goes by far too quickly, ridiculously catchy hook.