Top 30 albums of the year for 2013 as selected by urban75

The posters on the urban75 boards have voted in their top 30 albums of the year, and there’s a cracking selection on offer.

Over 200 albums were nominated, and there’s one or two surprise omissions from the top 30, but here’s the top three selections in reverse order:

3 My Bloody Valentine – m b v

It’s the album everyone expected to be Number 1 (unless they thought it’d be Bowie), and it’s not exactly far off. Returning exactly where they left off, m b v immediately throbs into life, and keeps on giving. Psychedelic, ambient, melodic and even almost poppy. As good as they said it was at the time

2 Low – The Invisible Way

The big surprise of the year? It could well be. A fucking wonderful album. The track below is the finest piece of music released this year, without a doubt. Sometimes Urban shows just fantastic taste, and this is one of them.

1 Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Push the Sky Away

Growing older, and, according to that honorary degree wiser, although you’d never tell from the continuing Avril Lavigne fixation. It’s majestic, its desolate, its gothic it’s luscious. What’s more: it’s eerie, it’s a bit psych, and it’s cinematic. It is the Holy Troika, so it is this years’ Album of the Year.

Here’s the full listing below. Check out the thread on urban75 for videos of all the nominated albums – and free free to join in with the discussion.

Urban75 albums of the year 2013

1 Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Push the Sky Away
2 Low – The Invisible Way
3 My Bloody Valentine – m b v
4 Boards Of Canada – Tomorrows Harvest
5 Bill Callahan – Dream River
6 Congo Natty – Jungle Revolution
7 Daft Punk – Random Access Memories
8 Caitlin Rose – The Stand In
9 Manix – Living in the Past
10 Fuck Buttons – Slow Focus
11 Mogwai – Les Revenants Soundtrack
12 Haiku Salut – Triclore
13 Phospherescence – Muchacho
14 Oneohtrix Point Never – R Plus Seven
15 Kanye West – Yeezus
16 Forest Swords – Engravings
17 These New Puritans – Field of Reeds
18 Colin Stetson, New History Warfare Vol. 3: To See More Light
19 Julia Holter – Loud City Song
20 Hey Colossus – Cuckoo Live Life Like Cuckoo
21 Parquet Courts – Light up gold
22 Haxan Cloak – Excavation
23 Tim Hecker, Virgins
24 Machinedrum – Vapor City
25 Major Lazer – Free the Universe
26 The Ex & Brass Unbound – Enormous Door
27 Hookworms – Pearl Mystic
28 Future of the Left – How To Stop Your Brain In an Accident
29 The Asphodells – Ruled by Passion, Destroyed by Lust
30 Charles Bradley – Victim Of Love
31 Laurel Halo – Chance of Rain
32 Sleaford Mods – Austerity Dogs (2013)
33 DJ Rashad – Double Cup
34 Jon Hopkins – Immunity
35 Mazzy Star – Seasons of Our Day
36 The Knife – Shaking the Habitual –
37 Savages – Silence Yourself
38 The Marshall Mathers LP2 – Eminem
39 Laura Veirs – Warp & Weft
40 Hacker Farm – UHF
41 Edwyn Collins – Understated
42 The Rockingbirds – The Return of the Rockingbirds
43 Handsome Family – Wilderness
44 Crime & The City Solution – American Twilight
45 Wooden Shjips – Back to Land
46 Wire – Change Becomes Us
47 David Bowie – The Next Day
48 Chelsea Light Moving – Chelsea Light Moving
49 Lorde – Pure Heroine
50 Factory Floor – Factory Floor

The Spotify playlist – http://open.spotify.com/user/belboid/playlist/2eHXfVdXg7UClX5q6cufde

Big thanks are due to belboid for organising this, and to all the urban75 posters who voted.