Albums to watch

Deafheaven: Eclipsing Daft Punk, Bowie, Sabbath, QOTSA and the rest of the comeback brigade

ADM 2013: The half-year report

We're six months into 2013: It's time for our regular look back at the most critically-acclaimed music so far this year

So 2013 is the year of the comeback album? Not in the eyes of music critics it isn't.

The hype has all been about David Bowie, My Bloody Valentine, Boards of Canada, Black Sabbath, Daft Punk, Justin Timberlake, Depeche Mode, QOTSA and Tricky - to name but a few.

But with the exception of MBV, and to a lesser extent Bowie and Boards of Canada, the hype has not been matched by critical acclaim.

This could all change in the latter half of the year when we get to hear the output of yet more comeback artists such as Beck, Avalanches, Missy Elliot and Outkast.

But at the six-month stage, if anything 2013 is shaping up to be a year of extremities. In the view of music critics, it's got to be either extremely loud or extremely gentle - and preferably gentle with an extremely introspective subject matter.

Of our top 10 highest-rated albums only one, from Vampire Weekend, could be comfortably placed within the aural middleground. Everything else sits at the further points of the musical spectrum: Deafheaven (screaming black metal), MBV (skull-crushing shoegaze) and Kanye West (industrial electro hip hop) at one end, Griffin, Marling, Grant, White, Isbell and Hiss Golden Messenger at the other.

And things don't even out too much further down the rankings. In the next 10, aside from to-be-expected appreciation for The National, Nick Cave and Bowie, we have eccentric rap, garage punk, experimental electronica, Norwegian metal and ferocious jazz, funk and tribal pop fusion.

Of course, the biggest eye-opener of all is right up at the top, where San Francisco black-metal / post-metal specialists Deafheaven have, quite remarkably, also climbed to the top of our all-time chart.

It can be argued that their album hasn't been nearly as widely reviewed as high-profile releases by the likes by Daft Punk or Queens Of The Stone Age. However it should be borne in mind that the ADM rating is based on a formula that is weighted heavily in favour of releases with the most reviews.

So the fact that Deafheaven's Sunbather has achieved such a high score is quite an achievement: it has attracted an impressive array of 10s and 9s while the lowest mark of 8/10 came from Spin, who have rated only a dozen or so albums higher than that in the past 12 months and have never given a 10/10 rating in the four and a half years we've been around (of albums included in ADM).

Nobody is going to call 2013 the year of black metal on the strength of Sunbather. But maybe Beck should consider upping the guitar volume and screaming quota if he wants his comeback album to win over the critics.

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8.9

Deafheaven

Sunbather

Sunbather is a future classic, no matter where you pigeonhole it, and that's the mark of a true sonic masterpiece. (Beats Per Minute)

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8.7

My Bloody Valentine

mbv

mbv leaves all other post-rock experimentalists looking like trivial dilettantes. If jet engines could sing, these would be their hymns. (Independent on Sunday)

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8.5

Patty Griffin

American Kid

Seals Griffin's reputation as a remarkable artist in the roots tradition. (The Irish Times)

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8.3

Laura Marling

Once I Was An Eagle

A singular achievement: a haunting record, peopled with aural ghosts that come gradually crawling from out of the grooves. (Pretty Much Amazing)

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8.3

John Grant

Pale Green Ghosts

This is undoubtedly one of the best albums of the year and after so many thwarted attempts, the world is finally Grant's for the taking. (music OMH)

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8.3

Jason Isbell

Southeastern

Listening to this stunning album will provide you with your own moment of clarity. Don't let it slip away. (Blurt Magazine)

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8.3

Matthew E. White

Big Inner

A genuinely great artist might have arrived almost out of the blue. (The Guardian)

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8.2

Kanye West

Yeezus

Cohesion and bold intent are at a premium on Yeezus, perhaps more than any other Kanye album. (Pitchfork)

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8.2

Vampire Weekend

Modern Vampires Of The City

This is a fully realized Vampire Weekend, one that has transcended their Graceland/Afro-Pop influences and criticisms into something entirely their own. (No Ripcord)

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8.2

Hiss Golden Messenger

Haw

Haw marks the point where singer/guitarist M.C. Taylor has well and truly arrived. (The Line Of Best Fit)

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And the next 40

11. The National Trouble Will Find Me
12. Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds Push The Sky Away
13. Chance The Rapper Acid Rap
14. William Tyler Impossible Truth
15. David Bowie The Next Day
16. Mikal Cronin MCII
17. Boards Of Canada Tomorrow's Harvest
18. Jon Hopkins Immunity
19. Melt Yourself Down Melt Yourself Down
20. Kvelertak Meir
21. John Murry The Graceless Age
22. The Knife Shaking The Habitual
23. Parquet Courts Light Up Gold
24. Jenny Hval Innocence Is Kinky
25. California X California X
26. Savages Silence Yourself
27. Kurt Vile Wakin On A Pretty Daze
28. The Haxan Cloak Excavation
29. Queens Of The Stone Age Like Clockwork
30. James Blake Overgrown
31. Daft Punk Random Access Memories
32. Villagers {Awayland}
33. Grouper The Man Who Died In His Boat
34. Suuns Images Du Futur
35. Hookworms Pearl Mystic
36. Autechre Exai
37. Maxmillion Dunbar House Of Woo
38. Dawn Richard Goldenheart
39. Yo La Tengo Fade
40. The Flaming Lips The Terror
41. Phosphorescent Muchacho
42. These New Puritans Field Of Reeds
43. Oblivians Desperation
44. Torres Torres
45. Hey Colossus Cuckoo Live Life Like Cuckoo
46. Mountains Centralia
47. Jagwar Ma Howlin
48. Thundercat Apocalypse
49. Lapalux Nostalchic
50. Pissed Jeans Honeys

 

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