2013
Kieron Tyler
Despite his nickname and habit of doing a bunk, George “Shadow” Morton was one of America’s highest-profile and most distinctive producers and songwriters. He was responsible for shaping the sound and style of The Shangri-Las, Janis Ian, Vanilla Fudge and The New York Dolls. Until the release of Sophisticated Boom Boom!! – The Shadow Morton Story, the musical side of his story had not been told. A consummate collection, this significant release was pulled off with style. The packaging was superb, as was the annotation. Its music was amazing too.Morton’s vision brought filmic drama to pop. Read more ...
David Nice
Which musical calendar year isn’t laden down with composer commemorations, too often a pretext for lazy and unimaginative planning? The last 12 months, with Verdi, Wagner and Britten as the birthday boys (in case you failed to hear), have raised the stakes.It looked on paper as if the BBC Proms were going for the obvious: all the major Wagner operas except The Flying Dutchman and The Mastersingers in semi-staged versions.The execution exceeded everyone’s wildest hopes (there, I’ve snuck in a collective top choice already). Now, it seems, is the time when opera is becoming the designer’s Read more ...
bruce.dessau
2013 was yet another year when hip hop added a bit of punch to old rockers. Elvis Costello had a crack at his own distinctive version of rap on Wise Up Ghost, while Arctic Monkeys' fifth album successfully fused Alex Turner's recent fondness for Dr Dre with his enduring affection for homegrown turns of phrase and in particular northern words such as "shite".At its heart though, AM is still very much a rock record. Just as you think every permutation of guitar music has been done and dusted AM comes up with the molten blues of “Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High?” complete Read more ...
Adam Sweeting
No definitive answers to what was "the best" of 2013 of course, and I daresay opinions will differ wildly. For instance, despite the plaudits showered on it elsewhere, I felt that Broadchurch stretched itself too thin after showing initial promise. An increasingly acute allergy to serial killer dramas meant I couldn't get too involved with Tony Grisoni's Southcliffe, let alone The Fall, with its extended, voyeuristic murder scenes. Being Netflix-free (he confesses sheepishly), I haven't caught up with House of Cards yet, or the conclusion of Breaking Bad, but obviously a profound shift in our Read more ...
fisun.guner
Not an exhaustive list, but, in no particular order, these are the shows I'm still left thinking about as the year draws to a close. The best have opened my eyes to new ways of thinking about an artist. A few are still on. Try not to miss. And do suggest your own favourites in the comments below. As you'll see, I've also nominated one "Disappointment of the year" and one "Most ill-conceived show of the year". Don't hesitate to suggest your own in these catagories too.1. Jake and Dinos Chapman: Come and See, Serpentine Sackler GalleryBehind that mask of tom-foolery, Jake and Dinos Chapman are Read more ...
Stuart Houghton
Art? Emotion? Intelligence? If you want proof that videogames can provide all three and far more, the burgeoning "indie" scene provided plenty of evidence this year. While mainstream games-makers continue to choose to drive towards photorealistic graphics at the expense of all other elements, independent games makers built on the success and critical acclaim of titles in the last few years, such as Minecraft, Fez and Braid, to innovate in narrative form, emotional response and interactive play.If you want to experience gaming as an artform, if you want to interact in new ways with media, Read more ...
mark.kidel
Mali has been in the news this year: music was under serious threat from the fundamentalism that spread through the north of the country and ransacked parts of the ancient city of Timbuktu. The jihadists are hardly music-lovers and Mali’s creative community, one of the most productive in Africa, stood firm while feeling the cold winds of Islamist repression, and reacted with characteristic vigour. The griots or jalis of West Africa have always sung alongside the just warriors, giving them courage with their heart-warming musicBassekou Kouyate, the great ngoni player from Ségou, known for his Read more ...
Adam Sweeting
It's a happy coincidence that John Fullbright hails from Woody Guthrie's home town of Okemah, Oklahoma, but his debut album presents an artist who is far from being a mere clone of the fabled balladeer. A spin through the dozen tracks on From the Ground Up reveals traces of blues, country, gospel, folk and rock, all handled with rough-hewn earthiness. But while Fullbright has a traditionalist's respect for old-fashioned stuff that works ("old country and bluegrass is my bread and butter," as he puts it), it's his gift for imagery and storytelling that makes his songwriting special.Reared on Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
“Like the legend of the Phoenix…” So began the party song of this year, last year, next year, probably the year after.I always thought Daft Punk were overrated. The Nineties was a wondrous narco-techno rave, then along they came with their wah-wah filter disco and every trendy from Hoxton to Brooklyn started wanking on about them, the second coming, as it were, a couple of Parisian aristos in motorcycle helmets. They were alright – fun and all that – but they were hardly Orbital or The Prodigy. They also unlocked our super-duper acid house party to an endless array of vocal house-pop Read more ...
Matthew Wright
The Sons of Kemet’s peculiar forces of two drummers, tuba and reeds have been on the road for over two years now, their performances landing on an unsuspecting crowd like a petrol bomb on seasoned timber. With the tuba playing as part of both the rhythm and horn sections, the Sons can deploy both massive rhythmic firepower and potent melodic edge. It’s an intense and compelling sound, exploring the triangular musical dialogue between North and West Africa, the Caribbean, and New Orleans, in a musical language primed with exploding dance hooks and entwined with spiralling North African melody Read more ...
joe.muggs
It's an understatement to say that the massive revival of fortunes of club music in the 2010s has had its ups and downs. It's been a time of chaotic glut, of excess and spectacle – thanks particularly to the American “EDM” (electronic dance music) wave, which has seen egos, assholery and unnecessary fireworks that make the 90s UK superstar DJ era seem like a gentle Sunday afternoon stroll in the park – but also of diversification and fertility. And one particularly interesting phenomenon has been musicians who've picked up certain threads which the diminished scenes of the 1990s had left off. Read more ...
Lisa-Marie Ferla
In the right circles, Jason Isbell already has enough of a reputation as one of contemporary Americana’s finest songwriters - both solo and as part of the Drive-By Truckers - that for him to drop an album as subtly stunning as Southeastern shouldn’t really have been a surprise. But what edged this album - the songwriter’s fourth either under his own name or alongside his band the 400 Unit - above The Julie Ruin’s Run Fast in my choice of best of 2013 was its consistency. While previous Isbell albums have featured some of my go-to, favourite-ever songs, the sucker punches were usually held Read more ...