Welcome to my Good and Great Albums of 2013 list! Please peruse the list and drop me a line on Twitter if you found anything that piqued your interest. And please share your lists as well if you've got them. I love finding and hearing new music.

Good Albums

Amber London - Tru 2 tha Phonk

Grimy, dirty, Southern phonk.

• Listen: Internet Archive
• Highlight: Texas Phonk 1998

Bonobo - The North Borders

Strange and atmospheric rhythms.

• Listen: Songlink
• Highlight: Cirrus

Ceephax Acid Crew - World Dissolver EP

Random acid. Mad acidic bro. (Also, watch the amazing music video for Probey's Poker)

• Listen: Bandcamp
• Highlight: Legend of Phaxalot

Childish Gambino - Because the Internet

Most of the songs are good, but a few of them are great. Can't wait to see what Gambino does next.

• Listen: Songlink
• Highlight: II. Worldstar

Daft Punk - Random Access Memories

You know you love it.

• Listen: Songlink
• Highlight: Give Life Back to Music

Death Grips - Government Plates

Makes Yeezus look like adult contemporary R&B. Yeezy wishes he was this good.

• Listen: Songlink
• Highlight: Two Heavens
• Free download: Death Grips

DMX Krew - Broken SD140 Part II

Melodic acid.

• Listen: Songlink
• Highlight: Dramatic Exit

DMX Krew - Cities in Flight

Computer acid.

• Listen: Songlink
• Highlight: Cities in Flight

DMX Krew - Reith Trax

Atmospheric acid (acidspheric?)

• Listen: Songlink
• Highlight: Hammock Yard

Emptyset - Recur

I think the most surprising thing about this record is that I like it. More "sound" than actual music, but still rhythmic. Pulsing. Gyrating even. The sound is alive.

• Listen: Songlink
• Highlight: Fragment

The Knife - Shaking the Habitual

Good: Completely not subtle production. Bad: Too many "noise" tracks, not enough music.

• Listen: Songlink
• Highlight: Networking

Mikal Cronin - MCII

Good, simple, pleasing, rock 'n' roll.

• Listen: Songlink
• Highlight: Shout it Out

Paul Keeley - Fragmented

The soundtrack to that deep and dark 80s science fiction crime drama that you never saw and was never made.

• Listen: Songlink
• Highlight: Nephar

Recondite - Hinterland

The frozen North in a record. Gobs of atmosphere.

• Listen: Songlink
• Highlight: Clouded

Shigeto - No Better Time than Now

Organic jazzy grooves and keys, layered over semi-post-dubstep (sort of) rhythms / electronic bleeps and bloops. The antithesis of the previously mentioned Emptyset record. Also choice for "Best Album Cover of 2013".

• Listen: Songlink
• Highlight: Miss U

True Widow - Circumambulation

Gloomy, doomy, boomy, and slow.

• Listen: Songlink
• Highlight: Creeper

Ty Segall - Sleeper

Not your average Ty Segall. Quiet, reserved. Also quite good at times. Each song sounds like the intro section to one of the more "standard" Ty Segall jams.

• Listen: Songlink
• Highlight: Sleeper (This really sets the tone for the whole album.)

Unknown Mortal Orchestra - II

Music made for AM radios. The 1970s are alive. They even artificially removed all the highs from the mix (about the only thing I don't like about the record to be honest).

• Listen: Songlink
• Highlight: Swim and Sleep (Like a Shark)

Great Albums

A$AP Ferg - Trap Lord

I can never decide while listening to this record if Ferg is an idiot backed by smart people, or a smart guy playing to a dumb crowd. Either way, this is psychedelia disguised as rap disguised as culture. And those beats tho!

• Listen: Songlink
• Highlight: Shabba

A$AP Rocky - Long.Live.A$AP

You can hate him all you want, but you can't deny Rocky's got style. His flow is unique, the beats are exceptional, and the whole record just oozes A$AP.

• Listen: Songlink
• Highlight: Long Live A$AP (too many highlights to pick just one, so I just went with the title track)

Ariel Pink feat. Jorge Elbrecht - Hang on to Life / No Real Friend

I listened to these tracks while lonely and alone in another town in another state. Exceptionally sad and beautiful. Sometimes brings tears to my eyes.

• Buy: Mexican Summer
• Highlight: Hang on to Life

Ceephax - Cro Magnox

This could be a soundtrack to a science fiction movie based off a video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System set on another planet where there is no sunlight. It could be, but it's not. What it is is otherworldly and frequently brilliant.

• Listen: Bandcamp
• Highlight: Natural Spectrum

Chelsea Light Moving - Chelsea Light Moving

Thurston Moore realizes the dream that we thought we'd lost when Sonic Youth broke up.

• Listen: Songlink
• Highlight: Alighted

Dawes - Stories Don't End

I really can't say enough about this record. Beautiful and true songwriting. Pure. Harmonic. Dawes is consistently wonderful.

• Listen: Songlink
• Highlight: Bear Witness

Frankie Teardrop - Tough Guy

Frankie Teardrop is a friend of mine. He is a friend to us all. Tough Guy is an ode to young midwestern frustration. I can't wait to see what Frankie does in 2014.

• Listen: Bandcamp
• Highlight: Lines

Fuzz - Fuzz

This is what rock means in 2013. It's as if Black Sabbath tripped into a time machine, emerged in 2013, hung out with a bunch of 20-somethings for a few months, and then made this record. (Don't believe me? Listen to Raise.)

• Listen: Songlink
• Highlight: What's In My Head?

Kurt Vile - Wakin on a Pretty Daze

Calling this country would not be fair at all. Rock doesn't work either. Indie: no. It is all of those, and yet none at the same time. I see this as a perfect counterpart to Fuzz's record actually, what 2013 sounds like with guitars. Two sides of the same coin. If I had to choose one record on this list to listen to forever, it would probably be this one. There is a remarkable amount of depth here.

• Listen: Songlink
• Highlight: Wakin on a Pretty Day