2013 Mid-Year Report: Music

2013 has been a pretty impressive albeit slightly disappointing year for music on the whole thus far. A lot of bands (Killswitch Engage, Dillinger Escape Plan, Black Dahlia Murder, August Burns Red) delivered the goods as expected and there have a fair number of artists that came out of nowhere and surprised me mightily with their new records (Hope for the Dying, The Wonder Years and easily the biggest surprise of the year for me, Kanye West.) However, there have also been plenty of artists that I regard highly that have disappointed me greatly with their new records (The Story So Far, Dropkick Murphys, Vampire Weekend, TesseracT and to a far greater extent, Alice in Chains, Daft Punk and Queens of the Stone Age, all of whom released their first album in at least 4 years.) The second half has just many intriguing releases lined up as the first half  including Mastodon, Unearth, Revocation, Protest the Hero, Skeletonwitch, Behemoth, After the Burial, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Animals as Leaders, Last Chance to Reason, Chimaira, Battlecross, Born of Osiris, Danny Brown, potentially two albums from Earl Sweatshirt and many others. I'm really intrigued to see how the rest of the year shakes out and what new music I can discover along the way, but for now here are the full rankings from worst to best (with star ratings) of all the full-lengths and EP's I've listened to so far this year.


Note: There are 30+ releases from the first half of the year that I haven't gotten around to checking out yet so this list is a bit incomplete at the moment.

EP's
3.Kitty-D.A.I.S.Y. Rage (3/5)
2.Action Bronson-Saaab Stories (3.5/5)
1.Fallujah-Nomadic (4.5/5)

LP's

41.Daft Punk-Random Access Memories (1.5/5)

40.Kid Cudi-Indicud (2.5/5)

39.Dropkick Murphys-Signed and Sealed in Blood (2.5/5)

38.Bring Me the Horizon-Sempiternal (2.5/5)

37.TesseracT-Altered State(2.5/5)

36.Kvelertak-Meir (2.5/5)

35.Vampire Weekend-Modern Vampires of the City (3/5)

34.Clipping-Midcity (3/5)

33.A$AP Rocky-Long. Live. A$AP (3/5)

32.Bad Religion-True North (3/5)

31.Alice in Chains-The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here (3/5)

30.Queens of the Stone Age-Like Clockwork... (3/5)

29.Dark Tranquility-Construct (3/5)

28.J.Cole-Born Sinner (3.5/5)

27.Northlane-Singularity (3.5/5)

26.Terror-Live By the Code (3.5/5)

25.The Story So Far-What You Don't See (3.5/5)

24.Kylesa-Ultraviolet (3.5/5)

23.Amon Amarth-Deciever of the Gods (3.5/5)

22.Big K.R.I.T.-King Remembered in Time (3.5/5)
21.Within the Ruins-Elite (3.5/5)

20.Tyler, The Creator-Wolf (3.5/5)

19.Children of Bodom-Halo of Blood (3.5/5)

18.Coheed and Cambria-The Afterman: Descension (3.5/5)

17.letlive.-The Blackest Beautiful(3.5/5)

16.Czarface-Czarface (4/5)

15.Finntroll-Bloodsvept (4/5)

14.Rob Zombie-Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor (4/5)

13.Intronaut-Habitual Leviations (Instilling Words With Tones) (4/5)

12.Kanye West-Yeezus (4/5)

11.Suffocation-Pinnacle of Bedlam(4/5)

10.The Wonder Years-The Greatest Generation (4/5)

9.Run the Jewels-Run the Jewels (4/5)

8.Clutch-Earth Rocker (4/5)

7.Hatebreed-The Divinity of Purpose (4/5)

6.August Burns Red-Rescue & Restore (4/5)

5.The Ocean-Pelagial (4.5/5)

4.The Black Dahlia Murder-Everblack (4.5/5)

3.Hope for the Dying-Aletheia(4.5/5)

2.The Dillinger Escape Plan-One of Us is the Killer (4.5/5)

1.Killswitch Engage-Disarm the Descent (4.5/5)