A List for 2013

As family tradition would have it, once again we compile our own list of favorite artists/albums from 2013.  Just for fun; for whatever it is worth.  Here goes:

My clear favorite this year, interestingly, comes from an artist featured on last year's top pick.  That would be Valerie June and her "Pushin' Against a Stone"; she made an appearance on a track ("Be My Husband") on the 2012 Me'Shell N'Degeocello album, "Pour Une Ame Souveraine - A Dedication to Nina Simone."

The remaining favorites, in no particular order, are:

Sarah Neufeld: Hero Brother
Atoms for Peace: Amok
Lucrecia Dalt: Syzygy
The Necks: Open
Agnes Obel: Avertine
The Bryan Ferry Orchestra: The Jazz Age
Olafur Arnalds: For Now I Am Winter
Latvian Radio Choir: On Photography
The National: Trouble Will Find Me

Others were considered, and gave some good listens, including:

James Blake: Overgrown
Bombino: Nomad
Emika: Dva
Ludovico Einaudo: In A Time Lapse
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds: Push The Sky Away
Tim Hecker: Virgins
Arcade Fire: Reflektor
Neko Case: The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight
Laura Mvula: Sing to the Moon
Courtney Barnett: A Sea of Split Peas

A special mention is deserved of Caroline Shaw.  I haven't heard a full album from her, but the Pultizer-award-winning composer's "Partita for 8 Voices", performed by the vocal ensemble, Roomful of Teeth, made me eager to hear more of her work.  You can do that, too, on her site, on YouTube, on Vimeo, etc.

I probably forgot some other respectable contenders, but that it as good as memory serves at the moment