#1 Album of the Year: Arcade Fire - "Reflektor"

Rating: 9.8/10

My album of the year is Reflektor by Arcade Fire, a band I dedicated an entire week to in anticipation of this album's release. Big surprise that it got #1 on this year's countdown, right? Seriously though, if you read my first review of the album (which you can do by clicking through that hyper-linked text), you'll know I adored the thing. When you got past all of the empty criticisms and the puzzling anger towards the allegedly over-the-top promotion of the record, what you had was a near-perfect group of songs from a band that have mastered their craft. Reflektor is an Arcade Fire album like no other; drenched in synthesizers, lacking much guitar, and driven by Caribbean-flavored beats, this sounds distinctly removed from the days of Funeral, Neon Bible, or The Suburbs. But then again, the band's identity remains intact. Win Butler's gusty voice and his wife Regine Chassagne's perky vocals are ever-present. The ambition, grandeur, and emotion are all stronger than ever. Most importantly, the pure skill of making great music stays.

Butler & co. are undoubtedly fantastic songwriters and performers, as the songs on Reflektor prove. The title track is one of the year's most universally beloved singles, thanks to an incredibly danceable groove, fluttering pianos, deep-rooted synths, and Butler and Chassagne's vocal trade-offs. The conga beat gives the song a foreign feel as Butler's mysterious lyrics leave the song open to interpretation. The other single off the record (so far) is the absolutely gorgeous "Afterlife," guaranteed to send shivers down your spine. Chassagne's "oh-oh's," the chiming keyboards, and jumpy beat all set the stage for Butler's haunted vocal. "Afterlife/Oh my God/What an awful word," he sings right out of the gate. The accompanying music video is just as wonderful as the song, and drives home the meaning of the song even more, as a father and two sons struggle to cope with the loss of the mother of the family.

As always, Arcade Fire tackle some huge themes with their lyrics. The aforementioned "Afterlife" deals with life after death (hence the title). "We Exist" tells the tale, according to Butler himself, of what it is like growing up gay in a particularly homophobic region. This is not from Win's personal experience, as he currently has a wife (fellow vocalist Regine Chassagne, as stated above), but that makes the song no less sincere. Early on, a son asks his father for his help, as Butler cries, "Daddy it's true/I'm different from you/But tell my why they treat me like this?" Later, the speaker becomes more defiant, exclaiming, "Let 'em stare!/If that's all they can do!/But I'd lose my heart/If I turned away from you." It's a pretty riveting track, and one that probably stems from the band's experience while in Haiti. The sounds behind the story are great as well, as the keys and drums swell up, bursting at the song's pivotal moments.

While the story behind "We Exist" likely came from Haiti, so too did much of the album's music. "Flashbulb Eyes" and "Here Comes the Night Time" play out back-to-back as a sonic representation of Haitian Carnival, with wildly fun conga beats and blaring horns. The latter is particularly superb, a song I found so enjoyable that I named it my favorite song of 2013. A rowdy guitar part kicks off the song as drummer Jeremy Gara plays with flair. The dancefloor-rush soon fades to a slow groove the bubbles up before the adrenaline-pumping "fast part" makes a spectacular return.

I can go on and on about each individual track, but I already did that in my last review. Instead, I'll wrap up the year with a more big-picture look at Reflektor for the rest of this post. This album has indicated a new direction for Arcade Fire, one that's much more LCD Soundsystem (whose main man, James Murphy, produced this LP) and Talking Heads than previous albums. Of course, they could take another sharp turn on their fifth release, whenever that may be.

Much spite was directed towards the band for how the promoted the album, while artists like Daft Punk and Justin Timberlake received no hate, and in some cases praise, despite having exponentially larger campaigns pre-release. They played SNL, including a post-show special in which they debuted several new songs, which I found pretty cool. The group performed other late-night shows, a pretty conventional way to generate buzz. The only really out-there method Arcade Fire used to hype Reflektor was that logo they had drawn everywhere. But in a year when Kanye West quite literally projected his face on buildings across the world, it seems hypocritical to call out Arcade Fire for what was possibly somewhat self-indulgent but nowhere near egregious. Some view the band as very pretentious, another unfounded claim in my eyes. I enjoy getting excited about a release, especially one as big as Reflektor.

Personally, Reflektor is the first Arcade Fire album where the band don't sound young anymore. Funeral was a youthful burst of energy, Neon Bible was a sort of coming-of-age, and The Suburbs felt like saying goodbye to childhood. Reflektor, however, is forwards-looking, dealing with uncertainties about life (and death) in the upcoming future. Nostalgia is swapped for anticipation, love lost exchanged for love to come. It's a logical step, considering that Butler and Chassagne recently became parents, and the band's only gotten bigger in cultural footprint since their last record and subsequent Grammy Album of the Year victory. The musical ideas are more thoroughly developed, too, as every detail was worked on meticulously, a clear sign of maturation of sound.

Reflektor is everything great about music packed into one, albeit lengthy, album. Deep lyrical themes, musical talent, catchy hooks, hypnotizing grooves, and songs that make you want to dance, sing, laugh, cry, and everything in between, sometimes all at the same time. Few bands can pull off having songs which contain the literal sounds of a party on the same record as songs dealing with love, death, and fitting in, but Arcade Fire is one of those bands. 2013 truly was an amazing year for alternative music, and music in general, in my opinion the best since the days of the early 1990's, and certainly the best in almost a decade. Even the mainstream finally started to shift towards higher quality music, as respectable artists like Macklemore and Lorde had smash hits with something to say. Valuable messages of restraint, tolerance, cooperation, and thriftiness left previous pop music ideals like over-indulgence, recklessness, and selfishness behind. People like to say every year that it was a bad year for music, but invariably look back years later and go back on their early words. 2013 is sure to be a year the world remembers as a strong one for music. Don't believe me? Reflektor is all the proof you need.

Key Tracks: "Reflektor," "Here Comes the Night Time," "Normal Person," "Afterlife"

December's been quite the month here on Facts for Whatever, as I published fifteen (!) album reviews in one month. That's almost one every other day! Thanks to everyone who followed along throughout. So, now, I present this month's work in list form. Here are, after long last, my top fifteen albums of 2013, summarized in list form. If you missed any of the full-length reviews, you can click on the album title in the list to jump to the page. Spotify links to the albums & songs of the years playlists will be embedded at the bottom of the post, and the AotY list will include Reflektor (though sadly not MBV - you can listen to that here), so you can hear it there rather than a separate embedment. Here's hoping 2014 gives us as much great music as 2013 has! (And fingers crossed Radiohead put something out!)

Top Fifteen Albums of the Year
1. Arcade Fire - Reflektor
2. Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City
3. Wavves - Afraid of Heights
4. Queens of the Stone Age - ...Like Clockwork
5. Washed Out - Paracosm
6. The Joy Formidable - Wolf's Law
7. Deafheaven - Sunbather
8. Nine Inch Nails - Hesitation Marks
9. The National - Trouble Will Find Me
10. My Bloody Valentine - MBV
11. HAIM - Days Are Gone
12. Lorde - Pure Heroine
13. Local Natives - Hummingbird
14. Mikal Cronin - MCII
15. Daft Punk - Random Access Memories

Thanks for reading!

Albums of the Year - #3: Wavves - "Afraid of Heights"

Rating: 9.5/10

"We'll all die alone/just the way we live." So sings Wavves frontman Nathan Williams, the millenials'  new poster child for snot-nosed garage punk, on Afraid of Heights opener "Sail to the Sun." On their latest record, Wavves veered off slightly from their lo-fi surf-rock path, adopting a more grunge-influenced sound and putting more effort into production. The result is the group's most polished, most mature, and in truth most enjoyable album to date. Though 2010's King of the Beach had a carefree, adolescent feel, it was somewhat one-dimensional. Afraid of Heights maintains that energy and youthfulness while also at times venturing off and exploring deeper, more complex psychological themes. Sure, there are still fast-paced, quick punk ditties like "Cop" and "Paranoid." But self-loathing tracks like "Beat Me Up" ("That's the reason why/I love the pain/It makes me wanna die") and "Everything Is My Fault" (see title) add a more profound layer to the music of what was once a decidedly straightforward band. 

Of course, Williams sings some if not most of these lyrics with a wry smile. This tongue-in-cheek delivery is to be expected of the singer, and represents the spontaneous, live-in-the-moment attitudes of the band members. This kind of lifestyle can at times be reckless and self-destructive, which is what some of the songs on Afraid of Heights showcase.

Albums of the Year - #6: The Joy Formidable - "Wolf's Law"

Rating: 9.0/10

The Joy Formidable are a wonderful little trio from Wales who continuously put out magnificient rock-revivalist albums filled with ambitious sonic landscapes and mammoth drums. Their music is a refreshing take on the modern alternative rock sound: each song radiates positivity as the band aren't afraid to show off their skills with complicated, arena-shaking instrumentals. Singer Ritzy Bryan's bubbly persona and perky vocals only add to the sense of joy in the group's music, as the name suggests. Their style of music lends itself well to a live show, as their songs commonly break off to high-flying instrumental jam sessions of epic proportions. When I saw them back in June, they rocked the Boston House of Blues into oblivion, cranking everything up to eleven in their unapologetically enthusastic way. The show, which had been postponed from April due to the city-wide shutdown during the manhunt of the Tsarnaev brothers who bombed the Boston Marathon, was probably the best of all the concerts I saw all year. This includes the whole of Boston Calling fall's Saturday lineup, which featured Vampire Weekend, Airborne Toxic Event, Gaslight Anthem, and Local Natives.

On Wolf's Law, they continue down the path that their full-length debut The Big Roar forged for them, adding a bit more polish at the expense of some spontaneity. There's no "Whirring" on Wolf's Law, as fewer tracks extend past the five-minute mark, but this makes room for dream-pop pieces and catchy hooks. "Forest Serenade," for example, contains a driven guitar riff and soaring vocals, and follows a more typical verse-chorus format. "Little Blimp" is one of the most forceful tracks on the record, despite taking up under three minutes' worth of disc space. An energetic bass riff and wailing guitars sit under Bryan's encouragement of "paddle me closer, I promise you'll never look back down."

Albums of the Year - #7: Deafheaven - "Sunbather"

Rating: 9.0/10

A black metal album that isn't really a black metal album, San Francisco group Deafheaven's sophomore effort Sunbather ended up being one of the most polarizing and unique releases of 2013. Many people are immediately turned off by the label 'black metal,' not subsribing to the screamed vocals or lengthy track times you'll find throughout the genre. At first, I was one of those people. My knowledge of metal in general is minimal, as I have no clue as to the nuances that separate subgenres and for a long time didn't understand the appeal. Then, I decided to go in with an open mind based on all of the positive reviews from critics and fans alike. Clearly, something was remarkable about this record, whose soft pink cover and stylish lettering didn't exactly scream "metal." It actually ended up the highest-rated original release of 2013 on Metacritic, excluding reissues, box sets, and a Wonder Years album whose score was skewed as it only had four critic reviews total. It also landed in the top ten of year-end lists at Pitchfork, Stereogum, and SPIN, among others. Clearly, there was something presumably excellent that I was missing out on, so I tried something I'd never seriously done before; listening to a black-metal album.

From the moment "Dream House" started, I knew something was special about Sunbather. Yes, the screams are there, but they are pretty much buried in the mix, and actually add to the music (but more on that later). What is so different about this so-called black metal album is that it's just as much post-rock and shoegaze as it is metal. On the surface, Sunbather presents a wall of furious guitars, thundering and lightning-quick drums, and snarled vocals. However, as each song progresses you are greeted with a wave of emotions, including one not typical of a black metal record; happiness. While whether the album is truly metal has been debated by self-nominated "true metalheads," there's no denying that Sunbather is one of the year's most cathartic pieces of music. Fury, grief, melancholy, loss, happiness, tranquility, anxiety, and everythhing in between are represented here. This is because so much emphasis is put on the instrumentals, particularly on the chord progressions of the guitars, which climb summits and sink into valleys time and time again throughout the blissful journey that is Sunbather.

Albums of the Year - #13: Local Natives - "Hummingbird"

Rating: 7.6/10

The second album from L.A.-based indie rockers Local Natives, the airy, lighthearted Hummingbird suffers from a classic case of having excellent singles but also possessing way too much filler. The record is strongest when the band are at their most ambitious, and is weakest when the songs become simpler and less involved. Still, there aren't really any bad songs on Hummingbird; only boring ones. The album at times is dark, something the group's 2009 debut Gorilla Manor did not forge towards, or at least not as successfully. The lyrics were apparently influenced by the death of singer/multi-instrumentalist Kelcey Ayer's mother and the departure of original bassist Andy Hamm.

The more morose tunes are some of the album's best moments, as it doesn't get much better than the opening one-two punch of "You & I" and "Heavy Feet." The former utilizes an edgy drum beat and mysterious guitar twists that sit under a confused, wandering vocal. "When did your love go cold? The closer I get, the farther I have to go" cries Ayer. The song reaches a climax during the bridge, as an early break of "oh"'s, horns, and tribal drums gives way to one of the best-sung notes of the year. Accompanied by an even sadder video, "You & I" nabbed the #27 spot on my countdown of the year's best individual songs. When I had the pleasure of seeing these guys live at this past September's Boston Calling, this song was the definite show-stopper during their set. It's one of this young band's best songs to date, and definitely their most mature one.

"You & I"'s partner-in-crime in starting off Hummingbird is even more impressive. "Heavy Feet" focuses in on a complex drum beat, complimented with handclaps and stellar bass play, and features excellent overall sound thanks to album producer and The National member Aaron Dessner. The change in intensity between the verse and chorus is more than noticable, as the guitar tones make the song bigger than expected.

The group clearly draws influence from fellow up-and-comers Grizzly Bear, most evident on songs like "Bowery" and "Black Balloons." Each feature vocal harmonies and dreamy guitar work. Other notable songs include "Wooly Mammoth," a relentless and frantic track, and "Ceilings," a more relaxing but still enjoyable song.

Still, there are some duds that you wish had been modified or scrapped altogether, and this really holds the album as a whole back. "Three Months" feels like it lasts for three months, though the official track length reads about four and a half minutes. "Columbia" is a piano ballad that never quite seems to come together. The record is also top-heavy, which disrupts the flow greatly; arguably the two best tracks are the first two, and the only other truly stellar song comes fifth on the setlist.

That fifth song is "Breakers," another drum-heavy song with jangly guitars, though this time the chorus soars above the clouds and seems to be enjoying itself. In the chorus, the band's other vocalist, Taylor Rice, sings, "breathing out only to breathe in, I know nothing's wrong but I'm not convinced." A wave of hi-hats and "ooh"'s overtake the breathtaking chorus.

Hummingbird is a strong effort that arguably produced Local Natives' two best songs to date. However, it is less consistent throughout than Gorilla Manor, and has its dull moments. Nevertheless, some tracks are so superb and others are still far enough above average that Hummingbird certainly warranted a place on my top 15.

Key Tracks: "You & I," "Heavy Feet," "Breakers"

Albums of the Year - #15: Daft Punk - "Random Access Memories"

Rating: 7.4/10

Today, I'm beginning the countdown of my top albums of 2013, starting at number fifteen and working all the way up to my favorite record of the year. The first entry on the list is Daft Punk's highly successful dance-pop monster Random Access Memories. The album had plenty of hype surrounding it pre-release, with the group hinting at the upcoming CD in a commercial during SNL before officially announcing the album to much fanfare.

The most instantly recognizable track off Random Access Memories is lead single "Get Lucky," a summertime smash hit which featured Pharrell Williams on vocals. Built around a funky guitar riff and Pharell's falsetto, the single went triple platinum in the United States and sold over seven million copies worldwide. However, unlike other recent chart-toppers, "Get Lucky" had critics raving, and the so-called "return of disco" was declared perhaps over-optimistically.