I’m sure I missed a bunch of gems this year but these are some of my personal favorites. I haven’t payed attention to music as much as I would have liked to this year but I’ll try to be more on top of it in the coming year. Have a happy New Years!

Hi, I’m Josh and I worked at Pure Pop long, long ago. This has been an exceptionally great year for electronic music, which made it darn near impossible for me to choose only five albums. So, with Tanner’s kind permission, I’ve chosen to be completely gratuitous and submit two lists to account for my 10 favorite releases of 2013. This first list serves as my 10-6 picks, and the second list will have my top five. I should note that I decided to not include label compilations, but if I had, Samurai/Horo’s “Scope,” Token’s “Introspective,” and Livity Sound’s “Livity Sound” would’ve definitely been in there, as they gather the most cutting edge, forward-thinking sounds going on in drum ‘n bass, techno, and UK dubstep respectively.

hey, i’m eli, i go to uvm and i work at pure pop.

fav older records this year:
– moodymann – black mahogani
– can – ege bamyasi
– fennesz & ryuichi sakamoto – cendre
– kurt rosenwinkel – the next step

thanks for reading!

I worked at the Pop back in like 2006-7 and I’ve been addicted to making these lists ever since. I really liked a ton of music this year, but I tried to feature records I hadn’t seen on here yet. Also worth a mention:

Bardo Pond – Peace on Venus (Doomy psych rock flute jam of the year IMO)
Oneohtrix Point Never – R plus 7
BEYONCE – duh.
Burial – Rival Dealer (finally!)
The Haxan Cloak – Excavation (the most terrifying drone music I’ve ever heard)
Chelsea Wolfe – Pain is Beauty (the best live show I saw this year)
King Krule – 6 feet beneath the moon (oh but maybe this was the best live show I saw this year, at least tied for first)
Savages – Silence yourself (Siouxsie should be proud that her vocal stylings are being carried on so awesomely!)
Deaf Heaven – Sunbather (Metal for people who don’t like metal but really want to like metal because all of their coolest friends do. No, but this record is really good, everybody likes it.)
Waxahatchee – Cerulean
Tim Hecker – Virgins
Le1f – Fly Zone mixtape
oOoOO – Without Your Love (I really wish they had a better name, is all)
Wavves – Afraid of Heights
Mount Eerie – Prehuman Ideas

I host the show Flight of the Squawkatiel on WRUV, which is on every Wednesday night from 8-10 pm. You can find my list of my Top 20 songs of 2013 and listen to a Soundcloud playlist of my favorite music of the year

There were a bunch of fantastic albums that came out this year. Here are a few that didn’t quite make it to this list, but are worth a mention:

Savages – Silence Yourself
Julia Holter – Loud City Song
Fuck Buttons – Slow Focus
Wolf Eyes – No Answer: Lower Floors
Darkside – Psychic
Forest Swords – Engravings
The Flaming Lips – The Terror
Deerhunter – Monomania

Besides working at Pure Pop, I also study music and journalism at St. Michael’s (one semester to go). Besides music, I also enjoy books. Movies too. I guess that’s about all I have to say right now.

Oh, this was my favorite song find from this year (even though it comes from 1966): The Black Diamonds “I Want, Need, Love You” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHF-MskhMFM

My name is Cayla, I’m part of a collective here in Burlington called Friends + Family booking bands including these and many more like these at various locales around our itty bitty city. I have always been a fangrrl and never a musician myself so making this list brings me great joy. I have a few other honorable mentions that for various reasons could not list in my top 5:

Krill – Lucky Leaves: Jenny already listed this, and they are also my extreme homies and therefore I am too biased to rank them but I totes would, at or around #1, since it’s so full of hits that I can’t handle it most of the time and instead just weave the lyrics on a semi-regular basis into my everyday conversations.

Fatty Acids – Bolero: They are like the best buddies of Sat. Nite duets and I would probably rank them if I happen to catch them live (hint hint Fatty Acids… Call me…)

Various Artists – First Gear: Feminism in the Northeast (A Compilation) by Stick Shift Records
Stick Shift Records is out of Burlington helmed by former members of Doll Fight! and includes too many kick-ass songs to list. It’s incredibly and should be listened to at full volume every day for your health.

Great Valley – Lizards of Camelot: I haven’t actually heard the whole thing yet because it came out like yesterday but I can’t wait and I know I’m gonna love it.

others:
Grouper/The Man Who Died In His Boat
Locrian/Return to Annihilation
Deafheaven/Sunbather

Favorite thing I got from Pure Pop this year- Emperor/In The Nightside Eclipse vinyl reissue

I make music under the name Drawing and in some other bands too. 2013 was the year I completely stopped caring about indie-rock. I mostly listen to top 40 country.

George W. Bush, the painter.