Here is a list of all my favorite projects from 2013. I tried to stay away from major CD's since we all know they were hits...except The Gifted. It should've came with a return receipt.
Overgrown - James Blake: Amazing atmospheric beats and synthetic vocals. James Blake has come into his own this year and finally got the attention of mainstream America. I had the great opportunity to see him in concert : Overgrown
Ripley Pine - Lady Lamb and the Beekeeper : Soft Rock mixed with Edgar Allen Poe lyrics. 19 years old and will revive your emo high-school feelings once you figure out her metaphors : You Are The Apple
Anything in Return - Toro Y Moi: Bombastic beach music, the leader of the "chillwave" genre. Seeing this guy in concert gave me chills then melted them away with happy songs. : Rose Quartz
Because The Internet - Childish Gambino: A dash of jazz and some techno sprinked on a bowl of personal lyrics. Gambino scooped up Jhene and even made a screenplay to this album. Seeing gambino in concert is amazing, he brings so much energy to his show : Telegraph Ave
Kiss Land - The Weeknd: Reminds you of a dystopic future with sex lyrics. The Weeknd will forever be an anomaly so who knows what he has in store next. His concert was just dope, his production team really knows how to create an atmosphere: Wanderlust
Nocturnal - Yuna Upbeat instrumentals and tear jerking vocals: Yuna brings Asia to America. Bravest Everything
Body Music - AlunaGeorge: British electronic/R&B. This is only the beginning of the British overflow that is about to happen : Your Drums
Pllaje - JMSN : If Drake could really sing, this would be him. Hazy lyrics and foggy beats keeps him in a shroud of mystery : Thing U Miss
Wolf - Tyler, The Creator : A clusterfuck of jazz, vulgar lyrics, yelling and gnarly beats. Regardless what you think you know about TC, he's an absolute genius and has life figured better than most. His concert was just akljfkdsaf wild. People were passing out, throwing water. Funny story though, he has a picture of me on his phone, he took it himself : IFHY
PartyNextDoor - PartyNextDoor OVO's newborn chopped and screwed: Wus Good/Curious
Acid Rap - Chance The Rapper : Best new artist, nerdy flow mixed with hallucongenic beats. Chance totally came left field with Acid Rap, and caught the attention of everybody in a week. Then we found 10 Day and realized he's consistently good. Chance has a great future ahead of him, he's already collabed with others on this list : Acid Rain
Music Mondays - Justin Bieber : A collection of super smooth R&B tracks. Despite his early retirement, JB killed the R&B game behind the other Justin : PYD
Any Gucci album The man who called out every hoe in the rap game and tried to fight in Lenox Mall. Tried to sell Waka Flocka off for a mil. Just trust him
Devotion - Jesse Ware : A modern day Sade with techno beats : Running
Avalanche - Quadron : A R&B album that deserves to get played at dusk every night : Avalanche
Woman - Rhye : The singer is a dude! Slightly disco fever mixed with classic R&B instrumentals : 3 Days
Watching Movies With The Sound Off/Live From Space - Mac Miller Finally a Mac we can appreciate; jazzy beats and his drug lyrics go hand in hand. We thought he was too far off the deep end but he proved that drugs and pianos can be combined : Youforia
Feel Good - The Internet : Fusion Jazz at it's finest. OFWGKTA. The Internet will forever be a great group and knows enough about past music and future instruments to make a mesh of the two : Shadow Dance
Where Does This Door Go - Mayer Hawthorne : So for this one I feel necessary to write a little more. This would probably be my most listened to album of all of 2013. Granted it came out early, but even as all the other great albums came out, i could still pick this one up and listen to each track with maybe one skip. Mayer Hawthorne is the hipster version of Justin Timberlake and he has great vocals, not only that but he also has a West Coast bump to it. Even K. Dot got on a song with him. You can't not bump your head to his songs. And the intro is downright hilarious as well as the Intro to Robot Love. A well developed album that everybody should listen to again and again.
Volume 3 - She & Him : A quirky folk duo consisting of my crush Zooey Deschanel : London
Doris - Earl Sweatshirt : The most lyrical badass of our generation, beat's just as ugly. Make you make a face like Sloth from the Goonies listening to this. Earl Sweatshirt was long awaited, and boy was it worth the wait : Chum
Indicud - Kid Cudi : The original Blipster went to psychadelic rock with rap lines. Kid Cudi is so versatile, between making short films, creating the WZRD, being a father and now being in a major motion picture (Need For Speed), Mr. Mescudi still has it all together : Red Eye
Pure Heroine - Lorde : The highschool Lana Del Rey, her instrumentals make you think of foggy hillsides in London : Ribs
Duel - Sampha : A real tear jerker, and his voice is so unmatched by anybody : Can't Get Close
Sail Out - Jhene Aiko : A female artist with some real lyrics, music you listen to while high or late late at night (Except for Bed Peace) Her music reminds me of if the girl The Weeknd is singing to decided to sing back to him. Shouts to Gambino though : WTH
There you have it. These are the tunes that got the most play time on my spotify account. There are plenty of other underground artists that didn't get mentioned however I was looking for those with full projects released this year. I'll be creating another one with underground artists to be on the lookout for. Remember this list did not contain MCHG, Yeezus, NWTS, Born Sinner, 20/20, MNIMN and all the big hitters.
