The 2013 Year End Review

Here are Bloggerhythms' Top 5 album releases of the year with links to their original reviews.

5. Boz Scaggs - Memphis
Scaggs is still one of the best blue-eyed soul men in music. That hasn't changed in decades.

4. California Transit Authority - Sacred Ground
The sophomore release from Danny Seraphine and his current band makes full use of a horn section and blows the socks off of anything his old band, Chicago, has done in thirty years.

3. Michael Bublé - To Be Loved
This album is very Bublé. His excellent big band style vocals and his bright personality always shine through.

2. The Boston Boys - Keep You Satisfied
The second EP from a young, folk-rock quartet. They are already as good as anyone in the business and we await their first full length album.

1. The Lone Bellow - The Lone Bellow
This is the album of the year. This trio's debut leaves a similar outfit, The Lumineers, choking on their fumes.

Some of the best new finds of the year do not qualify for the top five because they were released before 2013. Matt Stansberry & The Romance's seven song EP, Let's Brighten It Up, from 2012, is inspired, old school R&B. Power pop still rules with Nine Times Blue's Falling Slowly (2012) and Hacienda Brothers, a short-lived roots band, gave us some impressive, soul-tinged, country music. Their 2006 CD, What's Wrong With Right, is as earthy as it is sublime.

This year's most visited post was Forgotten Music Thursday's entry on Thanksgiving Day that discussed New York Magazine's 60 Albums You Probably Haven't Heard. The article generated so many visitors in its first month that it is already among the top 10 most popular posts ever published here. Go figure.

Finally, the most negative comments Bloggerhythms has ever received in its history were in response to my review of Wise Up Ghost and Other Songs, the recent album by Elvis Costello and The Roots. The readers have spoken but I stand by my words.

Comments

  1. Nine Times Blue11:42 AM, January 07, 2014

    Thanks for the kind words about Nine Times Blue's album Falling Slowly, Charlie!

    New EP coming on 2/18/14. We'll definitely send you one as soon as we have 'em!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Charlie Ricci3:47 PM, January 07, 2014

      You're welcome and you truly deserve the kudos. Looking forward to the EP.

      Delete

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