Best Albums of 2013
This year I have the fortunate of listening to many great albums. While vacationing in Dominican Republic, I had a chance to revisit those records and pick out my top 10.
- Wynton Marsalis – The Spiritual Side of Wynton Marsalis: This is one of the religious albums I have listened to the most beside John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme and it shows the spiritual side of the well-known trumpeter.
- Dave Holland – Prism: This is a breathtaking journey of fusion from an all-star quartet led by Dave Holland.
- Lorde – Pure Heroine: A young pop star who beats the pop game with its own whip.
- Cécile McLorin Salvant – WomanChild: Salvant has all the chops to be a jazz singer at such a young age.
- Youn Sun Nah – Lento: I was hypnotized by Nah’s style: expressive, eclectic and quite eccentric.
- Jay Z – Magna Carta Holy Grail: This album creeps on me the more I listened to it. Jay is still one of the best lyricists in the game. I was torn between this and Kanye’s album. Yeezus is on every music critic’s list, so I rooted for Jay.
- Bun B – Trill OG: The Epilogue: This album offers 12 concise tracks filled with a handful of compelling productions, some excellent guest spots and a whole lot of aggressiveness from the king of the trill himself.
- M.I.A. – Matangi: This album a hot mess. It’s incoherent, contradicting and frustrating, and yet it is also so compelling, fascinating and engaging at the same time. And that’s what make M.I.A. unique.
- Madeleine Peyroux – The Blue Room: Peyroux gave Ray Charles’ songs new soul.
- Carla Bruni – Little French Songs: It’s simply a beautiful French album.