7. Queens Of The Stone Age - ..Like Clockwork
QOTSA's darkest thematic venture is consequently their purest release and the smooth but tough grooves of '...Like Clockwork' still feel as musically coke-fuelled and ragged as their past work, but the sounds are more layered, the lyrics more introspective, the concept more solid. Though their 2002 landmark 'Songs for the Deaf' was strung together by the fuzzy transitions of an artificial in-car radio, it's actually this year's comeback that has a real theme, a direction. Accounting for it's origins in frontman Josh Homme's life-affirming dance with death last year after a knee operation gone wrong, it's hardly a surprise that this record's existential angst is so colourful and dense. A terrific journey from start to finish that reaches apocalyptic heights of hard-rock vigour before dropping it completely and going onto something else. If one were to listen to the first track and the last back-to-back, it would be difficult to believe they were on the same album, because it's the delights which are sandwiched between that create a musical junction between the brutish hard-rock and fragile melancholy of this bipolar masterpiece. "Silly, superfluous madness" it may be, but '...Like Clockwork' is a vivid and thorough piece of work, simultaneously sweet and vicious, like all good rock music should be.
Words by Jack Haworth
6. London Grammar - If You Wait
London Grammar are the find of the year. Forget comparisons with the XX or Florence, think about this instead - when did you last hear such a confident debut album? They may split opinion on whether they are the coolest new kids on the block, but one of their charms is that they don't seem to care what people think and after all, why should they? Everything's in place - beautiful tunes, wonderful lyrics and their strongest weapon of all, Hannah Reid's amazing voice. 'While you wait' is a tremendous heartbreak album that talks about the ups and downs of love in such a touching way. It's a modern blues record, but they're realists, not miserabilists. The album is like a youthful take on 'Rumours' by Fleetwood Mac, but without the bitterness. Whilst it's a collection of songs that tells the story of a love gone wrong, it's not about blame, but acceptance and more than a little hope that everything will be OK in the end, with lines such as 'Stay awake with me; you know I just can't let you be... Take your hand and come and find me.' There are at least six songs on this record that are already modern classics - 'Hey Now', the song that started the ball rolling late last year takes some beating - but the wonders keep coming with 'Nightcall,' 'Interlude', 'Strong', 'Metal and dust' and 'Wasting my young years.' If you have any preconceptions about London Grammar then put them to one side right now and give them a chance, these are songs you should listen to immediately. This is deservedly the highest placed debut album on the list, so if you follow that logic, are London Grammar the best new band to emerge in 2013? Of course they are.
Words by Ed Nash
5. The National - Trouble Will Find Me
Trouble Will Find Me is a record that is packed with songs that are glowing embers, expertly soaked to sizzle and smoulder at all the right times. Lead singer Matt Berninger is Brooklyn's most distinctive baritone with an impossibly dry voice that offers smooth seduction in songs like Demons and Fireproof, making it difficult to resist the charms of his affections. The beautiful opener I Should Live In Salt is a personal record inspired by the guilt Berninger felt for leaving younger brother Tom in the early days of the band, as he repeats the line "You should know me better than that", and it has glimmers of Neutral Milk Hotel in the way it resonates with magnetic gravitas. Since their self-titled debut album in 2001, the Brooklyn 5-piece have become one of the most consistent, productive and underrated bands in America and song's like Don't Swallow the Cap and Sea of Love offer the throttle people have come to love The National for. O ne of the killer tracks on the album is Heavenfaced, which we're still not entirely sure of its meaning - someone facing death or someone over-dependant in a doomed relationship? But this disorientating yet soothing record spits out sad cycles of "let's go wait out in the fields with the ones we love". Peel under the layers further and you'll find the unexposed offerings of Graceless which opens with an Arcade Fire energy and has a sense of urgency but is coated in sad imagery, "put the flowers you find in a vase, if you're dead in the mind it will brighten the place, don't let them die on the vine, it's such a waste" which exhibit Berninger's supreme lyrical prose. We also discover a hidden love song Pink Rabbits which is about falling in love without asking for it, while we hear Berninger's voice taken up a notch in pitch as he sings over dreamy piano chords. The National get plaudits for taking raw, honest emotions and richly infusing them into every moment of their music. Trouble... is the soundtrack to modern life, and while one could argue they'd rather not listen to a self indulgent angst record, what makes this special is that the stories depicted in these songs are both interesting, reassuringly familiar and swoon to the depths of the human condition. The band have stated that for this album, unlike their previous, they felt "really motivated and engaged with the new stuff", and this is demonstrated in how they've evolved with their sixth album which proves a rare, life-affirming piece of work.
Words by Rosie Marsh