Awesome, thanks! And any advice on bands too?
The albums off that list I'm most looking forward to are from Spoon, The Hold Steady, Beck, Frank Ocean, Fleet Foxes, Run the Jewels, Titus Andronicus, St. Vincent, Julian Casablancas, Death Cab for Cutie, My Morning Jacket, Pusha T and tUnE-yArDs. Here's 2013. If I could think of bands that were similar to Spoon I'd name them, but they've always been a bit different. They're part of the really stellar Austin scene of indie rock and folk, along with bands like Okkervil River, The Bright Light Social Hour and The Black Angels. All excellent.
Hey Flag. Did you get into the Strokes Come Down Machine? I hear it's i-ight. I feel like I should check it out. Just because.
I checked it out just because. It was probably their worst album (?) but still very enjoyable and didn't deserve the panning it got. Haven't listened to it in a couple months. The sad thing is Casablancas did the best song of the year in my opinion on Random Access Memories, so it really seems like all the Strokes need is a little creative injection to make quality music. I'm excited to see what he does with a solo album.
Thank you so much flagamuffin. I will definitely be checking those out over the next few days.