A God-awful Small Affair

Whether or not this actually is their third studio album, it feels weird that an act as new and fresh as Death Grips are already at that third stage. Following their progress since The Money Store (and I'm sure that's far too late on for me to have an opinion, for some people) has been entertaining to say the least: whether acting like dicks or photographing them, the band are probably the most talked-about right now. They've always had the material to back it up, though: The Money Store is by far their strongest album, and NO LOVE DEEP WEB had plenty of stand-out moments that make it more fun to listen to than the debut. A year on from that, though, and the usual downward spiral of backlash, trend-followers finding other new flavours, and label complaints has left their second surprise release greeted a little lukewarmly. In a 2013 Autumn that was all about sudden releases (behave) - a month exactly before the Beyoncé spectacle - perhaps the biggest talking point ...

In any other year, a lot of these LPs would've slotted in quite nicely to the top ten. 2013 was such a strong year for albums, though, that it resulted in them just falling short. #20 - "Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action" - Franz Ferdinand It didn't exactly set the world on fire and that's a little upsetting. The Scottish band put out one of their finest albums to date last year and it was worth the wait. #19 - "Bankrupt!" - Phoenix Another band we'd been waiting since 2009 to hear from again were the Frenchmen Phoenix - time spent probably accumulating all of those seventy one tracks for the deluxe edition's second disc. You'd be forgiven for sticking to the first, though, since it was a bag of electronic goodness and fist-pumping anthems. #18 - "Torres" - Torres An album that sits perfectly on the fence between poignant balladry and ballsy grunge sounds, I'd heartily recommend this to a...

With the aim of trying to get 2014 underway (or rather, the last few albums of 2013 anyway), this'll only be split into two parts: the first thirty, and the top twenty! #50 - "Mosquito" - Yeah Yeah Yeahs OK, so, brace yourselves because this first list of ten has some positively appalling artworks on display. The first is the 4th YYYs LP, and although far from the best it made enough of a pleasant listen to creep onto this list right here. #49 - "Apocalypse" - Thundercat Not nearly as ugly is Stephen Bruner's face, which adorns the front of his Thundercat project's second effort. It's been a pretty big year for him - worming his way onto the GTA 5 soundtrack and continued great work with Flying Lotus - and whilst this wasn't quite as wonderful as his debut it's a pretty groovy album nonetheless. #48 - "Spreading Rumours" - Grouplove There is a sneaking suspicion that this band are secretly a bit terrible...