A God-awful Small Affair

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

So yeah... this is the second thirty, which in hindsight is rather an arbitrary number, but I've been busy with stuff and just want to build more suspense for the top twenty. So, in the mean time, enjoy these not-quite-good-enough offerings. #50 - "Love Illumination" - Franz Ferdinand Did anyone notice that they released an album? ANYONE? #49 - "New Slaves" - Kanye West Probably the best verse on the album. #48 - "Something About You" - Dornik 2013's spiritual successor to Frank Ocean's Sweet Life . Smooth. #47 - "This Ladder is Ours" - The Joy Formidable They're going to take at least 10 of these to make them as instantly loveable as, say, CHVRCHES, but in the mean time I'm happy to see them bash out jams like this. #46 - "Back Together" - Annie HOUSE-POP HAS REACHED NORWAY. Wonderful. #45 - "5AM" - Katy B I was kinda hoping for some more Diplo following 2012's Danger EP

Those of you who are thinking folk might have realised by now that I'm a bit of a Bowie fan. On January 6 this year, I was one of those clichéd giddy young folk reacting to a Twitter buzz at about 7am with far more energy and excitement than is required for such an early hour. Then, of course, came Where Are We Now? and its will-it-won't-it charting kerfuffle, and it was all a little bit too good to be true. A whole decade had passed since the admittedly average Reality , and whilst the die-hard fans have been slightly quelled by appearances in The Prestige and Extras, and some background musical work with Arcade Fire, Scarlett Johansson and TV on the Radio, there was indeed the growing fear that the Thin White Duke had retired for good. The album's artwork has been the focus of much of the buzz around The Next Day : a cheeky wink to his classic albums, and somewhat of a visual reminder that David Bowie himself doesn't exactly show his face a lot anymore. Absence