Top Five Albums (So Far) of 2013

5. Mogwai - Les Revenants

This is going to remain atop my "Best Post-Rock Albums of the Year" list, so it merits inclusion in this list. The story goes that the creators of the French television show Les Revenants (a show about zombies) contacted Mogwai about writing the music for the show, sent them the script for the pilot episode, and then asked them to write a full album for them to base the show around. Assumedly, Mogwai collectively cracked their knuckles, laughed at the idea of this somehow being really challenging and wrote this album.

With the exception of the final two songs "What Are They Doing in Heaven Today?" and "Wizard Motor," Les Revenants is Mogwai's sparsest, most ambient release to date. They've crafted soundscapes (which, of course, makes sense for a "soundtrack" of sorts), but they've retained the songwriting fundamentals that have kept Mogwai at the forefront of a genre they helped create. The album's overall mood - apocalyptic, haunting, evasive, subdued, bare - is intensified by splendid melodies and graceful humanity. It might be the best thing they've released since 2006.

Songs of the album: Fridge Magic, What Are They Doing in Heaven Today, The Messiah Needs Watching

4. (the) Melvins - Everybody Loves Sausages

It's probably only the Melvins that could release a cover album and have it demand a spot in your Top Five. This is a band, in its 30th year, still finding ways to sound fresh and inventive by covering songs they love. It's a roadmap to the heart of the band, connecting obvious influences like Throbbing Gristle and Venom to never-heard-of punk bands like Pop-O-Pies to seriously they covered a David Bowie song? Unsurprisingly, a band as variegated and multifaceted as the Melvins loves just about everything.

They get to be as experimental as they wish (16-bit cover of Queen's "You're My Best Friend" anyone?) while also annoying fans that just want to hear Houdini (16-bit cover of Queen's "You're My Best Friend" anyone?). In an added bonus, the liner notes feature short blurbs from Buzz about each song. These little snippets, equally as enjoyable as the actual music, offer history lessons and insight from the always charismatic frontman.

Plus, this album has forced me to spend most of my time this year listening to Roxy Music.

Songs of the album: Roxy Music's "Every Dream Home a Heart Ache," David Bowie's "Station to Station," "Female Trouble" from the John Waters film of the same name, Kinks' "Attitude"

3. Run The Jewels - Run The Jewels

This is the best hip-hop album of the year, and it's really not even a contest. You don't have to be a Def Jux junkie to recognize this. Yeezus is great and shows a bombastic Kanye at his most bombastic. Magna Carta Holy Grail is overwrought and pretentious. Run The Jewels, though, is just hip-hop at its purest form - serious beats and bars on top of bars. Following up the success of their respective solo albums in 2012, El-P and Killer Mike are lifting a huge middle finger to the music industry and, more specifically, the state of hip-hop.

El-P's beats and production are at an all-time high and Killer Mike's flow is somehow even smoother on this album than on his solo effort last year. Killer Mike takes aim at Ye and Jay along with a host of other verified "fuck boys" throughout the album. Both artists are hostile and vindictive - El-P's label Def Jux finally closed its doors and Killer Mike's success seems to be continually overshadowed by bigger names regardless of ability (what's up J Cole and Drake). I also love the fact that the first video made for the album is "36" Chain," the album's least commercial track.

Oh, and they released it for free.

Songs of the album: Sea Legs, Job Well Done, Get It, Banana Clipper, DDFH

2. Deafheaven - Sunbather

It's funny. I don't think (slash know for a fact) that Varg would not consider Deafheaven a real black metal band, but I can't help but feel the same way about Sunbather than I do Filosofem. As blasphemous as that may be, it's the truth. Both Deafheaven and Burzum are incredibly moody, irritable, desperate and beautiful bands precariously perched on a cliff from which they both happily envision leaping. I have no patience for people bemoaning Deafheaven for being "fake black metal" or whatever pejorative they wish to attach to the band's particular combination of post-rock sensibility and raw atmospheric black metal. The band's more intense than your favourite band and you're just salty.

Deafheaven confront the psychological ramifications of the middle class's identity crisis in a way not dissimilar from Ceremony (though Ceremony's Black Flag approach seems more suitable for most). The band wades around the middle class wasteland and derives its intensity from the inability to anchor themselves to anything tangible. Sunbather walks hand in hand with anxiety and depression, awash in the highs and lows of mercurial temperaments. Even at its most frantic, the album moves with an ardent sense of purpose. There's also an unavoidable brightness to the album - evidenced explicitly by the album's cover art - that balances the album both sonically and emotionally. It's a transformative experience every time you listen to it.

Songs of the album: Dream House, Vertigo, Pecan Tree

1. The Appleseed Cast - Illumination Ritual

After all that, I'm not sure how Sunbather isn't sitting atop this list. But here we are and Appleseed Cast's latest album Illumination Ritual is #1. There are a few bands out there that, no matter what, are unmistakably themselves on every album. Nothing ever sounds rehashed or well-worn, but it's all very familiar. There's a comfortable nostalgia attached to an inventive quality that gives space and breath to both new and old. Appleseed Cast has these qualities in spades. They have remained so singular in their  14 years of existence that Low Level Owl sounds as new and unique as Sagarmatha or Illumination Ritual. Appleseed Cast possesses an ineluctable identity supported by so many years of continuity.

In a way, my emotional response to Illumination Ritual is equivalent to Sunbather. The best songs make me misty eyed and give me goosebumps. Not the first time, not sometimes, but every single time. Illumination Ritual, along with Sunbather, exudes honesty and bare emotionality in a personal and inviting way. These songs are experiential - meant to connect on a very private level. It's exactly what you expect from Appleseed Cast, and in every single way, they exceed those expectations.

Songs of the album: Great Lake Derelict, Cathedral Rings, Illumination Ritual