#15 aventine agnes obel
The fact that I like piano-driven, classical-influenced pop is no news; nevertheless I would have never imagined to find Agnes Obel so high in my best records of 2013 list. Aventine, I think, has some special charm that Philarmonics didn’t have. It’s darker, intriguing, shy. There’s less stuff lying around for everyone to see and requires therefore more digging.
#14 mala devendra banhart
What connects these fourteen songs (very different from one another) is a grace that makes me wanna use the word exquisite even if I usually find it disgusting. I didn’t remember Devendra Banhart to be this classy and at the same time capable of making music so emotionally pregnant.
#13 love’s crushing diamond mutual benefit
First track: what’s this? A Yoga mixtape?
Second track: In tears.
#12 obsidian baths
I had my boyfriend listen to this record and his (merciless) review was: He’s pretentious and sounds like a kid playing with his iPad for the first time. Clearly I couldn’t disagree more. I know nothing about music and I wouldn’t be able to tell if Baths has or hasn’t any skills as a musician, but I do know about pain and I do know about substance. If the fact that anybody on the planet can make music brings to the surface so much substance then all hail to iPads!
#11 the autumn came charity children
Charity Children used to go by the name of Charity Children Berlin. You would see them perform their intimate folk music almost every weekend at train stations or parks in Berlin, using a plastic mini fridge as a drum. Then the parks became tiny bars and the tiny bars became big venues and the plastic mini fridge became percussions and a cello and a band. Nobody was surprised, really, ’cause they’re *that* good. What I was really looking forward to, though, was their record. Will it be a plastic-mini-fridge-record – I wondered – meaning something cute but amateurish? I was kinda expecting something like that and I’m so very happy to be wrong. The autumn came has that very simple and homey authenticity but it’s also the real shit! I promise!
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