M+N Critics Poll 2013

The results are in for our annual critics poll. We count down the top 25 Australian records of 2013, a diverse year with a few clear frontrunners.

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25. World’s End Press

World’s End Press
(Liberation)

What we said: “I’d love to find some negative aspects, for the sake of balance, but I’ve got nothing. I’m floored.”

24. Underground Lovers

Weekend
(Rubber)

What we said: “If Weekend was simply the seventh Underground Lovers album it’d be considered exceptional. That it’s appeared after so long a break makes it nothing short of amazing.

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23. Summer Flake

You Can Have It All
(Rice is Nice)

What we said: “Stephanie Crase knows the beauty in brooding. It’s all over her debut album as Summer Flake … part low-key confessionals to the listener and part circular conversations with the proverbial mirror.”

More reading: Track by Track

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22. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

Push the Sky Away
(Bad Seed Ltd.)

What we said: “Nick Cave is beyond having to prove anything to anybody. But Push the Sky Away is testament to the singer-songwriter’s ability to successfully flex against the constraints of his own craft.”

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21. Machine Translations

The Bright Door
(Spunk)

What we said: “I’m not sure if the name is an in-joke, but I can’t think of many people making music more achingly human than Greg “J” Walker. His are ordinary machines: imperfect, breathing and sighing.”

More reading: Interview

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20. Don Walker

Hully Gully
(Independent/MGM)

What we said: “It’s a record with an intense, assured feel and a clean, inviting sound .... I look forward very much to spending a long time in its company.”

More reading: Interview

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19. Cut Copy

Free Your Mind
(Modular)

What we said: “If you appreciated them as weightless dancefloor stylists and covert pop classicists, Free Your Mind will hit the same sweet-spot.”

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18. Bushwalking

No Enter
(Chapter)

What we said: “I could expound on what is dynamic, thought-provoking and enjoyable about No Enter indefinitely, but that wouldn’t be nearly as exciting as actually listening to it.”

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17. Big Scary

Not Art
(Pieater/Inertia)

What we said: “These are youth raiding the FM airwaves of the ’80s. They’ve got a ‘big’ album. Big like a Don Henley record.”

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16. Beaches

She Beats
(Chapter)

What we said: “Beaches transcend time in a sound that is at once unique and familiar, grounded and otherworldly.”

More reading: Interview

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15. Abbe May

Kiss My Apocalypse
(Independent/MGM)

What we said: “Kiss My Apocalypse is May’s best record so far and also the most likely to succeed commercially.”

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14. The Necks

Open
(Fish of Milk/Fuse)

What we said: “The cumulative effect is a kind of transcendent stasis, a liminal state of blissful relief much greater than the sum of its parts … It’s a stunning piece of work.”

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13. Primitive Calculators

The World is Fucked
(Chapter)

What we said: “This is a nasty, vicious, misanthropic, spiteful album and I never want to hear it again.”

More reading: Track by Track

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12. Kirin J Callinan

Embracism
(Siberia/Remote Control)

What we said: “Kirin J Callinan makes you think. Sometimes, that’s all you can really hope for.”

More reading: Track by Track; long-form feature

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11. Gardland

Syndrome Syndrome
(RVNG Intl/Inertia)

What we said: “On first blush another slice of abstract techno, maybe produced anywhere between Detroit and Berlin, but listen closely and you’ll begin to hear a very local landscape.”

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10. Angel Eyes

Final Fare
(Bedroom Suck)

What we said: “It’s strange to imagine that there’s a hidden meaning behind the distorted moans, but the record is stronger for having that meaning left in the distance.”

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9. Ooga Boogas

Ooga Boogas
(Aarght)

What we said: “This is the best record of the year, and the Ooga Boogas are the best band in the world.”

More reading: Track by Track

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8. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard

Float Along/Fill Your Lungs
(Flightless/Dot Dash)

What we said: “As far as their place in psychedelia goes, they make the Tame Impala/Pond coterie seem like little boys playing in the sand with toys.”

More reading: Interview

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7. Courtney Barnett

How to Carve a Carrot into a Rose
(Milk!)

What we said: “It’s hard to imagine an ambassador better suited than someone as acutely insightful as Courtney Barnett.”

More reading: Long-form feature

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6. Bed Wettin Bad Boys

Ready for Boredom
(R.I.P. Society)

What we said: “Ready for Boredom captures four guys who use rock and roll not as some kind of salvation but rather just as a way to deal with getting older.”

More reading: Interview

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5. Standish/Carlyon

Deleted Scenes
(Chapter)

What we said: “Deleted Scenes is so far removed from rock’s regular physicality that it feels like an abstraction: the sound of desire rather than the desire itself.”

More reading: Track by Track

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4. The Native Cats

Dallas
(R.I.P. Society)

What we said: “Packaging experimentation and earnest poetic songwriting into a singular and palatable piece of work.”

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3. TV Colours

Purple Skies, Toxic River
(Dream Damage)

What we said: “It is a self-assured record and one of the year’s best.”

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2. Dick Diver

Calendar Days
(Chapter)

What we said: “These songs romanticise insignificance, their characters observing a world that carries on unaffected by their everyday problems.”

More reading: Interview

1. The Drones

I See Seaweed
(Independent/MGM)

What we said: “There’s not a note wasted on I See Seaweed and the result is eight songs as streamlined in intent as a shark at dusk … I’d say it’s the best Drones record so far.”

More reading: Interview

TOMORROW: The results of our annual Readers Poll

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Compiled from the votes of Max Easton, David Nichols, Jules LeFevre, Lawson Fletcher, Patrick Emery, Steph Kretowicz, Edward Sharp-Paul, Aaron Curran, Ian Rogers, Anthony Carew, Andrew P Street, Tim Scott, A.H. Cayley, Jody Macgregor, Doug Wallen, Darren Levin, Tim Fitzpatrick, Mitchell Judge, Barnaby Smith, Kate Hennessy, Luke Telford, Samuel J Fell, Hannah Brooks, Everett True, Christopher Lewis, Freya Zaknich, Trevor Block, Jeremy Story Carter, Adam Curley, Jake Cleland, Nick Argyriou and Matt Shea.