Top Ten Albums of 2013 so far...

Sitting here on a chilly Good Friday morning sifting through the dozens of excellent releases that have assailed my lucky ears so far this year in any effort to come up with the top ten albums of the year up to the end of March.  I don't know why I give myself these tasks, which invariably end up in a bad headache, but I do.  

By the time I get round to my year-end list you'll probably find that the order of this has changed a lot because it always does.  Anyway, for now, I reckon these are the best ten albums of the year so far.  Some I've reviewed elsewhere on this blog, some I haven't.  Some you'll have heard on my Dandelion Radio show, and a few will be appearing for the first time in my April show which starts streaming on Monday.  This is limited to 2013 releases only, so I'm afraid an excellent album like The Peach Tree's The Taint of Saidin, which came out right at the end of December, isn't ineligible - if it were, it would certainly be in here.
 
Anyway, here we go, and I would strongly advise you click on the links to go to the releases and listen for yourself, especially as a fair few of these are available for free and those that aren't are offering a life-enhancing experience at a remarkably low price:

10. The Moths Are Real - Serafina Steer (Stolen)

9. Mystical Weapons - Mystical Weapons (Chimera)

8. Filthy Huns - Filthy Huns (Not Not Fun)

 

7. Why Can't You Write Something Nice For A Change? - Tingle In The Netherlands (Nerve Echo)

6. Last Test - Dementio13 (Self-Released)

5. The Diary of Me - Laurence Made Me Cry (Self-Released)

4. Mowgli - Mister Lies (Lefse)

3. Angel-Like Contraction Reverse - Nac/Hut Report (Double Hallucinative)

2. Less Talk, More Oi! - P.F.A. (Self-Released)

1. Surge of the Lucid - Dissolved (Daddy Tank)

Not fair on the others really to have to compete with the Dissolved album, a release which revealed that even the great Daddy Tank label were still able to set the bar a notch higher in terms of quality and potential to blow the mind.  I still listen to it at every available opportunity.  Thanks to all ten releases - and indeed the many hundreds outside this top ten - for providing a fantastic soundtrack to what, so far, has been a very strange and interesting year for me.  Long may it continue.