The year is officially over in twelve hours, but I still think in terms of school years, so I have another five months to go. My goal is to stay up until midnight tonight and to avoid watching NYE celebrations on television at all costs. The one time I did that was by far one of the saddest new year's eves of all time.

My song of the day is "New Year's Resolution" by Camera Obscura because duh. My dear friend Nick reminded me that I have yet to review Desire Lines, but I have already featured "This is Love (Feels Alright)" as a song of the day, so maybe I will make it through the album song by song until I reach the end.

This song has all the elements of a good Camera Obscura song: doo-wop harmonies, melancholy lyrics, sugary pop, and solid guitar. Enjoy, and go ahead and make some fail-safe resolutions such as breathe in AND out, wear mismatched socks, pet a cat, or go outside. Don't try too hard this year, but do listen to this song.

Alright kids, here it is, a list of the albums that I've listened to that have come out this year and are currently my favorite in no particular order.* It's pretty much all rock and roll and blues. Sorry if you're not into that. (Except I'm not sorry at all).

Artist / Album
JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound / Howl
The Shouting Matches / Grownass Man
Avett Brothers / The Magpie & The Dandelion
Thao & the Get Down Stay Down / We the Common
Vampire Weekend / Modern Vampires of the City
BRONCHO / Can't Get Past the Lips
Ezra Furman / Day of the Dog
Those Darlins / Blur the Line
The So So Glos / Blowout
The Blakes / Junko

And here's a playlist of my favorite songs from the year:





 *I haven't listened to all the albums that came out this year. I might change my mind about any said album. Things happen, people change. Also, I am not saying these are the best albums, just my favorites, currently.

It is currently 29 degrees on the day before the first day of winter, and I am wrapped up on the couch in my warmest, softest most comfortable blanket with the heater cranked to 80. I needed some easy yet soulful listening while I accomplished important tasks like reading lifestyle blogs, but I also wanted something new. As I perused blogs, I stumbled upon musician Nathan Reich. He is perfect and just what I needed.

His voice reminds me of a combination of Bob Nanna, Jack Johnson, and Damien Rice. It carries the Christina-approved stamp of melancholy with a hopeful vitality. Enjoy this live video on this glorious first day of winter.

(I just clicked on the full YouTube link, and it turns out that it is a part of the Avett Brothers' crackerfarm YouTube page. So great.)

Last.fm keeps track of everything I listen to and compiles the data for me. Here are my favorite bands and songs of 2013, statistically speaking.

Low. They are awesome. I forget how awesome they are til I listen to them. They put out a great album in 2013... that I forgot about. Here it is. -Earl

Ok so the first thing you need to know about this post is I didn't immerse myself in much new music this year. That's right folks, I'm becoming a lame old man who listens to sports radio and podcasts about "how to do everything" and "this american life" and "hardcore history" and things of that nature. Yes, I'm the guy who owns a neon bible t-shirt but has only listened to the first five minutes of Reflektor and fell asleep before arcade fire's snl performance.

I however did really connect with a few albums this year. First, the album my wonderful wife purchased for me entitled, Modern Vampires of the City

Holy smokes people. This is the album of our generation. This is easily the album of the decade so far. Not only that but it also gave us some totally awesome youtube videos such as this.

The music from this album just knocks my socks off. I feel the dudes in this band love a variety of music across the rock 'n roll stratosphere and aren't shy to utilize any and all of their influences on any given song. Gosh, I feel like an idiot typing that. As far as the lyrics are concerned it covers a lot of ground. There are a lot of cool little topics and things like, "who's Angkor Wat?" to look up and during one such research session I dug up this little gem from Ezra Koenig. It's about one of my favorites, "Unbelievers."

Something that I started thinking about on the last record (was) how much I can't relate to any ways of thinking that divide the world into two distinct parts," he continued. "Whether that's atheism versus religion or Republican versus Democrat, there's all these false dichotomies in the world that can be very confusing when you're trying to make up your mind about how you feel about a situation. It's almost like a sports mentality, about being on one team or the other. That doesn't mean that I don't have my own deeply held beliefs about things that I think are right or moral or true but - and it's only gotten worse as I've gotten older - I've always had this extreme dislike of these false choices that you're presented with, so in any situation I want to try to be open-minded and look for what you can learn from something. Even in that song, the idea of being an unbeliever can mean almost anything because everybody is an unbeliever to somebody else. It doesn't matter how fervently you believe in your faith, there's always going to be another faith that calls you an unbeliever. In any sort of multicultural society, it's something that people have to grapple with and figure out."

Anyway, I just love this record and even though I'm a fan of Vampire Weekend I was just blown away with this release. 

Also, I think I covered this earlier on but I loved Trouble Will Find Me. Amy used to have some photo professor that loved The National and she told me he once said, "They're the perfect band to rock out to after your kids have gone to bed." Couldn't agree more. Amen. 

To steal another page from Bob Boilen Ryan Ward's book, I'll tell you about my favorite shows of the year. I only made it to two but they were memorable. First, which I already covered was Blake Schwarzenbach at Vaudeville Mews here in Des Moines. I held the door for one of my musical idols as he was carrying in his equipment from his rented minivan! Second was a free concert at RAGBRAI featuring Everclear on a bridge east of downtown Des Moines. If you didn't know, Everclear was my first favorite band and I still and always will love most of their catalog. The highlight of the night was when they played "Strawberry."

Other albums I listened to a portion of that seemed enjoyable:
Into It. Over It. - Intersections
Saves The Day - Orange Album
Parquet Courts- Light Up Gold
Bonjour Machines - Level Up!
Riviera - Parla con Gesu