My 50 Favorite Albums of 2013

So now that 2013 is officially over, and has been for a few weeks I figure now is a good time to finally post my favorite albums of 2013.  But before I reveal that please allow me to ramble a bit.  First, the albums below are my favorite of the year, might not be the best but these are the ones that I kept coming back to and imagine I will keep listening to down the road.  Second, I debated about doing a one list for hip hop albums and one for everything else, like I did last year.  But there are a few albums that I wasn't sure how to categorize and figured putting everything together may spark some interest in albums outside of genres that people usually listen to, so I combined all genres and I am giving you my top 50 (yes 5-0 because I am a little crazy.)

Now, I know the word album is all over this post but let me make something clear, these are my favorite projects of the year, a few EPs, a few multi disc collections, some compilations, whatever I liked the best, that is the criteria, my favorite music released in 2013.  I have been struggling over this list, wanting to make sure I was positive about my choices, etc and of course in the end that is impossible, there are some great albums that did not make the cut, and maybe in a few years I will look at this list and wonder what I was thinking excluding an album, but there are no albums included that I think are not incredible.  So now that I have probably bored you already with my tirade let's get started.  Here we go.

50.  Denmark Vessey Cult Classic

49.  Pokey LaFarge Pokey LaFarge

48. Amir Elsaffar Alchemy

47. Atari Blitzkrieg Technicolor Crime Scenes 

46. Guilty Simpson & Small Professor Highway Robbery

45. Justin Timberlake The 20/20 Experience Part 1

44. Run the Jewels Run the Jewels

43. James Cotton Cotton Mouth Man

42. Mary Halvorson Septet Illusionary Sea

41. Curly Castro Fidel

40. Armand Hammer Race Music

39. Jonathan Finlayson Moment & the Message

38. Ill Clinton Ragnarok

37. Flaming Lips The Terror

36. KONE The White Tape

35. Roscoe Mitchell Not Yet

34. Hellfyre Club Dorner vs Tookie

33. billy woods Dour Candy

32. Serengeti SAAL

31. Milo things that happen at day / things that happen at night

30. William Parker Tender Exploration

29. Matthew Shipp Piano Sutras

28. Wayne Shorter Quartet Without A Net

27. Aeon Grey Lead Breakfast

26. Femi Kuti No Place For My Dream

25. Quelle Chris N***** is Men

24. Mega Ran TRAP

23. Dessa Parts of Speech

22. Yusef Lateef / Roscoe Mitchell / Adam Rudolf / Douglas R. Ewart Voice Prints

21. Quasimoto Yessir Whatever

20. Steve Coleman & Five Elements Functional Arrhythmias 

19. Willie Nelson To All the Girls…

18. Kris Kristofferson Feeling Mortal

17. Black Milk No Poison No Parade

16. Miles Davis Quintet Live in Europe 1969:  The Bootleg Series Vol. 2

15. Steve Arrington & Dam Funk Higher

14. Ka The Night's Gambit 

13. Cult Favorite For Madmen Only

12. Craig Taborn Trio Chants

11. Turquoise Summers A Touch of Turquoise 

10. Brother Ali Left in the Deck

9. Rudresh Mahanthappa Gamak

8. Quelle Chris Ghost At the Finish Line

7. 7 Days of Funk 7 Days of Funk

6. Blame One & J57 Walk In The Sun

5. Open Mike Eagle Sir Rockabye.

4. Uncommon Nasa Land of the Way It Is

3. Roscoe Mitchell Duets with Tyshawn Sorey and Special Guest Hugh Ragin

2. Vijay Iyer & Mike Ladd Holding it Down:  The Veterans' Dream Project

1. Roscoe Mitchell / Tony Marsh / John Edwards Improvisations 

I hope you enjoy this and learned about an album, I am interested in what others think of the list, what do you feel I missed, will gladly respond, but lets keep this civil and thank you for reading. Let's see what 2014 brings.

As of now I am not adding why I chose each album but I may add that later, but trust me, there is a reason for each album and why I chose said album over another etc.