Best Albums of 2013
Ranked by our critic's grades, best first.
Sail OutSeven songs in half an hour, and the most precise statement of what Jhené Aiko does better than anyone.Read the review
Nothing Was the SameTighter, warmer and more confident than the record before it, and the last time everything was working at once.
YeezusForty minutes of industrial noise and some genuinely terrible lines, and the sound design is still ahead of nearly everything.
Long. Live. ASAPA major-label debut that spent its budget wisely, with a great posse cut and a top ten hit to show for it.
Magna Carta Holy GrailLaunched as a phone deal and heard as one, it is better than its reputation: his most lavish solo record, and a serious look at what money buys.
AMThe record that turned a Sheffield indie band into a stadium act, built on hip hop drums and falsetto.
My Name Is My NameCold, expensive and slightly overstuffed. The solo debut of a man who had already been great for a decade.
WolfThe record where he learns chords, and the first one that sounds arranged rather than assembled.
The Marshall Mathers LP 2A sequel that mostly justifies the title, dragged down by a length nobody asked for.
Born SinnerDarker, better produced and far more sure of itself. The album where the self production finally works.