To start off this year, I wanted to take a quick moment to talk about exactly what this list is. You’ll notice I call this, and always have, my “Top Albums” of the year, not my “favorite” or “best” albums. This is done intentionally, as I find it a very important distinction. Calling something “the best” is very hard to do, especially when it comes to something as subjective as music, and even moreso when there’s so much of it out there. However, I do think there are characteristics that can place a song or album ahead of others in an objective manner, such as songwriting, musicianship and innovation. On the flip side, calling something “favorite” is pretty much subjective, and comes across as more of an enjoyment factor while perhaps ignoring aspects of an album that make it a more artistic achievement. So my list has always been a hybrid of the two, and calling it “Top Albums” is the best I could come up with. I’m not necessarily telling you the albums I enjoyed the most in 2013, just as I’m not telling you the albums that were critically thought of as the best releases of the year. Rather, this is a look at the albums I came across in 2013, that I enjoyed immensely which also have value in ways that should set them above others as a fantastic works of art. I suppose that’s my intro for this year’s list, so let’s get to it.
This past year I purchased, in some form, 84 albums…all of which are eligible. I do not include EPs, Reissues, Soundtracks, Live Albums, Holiday Albums, or B-Side/Rarity type releases as albums eligible for my list, but this year I don’t have any of those. As always, there’s plenty of albums that I never got around to procuring, so yes, there’s going to be very worthy albums that don’t make my list. So if you have a question as to why your favorite album isn’t on my list, well it’s because I either didn’t get it, or just plain didn’t care for it as much as you…simple as that. After the jump, you can see the list of all albums I purchased, in order of release date. Also, over to the right, you can see the schedule over the next few days as I continue the countdown.
Posted by Hawkins 
A Round of Sound 