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Whilst it was interesting coming up with a top ten albums list for 2012, I don’t know if I’ll bother this year, nostatic does a better job anyway and manages to come up with good pictures too (he’s doing it right now, too, over at his place, I advise you to go and have a look…) That said, now being the time all the ‘Best of the Year’ charts come out (that and a general pre-Christmas dearth of interesting new stuff, surprise announcements by Burial notwithstanding) you do find yourself in review mode. There’s been loads of good music out this year; and, personally, I’ve noticed three interesting trends: Firstly, the ratio of music I listen to that could usefully be described as ‘electronica’ (that is, the ‘technical’ stuff, or ‘bleepy bleepy music’) seems to steadily increase. Whether that’s down to my own changing tastes or to an increase in good electronica, I don’t know (possibly a combination of the two plus the fact that the internet makes all the stuff that was previously only available on limited vinyl to warehouse anoraks available to the rest of us…) Anyway, there’s been loads of great stuff this year from, just off the top of my head, Boards of Canada, Tropic of Cancer, Vatican Shadow, Daniel Avery, Miles, F**k Buttons, Demdike Stare, etc., etc. Secondly, It’s been a good year for the old guys: Roy Harper’s first album in something like a decade and a half was surprisingly good and Bill Callahan, Lloyd Cole and Howe Gelb have all released ‘top of their game’ stuff – Mark Kozelek has managed three (count ‘em, three) good albums in 2013. And thirdly, I have to admit I was interrupted during the typing of this screed and completely forgot what my third point was going to be! It may have been a counterbalancing moan about the relative lack of good indie-pop this year: Camera Obscura were great as always (but possibly not as great on ‘Desire Lines’ as they were on the last couple) and the Proctors’ ‘Everlasting Light’ album was pretty good too, in a slightly over-long, shoegaze-tinged kind of way, but otherwise things were a bit quiet - and I’m not sure either of those would make the chart… (Only now I’m probably being too harsh – we’ve a new Allo’ Darlin’ album too look forward to early in 2014 – and I’m talking about charts again… Might be time to go and compile that shortlist after all…!)