2013 Review

19 December 2013 – so here is my musical roundup of 2013. The number of live gigs was definitely down again this this year, my own fault, nothing to do with the quality of artists at local venues. I did manage to get further afield this year, so that's a positive. I'm pleased to see that the First Direct Arena in Leeds has got off to a good start. I really hope that they can keep it up as there was strong competition from the O2 Academy in the latter half of the year. Venues in York seem to be struggling to get people through the doors. I'm not sure why this should be as there have been some excellent acts performing in the city, possibly one of the stronger years for talent.

My CD collection has swelled by another 25 albums, but that's nearly half the number from last year. Of those, 14 were released this year, 10 were older, and one was a 2013 re-issue of a 1995 album. My top ten new albums for 2013 were:

1. Dimensionaut, Sound of Contact
2. The Next Day, David Bowie
3. Opposites, Biffy Clyro
4. Brief Nocturnes And Dreamless Sleep, Spock's Beard
5. The Raven That Refused To Sing (And Other Stories), Steven Wilson
6. All Hell Breaks Loose, Black Star Riders
7. Echo Street, Amplifier
8. The World is Yours, The Union
9. Xmas Show 2012, Thunder
10. Dream Theater, Dream Theater

Some, well four actually, didn’t get in my top ten. Here they are in no particular order:

• Afterthoughts, Nosound
• A Far Cry From Home, Stolen Earth
• Oceans of Time, Touchstone
• Field of Reeds, These New Puritans

Of the older issues, it isn’t fair to rank them as the reasons that I bought them vary so much, so I present them by artist alphabetically:

• The Silent Enigma, Anathema (re-issue)
• American Beauty, The Greatful Dead
• Live Dead, The Greatful Dead
• Working Man's Dead, The Greatful Dead
• Hotel Radio, The Hazey Janes
• The Winter That Was, The Hazey Janes
• The Rainbow Bridge Concert, Jimi Hendrix
• Tall Ships, It Bites
• Sounds That Cannot Be Made, Marillion
• Crossing the Line, Simon McBride
• All the Little Lights, Passenger