Top 5 Most Disappointing Albums of 2013

2013 has been a fantastic year for music. There were comeback albums, career definers and plenty of unexpected gems. Unfortunately, this is not the list where I tell you about those albums, instead, this is the top 5 albums that disappointed me the most (whether or not I think the album is good or not). This isn't really a list of the worst albums of 2013, just a list of albums that failed to live up to my expectations. Enjoy!


5. Earl Sweatshirt "Doris"

I had really high hopes for this LP, and some of the tracks here did live up to the hype. I really enjoyed the three singles ("Hive" "Chum" and "Whoa") and deeper cuts like "Sunday" and "Burgundy" were great too. Sadly, the other two-thirds of the album is spotty and sometimes just plain boring. I still hold to the statement I made in my "Chum" track review, in that I'm still excited to see where Earl will go from here; I only hope it's a more rewarding listen than Doris was.


4. Drake "Nothing Was The Same"

Two years ago Drake dropped his sophomore LP, Take Care, and for the first time ever, I enjoyed not just one, but a good chunk of a Drake album. Going into 2013, Drake dropped some worthwhile singles, like "Just Hold On, We're Going Home" and "5 AM In Toronto", but the latter isn't on this LP and the former is dropped in the middle of an incredibly inconsistent tracklist, making it seem like too little, too late. The only other tracks I truly enjoyed were "Tuscan Leather" and "From Time"; otherwise, the rest of the songs here are either too melodramatic for their own good, or feature some of the most ill-fitting production I've heard on a Drake album. I don't really know if I'm a fan of Drake or not at this point, I guess I'll give Take Care a spin and see.


3. CHVRCHES "The Bones Of What You Believe" 

Ugh, this LP had so much potential to be one of the years best. From the moment I heard the track "The Mother We Share" I was super excited to hear more songs from this band, then I heard the track "Recover" and that feeling only grew... But this album was not what I was expecting. Now before I go on, it would probably be useful to know exactly what kind of LP I was looking for on TBOWYB, and it's pretty simple; I was looking for an album of colorful, upbeat and memorable electronic music that would finally put that overlong, over-hyped M83 album out of my head. But instead, I got an album of bland and forgettable tunes, with lyrics that were very hit or miss, and some poor choices where vocal performances are concerned (either the male singer needs to liven up, or just stop singing alone on tracks). I didn't want to dislike this LP, and I even revisit it from time to time, to see if maybe it will grow on me; sadly, that hasn't happened.


2. Blood Orange "Cupid DELUXE" 

Like CHVRCHES, this is an album that got a lot of positive buzz upon it's release, but also like CHVRCHES I found very little to like about it. The first two tracks aren't bad, but the album takes a nose dive and never recovers. The songs here are too reliant on 80's nostalgia too be anything more than music to reminisce to. But Cupid DELUXE can't even get that part right, thanks to boring instrumentals and weak singing on a vast majority of these tracks. I liked the singles that dropped from this album, and I really like the single "Dinner" that came out last year, but that track isn't here and what is here is spotty at best.

1. Kanye West "YEEZUS"

Ahh Yeezy, you have so much talent, but too much ego. Much like MBDTF, Yeezus suffers the most from Kanye's insistence that the most interesting thing about his music is the context that surrounds it. Also, the blatant bandwagon jumping on Yeezus is hard for me to ignore, not because Ye had decided to try this sound, but because he did it so poorly in comparison to a group like Death Grips or Clipping. I like moments from this LP, but I can't really say I can enjoy a single track all the way through without finding something that annoys or underwhelms me. In a year full of ambitious and career- defining LPs, Yeezus shows me that Kanye West doesn't feel the need to make his "ambitious" album an album that is also enjoyable to listen to.