13’s Having Flashbacks Pt. 5

I’m neither creative enough, nor vain enough to try to one-up most of the stuff 13 writes in his SOTD posts. I’ll let you focus on it after the bump.

-XIV

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13’s Having Flashbacks Pt. 4

What’s that? You thought the flashbacks were over? Blame my short attention span and the fact that i’m a bit slow sometimes. But, don’t worry. Tuesdays & Thursdays are flashback days. I’m going to go lie down and try to remember last month…

-XIV

13 Presents The List: The Top Ten Albums of 2013, Volume 1: 10 – 7

The time has come to reveal the 8th edition of “The List,” my ranking of the top ten albums of the past year. The List has grown in terms of scope, design, and credibility since it’s inception, but it still serves essentially the same purpose: it is my way of sharing the music I found to be the most impressive and to have the most impact on me over this past year. That’s really all there is to it when you get down to the basics. Ranking music is always going to be somewhat subjective, so tastes will vary, and just because we disagree, it doesn’t mean that one of us is wrong about the quality of an album. I do try to use some objective means to rank these albums, but in the end a lot of it still comes down to the feelings I have in my gut. I would imagine that most music ranking lists work the same way, and if they don’t I think it might be worth questioning their legitimacy. After all, is not the most important aspect of music the effect it has on its listener?

To give you an idea of what I look for in an album, I will list a few of my qualifications. First, I think that popular music genres such as those represented on this list should be judged not only upon the quality of the music, but also on the quality of the lyrics and the message put forth by the album. Because this is a music list and not a poetry list, the music element weighs more heavily in my decisions than the lyrics do, but it is never the only quality by which I appraise an album. Furthermore, I appreciate cohesiveness. The lyrics should match the music in terms of feeling, and the songs should preferably be related to each other to make the album feel like a connected work. This second idea is not necessary for a great album, but it does make it much easier for the album to be considered great in my mind. Another common tool used for judging the quality of albums is their uniqueness. While uniqueness can affect my rankings, it is not automatically considered a good thing, nor is it considered the most important thing. I think people often fall into the trap of giving more points to something just because they have never heard it before. While this is fine and good if it is something truly great, new ideas can be unimpressive just as easily and ideas that were good before can remain good.

Hopefully that gives you guys some insight into my thought process. Now, it’s time to present the albums of the year. I love commentary, so if you like what I put on the list, comment and tell me why. If you don’t like it, tell me that too! Just make sure your comments are thoughtful. Don’t just say something is stupid. No one wants to read that.

2013 was a solid and surprising year in music for sure. Most of the albums that made this list were not on my radar to begin the year. Hopefully, if you haven’t heard them already, this will be a great introduction for you. Without further adieu, here are this year’s choices:

13 Presents The List: The Top Ten Albums of 2013

Hey folks,

It’s that time of year again. The time when I take all the music that I listened to in the past year and present to you my list of the best. I know I haven’t updated in a VERY long time, and honestly, I don’t think that’s going to change. Whereas XIV still updates when he can, I have found that maintaining the blog regularly is just not something I can make work for myself. So from here on out, this will primarily be XIV’s blog. That said, I may pop up from time to time, especially when I post my yearly top ten lists, which I intend to continue making for the foreseeable future.

This year, in addition to a music list, there will also be a movie list. I published the first of my movie lists last year after watching 44 films but did not publish it to this website because at the time we were still strictly covering music here. Since we have now expanded the format to different forms of entertainment, I am happy to present them both here. I went all out this year, watching and considering 60 films before whittling the list down to 10. So that’s something else to look forward to!

I really do appreciate everyone who follows the blog and I thank you for hanging with us even when we weren’t consistent.

The 8th annual edition of “The List” will be heading your way starting tomorrow. Like last year, it will be released in four separate entries, beginning with #10 and counting down to #1. See you back here then!

Ringing in the New Yearish Times.

Howdy folks. I’m sure that you’ve missed me as much as I’ve missed you guys. Holidays are over, school has started and everyone has a bit less time on their hands than before. And that, is Fantastic. Going to take this opportunity to express my devout gratitude to you guys for sticking with us this long and hope that you stick with us for another year. (Regardless of how often we do/do not update) Here’s to new loves, new joys, and new music to your ears. Cheers!

13’s Having Flashbacks Pt. 3

Shhh… is 13 looking? Ok, here’s another blast from the past. Brought to you by the minds behind the wonderful things you digest every day anyway. Let’s let some atoms from the past be inside your atoms that compose your eardrums. Follow after the jump please, we’re going to be here a while.

-XIV

13’s Having Flashbacks Pt. 2

XIV here. So, Pt. 2 is after the jump. However, I’m going to spend my little blurb right here at the top to take this time to ask if if you accepted the good music into your life? Oh you have? Interesting. Well, in that case, let’s get to the real music. Er- Flashbacks of the good music beginnings or whatever you’d like to call it.

13’s Having Flashbacks: Pt. I

Hello everyone. As I promised a couple weeks ago, I am here to present you with songs ripped from my other song page. You will now receive a much more frequent dose of musical suggestions from me, though they will not be talked about in near as much detail. Don’t worry, I will occasionally come back with a large post, but for now, we’re showing flashbacks of a simpler time.

In addition, since these posts have already been previously made on my other music page, I will not necessarily be required to post them. As such, sometimes you may get a word or two from XIV as an introduction before moving on to my flashbacks, because he might be posting them instead of me. In fact, don’t be surprised if this happens frequently. Rest assured though that the content of the actual flashbacks is mine.

Today, we begin at the beginning. Here’s hoping you all enjoy it!

It’s Been A Long time… (13 IS BACK WITH ANNOUNCEMENTS AND STUFF, READ!)

Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls, aliens and wizards, it has been a long time since we rock and rolled together. I, 13, haven’t posted anything to the blog since my Top Ten Albums List at the very beginning of this calendar year.

Brand New Makeover! Couple of Policy Changes Too!

(c) Forbes.com

Howdy Folks!

You can probably see that 13andXIV got a bit of a makeover. Yeah, I was a bit tired of looking at the same background over and over again. I’m gonna be doing a few weeks with this theme and it might be permanent it might change to something completely different. But,that’s only 1 of the 3 changes the site is going through. I felt pigeonholed into doing a certain type of post and not really feeling like posting if I didn’t have any real music to play for you guys. But, that’s changing. Somewhat. 13andXIV is going to morph into a review blog.  We’re going to review whatever we want. Mostly it will still be music, but occasionally it will be Movies, some concerts, and maybe some food. XIV might even do video games (highly unlikely!) Going to throw a few ideas around but the overall goal is to update regularly to keep the site from stagnating because 1 post a month is unacceptable.

The third major change is really obvious, We added a bunch of categories and tags with the new update. Updated all the old posts so that you can easily navigate to an artist you like just by clicking their name on the sidebar. Those will be helpful when the site explodes into post time. Well, I’ll see you guys on the other side.