I collected 20 lists of “Best Music of 2013” and combined them into one meta-list. Here are the results. The numbers in bold indicate the number of original source lists the recording was on. I have included every recording on two or more of the original 20 lists. An asterisk means I own it. The genres are courtesy of Wikipedia.
On 18 Lists
Kanye West – Yeezus (hip hop)
On 17 Lists
Daft Punk – Random Access Memories (electronica/house/disco)
The National – Trouble Will Find Me (indie rock/chamber pop/post-punk revival)*
On 15 Lists
HAIM – Days Are Gone (indie pop/nu folk/r&b)
Vampire Weekend – Modern Vampires of the City (indie rock/baroque pop/Afrobeat)*
On 14 Lists
David Bowie – The Next Day (rock/pop/art rock)
On 13 Lists
Laura Marling – Once I Was An Eagle (folk/folk rock)*
On 12 Lists
Lorde – Pure Heroine (art pop/indie pop/electronica)
On 10 Lists
Chance The Rapper – Acid Rap (hip hop)
Deafheaven – Sunbather (metal)
Savages – Silence Yourself (post-punk revival/noise rock)
On 9 Lists
Arctic Monkeys – AM (indie rock/garage rock/post-punk revival)*
Neko Case – The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You (alt-country/indie rock/indie folk/Americana)*
On 8 Lists
Arcade Fire – Reflektor (indie rock/baroque pop/art rock)*
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Push The Sky Away (alternative rock)
Janelle Monáe – The Electric Lady (soul/r&b)*
My Bloody Valentine – m b v (alternative rock/shoegaze/noise pop)
Paramore – Paramore (emo/pop punk/alternative/indie rock)
Run the Jewels (Killer Mike And El-P) – Run The Jewels (hip hop)
On 7 Lists
Boards of Canada – Tomorrow’s Harvest (electronica/IDM/downtempo/trip hop)
Chvrches – The Bones of What You Believe (electronica/synthpop)*
Tim Hecker – Virgins (drone/microsound/ambient)
Phosphorescent – Muchacho (indie rock/indie pop/indie folk/alternative)*
On 6 Lists
Blake – Overgrown (electronica/dubstep/downtempo/experimental)
Danny Brown – Old (hip hop)
Disclosure – Settle (deep house/synthpop/future garage)
Drake – Nothing Was The Same (hip hop)
Fuck Buttons – Slow Focus (electronica/drone/post rock)
Jon Hopkins – Immunity (electronica/dance)
Jason Isbell – Southeastern (rock/alt-country)
Paul McCartney – New (rock/pop)
Kacey Musgraves – Same Trailer Different Park (country)
Queens Of The Stone Age – …Like Clockwork (hard rock/alternative metal/stoner rock)
Sky Ferreira – Night Time, My Time (synthpop/dance/indie pop)
Earl Sweatshirt – Doris (hip hop)
Waxahatchee – Cerulean Salt (alternative/folk)
On 5 Lists
Bill Callahan – Dream River (alt-country/low-fi/underground rock)
Brandy Clark – 12 Stories (country)
Mikal Cronin – MCII (alternative/indie rock/punk rock)
Deerhunter – Monomania (indie rock)
John Grant – Pale Green Ghosts (folk/alternative rock)
King Krule – 6 Feet Beneath The Moon (darkwave/indie rock/hip hop/blues)
M.I.A. – Matangi (hip hop/world/electronica/new rave)
Laura Mvula – Sing To The Moon (soul/jazz)
Nine Inch Nails – Hesitation Marks (industrial rock)
Rhye – Woman (soul/r&b)
Superchunk – I Hate Music (indie rock)
Thundercat – Apocalypse (r&b/jazz fusion/electronica/funk)*
On 4 Lists
Patty Griffin – American Kid (folk/alt-country/Americana)*
The Haxan Cloak – Excavation (electronica)
Julia Holter – Loud City Song (experimental/electronica/ambient/indie rock)*
In Solitude – Sister (metal)
Kelela – Cut 4 Me (soul/r&b)
Charles Lloyd & Jason Moran – Hagar’s Song (jazz)
Anaïs Mitchell & Jefferson Hamer – Child Ballads (folk)
Ashley Monroe – Like A Rose (country)
Parquet Courts – Light Up Gold (punk rock)
Pusha T – My Name Is My Name (hip hop)
Speedy Ortiz – Major Arcana (indie rock)
Gregory Porter – Liquid Spirit (jazz)
Tegan and Sara – Heartthrob (indie rock/folk)
On 3 Lists
John Luther Adams – Inuksuit (contemporary classical)*
Atoms for Peace – Amok (experimental rock/alternative/electronica)
Autre Ne Veut – Anxiety (alternative r&b)
Blood Orange – Cupid Deluxe (new wave/indie pop/funk/jazz)
Bombino – Nomad (rock/blues/world)
Guy Clark – My Favorite Picture of You (country/folk)*
Elvis Costello and the Roots – Wise Up Ghost (pop/rock/funk)
Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society – Brooklyn Babylon (jazz/big band/steampunk)
Dawn of Midi – Dysnomia (jazz/contemporary classical/indie rock)
The Devil Makes Three – I’m A Stranger Here (Americana/bluegrass)*
Fall Out Boy – Save Rock And Roll (pop/punk/rock)
The Flaming Lips – The Terror (alternative/dream pop/neo-psychedelia/space rock)
Foals – Holy Fire (indie rock/dance punk)
Four Tet – Beautiful Rewind (folktronica/post-dubstep/jazz/IDM)*
Frightened Rabbit – Pedestrian Verse (indie rock/indie folk)*
The Head And The Heart – Let’s Be Still (indie folk/folk rock/indie rock)
Hookworms – Pearl Mystic (noise rock/alternative/indie rock)
Into It. Over It. – Intersections (pop-punk)
Sarah Jarosz – Build Me Up from Bones (bluegrass/folk)
Valerie June – Pushin’ Against A Stone (folk/blues/soul/gospel/bluegrass)*
Sergei Rachmaninov – All-Night Vigil (Latvian Radio Choir/Sigvards Klava) (classical)
Lee Harvey Osmond – The Folk Sinner (psychedelic folk)
The Lone Bellow – The Lone Bellow (alt-country/blues/indie folk/roots rock/soul)
Los Campesinos! – No Blues (indie pop/indie rock/noise pop/twee pop)*
The Milk Carton Kids – The Ash & Clay (indie folk/Americana)
Juana Molina – Wed 21 (ambient/electrofolk/singer-songwriter)
John Murry – The Graceless Age (indie rock)
Oneohtrix Point Never – R Plus Seven (electronica/ambient/experimental)
San Fermin – San Fermin (chamber pop/contemporary classical)
Cécile McLorin Salvant – Womanchild (jazz)
Alice Smith – She (rock/soul/r&b/blues/jazz)
Subrosa – More Constant Than The Gods (doom rock)
Craig Taborn Trio – Chants (jazz)*
Rokia Traoré – Beautiful Africa (world)*
Dawn Upshaw & Maria Schneider – Winter Morning Walks (jazz/classical/big band)*
Kurt Vile – Wakin’ on a Pretty Daze (indie rock/indie folk/low-fi)
Volcano Choir – Repave (ambient/experimental/indie folk)
Chelsea Wolfe – Pain Is Beauty (neofolk/gothic rock/experimental/ethereal wave)
The Wonder Years – The Greatest Generation (pop punk/melodic hardcore)
On 2 Lists
Geri Allen – Grand River Crossings (jazz/funk/gospel)
Patricia Barber – Smash (jazz)
Baths – Obsidian (futurepop/glitch/electronica/experimental/IDM)
Charles Bradley – Victim of Love (funk/soul/r&b)
Braids – Flourish // Perish (indie rock/art rock/shoegaze/experimental)
Caleb Burhans – Evensong (contemporary classical/ambient/post-rock)
Camera Obscura – Desire Lines (indie pop)
James Cotton – Cotton Mouth Man (blues)
Miley Cyrus – Bangerz (pop/hip hop/country)
Darkside – Psychic (electronica)
Alela Diane – About Farewell (indie folk/Americana/psychedelic folk)
Dirty Beaches – Drifters/Love Is The Devil (lo-fi/no wave/rockabilly)
DJ Rashad – Double Cup (footwork/juke/electronica)
Henri Dutilleux – Correspondences and Other Works (Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France; Esa-Pekka Salonen, conductor) (classical)
Eminem – The Marshall Mathers LP2 (hip hop)
Factory Floor – Factory Floor (post-industrial/minimal techno/electronica)
Football Etc. – Audible (emo)
Foxygen – We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic (indie rock/psychedelic rock)*
Bill Frisell – Big Sur (jazz)
The Garifuna Collective – Ayó (world/punta/Garifuna)
Buddy Guy – Rhythm & Blues (blues/soul/r&b)
Fred Hersch & Julian Lage – Free Flying (jazz)
James Holden – The Inheritors (trance/electronica/IDM/minimal techno)
Vijay Iyer & Mike Ladd – Holding It Down: The Veterans’ Dreams Project (jazz/spoken word)*
Jagwar Ma – Howlin’ (house/techno/trip-hop/psychedelic/alternative dance)
José James – No Beginning No End (jazz/hip hop/neo-soul)
The James Hunter Six – Minute by Minute (soul/r&b)
The Joy Formidable – Wolf’s Law (indie rock/alternative/shoegaze)
The Julie Ruin – Run Fast (punk rock)
Ka – The Night’s Gambit (hip hop)
The Knife – Shaking The Habitual (synthpop/indietronica/dark ambient/trance)
David Lang – Death Speaks (Bryce Dessner, Nico Muhly, Owen Pallett & Shara Worden) (contemporary classical)*
Jessy Lanza – Pull My Hair Back (synthpop/electro r&b)
La Vida Bohème – Será (post-punk/indie rock/alternative)
Letlive – The Blackest Beautiful (post-hardcore/alt-metal/prog rock)
Locrian – Return To Annihilation (drone/noise/black metal)
London Grammar – If You Wait (electronica/trip-hop/pop)
Low – The Invisible Way (indie rock/slowcore)
Rudresh Mahanthappa – Gamak (jazz)
Harry Manx – Om Suite Ohm (blues/folk/Hindustani classical)
Johnny Marr – The Messenger (alternative/indie pop/indie rock)
The Mavericks – In Time (Americana/Tex-Mex/neotraditional country)
Christian McBride + Inside Straight – People Music (jazz/fusion)
MS MR – Secondhand Rapture (indie pop/dream pop/dark wave/alternative)
Nails – Abandon All Life (hardcore/grindcore/death metal)
The Naked and Famous – In Rolling Waves (indie pop/indietronica/nu gaze/post-punk)
Okkervil River – The Silver Gymnasium (indie rock/folk rock/alt-country)
William Onyeabor – Who Is William Onyeabor? (funk/world)*
Panic! At The Disco – Too Weird To Live, Too Rare To Die! (pop punk)
Jai Paul – Jai Paul (pop/r&b/hip hop/funk/chillwave)
The Pedrito Martinez Group – The Pedrito Martinez Group (jazz/Afro-Cuban/funk/rumba)
Pet Shop Boys – Electric (house/synthpop)
Josh Ritter – The Beast In Its Tracks (folk/alt-country/rock)
Bobby Rush – Down in Louisiana (soul/blues)*
Boz Scaggs – MEMPHIS (pop/rock/blues/r&b)
Wayne Shorter – Without A Net (jazz)
Dmitri Shostakovich – String Quartets Nos. 13-15; Alfred Schnittke – String Quartet No. 3 (Pacifica Quartet) (classical)
Ricky Skaggs & Bruce Hornsby – Cluck Ol’ Hen (bluegrass)
Omar Souleyman – Wenu Wenu (world/dabke/folk/electronica)
Mavis Staples – One True Vine (soul/r&b/gospel)
Marnie Stern – The Chronicles Of Marnia (math rock/indie rock/noise rock/experimental)
Suede – Bloodsports (indie rock/alternative/Britpop)
Tal National – Kaani (world/African rock)
Thee Oh Sees – Floating Coffin (garage rock/alternative/post-punk/art rock/noise rock)
Justin Timberlake – The 20/20 Experience (pop/r&b)
Touché Amoré – Is Survived By (hardcore punk/screamo)
Washed Out – Paracosm (chillwave/dream pop/trip hop/low fi/indie pop)
White Denim – Corsicana Lemonade (southern rock/prog rock/art rock/psychedelic rock)*
Holly Williams – The Highway (Americana/country/folk)
The Wood Brothers – The Muse (folk/Americana)*
Yo La Tengo – Fade (indie rock/noise pop/shoegaze)*
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