Monday 23 December 2013

2013: Joe Gilbey's Favourite Tracks

As Joe Sherwood said on his own 'Favourite Tracks of 2013' list, although one may be led to believe that an end of year tracks list should primarily consist of tracks produced by those on the same person's albums list, there is far more to the process than that. An album is usually written with all of the tracks on it in mind, and so the finished product gives off a vibe that is similar at the start of the album to the end of the album; it is a continual piece of art. A single, however, is usually produced for mainstream entertainment purposes in order for an artist to get out their piece of work and showcase it to the world as a glimpse of their abilities as a musician. This, therefore, made choosing the greatest tracks exceedingly difficult as 2013 has been such a brilliantly diverse year, and although they have been ordered, I feel that any track could slide into my top 10 depending on what mood I'm in. Anyway, here's the list.

Friday 20 December 2013

2013: Joe Gilbey's Favourite Albums

I like keeping my forenotices short and sweet, and so all I really have to say is that 2013 has been an absolutely fucking insane year in the world of music. Thank you to everyone that has made the year such a good one for //APEX, we promise to supply you with many more great features in 2014. But yeah, here's my long-awaited AOTY list. Enjoy.

Thursday 19 December 2013

2013: Joe Sherwood's Favourite Tracks

You'd think that a favourite tracks/singles list would converge mainly around one's favourite albums, but to my mind a good album is one that retains a degree of uniformity quality-wise, making it rather difficult to dissect and split up the overall experience. That said, I've done precisely that for a number of tracks here, but I guess what I'm trying to say is that my favourite albums list isn't particularly reflected in this list of my favourite tracks of the past year. It contains plenty of singles, non-album tracks, mixtape cuts, and even stuff from albums I didn't really care for - my number one pick here confirms this sentiment rather nicely. Ultimately, I prefer the full album experience, but my enjoyment of single tracks this year has certainly been expanded over the past twelve months, and a large selection of 75 seems to suggest that. So, having reveled in the long players of 2013, here's to the musical short form.

P.S. Yes, Miley Cyrus has indeed made the list, even cracking the top 50. Sometimes, it's just too difficult to deny some pretty good pop music.

Tuesday 10 December 2013

2013: Joe Sherwood's Favourite Albums

When it comes to making these year-end lists, I always try to pick out trends in my listening habits, and I always come up with nothing. I'm not trying to say I have an amazingly diverse taste in music, because I don't particularly; only a few rock albums have made it onto my top 50, and unbelievably there are no representatives for metal. The lack of any real dominant focus in my music listening most likely owes to the increasingly fragmented state of music. We live in the age of information, and pretty much any record of one's choosing is available to stream, purchase or (perhaps) download for nothing within a few clicks. Moreover, a lot of the best records this year are available for free at the artist's choice, and it's telling that 3 of my top 10 albums can be downloaded legally without charge. And, the definition of what exactly an "album" is has become hazy of late, with mixtapes and EPs slotting alongside commercially available, full-length releases. The point I'm trying to make here is that this top 50 isn't some sort of vanity exercise to show how unique my tastes are, nor is it an overblown advertisement for independent labels. It's simply a showcase of my personal favourites from the past year, and any diversity is most likely down to the prominence of the internet rather than a conscious decision on my part to appear on trend.

As ever, there was some unpleasant culling that had to be done to keep this list at 50 records, and some really rather good albums are missing from this list. I would honor them here, but there are far too many to reel off, so I may make a separate post for the honorable mentions. I'll also include a Spotify playlist at the foot of this post with some of my favourite tracks from each album (provided the album is actually on Spotify, of course). Please, don't dwell on the rankings too much, because every single one of these 50 records is absolutely worth checking out.

Thanks for reading //APEX this year, and I hope you can find something you enjoy from this list.

Monday 2 December 2013

2013: Favourite Album Covers

2013 has unquestionably been a landmark year in music; with comebacks and breakthroughs, debuts and swan songs, Sky Ferreira and Miley Cyrus, it has been more than an eventful 12 months. However, here at //APEX we're a little more easily amused by the little things in life, so welcome to our 30 finest album covers of the year.

P.S. big up to the artists at DONDA that have actually managed to squeeze 2 Chainz onto an end of year list.
Joe Gilbey


Never judge a book by its cover, or so the old adage goes. We're not ones to do that, but instead we'll opt to judge a cover by its cover for our favourite pieces of album artwork from the past 12 months. These picks fall under numerous criteria: conceptual statements, imagery related to the music, or on a more basic level the simple aesthetic value of the art. Here are 30 of our favourite covers, in no particular order, for you to feast your eyes on before the real business of year-end lists commences (ie albums and tracks). Enjoy.
Joe Sherwood