It's always hard to predict how our audience will vote in our year-end polls for the best music. NPR has a large group of listeners with wildly varying tastes. But this year was even harder to call because we had an unusually large pool of contenders for Album Of The Year.
In the end listeners picked Vampire Weekend's Modern Vampires Of The City as the year's best album. No other record came close. It drew more than twice as many votes as the next closest record, Arcade Fire's Reflektor. Daft Punk's Random Access Memories followed closely in third place, with The National's Trouble Will Find Me and Lorde's Pure Heroine wrapping up our top five. (You can see the others that made the final list below).
Lorde led a trio of debut albums in the top ten, each fronted by female singers (the others were The Bones of What You Believe by CHVRCHES and Days Are Gone by HAIM). Listeners seemed less interested in let's-get-a-band-together guitar rock this year and more interested in studio efforts, like the carefully composed songs from bands such as Vampire Weekend or Atoms For Peace. There was a lot of love for dance and pop, with albums from Daft Punk, Janelle Monae and Justin Timberlake in the top 25. At No. 7, Kanye West's Yeezus was the lone hip-hop album to appear in the top 25 (you'll find more in the top 100 listener picks we list at the bottom of the page).
You can hear us count down through the top 25 most popular albums in this year's poll with the link above, or scroll through the list below. You can see the top 100 albums at the bottom of the page and download a pdf of the full list.
The Top 100 Listener Picks For 2013:
1. Vampire Weekend, Modern Vampires Of The City
2. Arcade Fire, Reflektor
3. Daft Punk, Random Access Memories
4. The National, Trouble Will Find Me
5. Lorde, Pure Heroine
6. Chvrches, The Bones Of What You Believe
7. Kanye West, Yeezus
8. HAIM, Days Are Gone
9. Neko Case, The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You
10. James Blake, Overgrown
11. Volcano Choir, Repave
12. Phosphorescent, Muchacho
13. Queens Of The Stone Age, ...Like Clockwork
14. Kurt Vile, Wakin On A Pretty Daze
15. The Avett Brothers, Magpie And The Dandelion
16. The Civil Wars, The Civil Wars
17. Janelle Monáe, The Electric Lady
18. Justin Timberlake, The 20/20 Experience - 1 of 2
19. David Bowie, The Next Day
20. Local Natives, Hummingbird
21. Atoms For Peace, Amok
22. Sigur Rós, Kveikur
23. Foxygen, We Are The 21st Century Ambassadors Of Peace & Magic
24. Rhye, Woman
25. The Head And The Heart, Let's Be Still
26. Tegan And Sara, Heartthrob
27. My Bloody Valentine, m b v
28. Typhoon, White Lighter
29. Phoenix, Bankrupt!
30. Jason Isbell, Southeastern
31. Iron And Wine, Ghost On Ghost
32. Disclosure, Settle
33. Laura Marling, Once I Was An Eagle
34. Chance The Rapper, Acid Rap
35. Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros
36. Kacey Musgraves, Same Trailer Different Park
37. Daughter, If You Leave
38. The Flaming Lips, The Terror
39. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Push The Sky Away
40. Elvis Costello & The Roots, Wise Up Ghost
41. Savages, Silence Yourself
42. Death Cab For Cutie, Transatlanticism (10th Anniversary Edition)
43. Frightened Rabbit, Pedestrian Verse
44. Earl Sweatshirt, Doris
45. Nine Inch Nails, Hesitation Marks
46. Yo La Tengo, Fade
47. M.I.A., Matangi
48. Lucius, Wildewoman
49. The Lone Bellow, The Lone Bellow
50. Josh Ritter, The Best In Its Tracks
51. Deerhunter, Monomania
52. Deafheaven, Sunbather
53. Patty Griffin, American Kid
54. Junip, Junip
55. Okkervil River, The Silver Gymnasium
56. MGMT, MGMT
57. Mikal Cronin, MCI
58. Jim James, Regions Of Light And Sound Of God
59. Drake, Nothing Was The Same
60. Youth Lagoon, Wondrous Bughouse
61. Paul McCartney, New
62. Washed Out, Paracosm
63. Justin Timberlake, The 20/20 Experience - 2 of 2
64. Boards of Canada, Tomorrow's Harvest
65. Valerie June, Pushin' Against A Stone
66. Bill Callahan, Dream River
67. Jay Z, Magna Carta Holy Grail
68. Thao & The Get Down Stay Down, We The Common
69. Waxahatchee, Cerulean Salt
70. Danny Brown, Old
71. The Strokes, Comedown Machine
72. Dr. Dog, B-Room
73. Childish Gambino, Because The Internet
74. Darkside, Psychic
75. The Knife, Shaking The Habitual
76. Bonobo, The North Borders
77. Franz Ferdinand, Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action
78. King Krule, 6 Feet Beneath The Moon
79. San Fermin, San Fermin
80. Blood Orange, Cupid Deluxe
81. Run The Jewels (Killer Mike & El-P), Run The Jewels
82. The 1975, The 1975
83. Jon Hopkins, Immunity
84. Frank Turner, Recovery
85. Steve Martin and Edie Brickell, Love Has Come For You
86. Death Grips, Government Plates
87. Jake Bugg, Shangri La
88. The Beatles, On Air - Live At The BBC, Vol. 2
89. Unknown Mortal Orchestra, II
90. Best Coast, Fade Away
91. Dave Grohl & Friends, Sound City: Real To Reel
92. Superchunk, I Hate Music
93. Pusha T, My Name Is My Name
94. Bombino, Nomad
95. Sleigh Bells, Bitter Rivals
96. Grouplove, Spreading Rumours
97. Moon Hooch, Moon Hooch
98 Laura Veirs, Warp And Weft
99. She & Him, Volume 3
100. Ty Segall, Sleeper
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