{"id":47696,"date":"2013-12-19T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-12-19T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/features\/2013-full-power\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T11:45:05","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T11:45:05","slug":"2013-full-power","status":"publish","type":"feature","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/features\/2013-full-power\/","title":{"rendered":"2013: Full Power"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Despite railing on a semi-regular basis against the tyranny of genres in music, I spent an awful lot of 2013 within the confines of just two of them, and the two could hardly have been more different\u2014progressive rock and Americana. But as the saying goes, if you\u2019re going to dig, shouldn\u2019t you mine where the gold is?<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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Best One I Missed Last Year (I Do That A Lot)<\/b><\/p>\n

Gary Clark Jr. \u2013 Blak And Blu<\/i> <\/p>\n

I prefer this title for this award to the leading alternative: Jason Is Slow Sometimes. Gary Clark\u2019s major-label debut is a blazing inferno of blues-infused psychedelic r&b, the kind of stuff that got me giddy enough to compare one song to \u201cJames Brown and Al Green strapped to a cruise missile, with Lenny Kravitz on lead guitar and a fat horn section providing the rocket fuel\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

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Best Album I Would Have Reviewed If They\u2019d Been Willing To Send Me A Physical<\/b><\/p>\n

Tedeschi Trucks Band \u2013 Made Up Mind<\/i> <\/p>\n

Call me a dinosaur or a stubborn cuss or whatever you like; I don\u2019t review downloads<\/u>. An album is a multi-dimensional experience for me that necessarily includes holding physical product in my hands, leafing through the liner notes and considering the track list and artwork while I\u2019m listening. Of the nearly 700 albums I\u2019ve reviewed to date, I can still count the number I\u2019ve reviewed off a download on one hand. And even a band I admire and enjoy as much as TTB isn\u2019t going to get me over that mental barrier; the experience is not complete without physical product in my hands. So, to artists and managers and promoters alike, I say, with all due respect: deal with it.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

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Comeback Of The Year<\/b><\/p>\n

The Mavericks \u2013 In Time<\/i> <\/p>\n

Welcome back, guys; you\u2019ve been missed. Here, 15 years later, is the logical successor to 1998\u2019s magnificent Trampoline<\/i>, drawing together the strands of Tejano, nightclub jazz, rockabilly and salsa that have always made the Mavericks one of the most unique and entertaining acts around.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

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Best Americana Releases \/ Indies of the Year<\/b><\/p>\n

Casey Frazier \u2013 Regal<\/i>
D.B. Rielly \u2013 Cross My Heart + Hope To Die<\/i>
Scott Kurt \u2013 Down This Road (EP)<\/i><\/p>\n

These guys all get it; they meld traditional American roots music with killer songwriting and performing chops to deliver moments of musical brilliance shot through with hard-won wisdom. Any one of these discs suits a night at the bar like a cold draft with a slice of lime.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

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Best Album That Just Never Reached Me<\/b><\/p>\n

Steven Wilson \u2013 The Raven That Refused To Sing<\/i> <\/p>\n

My fellow prog-heads raved about this one all year long. I loved-loved-loved the last two discs from Porcupine Tree, brimming as they were with Mr. Wilson\u2019s easily stipulated musical excellence. The band Wilson assembled for this album is beyond brilliant. And this album, after several listens weeks or months apart, left me flat. I can\u2019t explain it; it just never reached me. That happens sometimes; no harm, no foul, we\u2019ll try again next time.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

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Best Neo-Prog That Wasn\u2019t Big Big Train<\/b><\/p>\n

Days Between Stations \u2013 In Extremis <\/i>
Sound Of Contact \u2013 Dimensionaut<\/i><\/p>\n

In my year of prog (an unintentional by-product of my other life<\/a>), Big Big Train loomed large, but others did share the spotlight, in particular this pair of duos-with-a-strong-supporting-cast. \u00a0Sound Of Contact might lean a little more mainstream versus Days Between Stations\u2019 eclecticism, but both embrace, celebrate and extend the prog genre with their dynamic visions.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

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Best Prog Supergroup (Department of No Vocals)<\/b><\/p>\n

Levin Rudess Minnemann – LRM<\/i> <\/p>\n

They killed it; simple as that. Three world-class players, 12 tremendous tracks, one distinctly memorable album.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

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Album of the Year<\/b><\/p>\n

Big Big Train \u2013 English Electric: Full Power<\/i> <\/p>\n

No contest here; it\u2019s not even close. It\u2019s been an amazing 15 months for the boys from Bournemouth, kicking off last September with the release of the magnificent English Electric Part One<\/i><\/a>, followed this March by Part Two<\/i><\/a>, and this September by the release of the epic, reconfigured-with-four-new-tracks double album English Electric: Full Power<\/i><\/a>. Not just the prog album of the year, this is the album of the year, period. A panoramic musical vision, fully realized by a stellar cast of players, delivering a sense of time and place (20th century industrial England) with a sharpness of observation and depth of emotion that is simply unsurpassed. English Electric: Full Power<\/i> is a truly magnificent achievement.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\u00a0 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite railing on a semi-regular basis against the tyranny of genres in music, I spent an awful lot of 2013 within the confines of just two of them, and the two could hardly have been more different\u2014progressive rock and Americana. But as the saying goes, if you\u2019re going to dig, shouldn\u2019t you mine where the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":50088,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"feature_type":[5609],"class_list":["post-47696","feature","type-feature","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","feature_type-best-of"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/feature\/47696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/feature"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/feature"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"feature_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/feature_type?post=47696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}