Ottawa Showbox’s Favourite Canadian Albums of 2013

by osbx

12/20/2013

1953

Ottawa, Best Albums of 2013, Best of, Canadian Music, Indie, Best canadian music

These days there is so much music out there in the universe, it feels overwhelming sometimes. A lot of bloggers spend hours per day sifting through countless Bandcamps and Soundcloud accounts trying to find the next big thing. We are not those bloggers. We love new music and will usually give an album a listen if there’s a buzz about it, just to see what the big deal is all about. We don’t, however, claim to be the authority on breaking new bands across Canada or the world. Our purpose and drive is centred locally, and our passion really is seeing music live. For lack of a better cliche, music is the soundtrack to the lives of Matias, Eric, and Joe. We’re the kind of people that feel weird when there’s silence, and usually have music playing in some way or another at all times. None of us would claim to have listened to all albums that were released this year, nor would we claim that this list is exhaustive or exclusive in any way.

That being said, we recognize how strong the independent music industry is in Canada. Guys like Shad or gals like Feist are constantly pushing the envelope and challenging us to experience their music as an art form. Without artists like this, people like us would not have very good soundtracks for our life happenings. This time of year many blogs and websites are posting their ‘Top 10’ or ‘Top 100’ albums and songs of the year. There’s nothing wrong with that. However, we like to think of music positively. It is experiential. It is moving. It is directly connected to our emotions, as good music comes from the soul.

We don’t think music should be a competition. There is no real rubric that dictates what music is best. Who are we to say what is ‘best’? We each have our own rubric for what moves us within, and that is based on our past, our experiences, our relationships, our heartbreaks… all of it. So, instead of providing you with a ranked list, we’re giving you the Canadian indie music that resonated with us the most. One album may resonate for a different reason than another. Our hope is to maybe help disseminate some good tunes that you’ve never heard of, or been meaning to but never got around to it. And chances are we’ve missed a few albums that we’ll regret not putting on this list six months from now. Oh well. Here’s an unranked list of albums that we think mattered in 2013, in no particular order.