Ok, time to do the right thing and finnish off this weekly look back at two thousand and thirteen with the only one that really matters, right? I am spending Christmas and New Year out here in a small small small “alles in ordnung” German town which means I get to miss the annual stampede of “best of” lists, but if the NME one is anything to go by I didn’t miss much. Maybe next year Divisionary will feature though?

So it’s, of course – who else can it possibly be – but Mark Kozelek and Jimmy LaValle and “Perils from the Sea”. I think it says something about the predictable and a little boring music world in 2013 that an “average” Mark Kozelek album is still better than anything else in 2013. Average isin’t really an accurate word to describe the sheer hypnotic beauty of these songs. For crazy kids like me who buy everything Mark Kozelek releases this one was particularly cool because he mixed his sublime beatnik poetry (as in write about everything) up with the loose electro beats supplied from the guy from the album leaf.

So, in case you missed it here’s a song to sing as the bells strike midnight and to dream of a better tomorrow. I’ll see you back in England in 2014 for more adventures with words and guitars xo