AwardsWatch - 2013 In Review: A Year for Comebacks

2013 In Review: A Year for Comebacks

My Bloody Valentine, reappearing after over 20 years — My Bloody Valentine, alive and kicking…and still making great music

Not only did My Bloody Valentine return after a 22-year break, but it returned with the neatest, probably the best album of a really competitive year. Imagine Nicolás Jaar (the guy behind Darkside) was just an infant when Loveless was released in 1991. And here they are, sharing mentions in best-of-the-year lists, with sounds that seem perfectly contemporary. David Bowie, take note. Aside from the albums undeniable quality, what is so great about M B V is the kind of message a legendary band leaves after an album like this. Their sound prevailed, their legacy is alive, they never really left.[divider]

Daft Punk, took a look back to build the future — Daft Punk took a look at the past to build the future

Daft Punk. What happened this year with the French duo might be the biggest thing that music has lived in decades. Suddenly we were back in the eighties, when an album itself paralyzed the whole world. Not a controversial new star or a YouTube phenomenon. This was no Lady Gaga or Gangnam Style. An album, the format that has suffered the most in the age of digital downloads and on-demand music platforms. Yes, “Get Lucky” was a spot-on single to start with the promotion, but critic sites and mainstream market were fascinated by the phenomenon the album itself became. It wasn’t even a subject of quality. Random Access Memories is not a neat album. It is sure an improvement from their last studio album, Human After All (2005) but it is nowhere near Discovery, the band’s masterpiece from 2001. It’s more of a homage to their influences and to music itself. To giving life back to music. Perhaps this spread nostalgia to what music once was is what lead the album to have such great vinyl sales.

Music is alive.

[author image=”http://awardswatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/profile_alvareztostado_rsz.jpg” ]Aldo Álvareztostado is an architect and designer based in Guadalajara, Mexico. Cofounded Mexicana de Arquitectura in 2010; and started his own line of industrial design, Álvareztostado, in 2013. Member of the ICS and part of the Awards Daily community since 2003.[/author]

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.