Disclaimer: I love music. It sometimes makes me lapse into hyperbole. My bad.

In this big, beautiful world that we live in, one could listen to a new album—or six albums, or six dozen new albums—every single day for an entire year and still barely experience a fraction of the moving, inspirational and astounding music coming into existence. It’s like standing on a mountain with your hands outstretched, attempting to touch all of the air blowing past. All you can do is screw your headphones in, close your eyes and feel the wind on your face.

As the days get shorter and the year draws to a close, I bring you the top picks from my modest corner of tastes and sensibilities. It’s been a remarkable fast year. A slow year. A crazy year. And this is the soundtrack to that year: rated, scaled, and wrapped with a bow and tie. This is The Top Ten Albums of This Excellent Year In Music, The Year of Our Lord 2013.

10. Lorde — Pure Heroine
What: Adele, eat your heart out.
Listen: “Royals”, the foot-tappinest, head-boppingest feel-goodest single of the year.

When Ella Maria Lani Yelich-O’Connor made landfall on the mainland U.S., we (read: “I”) recoiled…but then that motion nonchalantly turned into rhythmic head-bopping. It makes sense, though, because Pure Heroine is a paragon of art-pop—chock full of lush vocal arrangements, flirtatious hooks and feel-good lyrics. I forgive those who call the album “innovative” (it’s not), simply because it executes on the sensibilities of the genre so well. Cuts like “400 Lux” embody—nay, exemplify—everything about pop music that makes us feel more alive.

9. Fitz & The Tantrums — More Than Just a Dream
What: Just too catchy to ignore.
Listen: “Out of Your League”, an apt reminder that this band has attained greatness far beyond their league of peers.

I was wholeheartedly convinced that “MoneyGrabber” would be Fitz & The Tantrums’ swan song—it seemed unlikely that they’d ever be able to top that level of unbridled catchiness. Their patented injection of funky soul dynamics breathed fresh life into the tawdry, incestuous indie-pop scene. Moreover, I pegged them as a hyberbolic band whose Jimmy Kimmel Live! appearance would be the apex. Well, shame on me, because “Out of Your League” and “The End” dominated FM radios and Spotify playlists for much of the spring and summer. My own included.

8. Deafheaven — Sunbather
What: A genre of darkness finally bathed in light.
Listen: Shadow and sun intermixed beneath “The Pecan Tree”.

I hate black metal. Its incessant focus on bleakness, unlistenable production and ridiculous antics have always alienated me, especially as my musical tastes evolved to catchier sonic frontiers. It was darkness, when I craved light…and that’s why Sunbather is a game-changer. Its blackened edges are tempered by gorgeous, soaring melodies, crescendoing songwriting and a refreshingly clean mix. The climax of epic closer “The Pecan Tree” stays true to the genre’s crushing and bombastic roots—yet it resonates with hope, like glimmering sunlight.

7. The National — Trouble Will Find Me
What: Bare. Broken. Beautiful.
Listen: “I Should Live In Salt”; a stunning celebration of guilt.

In 2010, Matt Berninger sang of impending “Sorrow”. Three years later, it is clear that sorrow—and trouble—has found him. The National continue to write four-minute tragedies: “Trouble Will Find Me” is filled with cuts that are ragged with despondency and angst. On “Heavenfaced”, The National cross their Rubicon—it is simultaneously their highest moment as a band, and Berninger’s darkest hour as a man.

6. August Burns Red — Rescue & Restore
What: The boys finally write the post-metal magnum opus they’ve been aspiring to for years.
Listen: Blast this one so loud that it’ll send “Echoes” through your ear drums.

2011's Leveler realized my worst fears. Its mechanical precision and formulaic writing proved that August Burns Red were “Boys of Fall” no longer. Gone was their youthful spirit and vigor. I listened to this first grasp towards maturity not unlike a parent watching a teen fumble with new-found independence. While that EP fell short, it took them only two years to write the album they’ve always aspired to—and Rescue & Restore is at once thunderous, technical and beautiful. Their chosen brand of dreamy, atmospheric metalcore (exemplified in “Spirit Breaker”) retains the signature breakdowns and shredding that put them on the map…but now it’s deliciously fused with tender, stunning post-rock.

5. Bring Me the Horizon — Sempiternal
What: Oli Sykes finally wears his heart, rather than his influences, on his sleeve.
Listen: All hail the “Shadow Moses”.

There is a watershed moment in a band’s career in which they soar above petty “scene” convention and allegations of imitation to truly own their chosen sound. In short, it’s the place where greatness truly begins. And as unthinkable as it might be, Bring Me the Horizon have arrived there, while their peers jealously claw at their heels. Even in their days as a universally panned run-of-the-mill deathcore band fronted by an egomaniac frontman, the band always had a penchant for bombast. They were a young and precocious group, hungrily weaving their influences into their sound (which led to outrage amongst self-righteous genre purists). With Sempiternal, that tendency towards imitation is more than matched by zeal and flawless execution, showcased in thrashers like “Empire”. It’s clear that Oli & Co. finally gave their detractors the middle finger and wrote the album they’ve wanted to all along—and the results are astounding. Unfortunately, the most haunting cut they’ve ever recorded, “Deathbeds”, is merely a bonus track, when it absolutely should have closed the album.

4. Washed Out — Paracosm
What: Cheap summer flings in all of their shallow glory.
Listen: A random hook-up on a beautiful June night—and “It All Feels Right”.

The music of Ernest Greene is inherently sexual; one look at the cover art of his 2011 LP tells all. Paracosm continues the theme, this time evoking carnal liaisons in a garden, or on a grassy lawn, or wherever else love can be made on a warm summer night. This is not romantic music. This is not sentimental music. The ‘70s R&B beats, sun-drenched keys and shoegazer vocals create a sense of lust—pulsating and undulating. Oh, and the string synth in refrain of “It All Feels Right” is the most infectious musical tidbit of the year. Yes, I’m talking about those four notes starting at 0:25. Yes, those, right there. Mmmm.

3. Alcest — Opale
What: This is what falling in love on the boulevards of Paris sounds like.
Listen: “Opale”, the year’s only single that can instantly transport you to the shadow of the Eiffel Tower.

Allow me for a moment to engage in pretentious prose, for the music of Alcest deserves every word of praise. Alcest is Rococo-era paintings of the Eiffel Tower. It’s rippling waves in the wheat fields of Brittany. It’s everything mystical and surreal and beautiful about France—both the real place and the romanticized version in our collective conscious. The solo project headed by Parisian native Neige released only one song this year, “Opale”— and, as my #3 pick, it is more significant than just about anything else I’ve heard in 2013, full albums included. What makes the song (and the band) so stunning is the pastoral, soaring atmosphere—the breathy, sun-drenched vocals, gut-wrenching tremolo picking and wistful chimes. I have not been to Paris, nor have I fallen in love in Paris—but this song is what I imagine it would feel like. The accompanying music video, perhaps the year’s most beautiful, vindicates me on that last point.

2. Counterparts — The Difference Between Hell and Home
What: “I’m not worth it. I’m not worth it.”
Listen: “Debris”, Brenden Murphy’s eulogy…as written by himself.

In a year filled with dozens of quality melodic hardcore EPs, The Difference Between Hell and Home stands apart as the most tortured and haunting. The album sounds massive and full — a thunderous drum section backs up swelling rhythm guitars, soaring leads and Murphy’s desolate, angst-ridden vocals. In fact, the songs are so lyrically-driven that its obvious they are the genuine product of true helplessness and sorrow, rather than the tacked-on facade so prevalent in the genre. Closer “Soil” melts your heart and face simultaneously; after spending the previous hour entreating us to his misery, Murphy cries out, “Stop your heart and start the healing process.” Amidst a sea of desperation, the last thing Counterparts imparts on the listener as the guitars fade away is a glimmer of light…and hope.

1. Sleeping At Last — Atlas: Space 2
What: “How rare, how beautiful it is to even exist.”
Listen: “Saturn” captures the beauty in all things—and, as such, it is the single most stunning track of the year. An absolutely mandatory listen.

Ryan O’Neill lives in the world’s most majestic mountains. Or he lives on the prettiest shoreline facing the bluest ocean. Or perhaps his mailing address is in fucking Shangri La. All I know is that somewhere, somehow, he has tapped into a seemingly inexhaustable well of inspiration: in 2013 alone, he has released five EPs, containing many of the year’s most cloyingly pretty tracks. On the heals of 2010-11's Yearbook—a truly epic series of 12 records, one for each month of the year—his solo project Sleeping At Last yielded Space 1 and 2, a glorious pair of conceptual albums that are as profound and resplendant as the solar system itself. Like its namesake, “Saturn” is a serene and spectacular overture—and the absolute highlight of the album. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that it is one of the most arresting songs I’ve ever heard, from any genre. From its chill-inducing string quartet to the distant, ethereal piano and O’Neill’s soaring croons, it’s one of those songs that makes you contemplate life and death and everything in between, as the lyrics suggest:

I’d give anything to hear
You say it one more time,
That the universe was made
Just to be seen by my eyes.

We all dream of more. Fortunately, there is beautiful music like this to hold us over until we see the stars up close some day.