2013 was a pretty normal year. We reviewed around ninety albums, distilling the following 31 list.

What wasn’t normal was the passing of Lou Reed. I was a latecomer to Reed’s brilliance, later learning how deep his influence truly was. Today I wonder what it would have been like to visit Warhol’s Factory and watched the Velvet Underground. Or to have been at the table when Reed, Bowie, and Iggy Pop would hold court. Even a simple coffee with he and wife Laurie Anderson would have been unbelievably amazing. Not that any of that would have happened, and I’m grateful for his music from which I have been given so much.

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