Friday on My Mind: KEXP Listeners' Top Albums of 2013

It’s time again for Friday on My Mind. Our weekly blog post where we look at videos centered around one common theme. This is a collaborative effort between KEXP and King 5 News.

If you missed it yesterday, we had our One Day Radio Rally. KEXP along with five of our fellow public radio stations KPLU, KING, C89.5, and KBCS banded together to ask for all of you out there to rally and support public radio. It was a chance for all of us to ask for your support, but as well the gifts didn't just benefit public radio, we also saw this as an opportunity to help out those in need in our community. Each station is purchasing Winter care packs, which are comprised of a hat and gloves that will then be giving to United Way for distribution. United Way will use volunteers to assemble and distribute the winter care packs to area shelters during this cold holiday season. So thank you to all of you who stood up to champion public radio and who worked to help all members of our community especially those who are in need.

During this One Day Radio Rally, we also decided to hold our end of the year album countdown. You can see the full list of results here, but now let's look at videos from the albums that topped the list. Here are the very best albums of 2013 as voted on by the KEXP listeners:Arcade Fire - Reflektor

The #1 album 2013 for KEXP Listeners is Reflektor from Arcade Fire. We here at KEXP are still reeling from Arcade Fire's performance over our airwaves back in October. This new album was produced by James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem and features contributions for Owen Pallett, Kid Koala, and on the title track they have David Bowie helping out with some vocals...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7E0fVfectDo

The National - Sea of Love

The National can do no wrong. They continue to put out strong albums, and Trouble Will Find Me is no exception. Three of the members of the band are married with children, and in the press junket for the album, they also state that Aaron Dessner became a father since the last album. His lack of sleep with a newborn is attributed as factoring in how he wrote music for this new album.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIWmRbHDhGw

The epic inspiration for the “Sea of Love” video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyCsJAj69sc

Vampire Weekend - Diane Young

Released in May of 2013, the next album to come in on our countdown is Modern Vampires of the City from Vampire Weekend. The official music video for "Diane Young" has appearances from familiar folks such as Santigold, Sky Ferreira, and members of Dirty Projectors, and The Walkmen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oG6lTQNW04I

Honorable Mentions:

Daft Punk - Instant Crush

This year, Random Access Memories by Daft Punk served as a soundtrack for many. Legendary producer Giorgio Moroder and Nile Rogers of Chic are some of the many guest artists featured on the new album. Julian Casablancas of The Strokes is also one of the other many guest vocalists featured on Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories. The song "Instant Crush" is the most recent single from the album to also have an official music video, which features Casablancas in puppet form.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5uQMwRMHcs

CHVRCHES - The Mother We Share

British band CHVRCHES put out a solid debut album this year called The Bones of What you Believe. We loved it, and KEXP listeners did too, so much so that they voted it the # 5 album of 2013. Here is the video for the single “The Mother We Share”...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mTRvJ9fugM