It's hard to believe, but we're already in November, which means that in about five weeks, I'll be straining to put together my Best of 2013 list. Well, there's a little more than a month left for potentially amazing albums to come out, but I already have an odd feeling that I'll be having quite a bit of difficulty narrowing my list down to just 10 albums. To put it simply, 2013 has been a really great year for music.

I first started thinking about this on Friday, when I went out to by some new CDs - yeah, I still buy CDs, big whoop wanna fight about it. Anyway, I had planned on buying Lorde's debut album Pure Heroine after reading multiple excellent reviews, but to my dismay, it was sold out (on the plus side, there's enough people still buying CDs that it's possible for a store to be sold out!). I wound up leaving with two other excellent debut records this year - those of Chvrches and Haim, and made a note to pick up Lorde's debut another time.

But of course, I then realized there were a bunch of other new releases I also really needed to pick up. Arcade Fire's latest has garnered somewhat-mixed-but-mostly-positive reviews, and at any rate, it certainly seems worth checking out. Then, there's Paul McCartney, who caught me way off guard buy making one of his best albums in years. And I still haven't even gotten around to buying the latest masterpieces from Drake and Kanye. the number of "Albums I Absolutely Need To Own"  is staggering right now. I can't remember the least time the music industry was on such a winning streak.

And keep in mind, I've already went on and bought plenty of albums this year. From Vampire Weekend's stunning Modern Vampires Of The City to both editions of Justin Timberlake's polarizing 20/20 Experience to the fantastic comeback records by Queens Of The Stone Age and Nine Inch Nails. My collection is quickly piling up with new records - nearly all of which have come out this year.

It's easy to get cynical about new music, but 2013 has been a ridiculously good year. I mean, you can find music to celebrate in any year, but this time around, the hits have just kept on coming. We got Bowie's first album in a decade, and it absolutely lived up to the hype. We saw Jim James go solo and make a quietly brilliant record that would beat out any of the last few releases from My Morning Jacket, and we saw Yo La Tengo continue one of music's longest winning streaks with the excellent Fade.

The number of brilliant records this year has been simply staggering. Let's put our cynicism aside and acknowledge the truth - 2013 has been a fucking glorious year for music.