I’ve made a conscious effort to listen to more new music over the last year or two in an effort to stave off the inevitable moment when pop culture passes me by. Ever since I realized that I tend not to absorb an album by listening to it passively while working, I’ve made sure to rate them on RateYourMusic.com so I can at least retain my impressions. My top five albums released since 2013:

4.5 Stars:

• Foxygen, We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic
• Courtney Barnett, Sometimes I Sit and Think, Sometimes I Just Sit
• Kate Tempest, Everybody Down

4 Stars:

• Punch Brothers, The Phosphorescent Blues
• Joe Henry, Invisible Hour
• Todd Terje, It’s Album Time
• Vampire Weekend, Modern Vampires of the City
• Julia Holter, Loud City Song
• Elivs Costello and The Roots, Wise Up Ghost
• Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings, Give the People What They Want

If I were ordering these retrospectively, I’d put Vampire Weekend on top (“Hudson” was easily my favorite song of 2013), followed by Courtney Barnett. But these were my impressions at the time.