Music has been kind to 2013: the year is a little more than halfway over, and already we have a bounty of great albums to take us into the fall, winter and beyond. Here are five incredible albums released this year:??Modern Vampires of the City? Vampire WeekendReleased earlier this year, first single ?Step? is all you need to discover what has happened to Vampire Weekend in the three-year absence between ?Contra? and ?Modern Vampires:? someone told them about death.This revelation has breathed new life into Vampire Weekend, and with it comes some of the year?s greatest music. The Ivy-league wit and Russian nesting dolls references are still here, but there is newfound wisdom and vulnerability lining the walls of ?Modern Vampires.?Tracks like ?Hannah Hunt,? ?Everlasting Arms,? and most especially ?Ya Hey? prove that there is still more to Vampire Weekend than meets the eye, even now.Vampire Weekend have stripped themselves down to nearly nothing, and in the process found the key to their (musical) lives.Key lyric: ?I want to know: does it bother you? The low click of a ticking clock? There?s a lifetime right in front of you…and everyone I know.???Random Access Memories? – Daft PunkOkay, it?s not 2003?s ?Discovery.? But with ?RAM,? Daft Punk re-invents disco. Or was it techno? Did they re-invent anything? The answer is…maybe. But also: who cares? You?re still listening to ?Get Lucky?every other day, and if you aren?t, I?m sure someone in the next room is.If you manage to dig deeper, though, and find beautiful, crystalline gems like ?Instant Crush,? ?Touch,? and ?Doin? It Right,? then, well, you?re doing it right.Key lyric: ?If the music gives you life, give life back to music.???EP? – ChvrchesYes, that?s a V. A three-piece electro pop treasure all the way from Scotland, they?re responsible for some of the absolute best pop music of the year you probably haven?t heard yet. They don?t even have an album out yet.Seek out their songs ?The Mother We Share,? and ?Gun.?Key lyric: ?I?m in misery, where you can seem as old as your omens. And the mother we share won?t keep our cold hearts from calling.???Hummingbird? – Local NativesLocal Natives? debut album was a summery collection of songs that announced a new talent. Not the case with ?Hummingbird.?This is the same band, but they?re smarter, wiser, and older. ?Three Months? and ?Columbia? are the two best songs on the album; together they form a crushing pair of songs dealing with the death of Taylor Rice?s mother.?Columbia? is one of the best songs of 2013 thus far, and anyone not thrown off by their first album willing to give ?Hummingbird? a proper listen will find it?s one of the best albums of the year as well.Key lyric: ?Every night I ask myself: am I giving enough? Am I loving enough? Am I?????Yeezus? – Kanye WestKey lyric: ?In aFrench-ass restaurant. Hurry up with my damn croissants.”?Music in 2013; the best of the rest, in no particular order.?”MBV” – My Bloody Valentine”R Plus Seven” – Oneohtrix Point Never”The Flower Lane” – Ducktails”Amok” – Atoms for Peace”Wondrous Bughouse” – Youth Lagoon”Empty Estate” – Wild Nothing”Repave” – Volcano Choir”Comedown Machine” – The Strokes”Soft Will” – Smith Westerns”The 20/20 Experience” – Justin TimberlakeShaking the Habitual-The Knife”Kveikur” – Sigur Ros”Bankrupt!” – Phoenix”Silence Yourself” – Savages”The Next Day” – David Bowie