The big music story of 2013 hasn't been the emergence of a bright new artist or genre. When people look back on this year they'll think of Robin Thicke's creepy uncle routine, Miley Cyrus giving oral pleasure to builders' hardware or Kanye West's Nietzschean rants about his fiancée's bottom. This was the year when the music industry was overrun with twerking maniacs.
But among that bedlam, there has been a traditional success story — a debut album by a young British band that has, in the U.K. at least, outsold West's "Yeezus," Cyrus' "Bangerz" and Thicke's "Blurred Lines." London Grammar are three friends from university in their early 20s. Their debut record, "If You Wait," says more about what it's like to be a young person today than any of those released by big stars. Their self-effacing attitude and insecurity about the future has touched a nerve with a generation in a permanent state of uncertainty.
I head to Birmingham to join them for a few dates of their sold-out tour. Minutes after I arrive, singer Hannah Reid runs through the stage door. "Eugh, that man just tried to kiss me," she explains, pointing back at a bloke waiting outside the venue who looks like he's overstayed his welcome in his parents' home by about 30 years.