There are album years and song years, and 2013 was without question an album year, but that’s not to say there weren’t some outstanding tracks released as well. Some of these come from albums on our top list, but they can each stand on their own. Let’s take a look:
Honorable Mention:
Drake – “Hold on We’re Going Home”
I had a weird time with Nothing Was the Same, Drake’s critically acclaimed album from this year. It’s not that it’s a bad record, I think I was just so taken with 2011’s Take Care, still the best record in his catalog, that I was ready to be disappointed. Couple this with the fact that the first single was the oh-so-banal “Started from the Bottom” and I really didn’t pay much mind to “Hold on We’re Going Home”. In fact I recall the first time I heard it thinking “Oh, great, Drake’s singing half-hearted love songs again…” But this thing is undeniable. From the very first line as Drake intones “I got my eyes on’a’you” everything is catchy as hell. This one may or may not work its way into my karaoke repertoire in the future (read: this will work its way into my karaoke repertoire in the future).
15. Chvrches – “Now is Not the Time”
This is probably the best song Chvrches released this year (though “Gun” and “Recover” are also outstanding) and it was mysteriously not included on their full-length debut. This track illustrates everything this band does well; male-female vocal harmonies, perfectly selected synths, and Lauren Mayberry’s voice, which falls somewhere between plaintive and sultry.
14. Mariah Carey ft. Miguel – “#Beautiful”
Let’s ignore for a moment the fact that Mariah Carey is old enough to be Miguel’s mother. Let’s also ignore that she’s old enough to be Nick Cannon’s mother, forever. Mariah finds ways to stay relevant, whether it be releasing her own line of perfume, dropping a hit single every few years, or marrying Nick Cannon. This track is a cold cocktail on a firefly-lit summer night. Miguel steals the show here, his sex-oozing coo and inappropriate lyrical tendencies are on full display as Mariah laughs like a creeper at inopportune times in the background. Make sure you play the unedited version of this one, “good lord you’re fuckin’ beautiful” is the best part.
13. Mikky Ekko – “Pull Me Down”
Mikky Ekko hit the producer jackpot when he linked up with Clams Casino to put together “Pull Me Down”. This track is the classic kind of sexy, about a moment when all you need is to feel another person next to you (or underneath you, as the case may be). Clams’ production roils gently beneath Ekko’s impassioned crooning and the whole track has a woozy narcotic smoothness. This song is also important to me because it was featured on the first mix my girlfriend made me this year, and my response was basically “OK, if you insist”…
12. Laura Mvula “She”
Laura Mvula’s star is on the rise. Her debut Sing to the Moon is a thoughtful, sparsely constructed collection of personal tunes. On “She” Mvula paints us the picture of a prostitute (probably) and the pain of the continual. But it’s done in such a delicate way that you’d probably have no idea what the song is about on first listen.
11. Burial – “Come Down to Us”
I’m going to borrow a comment from Stereogum contributor Dr. Gonzo to describe what makes this one (and indeed all of the Rival Dealer EP) so wonderful. “In a tiny London nightclub an inter-dimensional super computer is trapped in a time shift, constantly shifting back and forth from 1980 through to 2050 and back again. Having gained sentience this artificial intelligence attempts to communicate, but is only able to do so by reconfiguring and adapting the sounds it hears. Those sounds are then transmitted in unique new patterns as a low frequency signal. The signals are recorded and released by BBC scientists who were initially attempting to prove the existence of extra-dimensional life, but now release the transmissions as music recordings. As the computer comes to understand emotions such as love and loss the transmissions become more complex, and just as its mysterious creators intended, the computer guides us to a higher plane of spiritual existence. The recordings are released during the holiday season under the name Beatific Universal Recordings Inspiring Astral Love: BURIAL.
At least that’s the most likely explanation anyway…”
10. John Wizards – “Lusaka by Night”
This song absolutely blows my mind. On the surface it bounces with a decidedly African swing, but it’s constructed of elements one would certainly not typically associate with the genre. Plinking synth sounds and cascading rhythmic flourishes give the whole thing a “dub in 2075” feeling. This was the perfect thing to play out on the water off the coast this summer.
9. Autre Ne Veut – “Play by Play”
“Don’t ever leave me alone”; much of Anxiety concerns itself with Arthur Ashin’s warring tendencies towards isolation and inclusion. In moments he’s so desperate for connection he takes some fairly trite phrases “Baby, I’m all alone I need you now…” and gives them urgency through the powerful immediacy of his voice. By the time the outro comes along in this one, all bounce-house swirling keys and kaleidoscopic seizures of sidechain compression, you’ve committed never to stray from his side again.
8. Mutual Benefit – “Advanced Falconry”
At the precipice of a great canyon wearing an oversized brown wool sweater as we embraced looking across the expanse, that is where I fell in love with you. The image stays in mind, but this song is also inextricable from Royal Tenenbaums for me, just replace the “Hey Jude” cover with “Advanced Falconry” and extend the scene out to 3 minutes of Mordecai flying around Manhattan, and you’re golden. A beautiful and simple song about love and memory.
7. Phosphorescent – “Song for Zula”
Zula and the singer of this song love each other, still love each other in spite of everything. There has been pain and lethargy and loathing but there’s still love. “I saw love disfigure me, into something I am not recongizing,” sings Matthew Houck, as his lover races across the plains away from him. He know’s they will meet again, or at least he assumes it, in a future where everything is fixed, and everyone is healed.
6. James Blake – “Retrograde”
James Blake makes quiet storm for robots knocking boots. It’s often processed and pared down in a way that feels decidedly modern, but it manages to retain a soul. He’s always been great at playing with volume and dynamics and that’s especially true here, “Retrograde” offers a restrained groove until the chorus hits and the star goes nova and everything becomes pulsing energy. Overgrown will be remembered as a step forward for Blake and “Retrograde” is a perfect example of that progression.
5. Haim – “The Wire”
I caught on to Haim right around the time this song was released, and I’m not sure I would have been as sold on them if this hadn’t been the first track I heard. As it is, “The Wire” is brilliantly economical, there’s not an extraneous guitar sound or over-long buildup to be found. Immediately it sounds like “Rock and Roll pt. 2” by Gary Glitter (the “HEY!” song you’re sick of if you’ve ever attended a hockey game), but from there it blooms. The prechorus is probably the best part, particularly the final instance where everything in the background drops away and we just get the sound of the three sisters caution us “always keep your heart locked tight…”
4. Lorde – “Team”
At some point about a month ago, people stopped talking about Lorde as a flash in the pan, and started talking about her as the future of pop music. The 17-year-old Australian caught everyone off guard with “Royals” but “Team” is really the best song on her debut LP Pure Heroine. “I’m kinda over getting told to throw my hands up in the air, so there…” much of this album is the musical equivalent of sticking your tongue out at pop culture, but doing so tactfully (and not twerking at the same time), it’s an act that will get old faster than, well, Lorde, but for now her capricious precociousness (oh God, I actually just wrote that…) is wonderfully of-the-moment.
3. Vampire Weekend – “Hannah Hunt”
It can sometimes be tricky figuring out one song off a given album to feature in the best songs list. I try to avoid ranking multiple songs from the same record in my top of the year, so it’s important to just choose one. For example, I had a tough time deciding between “Play by Play” and “Gonna Die” from the Autre Ne Veut album. Modern Vampires of the City is obviously packed to gills with great tunes, but this was not a difficult choice for me to make. “Hannah Hunt” is more than the best song on a classic album, it is one of the most effortlessly affecting songs I have ever heard. The story of a cross country make-or-break adventure in the life of a couple, the anxieties of young life and the simultaneous desires to grow up and stay young are central to the story, and central to the story of all of us. Ultimately we just want to find ourselves in someone else “If I can’t trust you than dammit Hannah, there’s no future, there’s no answer.”
2. Deafheaven – “Dream House”
You can’t understand any of what George Clarke is singing on “Dream House”, the first track off Deafheaven’s brilliant Sunbather. This is mostly because he is screaming the entire time, but also because the lyrics themselves are rather obtuse. But the song doesn’t mean any less when you don’t know the lyrics, in fact it seems to mean more. “Dream House” is exhaustingly beautiful. There is so much noise, so much energy, and it makes for the most deceptively melodic song of the year, one that could say anything to anyone.
1. Daft Punk – “Get Lucky”
Here’s a playlist of this year’s selections (minus Burial because it hasn’t hit Spotify yet…)
Stay tuned for the best of 2013 Playlist, coming soon!
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