My 25 Favorite Songs of 2013
Earlier, I posted 10 albums I didn't get a chance to listen to this year, and it's probably because I was listening to these songs. There will be a handy Spotify playlist at the end that will have most but not all of these songs on it because convenience. So here we go. In alphabetical order by artist, my 25 favorite songs from this year with some explanations why.
Alex Bleeker and the Freaks — "Steve's Theme" — How Far Away
Last October, I saw Bleeker play backstage at Black Cat with the Twerps, and he dedicated this song to Steve Bartman, the overeager Chicago Cubs fan from the 2003 National Championship League Series. Well, as a sports guy, I was sold on it and couldn't wait for How Far Away to drop so I could listen to. It has that air-y and light feel to it, and Bleeker manages to work in some sort of message with it all.
Andrew Cedermark — "At Home" — Home Life
When I commuted from College Park to Baltimore this summer, I had two mix CDs in my car. I had the sunny mix for the drive up and then I had the dark mix for the drive home. Many of the songs from those two mixes are on this list. The drive timed in anywhere from 30 to 50 or 55 minutes depending on traffic, and as the summer wore on, I had it timed so that I knew which songs should come at certain landmarks. "At Home" came on at the stretch of I-95 where you're turning a bend that's probably a little too sharp for a four-lane interstate shortly before a much gentler turn where the Baltimore skyline comes into view. By the time the I-395 approach came, Cedermark would be full bore into his nostalgia trip of sorts and I felt like I could accomplish anything in life, even if it was uncertain as hell at times.
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Beach Fossils — "Taking Off" — Clash The Truth
Think of times I used to know you
Growing up, I thought about you
Trying not to see, where are you taking me
Holding on to, is it true?
I still remember the first time I heard "Daydream" in 2009 and when my sister sent me the self-titled CD for my 18th birthday in 2010. It felt like I'd found the perfect band for when everything was carefree and there was space to live. Obviously, though, things change, and the Beach Fossils sound (along with its lineup) was no different. So this year's Clash The Truth started out as a bit of a grower. I just couldn't quite figure it out. But during the course of a February all-nighter, I was drawn to this song and how it sort of hearkened back to that earlier Beach Fossils sound, that sort of contemplative, breezy feel. So from then on, I just started the album at this track.
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Bleached — "Dead In Your Head" — Ride Your Heart
Time to think about what you want
Because you know, baby, it's our timing that was off
Time to figure out where it all went wrong
Because you know, baby, it's gonna hit you so hard
So hard
This was one of the songs this year that the first time I heard it I just knew it was going to be one of my favorite of the year. I just love the build up from the clean verse to the lush, full chorus. It's an earworm, and the climax at every chorus was perfect for blasting it on sunny days with the windows down, even it was really humid outside and the air on 95 was absolutely disgusting.
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Blood Orange — "You're Not Good Enough" — Cupid Deluxe
49 days
Surely I should be feeling a whole lot better
Ways and ways
You keep on coming back
I keep letting you in
I've been a staunch Dev Hynes supporter since 2008 when I first heard Lightspeed Champion, so the news about him losing everything in an apartment fire this week absolutely breaks my heart.
If I were to order these 25 tracks, there's a pretty good chance this could be the top one. It came out closer to the end of the year and it's by far one of the catchiest I've heard all year. The groove of the verses — especially the second one, listed above — has an urgent, almost desperate feel to it. And then when it drops out for the chorus, it's time to think about everything and where it actually stands. It meanders a little bit, but it's been the perfect song to just put on and blast while I'm trying to wake up for school or I just need to break my concentration from studying for a little bit.
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California X — "Lemmy's World" — California X
I lost my phone today
I lost that feeling in my ears
I ran across California X early in the year when I needed something sort of heavy with guitars everywhere, and I found it here. I don't really know what to think about the lyrics since I can't tell if it's any sort of commentary or anything dumb like that, but this song just shreds. On overcast days, I'd open my blinds, turn this up loud and just lay in my bed get taken in by the fullness of it all.
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Chvrches — "Lungs" — The Bones of What You Believe
Keep me in your eyeline
Keep believing what you said before
I will change direction
I will tell you that everything's moving too slowly
Just another lie, one more untruth
By a variety of metrics — Spotify, last.fm, the one time this was only CD I had for a six-hour car ride — Chvrches was my most-listened album of 2013, and any number of songs off of The Bones of What You Believe could have ended up on this list. So I went with this track, which, to me, has the best beat and pushes forward the most. It's easy to just get caught in how it propels forward, and everything else will just melt away. Plus, Lauren Mayberry's staccato delivery is one of my favorite parts of the album.
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Dead Gaze — "I Found The Ending" — Dead Gaze
We find a TV show
That allows us to be one
We want it all to be known
That faith just found a home
I'm a huge Dent May fan, and I know the Cats Purring fam goes pretty deep, so I always attempt to listen to everything out of Mississippi when I get the chance. So when Dead Gaze's latest track come out in March (I think?) I was all over it. The opening riff is stiff, and the accents from the synths and other instruments just make it work. It's dark and it's about things ending, so I was down with it.
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Drake — "Hold On, We're Going Home" — Nothing Was The Same
I got my eyes on you
You're everything that I see
I want your hot love and emotion endlessly
I can't get over you
You left your mark on me
I want your hot love and emotion endlessly
This is a song that doesn't really need any explanation, but thanks to Emily and Sam and everyone else I follow on tumblr for posting this over and over again during the summer, I got my fill and yet I'm not tired of it at all. It's been a while since I've really consumed a hip-hop album from front-to-back, and Nothing Was The Same wasn't that album, but it gave me one track to come back to again and again with no change in how I felt about it.
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Ducktails — "Letter of Intent" — The Flower Lane
I will walk with you
And you will walk with me
Walking hand in hand
In concrete fantasy
I can pretty easily come out and say The Flower Lane was a bit of a disappointment for me. In terms of Ducktails, I'm all about the "Hamilton Road"/Arcade Dynamics vibe. But somehow Ducktails ended up here making an album with songs that sound like themes to '70s buddy cop shows. But this one shines through — featuring Ian Drennan and Jessa Farkas — as just the ultimate song to relax and vibe out to. It doesn't do too much and does just enough to relax you. Basically, in true Ducktails fashion, it doesn't kill the vibe.
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Elvis Depressedly — "Inside You" — Holo Pleasures
I want to find you
A way out of my head
The world is ending inside you
Let it love you to death
I've probably mentioned similar things with other tracks, but this one just sort of washes right over you. The vocal melody drags you in, and its short duration passes way too quickly (as is the case with most Elvis Depressedly songs). Mat Cothran is prolific as ever, and Holo Pleasures was another one of my favorite releases of the year. Unfortunately, Posthumous Release came out right when everything started to get a little too busy, so I didn't get to listen as closely as I would have liked.
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Julia Brown — "library" — to be close to you
It's been an honor to know Sam and hear all the songs he puts out, but I've never really felt the way I did with "library" before with any of his other songs. Everything fit together so perfectly with all the little accents and details before a big chorus/interlude/whatever. I heard it for the first time on vacation in January, and I listened to it that whole trip, so it's associated with some nice times for forever. Also, this is either the album version or the single version, I don't care that it was re-recorded, both are beast.
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Kanye West — "Bound 2" — Yeezus
start a fight club, brad reputation
This song soundtracked the end of many drives home from work this summer and it's soundtracked plenty of parties this fall. Yeezus was a challenging listen at times, but the album having this gem at the end made working through it all worth it. Plus I just love the sample and the flow and it's just an overall aesthetically pleasing song.
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Kevin Morby — "Harlem River" — Harlem River
I've been a big fan of Kevin Morby's work with The Babies and loved the sort of rock and roll, sort of folk-country songs he wrote with that band, and so I was excited to see what he could do on his own in a solo endeavor. This 10-minute track early in the album is a gem that meanders but never strays too far away from its main theme. It's contemplative and was perfect for some early morning walks to 8 a.m. classes this winter.
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Matt & Kim — "It's Alright" — Lightning
I miss 2008 and 2009 Matt & Kim a ton, since those albums were just super fun. Since then, things got a little more intricate, a little more messy and a little more not as good. I wasn't really impressed with Lightning or the one before that (Sidewalks? Was there one in between?) but this song snuck off the album and onto some playlists I had in Spotify, so I had my fair share of listens to it. It's basically a typical Matt & Kim song. It's fun, it sounds genuine and it's easy to turn up loud.
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Merchandise — "Anxiety's Door" — Totale Nite
I saw Merchandise last New Year's Eve at 285 Kent, sometime before or after midnight, and I was blown away after not really expecting anything. In the live setting, I wasn't really sure what to expect form them and then once they started playing I was more than impressed with everything that they did. While I have no idea if Merchandise actually played "Anxiety's Door" at 285, I felt like I'd heard it before the first time I heard it and it worked as that song you want to listen to when you need something sort of abrasive but not too abrasive.
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Mikal Cronin — "Weight" — MCII
I've been starting over for a long time
I'm not ready for the second wave, the weight of seeing through
This song soundtracked the last few days of summer break and the first month of school since it's a song about getting older and taking on responsibility and hey, what do you know, I was entering my final year of college. So that was a pretty easy connection to draw. But on top of that, it's just a good song.
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princess reason — "always pretty" — always pretty EP
I remember hanging out with Jack in April 2012 and jamming through early iterations of princess reason songs and wondering what direction they could go. When Jack finally got around to recording his songs and playing live, I was impressed just at how short and sweet the songs were and how they pretty much captured everything I was feeling during the early part of the year. They're always going to transport me back to The Cottage and all of my bros from there.
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Selena Gomez — "Come & Get It" — Stars Dance
Self-explanatory.
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Sky Ferreira — "I Blame Myself" — Night Time, My Time
I have never entirely been on the Sky Ferreira hype train, since I think she's sort of annoying, but "I Blame Myself" quickly thrust itself into the rotation of songs to play really loud while trying to wake up and get ready for school. The production is slick, and the song just has an earworm melody that I would walk around work singing to myself sometimes.
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starry cat — "you're the reason i believe in ghosts — starry cat
Sam was pretty prolific this year, and the starry cat EP ended up being one of my favorite releases. The songs are concise, sweet and just sound like genuine pop songs. This track sounds particularly wistful with a few riffs and melodies that were stuck in my head for days afterward. Plus, hearing some of these tracks incorporated into Julia Brown sets was awesome as well with the arrangements getting fleshed out.
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Sunset Theme — "Being Alone With No One May Just Not Be That Hard To Do"
The weeks go by like wishes
Wishing the weeks were through
Every once in a while you find a band or musician or whatever where every song seems to strike a chord with you, and amams always seemed to do that with Sunset Theme. In 2012, it was "Front Seat" and this year it was this track with the really long title and "I Told You I Don't Love You." I would walk around with the catchy tune and melancholy lyrics stuck in my head on spring days and just sort of wonder about where we were all heading. Probably the biggest difference between my junior and senior years in college has been the absence of The Cottage and Jack and amams and Emily and everyone else that would play consistent shows and make great music. But it's not really that hard, even though it stinks sometimes.
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Thee Oh Sees — "Minotaur" — Floating Coffin
While Thee Oh Sees (rest in hiatus) usually play some absolutely insane rockers, "Minotaur" stuck with me for its more laid-back, sad nature. The lyrics about jobs and life combined with the strings and cello really set a tough mood, but that makes the listening all the more worth it, especially at 1 a.m. on I-95.
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Wavves — "Demon To Lean On" — Afraid of Heights
Wavves sort of fell off my radar for a while, though I do have about 800 words about the time my sister and I saw him play with Cloud Nothings with Washington, D.C. saved in drafts somewhere on tumblr, but this track definitely separated itself. It's desperate, it's sort of punk and though it's cleaner, it reminds me more of the snotty brat surf punk from 2009 that made me fall in love with Wavves and try to emulate that style for a while.
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Youth Lagoon — "Mute" — Wondrous Bughouse
Wondrous Bughouse was one of my most anticipated and ultimately disappointing albums of 2013, and "Mute" really emerged as the one standout track. When I imagined songs from The Year of Hibernation blown out on grander scales, I thought of "Mute." But most of the other tracks on Wondrous Bughouse were too meandering and didn't really do it for me. Which stinks, but we did get "Mute" out of it, so it's a bit of a win there.
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I'll have my top 10 favorite albums/eps/whatever up soon enough.
