2013 in review:
Not Quite the Best Music of the Year
Top 100 Songs of the Year, Part 1
Top 100 Songs of the Year, Part 2
Top 100 Songs of the Year, Part 3
Top 100 Songs of the Year, Part 4
25-21: I’ve Listened To These >5 Times Since First Discovery
25) I like How To Stop Your Brain in an Accident by Future of the Left because the band rediscovered itself through crowd sourcing, maintained their status as a singular-sounding band in the hard rock landscape and for continuing to play with their sound.
24) I like The Bones of What You Believe by CHVRCHES because it is a rare synth-pop record that doesn’t dwell in twee and finds its pathos in actual darkness, not superficial navel-gazing.
23) I like Push the Sky Away by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds because Cave’s dark poetry sounds even better when he isn’t screaming it.
22) I like Long.Live.A$AP by ASAP Rocky because it’s highs obliterated it’s considerable lows and because ASAP is good at getting the best out of his friends.
21) I like Strike Gently by The Virgins because it sounded like the best parts of the last decade’s Stokes-lead “garage rock revival,” presented without pretension or undue fanfare.
20-16: I’ve Listened to These Several Times This Year
20) I like The Bronx IV by The Bronx because it maintains a punk bombast that only the Bouncing Souls and a bunch NYC hardcore dickslaps seem to remember ever existed.
19) I like FIDLAR by FIDLAR because it is loud, stupid, drugged-out and never aspiring to be more.
18) I like Run the Jewels by Run the Jewels because it completed a shared vision between two of rap music’s most consistently talented and interesting performers.
17) I like You’re Nothing by Iceage because it’s nihilistic world view is all-consuming and because post-punk can still be loud and chaotic.
16) I like Doris by Earl Sweatshirt because it conveys both how talented Earl is as a rapper and how little he cares about modern fame.
15-11: I Suggested My Friends Might Like These Records
15) I like Modern Vampires of the City by Vampire Weekend because it was a very fun pop record that gives the illusion of having more behind it, if you choose to believe it does.
14) I like Intruders by The Minors because it contains four of the only pure pop songs I heard this year.
13) I like Invisible by Paint it Black because it managed to be both “melodic” and “hardcore” without ever sounding too much like one or the other.
12) I like New Moon by The Men because it feels like a flash point between classic American rock and roll and a future in which that genre can still exist.
11) I like B.O.A.T.S. II: #METIME by 2 Chainz because it sound endlessly entertaining and endlessly fun, while still finding moments of nuance and pure lunacy in equal measure. Also, because of the song “Mainstream Ratchet,” which might be the most confusing song I’ve ever heard.
10-6: Purchasing These Albums Would Be a Smart Move
10) I like LP2 by Restorations because it took an established formula that already worked and added a shit-load of guitar solos and matured song-crafting.
9) I like Southeastern by Jason Isbell because it handled themes of personal destruction and redemption with a deft, steady hand, because it makes addiction seem manageable, but not beatable, and because Isbell writes his lyrics with subtly in a field where subtle is not often appreciated.
8) I like Krieg und Frieden (Music for Theatre) by Apparat because it creates a world completely out of suggesting and lets me fill in the gaps as I see fit.
7) I like Random Access Memories by Daft Punk because it is content to be a love letter to the best pasts of the past, including the idea of what electronic music could sound like.
6) I like Once I Was an Eagle by Laura Marling because it’s the only true folk record anyone made in 2013 and Marling did it at age 23.
5-1: #HITS
5) I like Sunbather by Deafheaven because it was the loudest post-rock record anyone has ever made.
4) I like Anxiety by Autre ne Veut because it finally allowed me to see a way that 90s R&B could be revived and rewritten in this decade.
3) I like My Name is My Name by Pusha-T because it gave one of the best MCs in rap a collection of out-of-this-world beats worth of his voice.
2) I like Marching Band by Plow United because it allows adults to discuss childish things without sounding like children and because it rocks the fuck on out.
1) I like Yeezus by Kanye West because it tried to do more than any other album this year. That it failed as much as it succeeded is part of the draw.
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