2013 Faves: the top 10

Well, this is it. For the three people who have checked this list out, I hope you've enjoyed it. Hopefully you've found something that you liked that you hadn't heard before. Now go buy some music with all of those iTunes gift cards!

#10: "Tessellate", Alt-J *



An Awesome Wave was truly one of the better albums released in 2012, although I only started listening to it last December. The gateway to Alt-J for me was, oddly enough, a Mumford & Sons cover of "Tessellate" as performed on BBC 1's Live Lounge (as was The XX's cover of "Finally" on the honourable mention list). I loved that song and it made my year-end list last year. Then I started listening to the Alt-J version and found it much more intriguing. It never really did better than cracking my personal top 10 in any month this year, but was in heavy rotation throughout and I'm still enamoured with the song now that it's starting to get airplay on alternative stations.

#9: "Get Free", Major Lazer feat. Amber Coffman



Another 2012 smash that I caught onto a bit late. Apparently this one broke the Internet last year. I and heard some less-than-impressive remixes but not the original. Boosted by my exposure this year to the Dirty Projectors, I played this song an awful lot. I'm not sure what my verdict is on Diplo…he seems to come up in cultural appropriation discussions an awful lot, but he certainly produces some fantastic music. I always have my ears peeled for new Diplo stuff and he will likely figure on the 2014 list somehow.

#8: "Latch", Disclosure feat. Sam Smith



IMHO, the best track on one of the best albums of the year, "Latch" was a no-brainer for the top 10. Disclosure has chosen this song to be the lead single from Settle in the US and it's apparently going to be released this month. It probably won't do as well as it did on the UK charts, where it hit #11 but we may still be hearing an awful lot of it by this spring. Also, Sam Smith made the long list for the BBC Sound of poll this year, the winner of which is yet to be announced..

#7: "Same Love", Macklemore x Ryan Lewis feat. Mary Lambert *



There's probably not enough I can say about this song. After "Starting Over" and "Thrift Shop" got me hooked on Macklemore and Ryan Lewis enough to pick up The Heist, I finally got my first listen of "Same Love". A slack-jawed double-take ensued. Was I actually hearing this? Did this song actually get recorded? I shared links to it as quickly as I could and was pleased to see it getting enough run that it debuted on the Hot 100 back in late 2012. Then they performed it on "Ellen". I figured it would be the second single, but then MxRL went with "Can't Hold Us". I suppose it would have been hard, from a legitimacy standpoint, to follow up "Thrift Shop" with "Same Love". And I can't think of a better way to pave the way for a single like this than to nab a second #1 song first. A lot of things fell into place so nicely to help get this song the exposure it deserved and I was over the moon to see how it was received. I smell a Grammy.

#6: "My Blood", Ellie Goulding *



This is the first song I present to you in the top 10 that wasn't really a single in any sense and didn't garner 1M listens on Soundcloud. But I thought this song was a tour de force. The track is from Ellie Goulding's second album, Halcyon, which yielded the hits "Anything Could Happen", "Burn" (on Halcyon Days, the extended reissue) and "I Need Your Love" (bonus track). I love how the flavour of the chanting in the bridge, which seemed kind of novel a year ago, has also turned up in a prominent role in Zedd's "Clarity" and Bastille's "Pompeii". The wave of the future? Bring back Gregorian chants!!

#5: "Always Alright", Alabama Shakes



I suppose I'm a little backward on Alabama Shakes. Last year, everyone hailed "Hold On" as one of the songs of the year, but I was lukewarm on it. Then "Always Alright" shows up on the Silver Linings Playbook soundtrack, doesn't even get released as a single but strongly resonates with me and becomes my fifth-favourite song of the year. Even more bizarre is that this song would be right at home on the local classic rock station, which I abhor.

#4: "Don't Save Me", HAIM



Although their music started to surface online in 2012, 2013 was HAIM's coming-out party. Once their album Days Are Gone was released, it seemed they were everywhere. And this was AFTER they were the darlings of SxSW and were announced the winners of the BBC Sound of poll for 2013. Singers, songwriters, multi-instrumentalists and producers, these women have definitely got it all. Believe it or not, this was not my favourite HAIM track of the year (keep reading) but it was pretty close. My four-year-old was also obsessed with this one.

#3: "Hurricane", MS MR



After this American duo released "Hurricane" off their Candy Bar Creep Show EP in Europe in 2012, the single limped onto the Belgian and German charts. Finally, a couple of months back, "Hurricane" got pushed in the US to accompany the release of MS MR's first LP, Secondhand Rapture and it has cracked the top 10 of the alternative charts. I somehow figured that Lorde's breakthrough on that chart would have paved the way for this track to do better, but it seems that its run is just about done. This is my second-favourite song of the year that has a real moment when the drums come in.

#2: "Forever", HAIM



While I've been all over HAIM this year, I still haven't quite figured out what their niche is at radio. What station is most likely to play the heck out of any of their music? Not rock or alternative (although "Top Rock Songs" is the only Billboard chart on which "The Wire" has appeared). I doubt CHR will latch on. AAA I guess? Adult contemporary is a stretch. In any case, despite all the accolades for HAIM this year, aside from actually getting the album or cruising the web, I'm not sure how people are actually going to hear their music in the end. We shall see.

#1: "& It Was U", How to Dress Well



There it is, numero uno. A fluffy little earworm of a confection from someone almost nobody knows about tops my list for 2013. It's entirely possible that "male falsetto" could be added to my list of things that I like in a song. Strange, but there it is. Pitchfork named his album Total Loss one of the 50 best of 2012. I always wonder how critically acclaimed artists like this make the HAIM-like leap to stardom. I'm not entirely sure it's going to happen for How to Dress Well, but I do love this song.

2013 Faves: Honourable Mentions

Before revealing my favourite songs from the past year, I wanted to post a few more tunes that didn't quite make the cut. I feel a little bad cluttering up a 2013 ranking with songs that were big songs for me in 2012 so I was trying to sort out how things would look if I removed all of the songs that have been marked with an asterisk. There were 23 songs in spots #100-#11 as well as 3 more coming in the top 10 that were songs that I first heard in 2012. If I compress the other 74 songs into spots #1-#74 then here are the songs that would make up the back end of the all-2013 top 100.

#100*: "Stimulation", Disclosure



#99*: "A Little Party Never Killed Nobody (All We Got)", Fergie, Q-Tip and GoonRock



#98*: "Tongues", Joywave feat. KOPPS



#97*: "Witching Hour", Little Green Cars



#96*: "Ms", Alt-J



#95*: "Wildest Moments", Jessie Ware



#94*: "Don't Call it Love", Zero 7



#93*: "Stillness is the Move", Dirty Projectors



#92*: "Defeated No More", Disclosure feat. Edward MacFarlane



#91*: "Song for Zula", Phosphorescent



#90*: "What I Wouldn't Do", Serena Ryder



#89*: "Pompeii", Bastille



#88*: "The Wire", HAIM



#87*: "Dark Doo Wop", MS MR



#86*: "Elephant", Tame Impala



#85*: "Sea of Love", The National



#84*: "Finally", The XX



#83*: "The Fall", Rhye



#82*: "Light & Love", Teen Daze



#81*: "Fool of Me", Say Lou Lou feat. Chet Faker



#80*: "Alive", Empire of the Sun



#79*: "The Finishing", Stavroz



#78*: "Stay", Rihanna feat. Mikky Ekko



#77*: "Q.U.E.E.N.", Janelle Monae feat. Erykah Badu



#76*: "Beyond", Daft Punk



#75*: "Buzzcut Season", Lorde

2013 Faves Part 4 (#20-#11)

Now we're getting to the good stuff. Every month, I make a playlist for myself to listen to in the car or at home and I take special care to think about how to rank the songs I'm listening to most. These songs were all, at some point this past year, in my personal top 5 and I certainly shared them with a few friends. I wasn't surprised to see a couple of them become mainstream hits, nor was I surprised to see my young kids latch on to some of them. Now that we're getting close to the end, I've decided to throw in a few comments on the songs. Let's get to it:

#20: "Safe and Sound", Capital Cities



I first heard this song after seeing it chart on Billboard's Top Alternative Songs chart and wondering who these guys were. After hearing it, I thought it was a curious song to appear on that chart and figured it would be right at home as a summer hit on the CHR charts. It took a while, but as most anyone stopping by this page knows, it eventually was playing everywhere and was definitely one of my kids' favourites this year. Great video too. Not bad for a two-year-old song!

#19: "Went to War", Amason



For a brief moment this past year, I was listening to last.fm to pick up on new stuff and while cruising through some links on their pages I came across one to this track. It hits on a couple of my "songlike" criteria, featuring both a male-female duet and Swedishness. I also found out that the group features a member of one of my other favourite Swedish groups, Miike Snow. A big favourite that was at #2 on my playlists throughout the entire fall.

#18: "Trying to Be Cool (Chainsmokers Remix)", Phoenix



Phoenix is a perennial favourite of mine. The problem with the word and their dog wanting to remix everything they put out is that there are a pile of versions of each of their songs to sift through. This is a strange case of a song where I was not a fan of the original version, but the Chainsmokers completely turned it into something I wanted to listen to over and over again. Still not entirely sure what R. Kelly was doing performing with them at Coachella...

#17: "Thrift Shop", Macklemore x Ryan Lewis feat. Wanz *



I think I stumbled onto this song mid 2012 but didn't really think much of it, aside from the fact that it was hilarious. I sent links to thrift-store-loving members of my family and that was the end of it. Then The Heist came out and these guys just exploded for me. It was probably my favourite album of 2012 and I listened to a large portion of their album repeatedly this entire year. Guilty confession: I saw them in concert in Syracuse in November. Weirdest part of the show was their choosing to perform "Can't Hold Us" twice, once as an encore. I thought that was a bit lazy.

#16: "Royals", Lorde



I heard both "Royals" and "Tennis Court" online at the same time and "Royals" was the big head-to-head winner. I wasn't surprised to see it get some run at Alternative Radio but I had no idea it would become the longest-running #1 Alternative track by a female artist, nor did I think it would top the mainstream pop airplay charts. It was my top track for October and November this year.

#15: "Fade", Jakwob feat. Maiday



Ok, so I just checked Jakwob's wiki page and it alleges that he got his start in jazz, death metal and folk. Not quite what one would expect after hearing "Fade". Depending on how you slap genre labels on songs, this is probably the third-highest ranking pure electronic track on my year-end list. I don't really have much to say about this track: I found out about it on The Hype Machine, it never broke through as a mainstream hit in North America as it did in the U.K., I don't know much about the artists involved and I listened the heck out of this track.

#14: "Doin' It Right", Daft Punk feat. Panda Bear



Who knew that my favourite track on Random Access Memories would be "Doin' It Right" and not "Get Lucky". This track really leapt off the page - the rest of the album is all fairly cohesive but this is the one song that echoes back the most to their past work that I love so much. I have yet to see any of Daft Punk's live shows, though I did see Panda Bear with Animal Collective this past summer. It will be interesting to see if they get to play the Grammys.

#13: "Always Like This", Bombay Bicycle Club *



So how did this song get on my list? By the end of 2012, I had listened to "Shuffle" and "Rinse Me Down" enough that I could pick these guys out of a crowd. So when I went rock-climbing at an indoor gym with my mother-in-law (RANDOM EVENT ALERT!) and the hipster gym owner pumped this song over the speakers, I knew who it was but wasn't familiar with the song (even though it was three years old at the time). This past year, it has been one of the songs people have asked me about the most and for obvious reasons. Unfortunately, just shy of the Top 10.

#12: "Stubborn Love", The Lumineers



Folk. Possibly roots or bluegrass. How was this almost one of my favourite 10 songs of the year? Dial things back 10 years and there's no way I thought I"d find anything of merit in the genre. "Ho Hey" was the gateway drug and this is the song that made it all worthwhile. Heck, if it's worth of being in trailers for Meryl Streep/Julia Roberts movies, it must be good right?

#11: "Lies", Chvrches



There it is, the grand champion of "Oh so close!". The synth-pop Scots broke the Internet with "The Mother We Share", but this song stuck with me a lot longer. The aggressive beat and vocals hooked me right from the start and almost a full year after first hearing this song, I still turn it up. I'm (embarrassingly) just starting to explore the rest of the album, The Bones of What You Believe so Chvrches probably has a couple of tracks in store for me for 2014.

2013 Faves, Part 3 (#40-#21)

So, aside from Swedishness, what do I like in a song? Well, lyrics are generally secondary to the beat. I am also a big fan of string arrangements in pop music. Male/female vocal duets are always nice. Also, oddly enough, I really enjoy when conversation or some background chatter/hubbub is laced into a song (see #40).

And now I present to you the first part of my personal top 40:

#40: "Take Back the Night", Justin Timberlake



#39: "Breezeblocks", Alt-J *



#38: "Pumpin' Blood", NONONO



#37: "Wake Me Up", Avicii feat. Aloe Blacc



#36: "The House That Heaven Built", Japandroids



#35: "Barely Legal", Azealia Banks



#34: "Bangarang", Skrillex feat. Sirah *



#33: "Modern Hearts", The Knocks feat. St. Lucia



#32: "Your Drums, Your Love", AlunaGeorge



#31: "3 Days", Rhye



#30: "Neon Cathedral", Macklemore x Ryan Lewis feat. Allen Stone *



#29: "I Love You", Woodkid feat. Angel Haze



#28: "Golden (Kaytranada's Life Extended Living Edit)", Jill Scott



#27: "Telemiscommunications", Deadmau5 feat. Imogen Heap *



#26: "Radioactive", Imagine Dragons



#25: "Fantasy", MS MR



#24: "Gun Has No Trigger", Dirty Projectors



#23: "Can't Hold Us", Macklemore x Ryan Lewis feat. Ray Dalton *



#22: "Get Lucky", Daft Punk feat. Pharell Williams



#21: "Falling", HAIM

2013 Faves, Part 2 (#70-#41)

OK, that first batch is out of the way. This next set will work through to the top 40. While compiling this list, it has come to my attention that I really dig Swedish artists. At least three times this past year, I've really latched on to a song by someone I was unfamiliar with and after doing a bit of research, found that they were Swedish. I almost expect 50% of all new artists I'll hear about this next year will come from Lund, Uppsala or (if I'm really lucky) Örebro. Feel free to play the "guess who's Swedish?" game on these pages.

PS. It seems that Soundcloud is finicky when too many embedded frames are showing on the same page. If some of the embeds aren't playing, make sure you click on one of my posts directly (e.g. Part 1 OR Part 2) on the right menu to limit the number of displayed links. You'll be much happier if you do.

#70: "Something Good", Alt-J *



#69: "Sweet Nothing", Calvin Harris feat. Florence Welch *



#68: "Oblivion", Grimes



#67: "White Noise", Disclosure feat. AlunaGeorge



#66: "You & Me", Disclosure feat. Eliza Doolittle



#65: "White Lies", Max Frost



#64: "Gold", Wake Owl



#63: "Remember You", Wiz Khalifa feat. The Weeknd *



#62: "Sweater Weather", The Neighbourhood *



#61: "Unbelievers", Vampire Weekend



#60: "Easy Now", Sir Sly



#59: "Help Me Lose My Mind", Disclosure feat. London Grammar



#58: "Wallpaper", Staygold feat. Style of Eye & Pow



#57: "Locked Out of Heaven", Bruno Mars



#56: "Team", Lorde



#55: "Starting Over", Macklemore x Ryan Lewis feat. Ben Bridwell *



#54: "Jasmine", Jai Paul



#53: "You and I", Anjulie



#52: "Gold Dayzz (Maribou State Remix)", Ultraista



#51: "Clarity", Zedd feat. Foxes



#50: "Year Round Summer of Love", Lolo



#49: "Down Under", NONONO



#48: "Madness", Muse *



#47: "Julian (Monsieur Adi Remix)", Say Lou Lou



#46: "Open", Rhye *



#45: "So Good to Me", Chris Malinchak *



#44: "The A-Team", Ed Sheeran *



#43: "Homage", Feist x Timber Timbre



#42: "Lost in the Light", Bahamas



#41: "Ho Hey", The Lumineers *

2013 Faves, Part 1 (#100-#71)

If you haven't been forewarned from reading my initial post, this list of songs is heavy on pop, electronic, alternative and other more accessible indie subgenres. If you're looking for the best metal or country tracks of the year, you might want to hit up someone else's blog. In fact, if you hate electronic music then this list is probably not your cup of tea.

A note regarding methodology: in order to be eligible for this list, I need to have first heard the song in 2013 or 2012 (carry-overs from last year's list that lingered). So a song could be fairly old, but new to me and therefore qualify (see #92, #84 and #79). Songs that first came across my radar in 2012 are denoted with an asterisk.

Without further ado, I present to you my favourite 100 tracks of 2013. Artists' names link to their wiki pages (if they exist), their facebook page or their personal website. I am also embedding links to Soundcloud when available and Youtube in the absence of a Soundcloud link. Apologies for the nature of some of the user comments on Soundcloud…some people…

#100: "Do What U Want", Lady Gaga feat. R. Kelly



#99: "Right Now", Rihanna feat. David Guetta



#98: "Youth", Daughter



#97: "With You", Germany Germany feat. Kotomi *



#96: "The Dog is Mine", k-os



#95: "Pilgrim", MØ



#94: "Imagine It Was Us", Jessie Ware



#93: "The Mother We Share", Chvrches *



#92: "Love Interruption", Jack White



#91: "Closer", Tegan & Sara *



#90: "The Other Side", Jason Derulo



#89: "Young and Beautiful", Lana del Rey



#88: "Don't You Worry Child", Swedish House Mafia



#87: "Late Night", Foals



#86: "Dissolve Me", Alt-J *



#85: "Running", Jessie Ware



#84: "Southern Point", Grizzly Bear *



#83: "Don't Wait", Mapei



#82: "Elevate", St. Lucia



#81: "Next Year (RAC Mix)", Two Door Cinema Club



#80: "Feel So Close", Calvin Harris *



#79: "Mouthful of Diamonds", Phantogram *



#78: "Tessellate", Mumford and Sons *



#77: "Hey Now", London Grammar



#76: "Blurred Lines", Robin Thicke feat. Pharrell Williams and T.I.



#75: "There Might Be Coffee", Deadmau5 *



#74: "Brutal Hearts (Flic Flac edit)", Bedouin Soundclash feat. Coeur de Pirate



#73: "If I Ever Feel Better", Phoenix



#72: "My Oh My", Macklemore x Ryan Lewis *



#71: "Spiral", Wye Oak

Warmup: Some December songs

OK, before getting into my favourite songs of 2013, I'd like to share a small number of songs that I've been listening to recently that won't be making the 2013 list. These links may get recycled down the line on a 2014 faves post, because I'm all about saving the environment.

Lorde caught my attention when I first heard "Royals" and "Tennis Court" this summer and I was pretty excited to get my hands on Pure Heroine when it came out this fall. This is one of my favourites from the album and I was pleasantly surprised to hear it floating out of some store in Syracuse the last time I was there (like an entry in The Book of Awesome, I love it when I hear a song I like in public that is definitely NOT a radio track).



I have been loving Zero7 ever since I was shilling Simple Things; while working retail in 2001. I feel like I was in on the ground floor when Sia was just a name and not A NAME.  I was surprised to hear that the duo was still recording when the "On My Own"/"Don't Call it Love" 12" came out this year and was even more surprised (after their last album Yeah Ghost didn't really do it for me) to really like the B-side, shared below.



I've listened to Toro y Moi off and on over the past couple of years and two of his tracks have been total standouts for me: "Still Sound" and "So Many Details".  The one that I've stumbled onto most recently is "Campo", a 7-inch that is apparently only being sold on his North American tour.  Given that I did not catch Chaz in Montreal or Toronto at the end of October, I suppose Soundcloud will have to suffice.



HAIM seems to be fairly polarizing amongst bloggers.  I've seen high and low praise for their music ever since they topped BBC's Sounds of 2013 list a year ago.  For those of you who stick around for my 2013 track listing, you'll see exactly what I thought of them.  I also thought I'd share this hilarious line from The Guardian via the band's wiki site: "[HAIM makes] music that sounds like it was written on a lakeside retreat attended by Stevie Nicks, John Waite and En Vogue".  If you've never heard their music before, go ahead and try to envision that.  This is the lead track from their debut album Days Are Gone (which came after releases of their Forever EP and Falling single. That opening drum/guitar shot certainly suggests that you're listening to "Heartache Tonight" by The Eagles, but the rest is all HAIM.



Finally, a little something from We Are Twin's eponymous EP. This duo has been together since 2009 and, as far as I know, this is their first material recorded for public consumption. This track is a little Amy Winehouse and a little electronic and a lot of irresistible. I look forward to hearing more from We Are Twin.

Inaugural post

Hi there,

I'm going to get this thing started with a few words of introduction.  For those of you who don't know me, I love music.  For a while in the past I maintained a pop/top 40 chart/blog but as school was picking up I didn't have much time to stay on top of it.  In the early aughts I still listened to a lot of music, but having let go of obsessively keeping up with top 40 music I started listening to things that were formerly outside my wheelhouse.  As music went digital and I got my own computer, it became a lot easier to expand my horizons at my own pace.  Over the past 4-5 years, I have been a little more aggressive about seeking out new bands and songs to listen to and I absolutely love sharing my finds with friends and family.

My tastes have always tended toward the accessible rather than the dissonant so it's logical that Top 40, R&B and mainstream electronic music would be things I'd enjoy while metal and really experimental stuff are out.  I've also been known to enjoy jazz, hip-hop and alternative rock, but can't take very much country or classic rock.  Folk is the one genre that can go either way for me.  I've also traditionally cared more for the feel of a song, rather than the lyrics.  Maybe that's a bit of a cop considering how important the words are to the total package, but that's the way it is.

While I like following what is circulating on music blogs and what is currently popular on The Hype Machine, I'm not really looking to start my own music blog per se.  I did, however, want to create a vehicle for sharing some of my favourite songs with others without posting link after link on Facebook or Twitter.  I've resorted to that a few times but apparently that's frowned upon.  I'm not going to be updating this blog with any sort of regular frequency…I have a hard enough time posting to my family blog to indulge in this side project.  However, I will pop some things in here from time to time and hopefully I will occasionally introduce someone to a new favourite.

So it's December and my favourite part of the music year is about to get underway: the publishing of year-end music charts.  I'll certainly be looking out a number of 2013 tallies, such as those of Billboard, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork and others.  I'm going to join the fray and put up my own list here for others to dig into (or ignore…I don't really care).  You'll have to stay tuned to find out what I've been listening to over the past while.  Until then, put on some headphones, lip synch and get down with your bad self.