Welcome to Part 2 of my top 50 songs of 2013, and the women who love them. You'll notice I've posted my top songs Spotify playlist in the right column for your listening pleasure. You can also click the "Listen" link after each entry to listen to an individual track. We've already gotten the intro out of the way in Part 1, so let's just dive right in. After the jump, the top 25 songs of 2013.
25. Autre Ne Veut - “Counting” - This song is actually about Ashkin, the vocalist, calling his dying grandmother. But I like to think of it as a desperate, delusional plea to save an already dead romance.
24. Yuck - “Rebirth” - Not only is this the best shoegaze track released in 2013, it’s one of the best shoegaze tracks I’ve ever heard. These guys really brought it this year, despite (and possibly because of) hiring a new vocalist.
23. Tegan and Sara - “I Was a Fool” - Something we can all relate to: hanging on to a relationship way past its expiration date. Tegan (or Sara? or both?) knows how you feel.
22. John Newman - “Love Me Again” - From the almost cockney vocals to the simple, raucous chorus, ultimatums have never been this much fun. You should really check out the video on Youtube.
21. Daft Punk - “Get Lucky” - Ugh. Listen, I know. I would be fine with never hearing this song again, but it was such a huge part of my (and everyone else’s) summer that it belongs on every year end list.
20. Bonobo - “Cirrus” - Beautiful and atmospheric. Almost haunting. This track conjures wind chimes and the sound of a neighbor using a vacuum cleaner. I’m on my front porch watching a rain cloud roll in. Absolute comfort.
19. The National - “I Should Live in Salt” - The National doing their thing, which can be both good and bad at this point. Pretty much all good here, though. Once again, these guys start their album off with a bang.
18. High Highs - “Open Season” - I watched “Pitch Perfect” about 15 times in the span of a month, because I guess I’m a budding young woman? I don’t know, but that’s where I first heard this track, and I’ve been loving it ever since. Think “Chutes too Narrow” era Shins.
17. Bastille - “Pompeii” - I got really into pop this year, and this one was on heavy rotation for a while. That tribal chant mixed with the epic scenery of “great clouds” rolling over the hills bringing “darkness from above.” Sweet.
16. James Blake - “Life Round Here” - This is one of the sexiest songs I’ve ever heard. That slinking synthesizer and the hip hop beat melds with Blake’s soulful repetition of “Part time love is the life round here. We’re never done.” Get some.
15. Ciara - “Overdose” - This track is a banger. If you can listen to this without putting that booty in motion you need to seek out some booty motion therapy, stat. Love the lyrics, too. Somebody call the docta, indeed.
14. Icona Pop - “I Love It - feat. Charli XCX” - This song got a bit overplayed, but damn it’s awesome and cathartic, and I don’t care. I love it.
13. Baths - “Ironworks” - Everything about this song is beautiful. From the piano to the strings to the vocals to the lyrics. Add a perfect electronic beat over the top and you’ve got quite the masterpiece. Plus he rhymes “Victorian doorways” with “tempestuous foreplay.”
12. CHVRCHES - “The Mother We Share” - “The Mother We Share” opens this incredible album, and draws you in for the ride effortlessly. You know as soon as it starts playing that you’ve found something special. This is what synth pop is supposed to be.
11. Vampire Weekend - “Step” - If Paul Simon and Ray Davies collaborated on a track in their primes, this is a pretty good approximation of what it would’ve sounded like.
10. Haim - “Falling” - I feel like these guys were going for inspirational here, but that’s always been a tough sell for me. Probably because I’m a cynical asshole a lot of the time. The target they were aiming for is certainly a moving one, but one thing they did accomplish was making an outstanding, fun, and addictive pop song. I admit it wasn’t nearly this high on my list until I saw them perform it live. You should do that if you haven’t, by the way.
9. Lorde - “Royals” - How does a 16 year old write music like this? This is one of the catchiest songs I’ve ever heard, and not in a “GET OUT OF MY HEAD” kind of way, either. Everything about this song is pleasant, but again, not in a bad way. It’s charming. It’s fun. It’s both fresh and refreshing. Guys, this kid has a bright future.
8. Local Natives - “Colombia” - “Every night I ask myself, am I loving enough? Am I giving enough? Am I?” It doesn’t happen often, but the first time I heard this it raised goosebumps and actually made me stop and ask myself the very same questions. The stunningly beautiful instrumentation doesn’t hurt, either.
7. Phosphorescent - “The Quotidian Beasts” - I don’t really listen to this song as much as I feel it. I know that sounds hokey, but in this case it happens to be true. I’ve never been able to actually sit down and focus on what he’s saying or what it means. WTF is a quotidian beast? I don’t know, but the high this song builds to in the middle and toward the end pretty much makes those kinds of questions moot. All you want to do is sit there and watch everything go by in slow motion so that it seems more dramatic than it really is. So that everything around you fits with the absolute saturation of this music coming through your headphones.
6. MS MR - “Bones” - Much like my #1 song of the year, “Bones” will forever be associated with one of my favorite television shows of all time. I first heard it in the closing credits of a “Game of Thrones” episode, and I’ve been listening to it on heavy rotation ever since. MS MR does synth pop/chillwave with unique, strong, powerful vocals from MS (that’s actually what she goes by). And there’s something chilling about her caution to “pick up the bones, but leave the soul alone.” Seems like sage advice, even if you don’t believe in that sort of thing.
5. Autre Ne Veut - “Play by Play” - My favorite thing about this track is the way it builds and eventually morphs into something entirely different. It starts off a little rocky, and you’re not sure if you even like what you’re hearing. Why is he just saying “I said baby” over and over again in that weird falsetto? And then the pieces start coming together slowly. As it goes along the picture you thought you were seeing turns out to be something completely different, and when the puzzle is done, what you see is a masterpiece of avant garde R&B that sounds like nothing else you’ve heard.
4. Charli XCX - “Nuclear Seasons” - I don’t know if you’ve noticed this trend, but the British are really good at pop. you guys. I know this song was released as a single in 2012, but I'm including it here because it leads off her 2013 debut album "True Romance." Also, I didn't hear it until this year.
3. Kurt Vile - “Wakin On a Pretty Day” - I think he did it. I think he wrote the perfect lazy summer Sunday morning song. There’s no answering the phone. No worrying about death. No hurry. Let’s just wake up on this beautiful morning and come up with a wise crack or two for our friends. Look out the window and maybe go for a stroll. In a word: relax. It’s a pretty day.
2. CHVRCHES - “Gun” - This song is SO BAD ASS. “Gun” finds singer Lauren Mayberry not only done with this man, but sending notice that she’s coming for revenge. ”You’d better run, you’d better run so…hide. Hide. I have burned your bridges. I will be a gun and it’s you I’ll come for.” Yikes. No other song this year got me quite as pumped as this high flying catharsis for the dance floor.
1. Junip - “Line of Fire” - You know how there are songs that sound so cinematic that you can’t believe you didn’t first hear them in a movie? That’s what “Line of Fire” was for me in the beginning. I liked it a whole lot already, but what really clinched it for me was hearing the song used the way it was meant to be used - cinematically. I don’t know if you remember this, but this song actually soundtracked AMC’s TV spots teasing the series finale of the incredible “Breaking Bad.” And it was absolute perfection. So now, not only do I love this song, but it will always be connected to one of the greatest moments in television history. Every time the chorus strikes up, I see Jesse Pinkman’s dirty face with tears streaming from his angry eyes as he holds Walt at gunpoint. And then, finally, stepping back from the line of fire.
Once again, for your reference, here are my top 50 songs of 2013:
50. Little Green Cars - “Please”
49. Betty Who - “Somebody Loves You”
48. Yo La Tengo - “Ohm”
47. Into It. Over It. - “New North-Side Air”
46. James Blake - “Retrograde”
45. Dan Croll - “From Nowhere”
44. Owel - “Scales”
43. Jim James - “State of the Art (A.E.I.O.U.)
42. Andrew Belle - “Dark Matter”
41. Arctic Monkeys - “R U Mine?”
40. Deerhunter - “Monomania”
39. Balance and Composure - “Reflection”
38. White Lies - “There Goes Our Love Again”
37. Houses - “The Beauty Surrounds”
36. Best Coast - “I Don’t Know How”
35. Daft Punk - “Instant Crush”
34. Phosphorescent - “Song for Zula”
33. Fryars - “Cool Like Me”
32. Youth Lagoon - “Mute”
31. Neko Case - “Night Still Comes”
30. Local Natives - “Ceilings”
29. Cavemen - “In the City”
28. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - “Sacrilege”
27. Caitlin Rose - “No One to Call”
26. Arctic Monkeys - “Knee Socks”
25. Autre Ne Veut - “Counting”
24. Yuck - “Rebirth”
23. Tegan And Sara - “I Was a Fool”
22. John Newman - “Love Me Again”
21. Daft Punk - “Get Lucky”
20. Bonobo - “Cirrus”
19. The National - “I Should Live in Salt”
18. High Highs - “Open Season”
17. Bastille - “Pompeii”
16. James Blake - “Life Round Here”
15. Ciara - “Overdose”
14. Icona Pop - “I Love It”
13. Baths - “Ironworks”
12. CHVRCHES - “The Mother we Share”
11. Vampire Weekend - “Step”
10. Haim - “Falling”
9. Lorde - “Royals’
8. Local Natives - “Colombia”
7. Phosphorescent - “The Quotidian Beasts”
6. MS MR - “Bones”
5. Autre Ne Veut - “Play By Play”
4. Charli XCX - “Nuclear Seasons”
3. Kurt Vile - “Wakin’ On a Pretty Day”
2. CHVRCHES - “Gun”
1. Junip - “Line of Fire”
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