Top 100 Songs of 2013

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After listening to 157 albums and over 2,000 songs in 2013, I've whittled it down to my favorite 100 songs! There are a number of songs from my Top 25 Albums of 2013, but also a ton of other tracks from other bands - there's hip-hop, indie, rap, electro-pop, and others like James Blake and Darkside.   

There are a few that I wanted to point out for their lyrics or unique sound:

  • The Fall: Rhye - His - yes, his - voice is angelic. Most beautiful song of the year.
  • Chum: Earl Sweatshirt - Great storyteller who references the effects of this story by Complex Magazine. And lyrically the song is heartwrenching: "It's probably been twelve years since my father left/left me fatherless/And I used to say I hate him in dishonest jest/When honestly I missed the n**** like when I was six/And every time I got the chance to say it I would swallow it/Sixteen I'm hollow with Tyler and skipped shots/Just throw him that whole bottle, I'll show you a role model."
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Top 25 Albums of 2013

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2013 was both a testament to the staying power and creativity of established artists and bands (Arctic Monkeys, Vampire Weekend, Kanye, Arcade Fire) and an explosion of new artists (Haim, Chvrches, Jagwar Ma, Lorde, A$AP Rocky, Jake Bugg, and St. Lucia, to name some) who, despite the trending emphasis on singles, created phenomenal albums of substance, pace, and ingenuity.

First, lets start with the veterans since two of them took the #1 and #2 spots. I wrote at length about my love of Arctic Monkey’s as well as their amazing album, AM. But what impresses me the most - and why I ultimately chose them ahead of Vampire Weekend - is that they could make an album like this on their FIFTH album.  

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Top 25 Albums of 2012

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2012 starts and ends with Frank Ocean. Channel Orange is an album that I will play until the day I die. It’s beauty - naked and fragile at times yet full bodied and confident in others - is unlike any other album to compare to in the past decade. Ocean’s falsetto on “Thinkin Bout You” wails in sincerity. His epic “Pyramids” runs a wild gamut of funk, R&B, hip-hop, and electronic elements. I always find it an amazing accomplishment to have a song that’s over 6 minutes (this being 9:53) that I can listen to constantly. 

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Top 100 Songs of 2012

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1. Jack White – Weep Themselves To Sleep

2. Tennis – My Better Self

3. Geographer – Kites

4. Delta Spirit – Tear It Up

5. Frank Ocean – Lost

6. Peace – 1998 (Delicious)

7. Kendrick Lamar – m.A.A.d city

8. Santigold – Disparate Youth

9. Jack White – Sixteen Saltines

10. Schoolboy Q – There He Go

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Top 15 Albums of 2011

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1. U.S. Royalty - Mirrors
2. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blued
3. Real Estate - Days
4. Holy Ghost! - Holy Ghost!
5. Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost
6. The Antlers - Burst Apart
7. Friendly Fires - Pala
8. Jay-Z and Kanye West - Watch the Throne
9. Radiohead - The King of Limbs
10. White Denim - D
11. Incubus - If Not Now, When?
12. Atlas Sound - Parallax
13. Kendrick Lamar - Section.80
14. Little Dragon - Ritual Union
15. Wilco - The Whole Love

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Top 15 Albums of 2010

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1. Local Natives - Guerilla Manor
2. Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
3. Two Door Cinema Club - Tourist History
4. Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest
5. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
6. Young the Giant - Young the Giant
7. Beach House - Teen Dream
8. Gary Clark Jr. - Gary Clark Jr.
9. Best Coast - Crazy for You
10. Surfer Blood - Astro Coast
11. Band of Horses - Infinite Arms
12. The National - High Violet
13. The Morning Benders - Big Echo
14. Kings of Leon - Come Around Sundown
15. Robyn - Body Talk

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Top 15 Albums of 2009

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1. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
2. Passion Pit - Manners
3. The xx - xx
4. Grizzly Bears - Veckatimest
5. Freelance Whales - Weathervanes
6. Bombay Bicycle Club - I Had the Blues But I Shook Them Loose
7. Mumford & Sons - Sigh No More
8. STRFKR - Jupiter
9. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion
10. Wild Beasts - Two Dancers
11. The Antlers - Hospice
12. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz!
13. Discovery - LP
14. Third Eye Blind - Ursa Major
15. John Mayer - Battle Studies

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Top 15 Albums of 2008

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1. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
2. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
3. Friendly Fires - Friendly Fires
4. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
5. John Mayer - Where the Light Is (Live)
6. Death Cab for Cutie - Narrow Stairs
7. Justice - Cross
8. My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges
9. Blind Pilot - 3 Rounds and a Sound
10. The Black Keys - Attack & Release
11. Coldplay - Viva la Vida or Death to All His Friends
12. MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
13. Kings of Leon - Only by the Night
14. Hot Chip - Made in the Dark
15. Deerhunter - Microcastle

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