We asked Pitchfork writers and editors to share their personal highs and lows of 2013. Check back for more installments of My Year in Music throughout the next two weeks.
Favorite Albums of 2013:01 Disclosure: Settle
02 Drake: Nothing Was the Same
03 Vampire Weekend: Modern Vampires of the City
04 Kanye West: Yeezus
05 Janelle Monáe: The Electric Lady
06 Neko Case: The Worse Things Get, the Harder I Fight...
07 My Bloody Valentine: mbv
08 A$AP Ferg: Trap Lord
09 Lady Gaga: ARTPOP
10 Sky Ferreira: Night Time, My Time
Favorite Tracks of 2013:
01 A$AP Ferg: "Shabba"
02 Sky Ferreira: "I Blame Myself"
03 Ciara: "Body Party"
04 Drake: "Worst Behaviour"
05 Vampire Weekend: "Hannah Hunt"
06 Haim: "The Wire"
07 Janelle Monáe: "PrimeTime"
08 Katy Perry: "Birthday"
09 Chvrches: "The Mother We Share"
10 My Bloody Valentine: "Only Tomorrow"
Your Most Played Song of 2013: Ciara, "Body Party". Even without the dozens of hours I spent trying to nail Ciara’s moves from the magnificent music video—those hip drops! the floor sequence!—and forcing my boyfriend to re-enact the CiBandz dialogue scenes, "Body Party" would still probably win this title. It was there for me every time I needed a shot of something fun, sexy, and undeniably cool.
An Old Album I Discovered/Rediscovered This Year: I spent most of November obsessed with Steely Dan’s Gaucho, which must be the most immaculate-sounding chronicle of two horny white dudes’ mid-life crises that’s ever been laid to tape. It’s an album that needs a Cialis prescription in the worst way, and somehow that’s a compliment.
Musical Highlights: Watching a triumphant hometown Drake show in Toronto on his birthday, which then transitioned into my birthday at midnight; a wonderful video of my drunk idiot friends dancing to Chvrches’ "The Mother We Share" that’s going to live on my phone forever; blasting A$AP Ferg’s "Shabba" and Drake’s "Worst Behaviour" at my desk every time I needed to psych myself up to get some menial task finished; somehow downloading and unzipping the Yeezus leak on my phone, then listening to it for the first time stuck on a smelly Greyhound in holiday weekend traffic; listening to Miguel’s Kaleidoscope Dream at a party the Saturday night of this year’s Pitchfork Music Festival while fellow contributor Jeremy Gordon texted me "kaleidoscope teen" from 10 feet away. #teenfork forever.
Musical Lowlights: Most of Jay Z’s guest verses; almost every conversation I had with someone about Miley Cyrus or Robin Thicke; finding out about Beyoncé’s surprise new album while attending a late night premiere screening of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, then falling asleep when listening to the album for the first time upon getting back home.
04 Kanye West: Yeezus
05 Janelle Monáe: The Electric Lady
06 Neko Case: The Worse Things Get, the Harder I Fight...
07 My Bloody Valentine: mbv
08 A$AP Ferg: Trap Lord
09 Lady Gaga: ARTPOP
10 Sky Ferreira: Night Time, My Time
Favorite Tracks of 2013:
01 A$AP Ferg: "Shabba"
02 Sky Ferreira: "I Blame Myself"
03 Ciara: "Body Party"
04 Drake: "Worst Behaviour"
05 Vampire Weekend: "Hannah Hunt"
06 Haim: "The Wire"
07 Janelle Monáe: "PrimeTime"
08 Katy Perry: "Birthday"
09 Chvrches: "The Mother We Share"
10 My Bloody Valentine: "Only Tomorrow"
Your Most Played Song of 2013: Ciara, "Body Party". Even without the dozens of hours I spent trying to nail Ciara’s moves from the magnificent music video—those hip drops! the floor sequence!—and forcing my boyfriend to re-enact the CiBandz dialogue scenes, "Body Party" would still probably win this title. It was there for me every time I needed a shot of something fun, sexy, and undeniably cool.
An Old Album I Discovered/Rediscovered This Year: I spent most of November obsessed with Steely Dan’s Gaucho, which must be the most immaculate-sounding chronicle of two horny white dudes’ mid-life crises that’s ever been laid to tape. It’s an album that needs a Cialis prescription in the worst way, and somehow that’s a compliment.
Musical Highlights: Watching a triumphant hometown Drake show in Toronto on his birthday, which then transitioned into my birthday at midnight; a wonderful video of my drunk idiot friends dancing to Chvrches’ "The Mother We Share" that’s going to live on my phone forever; blasting A$AP Ferg’s "Shabba" and Drake’s "Worst Behaviour" at my desk every time I needed to psych myself up to get some menial task finished; somehow downloading and unzipping the Yeezus leak on my phone, then listening to it for the first time stuck on a smelly Greyhound in holiday weekend traffic; listening to Miguel’s Kaleidoscope Dream at a party the Saturday night of this year’s Pitchfork Music Festival while fellow contributor Jeremy Gordon texted me "kaleidoscope teen" from 10 feet away. #teenfork forever.
Musical Lowlights: Most of Jay Z’s guest verses; almost every conversation I had with someone about Miley Cyrus or Robin Thicke; finding out about Beyoncé’s surprise new album while attending a late night premiere screening of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, then falling asleep when listening to the album for the first time upon getting back home.