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 Tracks of 2013:
01 Young Galaxy: "Pretty Boy" (Peaking Lights Remix)
02 Bill Callahan: "Small Plane"
03 Vampire Weekend: "Hannah Hunt"
04 DJ Koze: "NooOoo" [ft. Tomerle & Maiko]
05 Disclosure: "Latch" [ft. Sam Smith]
06 Kanye West: "New Slaves"
07 Lady Gaga: "Dope"
08 Youth Lagoon: "Mute"
09 Daft Punk: "Giorgio by Moroder"
10 Beyoncé: "Blue"
Favorite Albums of 2013:
01 Vampire Weekend: Modern Vampires of the City
02 Kanye West: Yeezus
03 My Bloody Valentine: mbv
04 Arcade Fire: Reflektor
05 Disclosure: Settle
06 Daft Punk: Random Access Memories
07 Bill Callahan: Dream River
08 Oneohtrix Point Never: R Plus Seven
09 Danny Brown: Old
10 DJ Koze: Amygdala
Most Played Song of 2013: I just looked at iTunes and somehow it was "One More Hour" by Sleater-Kinney. I do love this song but I can’t say I go way back with it or that it’s been a long-time favorite. There was a point this year where I reread Julianne Escobedo Shepherd’s great piece for Pitchfork about their last show, it was around the time the Julie Ruin played Northside, and I had been playing it over and over around that time. Few songs have captured its sense of desperation, and it’s a little hard not to be nostalgic, even if only in the abstract, for the sense of purpose S-K had, the feeling that this band needed to exist. It was on an "Old Music I Love" playlist for a while and it got some spins.
I had to re-build my iTunes database this year, part of my continually refined backup regimen, and so a good number of my plays are probably not recorded. I have a feeling that the Lee "Scratch" Perry recording of Bob Marley and the Wailers’ "Duppy Conquerer" would also be way up there, because I think I listened to it every day on the way to work for like three months. "Duppy Conquerer" is for me one of those perfect songs, where every element falls into place.
Why do I have old songs as my most played of the year? The subway on the way to work is when I listen almost exclusively to old favorites, and I tend to play the same ones a lot. It’s a time when I want to remind myself of my own deep connection to music, almost as a way of "warming up" for work. Like if I can internalize this feeling of having music move me to such a degree, music I've been connected to and that has shaped my life, it will help to guide me in the day ahead.
An Old Album I Discovered/Rediscovered This Year: Elliott Smith's Either/Or. When Jayson Green was working on his great oral history of Elliott Smith to commemorate the 10th anniversary of his death, I realized that I had never formed a deep connection to Smith’s music. I admired it when I heard it, and I did know XO well though I rarely played it, but in general his music had never been a thing for me. I had the feeling that it would be someday, but that the timing just had to work out right. And this year it did. While we worked on Jayson’s piece, I had Elliott Smith’s catalogue on my iPhone and I played it a ton and realized how brilliant his music could be. It also felt like mine. And since we have some super-fans in the office, I was able to learn about his music from them. The single song I could not stop playing was "Rose Parade", so beautiful and rich with detail.
Musical Highlight: On the subway home from work in Brooklyn I take the L train and then the G. During rush-hour, the platform for the G going south almost always has a musical performer, entertaining riders as we all wait for the train. For a chunk of the year, a woman named Sylvia (if you know her last name or if she has a website please email me:markr@pitchfork.com and I will add here) who sang along to a boombox. Her voice is just wonderful, she sings with power and subtlety and and she has a lot of noise to compete with. On two occasions this year, it was after work, I was training home, and I sat on the bench while Sylvia sang and I listened. She’s the kind of performer you take your headphones off for. And on these two occasions, she sang Beyoncé’s "Halo", and I’m telling you, her interpretation of this song is one for the ages. As she sang I started thinking about the people I love and the idea of loss and my shitty day and I started crying a little there on that subway platform. When the timing was just right for the train, she could do the whole thing for the crowd on both platforms and "Halo" brought down the house. And I downloaded "Halo" to listen to when she wasn’t around. To me it’s still kind of Sylvia’s song.
Musical Lowlight: I was excited to write about the Another Self Portrait set this year, and for some reason it was trickly to track down a promo. One was sent and lost, and then another was sent. And the day it arrived, which wasn't all that long before I had scheduled the review, I opened it up and went about ripping the CDs. And when I pulled the second disc from the package, it snapped in half, you know how the spindles can be too tight with 2xCD sets. Bummer. But luckily I found a torrent.