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 Tim Kinsella: "Idolize"
02 Omar Souleyman: "Wenu Wenu"
03 Perfect Pussy: "I"
04 Crutchfield Twins: "Oblivion"
05 Randy Houser: "Running Out Of Moonlight"
06 Drake: "Hold On, We're Going Home"
07 Tegan and Sara: "Closer"
08 DIANA: "Perpetual Surrender"
09 Kacey Musgraves: "Merry Go Round"
10 Laura Mvula: "Is There Anybody Out There"
Favorite Albums of 2013:
01 Melt Yourself Down: s/t
02 M.I.A.: Matangi
03 DIANA: s/t
04 Laura Viers: Warp and Wend
05 The-Drum: CONTACT
06 Body/Head: Coming Apart
07 Jimmy Whispers: Summer In Pain
08 Chance the Rapper: Acid Rap
09 Tim Kinsella sings the songs Marvin Tate
10 Tegan and Sara: Heartthrob
Most Played Song of 2013: Tim Kinsella's "Idolize". As Kinsella has gotten further away from anyone's notice, it's loosened him up to do some of the best work of his career. "Idolize" is the first track on a record of Marvin Tate songs—he's a outre-soul songwriter thats been kicking around Chicago's underground forever, beloved to the old heads—and it's Kinsella over a nothing but pounding, punked piano hollering about worshipping a fucked up girl whose life path is just shy a death wish.
An Old Album I Discovered/Rediscovered This Year: My toddler sons are obsessed with the Rolling Stones' Sticky Fingers, and I was forced to finally give it a chance. Not bad.
Musical Highlights: Kim Gordon at the MCA, solo, divining "Black Is the Color of My True Love's Hair", her voice the very sigh of desperation. Hearing the Crutchfield's Grimes cover for the first time and starting it over and over again because I could't even get past the amazingness of the first 30 seconds. The big disco payoff in the Four Tet remix of DIANA's "Perpetual Surrender". Hearing Laura Mvula's Sing to the Moon chiming out of the kitchen boom box speakers and immediately turning it way the fuck up. Giving in to "Running Out of Moonlight".
Musical Lowlights: Watching that sex tape of our city's 1%-er mayor dry humping/"dancing" against a folding chair at a Robin Thicke show.