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 week.
Favorite Tracks of 2013:
01 Vampire Weekend: "Hannah Hunt"
02 Haim: "The Wire"
03 Bill Callahan: "Small Plane"
04 Drake: "Worst Behavior"
05 The Knife: "A Tooth for an Eye"
06 Superchunk: "FOH"
07 Parquet Courts: "You've Got Me Wonderin' Now"
08 Colin Stetson: "High Above a Grey Green Sea"
09 Chance the Rapper: "Paranoia"
10 Oozing Wound: "New York Bands"
Favorite Albums of 2013:
01 Vampire Weekend: Modern Vampires of the City
02 Kanye West: Yeezus
03 Dawn of Midi: Dysnomia
04 Parquet Courts: Light Up Gold
05 Bill Callahan: Dream River
06 Chance the Rapper: Acid Rap
07 Arcade Fire: Reflektor
08 Colin Stetson: New History Warfare Vol. 3: To See More Light
09 My Bloody Valentine: mbv
10 Julia Holter: Loud City Song
Most Played Song of 2013: Patti LaBelle's "If You Asked Me To". I live in a fabulous world.
An Old Album I Discovered/Rediscovered This Year: Two things: I went back to Prince's 1999 to see what 7+ minute electro-funk songs should sound like. I loved the Daft Punk record, but let's reconnect with some space funk, dirty up some dance cuts, and get all the white people to clap their hands on the four. And then, okay, this La Monte Young/Marina Zazeela experimental drone record 78'17" where the B-side is just three sine waves and depending on where you are positioned and how many people are in the room, the sound changes volume. Both albums sound like great excuses for house parties.
Musical Highlights: 2 minutes of Axl Rose asking for some reggae. Walking around Chicago the night before I moved listening to Chance's Acid Rap. Dawn of Midi's Dysnomia. "Hannah Hunt". The Yeezus live show. Destruction Unit live show. Doing yoga to drone metal in Pittsburgh. How Kurt Vile's acoustic guitar strings rattle agains the frets a little on "Wakin on a Pretty Day". The Britney Spears "Everytime" montage in Spring Breakers. Salem's "Trap Door" playing at the party in A Place Beyond the Pines. Gorgi Kay's cover of Bjork's "Joga" in a final scene in Top of the Lake. Playing air drums to John Bonham's fill at 8:50 on "In My Time of Dying" whenever, always.
Musical Lowlights: "Vegan beefs" and these nightmare robots playing "Ace of Spades".