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 Drake: "Hold On, We're Going Home"
02 Deafheaven: "Dream House"
03 Rhye: "Open (Jeff Samuel Faded Mix)"
04 Disclosure: "Latch" [ft. Sam Smith]
05 Kanye West: "New Slaves"
06 Chief Keef: "Citgo"
07 Jai Paul: "Str8 Outta Mumbai"
08 Pissed Jeans: "Cafeteria Food"
09 Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds: "Higgs Boson Blues"
10 Windhand: "Woodbine"
Favorite Albums 2013:
01 Disclosure: Settle
02 Deafheaven: Sunbather
03 Drake: Nothing Was the Same
04 Parquet Courts: Light Up Gold
05 Pissed Jeans: Honeys
06 Kanye West: Yeezus
07 Majical Cloudz: Impersonator
08 Chastity Belt: No Regerts
09 Colin Stetson: New History Warfare Vol. 3: To See More Light
10 The Haxan Cloak: Excavation
Your Most Played Song of 2013: According to iTunes, it's "Black Skinhead", tied with Jai Paul's "Str8 Outta Mumbai", which I've already said enough about. How these two beat out "Hold On We're Going Home", I'll never understand.
An Old Album I Discovered/Rediscovered This Year: I had never heard Sleep's Dopesmoker until reading Grayson Haver Currin's review of the reissue last year. I picked up a copy a few months ago, which is totally worth it for the far-out guacamole-colored vinyl (I'm a huge sucker for colored vinyl—Deafheaven, I see you). Anyway, wish I had heard Dopesmoker in college. Talking Heads' Fear of Music, Otis Redding's Otis Blue and Drake's Take Care all got a lot of burn in our apartment this year, too.
Musical Highlights: Is this the space where we all say the Yeezus tour? It is? Then the Yeezus tour. That and almost convincing Killer Mike that he should start doing "Dope Story" live again. But nothing can top—this year or any, for that matter—closing out my wedding reception with "International Players Anthem".
Musical Lowlights: Elaborate album roll-outs; not wearing earplugs to a Fuck Buttons show. Oh, and not being physically present for this moment.