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 few days.
Favorite Tracks of 2013:
01 Sky Ferreira: "I Blame Myself"
02 Nine Inch Nails: "Everything"
03 Beyoncé: "Blow"
04 Carly Rae Jepsen: "Take a Picture"
05 Ciara: "Body Party"
06 Neko Case: "Man"
07 Charli XCX: "You (Ha Ha Ha)"
08 Parquet Courts: "Master of My Craft"
09 Haim: "The Wire"
10 Big Black Delta: "Side of the Road"
Favorite Albums of 2013:
01 Beyoncé: Beyoncé
02 Drake: Nothing Was the Same
03 Waxahatchee: Cerulean Salt
04 Arcade Fire: Reflektor
05 Disclosure: Settle
06 Charli XCX: True Romance
07 Vampire Weekend: Modern Vampires of the City
08 Queens of the Stone Age: Like Clockwork…
09 Kanye West: Yeezus
10 Arctic Monkeys: AM
Most Played Song of 2013: It’s a tie between Sky Ferreira’s "I Blame Myself" and Carly Rae Jepsen’s "Take a Picture". The former is a vulnerable gem I listened to on loop while writing a piece for this very blog, the latter the Song of the Summer in no one’s heart but my own. (Interscope messed up by never doing anything with "Take a Picture", but that could have something to do with that fact it was spawned out of a fan-generated songwriting contest on "American Idol". Seriously.)
An Old Album I Discovered/Rediscovered This Year: The Breeders’ Last Splash. Every once in a long while, the hype surrounding nostalgia-based tours can bring to light a favorite from a past life that stills feels as relevant as ever. Also, Hole’s Live Through This, because every time Courtney Love says something fucked-up, I must remind myself what she used to stand for.
Musical Highlights: Throwing elbows in the pit at a Beyoncé concert in Atlantic City. Shaking my ass off to Phoenix live four times, each show better than the last. Indie Pop Prom at 285 Kent. Seeing something I wrote quoted on a giant band poster in the new Rough Trade store. Getting wine-drunk before a Steely Dan concert and singing along obnoxiously to "Peg", thinking of my dad the entire time. Screaming along to "New Slaves" in a Giant Eagle parking lot with in suburban Ohio and giving zero fucks. Meeting a girl named Courtney at a Drake show who seemed to suggest she was the Courtney from Hooters on Peachtree (note: I later fact-checked this and it wasn’t the right Courtney, so file this under ‘Musical Lowlights’ I suppose).
Musical Lowlights: Throwing elbows in the pit at a Beyoncé concert in Atlantic City… only to realize I was fighting actual teens. Losing my bus ticket home and all my gambling cash at said concert in Atlantic City. Overhearing a woman at Lollapalooza mistake the Cure for Diplo (SMDH). Arguing with security guards at Lady Gaga’s artRave. The hangover from that Steely Dan show. Governors Ball. Miley’s leotards.