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 Daft Punk: "Get Lucky"
02 Vampire Weekend: "Hannah Hunt"
03 Kanye West: "Black Skinhead"
04 James Blake: "Retrograde"
05 Arcade Fire: "Reflektor"
06 My Bloody Valentine: "Only Tomorrow"
07 Lady Gaga: "Do What U Want" [ft. R. Kelly]
08 Daft Punk: "Touch"
09 Disclosure: "Latch" [ft. Sam Smith]
10 Darkside: "Golden Arrow"
Favorite Albums of 2013:
01 Daft Punk: Random Access Memories
02 Vampire Weekend: Modern Vampires of the City
3. James Blake: Overgrown
04 My Bloody Valentine: mbv
05 Darkside: Psychic
06 Kanye West: Yeezus
07 Disclosure: Settle
08 Arcade Fire: Reflektor
09 Jai Paul: Jai Paul
10 Danny Brown: Old
Most Played Song of 2013: The boring but honest answer is "Get Lucky". This is partly of my own volition and partly of the universe’s; at Peak Lucky, it was legitimately unavoidable to anyone with an interest in public places. Roland Emmerich’s next film could imagine a world where this song was a plague that killed on earshot and everyone would probably end up dead, especially if covers counted too. Still, we could do way worse than having disco as our global common denominator. Plus, it’s hard not to root for Nile Rodgers; I hope this made him lots of money.
An Old Album I Discovered/Rediscovered This Year: Grant Green’s Idle Moments is a slow and super utilitarian Sunday morning palette cleanser that I found myself playing a ton. On Mike Powell’s recommendation, I also rediscovered Willie Nelson’s Stardust, which is gentle and crisp and nowhere near as saccharine as I’d remembered. Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love got a phenomenal amount of airtime in our house as well.
Musical Highlights: That crescendoing moment in James Blake’s "Retrograde" where the synths and the vocals match up and then peel off again; hearing m b v for the first time on an appropriately freezy and miserable New York evening; that Bowie moment in "Reflektor"; Kanye’s "New Slaves" performance on Jools Holland; realizing that the combination of Knopfler-style guitar and Chilean techno wouldn’t provide techno’s Santana/Rob Thomas moment after all; trying to sing along to basically any Haim song; that otherworldly sound in Sophie’s "Bipp"; finally being as effusive about Vampire Weekend as everyone else; the big moments in Lone’s "Airglow Fires"; the strings in "Touch"; hearing how good Beyoncé would be if she had Solange’s record collection; Pharrell’s 24 Hours of Happy; investing in a new stereo and hearing everything for the first time again.
Musical Lowlights: Realizing my own complicity in R. Kelly continuing to be a thing; any vocals from Autre ne Veut—I tried so goddamned hard, I really did; the Irish busker renaissance; watching an embarrassingly petulant Kanye beg a confused Madison Square Garden to ask audience member Eric Schmidt to fund Donda; Ke$ha on Conan; the Knife bloating their music in self-defense; acclimating to a state of perma-embarrassment for Azaelia Banks; Justin Timberlake’s capacity for multiple opuses; Lady Gaga achieving max brand synergy with the Kia Hamsters; hearing a phenomenal track get kneecapped by a sleazy dude, and then again by Marvin Gaye’s estate; the industry’s dumbfounding insistence to supply music at continually degrading fidelity; the theme to "Homeland".