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 Kurt Vile: "Wakin on a Pretty Day"
02 Forest Swords: "The Weight of Gold"
03 Darkside: "Paper Trails"
04 Duke Dumont: "Need U (100%)"
05 The Haxan Cloak: "The Mirror Reflecting (Part 2)"
06 Kanye West: "Hold My Liquor"
07 Atoms For Peace: "Ingenue"
08 Drake: "Hold On, We're Going Home"
09 Vampire Weekend: "Unbelievers"
10 Lorde: "Tennis Court"
Favorite Albums of 2013:
01 Disclosure: Settle
02 Kanye West: Yeezus
03 Blood Orange: Cupid Deluxe
04 Vampire Weekend: Modern Vampires of the City
05 Mount Kimbie: Cold Spring Faultless Youth
06 Jon Hopkins: Immunity
07 Gesaffelstein: Aleph
08 Daft Punk: Random Access Memories
09 Lorde: Pure Heroine
10 Zachary Cale: Blue Rider
Most Played Song of 2013: According to Soundcloud, it's Motion Studies' "Matter of Time"; iTunes, "Milk" off Moderat's II (which is weird because I remember listening to it on flights at ungodly hours to and from L.A. but not much other than that); Spotify, "Easy Easy" by King Krule; YouTube, "Do I Wanna Know" by the Arctic Monkeys; my memory, "Latch" by Disclosure ft. Sam Smith.
An Old Album I Discovered/Rediscovered This Year: Pearl Jam, Ten. The first time I heard "Jeremy" and "Even Flow" was in middle school, my only shred of music credibility at a time when I listened pretty exclusively to Toni Braxton's "He Wasn't Man Enough" and "Everything You Want" by Vertical Horizon. This year I rediscovered Ten when I went through a breakup, shortly after I read everything published on PJ in Rolling Stone for an assignment. Nothing made me feel better about being tragically angst-ridden than listening to Eddie Vedder screaming into my earbuds.
Musical Highlights: Loading up on free Prosecco, wings, and cornbread on a yacht in New Jersey with the Jonas Brothers and Wilmer Valderrama. Compulsively listening to Mount Kimbie while pulling an all-nighter to write a 15-page paper. Seeing Toro Y Moi with my boyfriend on Valentine's Day. Hanging out with Eve (fucking E-V-E!) at a juice bar in the West Village. Emotionally crumbling to Waxahatchee at the Pitchfork Review release party. Dancing to Cut Copy at LPR. Dancing so hard to "Get Lucky" at a wedding that I broke two wine glasses. Drinking free Bloody Marys and discussing men's fashion backstage with Phosphorescent at South by Southwest. Also at SXSW: Neon Indian's Alan Palomo complimenting my tattoo at the same time I asked to take his picture for Billboard. Psychoanalyzing Bradford Cox with the rest of Deerhunter in a suite at the Ace Hotel. Learning that my aunt sewed coats made out of dead bats and rats for Alice Cooper. Freaking out when Kanye came onstage during OVO Fest in Toronto. Going to Basilica Soundscape, a.k.a. summer camp for music journalists. Tearing up while listening to Haim's "Falling" with a plastic cup of red wine on Amtrak because I suddenly, inexplicably felt so grateful this is what I get to do for a living.
Musical Lowlights: Getting the microphone taken away from me during karaoke to "Stacy's Mom", missing Duke Dumont for the JoBros., and losing my reporter's notebook on public transportation—twice.