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 Drake: "Hold On, We're Going Home"
02 Sky Ferreira: "I Blame Myself"
03 Majical Cloudz: "Turns Turns Turns"
04 Holy Ghost!: "It Must Be the Weather"
05 Shy Girls: "Under Attack"
06 Autre Ne Veut: "Play By Play"
07 Gucci Mane: "Hell Yes"
08 Meek Mill: "Lil Nigga Snupe"
09 Sophie: "Nothing More to Say / Eeehhh"
10 DIANA: "Born Again"
Favorite Albums of 2013:
01 Majical Cloudz: Impersonator
02 Drake: Nothing Was the Same
03 Holy Ghost!: Dynamics
04 Vampire Weekend: Modern Vampires of the City
05 The National: Trouble Will Find Me
06 Classixx: Hanging Gardens
07 Charli XCX: True Romance
08 Kanye West: Yeezus
09 A$AP Ferg: Trap Lord
10 Chance the Rapper: Acid Rap
Most Played Song of 2013:Holy Ghost!, "It Must Be the Weather". Not my absolute favorite song of the year, but definitely the one I wore the most tread off of. I maintain that Dynamics, Holy Ghost!'s sophomore album, is a lot better than it's gotten credit for, and from where I'm sitting, "It Must Be the Weather" is its emotional centerpiece. The track's approaching-thunderstorm chug doesn't inspire a lot of confidence that vocalist Alex Frankel will end up on the right side of the struggle between a spiraling addiction and the desire to make something out of your adult life, but his in-the-nick-of-time realizations do: "Me without my friends? Irrelevant and lame."
An Old Album I Discovered/Rediscovered This Year:After revisiting Camp Lo's 1997 classic Uptown Saturday Night earlier this year, it became clear to me just how much of a lasting influence that Sonny Cheeba and Geechi Suede have had on this generation of rappers, even if their names rarely come up in these kind of conversations.
Musical Highlights:Listening along with my friends who live in different cities and different countries to the leaks of Yeezus and Nothing Was the Same in what were two of the most powerful communal experiences I've ever had. Shouting "MASTER BRUUUUCE" (A$AP Ferg's memorable ad-lib from "Shabba") at strangers while out with friends. Witnessing Devon Welsh of Majical Cloudz perform in nothing but white briefs in front of a crowd of 20 people. Dancing around in a sweaty basement while Purity Ring's Corin Roddick mixed Future (or maybe it was Trinidad James) into Kuedo at Rude Haus. Driving around at midnight with Classixx's "Borderline" on repeat. The moment the chorus of DIANA's "Born Again" hits. Watching Killer Mike and El-P perform twice in the span of three days. Trying to figure out how to play "Over My Dead Body" on a hotel piano with Jamieson Cox at 3 AM in Chicago this summer.
Musical Lowlights: Jeremih not shooting into the stratosphere. Azealia Banks' Twitter account. Miguel's drop-kick.