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.
Favorite Tracks of 2013:
01 Earl Sweatshirt: "Hive" [ft. Vince Staples & Casey Veggies]
02 Lil Durk: "Dis Aint What You Want"
03 Migos: "Versace"
04 Burial: "Rival Dealer"
05 Bill Callahan: "Summer Painter"
06 Kanye West: "I'm In It"
07 Drake: "Worst Behavior"
08 Starlito: "Money Cacti"
09 A$AP Ferg: "Shabba"
10 Kevin Morby: "Harlem River"
Favorite Albums of 2013:
01 Earl Sweatshirt: Doris
02 Bill Callahan: Dream River
03 Kanye West: Yeezus
04 Kurt Vile: Wakin on a Pretty Daze
05 Kevin Gates: The Luca Brasi Story
06 Way Through: Clapper Is Still
07 Lee Noble: Ruiner
08 James Holden: The Inheritors
09 Young Thug: 1017 Thug
10 Weed: Deserve
Your Most Played Song of 2013: Migos, "Versace." Have you listened to this song? You've definitely listened to this song. I am pretty sure I listened to it more than any other song this year, but that might just be due to its hypnotic effect. I listened to it in cars, on my computer, while at the gym, at the beach, on the subway and on multiple airplanes. Maybe I just heard it once and it was stuck in my head this whole time?
An Old Album I Discovered/Rediscovered This Year: That honor would have to go to the beautifully packaged For Against box set that Captured Tracks reissued this year. For Against were from Nebraska, not the UK, which is probably why their alternately brittle, alternately warm take on dream pop and post-punk was largely overlooked. It shouldn't have been. The box features demos, as well as their first two albums, Echelons and sophomore release December, which is the highlight. It seems like every song is about isolation or desolation and haunting claustrophobia. Singer Jeffrey Runnings is preoccupied with the things people—probably exes—leave behind: Shoes and cats both make lyrical appearances on tracks that are way prettier than they need to be, as symbolic stand-ins for the people that still haunt his life long after they've exited.
Musical Highlights: For reasons too complicated to get into here, I accidentally spent close to the entire month of February in California. Mostly I was in L.A., but there was also a five day trip to San Francisco in there too. When I was driving, I almost exclusively—borderline obsessively—listened to Young Thug's manic 1017 Thug, a mixtape that features Young Thug crooning like a maniac over boilerplate 2013 rap production. His charisma is insane, and there are moments so weirdly catchy, like all of "Picacho", which happens to feature Maceo, further proving that "Nextel Chirp" remains one of the most on-the-low influential songs of the last ten years. I guess I rediscovered that one this year too.
Musical Lowlights: French Montana's "Ain't Worried About Nuthin" was simultaneously my favorite and least favorite song of the year, and I can pinpoint the exact moment it switched over, though, let's be honest, it'll eventually re-enter regular rotation. How could it not? That chorus is incredible. I spent the better part of 2013 enjoying the song, until one unfortunate weekday morning right around 5 AM, when a car pulled up outside my apartment and proceeded to blast it on repeat for two hours. I ain't worried about nuthin except that happening to me again.