Travis Kowalski
Lorde - "Team"
Even if you overlook the worldwide hype and praise New Zealand teenager Ella Yelich-O’Connor aka Lorde has received this year, it’s easy to see why her music has made it into countless international playlists. Her first single “Royals” introduced everyone to an amazing vocal ability and perceptive writing style that was inherently missing in the pop landscape, but it was her second single, “Team,” that instantly became my favorite song this year. Within the first few seconds of the song, Lorde demands your attention with a soft whisper of “Wait ‘til you’re announced. We’ve not yet lost all our graces.” Swirling synths and polished vocal work only add another dimension to Lorde’s limitless musical capabilities, which really aim to prove how she’s looking to not only inch her way into pop music, but instead swiftly move all the way to the top. Amidst newfangled pop classics like “Team” that goal seems very possible.
Ailsa Forlenza
Beats Antique - "You The Starry Eyed" (ft. Lynx & Sorne)
On their album A Thousand Faces Act I, Beats Antique musically explores the hero's journey, from the initial call to crossing the threshold into the underworld. "You The Starry Eyed" is a beacon of hope, urging the hero to plod forward. Lynx's angelic wavers glide over a sonorous synth landscape in a gentle duet with Sorne. It's inspiring, with lyrics like "Push on through the night/ like the ones who came before you," and an epic dance groove, verging on the edges of electro-glitch.
Michael Torsell
Vampire Weekend - "Ya Hey"
Winnowing down a year’s worth of albums is difficult enough but winnowing everything down to one standout track is even worse, especially in a year filled with stand out tracks. That said, I am going to say that my top track remains Vampire Weekend’s “Ya Hey,” off of their seminal third album, Modern Vampires of the City. The song’s sweep works well as both a single and within the larger record, with a dramatic bounce and scope that raises hearing someone artfully transition songs at a rooftop party to a biblical level. “Ya Hey” (itself an inversion of 2003’s song of the year “Hey Ya,” which I just noticed was 10 years ago…weird) remained on top throughout the summer and fall and it sits comfortably as my song of the year for 2013.
Jessica Brant
The Neighbourhood - "Sweater Weather"
There are only a few songs I can name that I've broke out in dance to in my room. "Sweater Weather" is one of them. It's just a super sexy song, the perfect indie rock gem with a hip hop twist. The guitar narrates the story, the drums keep it treading. Elegantly written and beautifully arranged.
Mac McGuire
Duckails - "Letter of Intent"
One of my favorite developments of 2013 was Ducktails front man (and Real Estate guitarist) Matthew Mondanile's move out of the bedroom and into a full fledged band. The Flower Lane tapped into some of the 80s soft rock sounds that Destroyer used on Kaputt and paired them perfectly with Mondanile's signature, laid back guitar work, and no song captured that fleshed out sound better than "Letter of Intent." It's funny that the moment Ducktails ceased to become a bedroom recording project that Mondanile released his most bedroom appropriate song yet. Led by the dreamy vocals of Jessa Farkus and Ian Drennan, "Letter of Intent" is a coy, yet seductive number, practically begging you to get lost in its smooth, jangle of guitars and wispy horns. It's absolutely perfect. While I listened to no song more this year than "Letter of Intent," I couldn't end this post without giving some credit to Washed Out's "Don't Give Up," Okkervil River's "Down Down The Deep River," and that glorious coda on Vampire Weekend's "Hannah Hunt."
Tom Etu
Well Worn Boot - "Ballad of Billy Klubb"
"Ballad of Billy Klubb" is a good appetizer for those uninitiated into the world of Well Worn Boot. Become enthralled with the tale of the animal they call Billy Klubb, and rediscover the flute as an important instrument in heavy music. If you can sit still while listening to this, you’re probably a tree. These wild men don’t fuck around. Do not listen to this song while driving a car unless you are prepared to run red lights.
Scott Mancuso
The National - "Pink Rabbits"
This is my favorite song of the year. I think it gets everything right in order to be a good song. It has a well-written melody, it’s well-sung, the instrumentation is varied and interesting to listen to, the music builds on itself in a way that sounds natural and not-at-all forced and expands and contracts in proportion to the emotional tenor of the song’s narrative, and the lyrics are extremely clever and poetically repetitive and subtly tell a story that is painfully sad in a way that is not maudlin or dramatic or self-pitying but that is humble and honest and feels exactly like the hollow, insignificant ache of being a “white girl in a crowd of white girls in the park.” It gets exactly right the ways that physical and emotional distance can play tricks on each other and make the person in your head "sitting in a fainting chair drinking pink rabbits" feel like they're stabbing you with a voodoo doll while the person you're dancing with (the same person, whom you're now holding "way too high off the ground") feels like they're a million miles away as you listen to Bona Drag on repeat, take another swallow of whiskey, and listen to the sound kick out.
I WANT MORE LORDE