Musical Monday: Best of 2013

So the arbitrary standard for "Best of" is that I craved listening to a song, and it came out in 2013.  There are plenty of earworms this year that happened to come out near the tail end of last year or even earlier. And there are plenty of other songs that were fantastic this year and are on everyone's "Best of" list (i.e. Vampire Weekend) That I just didn't connect to in the same way as these.

I divided them into categories as best as I could with maybe a tiny bit of fudging, just so every song had a category.

If you just want to hear the music, without my explanations you can catch the Youtube Playlist of (almost) all the songs HERE 

Upbeat Dance Jams
I am all about music that makes you jump up, bob your head, or dance with your shoulders (I do that a lot when driving and grooving) and these songs all got me moving, even if in completely different ways to the different genres.

Avicii: Wake Me Up

Memory Tapes: Sheila

Fall Out Boy: My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark

Zedd: Clarity (feat. Foxes)

Pharrell Williams: Happy

MS/MR: Fantasy

Love is Complicated
Really I could include almost any song on here, love is the songwriter's ultimate muse.  However, from the aggressive entreat of Fey Moth to be "conquered," Phosphorescent waxing a slow regret, the ladies of Haim venomously pleading to be let go, Gungor's take on the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, and Oh Land's metaphor of love as passport, these songs all show how something so universal can be such a unique experience, as experienced through song.

Fey Moth: Alexander
There is no video for this song and the embedding code isn't working so head here to a past post highlighting this song

Phosphorescent: Song for Zula

Haim: Let Me Go

Gungor: Beat of her Heart

Oh Land: Green Card

Hits from Down Under
I love me some Australia. In fact, I;ll be posting on my favorite global music survey next week (as well as posting my votes) The Triple J Hottest 100. Two of my favorite Aussie artsts with new tracks this year make the cut, Matt Corby and Gossling both taking their sounds in a new direction in 2013. New Zeland gets a shout out too this year with the world's new favorite teen Ella Yenich-O'conner, AKA Lorde. New band FAIRCHILD also joins with a song that I almost put in the "Dance" section with Dancer. Their video inspired a lot of pretending I knew ballet.

Matt Corby: Resolution

Gossling: Never Expire

Lorde: Team

FAIRCHILD: Dancer

UK Beats
From the other side of the world The 1975, CHVRCHES, and Bastille show that HRH Baby George wasn't the only awesome thing to come from the Kingdom this year.

The 1975: Chocolate

CHVRCHES: The Mother We Share

Bastille: Sweet Pompeii

Close Your Eyes and Sway
Sometimes, you just need a slow jam. Whether it's about making it out of this world and into the presence of the Creator or needing your girl, music has a way of expressing longing, hope, expectation, loneliness, and "all of the feels" in a way that no other medium can. Also, inexplicably after the slow build through the bridge, the banjo and subtle beat drop at 3:36 was my favorite moment in a song all year.

Gungor: Finally

The National: I Need My Girl

What were your favorite songs on 2013? Let me know in the comments below or on Twitter: @itzbizr

2013 Spring Songs Preview

Sorry for the brief hiatus. I had some posts planned but every now & then I just feel compelled to get off the interwebs, that combined with a bout of perfectionism meant posting just didn't happen the last 2 weeks. Well now that I'm back, here's my Spring 2013 Preview of Songs and artists I'm excited about.

f y f e: Solace

f y f e is the newest project of Paul Dixon, who used to perform under the name David's Lyre. I've highlighted some of his tracks before which you can find here. Solace is the first song he debuted (that looks funny for some reason but spell check is saying it's OK), under his new moniker and while it's definitely distinct stylistically from his previous work (with a heavier sound, more distinct beat and use of an electric instead of acoustic guitar), it still keeps the same introspective lyrics

He also just dropped a new single this week:
f y f e: Lies

While David's Lyre was a little lighter sounding with more introspective lyrics, these new songs show f y f e is evolving into a more-radio friendly artist, with some heavier hooks, some electro-pop experimentation, and in the case of lies a free download if you "like" it on Facebook. Hopefully this translates into success across the pond for him here in America. I'd love to hear more and am looking forward to the EP release.

Fall Out Boy: My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark

The teenager in me is superexcited for the FOB reunion (Chicago Is So Two Years Ago takes me back to early high school everytime I hear it) plus fire is just awesome to watch in slo-mo, so the video satisfies my inner-pyromaniac. This song is definitely a bit harder & heavier and darker sounding, more reminiscent of Infinity on High than Under the Cork Tree (which along with Foile A Deaux are my favorite albums of theirs)

Vampire Weekend: Step

This song had its debut at the recent SXSW festival in Austin & all the music bloggers basically exploded with how awesome Vampire Weekend is and how much their all anticipating the next album. After hearing the track, I too am pretty excited for the next sounds from this lyrically-confusing, creative, hipster-before-hipsters-were-a-thing band.

San Cisco: Fred Astaire

I saw this young Australian band in concert last weekend at the Rock & Roll Hotel. They were a really fun band to hear live, they have a great 60s-beach-pop vibe and you could see they were having fun which always makes a show better. My friend described them as a "poor man's Bombay Bicycle Club, who is in turn a poor man's Vampire Weekend."  While I definitely see similarity in the sounds of the lead singer's voices & some of the songs, I really don't think that comparison is quite appropriate, it's probably more like San Cisco is a high-schooler's Vampire Weekend (seriously I was a good 10 years older than about 80% of the audience & the lead singer even helped a boy ask a girl to prom,which was adorbs but highlighted the fact that I might've been too old to be there & maybe too old to use the word adorbs) with a sassy lady-drummer named Scarlett (if that's not a perfect Rock&Roll name, I don't know what is).

Hey Marseilles: Heart Beats

Another KEXP find, so I'm linking the video to the live performance recorded through KEXP . I can't even count how many songs I like are named Heartbeat or Heartbeats or something similar but add this to the list. Basically, gimme some existential/introspective thought on hearts beating, add an epic beat and in this case a violin/cello melody line and I'm all about it. I think this band is poised for a breakthrough, I've been hearing their name more and more lately and I can't wait to see what they do next.

Haim: Falling

I cannot say enough about how much I dig Haim's music. I also am calling them out as the next big thing in US music (although, as I said before, I'm not the first to say this: they received the BBC's Sound of 2013 award) Also, while I never officially made this claim for other artists, I recognized the same sort of of potential in the songs from Mumford & Sons, Gotye, Of Monsters & Men, the Lumineers, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis after discovering them from Triple J, KEXP, You Me & Charlie) in some cases almost a year before they became popular in mainstream media. Although for every Mumford, there's a Laura Marling (an amazingly talented musician who the critics all agree is great, but who just hasn't found a much success or radio play in the US). Anyway, this is in no way to toot my own horn, just to say: START LISTENING TO THIS AWESOME BAND and maybe you can be cool like me ;)