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

Musical Monday: Spring Fever

Spring is in the air, which means invest in some tissues for those seasonal allergies... wait I don't mean that type of spring fever. I mean the birds singing in the trees and flowers blooming and the type of spring fever that made high-school-me a bundle of angst hoarding my emotions in a box of undelivered (and sometimes ill-delivered) love-notes. So here's this week's list:

Fey Moth: Alexander

This electro-pop band out of Seattle, Washington (another KEXP find) takes the "love is a battlefield" metaphor to epic proportions with "Alexander" in which the female vocalist challenges a boy that if he wants to make her his empire, her he must be willing to wage war and conquer.  I imagine 2 armies of soldiers clad in ancient togas and sandals, amazon warrior women toe to toe with Alexander the great-esque men building statues and legends. But really, as I listen what I really hear is a girl who just wants a guy to rise to the occasion and

Then I heard the rest of the digital album White Blind released December 2012 and I knew I had to break with tradition & include a whole album in this week's Musical Monday. It fit the Spring Fever theme so well, I had to include the whole thing, especially with cover art like this:

You can buy it for any price here, I have been rocking out to these 5 songs all weekend.

The nature imagery throughout this album is perfect for spring and as metaphors for infatuation, love, and longing. A perfect example is the last track, where she serenades her "peach, out of reach."

Phosphorescent: Song for Zula

On a completely opposite side of things we have Song for Zula off of the recently released album Muchacho that compares love to a wild animal who must be caged else it disfigure its victims.  The floating orchestral melody contrasts so well with the weary heart-broken lyrics.

Atlas Genius: Trojans

This tune is a Trojan in my head! Depending on what stations you listen to, you've either heard this song too much or not at all.  The first single to make it big in the US from the Australian band's album When It Was Now I have found a miraculous balance where I've heard it just enough to want more. Which is what I imagine the song it about but rather than a song, it's a person who's Trojan-horsed her way into his head. I LOVE the part where the melody drops out and it's a slow build with the singer with the drums clapping and the guitar repeating a single note. Something about that moment in just gives me so many feels ("feelings" for any non-tumblr folk)!

Spring Fever is all about the "feels." What song's right now give you fever? I'd love to know. Tell me in the comments or on twitter @itzbitz