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Celeb News: Drowned In Sound's Best Tracks of 2013
Member Since: 3/30/2009
Posts: 79,408
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Drowned In Sound's Best Tracks of 2013
Drowned In Sound's Top 40 Best Tracks of 2013
Drowned In Sound’s writing staff are a proudly anarchic bunch. We can barely form a unified opinion on the Beady Eye album, so imagine the trouble that stems from compiling a Best Singles of 2013 list. Pretty much every song from The National’s Trouble Will Find Me got nominated, Kendrick Lamar’s verse on ‘Control’ went without recognition and it turned out everyone still loved Arcade Fire.
Honestly, it’s as though we enjoy being a contrary bunch of bastards.
Having had the pleasure of compiling everyone’s picks into an utterly definitive Top 40 (there's a playlist after The Words), I can promise you that every one of these tracks has been loved. How else could the Pet Shop Boys and Pusha T end up on the same countdown?
So please do argue over this list’s precise ordering, howl in agony at our Number 1 pick and indulge your inner pedant by pointing out how the Chvrches song is a re-release - that’s what it’s all about. Before you do let rip, spare a moment to read each gleeful testimony attached to these tracks. Behind every one is a music fan who wanted to shout about something great they heard this year.
This is what we do at DiS. Hearts first, heads later.
40. Earl Sweatshirt, Burgundy (Columbia)
39. Ghosting Season, Apophenia (FIELDS)
38. Telegram, Follow (GramGram Records)
37. Phoenix, Trying To Be Cool feat. R Kelly (Atlantic)
36. The-Dream, Slow It Down feat. Fabolous (Def Jam Records)
35. Rilo Kiley, Let Me Back In (Little Record Company)
34. Swearin', Dust in the Gold Sack (Wichita Recordings)
33. Miss Kittin, Bassline (Wagram Music / wSphere)
32. Pet Shop Boys, Love is a Bourgeois Concept (X2)
31. Rose Elinor Dougall, Future Vanishes (You Records)
30. Veronica Falls, Teenage (Wichita Recordings)
29. Girls Names, The New Life (Tough Love)
28. Manic Street Preachers, Rewind The Film (Sony Music)
27. Nine Inch Nails, Came Back Haunted (Polydor)
26. Goldfrapp, Drew (Mute)
25. The National, Sea of Love (4AD)
24. Public Service Broadcasting, Signal 30 (Test Card Recordings)
23. Katy Perry, Roar (RCA Records)
22. These New Puritans, Organ Eternal (Infectious Records)
21. Au Revoir Simone, Crazy (Moshi Moshi)
20. Janelle Monáe, Primetime feat. Miguel (Bad Boy/Wondaland)
19. Jon Hopkins, Open Eye Signal (Domino Records)
18. Drake, Hold On, We're Going Home (Cash Money Records)
17. Los Campesinos!, Avocado, Baby (Turnstile)
16. Mutya Keisha Siobhan, Flatline (Polydor)
15. Arctic Monkeys, Do I Wanna Know? (Domino Records)
14. Foals, My Number (Warner Music)
13. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Jubilee Street (Bad Seed Ltd)
12. Disclosure, White Noise (feat. AlunaGeorge) (PMR Records)
11. Pusha T, Numbers on the Boards (GOOD Music)
10. Kanye West, Black Skinhead (Def Jam Records)
9. Paramore, Still Into You (Atlantic Records)
8. Daft Punk, Get Lucky feat. Pharrell (Columbia Records)
7. Vampire Weekend, Diane Young (XL Recordings)
6. Chvrches, The Mother We Share (Virgin Records)
5. Vampire Weekend, Ya Hey (XL Recordings)
4. Jagwar Ma, The Throw (Marathon Artists)
3. Arcade Fire, Reflektor (Arcade Fire Music)
2. John Grant, GMF feat. Sinéad O'Connor (Co-operative Union)
1. Justin Timberlake, Mirrors (RCA Records)
Everything great about Justin Timberlake’s The 20/20 Experience is captured on ‘Mirrors’, the greatest pop single not just of this year, but the decade. It flickers between Frank Ocean-esque hip hop sensibilities and In Rainbows-era Radiohead’s luscious electronic soundscapes via the faintest soupcon of EDM. For eight perfect minutes the songs ebbs and flows organically; Timberlake hits every beat and lands every punch perfectly with dreamlike ease. The ambition shown here is the equivalent of Christopher Nolan serving up another intelligent summer blockbuster: the content-consuming, Barlow-watching, Bastille-buying public barely deserves it.
So that was our best singles of 2013 list. We’re sure you know better. To tell us where we ballsed it all up, head over to the Drowned In Sound messageboards and shout about all the songs that are infinitely better than Justin Timberlake’s ‘Mirrors’. If you can think of any.
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Member Since: 7/3/2010
Posts: 5,788
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Mirrors was a def a home run
That outro is powerful
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Member Since: 6/17/2012
Posts: 6,269
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omg I like mirrors but best pop single of the decade? goodbye 
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Member Since: 2/18/2012
Posts: 25,853
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Arctic Monkeys should be higher. 
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Member Since: 5/3/2012
Posts: 42,099
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Quote:
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‘Mirrors’, the greatest pop single not just of this year, but the decade.
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 Not in a decade where We Found Love exists. Pretty crappy list overall.
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Member Since: 8/19/2013
Posts: 34,855
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Not the overlong "What Goes Around.../...Comes Around" remake featuring terrible, conceited lyrics. 
I guess it's better than "Get Lucky," though.
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Member Since: 5/1/2012
Posts: 10,570
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Quote:
25. The National, Sea of Love (4AD)
20. Janelle Monáe, Primetime feat. Miguel (Bad Boy/Wondaland)
12. Disclosure, White Noise (feat. AlunaGeorge) (PMR Records)
10. Kanye West, Black Skinhead (Def Jam Records)
9. Paramore, Still Into You (Atlantic Records)
8. Daft Punk, Get Lucky feat. Pharrell (Columbia Records)
7. Vampire Weekend, Diane Young (XL Recordings)
5. Vampire Weekend, Ya Hey (XL Recordings)
3. Arcade Fire, Reflektor (Arcade Fire Music)
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"Step" is the best song Vampire Weekend released this year though. 
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Member Since: 8/18/2013
Posts: 10,487
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Member Since: 8/19/2013
Posts: 26,488
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Quote:
26. Goldfrapp, Drew (Mute)
12. Disclosure, White Noise (feat. AlunaGeorge) (PMR Records)
6. Chvrches, The Mother We Share (Virgin Records)
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YASSSS! 
And yesssss at them comparing Drew to Bond 
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I wouldn't normally count myself a huge Goldfrapp fan but 'Drew' made me reconsider that when it (actually) stopped me in my tracks one day. Alison's vocals have never before sounded so beautifully ethereal, nor the strings so Bond-esque. It was the apparent ease of it too; nothing here is superfluous. Put together they managed to nullify many a bad work day and form a song to get lost within.
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My favorite list so far.
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Member Since: 12/16/2008
Posts: 59,380
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Quote:
Originally posted by liberalmusiclover
Not in a decade where We Found Love exists. Pretty crappy list overall.
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Even worse
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Member Since: 4/20/2012
Posts: 6,896
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Quote:
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6. Chvrches, The Mother We Share (Virgin Records)
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ATRL Contributor
Member Since: 11/5/2011
Posts: 100,491
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23. Katy Perry, Roar (RCA Records)
The only pop girl on the list?
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ATRL Contributor
Member Since: 8/8/2006
Posts: 42,086
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23. Katy Perry
Roar (RCA Records)
Quote:
Popstars! Forget your Jeff Koons-inspired sound collage. Leave those outbursts of arse-ripping bravado at the studio doors. Above making you think, act like a letch or anything else, a big smash hit should warm your goolies with unabashed joy.
How do I feel every time ‘Roar’s breakbeat intro blasts over office radio? In two words: ‘****ing fantastic’.
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Mess
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ATRL Contributor
Member Since: 8/19/2013
Posts: 43,104
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Paramore
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Member Since: 6/17/2012
Posts: 6,269
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Roar? Breakbeat? Credibility lost
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Originally posted by liberalmusiclover
Not in a decade where We Found Love exists. Pretty crappy list overall. |
Um... WFL is a good song but it shows no signs of good pop songwriting
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Member Since: 8/19/2013
Posts: 34,855
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Wait, how is "The Mother We Share" on here? That came out back in September of 2012.
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Originally posted by Teen Idle
Um... WFL is a good song but it shows no signs of good pop songwriting
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It's leagues better than "Mirrors," though, which features an already overdone metaphor set to the music of "What Goes Around"
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Member Since: 3/16/2012
Posts: 13,657
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Beautiful "Open Eye Signal"!  "Mirrors" dominating these lists just like I predicted.
Great entries with "White Noise", "The Throw", "Reflektor", "Diane Young" and "Ya Hey".
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Member Since: 5/22/2011
Posts: 21,227
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Mirrors is the Taj Mahal of pop music where We Found Love is more like the closed down McDonalds down the street from me.
Great list, absolutely agree Mirrors being the best pop song of the decade. Nobody can touch it.
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Member Since: 10/14/2008
Posts: 9,686
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4. Jagwar Ma, The Throw (Marathon Artists)
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"Man I Need" is much better song.
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23. Katy Perry, Roar (RCA Records)
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BYE!
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Member Since: 8/3/2012
Posts: 19,910
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Quote:
Originally posted by jqnetto
"Step" is the best song Vampire Weekend released this year though. |
Ikr
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Yey for mirrors. Finally some recognition. One of the best pop songs so far this decade.
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The mother we share was released last year, true, but I'm putting it on my list this year anyway. Just can't ignore it, since it rocked this year for me, not last.
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