The Audiophile’s Voter’s Choice & Top 51 Tracks of 2013

Musicheads,

The votes are in and everything has been counted.  This year a lot of talented artists put out a lot of good music, some in bunches, some in one singular piece of musical goodness.  To keep this vote interesting I only chose 1 song per group for the list (although I could have easily thrown in a number of tracks from a few certain artists to round out my top 51).  But what did YOU, the reader select for your favorite track of the year?  It seemed to be a common theme among the voters.  2013 was a year for robots!

That’s right, Daft Punk’s smash single Get Lucky took the crown for this year’s top track of 2013.  With over 100 million streams of the track on Spotify alone, the French duo took the world by storm with its hard to forget beat and easily danceable sound.  Partnering up with legendary guitarist Nile Rodgers and the smooth-voiced Pharrell Williams, the robots had a hit machine in the works before the album even dropped.  Partnered with the incredible publicity campaign full of track snippets (see Daft Punk…a decade without) and even a 30-sec looped promo teaser that even made its way around the internet and even radio for a week before being labelled for what it was.  This song continues to be incredibly catchy and just makes you want to do and sing along.  Just look, even Colbert is doing it!

http://vimeo.com/71943827

That right there is why people love it and that is why it won in the voter’s ears and why I believe it rightly deserves the top place of honor as 2013’s Song Of The Year!

A close second in my book was the Scottish trio CHVRCHES‘ incredibly catchy tune The Mother We Share.

Listening to this song, you are not only uplifted, but want to dance and sing along to the synthesized notes and vocal samples.  It’s an instant mood changer and the pixie-ish lead singer, Lauren Mayberry, you can’t help but smile at. And the funniest/ironic part? It’s actually a very lyrically melancholy song.  This was actually the goal of the group on the song, to make a song that, while lyrically sad, tricks you with a false feeling of empowerment and excitement built in the music.  It really is quite a feat, and one the Scots pull off very well.

Feel free to continue to enjoy the Spotify Playlist linked below and here is the complete list in order of the Audiophile’s top 51 tracks of 2013:

Playlist: The Audiophile: Top 51 Tracks of 2013

1. Daft Punk – Get Lucky (feat. Pharell Williams)
2. CHVRCHES – The Mother We Share
3. Vampire Weekend – Step
4. Bastille – Pompeii
5. Arctic Monkeys – Do I Wanna Know?
6. Haim – The Wire
7. Local Natives – Heavy Feet
8. Savages – Shut Up
9. Jake Bugg – Lightning Bolt
10. NONONO – Pumpin Blood
11. Bat For Lashes – All Your Gold
12. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Sacrilege
13. Foals – My Number
14. London Grammar – Strong
15. Classixx – Holding On
16. Phosphorescent – Song For Zula
17. Wild Cub – Thunder Clatter
18. Lorde – Royals
19. St. Lucia – All Eyes On You
20. San Fermin – Sonsick
21. The Head & The Heart – Shake
22. The Knocks – Modern Hearts (feat. St. Lucia)
23. Crystal Fighters – You & I
24. RAC – Let Go (feat. Kele, MNDR)
25. MS MR – Hurricane
26. Paramore – Still Into You
27. Phoenix – Trying To Be Cool
28. Arcade Fire – Afterlife
29. Cut Copy – We Are Explorers
30. Jagwar Ma – Come Save Me
31. Capital Cities – Safe and Sound
32. Frank Turner – Recovery
33. Steve Martin & Edie Brickell – Love Has Come For You
34. The 1975 – Chocolate
35. Noah And The Whale – There Will Come A Time
36. The Naked And Famous – Hearts Like Ours
37. Small Black – No Stranger
38. Everything Everything – Cough Cough
39. Atlas Genius – Trojans
40. Lord Huron – Time To Run
41. James Blake – Retrograde
42. Leagues – Spotlight
43. Cage The Elephant – Come A Little Closer
44. Royal Teeth – Wild
45. Rudimental – Feel The Love (feat. John Newman)
46. The Limousines – Love Is A Dog From Hell
47. Temples – Shelter Song
48. Kings Of Leon – Supersoaker
49. Cayucas – High School Lover
50. Disclosure – Latch
51. New Politics – Harlem

I look forward to everything to come in 2014 and hopefully our ears will have the pleasure to have just as competitive a list to determine next year!

Feel like I missed someone or left them off the list?  Let me know.  Discussion is always appreciated.

and don’t forget to follow on Facebook and on Twitter @AudiofileAkwitz at to get even more music updates that don’t make the posts.

–Akwitz

Now Playing: The Audiophile: Top 51 Tracks of 2013

The Audiophile’s Voter’s Choice & Top 10 Albums of 2013

Musicheads,

The results are in and the voter’s choice winner for album of the year is…

  

It was a close race, but eventually the robots took the year for 2013’s Audiophile Voter’s Album of the Year.  Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories ended up running away with the vote in polling, with CHVRCHES‘ The Bones Of What You Believe coming in a close second.

It looks like the album was worth the hype in the listeners ears (albeit the best I’ve seen it do in other year-end polls is Top 10).  Personally, I couldn’t agree more with the selection.  The duo put together a uniquely interesting mysterious promo campaign which could not have worked better (see: Daft Punk…a decade without).  Although the duo took a much different approach to this album as compared to their previous albums, the Frenchmen put together a solid album filled with live instruments and working directly with both their musical inspirations (i.e. Giorgio Moroder, Paul Williams of Three Dog Night, Nile Rodgers of Chic) and contemporary artists such as Julian Casablancas, Panda Bear and Pharrell Williams.  A lot of critics were quick to write the duo off for this album because it didn’t adhere to the formula of their previous albums, and for that I wrote their opinion off.  This album is best heard on a hi-fi sound system to truly appreciate the richness of the instruments, especially the deep bass performances throughout the album.  The album is complex, and should not be written off as just a simple dance album.  With the vastly successful smash hit single Get Lucky and fellow radio singles Instant Crush and Doin’ it Right, the robots took over the music world from their release in May through the entire summer (until the Miley saga).  Where the singles are limited lyrically, other tracks on the album provide greater depth.  Touch, Fragments of Time and Contact are the counterpoint to the radio singles and provide far greater musical depth than one would expect from a dance album.  The album also wouldn’t be complete without a robot song, and this is where the combination of back-to-back tracks Beyond and Motherboard come in.  With Random Access Memories, the robots ironically did Give Life Back to Music.

All that is well and good, however the Audiophile’s personal choice for album of the year has to go with Vampire Weekend’s Modern Vampires Of The City.

I don’t mean to take away from Daft Punk, but Ezra Koenig and company truly put together the year’s best album.  Labelled by the band as the third and final piece of the “Vampire Weekend trilogy,” the group matured musically and lyrically on their 2013 album.  This album presents are much more diverse band from the Upper West Side of New York City, no longer relying solely on college-level references, the band found inspiration in religious practices and spirituality and tied them in with American cultural attitudes.  Bolstered by early radio singles Diane Young, Ya Hey and Step the band took to the road to tour the new album with a new and varied repertoire.  These three singles could not be more different from each other.  Diane Young is a modulation-heavy rocking track with drum-and-bass-centric sound.  Meanwhile, Ya Hey is a Jewish-centric track lyrically, which had to have been inspired by Ezra’s upbringing (Koenig’s parents are Eastern European Jewish immigrants).   Step on the other hand, is the crown jewel of the album.  A lyrical masterpiece with brilliant writing and an incredible sound to it.  Step is a much slower, yet more iconic track which draws out feelings of nostalgia, awe, loneliness and inspiration all at once.  Paired with the simple lyric video shot with a black-and-white NYC backdrop, the font of emotions that can be drawn from this track are endless.

Apart from the singles, there are some other fantastic tracks on Modern Vampires that make it the year’s best album in my opinion.  Hannah Hunt is a terrific track about personal experience and worldly wisdom while travelling across America.  Everlasting Arms follows this up with a track about one’s own personal struggle questioning the relationship between a higher power and their life.  Unbelievers is another fun track, reminiscent of the band’s sound on earlier albums.  The final two tracks on the album Hudson and Young Lion are excellent album closers, dropping the tempo and adding ethereal backing tracks, while leaving you surprisingly optimistic as it drifts off into the musical abyss as the album comes to a close.

For more of the album, feel free to read my original review of the album written back at the album’s release: ‘New Music Tuesdays’ – ‘Who Gives a Fuck About an Oxford Comma’ Edition.

NEW: The Top 51 Albums have now been ranked in the order in terms of best of the year (in my opinion, of course).

I also want to pay particular attention to the list below, in particular to the Top 10.  Something I never thought I would ever say, but I put a Punk band in my top 10 this year.  Jehnny Beth and the girls of Savages truly put out a spectacular album in 2013, worth listening to by everyone (even non-Punk fans like myself!).  I also wanted to highlight the sizable number of British talents on this year’s best of.  Foals, Jake Bugg, CHVRCHES and Savages all hail from the UK and all put out deservedly great albums this year.  Another major theme of this year’s music releases was the predominance of the female lead.  Haim, CHRVCHES, Savages, MS MR, London Grammar, Paramore, Bat For Lashes, Lorde, Laura Mvula, Young Galaxy and The Naked and Famous all predominantly feature a female lead singer (not to mention the other bands on this list that split vocals) and I for one, am excited about this upswing.

Spotify Playlist: The Audiophile: Top 51 Albums of 2013

Here is the Audiophile’s Top 51 albums (Ranked IN ORDER this time):

1. Vampire Weekend – Modern Vampires Of The City
2. Daft Punk – Random Access Memories
3. CHVRCHES – The Bones Of What You Believe
4. Haim – Days Are Gone
5. Local Natives – Hummingbird
6. Foals – Holy Fire
7. Savages – Silence Yourself
8. The Head & The Heart – Let’s Be Still
9. Arcade Fire – Reflektor
10. Jake Bugg – Jake Bugg
11. Paramore – Paramore
12. MS MR – Secondhand Rapture
13. Blood Orange – Cupid Deluxe
14. London Grammar – If You Wait
15. Small Black – Limits Of Desire
16. Steve Martin & Edie Brickell – Love Has Come For You
17. David Bowie – The Next Day
18. Phosphorescent – Muchacho
19. Bat For Lashes – The Haunted Man
20. Lorde – Pure Heroine
21. Phoenix – Bankrupt!
22. The 1975 – The 1975
23. St. Lucia – When The Night
24. Charles Bradley – Victim Of Love
25. Laura Mvula – Sing To The Moon
26. Houndmouth – From The Hills Below The City
27. Noah And The Whale – Heart Of Nowhere
28. The Naked And Famous – In Rolling Waves
29. Grouplove – Spreading Rumours
30. Bastille – Bad Blood
31. James Blake – Overgrown
32. Everything Everything – Arc
33. Cut Copy – Free Your Mind
34. Atlas Genius – When It Was Now
35. Cayucas – Bigfoot
36. Capital Cities – In A Tidal Wave Of Mystery
37. Majical Cloudz – Impersonator
38. Frank Turner – Tape Deck Heart
39. Young Galaxy – Ultramarine
40. Cage The Elephant – Melophobia
41. Royal Teeth – Glow
42. Lord Huron – Lonesome Dreams
43. Classixx – Hanging Gardens
44. Jagwar Ma – Howlin
45. Rudimental – Home
46. Leagues – You Belong Here
47. Dave Grohl & the Sound City Players – Sound City – Real to Real
48. The Limousines – Hush
49. Kings Of Leon – Mechanical Bull
50. Los Campesinos! – No Blues
51. Walk Off The Earth – R.E.V.O.

Did I miss someone or leave them off the list?  Let me know.  Discussion is always appreciated.

and don’t forget to follow on Facebook and on Twitter @AudiofileAkwitz at to get even more music updates that don’t make the posts.

–Akwitz

Now Playing: The Audiophile’s Top 51 Albums of 2013

The Audiophile’s Top 51 Tracks of 2013 – VOTE

Musicheads,

Let’s face it, making a complete album is tough and expensive.  In today’s music environment artists don’t have to create and promote a full album to get the word out there and build a following for themselves.  Some groups have truly taken that to heart and simply released single after single, with no album on the horizon.  There are plenty artists who make excellent music who have yet to release a full-length album and we don’t want to discount them from the annals of music history either.  It is because of this reason the Audiophile has also compiled it’s list of the top 51 tracks of the year (not in any order).

This list was actually quite difficult to compile, having to make decisions as to what songs deserve to make the top 51.   Unfortunately, some quality songs didn’t make the cut, but that’s why we make lists, right?  Where does one draw the line on deciding what makes that cut though? Do you rely on sales numbers, uniqueness, content, how catchy a song is or if its popularly accepted? I think all play some part in the decision-making process regarding any song’s ability to rise above.  There are plenty of songs that will never make more than a blip, if any on national radio airplay that have to be considered.  There are artists on this list that have multiple albums and have headlined festivals around the world.  There are also plenty of first time artists on here with little more than an EP.

I am putting it into your hands to vote for what you believe is the best song of the year.  Personally, I think this year’s top song is a two-horse race between Daft Punk and Lorde, but let’s see what you guys think.

The voter’s choice along with the Audiophile’s Top 10 will be revealed the week before Christmas, so get your votes in now!

Share with your friends and let’s get as many votes in for this and the Album of The Year!

Don’t know some of these tracks, don’t worry, we’ve got a curated playlist just for you!

Playlist: The Audiophile: Top 51 Tracks of 2013

Vote for your favorite: 

1. Daft Punk – Get Lucky (feat. Pharell Williams)
2. CHVRCHES – The Mother We Share
3. Haim – The Wire
4. Lorde – Royals
5. Bastille – Pompeii
6. Vampire Weekend – Step
7. Savages – Shut Up
8. Cayucas – High School Lover
9. Arctic Monkeys – Do I Wanna Know?
10. Local Natives – Heavy Feet
11. Wild Cub – Thunder Clatter
12. New Politics – Harlem
13. St. Lucia – All Eyes On You
14. Noah And The Whale – There Will Come A Time
15. Bat For Lashes – All Your Gold
16. The Naked And Famous – Hearts Like Ours
17. Temples – Shelter Song
18. San Fermin – Sonsick
19. NONONO – Pumpin Blood
20. The Knocks – Modern Hearts (feat. St. Lucia)
21. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Sacrilege
22. Crystal Fighters – You & I
23. RAC – Let Go (feat. Kele, MNDR)
24. Foals – My Number
25. Phosphorescent – Song For Zula
26. James Blake – Retrograde
27. Leagues – Spotlight
28. Phoenix – Trying To Be Cool
29. Arcade Fire – Afterlife
30. Cut Copy – We Are Explorers
31. Atlas Genius – Trojans
32. Jagwar Ma – Come Save Me
33. Capital Cities – Safe and Sound
34. Frank Turner – Recovery
35. Steve Martin & Edie Brickell – Love Has Come For You
36. The 1975 – Chocolate
37. Disclosure – Latch
38. Small Black – No Stranger
39. Everything Everything – Cough Cough
40. Cage The Elephant – Come A Little Closer
41. Royal Teeth – Wild
42. Lord Huron – Time To Run
43. London Grammar – Strong
44. Classixx – Holding On
45. Jake Bugg – Lightning Bolt
46. Rudimental – Feel The Love (feat. John Newman)
47. MS MR – Hurricane
48. Paramore – Still Into You
49. The Limousines – Love Is A Dog From Hell
50. The Head & The Heart – Shake
51. Kings Of Leon – Supersoaker

Did I miss someone or leave them off the list?  Let me know.  Discussion is always appreciated.

and don’t forget to follow on Facebook and on Twitter @AudiofileAkwitz at to get even more music updates that don’t make the posts.

–Akwitz

Now Playing: The Audiophile: Top 51 Tracks of 2013