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My Top 10 Songs of June 2013

I can’t believe 2013 is half done. The first half of the year has been so good for music, if I had to cull everything together to make a top 100 list right now, I’d have trouble doing so. I have no earthly idea what I’m going to do come year’s end. I’ll worry about that later though. Here are the songs I listened to/liked most in June:

10. Chvrches – Gun

Maybe it doesn’t quite reach the dizzying heights of “Lies”, “The Mother We Share”, “Recover”, and “Now Is Not The Time”, but the more I listen to “Gun”, the more I dig it. I really like the way Chvrches employ a double chorus/hook-hook song structure on many of their tracks. “Gun” is a shot of pure pleasure. Chvrches are on bloody fire. And apropos of nothing, Lauren Mayberry is adorable.

 

9. The Besnard Lakes – People of the Sticks

This is The Besnard Lakes at their badassest (say that 10 times quickly). The song is transfixing. The video is highly unusual. I’m down with all of it.

 

8. Phosphorescent – Muchacho’s Tune

This is gorgeous music. Melodic and melancholic with a sliver of sunlight in the dark, distant sky.

 

7. New Politics – Harlem

This song is a mischievous, cockroachian pest. Once it builds a home in your brain, good luck getting rid of it.

 

6. Preatures – Is This How You Feel?

This song reminds me of about 472 other songs. It has the soul of an old rock/blues song, yet somehow, it sounds unwaveringly fresh. I call that magic.

 

5. The Belle Game – River

That voice. My oh my, that voice.

 

4. Cold War Kids – Loner Phase/Lost That Easy

I love “Loner Phase” and “Lost That Easy” equally. They’re two of the several phenomenal songs from what I think is Cold War Kids’ most consistent album, Dear Miss Lonelyhearts. The media linked below is one of the coolest lyric videos I’ve seen yet. Cold War Kids just keep getting better.

 

3. Paramore – Still Into You

Paramore’s latest (eponymous) LP is, quite frankly, a revelation. I had no idea Hayley Williams, Taylor York, and Jeremy Davis had this in them. They tackle seemingly every subgenre of pop/alt, and they do it with such ease and vigour. The album is a confluence of many factors that (luckily) clicked at the same time. I’m not sure they’ll ever top it, but I’ mustn’t dwell on such things. I’m just going to continue to enjoy the hell out of a gobsmackingly good record. “Still Into You”, the second single from the album, is a downright juggernaut. This is takeover music.

 

2. Robin Thicke f. Pharrell and T.I. – Blurred Lines

I liked “Blurred Lines” at first, but I don’t think it really hit me until I was bludgeoned over the head with it — that’ll happen when a song is played on every format in existence on a loop for months. If there can be such a thing, it was an enjoyable bludgeoning. “Blurred Lines” is, by light years, Robin Thicke’s best song ever. In fact, I would argue he never even had a good song until he made this. I also believe that Pharrell is probably the sole reason why this song is so catchy, such is his power/ability. Alan’s kid has a great talent at nicking stuff from Justin Timberlake, and a good voice, but considering how many albums he’s released with nary a song worth remembering, I’d say he’s extremely lucky Pharrell decided to let him sing on this behemoth of a beat. But I digress. The song is a bloody monster, and it may or may not (read: may) have been made even more seductive by the unrated version of the video (google that ish and you’ll see why).

 

1. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Despair

A couple weeks ago, I watched the video for Yeah Yeah Yeah’s new single, “Despair”, and I was overcome with emotion. Here’s how I described it at the time…

Honesty: I heard YYY’s “Despair” today, and I shed tears. I love music so much because occasionally, overpowering moments like that happen. Music is the art form that marinates my heart, beckons for it, keeps it tender, nurtures it. And in turn, my heart beats for it. As for YYY’s “Despair” itself, it couldn’t espouse a feeling further from its title. It’s the power of 1000 suns. It’s brighter. It’s a revelation. The video only heightens the feeling. The ebullient faces of Karen O & drummer Brian Chase make my soul stir, my pores goosebump, me live.

I still feel that way and I don’t think it’ll change any time soon. Music The All-Powerful.

My Top 10 Songs of April 2013

March was such a good month for music it couldn’t help but bleed into April. I took my time getting to know March songs, taking them out for coffee, flirting with them, skirting the line of appropriateness between a guy and his songs, and before I knew it, the end of April had arrived and burst our little love bubble (April’s a killjoy, no wonder there’s always so much rain). As such, my list of the Top 10 Songs of April is heavily indebted to March, with a few new releases peppered in for flavour.

I also found myself listening to a few older songs — a lot. To shine a light on these tremendous older/oldish songs that captured my ears and attention so, I’ve made a mini list (directly below), and followed that with my favourite newer/newish songs.

Silversun Pickups – The Pit

The only song I found to be immediately and eminently gratifying on SP’s latest, Neck Of The Woods, was “Bloody Mary (Nerve Endings)”. It took months over months to finally click to the pretty awesome, brooding, and electronic-tinged “The Pit”. Better late than never.

 

Thee More Shallows – Oh Yes, Another Mother

From 2007, it’s still the number one song on Saturn’s Titan. Criminally overlooked here on Earth. A crying shame.

 

Pat Benatar -We Belong

Sing it Pat. Still sounds great almost 30 years later.

 

Green Day – Redundant

In my top 3 Green Day songs of all-time. Quite possibly the most vulnerable Billy-Joe’s ever sounded lyrically. Replete with an awesome, mind-funking video, featured below.

 

Biffy Clyro – Many of Horror

I’m convinced this is one of the best songs of the past five years. I’ve recently discovered that Biffy Clyro have a jaw-droppingly good back catalogue. Still, “Many of Horror” is their crowning achievement, and I bet it always will be. That riff. My god. (Check out the unbelievable live performance of the song below.)

 

Top 10 newish:

10. Demi Lovato – Heart Attack

It doesn’t break any new ground, but it’s catchy as hell. Good lead single in an ultra-competitive environment.

 

9. The Knife – Raging Lung

I’m still developing my thoughts on the incredible, difficult, political, dense, off-putting, personal, beautiful new Knife album, Shaking The Habitual. What I do know though, is that in such a (fracking) fluid environment, “Raging Lung” weighs the whole experience up (gravity does not apply in The Knife’s world) like an anchor. It’s a masterpiece, sure, but it’s also much, much more. I’m just not sure what else to call it. Exactly how The Knife want it.

 

8. How To Destroy Angels – How Long?

My favourite tune on Trent’s latest effort. I like it more every time I hear it. Mr. Reznor has a preternatural ability with synthetic sound.

 

7. We Are Wolves  – Sun

So flipping catchy. The explosion at the end seals it for me. I can say without pause this is and will be one of the best songs released in 2013.

 

6. Surfer Blood – Demon Dance

The guitar work. The melody. Sen-bloody-sational. I can’t seem to get enough of this song. Like its cousin (in name and vibe) below, it’s been on repeat for weeks and weeks.

 

5. Wavves – Demon To Lean On

Wavves have made a splash before, but they’ve never released a tsunami like the one they roll in on here. The guitar riff. The playful vocals. The sound of summer, and the sound of not giving a shit that it’s summer. The live version, featured below, from Letterman, is also a fantastic experience.

 

4. Psy – Gentleman

I wondered how in the world he’d follow up his ubiquitous, galactic smash. The answer is relatively simple: with something even bigger. “Gentleman” is so catchy he’s already blown way past any reasonable categorization as a one-hit wonder. He’s at two mammoth tunes and counting. And he looks like he couldn’t be having more fun doing it.

 

3. Muse – Panic Station

“Panic Station” is several months old now, but I’ve fallen so deeply for it only recently. I’d liked it before. Now I love it. Maybe it’s that it sounds nothing like anything else on The 2nd Law, or any other Muse song for that matter. Maybe it’s the unmistakable 80’s gitch. Maybe it’s the pomposity. Maybe it’s the guitar riff. Maybe it’s Bellamy. (It’s always Bellamy.) The whole proposition just got a shit-tonne more weird by the release of the absurd, hideous, car-crash-like, balls to the wall video, featured below.

 

2. Phosphorescent – Song For Zula

I would issue strong odds that “Song For Zula” will end up the most beautiful song released in 2013. Or maybe any year. I have such a voracious appetite for, and commit the time that I do to, finding new music because once in a while — once in a blue moon — something like this finds my ears. Simple, haunting, wondrous aural magic.

 

1. Daft Punk – Get Lucky

It was never going to be anything else. The kings are back — finally. And to boot, “Get Lucky” is unquestionably their catchiest/best song in over 12 years. The wait was unbearable. The joy is immeasurable.