Places to Hide “Love Song”

This is such a totally unromantic love song, to the point that I assume the band knows this and the title is meant to be a little ironic. It’s not that there isn’t love in there somewhere, but that the singer is so confused and overwhelmed that every tentative step towards adulthood — thinking about paying off student loans, trying to have a serious girlfriend — has him stumbling around gracelessly. But it’s like this for most everyone – after all, it’s not as though anyone really shows you how to do any of this stuff right. This song works well mainly because it acknowledges the humor of this hapless dude while also honoring his feelings and understanding what it’s like to fuck up something you thought you were close to figuring out.

Buy it from Bandcamp.

Hospitality “I Miss Your Bones”

I closely associate the first Hospitality record with the dead of winter, and so it’s not a surprise that their second album suits that time just as well. Trouble is a lot more minimalist and chilly than the debut – about half the songs sound like they’ve scraped out a lot of the arrangement with a scalpel, and even a relatively robust track like “I Miss Your Bones” has little embellishment beyond the sound of a few core instruments and a lot of implied negative space. There’s a vague anxiety in this music – it comes out most obviously in these occasional manic bursts of melody, but it’s mostly there in the empty air. It’s an uncertain feeling that isn’t specific, so it just ends up coming out sounding like an absence.

Buy it from Merge Records.

Beyoncé featuring Frank Ocean “Superpower”

Out of all the songs on Beyoncé’s excellent new album, “Superpower” doesn’t come up a lot – it doesn’t really have any super-quotable lines, it’s not an obvious hit, it’s not at all flashy. But it may be the best ballad she’s ever recorded, and also the most subtle: The song seems to move in a slow motion circle around her vocal performance, which is quite solemn and intense. It’s a love song, but it’s framed in political terms – she evokes Civil Rights-era language; she makes having a stable relationship seem like a challenge to the world. This is a song about true partnership. It wasn’t very long ago that Beyoncé sang about love in economic terms – “Upgrade U” makes her marriage sound like it’s based mainly on corporate synergy. But she’s matured a lot since then, and I think a lot of the songs on her last two records are the work of an artist who has become unafraid of expressing deep love and affection in her music – maybe she thought of it as a weakness when she was younger, a threat to her autonomy and identity. But now she sees it as a strength, and that’s exactly what she’s singing about in “Superpower.”

I wrote a lot more about Beyoncé’s new album here.

Buy it from iTunes.

Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks “J Smoov”

Malkmus hasn’t written many songs like “J Smoov” in his career – “Motion Suggests Itself” and “Blue Arrangements” are at least in the ballpark, but don’t commit as fully to this sort of low key country-soul vibe with a full-on horn arrangement. The song reminds me of mid-’70s Al Green in particular, but this is Malkmus, so this performance is about as good it gets for him in terms of technical vocal prowess, and the structure and lyrics skew away from standard tropes even when it seems like he’s embracing them.

“J Smoov” has a loungey, relaxed feeling to it, but the instrumental parts feel very elliptical, like he’s just waiting something out or drifting off into a pensive daze. The lyrics seem flirtatious and romantic at first, but once you pay attention, it all takes a turn – he’s singing about a mutual attraction that both parties know can’t be acted upon, and when he thinks about consummating it, his language gets impatient and unsexy: “At this point darling, I must say / that the seeds unsown are gonna grow anyway / rent a room, get it over with / in a race to the inside of your face.” The line that really gets me is at the start of the refrain when he sings “you’re afraid of me,” if just because it raises the question of whether the other person was really pursuing him at all.

Buy it from Amazon.

This 10-disc, 184-song mix is a survey of some of the best and most notable music from 2013. For an even more broad overview of the year’s music across many genres, I encourage you to check out the many lists I made in collaboration with Aylin Zafar, Caitlin White, Maria Sherman, Alex Naidus, and several other writers over at BuzzFeed.

DOWNLOAD DISC 1

Ariana Grande “Honeymoon Avenue” / Miley Cyrus “We Can’t Stop” / Haim “The Wire” / Kanye West “Bound 2” / Vampire Weekend “Don’t Lie” / King Krule “Neptune Estate” / Neko Case “Night Still Comes” / Sky Ferreira “I Blame Myself” / Laura Mvula “Make Me Lovely” / Beyoncé “Flawless” / Saint Pepsi “Better” / Disclosure featuring Ed Macfarlane “Defeated No More” / Maria Magdalena “CVMC (Cada Vez Mas Cerca)” / Phoenix “S.O.S. In Bel Air” / Laura Marling “Master Hunter” / David Bowie “The Next Day” / My Bloody Valentine “New You” / Nine Inch Nails “Find My Way”

DOWNLOAD DISC 2

Justin Timberlake “Pusher Love Girl” / Foxygen “Oh Yeah” / Cults “I Can Hardly Make You Mine” / Janelle Monaé “Dance Apocalyptic” / Brown Eyed Girls “날아갈래” / Coco O. “Where the Wind Blows” / Mariah Carey featuring Miguel “Beautiful” / Eleanor Friedberger “I’ll Never Be Happy Again” / Deerhunter “Dream Captain” / Fear of Men “Ritual Confession” / One Direction “Little Black Dress” / Superchunk “FOH” / Pink featuring Nate Ruess “Just Give Me A Reason” / Killer Mike and El-P featuring Big Boi “Banana Clipper” / Earl Sweatshirt featuring Vince Staples and Casey Veggies “Hive” / Kelela “Enemy” / Rhye “Open” / Goldfrapp “Alvar” / Glass Candy “The Possessed”

DOWNLOAD DISC 3

Chvrches “The Mother We Share” / GEMS “Medusa” / Lorde “Royals” / Vic Mensa “Orange Soda” / Pusha T featuring Kendrick Lamar “Nosetalgia” / Wet “Dreams” / Darkside “Metatron” / The Field “Cupid’s Head” / Major Lazer “Bubble Butt (Remix)” / Pitbull featuring Ke$ha “Timber” / Queens of the Stone Age “Smooth Sailing” / The Preatures “Is This How You Feel?” / Tricot “おちゃんせんすぅす” / Unknown Mortal Orchestra “So Good At Being In Trouble” / Action Bronson featuring Big Body Bes “72 Virgins” / Boards of Canada “Nothing Is Real” / Baths “Ironworks” / Tim Hecker “Virginal II” / Scout Niblett “Can’t Fool Me Now”

DOWNLOAD DISC 4

A$AP Rocky “Long Live A$AP” / Four Tet “Parallel Jalebi” / Blood Orange “You’re Not Good Enough” / James Blake “Retrograde” / Yo La Tengo “Cornelia and Jane” / Kacey Musgrave “Merry Go Round” / Iron & Wine “Grace for Saints and Ramblers” / Eminem featuring Kendrick Lamar “Love Game” / M.I.A. “YALA” / Icona Pop “All Night” / Lady Gaga “Applause” / Basement Jaxx “Back 2 the Wild” / Duke Dumont featuring A*M*E “Need U (100%)” / Betty Who “Somebody Loves You” / Alan Braxe “Time Machine” / Britney Spears “Til It’s Gone” / Jai Paul “Str8 Outta Mumbai” / FKA Twigs “Papi Pacify” / Beck “I Won’t Be Long”

DOWNLOAD DISC 5

Okkervil River “Stay Young” / Elvis Costello and the Roots “Sugar Don’t Work” / Big Sean featuring Kendrick Lamar and Jay Electronica “Control” / Sage the Gemini “Gas Pedal” / Le1f “Plush” / Jessy Lanza “5785021” / Eric Copeland “Rokzi” / Kurt Vile “Walkin’ On A Pretty Day” / Florida Georgia Line “Get Your Shine On” / Brandy Clark “Stripes” / The National “Don’t Swallow the Cap” / Yvette “Cuts Me In Half” / Grouper “Cloud in Places” / Tove Lo “Habits” / Lone “Airglow Fires” / Dawn Richard “Frequency” / The Weeknd “Belong to the World”

DOWNLOAD DISC 6

Autre Ne Veut “Play By Play” / Atoms For Peace “Default” / La Big Vic “All That Heaven Allows” / Pretty Lights “Color of My Soul” / Majical Cloudz “This Is Magic” / Juveniles “Strangers” / Mount Kimbie featuring King Krule “You Took Your Time” / Schoolboy Q featuring Kendrick Lamar “Collard Greens” / Tyler, the Creator “Jamba” / Bibio “You” / Thee Oh Sees “Toe Cutter – Thumb Buster” / of Montreal “Belle Glade Missionaries” / Marnie Stern “You Don’t Turn Down” / Sophie “Bipp” / The Knife “Full of Fire” / Doldrums “She Is the Wave”

DOWNLOAD DISC 7

Sleigh Bells “Bitter Rivals” / Teen Girl Scientist Monthly “Summer Skin” / Danny Brown “Dip” / Cakes Da Killa “Break Em Off” / Drake “Hold On, We’re Going Home” / San E “이별식탁” / AlunaGeorge “Body Music” / Oneohtrix Point Never “Zebra” / Lana Del Rey vs Cedric Gervais “Summertime Sadness” / Seven Lions vs. Myon & Shane 54 featuring Tove Lo “Strangers” / Octo Octa “His Kiss” / Au Revoir Simone “Crazy” / Alpine “In the Wild” / Phosphorescent “Ride On/Right On” / Burial “Rival Dealer” / VÅR “Begin to Remember” / Yeah Yeah Yeahs “Despair”

DOWNLOAD DISC 8

Chance the Rapper “Good Ass Intro” / Knife Party “Power Glove” / Ciara featuring Nicki Minaj “I’m Out” / Migos featuring Drake “Versace” / The Juan Maclean “Feel Like Movin'” / The Julie Ruin “Cookie Road” / Grass House “The Colours in the Light May Obscure” / Charli XCX “You (Ha Ha Ha)” / Jay Z “Somewhere In America” / J. Cole “Forbidden Fruit” / The Blow “I Tell Myself Everything” / The Range “Loftmane” / Speedy Ortiz “No Below” / Kate Nash “Part Heart” / Electric Six “Show Me What Your Lights Mean” / Paul McCartney “Queenie Eye” / Unmade Beds “Go the Whole Way” / A$AP Ferg featuring A$AP Rocky “Shabba” / Robin Thicke featuring Kendrick Lamar “Give It 2 U” / Dënver “Revista de Gimnasia”

DOWNLOAD DISC 9

G-Dragon “미치GO (GO)” / Arcade Fire “We Exist” / Daft Punk “Get Lucky” / The Head and the Heart “Summertime” / Fleetwood Mac “Sad Angel” / Pearl Jam “Infallible” / Waxahatchee “Brother Bryan” / Future of the Left “The Male Gaze” / DJ Khaled featuring Drake and Rick Ross “No New Friends” / Rudimental featuring Foxes “Right Here” / Classixx featuring Nancy Whang “All You’re Waiting For” / Giant Drag “90210” / The Dismemberment Plan “No One’s Saying Nothing” / Luke Bryan “Crash My Party” / The Last Hurrah “Lonely Whistle Call” / Sebadoh “Love You Here” / Savages “I Am Here” / Jason Derulo featuring 2 Chainz “Talk Dirty” / MellowHigh “Get’n Drunk” / Sandy Lam “无言歌”

DOWNLOAD DISC 10

Tegan and Sara “Closer” / Fol Chen “A Tourist Town” / Franz Ferdinand “Right Action” / Destroyer “El Rito” / The Flaming Lips “Sun Blows Up Today” / Lee Ranaldo and the Dust “Key-Hole” / Mazzy Star “In the Kingdom” / Julia Holter “Maxim’s II” / Lightning Dust “Diamond” / Rizzle Kicks “The Reason I Live” / Toro Y Moi “Say That” / Bflecha “B33” / Cassie featuring Jeremih “Sound of Love” / Daughn Gibson “The Sound of Law” / Anna Calvi “Love of My Life” / Cass McCombs “Big Wheel” / Chelsea Light Moving “Heavenmetal” / Candy Claws “White Seal – Shell & Spine” / Factory Floor “Here Again”

Maria Magdalena “CVMC (Cada Vez Más Cerca)”

One of the nice things about listening to songs in languages I cannot understand is that I get to enjoy it on a purely musical level. I can infer a bit from contextual clues, or seek out a translation of the lyrics, but even still the vocals just sort of wash over me, and it’s mostly just abstraction to my ears. This is a nice change of pace – I maybe spend too much time letting my experiences with music be shaped by lyrical intention, when that’s only a portion of what’s happening in most songs. “CVMC” is definitely the kind of song that doesn’t really need words to get across an emotion – it basically sounds like Kate Bush collaborating with Giorio Moroder in the early ’80s, and it’s at this perfect intersection of dreamy joy and mild melancholy.

Buy it from Amazon.

The Breeders @ Webster Hall 12/19/2013
New Year / Cannonball / Invisible Man / No Aloha / Roi / Do You Love Me Now? / Flipside / I Just Wanna Get Along / Mad Lucas / Divine Hammer / S.O.S. / Hag / Saints / Drivin’ on 9 / Roi Reprise / Glorious / Doe / Happiness Is A Warm Gun / Oh! / Hellbound / When I Was A Painter / Fortunately Gone / Iris / Opened / Only In 3’s / Lime House / Metal Man // Walking With A Killer

The Breeders “Saints” (Live in Stockholm, 1993)

I find it kinda weird to watch bands play albums in order – I get the appeal from a marketing standpoint, but it generally goes against the dynamics and pacing that work best for concerts. I do think that Last Splash has a general flow that worked well on stage, but it is very strange to watch a band play their biggest hit one song into a 28 song setlist, and for this very climactic jam song to come five songs in. I’m also not sure why they chose to play Last Splash and then Pod – wouldn’t you want to play them in chronological order, and make the audience wait a bit for the more popular record? And what about all the great Breeders song from after 1993?

But aside from that, this was a terrific show. I hadn’t ever seen The Breeders before but I have seen the reunited Pixies, so it was nice to just see Kim Deal again – she’s got such a pleasant energy on stage. She always seems like she’s having fun up there, and her relaxed, unpretentious vibe deflated anything that’s either pompous or crass about playing your first two albums in full 20+ years after their release. The show was presented as a “celebration,” and it was, albeit in a very low key “hey, cool” sort of way.

Buy it from Amazon.

Duke Dumont featuring A*M*E “Need U (100%)”

In some ways it is odd to think of this as being the work of teenagers, in that this song is made with a very high degree of craft, and the vocal performance seems rather adult to me. But then again, this is music for very young club people, isn’t it? And the lyrics have a charming naivete to them: She’s singing very earnestly about wanting to be loved and demanding public affection, and while that’s not a thing that necessarily fades away with age, this comes across as very sweet rather than maybe a little desperate. It wouldn’t take much to shift the phrasing to make it feel that way.

Buy it from Amazon.

Burial “Rival Dealer”

“Rival Dealer” isn’t a long song so much as it’s an album’s worth of sounds and ideas compressed into nearly 11 minutes. There’s a through line here, mainly in the form of a recurring breakbeat paired with wonderfully ugly distortions, but the track mostly just keeps moving forward, as though you’re walking through a physical space. You pick up on moments of romance and peace, but for the most part it all seems ugly, sordid, and violent. I like to imagine that whenever the beat picks up, that’s when you’re running because you just want to get to the other side of it faster.

Buy it from Amazon.

Saint Pepsi “Better”

When I listen to Saint Pepsi I just wonder if this guy got sick of waiting around for another Avalanches record and just decided to make an Avalanches album himself. It’s the same aesthetic basically, but he pushes it a little further into disco and ’80s kitsch, and it’s just so warm and joyful. “Better” is especially great – it reminds me a little of August Darnell stuff from the ’70s, it has that really luxurious and hedonistic vibe to it. But not hedonistic in the sleazy way, you know? It’s just like someone’s vision of the perfect party.

Get the album for free from Keats Collective.

Stop the A15 “Paradox”

I have a real weakness for songs like this, which sound a bit like a few pop songs played at once. It mostly lines up, but I actually really enjoy the parts where it sounds like this whole thing could collapse under the weight of doing too much simultaneously. It all feels just a bit off and wrong, especially when the keyboards or beats seem to jump out ahead of the vocals. It’s a little like My Bloody Valentine that way – it’s like you’re hearing the song inside-out, or from a reversed perspective.

Visit the Stop the A15 site.

Wet “Dreams”

I love how this song, even before you get to the lyrics, just radiates this vibe of kindness and generosity. I feel like it’s not that hard for music to convey love or lust, but genuine kindness is a bit more tricky. “Dreams” is basically someone trying to be supportive of someone they care about, and pushing them to go out and do what they most want to do, but recognizing that the world is harsh and difficult, especially to those with pure feelings and strong hopes. That seems a little trite in print, but it really doesn’t in this song — Wet add shades of feeling that keep it from sounding like something you just say to someone to make them feel better.

Buy it from Bandcamp.

Okkervil River “Stay Young”

I’ve wondered in the past what a purely American version of Jarvis Cocker would be like, and I think this song may actually be it. The resemblance is there on a musical level – there’s a similar spin on ’80s rock aesthetics, and the melody is very much something Cocker would sing. (In fact, at some points it reminds me specifically of “The Night Minnie Timperly Died.”) But beyond that, I think Will Sheff and Cocker are kindred spirits in the way they write lyrics – they use very vivid and specific language but their reference points are fairly low brow, and there’s a strong identification with what could be considered unremarkable losers who don’t even have the quiet dignity of a romanticized working class. There’s a different kind of romance here, and it’s more to do with standing up and fighting to give your life meaning. Sheff sings this song like a call to arms, and the stakes are basically – this all means something, or it doesn’t. And the thought of all the pain and indignity being for nothing is too much to handle.

Buy it from Amazon.

One Direction “Little Black Dress”

Maybe you didn’t know this, but One Direction’s new album has a lot of power pop on it. As in, this particular song sounds like it could be a song that Alex Chilton forgot to record with Big Star, and that the general dynamics of the album is far more like a Sloan record than anything you’ve ever associated with a boy band. This is awesome in that it sort of automatically makes One Direction the most popular rock band of 2013, and that it’s nice to see someone actually make rock music relevant to this generation of teenagers. It’s not just the gesture of this that is cool – “Little Black Dress” and a few other tracks on Midnight Memories are genuinely fantastic rock tunes, and deliver the kind of unashamed bubblegum hooks and riffs that it seems like most actual rock bands these days shy away from. I’d be pretty happy to hear this sort of thing come back in style, and not just with boy bands.

Buy it from Amazon.

Jessy Lanza “5785021”

Jessy Lanza’s debut album Pull My Hair Back is the kind of excellent record that can be easy to ignore – it’s extremely low key and a bit chilly, and though it’s full of very pleasing melodic parts, it doesn’t really cross over into the realm of “catchy.” Most of it feels like a very aloof late ’90s/early ’00s R&B record, with Lanza singing over tracks by the Junior Boys’ Jeremy Greenspan that are always moving, but feel as though they progress in slow motion. “5785021” is particularly great – she’s basically imploring someone to call her, and she shifts between being sweet, funny, and a little desperate in a way that feels entirely natural.

Buy it from Amazon.

Tim Hecker “Virginal I”

Tim Hecker’s new record steps away from the rotting, melting treated sounds of his most recent works in favor of exceptionally eerie live instrumentation. “Virginal I” reminds me a lot of Steve Reich – the piano performance seems to collapses over itself as parts fall out of phase, and synthesizers overtake the foreground of the piece. It’s disorienting, but also quite beautiful.

Buy it from Amazon.

The Range “Loftmane”

The Range remind me of a lot of late ’90s IDM – clearly indebted to dance music and hip-hop, but built to rework elements of that music for solitary, introverted experiences. “Loftmane” feels particularly insular: It’s like getting lost in some mental groove, and everything feels safe and warm. It has the pensive quality of the slower tracks on DJ Shadow’s Endtroducing…, but it’s all filtered through the more abstracted electronic glitches of, say, Autechre or Aphex Twin.

Buy it from Amazon.

Brown Eyed Girls “날아갈래” (I Want To Fly)

I suppose the best way I can describe this song is by asking this question: What if TLC were from the early to mid 80s, were waaaay more smooth, and all three of them sung and rapped in Korean? I have a decent idea of what this song is about from reading translations of the lyrics, but it’s sort of unnecessary – the melody and bounce of this is all you really need to dial into a very good and specific lovey-dovey feeling. This song may have the best chorus I can’t sing along to all year.

Buy it from Amazon.

Sophie “Bipp”

This is the ideal balance – a very accessible R&B/pop tune with a deeply weird arrangement in which all the music sounds like rubber getting pulled and shaped and bounced off the walls. I can imagine a more conventional remix of this blowing up, but I just want to live in a world where this original mix is what catches on. I am really down for this kind of weird rubbery sound – I genuinely adore this bizarre remix of Justin Bieber’s “Baby” – and I’d really like for this sort of sound to become a thing.

Buy it from Amazon.

Octo Octa “His Kiss”

Octo Octa is so good at hitting this midpoint between dreaminess and excited energy – listening to “His Kiss” feels like being awake and totally thrilled in the middle of a particularly great dream. A lot of it comes from his taste in synth tones – everything just sparkles and floats, it’s almost too bright and light and perfect to be real. The vocal loops are great too – “now his kiss, now his kiss…” without filling in the rest of the thought, making you wonder when the kiss is happening, or if it ever does at all.

Buy it from Amazon.

Charles Bradley “Strictly Reserved for You”

Charles Bradley’s voice falls somewhere in the gap between a lot of the best male soul singers of all time – a bit of James Brown, a bit of Otis Redding, a bit of Al Green, a bit of Syl Johnson, and on and on. The downside, if there is a real downside to that, is that he can seem more like the idea of a soul singer than a distinct character in his own right. The upside, though, is that his range and mix of influences can be the best of all worlds. I think that’s certainly the case on a cut like “Strictly Reserved for You,” which runs through a lot of tricks and tics to put across this incredibly warm song about wanting to hide away from the world with the one you love. There’s no arrogance to this performance – it’s just a guy with a lot of talent and very little fame pulling out all the stops to convey a simple, sweet feeling.

Buy it from Amazon.

Factory Floor “Here Again”

Factory Floor have a fairly narrow range – all of their songs follow more or less the same template of a repetitive groove that grows increasingly tense and heavy – but they are absolutely brilliant at what they do. “Here Again” is the closest they come to a pop song, partly because the vocals are very prominent, but mainly for the way it keeps adding bits of harmony along the way. The music seems to be gradually rising the whole time – there are bits that feel like you’ve just ascended to a new level, but it just keeps shifting up and up and up. But despite that, at the end of it you seem to be right back where you started without ever really “falling.”

Buy it from Amazon.