Friday, January 3, 2014

Guest List Week: Brett's Best of 2013

[It's Guest List Week! We had so much fun with Guest List Week last year that we're hoping it becomes Guest List Month this time around. We've already got a bunch of great lists lined up, and we're looking for more. If you have opinions on the year in music, we'd love to hear from you. Previous Guest List Week posts are collected here. And, if you're looking for my 100 Songs for 2013, you can find it here.]






[Guest List Week III reaches its thrilling conclusion with its second Panic Room alumni ... Mr. Brett Kass! I'm giving Brett a bunch of meta-credit for this list. "The medium is the message" is a Marshall McLuhan quote meaning that the form of a medium embeds itself in the message, creating a symbiotic relationship by which the medium influences how the message is perceived. Brett's main point is, "I don't think that much about music," so he gives us the least list-like entry so far. Bravo! Also, "Hannah Hunt" is such a great song.]

I am a terrible music critic. I've come to this realization in making this list.

After reading Aaron's always enjoyable introductory essay and the lists of other guest bloggers, I came to three conclusions:

1) I spend approximately 0.2% of the brain power thinking about music that everyone else appears to spend. I hear a song and I either like it or I don't like it. That's my process.

2) Given the personal and subjective nature of music, ranking music, or art in general, is a fool's errand. I love the song "Barbie Girl" by Aqua, constantly ranked as one of the worst songs ever, because I can vividly recall awkwardly dancing with my freshman crush at homecoming to that song. It was awesome.

3) Despite conclusion 2, I am extremely thankful for lists such as Aaron's and sites like Pitchfork. Even though there is no "right" answer, I find the discussion enjoyable.

These are songs that I liked in 2013.

Songs That Didn't Actually Come Out In 2013, But I Still Enjoyed This Year Division

CHVRCHES - "The Mother We Share"
Tanlines - "Brothers"
Tanlines - "All of Me"

I saw Tanlines open for Vampire Weekend in 2013 and loved these two songs.

Vampire Weekend Division

Vampire Weekend - "Step"
Vampire Weekend - "Hannah Hunt"
Vampire Weekend - "Unbelievers"

My favorite band put out my favorite album of the year. 

Top 40 Songs I Liked Division 

Lorde - "Royals"
Avicii - "Wake Me Up"
One Republic - "Counting Stars"
Miley Cyrus - "We Can't Stop"
Ellie Goulding - "Burn"

Songs Aaron Introduced Me To That I Liked Division 

Bastille - "Pompeii"
Smallpools - "Over & Over"
CHVRCHES - "Gun"
San Fermin - "Sonsick"

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