December 20, 2013

My favorite songs of 2013

For some reason I went through Pitchfork's top 100 songs of 2013 and predictably found myself either disliking or never even hearing all but around a dozen songs, so I decided to put together my own top 30 37. It turns out that most of the songs I thought came out in 2013 actually came out in 2012 or maybe 2005, so this is hardly a definitive ranking. But whatever. Here are a bunch of songs I liked this year:


1. "Backseat Freestyle" by Kendrick Lamar


2. "Bad" by Wale and Rihanna


3. "Dear Marie" by John Mayer


4. "Power Trip" by J. Cole and Miguel


5. "Wake Me Up" by Avicii and Aloe Blacc


6. "Elephant" by Jason Isbell


7. "Bed Peace" by Jhene Aiko and Childish Gambino


8. "Hit Me" by Mystikal


9. "The Monster" by Eminem and Rihanna


10. "Wild Child" by Brett Dennen


11. "Hold On, We're Going Home" by Drake and Majid Jordan


12. "Crooked Smile" by J. Cole and TLC


13. "Gun" by Chvrches


14. "Bitch Don't Kill My Vibe" by Kendrick Lamar


15. "Cover Me Up" by Jason Isbell


16. "Who You Love" by John Mayer and Katy Perry


17. "Poetic Justice" by Kendrick Lamar and Drake


18. "Love Is The Answer" by Aloe Blacc and Pharrell Williams


19. "Don't Wait" by Mapei


20. "She Knows" by J. Cole


21. "When We Were Young" by Brett Dennen


22. "Wildfire" by John Mayer


23. "Rich As Fuck" by Lil Wayne and 2 Chainz


24. "Royals" by Lorde


25. "Different Days" by Jason Isbell


26. "Do I Wanna Know" by Arctic Monkeys


27. "Tired Of Dreaming" by Wale, Ne-Yo, and Rick Ross


28. "Sweet Persuasion" by Brett Dennen


29. "Get Lucky" by Daft Punk and Pharrell Williams


30. "Beautiful Day" by Joshua Radin


31. "Love Me" by Lil Wayne, Drake, and Future


32. "The Man" by Aloe Blacc


33. "My My Love" by Joshua Radin


34. "Body Party" by Ciara


35. "Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High?" by Arctic Monkeys


36. "Fuckin' Problem" by A$AP Rocky, Kendrick Lamar, 2 Chainz, and Drake


37. "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" by Possum Plows


This week's blog content is sponsored by 6300 Steakhouse at the Embassy Suites, an American steakhouse with a Cajun flair that features hand-cut steaks, seafood, sandwiches, burgers, and homemade Jambalaya. Please support them for supporting AG.com.

9 Comments »

  1. Just to save everyone some time:
    Yes, my musical taste is horrible. I know. Obviously your musical taste is much better.
    OK, carry on.

    Comment by Aaron Gleeman — December 20, 2013 @ 12:34 am

  2. Agreed. Pretty much the only stuff on here I’ve actually listened to and liked is the Arctic Monkeys (I liked their first album a lot).
    Well, and Possum Plows, but that’s mostly because I wanted to figure out what your infatuation was all about. Our baseball tastes travel in the same direction, but musically we’re worlds apart.

    Comment by D-Luxxx — December 20, 2013 @ 8:00 am

  3. I agree. 😉

    My favorite song of 2013 is Bob Seger’s Old Time Rock & Roll from 1978. I expect more of the same in 2014, although some day I might make it back into the 80s.

    Comment by gil4 — December 20, 2013 @ 8:07 am

  4. Say, when is the top 40 Twins of all time list going to continue?

    Comment by Steve Johnson — December 20, 2013 @ 4:32 pm

  5. Seeing as how you’re all over the place, if you haven’t checked out Jake Bugg, you may want to. This is technically late 2012, but I didn’t hear it until this year, so this is one of my tops for the year.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9XwFecNXyU

    Comment by D-Luxxx — December 20, 2013 @ 8:19 am

  6. Isbell is awesome.

    Comment by algonad — December 20, 2013 @ 5:12 pm

  7. as i was scrolling down i was wondering whether the delightful Possum would make the list…nicely done

    Comment by stevethumb — December 21, 2013 @ 1:40 pm

  8. Sans your inclusion of Eminem, it looks like we have very similar taste.

    Comment by Jimmy Dosen — December 23, 2013 @ 12:50 pm

Leave a comment