Best Songs of 2013 – #7
It’s like clockwork. John Mayer always wins me over with a melancholy finger-picked ballad.
On his most recent album, Paradise Valley, it was ‘Dear Marie,’ a simple blues track sung to a woman he knew as a kid (assuming the song is autobiographical).
Best Songs of 2013 – #8
I still don’t know what to make of Arcade Fire’s newest album, Reflektor, a record that has shown up on an equal number of top ten and “most overrated” lists.
One thing is certain — these guys are ambitious. In a music landscape dominated by fizzy pop and hip-hop retreads, we need bands like this to push the boundaries, even if they sometimes push them to places we don’t want to go.
Best Songs of 2013 – Best Songs of 2013 – #9
This has to be the strongest year in recent memory for female country artists. I’ve already posted a Pistol Annies song, and today’s SOTD is the first of three by female country performers in my top ten.
Ashley Monroe is herself a member of Pistol Annies, making her the only artist to show up in my top 25 twice.
Best Songs of 2013 – #10
Kicking off the top ten of my favorite 2013 songs is a track my wife discovered using Shazam when she heard it playing over a department store loudspeaker.
She has a knack for knowing instantly that she loves a song. I’m the opposite… it sometimes takes me a three or four listens before I have a clue.
Last year, my 40th birthday fell on a Random Weekend and I took advantage of the occasion to spin the wheel and dial up a song that would have special meaning for the day.
I wound up with Johnny Cash’s cover of Nine Inch Nail’s ‘Hurt,’ a powerful and moving song sung by an old man near the end of his life.
It felt like an appropriately weighty selection, if a little morose.
Meet Me In Montauk 