2013: The Year in Music

I'm the kind of guy who's crazy about top ten lists. Counted among the silly things I've ranked in this way are Magic: the Gathering cards (Might of Oaks #1!) and Simpsons episodes (Stonecutters, baby.). But the most important of these is the annual top ten songs list. Please remember, music is a completely subjective thing, so the songs that hit me right are no doubt completely different from the songs you liked. I'm not a music critic because I don't believe in telling others to agree with me because I'm somehow better educated or gifted with better taste. Also, I'm heavily biased toward what used to be called alternative rock- you know, punk, grunge, sometimes a little bit of industrial or pop-rock. The bands I loved the most at age 12 are mostly still around today, and they've all inspired waves of imitators, some of whom are pretty good in their own right. 2013 was a good year for this kind of music. 2012's year-end list was clogged with Local H, Green Day, and Fiona Apple because there weren't that many albums I was interested in. 2013 was the complete opposite, thanks to a number of year-end lists that were pretty well aligned with my tastes and exposed me to some new bands, and I had no trouble picking ten different artists for ten spots. So without further ado, here they are: The Everlasting Dave's ten favorite songs of 2013.

10. Drenge- I Wanna Break You In Half. If Glenn Danzig hooked up with Jack and Meg White to make a grunge-punk garage rock album, I think it would sound a lot like these two British brothers. Thrashing rock riffs, bellowing vocals, and slightly disturbing lyrics made their self-titled debut one of my favorite albums of the year.

9. The Orwells- Other Voices. These teenagers from Elmhurst, IL never cease to amaze and give me hope that rock and roll has a future. "Other Voices" is a rocker that fills the void left when The Strokes suddenly and inexplicably became terrible.

8. Pearl Jam- Mind Your Manners. There was a time when the existence of a new Pearl Jam album would lead to two questions: Which four songs would make my top ten, and which one would be number one overall. (Light Years, Love Boat Captain, Wasted Reprise, and Force of Nature were all either my top song for their year or serious contenders for the spot.) "Lightning Bolt", though, was an album I couldn't fully embrace. Too much boring slow stuff, and most of the rockers bordered on self-plagiarism. The lead single was the exception, a worthy addition to the pantheon of great Pearl Jam songs.

7. CHVRCHES- The Mother We Share. It can't all be hard rock. I have a weakness for guilty pleasure pop songs, and "The Mother We Share" is one I don't feel guilty about. It's got the brightness of a good Postal Service song, and Lauren Mayberry's pristine, often autotune-free vocals are pure sugar. It's also not lyrically vacant, which is the main thing that sets CHVRCHES apart from all the other (terrible) electropop acts for me.

6. The National- Demons. I love a good navelgaze as much as the next guy, and nobody since Robert Smith navelgazes quite like The National's Matt Berninger. A whole album of this mopey droning is a bit much, so I don't entirely buy into the hype for "Trouble Will Find Me", but the album has its highlights. "Demons" is a beautiful, ambiguous meditation on alienation. I really wish there was a less pretentious-sounding way to say that, but that's what it is.

5. Alkaline Trio- Pocket Knife. The Trio's blend of dark, violent emo lyrics and bright peppy punk-ish rock have always worked for me. In fact, 2001's "From Here to Infirmary" is my favorite album of all time. There's so much cynicism and dark humor in each Alkaline Trio song, it would take all day to unpack it all. I prefer to just rock out to it. "Pocket Knife" is from "Broken Wing", a companion EP to the 2013 LP "My Shame is True". Combined, the two are a contender for Album of the Year.

4. The Fratellis- Until She Saves My Soul. I think, at this point in time, The Fratellis are the most reliable band in garage rock. They've put out three albums since 2006, each one with a few throwaway songs, a few great singalong choruses, and a lot of fun rock and roll. 2013's "We Need Medicine" featured a little more effort on lyrical and musical complexity. Their gleeful idiocy collides with attempts at profundity with occasional hilarious misfires and a few really brilliant tracks. "Until She Saves My Soul", the album's closing number, delivers everything the band does well and nothing they don't.

3. Cage the Elephant- Black Widow. There's no emotional, intellectual, or technical reason for this song's high placement. It's all visceral. It's that if I were ever to say "That's my jam!" about a song from 2013, I would say it about Black Widow. It's big, brassy, funky, and totes magotes amazeballs.

2. Roddy Woomble- Trouble Your Door. Roddy Woomble is the Scottish frontman of the dormant rock band Idlewild, who are in the discussion for my favorite band of all time. Woomble's solo career is more alt-folk than anything, but 2013's "Listen to Keep" is a new side of him: the happy, optimistic side. "Trouble Your Door" is a country-tinged strummer with some of the jaw-dropping lyrical poetry that makes Woomble my favorite vocalist of all time.

1. The Wonder Years- The Devil In My Bloodstream. This is my easiest pick for "song of the year" since Green Day's "Letterbomb" grabbed me by the throat and refused to let go in 2004. I picked the other nine songs on this list, but this song picked me. I can't put into words what it is, exactly. It's the colorful imagery that resonates with me. It's songs that can sound either despaired and hopeless or boundlessly hopeful, depending on your mood. It's songs that go from quiet and contemplative to loud and defiant at a moment's notice. I wasn't asking for another one of these- Alkaline Trio's "Trucks and Trains", my all time favorite song, covers the same bases and does it better- but I'm always happy to discover another song that makes me go O_O. The Wonder Years do this very well, and while I've currently got a three-way tie atop my Album of the Year race, "The Devil In My Bloodstream" gives the tiniest of edges to a band that, a month ago, I only knew for their work doing punk covers of pop songs.

That's mine. What's yours?