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Before we get to #1, here’s a quick recap, in case you missed some of the top 10.
Number 1 in about an hour.
Neko Case - “Nearly Midnight, Honolulu”
Jesus.
Let’s set aside the song, for a moment. Neko Case’s voice is powerful enough on its own. Here, a capella, backed only by her own vocals overdubbed to harmonize, it’s clearly one of music’s most wonderful instruments.
But when you put her voice on this song (which might be better classified as a poem or short story), it’s chilling and it’s heartbreaking. And more heartbreaking, since it’s so detailed that it’s clearly based on a real event [1]. And, I’m sure, it’s something that everyone can relate to in some way.
The thing is, as dark, as sad, as much of a gut punch as this song is, it ends with a silver lining. When Neko ends the song with “’cause I’ll still love you, even if I don’t see you again”, it’s such a simple, beautiful statement that you can’t help but feel a little bit of hope for the world.
Vampire Weekend - “Unbelievers”
In a year where both Vampire Weekend and Arcade Fire put out albums that took their sound in new directions, in my mind, it’s Vampire Weekend’s expansion of their sound that wins out over Arcade Fire’s messy (but often very good) attempt to try damn near every genre [1].
Every song on Modern Vampires of the City is unmistakably a Vampire Weekend song, but is also so much more mature and grand than anything off of Contra. As they’ve moved past the pure afro-pop sound, Vampire Weekend has figured out how to keep the textures and beats of that genre, but meld them into their own sound. It’s no longer a band doing their best to approximate a modern day Paul Simon and Ladysmith Black Mambazo. It’s Vampire Weekend, with all of their influences brought together into a beautiful and buoyant, yet often melancholy, album.
“Unbelievers” is my favorite, because it feels so un-Vampire Weekend-like (how’s that for hyphenation?) yet is so very Vampire Weekend. Lyrically, it’s clearly a Vampire Weekend album. It’s got their trademark hook; incredibly catchy, yet still smart. It’s a song about the gap between the religious and non, and it echoes that religious with its church organ, hand claps, and drums that push the song along like you’re at a revival. “Unbelievers” is, maybe, one of the most straightforward songs Vampire Weekend’s ever made musically. But that’s all it needs to be.
More on that Arcade Fire album at some point. I’m still not sure how I feel about it.
Haim - “Falling”
At this point, pretty much everybody and their mothers (<christrager>literally</christrager>) has heard of Haim. They’re the sister act that sounds like a cross between a 70s rock band and a mid–90s pop/R&B (usually Fleetwood Mac by way of Wilson Phillips). They’ve been on Saturday Night Live making the infamous bass face. They’re a minor cultural phenomenon …
who just happened to have put out one of the best albums of 2013. An old-school album where half of the songs have been, will be, or should be hit singles. All written and performed by the band themselves.
“Falling” is a perfect example of a Haim song, maybe the perfect example. The quiet open that highlights the vocals before opening up into a full on 90s synth pop song. As the song builds, so do the harmonies, and the really powerful low end—the bass and drums pack a punch while not ever overpowering the song. (Though, I'll admit: one morning, I drove into work with the volume a little louder than normal and, damn, that bass line and low end drums seriously shook the car. Just listen to the first 30 seconds in a good pair of headphones.) And then you hop in the Haim time machine again, as you get a very out of the 80s guitar solo.
It’s just a really great radio single. A really smart music blog said that if this were released by Beyonce, it would have been the top song of the year. I think that's spot on, though I think maybe Gaga would have been a more appropriate proxy artist.
Telekinesis - “Empathetic People”
What do you know? A two-and-a-half-minute driving pop song[1]. Who would have guessed?
This one is all about the rhythm section. The bass and drums completely propel this song forward. I think what makes it such a winner for me is that once you’ve seen Telekinesis live is you can’t forget that those propulsive drums are being played by lead singer Michael Benjamin Lerner.
See?
You score points for difficulty on my list.
This is the last two and a half minute pop song on the list. We’ve got more pop, but it’s 3 minutes plus. And we’ve got one sub–3 minute song left, but it is definitely, definitely not a pop song.
Surfer Blood - “Say Yes to Me”
2 and a half minutes of pure pop rock. Clearly, I’ve been beating the pop sound into the ground for the first half of the list (and I think there’s still one more …), but this might be as pure as it gets. This is a straight up pop rock song that could have come out at any point in the last four decades, musically and lyrically.
Setting aside what happened with Surfer Blood (which has not been easy for some folks, leading to this album’s lower profile), this is the sort of song Surfer Blood seem tailored to make. Shiny guitars, a nick kicking rhythm section, building a really well constructed pop song.
It certainly never hurts to bring in some harmonies, either.
Brass Beds - “I’ll Be There With Bells On”
I’d never heard of Brass Beds before. This is another of the “popped up on some podcast and stuck in my brain” until it wore down my defenses. 2 minutes and 30 seconds of power poppy-ness. There are points where this sounds a bit like a lost Shins b-side from Oh, Inverted World, but with more fuzz.
And, come on, who doesn’t love a little falsetto?
Ra Ra Riot - “Dance With Me”
You know, I didn’t like the new Ra Ra Riot album at first. I loved the string-infused pop sound from their first couple of albums, and I loved their live shows.
This album is so synth. The strings are down in the mix on most of the songs. It wasn’t what I expected.
And then, unexpectedly, it started catching on. It’s still super poppy, hooky music (and by now, you’ve probably noticed that trend in my picks). Like “Crazy”, this song is damn near all hook. It’s a ton of fun. You can almost hear the fun coming through your speakers. When you see the song live, it’s probably the bounciest thing you’ll ever see.
I think that why I ended up putting it on my list. It doesn’t matter how many times I’ve heard it, it never feels tired. Every time it builds up to the chorus and you hear the little “ahhhhhh” in the background, it makes me smile. That gets you on the list.
(And, the fun poppy songs at this end of the list will offset some of the darker stuff you’re going to hear shortly …)
Au Revoir Simone - “Crazy”
This is a grower. The first time I heard it, I think it was on a podcast (maybe KEXP?). It starts off so simple, with that little riff and drum beat. And then the song is just all hook. Seriously, it’s just all gorgeous hook. It’s a hook that you hear for the first time, and you’re singing along before the songs over. You hear it the first time, it hangs out in your brain. You go listen to it again, you think “hmm, this is pretty fun.” The tenth time? You realize you’ve lost and Au Revoir Simone have won.
I think that’s the power of pop music. “Crazy” is literally all hook. I didn’t count, but if there’s more than 10 lines of the song that aren’t the chorus, I’d be shocked. There’s something magical about being able to create a song like that. Everyone gets it, everyone’s welcome. You don’t need to decode the lyrics. It’s all sitting right there for you, making you feel like part of the cool kids.
(Especially when this ends up backing a commercial for Girls on HBO and you’re rocking out the lyrics and impressing all your friends.)
Sean Nelson - “Kicking Me Out of the Band”
Singer, actor, writer, tweeter, frontman of (the currently on hiatus) Harvey Danger, Sean Nelson is a lot of things. He’s a supremely talented songwriter, bringing in rhyming and phrasing that you don’t typically hear on pop songs. He also brings to the table a tremendous gift of storytelling, and “Kicking Me Out of the Band” is a wonderful example, telling a sly story of a wasted youth in England, starting a band with his pal, getting bigger, getting into drugs, having the press proclaim you “the next big thing”, and eventually get kicked out of the band.
It’s very simple song, with a pretty, quiet intro, that flows into sort of a New Wavey-synth beat, with Nelson’s vocals sitting on top telling the story. And it’s such a smart, cutting story.
The NME said we were “quintessential
power pop meets rock meets folk
meets punk meets alt-country,
but with a healthy sense of metal”