This is Indie Music for the Masses —Â Indie Music that’s actually enjoyable to listen to (not grating avant-garde or sleep-inducing singer-songwriter).
To further explore amazing music, here are a few bonus lists:
- My Top 10 Albums of 2013
- Here is (on Spotify) my Top Songs from 2012, 2011, 2010 and 2009
Click “Follow” at the top of Spotify if you want to add any of the playlists to your sidebar of lists.
Here are my 100 favorite songs of 2013 (click to play individual tracks or here to play the full list in Spotify):Â
- Andrew Belle — Pieces
- Empire Of The Sun — Alive
- Dwntwn — Stood Me Up
- Deptford Goth — Union
- Foals — Bad Habit
- St. Lucia — The Night Comes Again
- Autre Ne Veut — Counting
- Widower — Oh Catherine, My Catherine
- Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. — If You Didn’t See Me [Then You Weren’t On The Dancefloor]
- Jose Gonzalez — Step Out
- Lucius — Don’t Just Sit There
- Anna Meredith — Nautilus
- POLIÇA — Smug
- Say Lou Lou — Julian
- Vancouver Sleep Clinic — Vapour
- MS MR — Dark Doo Wop
- Young Galaxy — Pretty Boy
- Big Black Delta — Into the Night
- Leagues — You Belong Here
- Röyksopp — Running To The Sea
- Major Lazer — Get Free – feat. Amber of Dirty Projectors
- Haerts — Wings
- Young Galaxy — New Summer
- Phoenix — Entertainment
- Dustin Tebbutt — The Wolves (Reprise)
- Alpine — Gasoline
- Junip — Line of Fire
- Dustin Tebbutt — Where I Find You
- City Calm Down — Pleasure & Consequence
- Widowspeak — Ballad of the Golden Hour
- CHVRCHES — The Mother We Share
- Social Studies — Terracur
- Sir Sly — Ghost
- Phosphorescent — Song For Zula
- Wildlife Control — Different
- Phoenix — Chloroform
- Yeasayer — Don’t Come Close
- Arcade Fire — Here Comes The Night Time
- Phantogram — Never Going Home
- London Grammar — Wasting My Young Years
- Arcade Fire — Afterlife
- Lovelife — Your New Beloved
- Phantogram — Celebrating Nothing
- Sia — Elastic Heart – From “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” Soundtrack
- Active Child — Evening Ceremony
- M83 — Oblivion (feat. Susanne Sundfør)
- Telekinesis — Ghosts and Creatures
- Local Natives — You & I
- CHVRCHES — Now Is Not the Time
- Phantogram — The Day You Died
- Vampire Weekend — Diane Young
- Caveman — Chances
- Cults — High Road
- Phoenix — Don’t
- Arctic Monkeys — Do I Wanna Know?
- Lana Del Rey — Young And Beautiful – would have been higher but I hate the line “oh that body, oh that face makes me want to party”. So lame.
- Volcano Choir — Byegone
- Arcade Fire — Reflektor – somebody read some Kierkegaard…
- POLIÇA — Tiff
- Cults — I Can Hardly Make You Mine
- Justin Timberlake — Mirrors – Radio Edit
- The National — Don’t Swallow the Cap
- Drake — Hold On, We’re Going Home
- Youth Lagoon — Dropla
- Portugal. The Man — Plastic Soldiers
- Daft Punk — Doin’ it Right
- Radical Face — We’re On Our Way
- The Boxer Rebellion — Diamonds
- Autre Ne Veut — Play by Play – wait for it. Get past the weird first 1:45.
- Sky Ferreira — Ain’t Your Right
- Vampire Weekend — Hannah Hunt – some would say this is the culmination of VW’s career. In particular: 2:35-3:20
- The National — Demons – one of the greatest lines from a long list of self-deprecating, depressing lyrics from the Eeyore of indie music – Matt Berninger: “When I walk into a room, I do not light it up”
- High Highs — Open Season
- Phoenix — The Real Thing
- CHVRCHES — ZVVL
- Sky Ferreira — Everything Is Embarrassing
- SOHN — Lessons
- Caveman — Where’s the Time
- Active Child — Silhouette (feat. Ellie Goulding)Â – beautiful music from two great singers (trying to out-falsetto each other)
- Ivan & Alyosha — Running for Cover – not sure if these guys are Christians, but a great song re: the Garden of Eden and original sin
- The National — Sea of Love
- Beck — I Won’t Be Long
- Cults — Shine a Light
- Haerts — Hemiplegia
- Volcano Choir — Comrade – Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon. Enough said.
- Arcade Fire — It’s Never Over (Hey Orpheus)Â – love this new sound for Arcade Fire in this pair of songs
- Arcade Fire — Awful Sound (Oh Eurydice)
- CHVRCHES — Tether – beautiful as it builds to a synth-dance ending
- Cults — Were Before – Madeline singing “I like it like the way we were before” at :28 is one of the best moments in music in 2013
- Vampire Weekend — Don’t Lie – especially love the sound of 1:15-1:35
- Phantogram — Black Out Days – one of my favorite bands – great combo of synth-beats and vocals
- Dustin Tebbutt — The Breach – can’t wait for a full length album from Dustin. Beautiful song.
- The National — Graceless – a rare upbeat (though still depressing!) song from The National.
- Vampire Weekend — Step – this easily could have been song of the year. Witty lyrics. Beautiful, unique music.
- Local Natives — Heavy Feet – a sad, lonely song with an upbeat, driving background
- The National — I Should Live in Salt – at first the repetitive nature of the lyrics turned me off to this song. But ended up being my favorite off of a great album. A moving song about regret and brotherly love through conflict.
- CHVRCHES — Recover – the best pure pop song of the year. Upbeat but wears well over time unlike most too-slick pop songs
- Caveman — In the City – anthemic, rich indie-rock.
- Vampire Weekend — Ya Hey – I wrote an entire blog post about this song. Incredible music. Even better lyrics.
- James Blake — Retrograde – beautiful and sparse. One of the best moments in music 2013 when at 1:23 he drops from falsetto to sing in baritone “We’re alone now.”
Would love to hear your top songs. What are your favorite songs of 2013?