2013 Soundtrack: 45 Top Songs from 2013

Rolling Stone did it. Paste did it. SPIN did it.

Here are 2bitmonkey’s top songs of 2013 (with only one song from any one artist). These are not in order of preference; I don’t believe you can sort something as brief as a song that finely. Think of this instead as a soundtrack to the year 2013. I tried to include  a wide array of artists and songs, from those you’d hear a lot of on the radio and see on others’ lists (Arcade Fire, Draft Punk) to songs from far lesser known artists (PUP, U.S. Girls). For the most popular records I went with my favorite song, not necessarily the lead single. Overall, don’t think of this as the 45 best songs from 2013, just think of it as 45 really good songs from the past year.

Or don’t think at all, just enjoy!

Oh, one more thing: Why 45 and not 50? Because I’m sure there are at least 5 songs that you, the reader, will be appalled that I somehow missed. So often people come to these lists with one eye towards seeing whether their favorite song(s) made the cut. I know there are songs that I missed – but if you added any to a top 50 you’d have to delete one song for each one you added. And I don’t want you to do that because I like all these songs. So rather than be appalled, and rather than kick any songs off of my list, just assume that I forgot or never heard those songs and that they would have rounded out my top 50! And we all live happily ever after.

1. Arcade Fire – Here Comes the Night Time (video with Seinfeld clips!)
2. Arctic Monkeys – Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High (video)
3. Beck – I Won’t Be Long (video)
4. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – Hate the Taste (video)
5. Daft Punk – Get Lucky (video)
6. Deer Tick – The Rock (stream)
7. Everything Everything – Kemosabe (video)
8. Ex Cops – You Are a Lion, I Am a Lamb (stream)
9. FIDLAR – Cheap Beer (MP3)
10. Foxygen – Shuggie (video)
11. Front Bottoms – Au Revoir (video)
12. Hanni El Khatib – Can’t Win Em All (stream)
13. Hollerado – So It Goes (video)
14. Holograms – Meditations (stream)
15. Ivan & Alyosha – Be Your Man (video)
16. The Julie Ruin – Oh Come On (MP3)
17. Kate Nash – OMYGOD! (video)
18. Kurt Vile – Wakin on a Pretty Day (stream)
19. The Men – Supermoon (video)
20. Merz – Credo (stream)
21. MGMT – Plenty of Girls in the Sea (video – Live on Jimmy Fallon)
22. Michael Cronin – Weight (stream)
23. The National – Sea of Love (video) (video – Live on Jimmy Fallon)
24. Parquet Courts – Stoned and Starving (stream)
25. Phoenix – S.O.S. in Bel Air (video – Live at Barclays Center, Brooklyn)
26. Pixies – Indie Cindy (video)
27. PUP – Reservoir (video)
28. The Redwood Plan – How the Game is Played (MP3)
29. Robert DeLong – Happy (video)
30. Savages – She Will (stream)
31. Sleigh Bells – Sing Like a Wire (stream – full album only)
32. The Strokes – One Way Trigger (stream)
33. Summer Aviation – Thrust (MP3)
34. Superchunk – FOH (video) (stream)
35. Surfer Blood – Weird Shapes (video)
36. Thao and the Get Down Stand Down – We the Common (For Valerie Bolden) (video)
37. Thee Oh Sees – Toe Cutter-Thumb Buster (MP3)
38. The Thermals – Born to Kill (video)
39. They Might Be Giants – Nanobots (video)
40. U.S. Girls – Work From Home (MP3)
41. Vampire Weekend – Diane Young (video)
42. WAVVES – Demon to Lean On (video)
43. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Mosquito (video)
44. Yonder – Bellwether (MP3)
45. Youth Lagoon – Dropla (stream)