Once again friend of the Philistine Dan Hahn is back, this time to give us a rundown of his favorite songs of 2013. There’s lots of goodness to digest here, so please enjoy responsibly – Asher
A Regular Guy’s Favorite Songs of 2013
1. “Slipped” by The National – Trouble Will Find Me
This song is a belittling, tortured, churning, melodious look at the innermost insecurities of the male heart. With this track, as with many before it, National vocalist/lyricist Matt Berninger articulates the deepest pulse of my psyche so closely that it scares me to listen to it. The chord this song strikes with me is deeper than “chills” or “goose bumps” but is a dark, compelling, and haunting hope that I am not alone in how I feel about my place in the world when I am all by myself.
Memorable bit: “I’m having trouble inside of my skin, I try to keep my skeletons in. I’ll be a friend and a fuck-up, and everything, but I’ll never be, anything you ever want me to be. I keep coming back here where everything slipped.”
2. “Everytime” by James Franco feat. Britney Spears – Spring Breakers Soundtrack
It should be noted that I could not stand this movie. For 90 of the 94 minutes of it, director Harmony Korine weaved a boring, polluted, self-involved, window-shopping spree through the strip mall of teenagers’ insatiable ability to pick the wrong battles. However, for 4 minutes in the middle, with the help of “Mizzz Britneh Speeuzz” James Franco’s character takes the viewer on a slow-motion montage of violence and sadness. This song is possibly the most underrated radio release Britney had, and this film brought it raging back undistracted by hype or scandal. The reluctant humility of how it rolls through gratuitous violence at the hands of 2013’s laziest protagonist manifestation is so pleasing, that it made for one of the most beautiful musical moments of the year for me.
Memorable bit: “I guess I need you, baby.”
3. “I’m In It” by Kanye West – Yeezus
This album lost steam with me pretty quickly and “I’m In It” was one of the only tracks that was left as residue in the pan after the chemicals burned away. It’s an asymmetrical, unpleasant, disembodied descent into the coalmine of sexual depravity by the world’s biggest butthead, and it’s spectacular. I can still say that this track is one of the coolest hip-hop songs I’ve ever heard and has serious potential for longevity.
Memorable bit: “Time to take it too far now. Michael Douglas out the car now. The kids-and-the-wife-life, but can’t wake up from the night life. I’m so scared of my demons, I go to sleep with a nightlight. My mind move like a Tron bike. Pop a wheelie on the Zeitgeist.”
4. “Acid Rain” by Chance the Rapper – Acid Rap
I’ll be the first to admit that I slept on this dude for a good long while, but am now officially on the Chance the Rapper bandwagon. This track is unmistakably amazing, as the standout track on possibly the year’s best rap release. I for one am glad that vulnerability, doubt, and fear are becoming en vogue as pieces of hip-hop artists’ repertoires. Aside from Kendrick Lamar’s “The Art of Peer Pressure”, and Eminem’s “Brain Damage”, I am not sure if I have ever heard a better analysis of the catacombs of the teenage brain. From drug use, to violence, to sex, to family, to education, to wondering if God is out there; Chance creates a touching look at youth and its silliness in a very serious way.
Memorable bit: “I still get jealous of Vic, and Vic still jealous of me. But if you touch my brother all that anti-violence shit goes out the window along with you and the rest of your team. Smoking cigarettes to look cooler – I only stop by to look through ya. And I’m only getting greedier…”
5. “Sex, Drugs, and Other False Remedies” by Mike Dee – Mikey’s Room
As one of two local selections on this list, this song holds a special place for me. Oilhouse representative Mike Dee is one of the Tulsa’s absolute best, and takes a break from his characteristic malaise to write a crushingly irreverent meta-analysis of nightclub mentality in our fair city. This track from beginning to end is a dance track, a criticism, and a work of art. I wanted to include more local tracks on this list, but this one and the other coming up, are the two that rose to the top for me.
Memorable bit: “Tell my boys throw your weed up. Black girls throw your weave up. White girls get ya tan on, so you can look like me when you roll your sleeves up. Work. Work. Work…”
6. “This is the Last Time” by The National – Trouble Will Find Me
The National are the only dudes to make the list twice, and for good reason. These guys are the best band currently making music in the world if you ask me, and this song is a perfect example of their quintessential loveliness. This song is a serious look at the imperfection, but necessity of being in love. It is sad, honest, and brutally realistic to anyone that has ever pined his/her heart out for another.
Memorable bit: “Oh, don’t tell anyone I’m here. I got Tylenol and beer. I was thinking that you’d call somebody closer to you. Oh, but your love is such a swamp. You’re the only thing I want, and I said I wouldn’t cry about it.”
7. “XO” by Beyonce Knowles – Beyonce
Lady Bey’ barely snuck this release into the iTunesphere in time to make the list, but she did such a great job. “XO” is a simple, beautiful love song about being someone’s everything and that person being yours. The melody is incessant, the lyrics are lean, and the sound and production fully live up to the expectation for a song by someone with unlimited resources. Aside from a nauseating kidney stone of a cameo by Drake, this album is as close to a perfect pop record as I have heard in a long time, and this song is its hood ornament.
Memorable bit: “In the darkest night hour, I’ll search through the crowd. Your face is all that I see. I’ll give you everything. Baby love me lights out. You can turn my lights out”
8. “Sooner State” by Verse – The City that Always Sleeps
Verse is the best rapper in Tulsa, and his 2013 release is one of the cleanest, bravest pieces of music that has ever come out of the Midwest. As the intro to the album, “Sooner State” lets you know very early on that this isn’t a Tulsa-bashing record, but an honest look at a city that enslaves its loyal citizens in an organic, unsophisticated labor of love. At 1:57, this hook-free continuous flow pares away all misconceptions about “rappers from Tulsa” and permanently arcs the skeptical eyebrows of listeners up and down any and all sociocultural spectra.
Memorable bit: “Black Wall Street down the street around the corner which means, you’re in Tulsa-motherfuckin’-Oklahoma. Most of us grew up feeling like this city don’t want us, but what don’t kill you on the inside, only make you stronger.”
9. “Rap God” by Eminem – MMLP2
This track was one of 2013’s most controversial, both for its blatantly offensive content, and its polarizing effect on veteran Eminem fans, and “regular” people. Some people adored it, some people hated it, but everyone was talking about “that new song by Eminem with a lot of words in it.” To be exact, Slim Shady raps 6,077 words in 6 minutes and 4 seconds, but what he does in the context of the current rap universe is far more important than his lyrical acrobatics. By claiming the position of a deity of the world’s most popular musical genre, Em’ throws down the proverbial gauntlet, and raps each different verse of the song in the style of another recently famous rapper. He does Wayne, he does Drake, he does Busta, he does Breezy, he does Jay, he lines them all up and knocks them all down. With this track he says, “Not only is what I do better than you, I can do what YOU do better than you, too. So, there.”
Memorable bit: “For me to rap like a computer must be in my genes. I got a laptop in my back pocket. My pen’ll go off when I half-cock it. Got a fat knot from that rap profit. Made a living and a killing off it ever since Bill Clinton was still in office.”
10. “Mirrors” by Justin Timberlake – The 20/20 Experience
There had to be a number 10, and this song is simply as fun as a butter-covered watermelon in a kiddie pool from alpha to omega. Not to be confused for a clean-shaven Kiefer Sutherland, JT had a huge year. With this album, and one of 2013’s highest grossing live tours, this song hung from his lips like Dumbledore’s beard as a token of wisdom, poise, and credibility in a genre that is getting increasingly harder to take seriously at all. Miley, Justin, and everyone else that no one cares about have shrouded pop music in triviality and glitter, and it’s sad, but Justin’s nose has no powder in it, and he has not yet made fun of a fat 14-year-old at a country club pool, so we can still like him. With irrevocably, ambitiously cute songs like “Mirrors” it’s easy to like him, and I wish this lil’ mouseketeer many, many more.
Memorable bit: “’Cause I don’t wanna lose you now. I’m lookin’ right at the other half of me. The vacancy that sat in my heart is a space that now you hold. Show me how to fight for now, and I’ll tell you, baby, it was easy comin’ back here to you once I figured it out; you were right here all along.”
By day, Dan Hahn teaches high school English in Tulsa, Oklahoma. By night he adopts the nom de rap Algebra, and attempts to single-handedly save the world of hip hop. Algebra has twice been awarded an “Absolute Best of Tulsa” award as Best Hip Hop artist.
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