Singles - Big K.R.I.T. - Cadillactica

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 I'll never forget seeing Big K.R.I.T. perform at Austin City Limits in 2012. Within seconds of taking the stage, he just controlled the crowd. He got everyone so pumped up, singing along as he waved his towel and we jumped, hands waving to the rhythm as he viciously sprinted through his rhymes.  It was one of the best performances I've seen by a rapper. All that being said, his new album just came out. The title track is my favorite. King Remembered In Time indeed!
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Album Reviews - Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City

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Vampire Weekend’s Modern Vampires of the City is a gorgeous landscape of bright colors and sounds mixed into dark tones that will age with time. Lead singer and songwriter (along with Rostam Batmanglij), Ezra Koenig, is no longer singing about a fucking oxford comma - he’s gotten older and wearier and its effect is apparent. In the first track, “Unbelievers,” Koenig sings, “Got a little soul / The world is a cold, cold place to be / Want a little warmth / but who’s going to save a little warmth for me?…Want a little grace / but who’s going to say a little grace for me?” 

His pessimism turns into an obsession with death for the remainder of the album.

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Album Review - Frank Ocean - Channel Orange

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2012 starts and ends with Frank Ocean. Channel Orange is an album that I will play until the day I die. It’s beauty - naked and fragile at times yet full bodied and confident in others - is unlike any other album to compare to in the past decade. Ocean’s falsetto on “Thinkin Bout You” wails in sincerity. His epic “Pyramids” runs a wild gamut of funk, R&B, hip-hop, and electronic elements. I always find it an amazing accomplishment to have a song that’s over 6 minutes (this being 9:53) that I can listen to constantly. 

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5 Faves - Banks

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The sultry and smokey voiced beauty Banks overwhelmed my ears for about two weeks straight. Her songs are sedate and the production is sparse as her voice controls the majority of tracks. 

"Under the Table" is definitively simple and gorgeous. "Fuck Em Only We Know" is probably the best track name of the year, and "Beggin For Thread" easily her most accessible and catchy. 

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Top 100 Songs of 2013

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After listening to 157 albums and over 2,000 songs in 2013, I've whittled it down to my favorite 100 songs! There are a number of songs from my Top 25 Albums of 2013, but also a ton of other tracks from other bands - there's hip-hop, indie, rap, electro-pop, and others like James Blake and Darkside.   

There are a few that I wanted to point out for their lyrics or unique sound:

  • The Fall: Rhye - His - yes, his - voice is angelic. Most beautiful song of the year.
  • Chum: Earl Sweatshirt - Great storyteller who references the effects of this story by Complex Magazine. And lyrically the song is heartwrenching: "It's probably been twelve years since my father left/left me fatherless/And I used to say I hate him in dishonest jest/When honestly I missed the n**** like when I was six/And every time I got the chance to say it I would swallow it/Sixteen I'm hollow with Tyler and skipped shots/Just throw him that whole bottle, I'll show you a role model."
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Top 25 Albums of 2013

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2013 was both a testament to the staying power and creativity of established artists and bands (Arctic Monkeys, Vampire Weekend, Kanye, Arcade Fire) and an explosion of new artists (Haim, Chvrches, Jagwar Ma, Lorde, A$AP Rocky, Jake Bugg, and St. Lucia, to name some) who, despite the trending emphasis on singles, created phenomenal albums of substance, pace, and ingenuity.

First, lets start with the veterans since two of them took the #1 and #2 spots. I wrote at length about my love of Arctic Monkey’s as well as their amazing album, AM. But what impresses me the most - and why I ultimately chose them ahead of Vampire Weekend - is that they could make an album like this on their FIFTH album.  

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Top 25 Albums of 2012

in

2012 starts and ends with Frank Ocean. Channel Orange is an album that I will play until the day I die. It’s beauty - naked and fragile at times yet full bodied and confident in others - is unlike any other album to compare to in the past decade. Ocean’s falsetto on “Thinkin Bout You” wails in sincerity. His epic “Pyramids” runs a wild gamut of funk, R&B, hip-hop, and electronic elements. I always find it an amazing accomplishment to have a song that’s over 6 minutes (this being 9:53) that I can listen to constantly. 

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Top 100 Songs of 2012

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1. Jack White – Weep Themselves To Sleep

2. Tennis – My Better Self

3. Geographer – Kites

4. Delta Spirit – Tear It Up

5. Frank Ocean – Lost

6. Peace – 1998 (Delicious)

7. Kendrick Lamar – m.A.A.d city

8. Santigold – Disparate Youth

9. Jack White – Sixteen Saltines

10. Schoolboy Q – There He Go

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