It's difficult to explain what makes this song so good. There's really not much to it, but I think that's really the key. "All You're Waiting For" is definitely a song that you've probably heard while shopping at any "higher" end clothing store. As the main focus of the track, Nancy Whang, whom you may know from a little band called LCD Soundsystem, has quite a few worthy features on some different standout tracks of the year, but nothing was quite as relevant as being featured on this. It's been a couple years since the dance-punk pioneers threw in the towel, but they're spirit still lives on through this single.
39. Melt-Banana - "Candy Gun"Japan is a very wondrous place with a very booming pop-culture society. The music that gets cranked out from the country never ceases to amaze me. In my opinion, this year's most notable Japanese release comes from two-piece outfit Melt-Banana, simply titled Fetch. "Candy Gun" is the first track on the album, and it's a high-octane, chinese fire drill of a song that might just turn your brain to mush by the end. Melt-Banana is unrelenting. Yasuko Onuki's vocal performance, although very alien at first, match perfectly with the band's surreal layers of skull crushing goodness. Fetch was definitely the band's most acclaimed and recognized record, we can only imagine where that will take them next.
38. 2 Chainz - "Feds Watching (ft. Pharrell)"It's that category 5 when I walk up in the strip club" Tauheed Epps, aka Georgia's own 2 Chainz, raps on his breakthrough single of the year "Feds Watching". Now, you may have felt what I have felt when I heard that line, and that's confusion. What the hell does 2 Chainz mean? What makes the track so great is that you don't have to know what he means. In fact, that's what makes it all the more fun. Soon enough it might even be an idiom we use with our friends. On a side note, props to Pharrell Williams. He must have struck gold in 2013 while being featured on some of the biggest songs of the year. "Feds Watching" will be overlooked in regards to his other works, but to me it stands as mainstream rap gold.
When you ask people what kind of dance music they like, you more than likely won't here a response of Todd Terje. Well to be fair, he only has one album and a few original singles under his belt. I stumbled across this track near the beginning of the summer, and from then on it cemented itself in my subconscious soundtrack of the season. Every little touch of production on this song is completely perfect, almost like putting together a puzzle. Each build up and come down is perfectly structured, and those piano chords are instantly unforgettable. Apparently, Terje made this song after a radio executive said his only suitable venue was a strandbar, or beach bar. Well, wherever this guy is, he got served.
Never have I thought this would happen. Daft Punk's newest album is the most sold album in stores, their hit single is everywhere you turn, and it's also the most streamed song on Spotify. Ever. That's huge. Needless to say I was as excited as everyone else to get my hands on the new Daft Punk album, and as soon as I hit play on "Give Life Back to Music", I believed Daft Punk would change mainstream music forever (even though every proceeding song made my skin crawl). The track starts with a whirlwind of shimmery guitars and an intention to blast off. The same lyrics are repeated over and over again, but with each repeated time it's even sweeter. And when that intro is reintroduced, "Give Life Back to Music" is no longer a catchy lyric, but a mission statement.
35. King Krule - "Neptune Estate"Easily the most underrated album of the year, Krule's debut album 6 Feet Beneath the Moon emerged so silently in 2013 that it could have crept right by you. But that's how Archy Marshall does things around here. He doesn't wish to make a fuss with his statements, and that's shown through his stunningly soft spoken track "Neptune Estate". Musically, the half trip-hop, half Bing Crosby crooner of a track stays in the shadows and asks the listener to join whenever they're ready. "I can lay inside" Krule continues to say in between the soft and sweet melody of "can you bare just one more night". It may be hard, but being six feet beneath the moon couldn't sound more peaceful.
34. Run The Jewels - "Get It"Macaroni and cheese. Peanut butter and jelly. Walter White and Jesse Pinkman. Great matchups can yield some of the greatest results. Last year, Killer Mike released one of my favorite rap albums R.A.P. Music that El P produced, and instantly I knew they couldn't make this a one time thing. To my extremely pleasant surprise, they surpassed my expectations and decided to go ahead and make your new favorite rap group since Outkast. Run The Jewels was an amazing rap release and it was very difficult to choose a single song off it, but "Get It" impresses me with every listen and shows strengths from both MC's. Especially around this time of year, Run The Jewels seems like "A Christmas Fucking Miracle".
33. Toro Y Moi - "Say That"It's interesting to see the transformation that Chazwick Bundick, aka Toro Y Moi, has taken over the course of his career. If you remember a few years back, this really annoying term called "Chillwave" was taking over the summer's indie jams. Bundick was easily one of the bigger names of the questionable genre, but unlike most of his colleagues, he wanted to expand his sound in a different direction. With Anything in Return, he focused more on dance music, which is always alright in my book. "Say That" has the potential to be one of those songs that makes you scream "OH HELL NAH" and head directly to the dance floor as soon as you hear those first chords. So what are you waiting for? See you on the dance floor.
32. Kanye West - "On Sight"Yeezus further proves the one and only Yeezy can make anything *leans in and whispers* (even if it's complete garbage) and people will lose their shit. Let's be honest, Yeezus is a total mess from start to finish. But that's obviously what makes it so attractive. People love watching celebrities self-destruct, and this year more than ever Kanye seemed more like a celebrity than an artist (or maybe even a god). As soon as I started listening to the first track of the most hyped album of the year, I thought to myself, maybe this will compete with My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. It didn't, but never did I fully experience the true meaning of Yeezus than listening to his perfect album opener "On Sight".
31. Chance The Rapper - "Acid Rain"Rappers are the new rock stars. It's just something we have to live with now. But can any rappers today be considered a hero, a voice for a generation, or a prophet? Chance came closest to that for me. Acid Rap launched Chance into booking nationwide tours with Kendrick Lamar, the largest rapper in the nation right now. Acid Rap was a free mixtape. It's insane to me how he even did it, but if anyone listened to that mixtape, they would instantly know why. Acid Rap has such an immense range of emotions and a broad array of colors. "Acid Rain" is the solomn single off the mixtape and it serves as the reflection Chance sees in the mirror. Chance is a beacon of hope in a sea of fake rappers. He just might be the voice of my generation.
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