DavesMusicDatabase.com is devoted to ranking, rating, and reviewing music of all genres and eras. The DMDB blog serves up music history snapshots, best-of lists, and music-related essays.
According to 30+ lists (see bottom of page for links) aggregated by Dave’s Music Database, these are the best albums of 2013. Be sure to also check out the DMDB post of the top 50 songs of 2013.
1. Daft Punk Random Access Memories
2. Vampire Weekend Modern Vampires of the City
3. Kanye West Yeezus
4. My Bloody Valentine MBV
5. Haim Days Are Gone
6. Disclosure Settle
7. Arcade Fire Reflektor
8. David Bowie The Next Day
9. Savages Silence Yourself
10. Queens of the Stone Age Like Clockwork
11. Chance the Rapper Acid Rapper
12. Kacey Musgraves Same Trailer, Different Park
13. The National Trouble Will Find Me
14. Justin Timberlake The 20/20 Experience
15. Drake Nothing Was the Same
16. Arctic Monkeys AM
17. Kurt Vile Walkin’ on a Pretty Daze
18. Janelle Monae The Electric Lady
19. Deafheaven Sunbather
20. Lorde Pure Heroine
21. The Knife Shaking the Habitual
22. Chvrches The Bones of What You Believe
23. Laura Marling Once I Was an Eagle
24. Waxahatchee Cerulean Salt
25. Run the Jewels (El-P with Killer Mike) Run the Jewels
26. Jon Hopkins Immunity
27. Neko Case The Worst Things Get the Harder I Fight. The Harder I Fight, the More I Love You.
28. James Blake Overgrown
29. Danny Brown Old
30. Rhye Woman
31. Phosphorescent Muchacho
32. Earl Sweatshirt Doris
33. Eminem Marshall Mathers LP 2
34. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds Push the Sky Away
35. Bill Callahan Dream River
36. Deerhunter Monomania
37. Sky Ferreira Night Time, My Time
38. Ashley Monroe Like a Rose
39. Oneohtrix Point Never R Plus Seven
40. Tegan & Sara Heartthrob
41. Tim Hecker Virgins
42. These New Puritans Field of Reeds
43. Autre Ne Veut Anxiety
44. Foxygen We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic
45. Julia Holter Loud City Song
46. M.I.A. Matangi
47. Jason Isbell Southeastern
48. Boards of Canada Tomorrow’s Harvest
49. Pusha T My Name Is My Name
50. Speedy Ortiz Major Arcana
With more than 40 best-of song lists aggregated (see links at bottom of page), here are the songs which rank as the best 2013 has to offer. Interestingly, the song list is very slanted toward the big pop hits of the year while the album list (see it here) is very geared toward less-commercial, independent releases. Admittedly, the use of multiple Billboard lists below has a great deal to do with that, but I also believe song lists tend to lean more toward the commercial while album lists incorporate the more obscure. Anyway, here’s the list:
Get Lucky
1. Daft Punk with Pharrell Williams “Get Lucky”
2. Lorde “Royals”
3. Robin Thicke with T.I. and Pharrell Williams “Blurred Lines”
4. Justin Timberlake “Mirrors”
5. Drake with Majid Jordan “Hold on, We’re Going Home”
Royals
6. Katy Perry “Roar”
7. Miley Cyrus “Wrecking Ball”
8. Kanye West “Black Skinhead”
9. Imagine Dragons “Radioactive”
10. Miley Cyrus “We Can’t Stop”
Blurred Lines
11. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis with Ray Dalton “Can’t Hold Us”
12. Haim “The Wire”
13. Arcade Fire “Reflektor”
14. Taylor Swift “I Knew You Were Trouble”
15. Pink with Nate Ruess “Just Give Me a Reason”
Mirrors
16. Bruno Mars “When I Was Your Man”
17. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis with Wanz “Thrift Shop”
18. Drake “Started from the Bottom”
19. The Lumineers “Ho Hey”
20. Rihanna with Mikky Ekko “Stay”
Hold on, We’re Coming Home
21. Kanye West with Frank Ocean “New Slaves”
22. Ciara “Body Party”
23. Disclosure with AlunaGeorge “White Noise”
24. Bruno Mars “Treasure”
25. Jay-Z with Justin Timberlake “Holy Grail”
Roar
26. Bruno Mars “Locked Out of Heaven”
27. Avicii “Wake Me Up”
28. Zedd with Foxes “Clarity”
29. Florida Georgia Line with Nelly “Cruise”
30. Phosphorescent “Song for Zula”
Wrecking Ball
31. Vampire Weekend “Diane Young”
32. Justin Timberlake with Jay-Z “Suit & Tie”
33. Big Sean with Kendrick Lamar & Jay Electronica “Control”
34. Maroon 5 “Daylight”
35. Kacey Musgraves “Follow Your Arrow”
Thrift Shop
36. Taylor Swift “22”
37. Tegan & Sara “Closer”
38. Migos with Drake “Versace”
39. Lady Gaga “Applause”
40. Anna Kendrick “Cups (When I’m Gone)”
Radioactive
41. Kurt Vile “Wakin’ on a Pretty Day”
42. Fall Out Boy “My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light ‘Em Up)”
43. Capital Cities “Safe and Sound”
44. Rich Homie Quan “Type of Way”
45. Mumford & Sons “I Will Wait”
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has announced its inductees for the 2014 class. Artists are eligible for the Hall 25 years after the release of their first single or album. The newest slate will be inducted on April 10, 2014, at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center in New York City. HBO will air the event in May. Here are the inductees:
Peter Gabriel: He was inducted into the Hall in 2010 as a member of Genesis. As a solo artist since the ‘70s, he has explored electronic and world music. His video for #1 hit “Sledgehammer” ranks as one of the best videos of all time.
image from details.com
Daryl Hall & John Oates: This blue-eyed soul duo has the most successful Billboard chart run of any twosome in music history. They started in Philadelphia in the early ‘70s, but hit their peak in the early ‘80s with #1 hits “Kiss on My List,” “Private Eyes,” “I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do),” and “Maneater.” They’ve sold more than 13 million albums.
image from nydailynews.com
Kiss: Miracles never cease. Members of the Hall induction committee swore they’d never let the mother of all hair bands in while fans have raised a stink in the 15 years the group have been eligible and been passed up. Critics have never liked the band, but the KISS Army represents one of the most loyal fan bases in the history of rock. They’ve sold over 20 million albums on the strength of rock classics like “Rock and Roll All Nite” and power ballads like “Beth.”
image from blabbermouth.net
Nirvana: The group most associated with grunge enters the Hall in its first year of eligibility, 25 years after the release of the single “Love Buzz” in 1988. Three years later, they would take over the world with “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and parent album Nevermind. The group’s heyday was short-lived when lead singer Kurt Cobain committed suicide months after the release of the 1994 follow-up, In Utero, but their influence had been cemented.
image from coolcleveland.com
Linda Ronstadt: She emerged from the folk scene in Los Angeles in the 1960s and became one of pop music’s biggest successes in the 1970s with a blend of country and rock, selling more than 30 million albums and winning a slew of Grammy awards. She regularly covered classics from rock’s pioneers – among them were the Everly Brothers’ “When Will I Be Loved,” Buddy Holly’s “That’ll Be the Day,” and Roy Orbison’s “Blue Bayou.”
image from fanart.tv
Cat Stevens: This British folk singer/songwriter made a name for himself in the 1970s with hits like “Wild World” and “Peace Train.” He converted to Islam in 1977, changed his name to Yusuf Islam, and stepped out of the spotlight for more than two decades. He has sold more than 15 million albums.
image from pianosheetmusiconline.com
E Street Band: Bruce Springsteen was inducted into the Hall in 1999. Now his backing band since 1973 is inducted with the Award for Musical Excellence.
image from morrisonhotelgallery.com
Brian Epstein: He receives the Ahmet Ertegun Award (for non-performers) for his work as the manager of the Beatles. He signed them and then sheparded them until his death in 1967. Paul McCartney said, “If anyone was the fifth Beatle it was Brian.”
Epstein in white hat, image from efemeridesdelamusica.blogspot.com
Andrew Loog Oldham: He also receives the Ahmet Ertegun Award (for non-performers) – and also for producing one of rock music’s most acclaimed bands – The Rolling Stones. He was with them for their formative years, helping to push Mick Jagger and Keith Richards to write original material.
Oldham (second from left) with the Rolling Stones, image from zombiesenelghetto.tumblr.com
Sales (in millions): 6.0 US (includes 1 million in sheet music sales)
Radio Airplay (in millions): -- Video Airplay (in millions): --
Review:
Eddie Cantor introduced this song in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1927. JA Austin and Paul Whiteman both had #1 versions of the song that year; two more top ten versions came the next year. The song was also a notable hit for New Orleans R&B singer and pianist Fats Domino nearly 30 years later when he had a #5 R&B hit and #19 pop hit with it. “The song was revived as a title theme song for a minor musical drama starring Betty Grable and Dan Dailey in 1950, and forty years later for a Steve Martin comedy about a small-time gangster who is relocated as part of a witness protection program.” JA
However, Austin’s version is the biggest, selling over 5 million copies, making it one of the ten best sellers of the first half of the century, PM the biggest song of 1927, WHC and the second biggest non-holiday record seller of the entire pre-1955 era. PM In the wake of the song’s initial success, Gene Austin reportedly bought a yacht which he named ‘My Blue Heaven’. Sales of the song skyrocketed when, on his first trek out, the boat was caught in a hurricane and rumor had it that he’d drowned. DS
His tenor voice has been credited as the onset of the crooner revolution. DS Blogger Jonathan Bogart called Austin “the stuffiest, squarest popular singer around,” DS saying that Austin would serve up “unimaginative…but serviceable” DS “standard-issue Tin Pan Alley…fluff.” DS For “Heaven,” Austin demonstrated “how deeply jazz had soaked into the collective unconscious of popular entertainment” DS with his “wordless warble…in the middle of the song.” DS The producers also tacked some fake birdsong on to the last chorus, a hint of the “the future of artificial sound in pop music.” DS
JA David A. Jasen. (2002). A Century of American Popular Music: 2000 Best-Loved and Remembered Songs (1899-1999). Routledge: Taylor & Francis, Inc. Pages 38 and 139.
PM Joel Whitburn (1986). Pop Memories 1890-1954. Menomonee Falls, WI; Record Research, Inc. Page 631.
WHC Joel Whitburn (1999). A Century of Pop Music. Menomonee Falls, WI; Record Research, Inc. Page 42.
The nominations for the 2014 Grammys were announced on Friday, December 6, 2013. Below are the nominees for the major awards. The full listing is available here. The 56th Grammy Awards will be held January 26, 2014.
Album of the Year:
In 1973, the Recording Academy (more widely known as the Grammys) established a Hall of Fame to, as it says on their website, “honor recordings of lasting qualitative or historical significance that are at least 25 years old.” 40 years later, nearly 1000 albums and songs have been inducted (see the full list here). Here are this year’s inductees:
Albums:
The Joshua Tree and After the Gold Rush ranked in the DMDB’s Top 100 Albums of All Time already. All Things Must Pass, Cosmo’s Factory, Mary Poppins, Woodstock, and Chicago Transit Authority all ranked in the top 1000.
Songs:
Louis Armstrong “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen” (1938)
James Brown “Get Up – I Feel Like Being a Sex Machine” (1970)
Hoagy Carmichael & His Orchestra “Georgia on My Mind” (1930)
Run-D.M.C. with Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler & Joe Perry “Walk This Way” (1986)
Gil Scott-Heron “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” (1970)
Sugarhill Gang “Rapper’s Delight” (1979)
Sister Rosetta Tharpe “Strange Things Happening Every Day” (1945)
B.J. Thomas “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” (1969)
War “Low Rider” (1975)
Six of the songs were already listed in the DMDB’s Top 1000 of All-Time: “Honky Tonk Women,” “Walk This Way,” “Rapper’s Delight,” “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head,” “Fortunate Son,” and “Under the Boardwalk.” “Honky Tonk Women” also ranks as one of the Top 100 Songs of the Rock Era.
Released: 25 November 2013
Tracks: (Click for codes to singles charts.)
1. Frozen Heart (Cast of Frozen) 2. Do You Want to Build a Snowman? (Kristen Bell, Agatha Lee Monn, and Katie Lopez) (#51 US, #61 CAN, #45 AUS, #26 UK) 3. For the First Time in Forever (Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel) (#57 US, #70 CAN, #62 AUS, #38 UK) 4. Love Is an Open Door (Kristen Bell and Santino Fontana) (#49 US, #89 AUS, #52 UK) 5. Let It Go (Idina Menzel) #5 US, #18 CAN, #16 AU, #11 UK, worldwide sales: 8.085 million) 6. Reindeer(s) Are Better Than People (Jonathan Groff) 7. In Summer (Josh Gad) (#90 AUS, #84 UK) 8. For the First Time in Forever (Reprise) (Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel) 9. Fixer Upper (Maria Wilson and Cast of Frozen) 10. Let It Go (Demi Lovato) (#38 US, #31 CAN, #25 AU, #42 UK) 11. Vuelie (Christophe Beck, Frode Fjelheim, & Cantus) 12. Elsa and Anna * 13. The Trolls * 14. Coronation Day * 15. Heimr Arnadair * 16. Winter’s Waltz * 17. Sorcery * 18. Royal Pursuit * 19. Onward and Upward * 20. Wolves * 21. The North Mountain * 22. We Were So Close * 23. Marshmallow Attack! * 24. Conceal, Don’t Feel * 25. Only an Act of True Love * 26. Summit Siege * 27. Return to Arendelle * 28. Treason * 29. Some People Are Worth Melting For * 30. Whiteout * 31. The Great Thaw (Vuelie Reprise) (Christophe Beck and Frode Fjelheim) 32. Epilogue
* score by Christophe Beck
Sales (in millions): 3.86 US, 0.6 UK, 10.0 world (includes US and UK)
Peak: #113 US, #1 UK, #17 CAN, #12 AU
Rating:
Review:
Disney’s Frozen was a “welcome return to form” AMG in the tradition of animated musicals in which characters broke into song. AMG The story was inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale The Snow Queen. The movie took home the Oscar for Best Animated Featured Film and the soundtrack proved to be a monster. It became only the fourth soundtrack from an animated film to top the U.S. album charts. WK With 13 weeks logged on top, it became the biggest soundtrack since 1998’s Titanic. WK It became the best-selling album of 2013 with more than 10 million albums sold worldwide.
Robert Lopez Avenue Q, The Book of Mormon), one of twelve people to win an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony, AMG teamed up with Kristen Anderson-Lopez (In Transit, Winnie the Pooh) to write original Broadway-style songs for the soundtrack. Idina Menzel’s version of Let It Go won the Oscar for Best Song, sold more than 8 million worldwide, and garnered over 400 million views on YouTube.
Let It Go
The soundtrack offered a balance of songs with comic relief (In Summer, Reindeer(s) Are Better Than People) alongside musical interplays (For the First Time in Forever) between the two leading ladies, sisters Anna and Elsa, voiced respectively by Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel.
In addition, Christophe Waltz, fresh off an Oscar win for short Paperman, provided the score. His instrumentals provided “much of the soundtrack’s drama and suspense…[incorporating] orchestral, choral, and folk-inspired elements.” AMG
While my posts typically focus on songs, albums, and events which significantly impacted the music world, this entry focuses on a little-known performer who ranks as one of my favorite singers. “Sometimes genius comes and goes without much notice or fanfare. Such is the case with the late Kevin Gilbert,” P “a musical prodigy” JS who “colleagues invariably called…‘the most talented musician I ever met.’” JS He “spent several years on the edge of stardom [but] could never capitalize on his talents.” DE He “might be the most talented American musician to be involved with progressive rock, with the possible exception of Frank Zappa. Although all of his work contains a very strong pop element, there’s usually a lot of prog underneath it.” DN
NRG/Giraffe (1984-89): In the mid-‘80s, while still in high school, Gilbert released his first album, No Reasons Given, with the group NRG. That album is free to download at KevinGilbert.com. In the late ‘80s, Gilbert spent a year as a film student at UCLA and took a gig as Eddie Money’s touring keyboardist before launching the group Giraffe. Between the release of their two albums, the band entered and won a national unsigned-bands competition.
Giraffe “Because of You”
Toy Matinee (1989-91): In the competition, Gilbert caught the attention of Patrick Leonard, a producer who had worked with Madonna and others. Leonard suggested a collaboration and the group Toy Matinee was born. “The lone Toy Matinee album was released in 1990 but effectively shelved by the record company.” WK “Gilbert assembled a new backing band [including an unknown Sheryl Crow as his keyboardist] to promote the album, eventually getting two [moderately] successful singles released: The Ballad of Jenny Ledge and Last Plane Out.” WK
Toy Matinee “Last Plane Out”
After the official Toy Matinee group imploded, Gilbert put together a touring group to perform the songs. He and Marc Bonilla did radio interviews and performances, such as this one for KTYD in which they played cover songs and showcased their knack for wittiness and fun.
He also did session work for established pop musicians, including Madonna and Michael Jackson. He also produced Keith Emerson’s album Changing States. Throughout the ‘90s, Gilbert worked as “a producer, film scorer, and session musician.” DN
Tuesday Night Music Club (1992-95): In 1992, Gilbert and producer Bill Bottrell, who’d helmed the Toy Matinee project, assembled a loose collective of musicians dubbed the Tuesday Night Music Club. They gathered weekly at Bottrell’s studio to hang out and make music. Gilbert brought Crow, with whom he’d struck up a relationship, and the gang carved out what would become her multi-platinum selling debut named after the crew. Gilbert had co-writing credit on many of the the song’s albums, including 1995 Grammy Record of the Year All I Wanna Do. “Crow later acrimoniously split with most of the musicians in the collective…[The rest of the TNMC’ers] worked with singer-songwriters Susanna Hoffs and Linda Perry on two more albums.” WK
Sheryl Crow “All I Wanna Do”
Thud/Tribute Work (1994-96): Gilbert worked tirelessly to open his own studio and, in 1995, released a solo album called Thud.
Kevin Gilbert “Joytown”
He also contributed songs to tribute albums of some of his favorite progressive rock artists as well – Genesis, Yes, and Gentle Giant. In 1994, Gilbert even performed Genesis’ rock-opera masterpiece The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway with a newly assembled version of Giraffe. Gilbert’s manager, Jon Rubin, “sent a copy of the recording to Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford who were searching for a new Genesis front man to replace Phil Collins.” WK Gilbert was supposedly set “to fly to London to audition for [the] vacated slot as Genesis’ lead singer” DE when tragedy struck.
Giraffe “Back in N.Y.C.”
Kevin’s Death (1996): On May 17, 1996, Rubin found Gilbert dead at his home just outside of Los Angeles. “The coroner listed the cause of death as ‘asphyxia due to partial suspension hanging.’ Friends and MTV more explicitly reported the cause as autoerotic asphyxiation.” MA The Los Angeles County coroners’ office reports four or five such deaths a year.
One can only imagine the possibilities of what Kevin Gilbert could have continued to contribute to the music world. Rubin, who once fronted ’70s pop band the Rubinoos and is now the executor of Gilbert’s estate, says, KG’s “death was tragic, but his life was not a tragedy.” RS As friend Tim Van Den Berg said, “I would like to believe that he is now blessing another world with his beautiful music.” TV
Posthumous Releases (2000-2009): At the time of his death, KG was working on a second solo album, the rock opera The Shaming of the True (which you can listen to here. It “was largely incomplete, but Gilbert’s estate asked Spock’s Beard drummer Nick D’Virgilio to complete it based on the extant tapes and Gilbert’s notes. A live album (composed mostly of songs from Thud), and a compilation of Giraffe material that Gilbert had been working on and an ‘industrial’ album with Gilbert’s latest group, Kaviar have also been released in the years since his death.” WK
Kevin Gilbert “Suite Fugue (Dance of the A&R Men)” (audio only)
The next seven years saw no activity, but three archival projects were released simultaneously in 2009 – the CD/DVD rerelease of Live at the Troubadour, now called Welcome to Joytown: Thud Live at the Troubadour, and the archival collections Nuts and Bolts collecting previously unreleased works from throughout Gilbert’s career. In 2010, Kevin Gilbert’s widely bootlegged 1991 Live at the Roxy was officially released as Toy Matinee Live. Check out all these albums at KevinGilbert.com.
Happy birthday, Neil Young! Born November 12, 1945, in Toronto, Canada, this rock singer/songwriter and guitarist is one of the most recognized classic rockers in history. He first gained notice with Buffalo Springfield and also has worked with Crosby, Stills & Nash over the years. The brunt of his work, however, has been his solo output. In those three configurations, he has amassed ten albums which rank in the top 1000 of all time according to the DMDB.
In June 2011, a list of Neil Young’s top 20 songs of all time was posted on the DMDB Facebook page in response to a Rolling Stone poll. That list has now been expanded to a top 40 list. As always, DMDB lists are determined by creating an aggregate list from multiple other best-of lists and factoring in chart success, sales, airplay, and awards. More than 30 best-of Neil Young lists were factored in.
Radio Airplay (in millions): -- Video Airplay (in millions): --
Review:
“Beguine” refers to a 1930s’ Cuban dance similar to a rumba. The moves, however, are slower and performed slowly and deliberately. Depending on the account one chooses to believe, songwriter Cole Porter experienced it for the first time on a luxury cruise during a stop in Martinique or a Paris dance hall frequented by Martinique imigrants. He adopted the dance’s rhythm for a big production number for Jubilee, a musical comedy which debuted in 1935. SB The show only lasted 169 performances, which reportedly didn’t upset Porter. He was, however, annoyed that people preferred “Beguine” to “Just One of Those Things,” another song from the show. He’d not anticipated “Beguine” being a hit. SB
That’s not surprising. Although “Porter was a musical master and his songs are among the cream of the musical crop,” PS “Begin the Beguine,” didn’t follow conventional hit-making wisdom. Standards typically had thirty-two measures, but “Beguine” stretched to a whopping 108, making it the longest popular song ever written. SB The piece also had a lot of words, “a chord progression that goes through several modes and keys, [and] a vocal span three steps beyond the octave.” MM-151
Xavier Cugat recorded the song and had a #13 hit with it in 1935. However, it was Artie Shaw’s version three years later which became a #1 PM-476 hit and “one of the most popular jazz standards.” SB His recording came about when fans kept asking him to play it. He gave it more of a swing feel and debuted it at the Roseland State Ballroom. According to guitarist Al Avola, “The first time we played it we could just feel the vibrations. We knew it was going to be big.” SB When Shaw was contracted to record a swing version of Rudolf Friml’s “Indian Love Call,” he did so with the stipulation that he record “Beguine” as the B-side. His hunch paid off; the song became one of the largest-selling instrumental recordings by an American band. TY-181
Shaw charted with it again in 1942 and Eddie Heywood and Frank Sinatra followed with charting versions in 1945 and 1946 respectively. PM-476 The song has also been recorded by Sammy Davis Jr., the Andrews Sisters, the Flamingos, and Johnny Mathis. It was included in the 1946 Cole Porter biopic Night and Day. MM-152 In a Billboard Disc Jockey poll, it was rated as the number 5 song of all-time. PM-363
Note: Footnotes (raised letter codes) refer to sources frequently cited on the blog. Numbers following the letter code indicate page numbers. If the raised letter code is a link, it will go directly to the correct page instead of the home page of a website. You can find the sources and corresponding footnotes on the “Lists” page in the “Song Resources” section.
