2013 Recap: Donald's Year-End Awards

While Keep Calm and Carry On tried its best to show you the best possible image of what 2013 in music was like, the truth is, our own individual album lists can only go so far. There certainly were a lot of big stories behind the music of 2013, and in my annual tradition, I'll try to highlight some of the best (and worst) from 2013.

Song of the Year

 Fall Out Boy - "My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light 'Em Up)"

There's a reason this track was selected as the first snapshot of Fall Out Boy's new sound. Featuring an opening crowd chant/clap segment that drives the track, Fall Out Boy announced their reunion in a bold way by bringing this song out, and the decision is still paying big dividends for the band (as of the publication of this post, the track has sold over 3 million digital copies). Thanks to Patrick Stump's newfound swagger and one of the band's most gigantic choruses, "My Songs" was the scene's soundtrack of 2013, paving the way for a huge year for Fall Out Boy.

Runner-up: The 1975 - "Chocolate"

Non-Music Related Story of the Year 

Ian Watkins of Lostprophets

There isn't really much to discuss here. By now, you likely know about the heinous crimes Ian Watkins, former frontman of LostProphets, was convicted of conspiring to commit. The details are readily available on many fine news outlets who could cover the story better than we at Keep Calm ever could, so we will leave that type of reporting to the true professionals. Keep Calm wishes only the best to the victims of Watkins's maniacal, appalling behavior. 

Cover Song of the Year 

The 1975- "What Makes You Beautiful," Originally performed by One Direction

While it never saw a proper studio production or official release, the cover that features two of the biggest acts hailing from the UK in the world takes this home thanks to The 1975's creative spin on the 1D smash that makes it seem like it was straight from the band's self-titled debut. The track shows just how great of a band The 1975 truly are, as they take a sugary pop track and add their ambient electronic spin to it, making it a haunting, pain-stricken love song. Side note:Radio BBC 1 does a lot of these, and if you have a few minutes (when you're done reading this, of course), it's worth spending them persuing their YouTube channel.

Runner-Up: Jimmy Eat World - "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together," originally performed by Taylor Swift

EP of the Year 

You, Me, and Everyone We Know- I Wish More People Gave a Shit

The rebound that Ben Liebsch has been able to achieve since his entire band walked out on him a few years ago has been astounding. Liebsch has now released two EPs (a total of 7 songs) in the last two years, and this year's edition, I Wish More People Gave a Shit, is his most open and controversial yet. Tackling tough topics like rape culture ("Better Men") and the overall complacency of the average person ("I'd Contribute More Dead"), Liebsch's songs feature his classic tongue-in-cheek style, and as he widens his scope from his own issues to that of the world around him, it seems the scope of people his music reaches is about to expand as well. 

Runner-Up: The 1975 - Music for Cars

Music Video of the Year

 Foxing - "Rory"

The key track and first single of the band's debut The Albatross, "Rory"'s music video is just as cruel and upsetting as the song itself sounds. Showcasing the cruelty of schoolchildren, the track features a boy being tormented by three girls, while the band is seen in two separate rooms giving a subdued performance of the track, save for vocalist Conor Murphy, who conveys his emotional lyrics perfectly throughout the video. Foxing deserve an obscene amount of credit for how good of a song "Rory" is, but the music video helps add even more depth and impact to the track. On top of all that, it took the throne from Ylvis in the "Best Music Video to Feature a Fox Mask" category. And that's something we can all get behind.

Runner-up: Balance & Composure - "Tiny Raindrop"

Guilty Pleasure of the Year

 Falling In Reverse - "Alone"

There were so many polarizing releases this year, but this one seemed to garner the most universal hate. Falling In Reverse were bad to begin with, but when you have a song that features two rap verses, an auto-tuned bridge, an over-the-top chorus, and a mosh call, you become something more. You become the worst thing to happen to music in over a decade. Falling In Reverse sure know how to get people talking, and I guess they deserve credit for that, because for some reason, I've deemed them a guilty pleasure of mine. There's something so endearing about how laughably bad this song is, and every now and then, when I'm having a long day, I throw this song on, and remind myself exactly how much worse things can get. So thank you, Falling In Reverse. You make my life suck less.

Runner-up: Saying the word "suppy."

Tour of the Year 

Underoath's Farewell Tour

As the greatest metalcore band of the 2000s once said, "It's all in your goodbyes." Boy, do Underoath follow through with their own proclamations. Bringing out fellow stalwarts mewithoutyou as direct support, along with the original lineup of As Cities Burn and letlive., one of the most promising bands in the scene today, Underoath crafted a concert experience that was consistently loud and impactful, with each act building upon one another until the energy burst for the band's farewell set in each city. It's always sad to see bands go, but there's always a nice sentiment when it feels like a band went out on their terms, and Underoath's farewell tour makes it seem like the band accomplished everything they wanted to. And no band deserves that more than they do.

Runner-up: Fall Out Boy's Save Rock and Roll Arena Tour with Panic! at the Disco and twenty|one|pilots

Vocalist of the Year

Patrick Stump, Fall Out Boy

Fall Out Boy's reunion album Save Rock and Roll is among their best material to date, and the main reason for that is the leap forward Stump's vocals have taken. On several occasions, Stump's voice simply overpowers every instrument the band throw at you, and as I listen to this album now, I find myself admiring Stump's work even more. Fall Out Boy are truly in a place where their next material can go in any direction they want, and they have Stump's vocals to thank for that. 

Guitarist(s) of the Year 

Matty Healy and Adam Hann, The 1975

The 1975's debut album toes the line between guitar-driven tracks and electronic-based tracks, but it's the guitars provided by frontman Matty Healy and Adam Hann that combine to add depth to each track. The duo's intricate, groove-based style keeps things fresh throughout the self-titled album, and even when the band takes a turn towards electronics, the subtle sounds they conjure are the perfect touch. It's clear Healy and Hann have found a formula that works, and The 1975's music was able to stand out in such a big way because of it.

Runner(s)-up: Jean Nascimento and Jeff Sayoun, letlive.

Drummer of the Year

 Bailey Van Ellis, Balance & Composure

Balance & Composure's sophomore effort The Things We Think We're Missing was a huge step up in the band's songwriting capabilities, thanks in large part to the band's constantly improving musicianship. The most individual improvement, however, came from Bailey van Ellis, the band's drummer. van Ellis's improvements are seen all over the album, as he pounds his kit throughout, though his efforts on single "Tiny Raindrop" and "Cut Me Open" are most noteworthy.

Runner-up: Elliot Babin, Touche Amore

Bassist of the Year

Andy Trick, The Devil Wears Prada 

The Devil Wears Prada's new album 8:18 is their darkest and heaviest material yet, and if you're going to make a great heavy metal album these days, your bassist needs to be on the top of his game. That's exactly what Andy Trick accomplished on the album, providing the perfect backbone for TDWP to create their bleak landscapes that they've become known for.

Runner-up: Ross MacDonald, The 1975

Songwriter of the Year

Gregory Dunn, Moving Mountains

While this award is part "Songwriter of the Year 2013" and part "Lifetime Achievement Award," Gregory Dunn certainly deserves your attention for his efforts on Moving Mountains' self-titled full-length this year. Dunn has been the mad scientist behind the band's schizophrenic, style-shifting sound, and on Moving Mountains, he churns out some of his best songs of the band's cut-too-short career. The band's turn towards more somber, subdued tracks showcase their versatility and talent across the rock spectrum, and it's all thanks to Dunn, whose vision for the band's direction was unrivaled in the current scene. Moving Mountians will be sorely missed, but give them credit: they went out with their best material.

Runner(s)-up: Patrick Stump/Pete Wentz, Fall Out Boy; Matty Healy, The 1975; Kanye West

Guest Feature of the Year 

Kendrick Lamar, on Big Sean's "Control"

The verse that put the entire hip-hop world on blast, Kendrick Lamar took his chance on "Control" and blew it out of the water. Featuring scathing lines about how he's trying to establish himself as the best rapper alive and a fast-paced flow that's sure to get your head spinning, Kendrick's verse was so good that Big Sean's verse on the song, perhaps the best of his career, goes largely unnoticed. 

Runner-up: Sir Elton John, on Fall Out Boy's "Save Rock and Roll"

Individual Performance of the Year

Will Pugh, Cartel

Cartel haven't been as relevant in recent years as we'd like them to be, but Will Pugh seems hellbent on keeping the band alive, even if he has to do everything himself. On the band's fourth full-length Collider, Pugh picks up the bass in the stead of Jeff Lett, who left the band after they toured behind Cycles. Without a record label, Cartel were forced to self-fund and self-release Collider, and Pugh stepped up yet again, producing the album himself in order to save the band some money and allow more creative control for the band without any outside influences. And on top of all of that, Pugh's vocal efforts on Collider, most readily seen on "Sympathy," "Mosaic," and "First Things First," along with some of his best songwriting of his career, and he carried Cartel to another solid pop-rock album. 

Runner-up: Matty Healy, The 1975

Breakthrough of the Year

The Front Bottoms

Coming from modest beginnings and a cult-like following with their self-titled debut album, The Front Bottoms became the darlings of the scene this year. After supporting Bad Books on two different tours, the band announced their sophomore effort, Talon of the Hawk, which included a tour video featuring a new song from the band, "Twin-Sized Mattress." The song sent fans into a frenzy, as it quickly entered the discussion what the band's best song was. After Talon of the Hawk came out to good reviews (especially from all of us at Keep Calm), the band parlayed that success into a sold-out headlining US tour, a set during Made in America Festival, and a fall tour supporting Manchester Orchestra. Then, when Brand New was looking for openers for their discography shows, they tapped the New Jersey natives to open their Starland Ballroom date. The Front Bottoms were one of the scene's best-kept secrets, but in 2013, the world started to figure out what all the fuss was about.

Runner-up: Balance & Composure

Band of the Year

Fall Out Boy

There's not enough room to list all of the amazing things Fall Out Boy did in 2013, but I'll give it a shot:

-Announced their reunion by releasing a new single, new music video, and announcing they had a new album ready to be released in a few months.

-Played three intimate shows in three different cities in as many nights to celebrate their reunion.

-Sold out a full US tour in a matter of seconds (thanks a lot, scalpers).

-Headlined Skate and Surf Festival 2013.

-Filmed and released music videos for 8 of the 11 songs on Save Rock and Roll, with the videos for the remaining songs on the way. 

-Appeared on nearly every late night talk show, the NBA All-Star Game, Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve, the Today Show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and made countless other TV appearances.

-Went on a full US arena tour, where shows sold out more often than not.

-Made every other great band reunion over the last few years (Yellowcard, blink-182, The Early November) look like a poorly-planned mess. 

Plain and simple, no band put everything together in as masterful a way as Fall Out Boy this year, and when the year started they weren't even a band. Their influence has never been larger, their music has never been better, and their future has never been brighter. 

Runner-up: The 1975

As we draw 2013 to a close, it's been one interesting year for music. Did I miss anything that you feel deserves to be mentioned? What were your favorite songs, artists, and moments of 2013? Leave your thoughts in the comments, and let's get a discussion going!

2013 Recap: Top 30 Songs

Here it is, the much anticipated second annual Top 30 songs of 2013 countdown. As was the case last year, this is a personal list that I, Craig Ismaili, make every year of my favorite songs to come out. I had some input on the list from Don and Madison, but the list does not reflect the overall perspective of the show as a whole, as our cumulative countdown did. Because I wanted to spread the wealth (and so that the top ten wasn’t primarily comprised of songs from my top 2 albums of the year-Fall Out Boy and The 1975) I had to enforce a strict one song per band/artist rule. Another rule for this list is that the song had to be released either on an album that was released in 2013 or as a single in 2013. I hope you enjoy the list I came up with. If you don't agree with a selection, or would like to tell me what I missed, let me know in the comments. There is a handy Spotify playlist included again at the bottom of the countdown for those who are short on time, but still want to hear what I have chosen.

30. Stay The Night ft. Hayley Williams- Zedd

Is it derivative of everything else in the EDM genre? Yes, though this became the year that everyone except Avicii started copying each other in the EDM genre (and Avicii’s experiment with alt-country tinged EDM, though unique, was pretty forgettable). But I’ll be damned if someone could find me a better hook in an EDM song this year than the one Hayley submitted for this song. 

29. Entertainment- Phoenix

Entertainment, and the album it is drawn from Bankrupt!, is not a huge step forward from Phoenix’s smash-hit breakthrough album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (in fact, to some it may be seen as a step back), but it does maintain that album’s same synth-heavy pop-rock and weird M83/Postal Service-jocking melodies and supersizes them.  

28. I Hope You Suffer- AFI

“I open my heart to you / you lied just reach inside,” frontman Davey Havok howls in “I Hope You Suffer”’s second verse, and you can feel the hate coursing through your headphones. Whatever AFI did to recover the anger and angst that had been missing from their music since at least DecemberUnderground, it obviously worked. In the words of the infamous Emperor Palpatine, “Good, Good, let the hate flow through you.” 

27. Eastern Leaves- Moving Mountains 

Is it the most catchy song you’ve heard this year? No. Does it have the same polished production as that huge hit you heard on the radio? Probably not, though producer Matt Goldman did some of his best work here. What it does have is some of the Moving Mountains best mix of ambient, ethereal qualities with rocking choruses, as well as a callback to arguably the band’s best song (“The Cascade”). It has the air of definitive song to close out a band’s career (if this is indeed the last Moving Mountains album). 

26. This Is Gospel- Panic! At The Disco

It’s really too bad that the rest of Too Weird To Live, Too Rare to Die! Was so terrible, because with this song and “Miss Jackson,” Panic! At the Disco were well on their way to topping the surprisingly underrated Vices and Virtues. Frontman Brendon Urie displays his powerhouse voice for all to see.  The choruses main vocal line, “Cause these words are knives and often leave scars/ and truth be told I never was yours,” is perhaps the most cutting (pun intended) indictment to a former lover that Urie has passed down since the band’s debut A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out (an album that was full of them.) 

25. Control- Big Sean ft. Kendrick Lamar, Jay Electronica (*Not on Spotify*)

When compiling the list of top songs of the year, it seems impossible to look past the year’s best rap verse, supplied here by Kendrick Lamar in the form of his now-famous incendiary “takedown” list. Some rappers Kendrick name-dropped acknowledged how great Kendrick’s verse was on response tracks, others who Kendrick didn’t mention tried to gain his attention with (generally terrible) diss tracks. Lost in all of this however, is that both Big Sean and Jay Electronica put together respectable verses of their own, making "Control" one of the more enjoyable hip-hop tracks the year had to offer.

24. Harlem- New Politics

Dear Reader, you may not recognize the band name or the song title above, but I’d be willing to bet you’ve heard “Harlem.” With its infectious melody, it has all the makings of the next “Chelsea’s Dagger,” that one song from that one band that no one can name but everyone loves. For now though, it serves anthem for the younger generation, including a cry of “Light ‘em, yeah, smoke ‘em if you got ‘em.” 

23. When I Was Your Man- Bruno Mars

"When I Was Your Man" is just the second song in the history of the Billboard Hot 100 to go to number one while featuring only piano and vocals- the first is “Someone Like You” by Adele- is the most devastating breakup song since… well since “Someone Like You” by Adele. Mars lets his powerful vocals carry a song better than any other male solo artist I know of. This fact became apparent on Grenade, and again is clear on this song, where he injects his voice with just enough vulnerability to be believable and sincere. 

22. Mirrors- Justin Timberlake

A seven-minute pop song with beat boxed drums and an overlong outro? Sounds like a recipe for disaster, except that in the hands of the reinvigorated Justin Timberlake it is a sincere and beautiful love song that earns its lengthy runtime. 

21. Pink Rabbits- The National

There are sad songs, and then there are devastating songs. The National deals in the latter. “I didn’t ask for this pain/ it just came over me,” sings vocalist Matt Berninger, and he could just as easily be talking about his listeners as himself. 

20. Wrecking Ball- Miley Cyrus

Although Lorde’s “Royals,” with its soul-infused chorus and stellar vocal performance should’ve held up under repeated listening, it failed to do so after the 100^th time you heard it on the radio that day. “Wrecking Ball” had no such problems. Its massive pop hooks and dramatic flair made the song drill into your brain just as much on the 1000^th listen as it did on its first. 

19. Closer- Tegan and Sara

Lost in the swirl of news posts about sister act Tegan and Sara singing with Taylor Swift or singing the hook on “Same Love” with Macklemore is the fact that Tegan and Sara released one of the best pop albums of the year. On 2011’s Get Along, they showed signs of abandoning the mundane indie-folk approach of their first few records, but nothing could’ve prepared listeners for the 80’s tinged emo-pop that would await them on Heartthrob. “Closer” is the champion of this new approach, with a sickly-sweet synth line that wouldn’t have been out of place on Olivia Newton-John’s Physical.

18. Tiny Raindrop- Balance and Composure

While Pitchfork seemed to miss the point of Balance and Composure when they premiered "Reflection"- they called the band “embarrassment rock”- Spin had no such problems when they debuted this track from The Things We Think We’re Missing. Spin said that “Reflection was a “Piledriving new single” in which the band “weds emotionally vulnerable lyrics, with surging, layered, rhythms.” I couldn’t have said it better myself. 

17. Things I Can’t Change- The Story So Far

The best pop-punk song not written by The Wonder Years this year. The album “Things I Can’t Change” comes from, What You Don’t See, improves on its predecessor in in the lyrical department. Gone are the semi-misogynist ramblings and denouncements of apologies, replaced by a more mature perspective on growing up and moving on. It also doesn’t hurt that drummer Ryan Torf sets the tone for the song by going absolutely nuts before the vocals even kick in.

16. Diane Young- Vampire Weekend

There were any number of songs from Modern Vampires in the City, as a number of songs have become sort of modern classics in the indie rock genre. “Unbelievers” discusses the conceit of atheism, while “Hannah Hunt” is a beautiful story-song which sets a beautiful tone for itself with some tender instrumentation. But it is the riotous “Diane Young” which is Modern Vampires in the City’s greatest success. Even though the song features heavily processed vocals, Ezra Koenig’s voice shines through, as the bit at the end of the song with just Koenig’s vocals and a tambourine displays. 

15. Banshee (Ghost Fame)- Letlive.

Fans of Letlive. were wondering how they could follow up 2011’s Fake History. And then all of a sudden, they come blasting out of the gate on The Blackest Beautiful, sounding like the crazed bastard child of Glassjaw and Every Time I Die, vocalist Jason Aalon Butler railing against corporate greed and the failings of the entertainment industry. “We're here to fulfill every one of your dreams. / A small nominal fee, it only costs you your soul,” he says in the songs intro, and it becomes apparent that letlive. will never compromise their integrity for a payday.

14. Black Skinhead- Kanye West

When attempting to write about "Black Skinhead," I’m reminded of the movie Almost Famous, in which the lead character William Miller is a young writer for Rolling Stone (a magazine Kanye has a great deal of familiarity with). William is about to be turned away from the band when he says to the guitarist in desperation, “And the guitar sound... is incendiary. Incendiary. Way to go.” That’s pretty much the best way I can describe this song. Absolutely incendiary. 

13. Damage- Jimmy Eat World

Dismissing the heavily produced nature of their past four releases could not possibly be an easy decision for Jimmy Eat World, as those album contain a great deal of the band’s best songs. But in electing for a more “live, unfiltered” sound on the recording of “Damage” (and the album of the same name that the track is drawn from), the band was able to recapture some of the raw emotion and energy of their emo-genre classic album Clarity. It, of course, doesn’t hurt that the band put together one of their patented “climactic moment”-bridges that they do better than just about anyone else.

12. Sweater Weather- The Neighborhood

There was a fleeting moment, in early spring 2013, when the Neighborhood looked like they would be the next Fun., the band that would cross over from the ranks of the indie rock scene into the mainstream. Unfortunately, the band has yet to release a second hit single of a comparable size to “Some Nights,” but their crossover hit “Sweater Weather” is an irresistibly smooth hip-hop-infused indie pop track which about hallway through devolves into something you might find on one of Anthony Green’s solo albums. The diversity at play here is impeccable and impressive. 

11. Pretty Hurts-Beyoncé (*Not on Spotify*)

On an album filled with “feminist anthems” the best track is one that takes on an even more specific problem that plagues young girls: body dysmorphic disorder and an entertainment industry that systematically oppresses girls by selling them a specific image. It’s a song that is desperately needed by a voice that young girls most certainly look up to. The crowning achievement of this song, however, is the vocal performance. Look, everyone knows Beyoncé has an absolutely beautiful voice, that much was never in doubt, but she absolutely outdid herself with the final chorus of “Pretty Hurts” gliding o’er all with the most gorgeous improvised vocal runs of the year.

10. Stand Amid The Roar- Silverstein

Eight years removed from Discovering the Waterfront, Silverstein has still not released a song that could even arguably top "Smile In Your Sleep". And then the opening track on This Is How The Wind Shift happened. Guitarist and backing vocalist Paul Marc Rousseau turns in a stellar performance here as he provides an earth-shattering lead guitar riff and then provides pained, howling backing screams at the end of the song. Meanwhile, vocalist and primary lyricist Shane Told portrays himself and his fellow band members as a rag-tag bunch of anarchists- using biblical references to get across this message (“We're turning wine into water with abhorrence. We'll save whoever we want to.“ Ultimately, though, it seems a response to the band’s critics and non-believers, especially former label Victory Records, as Told says, “Maybe we should walk away from this. Take a proverbial walk into the sunset… And stop being ourselves,” but the answer they seem to respond with is that they won’t just give up being a band. And their listeners are truly grateful that is the case. 

9. Introduced Species- Hands Like Houses

It’s a bit interesting to note that Hands Like Houses’ sophomore full-length album Unimagine has a track called “Shapeshifters” on it. The Rise Records artists at times on the album becomes, to reference Pokemon for a moment, a Ditto-like monster that takes on the characteristics of other bands on the label’s roster. But on “Introduced Species,” the band stands independent of any of their contemporaries, and come roaring out of the gate with a massive intro, aided by a pounding double bass beat and gang vocal chants of “We don’t belong here.” On “Introduced Species,” they aren’t playing Dance Gavin Dance or Emarosa, instead they are playing Hands Like Houses.

8. City Of Ocala- A Day To Remember

When did Jeremy MacKinnon learn to write songs like this? Yeah, the same immaturity in lyrical approach threatens to rear its head, especially with the almost childish “F*** yeah!” that kicks the track off.  But the chorus of “City of Ocala” renews listeners faith that this is an entirely changed MacKinnon behind the microphone, as he sings about the meaning of his hometown: “This is our corner of the world, where we can come to be ignored.” In the face of all the Victory Records shenanigans, maybe a place where A Day To Remember can go to be ignored really is the key to their success.

7. Still Into You- Paramore

Paramore’s biggest breakthrough thus far as a band came from the platinum-selling single “The Only Exception,” in which Hayley Williams confesses “I promised I’d never sing of love if it does not exist.” Well, here we are four years later, and, apparently love does exist, because Williams goes back to that well again for this sickly sweet love song. “Still Into You,” sentimental in just the same way as the best romantic comedies, manages to take a subject matter that could induce massive amounts of eye-rolling and turns it into a riotous exhibition in pop-rock song writing. Williams has never been better vocally than she is in the dynamic bridge of the song. Combine that with a bouncing bass line from the backing band’s lone stalwart Jeremy Davis and some incredibly tight drum fills from session musician extraordinaire Ilan Rubin and you have one of the best written pop songs in a long while. 

6. Pompeii- Bastille

Watch this video and then try to tell me that Dan Smith isn’t one of the two or three best vocalists in rock music right now. His voice carries this song, which also features a driving tribal drum beat and staccato harmonies which make it clear that Bastille is a band focused on Pompeii, though its name and subject matter call to mind the Roman city covered in dust, also calls to mind the score of the Disney movie The Lion King. And if the Shinedowns and Nicklebacks of the alt-rock world make up the Elephant Graveyard, then Bastille is the king of the Pride Lands in comparison. 

5. Twin Sized Mattress- The Front Bottoms

“I wanna contribute to the chaos, I don’t want to watch and then complain, cause I’m through finding blame, that is a decision that I have made.” It is with these climactic words that vocalist Brian Sella sums up The Front Bottoms approach to writing Talon of the Hawk. The neurosis, the self-doubt, and the difficulty associated with writing songs that comes across in The Front Bottoms lyrics is an admirable quality; one that allows listeners right into the band’s very psyche. Sella invites us to share in this self-doubt, confessing, “My nightmares will have nightmares every night.” It’s a triumph in honest song-writing and proves that Sella should probably put less pressure on himself.

4. Car Radio- Twenty One Pilots

Let’s go through a rundown of the bands which have combined rapping, screaming, and electronic music: Breathe Carolina, Hollywood Undead, and Brokencyde. This is not exactly the most inspiring of company to be listed alongside if you are Twenty One Pilots. But the Ohio duo sets themselves apart from these inferior counterparts by combining these elements in a way that feels organic and natural instead of hacky and Frankenstein-esque. And “Car Radio,” despite having all three of the above components in spades is one of the most moving, deeply introspective songs of the year, something that the Breathe Carolinas of the world can only dream of achieving. 

3. I Just Want To Sell Out My Funeral- The Wonder Years

There is a moment on “I Just Want To Sell Out My Funeral,” the seven minute epic which closes out The Wonder Years’ The Greatest Generation, about 3:20 into the song, when the beat slows down and vocalist Dan Campbell fails to finish his thought. “Well, I’m sorry I…” he beings to apologize. It is this moment, I think, that is The Wonder Years’ “moment of clarity,” an epiphany if you will. Right there is when they realize they will never be the same band that released The Upsides and then toured off of it in sweaty, cramped clubs and church basements anymore. Instead, this is the affirmation that The Wonder Years are entirely grown up, the realization that they have a much larger pedestal than they could’ve possibly imagined when they started the band. Then, just a few seconds later the song kicks back stronger than it ever was before reprising portions of the other songs on The Greatest Generation, and the album comes full circle, just as the little band which once released a song called “Bout To Get Fruit Punched, Homie” has become some of the best songwriters and storytellers in the music industry. It’s a tremendous accomplishment, and clearly the band realizes it as well, because as Campbell confesses in the album’s final moments, “I just want to know that I did all I could with what I was given.” He has succeeded in doing just that. 

2. The Phoenix- Fall Out Boy

#PUTONYOURWARPAINT. With that rallying cry, Fall Out Boy reached an entirely new generation of music listeners while still somehow roping those old listeners back in who said they were done after Cork Tree. In fact “Put on your war paint” seems to be a rallying cry not just for the fans, but for the band in response to their critics as well. “The Phoenix” proves that Fall Out Boy can still produce a spirited, youthful anthem without it sounding like Take This To Your Grave.

1. Sex- The 1975

If you were wondering what it would sound like if a band set a John Hughes film to music, the answer can be found in The 1975’s “Sex.” The song could’ve been the soundtrack to those mid 80’s classic comedies, despite the band’s name. From the seering, high pitched guitar squeal that starts the song, to the tapped-outro into the closing crash cymbals, the entire song works as a storytelling movement with a rising action, climax (when vocalist Matt Healy sings “If we’re gonna do anything we might as well just fuck”), and denouement. The aesthetic and ton e which The 1975 were able to portray in this song has gone unmatched in this or any year in recent memory. Put simply, there just isn’t another song like it, and for that reason it’s the best song of the year.