Coda 2013: So, The Sound of the Future Is Here. And It's Weird.

Daft Punk. Photographed by Pitchfork, 2013.

In 1991, music changed forever. It took all of music's growth over the last decade and twisted it into something new, something profound. It made music something different, something beautifully strange.

Massive Attack, My Bloody Valentine, and Primal Scream each captured the magic of blooming electronica to set genre-defining gold standards for trip-hop, shoegaze, and alternative pop rock. House music, utilizing pop hooks, climbed the charts like never before. U2, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and R.E.M. all released some of their greatest records ever. Other mega-rock bands like Metallica and Guns N' Roses put out monstrously successful productions with their dying breaths (the latter of which released two albums in a single day). Alternative hip-hop skyrocketed with the releases of The Low End Theory by A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul is Dead by De La Soul, and the eponymous debut of Cypress Hill. Each of those three albums showed hip-hop was more than just musical "gangbanging". It could be special. On the radio, Mariah Carey put four songs in the end of year Billboard Top 100, while Michael Jackson released Dangerous, one of his best three albums.

Oh! And grunge. Grunge happened. Rockers took the lessons they'd learned from '70's punk and '80's heavy metal to create an entirely new interpretation on good ole rock and roll. Pearl Jam's Ten and Nirvana's Nevermind are not only seminal grunge albums, they are two of the best rock albums of all time. (This is not to mention Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger, another wildly important grunge album from 1991.) No other year saw musicians take preexisting genres and twist them into something new, while still holding up the past musical styles audiences fell in love with, to the degree that 1991 did. When you talk about musical revolutions, this is the year they need be measured against.

I mention this '91 Codetta because twenty-two years later, music would once again change. It would follow the template laid out by 1991. Genres would shapeshift, clashing with other genres to create entirely new musical styles, influences, and artists, while paying homage to the genres of decades passed. In a strange turn of events, alternative and conscious hip-hop would finally win out, electronica would crush all other genres, and rock would go... primal? Welcome to Coda 2013.

Kanye West atop the Yeezus Tour mountain.

But before I talk about 2013, I'd like to talk about just one other year: 2012. In 2012, two men, El-P and Killer Mike, released not only two of the five best hip-hop records of the year, but they agreed to combine their powers. And as good as Cancer 4 Cure and R.A.P. Music were, it was this 2012 decision that would alter the landscape of rap. Six months later, in June of 2013, Killer Mike and El-P introduced themselves to the world as the greatest rap duo of the decade: Run the Jewels. 

Run the Jewels proved to be one of the smartest debut hip-hop albums in recent memory. In rare fashion, the album was released for free, helping propel the longtime lyricists to the forefront of the hip-hop scene. RTJ also took a stylistic break from their peers, instead turning to the genre's days of old to tackle current sociopolitical problems. Mike and El brought back conscious rap the likes of which hadn't been seen since the peak of The Roots and A Tribe Called Quest. Sure, Kendrick Lamar was changing what conscious rap meant, but Run the Jewels were paying respect to its roots. The album features choppy, 90s-esque beats, a feature from Outkast's Big Boi, and producer credits from De La Soul's Prince Paul. The RTJ debut is a case study for music's turn in 2013 - a genre-hopping return to the past to make something strangely new.

Run the Jewels wasn't the only group doing this though. Across rock, groups were returning to their hardrock roots, many drawing direct inspiration from the rock music of the early '90s. Savages, Touché Amoré, and Deafheaven all released critically acclaimed rock albums in 2013. Their post-punk, post-hardcore, and blackgaze albums (respectively) all sound like something straight out of 1991, and yet they weren't. It's actually kind of incredible the amount of screamo I listened to from 2013. I've never been a big fan, but 2013 all but totally changed that. The hardcore rock of yesteryear transplanted into 2013 may be an enigma, but that doesn't mean it isn't great.

However, most rockers weren't listening to this hardcore rock. They were listening to the bread and butter of 21st century music: indie rock. And man, was 2013 a year for indie rock. Although Arcade Fire, who kicked off the decade at their apex with The Suburbs, was definitively on the other side of their peak, their 2013 album Reflektor is nothing to sneeze at. The same can be said about The National's Trouble Will Find Me. While these indie mainstays had fallen from their highest highs, 2013 was a peak year for plenty of other indie rockers. Kurt Vile (of War on Drugs fame) released his best selling solo album, Vampire Weekend released Modern Vampires of the City, which can easily be argued as their best album, and despite some shake ups in the band, Paramore released their best album (no argument necessary). Oh, and if that weren't enough - 2013 saw the debut of some great new indie pop/rock bands, namely: the 1975, HAIM, and Parquet Courts.

The always beautiful Hayley Williams and Paramore, 2013.

But let's say you don't care about indie rock. (Who could blame you?) Let's say you care about pop and radio hits. (Actually, hold on. That's a little weird.) If you do care about pop, you'll be pleased to know that some up and coming pop artists took lots of notes from the art pop renaissance of 2012. 2013 saw pop grow immeasurably, with debut pop artists not only controlling the charts, but also releasing acclaimed albums. CHVRCHES, Sky Ferreira, Ariana Grande, and Lorde all had both debut lead singles and Billboard Top 40 pop albums. That's a pretty impressive feat for a bunch of new kids. Sure, what they were doing wasn't necessarily new, but they would undeniably go on to change the landscape of pop music for the rest of the decade. You may not know CHVRCHES or Sky, but you have definitely heard Ariana and Lorde. Of that, there is no doubt.

My ten picks of radio hits released in 2013.

Now, if you were to have stumbled into my living room last week there would have been a non-zero chance of finding me dancing around in my kimono and boxers to Daft Punk. That's just the way of the world. Right now, my hips hurt. I don't know why exactly, but I would guess it's because of the sheer amount of dancing I've been doing in the last two weeks. Electronica, a music style always in high demand, did something different in 2013. It crushed 2013. It smothered every other music genre. No genre - not a single one - was immune to the power of 2013 electronica. In doing this project, I have, myself, not been immune to its power. It has hit me five-fold. It's been a process, kind of like the grieving process but better and way more fun. So, let's go through the five steps of 2013 electronica.

1. Virgins by Tim Hecker. This is the best electronica album you'll listen to from 2013, given that you listen to it first. It's dark and ambient, and somehow strangely familiar. It feels as if you've heard it before. But you're sure that you haven't.
2. Psychic by Darkside. Another spectacular debut for a new artist in 2013. It has a pulse you just can't seem to shake.
3. Shaking the Habitual by The Knife. This album, dare I say one of the best ten albums of the year, is painfully good. There were moments I had to stop what I was doing to give this album my full attention. I would just sit and listen and grin and realize I was losing myself into an electronic rabbit hole.
4. Settle by Disclosure. Oh Good F**king God. This is the 21st century's house music masterpiece. This one splits you in two, absolutely not allowing you to "settle" as the title may suggest. It hurls you into a wormhole, sending you back to the early '90s, when house was new and reigned supreme. But it also firmly plants you in the electronic dynasty of 2013. You are split. If you want to really get your feet on firm ground, you must let yourself go and learn from this masterclass in house music. 
5. Random Access Memories by Daft Punk. This is the acceptance stage, both in grieving and in 2013 electronica. Daft Punk's first album in almost a decade brings back disco in the most infectious way. It is actually impossible not to love this album with every ounce of your being. It is, not only the best dance album of the year, but probably the best electronic album of the last decade. Possibly even this century. Get up. Lose yourself to dance. That's all you can do at this point.

My ten picks of album "deep cuts" from 2013.

And now, the moment you've been waiting for. The only reason you're really reading this at all. The Bowl. Now, it goes without saying that 2013 was a weird and different year. I don't think I could make that any clearer in this blog. Or can I? This is Strange Bowl 2013.

The rules of Strange Bowl are very simple. This isn't some arbitrary selection of albums (see 2010), nor does it have a protracted scale for measuring greatness (see 2012). It's more akin to me just power ranking the five strangest moments in 2013 music. In fact, that's exactly what it is. Because 2013 was weird, like really fucking weird. Drake released a good album. Lil Jon had a #1 song. Danny Brown grew up. What the hell happened. It's all so strange.

5. Law & Order, Gucci Mane Edition.

There was a brief moment in 2013 where it looked like we had murdered satire. After turning himself into the Atlanta Police Department in March of 2013, this photo went viral. The story went that the judge at Gucci's bail hearing asked him if he was guilty, and he responded, "Bitch I might be."

Now, did this actually happen? No, of course not. But for a brief moment the internet exploded with applause and excitement that it might have.

4. My Bloody Valentine Steals the Year.

What you're looking at is the cover of m b v, the first original album by My Bloody Valentine since 1991. It also happened to be the most heralded rock album of 2013. Now, what makes that strange? Besides the fact that it's a shoegaze album, which I'm pretty sure we collectively decided to leave in the 1990s, it was recorded nearly twenty years earlier. 

You read that right. Work for m b v began in 1996. A good portion of the album was recorded before My Bloody Valentine disbanded in '97, and then the rest of it was recorded when they reformed in 2006. It was an album nearly two decades in the making, and when it came out in 2013 it put every other rock album to shame.

3. Pitchfork's 2013 Readers Poll Results.

At the end of every year Pitchfork runs a poll, asking its readers their favorite songs, albums, and musical personalities of the last twelve months. While these polls are largely uninteresting, 2013's is an absolute masterpiece. Here are some of the results.

For Best Live Act, Kanye West won.

For Best Musician Twitter, Kanye West won. (Sorry Tyler, the Creator. You got third.)

For Best Album Cover, Kanye West won. (It's just a picture of a CD. I can't get over this.)

For Best Music Video, Kanye West took seventh and second place, out of ten.

For Top 25 Songs, Kanye West had four of them. 

For Best Album, Kanye West won.

At this point, you're probably wondering how this is weird. Well, get ready for this.

For Most Overrated Album, Kanye West won.

And for Most UNDERRATED Album, you will not believe who won.

Kanye. The most overrated. The most underrated. And easily the best. Thanks Pitchfork.

2. Goodbye Snoop Dogg, Hello Snoop..... Lion?

Y'all remember when Snoop Dogg became a Rastafarian? No? Well I do. And I remember it solely because one of the all time greats decided, twenty years after his prime, that the appropriate way to let the public know was by changing his incredibly famous name to something absolutely laughable. Snoop Dogg was well respected and cherished by old heads and young kids alike. Snoop Lion on the other hand... Well Snoop Lion wasn't shit. I don't even remember Snoop changing his name back. I'd bet he doesn't even remember changing his name back. Hell, his name could still be Snoop Lion. Who knows.

1. The Harlem Shake 

The Harlem Shake was really, really, really aggressively awful. Like I didn't even finish watching this video I've embedded in my own blog. If you can make it past the first three Harlem Shakes, congratulations. This didn't make any sense in 2013. It makes even less sense today. Quoting the wise words of a YouTube comment beneath this video, "Imagine historians trying to explain this." They can't. No one can.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled programming.

There's only one major thing left to touch on. Before he was the SoundCloud savior, before there were calls for a mayoral candidacy, before there were Grammys for an awards category that didn't exist yet, there was just a twenty year old kid distributing his mixtapes for free. His name: Chance the Rapper.

Chance the Rapper's 2013 Acid Rap.

For all of the amazing lines Chance spits on his 2013 classic Acid Rap - from the beautiful "Interlude (That's Love)," to the endless poetry that is "Acid Rain" - none may be truer and more important than the closing lines of "Good Ass Intro" where Chance raps:

"This your favorite fucking album, I ain't even fucking done. I'm good."

A perfect summation of what has become probably the most universally loved album of the last ten years. Sure, no one has any complaints about Janelle's Dirty Computer and we all stan Frank Ocean's Blonde, but they don't seem to ring from the mountaintops the way Acid Rap does. I know white, indie sad boys from New Mexico who only listen to Car Seat Headrest and the Lumineers who love this album. I know guys with every Dylan lyric running through their head who blast Acid Rap in their cars. I've met twenty-somethings in South Africa who find solace in Chano's joy unlike any other musician. Acid Rap is the perennial millennial album (excuse the rhyme). It cemented an entire generation's yearning for childhood, lust for love, and fear of the future in a thirteen track, over the top hip-hop album that we could listen to anytime, anywhere, for free. 

At the time, Chance had no idea what he was doing would make him the voice of a generation, nor that it would save SoundCloud, nor that it would result in systemic changes to how the music industry interacted with budding hip-hop artists. I don't even know if Chance knew that he was paying respect to a genre he wanted to be a part of. You can hear Kanye's Late Registration imprint on the album, and Twista even dusts himself off to deliver a wicked verse for Chance. In the moment, Chance was just trying to have fun. He was simply being himself, being weird.

Chance, like many of his 2013 peers and 1991 teachers alike, was the sound of the future. He just didn't know it yet. 𝄌

Random Access Memories by Daft Punk, Acid Rap by Chance the Rapper, & Yeezus by Kanye West.

Author's note: You can find my 20 essential tracks of 2013 on Spotify if you search for Coda 2013. They are in a playlist in the order listed.