We anti-Valentined last year with our Hip Hop + Heartbreak, thanks to the help of mimb, and this year we’re covering everything but (hip hop).
Most of heartbroke (as fuck) is some sort of soul music along the electronic scale, leaning heavy on electronic near the end.
If you’re in for a lonely Valentine’s this year, I hope this makes for a good background soundtrack.
Looking back over this last list for 2013, I’ve realized one major flaw to it. There are no women on here. We’ve had our love for women this year, but this list contains our most obsessed about music with musicians consistently present throughout the year.
Doja Cat was our closest girl, but we only fell for one of hers. She did have a lot of other potentials that fell short because the production wasn’t to the level of that voice. Producers, this girls got talents!
London Grammar probably has the most right to be up here, but I credited their best to their collab with Disclosure and I didn’t fall for ‘Strong’ in time (wish it was still 2013). They’re also two-thirds dude, so that didn’t help them either […]
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The only thing more difficult than writing is categorizing these damn top 2013 lists. I messed up our last 2013 favorites, the lady vocals, so I thought I would clarify this list for all of us.
A few years back this would have been called, “Indie to R&B,” in fact it was, but the latter has flipped producer-side and is more accurately classified under electronic for us this year.
While this is obviously intended to be centered around indie & pop music, including alternative & folk, genres are hard to pin down, especially to one or even two nowadays. So to give this list a more accurate, less appealing title, the music here is centered around a vocal-bases.
Like rock before it, indie & pop have become rock’s sliding scale contemporaries, putting the singer smack out in front. Which compared to electronic goes back to a composer or producer-bases, like jazz and classical before it.
And yes, there are elements of electronic, jazz & disco on this list, which is why I had to go on this rant in the first place.
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Rarely do I keep going back to the same musician and consistently post everything they put out. I crave novelty and vocals especially tend to dry up fast. Bordeaux, however, is one of a few exceptions.
In my favorite single off his latest side project, Warm Space, ‘Rust Lovers’ takes that voice I love so much and puts it into a very warm piano piece. The other two tracks are still a good taste of Bordeaux’s style & voice, but I love the lyrics in ‘Rust Lovers’ most. Not necessarily just for the meaning, but what his voice brings to it too.
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How the hell did I not think this one up Bordeaux has been making my melancholy music since the last half of 2012 and if you know anything about this blog, you know how much we love disco. And yet somehow I didn’t complain that the two haven’t gotten together yet – I usually do it so well.
Well, no need to complain now. Bordeaux brings a sombre touch to this flashy, nu disco movement and the only gripe I got with it is that I didn’t think to pair up the two first (which I’m sure you’re well aware of by now).
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Charles Bordeaux did well for himself on Silence last year with two singles off his Fables EP, The Sandman & Blood Pacts I (The Weeds). The rest of his Fables album is mostly a mix of instrumentals that, although produced just as well, lack the story I like to see with Bordeaux. There is, however, one other story-made track on Fables. ‘The Forst and the Moon’ is as heavy on the synths as usual. Make sure to follow the song with the lyrics below.
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We’re finally getting our favorite musicians of 2012 out there. Remixes & heavy sampling have made up most of the other best music of 2012, but the rest of these are all originals (at least for the most part).
I also decided to change it from 2012’s best musicians to the most promising. They may be our favorite musicians of 2012, but they’re probably all new to you – except Frank, Madeon & Miike maybe.
Also remember, not every one of these may be your favorite style, but you’ll definitely find a few you’ll enjoy for a good while.
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