25 Best Singles of 2013

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Now Hear This: The 25 Best Singles of 2013 (#1)

Previously: (25-23)(22-20)(19-17)(16-14)(13-11)(10-8)(7-5)(4-2) 1. Kanye West -- Black Skinhead Ferocious. Relentless. Blistering. Awesome. Maybe the best possible thing you can say about Black Skinhead is that it was so good it made Kanye's obnoxious megalomania and pop ...read more

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Now Hear This: The 25 Best Singles of 2013 (7-5)

Previously: (25-23)(22-20)(19-17)(16-14)(13-11)(10-8) 7. London Grammar -- Strong When London Grammar's debut album was first released back in September they drew a lot of comparisons to their British counterparts, the xx. One reviewer even referred to them as "a sexless ...read more

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Now Hear This: The 25 Best Singles of 2013 (10-8)

Previously: (25-23)(22-20)(19-17)(16-14)(13-11) 10. Elvis Costello & The Roots -- Walk Us Uptown Take a musical icon and add one of the coolest bands on earth -- what you get is not only a perfect fit but one of the most deliriously entertaining musical concoctions of 2013. ...read more

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Now Hear This: The 25 Best Singles of 2013 (13-11)

Previously: (25-23)(22-20)(19-17)(16-14) 13. St. Lucia -- Elevate St. Lucia is the stage name of South African-born multi-instrumentalist Jean-Philip Grobler. He's worked with bands like Foster the People, Passion Pit, and Haerts, and it shows in his own material. St. Lucia's ...read more

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Now Hear This: The 25 Best Singles of 2013 (16-14)

Previously: (25-23)(22-20)(19-17) 16. The Epilogues -- Saboteur The Epilogues, out of Denver, have the ability to make music like their lives depend on it. At its best, their sound is desperate and tragic and sweeping and grand, yet always easily accessible. The title of ...read more

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Now Hear This: The 25 Best Singles of 2013 (22-20)

Previously: The 25 Best Singles of 2013 (25-23) 22. Cults -- High Road Cults' sophomore effort was a diffused haze of off-kilter dreaminess, like a lost Phil Spector-produced soundtrack to a David Lynch film. Setting aside the behind-the-scenes machinations between the duo's ...read more

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Now Hear This: The 25 Best Singles of 2013 (NSFW)

Overall, 2013 was a pretty damn good year for music. What's interesting, though, is that as musical trends go it was a bit of a placeholder year, in that most of what we'd seen before either held steady or dropped off the radar with nothing noteworthy to replace it. Sure, EDM ...read more