My favorite 40 songs of 2013

Remember me? :D

Let's get the obligatory "Happy New Years!' shit out the way. Hope 2014 is kind to ya. Truth is, for all the great shit 2013 brought to me, more blog posts was not one of them. But it's a new year, new me! Just kidding... I hate when people say that. However, I am gonna start on a positive note and give you an original piece... and one that often stirs up some emotion.

It's my favorite songs of 2013!

I doubt anyone besides myself will notice that I didn't post one of these for 2012. Was it because the music was so atrocious that I decided to skip one altogether? No, actually. I have the list, and it's delightful! It may sound like a lame excuse but I just never got around to posting it. I vowed to never make that mistake again so I'm giving y'all muthafuckas this list. Read it and love it.

One slight change from the last time I posted one of these: I made it a top 40 instead of a top 50. This was not something I planned on doing before making the list but I felt like I was reaching by adding on 10 more songs just 'cause. Less is more and all that. To compensate, I added blurbs to just about every song, because I'm sure you wanted to read more of my expert analysis.

As always, a refresher to the criteria: These are MY favorite songs of the past year. Not the BEST. Not the most POPULAR. Just my FAVORITE. (Envision me yelling every time you see something in caps) I write this because while you can offer your opinion and feelings on what your fav jams of 2013 were, this list is hard to debate because it's the shit I like. You'll notice a lot of dance songs on here. Yeah, 'cause a dude was hitting the treadmill hard last year (until that one day in November when I killed it running 3 miles in something like 25 minutes and sprained my foot so bad I could hardly walk on it for the next week). In response to the lack of hip-hop (my preferred genre of music, if you didn't know), I say show me where to get some and I'm there. Unfortunately, I'm not able to be online all day searching for underground shit to satisfy my rap urges (I just put on some 90's shit for that) and the new shit, especially the mainstream stuff, is horrible.

OK, here's the list. Have fun and hopefully I will speak to you guys a lot more in 2014. Enjoy!

40. Bruno Mars 'Treasure'
Saw him in concert last year, amazeballs!

39. Daft Punk feat. Pharrell 'Get Lucky'
How smooth was this? Perfect summer song

38. Avicii feat. Aloe Blacc 'Wake Me Up'
Liked Aloe Blacc ever since 'I Need A Dollar'

37. Haim 'The Wire'
Thought they were strange when I saw them on SNL but this rocks

36. Action Bronson feat. LL Cool J & Lloyd Banks 'Strictly 4 My Jeeps'
Would love to see hear more NY rap like this in '14

35.  B.o.B 'Missing'
Underappreciated MC who always speaks his mind

34. Jay-Z 'Picasso Baby'
33. Drake feat. Jay-Z 'Pound Cake'
Surprisingly, my fav MC ever doesn't crack the top 25

32. Big Sean feat. Kendrick Lamar & Jay Electronica 'Control'
Verse of the year candidate by Kendrick. Got damn!

31. Icona Pop 'I Love It'
Two Swedish chicks yelling about crashing their car? Yes, please!

30. M.I.A. 'Y.A.L.A.'
This is what happens when you shazam songs from commercials

29. Jennifer Lopez feat. Pitbull 'Live It Up'
Every time these two hook up, they make it on here

28. Rihanna 'What Now'
Finally dropped as a single. Best song off of 'Unapologetic'

27. Sevyn Streeter feat. Chris Brown 'It Won't Stop (Remix)'
She might not have the best voice but this is so smooth

26. Ludacris 'Hell Of A Night'
Luda always kills these light, fun club songs

25. Britney Spears 'Til It's Gone'
24. Pitbull feat. Kelly Rowland 'That High'
Both dropped at the end of the year but they've been on repeat heavy

23. Sam & The Womp 'Bom Bom'
22. Fergie, Q-Tip & GoonRock 'A Little Party Never Killed Nobody'
This is what happens when you occasionally watch 'Dancing W/ The Stars'

21. Afrojack feat. Chris Brown 'As Your Friend'
20. Will.I.Am feat. Chris Brown 'Let's Go'
Fuck rehab, Breezy. Just make a dance album with shit like this on it

19.  J. Cole feat. Amber Coffman 'She Knows'
Couldn't get into the album but this bangs

18. Mack Wilds 'Own It'
This feels so New York. Kudos to the remix w/ Jadakiss, too

17. Kid Cudi 'Young Lady'
'Indacud' was one of my fav albums in '13

16. Eminem 'So Much Better'
When Em drops an album, he's guaranteed a spot on my list

15. Sia feat. The Weeknd & Diplo 'Elastic Heart'
The 'Titanium' chick strikes again!

14. Tegan & Sara 'Closer'
I can now cross 'liking a song by Canadian lesbian twins' off my bucket list

13. One Republic 'Counting Stars'
'No more counting dollars, we'll be counting stars' YES

12. Ylvis 'The Fox (What Does The Fox Say)'
Anyone who knows me knows this could easily be my #1. Hilarious!

11. Calvin Harris feat. Ellie Goulding 'I Need Your Love'
Loved this even more after I saw the video

And now, I present my favorite 10 songs of 2013!

10. Miley Cyrus 'We Can't Stop'
I tried to fight it. I really did. But the fight was not a fair one. For all the negative things I can say about her (and trust me, I realize that she's an industry puppet who's playing out this ridiculous character for attention), I have to give credit where it's due. Shit, even I was twerking to this.

09. A Great Big World feat. Christina Aguilera 'Say Something'
Jay-Z famously said 'sensitive thugs, y'all all need hugs.' Well, dammit, I need a hug and I need it now. Is this depressing? Uhhhh HELL YEAH. This is the song you play right before your disaster of a relationship comes to an end. Pillows are soaking up tears to this shit right here. You're gripping your teddy bear extra tight. But sometimes pain sounds so beautiful.

08. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis 'Can't Hold Us'
Are they corny? Sure. A song like 'Thrift Shop' wasn't going to change that (although I love the message). This? Yeah, this is serious. Any MC who would've rapped over this beat with that hook would've made it into a banger, but they didn't get that chance. Macklemore did. And that makes him one lucky, successful ass dude.

07. Pusha T feat. Future 'Pain'
I hate Future. Seriously, I do. If you replaced him with T-Pain on any song he's on, the song is instantly 10000x better. But that's how much I love this song... that I could bare his down-syndrome sounding ass on the hook. And for that, and many other reasons, Push wins rap album of the year accolades in my book.

06. Joell Ortiz 'Roll Deep'
Let's see what we have in play here: A dope NY MC, who just so happens to be Puerto Rican, rhyming over a hard beat that samples Big Pun AND Frankie Cutlass? How can this NOT be in my top 10? 'I'm in here going pernil, that's one step up from ham'. Songs like this remind me that I still love H.E.R.

05. Drake feat. 2 Chainz & Big Sean 'All Me'
From the moment Drake says 'Got everything, I got everything', you know shit's about to go down. Wouldn't consider myself a fan of any of these dudes but when you can get the best out of all 3 of them over a beat like this with a memorable hook, you have a great anthem.

04. Neighbourhood 'Sweater Weather'
It wasn't until recently (and by recently, I mean last night) that I realized that the lead singer is a dude. And that's probably not a great sign. But trust me when I tell you that something about this song just feels good. Maybe because it feels like California and I was in LA in June (show-off alert!) but I digs this.

03. Robin Thicke feat. T.I. & Pharrell 'Blurred Lines'
Here's where I brag about downloading this song (and not illegally, either!) in April, way before the frenzy. I'm a visionary! May I add that I previously hated Robin Thicke. He didn't feel authentic to me, and in his past efforts he sounded like he was trying too hard. But Pharrell LACED him. Add the simplistic, yet genius video and you have what was possibly the biggest song of '13.

02. Capital Cities 'Safe & Sound'
A cool dude like myself (ahem) listens to cool music. And this, my friends, is cool. Although they're essentially repeating the same four lines over and over again, the vibe of this song (mainly due to the awesome use of horns) is just... cool. Also doubles as one of my favorite videos of the year.

01. Lorde 'Royals'
I remember the day so vividly. I was in the passenger side of the whip, radio on blast, and both Hot 97 and Power 105 (NYC desperately needs a better 'urban' station) had commercials on so I (tentatively) switched to z100. And that's the moment I fell in love with this song. And then Rick Ross added a verse on it and, surprisingly, didn't ruin it. Yes, this song is amazing. Yes, this is my favorite song of 2014. And yes, you can call me queen bee.

Another year, another list. What were your favorites of 2013? I probably won't care but feel free to let me know. Just kidding! Kind of.