Features DIY Tracks Of 2013: 1-20

We’ve left most of this end of year business to you, dear readers, with the results of our 2013 Readers’ Poll being announced in the latest DIY Weekly. Still, there’s the not so small matter of tracks to contend with. We listen to a lot of music. We like lists. In a year of exceptional music, only the very best make the cut in our top 100 tracks of the year. Our top 20 brings together the very best, the insanely exciting debut tracks and the chart-topping breakthroughs. 

Catch up with numbers 100-81 here, 80-61 here, 60-41 here and 40-21 here. Below our top 20 you’ll find a Spotify playlist of highlights from the top 100. 
 

20. Vampire Weekend - Ya Hey

Religion in pop is a difficult thing – stray too far to either side and it’s preachy; lean a little to one and it’s schmaltzy. In ‘Ya Hey’, the jewel in the crown of ‘Modern Vampires of the City’, Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig skates around all these while directly addressing God (or Yahweh; the song’s hook and title may just be a mash-up of Hebrew and Outkast references), all the while creating a damn euphoric track in the process. Rarely are potential festival singalongs so delicate.


 

19. Queens of the Stone Age - My God Is The Sun

Much like its namesake, ‘My God Is The Sun’ is a blistering affair, with its pummelling drums and the brooding vocals of frontman Josh Homme. Born from a darkly-tinged guitar tone, the track builds and builds, spiralling skywards and exploding into life with its final chorus, before a woozy finale leaves us questioning what exactly we’ve just listened to. Luckily, the final bars kick in just quick enough to remind us: it’s Queens of the Stone Age, and they’re still bloody brilliant.
 

18. Chlöe Howl - No Strings

This is the highest-placed debut track in our top 100, and for good reason. Very few - read: absolute zero - popstars had the sheer audacity to make a first impression as venomous as Chlöe Howl’s opening gambit. ‘Fuck your no strings’ is enough of a biting line as it is. But ‘I hope I have twins’? That’s just ridiculous. On guts alone, Chlöe’s ‘No Strings’ remains a standout stop-you-in-your-tracks moment from the past 12 months. 


 

17. Fall Out Boy - The Phoenix

You can never accuse Fall Out Boy of not quite knowing how to make a dramatic entrance. In fact, ‘The Phoenix’ seems to epitomise the art; a frantic string section fans the fire of Patrick Stump’s urgent opening lines, which are almost snarled by the frontman in the frankly kick-ass introduction to ‘Save Rock And Roll’. Throw in an incendiary set of choruses, brilliant use of percussion and, of course, arguably the best rhyming couplet since Shakespeare – you know what we’re talking about – and it’s impossible not to love this, even if you won’t admit it out loud. 
 

16. Arctic Monkeys - Number One Party Anthem

Is “leather jacket, collar popped like Cantona” the best lyric of 2013? Quite possibly. Standing in contrast to most of its compadres on ‘AM’, the contrarily titled ‘Number One Party Anthem’ is more comedown than all-nighter, custom-built for what were once called ‘lighter moments’. 
 

15. Banks - Waiting Game

Everything that encompasses Banks’ dark, grimy brilliance takes a starring role in ‘Waiting Game’. Produced by SOHN, it begins as a minimal Hollywood-based ballad, fretting over not seeing a loved one because they’re both so busy being superstars. Eventually, the bass trickles in, taking over and surrounding conventional melodrama in ultimate, all-enveloping darkness. Not a flickering of light shines out of this one. 


 

14. Daft Punk - Get Lucky

It felt like a lifetime in the making, but when Daft Punk first unveiled sixteen seconds of ‘Get Lucky’, it felt a little bit like the second coming. Finally, the pieces were beginning to fit together and it was Nile Rodgers’ signature guitar tone that was the glue. The story onwards is told in six-figure single sales, weeks at Number 1 and hundreds of radio plays, but it’s impossible to deny the sheer joy that those first funky Pharell-infused seconds brought to us back at the start of it all. 
 

13. Phoenix - Entertainment

It’s easy to read Phoenix’s ‘Bankrupt’ as an attack on showbiz, a glitz and glamour culture that’s so immersed in its own bubble it’s about to suffocate. ‘Entertainment’ might be sarcy, but as an opening track it’s an essential reaffirmation of all Phoenix’s biggest strengths: Hooks; hooks and hooks with French dressing. Even when they’ve an underlying agenda, they exist as a band incapable of refusing to deliver gigantic pop songs. 
 

12. Lorde - Tennis Court

While its flashier, more successful cousin ‘Royals’ may have taken the headlines in 2013, there’s barely a paper thin gap between it and the equally brilliant ‘Tennis Court’. Lyrically stunning, few seem to ‘get it’ quite as well as the 17 year old New Zealander. Match that with a deceptively infectious hook and there’s little doubt Lorde is far from a one hit wonder.
 

11. Foals - Inhaler

Apparently existing as a previously disused loop for years in Yannis Phillipakis’ computer, eventually ‘Inhaler’ found a home. And what a home. Standing out as the loudest, most intense song to grace any festival, it induces all-out-bedlam wherever it lands. Whereas ‘Spanish Sahara’ hinted that Foals might be heading for quieter, more atmospheric leanings, ‘Inhaler’ shoves everything else aside and goes gung-ho in its quest for frenzy. 


 

10. Paramore - Aint It Fun

‘Still Into You’ may be the big single, but ‘Aint It Fun’ is the money shot of Paramore’s brilliant self titled fourth album. All sass and gospel choirs, it’s as if Hayley Williams has been possessed by the spirit of Whoopi Goldberg mid way through Sister Act. In a year where pop punk has firmly broken away from the template, it’s a perfect example of broadened horizons and a determination to be nothing short of huge.
 

9. CHVRCHES - Tether

With ‘The Mother We Share’ undoubtedly taking 2012’s standout track crown, the standards were set high for CHVRCHES. However good its predecessor still sounds, it’s ‘Tether’, more than anything else, that anchors their stunning debut album ‘The Bones Of What You Believe’. A centre piece of building brilliance that turns goosebumps to synth fueled euphoria, it takes the long way round to stunning effect. 
 

8. London Grammar - Strong

One misstep away from landing on a Radio 2 playlist until eternity, London Grammar somehow pull it off on ‘Strong’. Half early ’00s chillout compilation, half xx-y ballad, it’s pieced together by Hannah Reid’s (ahem) strongest vocal performance to date. It’s the song the trio were born to write, a centrepiece of ‘If You Wait’ that gives worth to all the years that preceded London Grammar’s debut. All the hard work and careful preparation could’ve gone to nothing if they lacked this song. It’s a brooding, melting work of beauty. And it wouldn’t be a surprise to see it ending up in the grappling palms of a X Factor producer for this year’s winner’s single. 


 

7. Haim - Falling

It could be argued that the pressure was on for Haim from the very start, but they never let it show. Despite being crowned the BBC Sound of 2013, and plied with expectation, these sisters kept the spring in their step and a wink always at the ready. They knew how to have fun, laugh and make fools of themselves, all the while producing watertight groove-infused songs that lit the airwaves on fire. ‘Falling’ is no different; a more steady-paced offering after their funky ‘Don’t Save Me’, it feels organic, dynamic and altogether fresh, while still possessing the insatiable swagger that the trio do best. Never mind falling, this track saw them rocketing to the top.
 

6. Disclosure - White Noise

Very few tracks were met with such immediate, crazed excitement as when ‘White Noise’ spilled out over airwaves on a chilly midweek night. It represents a source of escape, the incoming summer, however far away it might be. Aluna Francis’ vocals are a ‘duh’ moment, an obvious match to the Redhill duo’s amped-up house, which doesn’t so much aim for the charts as shake the hand of the top spot. Somehow, it only landed at Number Two. That didn’t stop it from taking over, becoming the go-to lose your shit song of the year. 
 

5. Wolf Alice - Bros

When they show their claws Wolf Alice are a formidable bunch. But it’s in ‘Bros’ that they truly come into their own. A friends-for-life tale of closeness and growing up and taking stupid risks because you’re a teenager, it’s a rejoicing, enormous song that’s capable of meaning so much to so many people. 


 

4. Arctic Monkeys - Do I Wanna Know?

Six months on, there’s no doubt remaining that taking Alex Turner’s Sheffield wit and filtering it through the Californian desert was A Good Thing. ‘AM’, the group’s fifth full-length, is Arctic Monkeys all grown up. Along with the quartet’s mammoth live set travelling the world this summer, it cemented their place the next Great British Rock Band. 
 

And while sort-of-mentor Josh Homme doesn’t strictly feature on ‘Do I Wanna Know?’ (neither vocals nor guitars are credited, at least) the Queens of the Stone Age man’s influence is smeared all over every sleazy second of the song’s impeccable four-and-a-half minutes. If it’s not the smoother-than-Alex’s-quiff beat, it’s the layered falsetto backing vocals. Or maybe it’s in the accompanying animated video that with more than a slight echo of Queens’ own ‘Go With The Flow’.


 

3. Vampire Weekend - Diane Young

There’s a point about half-way through ‘Diane Young’ where the song falls apart, and it’s glorious, a high point of a song which has many more: the pitch-shifted Elvis-channeling vocal of Ezra Koenig; the deft play-on-words of its title; the rock ‘n roll guitars; handclaps! A perfect counterpoint to ‘Step’, it’s unlikely Vampire Weekend could’ve introduced album three in any better way. 


 

2. Arcade Fire - Reflektor

What else is there to say about this song that hasn’t already been said, bellowed out from the skies? ‘Reflektor’ takes you higher, then higher again, until eight minutes have passed and the concept of time seems like a funny old thing.
 

Initially it’s all about the kick drums, the disco fevered strut of the song. James Murphy’s DFA / LCD stamp of approval tries to steal the show. But there’s so much else going on. Win Butler and Régine Chassange’s bittersweet tale of love being threatened by fame and modernity hasn’t been expressed like this before in song. Then there’s the Talking Heads-style guitar licks, the juddering horn sections. And then, the missing piece of the jigsaw; the icing on the icing on the sweet, delicious icing. Bowie. He appears out of nowhere, a bolt of lightning crying out about a ‘resurrector’ and a ‘reflektor’ and for all its intensity, there’s still little worth in detailing the meaning of ‘Reflektor’. It’s a ridiculous, showy juggernaut of a song; arguably the best Arcade Fire have ever written. 


 

1. Lorde - Royals

Aristocracy-obsessed Ella Yelich-O’Connor always knew she’d be queen It’s fitting that 2013 is the year when Lorde decided to reign over. Sod watching the throne, she’s here to stay. ‘Royals’ is a song that was written with foresight. ‘Baby I’ll rule,’ she declares, aged 15 at the time of writing. She’s envisaging the stages, the air miles, the countless Number One singles. How much more assured can you get?

And stirring beneath all this strutting confidence is the song of the year. It’s intelligent pop with a twist; all deftly-applied drums and subtle bassy womp-womps. It’s a song that wouldn’t sit in any year, nor would it suit any other artist. Defined by cuttingly clever lyrics lightyears ahead of fellow chart contenders, it sums up what’s been a whirlwind year; the first of many, many more for Lorde.