Features DIY Tracks Of 2013: 80-61

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. 

Catch up with numbers 100-81 here. 
 

80. Swim Deep - She Changes The Weather

Thrown into the limelight without being given a chance to say goodbye to Birmingham, Swim Deep’s 2013 has been less about exploding on the scene, more about finding themselves. As cheesy as that sounds, on ‘She Changes the Weather’ they land on a sweet, drifting piano number that’s good enough to be a single. It sounds like they’ve found home.
 

79. Wolf Alice - She

With each song released, Wolf Alice get more intense, amped-up. ‘She’ is the sound of a band at the end of their tether with disruptive, outside forces. It leaves the room kicking and screaming.


 

78. David Bowie - Where Are We Now?

Our Dave may have been hiding away from the public eye for yonks, but his shock return early this year made it all worth the wait. Rarely does music news truly surprise, but with this comeback effort kept firmly under wraps until the very last moment, it’s significance goes beyond the track alone. 
 

77. Smith Westerns - Varsity

Chicago’s Smith Westerns get by on playing it cool, but they’re not shy in showcasing one mighty hook-filled triumph. ‘Varsity’ is a sleek return, shedding off any lo-fi accusations and running to the hills, daisy chains in hair, hands held in hippie heaven. 
 

76. Everything Everything - Kemosabe

Give them credit, but Everything Everything’s attempt to write choruses that people could sensibly sing along to was futile. Why change, either, when you can inspire a thousand-plus chant of ‘ah-kemosa-baya-aaaayeaaah’?


 

75. Courtney Barnett - Avant Gardener

On paper, a song about having a panic attack while gardening comes off as quite mundane, but Aussie Courtney Barnett turns it into a genuinely hilarious event, side-splitting in its self-deprecation. 
 

74. Deap Vally - Baby I Call Hell

Loud, proud and so rock’n’roll it almost hurts, Deap Vally’s ‘Baby I Call Hell’ encompasses a rhythmic electricity that feels just a little bit dirty, a little bit snarly. Forget three because this time around, two is the magic number.
 

73. Childhood - Solemn Skies

Containing at least three hooks capable of being used as a chorus by average ol’ bands, Childhood prove they’re anything but on ‘Solemn Skies’. How this isn’t already being played to thousands at once is one of 2013’s great mysteries.


 

72. The National - Don’t Swallow The Cap

It’s funny how The National have finally been accepted as more than a bunch of misery guts, when ‘Trouble Will Find Me’ is arguably their darkest to date. ‘Don’t Swallow The Cap’ is a pent up highlight, Matt Berninger positively bursting with energised, grimly-told declarations.
 

71. Katy B - 5am

If there was any doubt as to where Katy B had got off to post-debut album, ‘5am’ confirms she’s still immersed in the clubs, being forced out the door at stupid o’clock.


 

70. Fall Out Boy - My Songs…

It was the moment we had all (okay, some of us) been waiting for, and it was marked with a gang vocal-laden, falsetto note-reaching chant of a track. ‘My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark (Light ‘Em Up)’ proved that Fall Out Boy were back, and they sure meant business.
 

69. The Naked And Famous - Hearts Like Ours

As 2013 overflowed with the kind of almighty synth-pop The Naked And Famous arrived sporting years ago, they had to return with an absolute giant of a single. ‘Hearts Like Ours’ lived up to the task, and then some.
 

68. Kanye West - Bound 2

These days it’s nothing without the Kim plus mountains and wild horses video to match - or even the Seth Rogen x James Franco spoof - but upon its release ‘Bound 2’ still stuck out like a sore thumb. Rounding off an abrasive, often terrifying ‘Yeezus’ LP, it refers to Kanye’s past specialities of old-school samples and loved-up statements and throws them into a melting pot of what its maker might like to call ‘genius’.
 

67. MØ - Waste of Time

Karen Marie Ørsted’s brash beats sound sharper than ever here, in a song that huffs, spits and stirs, relaying frustration via an onslaught of hooks. 


 

66. Temples - Mesmerise

Nostalgia pours out from the seams of each of Temples’ tracks - it’s no secret. Still, on the basis of ‘Mesmerise’ they’re beginning to channel any clear-as-day influences into modern giants, tailor-made for 2014 and the year to follow.
 

65. Swearin - Dust In The Gold Sack

In a year that belonged to the Crutchfield sisters, Allison and her Swearin’ crew arrived on the scene with two terrific albums. ‘Dust in the Gold Sack’ is the standout from both of these; a riotous race through emotional punk, driven to the point of collapse. 


 

64. Justin Timberlake - Mirrors

Making his grand comeback with the slick ‘Suit & Tie’ was one thing, but when JT unveiled ‘Mirrors’, it was the start of a whole different ball game. A pseudo-epic accolade to his one and only, his groove-infused, R&B-tinged declaration is just, quite simply, finger-clickin’ good.
 

63. St. Lucia - Elevate

Giddy synth-pop erupted in 2013, spreading its delicious gooey lava all over the charts without a moment’s pause. St. Lucia remains a phenomenon gifted to those over in the States, but his triumphant ‘Elevate’ could be the song that rockets his name worldwide in the next 12 months.


 

62. MGMT - Alien Days

MGMT haven’t yet mastered how to tow the line between ridiculously strange and good at writing actual songs, but ‘Alien Days’ comes pretty close. Kicking off with a creepy child-sung verse, it eventually morphs into something that’d sit pretty on ‘Oracular Spectacular’. 
 

61. Foals - My Number

If it wasn’t for another ‘Holy Fire’ triumph, built bigger and more beast-like, Foals would be sporting 2013’s song of the summer with ‘My Number’. Talking Heads-channelling rhythms onwards, it belongs in muddy fields, chanted by thousands. 



Check back tomorrow for numbers 60-41 in DIY’s Tracks of 2013