We start the next batch of our top 40 tracks of 2013 with the band that won out the album of the year, LA trio Haim. If you want to see what kicked off the top 40 yesterday, you can have a look back at the first set of tracks HERE.
30. Haim – If I Could Change Your Mind
Jules LeFevre: Haim definitely know how to sculpt a to-die-for rhythm section. This track is no different, coupled with some beautiful guitar work and killer harmonies, it’s the slickest piece of music released in 2013.
29. Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros – Life Is Hard
Jayden Wilson: There is raw emotion in this track, something that is often lost in the music industry of today. You can hear pain and happiness rolled into one, and a band that is truly free from commercialism. What resonates most loudly is love – a fundamental element of music that is sadly often left behind.
28. Bad//Dreems – Hoping For
Paul McBride: This Adelaide quartet take the best parts of cult American bands like The Wipers and The Replacements and inject them with a uniquely Australian slant to make some of the most brutally honest, yet genuinely hopeful guitar music of 2013. “And I feel like I can change,” repeated four times as a chorus? Works for me.
27. Queens of the Stone Age – If I Had a Tail
Ben Cuzzupe: Gimme Shelter filtered through the Desert Sessions. Queens are back and the menacing grime of those guitars is still pulsating through me since the first time I heard it.
26. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Jubilee Street
Chris Singh: No one soundtracks desperate times better than Nick Cave. Pure poetry paints a gritty picture in this violin-driven slow jam – it’s vintage Cave.
25. Foals – My Number
Bridget Hustwaite: Despite being without a doubt the poppiest song to come from Foals, My Number still maintains everything we love about the boys – an explosive chorus, sharp riffs and overall great energy. This track is just the ultimate mood enhancer and one I have had on repeat all year.
24. Kirin J Callinan – Love Delay
Sabina Rysnik: Everything thing that is so great about KJC is in this song, bellowing vocals, mangled guitars and screeching chords and yet is amazingly uplifting. A great end for the album and a great song.
23. Bed Wettin’ Bad Boys – Any Day Now
Paul McBride: This is as close to being The Replacements without actually being The Replacements as it’s probably possible to get. Awesome.
22. Boy and Bear – Three Headed Woman
Jayden Wilson: You hear a lot about bands suffering from releasing a sophomore album that lives up to expectation – this single proves that this is not the case for Boy & Bear’s second record ‘Harlequin Dream’. A cruisy acoustic-rock track with all of the best elements of their debut album ‘Moonfire’ rolled into one track.
21. Haim – The Wire
Loock back to part one HERE and stay tuned for the top 20 tracks of 2013 on the AU review – voted exclusively by AU review contributors!
