What was the best new song you heard in 2013?

With the year winding down, we’ve reached the point of reflection and retrospection. Looking back on the new music of 2013 and pondering what was tops – not just in terms of a full album, but in terms of just pure songwriting.

The “songwriting” bit broadens it somewhat. It steers the topic away from a collective body of work making some grand statement and towards sounds, towards songs that just straight-up connect. For example, while I might not be the biggest Dawes fan, I can’t deny that “Most People” is a jam. That arcing guitar riff, with the harmonics placed at the proper accentuating points, is infectious. Ditto Kanye West’s “Bound 2” – the “Uh huh honey” loop pulls you in to the groove of the full piece.

Those are only two examples of standout tracks of these past twelve months, songs that defined the year two thousand and thirteen. Tonight, on a whim, I posed the question to XPN’s Twitter audience, and got a variety of responses. I compiled these responses into a Spotify playlist. You can listen to it below. And if there are any amazing songs from 2013 excluded from this set – as undoubtedly there will be – please leave them in the comments. We’ll update the playlist as we go.

(NOTE: the song “You” by The 1975 was requested by Twitter user Annie S., while “Static Stream” by Abandoned Lighthouse was suggested by Beth M., and neither are on Spotify. You can hear them via YouTube and Bandcamp below.)