1 – “Holy” – Frightened Rabbit
This is the fourth time FR has cracked my year-end list, and the third time they’ve grabbed the #1 spot. Yes, I’m a massive fan and this spot was pretty much reserved for them the moment I learned they would release an album in 2013. But still, they had to deliver. At least three of their songs were in the running for this spot, most notably “The Woodpile,”1 the song I nearly made co-#1.

I had to go with this, though. That driving bassline has been in my head since the first time I heard it back in February. It chugs along like a funky New Order track. And while Scott Hutchison is singing about wishing religious people would leave him alone, his sentiments can easily be applied to the endless string of folks who want to tell us we are, for any number of reasons, living our lives incorrectly. It’s a terrific sounding way of telling them all to just piss off.


  1. Not to mention “State Hospital,” which was #11 a year ago thanks to its 2012 EP release.