Best Songs of the Year 2013: 75-51

Chapter II of our favourite 100 tunes released this 2013. 25 more songs, now comprised between positions 75 to 51. Again, you have the complete (20 tunes) playlist at our newly created Soundcloud page, and if the song isn't available there, you'll have an alternative direct link. As we explained on the previous list, only three songs per band, so we've been able to include more groups (bands "affected" by this limitation are The National, Savages and Go Violets). Third part of the list coming very soon, so stay tuned. Hope you enjoy!

75. Math and Physics Club- Long Drag
74. Lose The Reason- The Primitives
73. The Most Beautiful Boy- The Choo Choo Trains
72. Winter Coat- Coach Station Reunion

71. Mean Streets- Tennis
70. Fool of a Kind- Marine Life
69. Lose Control- Brothers in Law
68. Temporary Touch- Selebrities
67. We Don't Have Any Cuts to Waste- The Very Most
66. Daedalus- San Fermin
65. Marshal Dear- Savages (link to video)
64. Show Me the Wonder- Manic Street Preachers (link to video)
63. Let Them All In- I Am Kloot
62. Gun- Chvrches

61. I Don’t Know What to Do With My Hands- Minor Alps
60. Ha Ha Ha- The Julie Ruin
59. Floating- Mequetrefe
58. Dead in Your Head- Bleached
57. Evil/Shy- The Mini Skips
56. Generación Perdida- Las Ruinas
55. Girls Like Us- Pins
54. Through the Deep, Dark Wood- The Veils
53. El Mundo Se Va a Acabar- Pauline en la Playa
52. Can You Keep A Secret- The Birthday Kiss
51. Wanted- Go Violets

Click here to check the SoundCloud playlist!

Spanish Indie 16: suggesting the best national acts

Here's a new dose of the best national discoveries, beware, your ears are going to be seriously amazed!

Mequetrefe. This blog section wouldn't be the same without El Genio Equivocado. Here they are again, before the year fades out. This four-piece project began in 2007 in Santiago de Compostela, a year later recording two demos for Alg-a netlabel and reaching the semifinals of the FIB Festival Demo contest. In May 2010 they released their first EP “Play Of”, receiving excellent reviews in and out of Spain. The next step would arrive with the digital single "Kill All Indies" in 2012, after which they signed with our favourite national label, publishing the EP “A Serious Band”, the single "Orange", and finally, their second album “Gobi”, out now. Defining Mequetrefe's sound is almost impossible. Madchester, Chicago, Detroit, My Bloody Valentine, The Beta Band, The Sabres of Paradise. Electronic shoegaze? Guitar dub? Whatever. The only important is that Mequetrefe's music will take you places. Don't be scared. Enjoy the ride.

Victoria Ford. This quartet hail from Alcalá de Guadaíra, Seville, and formed in 2007. Many local gigs followed, as well as recognition in the form of the 12doce award and being listed as one of the emerging national bands in 2010. The next year, after playing at the Monkey Week Festival, they entered the studio, and the first results are here, in the form of their S/T debut EP. Alternative rock with pulse and punch, head and heart, that clicks ignition to then turn mournful and elegiac the next second, where guitars play hide and seek and synthesizers appearing from nowhere ready to swallow you. I hear the biting lyrics and the emotional depth of The New Raemon, the irresistible driving force of Wiggum, and a glimpse of The National's mystery. You know I can't use these two words in vain, so you should check them out immediately.

Seven Tin Stars. There are bands that really knock you out, leaving you longing for more when you find them for the first time. This quartet hails from Asturias and Castilla, and they formed in 2012 when their members, initially a trio with quite an extended career in other projects, gather together to create the first songs of this exciting combo. Expanded to a quartet, "Songs My Mother Never Sang to Me", their first EP is ready to come out now at Diente de León Records, and its a debut so precious you will keep it as your most beloved treasure. Balancing gracefully between shoegaze and dreampop, strumming guitars and fragile, distant vocals, colliding in three tunes where melancholy and promise burst directly into your ear, and then into your heart. Want more? Check this Luna cover and fall in love.