What are my favorite 13 songs from the first half of 2013?

Jim James performing at Milwaukee's Pabst Theater on April 19, 2013

Spoiler alert: "A New Life" by Jim James is going to be my 2013 Song of the Year. It's a winner by knockout. Last year I was waffling all December not confident where I would land and 2011 saw "Midnight City" by M83 make an incredible down the stretch run in my mind. But this song had a one-two punch of circumstance that is distancing itself so incredibly ahead of the pack (again, this is just the internal music monologue of my mind).

First was the song's magnificent debut on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon...

Second, as the case with nearly every Song of the Year since I formally began awarding the informal title, I saw the song performed live (picture above).

There was an outside chance, in a year with new albums by some of my favorite due (Phoenix, Foals, Daft Punk, Franz Ferdinand, Arcade Fire) later in the year that it could change - but I feel comfortable calling it now.

I continue to build my Spotify playlist of my favorite songs, but I singled out 13 of them for my Top 13 of 2013's first half:

Top 13 of 2013's First Half

A few quick notes on these 13 tracks:

• Starred tracks indicate songs I've heard live (note: I have tickets for Phoenix later in the year, when I'll most likely hear "Entertainment")
• Pet Lions is an example of when I casually research the question, "who's opening tonight" and discover something much more
• If you liked Amy Winehouse, I can't recommend Jessie Ware highly enough: especially her Live Spotify Sessions if you have access to it
• Kacey Musgraves is not a typo - a bonafide country song has cracked this list for the first time ever
• Harlem Shake deserves to be on this list mainly because of Matt and Kim's fantastic effort

The back half of 2013 looks very promising as some all time favorites (including the #1 act I need to check off my Bucket List) performing live in Chicago. With how back loaded this year might become, I felt it was proper to write a first half recap. Thanks for reading.