The Fashionably Late Top 60 of 2013: #43 - GEMS

When it comes to year-end lists, y'all know I don't mess around. I don't post my picks from the previous year for weeks after the next year has started. In 2013 there was a bounty of music that entered the world that made me deliriously happy to be blessed with the sense of sound. So I have pondered, marinated, and contemplated for weeks. Music from 2013 has been digested for breakfast, lunch, and dinner (and yes, even dessert). And now, friends, it's time. Time to share with you what I consider the cream of one heck of a crop indeed. You might see things omitted here that you think should be on a Best Of list. This list isn't what I think you want to read. This list is what I feel about last year. These are records and songs that really mattered to me for one reason or another. If it's not here, I either didn't spend enough time with it or just didn't love it quite enough. A big, big thank you to all of the artists who created the music on this list, the music that I fell in love with last year.

WHO: GEMS

WHAT: Medusa EP

WHEN: November 2013

WHERE: Never Age

WHY: Cliff Usher and Lindsay Pitts have been on my radar since their Birdlips days. Years later, settled in the DC area and reinvented as GEMS, the pair has come a long way since their Birdlips days. The Medusa EP sees them trying their collective hand at slinky, sophisticated silks of dream pop songs, and not surprisingly they’re quite good at it. While the entire EP is a treasure, title track “Medusa” and “Sinking Stone” are worthy of extra special notice, and the hypnotic, molasses heavy undulations combined with Lindsay’s ethereal, wistful chanteuse vocals turned them into two of my favorite jams of the entire year. I’m expecting big things from them in 2014.

MY JAMS: “Medusa” “Sinking Stone”







[posted 2.25.14]


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