I hate to get South Park on people, but we've gone a little too far in the other direction. He didn't call someone a dumb bitch. It's okay for both Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber to write 1-sided complaint songs if they keep the tone moderated.

As much as I'd like to take away credit (and I'd call it a Diplo song, primarily), that New York Times breakdown revealed that he is responsible for 1/2 the song.

DRAKE. BEST SONG OF 2013.

I wouldn't read too much into it. There's a huge split here. There are a lot of us who consume a ton of music, and then there are people doing greatest hits from awhile ago.

He's a wonderful performer, but he seems not to be aware that there is cooler music than his influences out there, and he'll never be "weird." It'll never challenge his audience. To me, that's necessary to a pop star differentiating him/herself. Like, I am glad that Taylor Swift called Saint Vincent and listens to El…

"I don't want Hudson Mohawke to eat! Back to Soundcloud with you!"

No offense, but you and a lot of what I listen to is already secondhand. Playing the elitist doesn't work.

It's the exact opposite, as other reviews have noted. I don't think they're that talented, but they're the "new" popular songwriters.

Is it? In my opinion, it's barely above the 1989 misstep dreck. Churches already went really poppy with the same sound this year, and it put in context how bad that record is.

Looking at his parents makes that closer work even better.

My old reliables were disappointing to me this year, but Kinane, Jeselnik, and Mulaney brought it along with some newbies, Nate Bargatze, Sam Morril, Beth Stelling.

Since music is so divided right now between people who pay too much attention and people who consume what is in front of them, I constantly hope for a true pop star who is "good" for the public.

GhaleonQ's music purchases in November:
Justin Bieber justifying his existence with Purpose
Aisha Devi's vicious pagan/Nepalese/techno album that justifies her presence on Houndstooth https://www.youtube.com/wat…
Sarah Blasko breaking her streak of 3 classic Australian pop albums https://www.youtube.com/wat…
Akira…

Serious question: who exactly is doing what Bieber did with this one? Unless you're grouping "pop" into 1 huge group (in which case, yeah, even Annie's just-pretty-good-E.P. from this year tops it), I don't see anyone better at genre-spanning.

Annie saw the duds, but as she's the resident pop fan, there's no reason she should have pushed Jepsen/5 Seconds Of Summer/Lovato/Jackson over this. It's way better than a proper album has to be, and it's in my top 25 for the year (out of waaaaaaay more than that).

That is how I feel about all of 1989, certainly.

It's sad but true. You've heard most of the great songs already, but Mark My Words, I'll Show You, and Company are awesome, which is 6 out of 13 (on the regular release) great songs. 3 more are good, 4 are bad. That's enough for it to be the best album by a purely pop artist from this decade for me.

Safe And Sound and I Knew You Were Trouble are the only 2 songs of her that stand out as unique. I do enjoy a few others, from country to electropop, but it's typically so workmanlike that it could be anyone writing and performing them.

It was college-aged, but sure, I get it, at least for people who write autobiographically.

Kurt Braunohler is next, though, so maybe adjust them back up.