Insult to Injury: Week Ending 12/13 with Tourist

Everyone is freaking out about year-end lists right now. But really, the Noisey editors compile what they're listening to every single week on our Insult to Injury posts. Think of them as mini-year-end lists. So here's what we were all listening to this week while putting our actual year-end lists together.This week’s special guest is London-based electronic artist and Disclosure affiliate Tourist.

Arthur Russell – “The Letter”

He contributes so much sonically, lyricaly, arrangement-wise—it’s unbelievable. You immediately know an Arthur Russell record, but you don’t know why. There’s such an enigma to him. It’s a really sad story—he was about 40 when he died of AIDS—and he was remarkably talented. He came from this world where on one side he liked disco and electronic music, and then he was also classically trained, he’s a cellist would explore the boundaries of the cello to an amazing extent. But if you listen to this song, he repeats the lyric, “Hey there’s a letter for you” 100 million times so that the words cease to have meaning and it just becomes this sonic sentiment that’s so amazing. It really means a lot to me.

Tourist on

Twitter

Beyoncé - "Drunk in Love (feat. Jay Z)"
Like everyone in the world, I cannot believe Beyoncé dropped an album last night. Of course, she outshines Jay Z on "Drunk in Love" and if anyone has a version without Jay, you should definitely send it to me on Twitter. But the confidence and strength she's singing through this song is incredible. Not that she didn't have it in her before—she always has—but "Drunk in Love" is sexual and powerful, but it just doesn't need Jay Z.

Lauren Nostro, Guest editor
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Lauren's Best and Worst of 2013 List

Big Ups - "Goes Black"

Did you all finish your year-end lists? Did you spend hours delicately crafting your list to show off your eclectic tastes in music? Were you sure to include a mix of the year’s biggest albums with some lesser known gems? Did you represent hip new emerging artists and old classics? Did you seamlessly combine safe picks and some more adventurous obscure ones? Did you adequately represent a cornucopia of genres?

Were your picks multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, and Pitchfork-approved? Will all your friends gander upon your list and be impressed with your eclectic musical tastes? Will you even impress a few new people who relate to your interests? Is your list so perfectly crafted that you’ll be able to look back on it years from now and take pride in what an accurate representation it was of you as a person in 2013? Cool, no one cares.

Anyway, this song is rad and I’ve played it about 400 times today.

Dan Ozzi, Contributing Editor
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Dan's Best and Worst of 2013 List

Steely Dan - "Dirty Work"
If you've ever been on either side of this situation, this song is everything.

Kim Taylor Bennett, Style Editor
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Kim's Best and Worst of 2013 List

The Go-Gos - "We Got the Beat"
Shout out to my homie Josh for this, the rare Stiff Records version of The GoGo's classic "We Got The Beat" immortalized in the Cameron Crowe classic Fast Times at Ridgemont High. This version is a lot more raw and emphasizes their early punk past, with some minor changes to the chorus and no piano/organ to be found. ICYMI, Stiff Records has a new box set out.

Fred Pessaro, Noisey, Editor-in-Chief
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Fred's Best and Worst of 2013 List

Freddie Hubbard - "Here's That Rainy Day"
My internet friend Barry Schwartz—you can find him writing for Noisey and tweeting at @DiscoVietnam—told me I need to listen to more jazz. So I told him to make me a playlist, because I agree with the sentiment that I need to listen to more jazz. So he made me a playlist, and I've been listening to that playlist all week, mainly on my freezing fucking cold walks to and from work, down the (CLICHE ALERT) empty streets of Williamsburg. But one song on his playlist that really stuck with me is Freddie Hubbard's "Here's That Rainy Day," a sweet, charming little jam, led by Hubbard's playful trumpet fluttering around the bass line. It provided the perfect decompresser each day, slowly unplugging me from the plugged in world in which we all operate. Listen to the whole playlist here.

Eric Sundermann, Managing Editor
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Eric's Best and Worst of 2013 List

Big K.R.I.T. - "King Remembered in Time (Chopped & Screwed)"
Temporarily, it seems as if Screwston has moved to Brooklyn. First we hung out with Mike Jones a bunch this week, then we interviewed Paul Wall and met Bun B at Music Hall of Williamsburg. Officially changing Greenpoint's name to Leanpoint. Anyways, tomorrow night Michael 5000 Watts is DJing at 285 Kent of all fucking places, so here, listen to his chopped and screwed version of a Big K.R.I.T. thing. Drew Millard, Features Editor
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Drew's Best and Worst of 2013 List