SOUND BITES

Over the course of forty days, I've talked and talked about these songs leading up to the moment when one would be singled out to wear the crown as 2013's Song of the Year. The time for talk is over. If, by chance, you missed the write-ups on any of this year's nominees, they're all here . I've also added hyperlinks below for the ten shortlisted nominees. Other than that, let's get the show on the road! The Shortlist: Arctic Monkeys: Do I Wanna Know? Clutch: Crucial Velocity Foals: Inhaler Headstones: Far Away From Here Kings of Leon: Beautiful War Man Man: Head On Pearl Jam: Sirens Queens of the Stone Age: Kalopsia Vampire Weekend: Diane Young J. Roddy Walston & The Business: Heavy Bells AND THE WINNER OF YEAR IN ROCK 2013'S SONG OF THE YEAR AWARD IS...

VAMPIRE WEEKEND Diane Young From: Modern Vampires Of The City Released: May 14 It's hard to pass proper judgment on an album like Vampire Weekend's so close to its release date; the promotional cycle for Modern Vampires Of The City was hard and fast, a barrage of lyric videos, webcasts, and other assorted performances and previews. Upon release, I opined that it couldn't possibly live up to the hype no matter how good it was. Now, six months removed from its marketing campaign, MVOTC can be taken on its own merits. And I'm happy to report that, six months removed from its marketing campaign, MVOTC lives up to the hype.

Stream Vampire Weekend's third album here , courtesy the fine, upstanding, not at all annoyingly insistent on making you jump through hoops to stream an album folks at iTunes. Okay, so "summer blockbuster season" is a bit of an oxymoron when it comes to the music biz, what with the releases drying up pretty good from mid-June to mid-September or so as labels hoard their money makers for the Christmas shopping season and year end lists. But, this year does have a fair amount of enticing releases leading into the summer months; Alice In Chains, Queens Of The Stone Age, City And Colour and an up-and-coming fresh faced crew by the name of Black Sabbath are among rock bands prepping releases over the next six weeks. So, in a way, Vampire Weekend do indeed get to usher in an exciting month and a half in rock n' roll; Modern Vampires Of The City is the marquee album being released next week among a handful of anticipated (yet more underground) releases from the likes ...