Don’t bother trying to seek out the quintessential New York City sound of 2013 — there isn’t one. Nor should there be, as our town is diverse enough to support two dozen different music scenes simultaneously — a varied and ever-changing menagerie of acts that cover pop, dance, hip-hop, rock and more. The only downside is keeping up with artists bubbling up from clubs, turntables and mix tapes to the iTunes charts. Which is where this handy crib sheet comes in. You may begin downloading immediately.
1. Sky Ferreira
It was just a few months ago that Sky Ferreira seemed perilously close to becoming a music-industry casualty before she even started. The model announced her intention to launch a recording career back in 2009 (when she was just 16) by signing a major label deal. Despite spending a couple of years working with dance producers, 2011’s underwhelming “As If!” EP was the first notable fruit of her work. With an album apparently finished towards the end of the year, she blogged that she wanted to refocus her sound, and the release was subsequently scrapped.
That could have been the last anyone heard of her, but last October she returned with the five-track “Ghost” EP — a release that was as unexpected as it was exciting. The change of direction was obvious; instead of by-the-numbers electro beats, the release featured a pair of liltingly lovely acoustic numbers, a ballsy alt-rock track co-written by Shirley Manson of Garbage and, in the shape of key-track “Everything Is Embarrassing,” a glistening ’80s pop gem that was instantly recognized by fans and critics as one of the best songs of the year. As a result, her show at the Bowery Ballroom next month is already a hot ticket. No more changes of direction necessary. Ferreira has found her path.
Download: “Everything Is Embarrassing”
2. Angel Haze
It was Angel Haze’s penchant for speaking her mind with brutal honesty that brought her to our attention last year. On her mixtape “Classick,” she reinterpreted Eminem’s “Cleaning Out My Closet” by chronicling the childhood sexual abuse she suffered in eye-watering detail. It was enough to win her a deal with Island Records, but that honesty also embroiled her in a Twitter spat with Azealia Banks that resulted in an exchange of diss tracks. Haze, 21, has apologized for acting like a “bully,” but nobody wants her to cool her tongue. It’s the very thing that makes her so captivating.
Download: “Cleaning Out My Closet”
3. Parquet Courts
Being a smart-aleck hipster musician stopped being cool a while ago, but Brooklyn’s Parquet Courts might be the guys who buck that trend. Their debut album, “Light Up Gold,” is barely half-an-hour long, but it’s packed to the gills with dirty rock ’n’ roll songs that echo the halcyon days of CBGB-era punk. What makes Parquet Courts so lovable is the streetwise and highly quotable lyrical wit they use to address such subjects as getting stoned, continual malnutrition and the crushing loneliness experienced when co-front men Andrew Savage, 26, and Austin Brown, 29, first moved to town from Texas in in 2009. It’s very funny but also has a sincerity seldom found in hipsterdom, and it’s exactly what makes Parquet Courts stand out.
Download: “Master of My Craft”
4. Joey Bada$$
Ignore his doubling-up on the clichéd use of dollar signs as a substitute “s” be cause rapper Jo-Vaughn Scott has plenty of originality where it really matters. Last year, the Flatbush native issued two dynamite mixtapes, “1999” and “Rejex,” which showcased his incredibly assured flow and earned him comparisons to Nas. At one point, rumors spread about Jay-Z trying to sign him up to Roc Nation, which so far have proved unfounded. But there’s no doubt that Joey, just 18 years old, is currently one of the hottest names to drop in NYC hip-hop circles. A full-length debut is expected at some point this year, something he’ll no doubt celebrate completely legally with a nice, cold glass of milk.
Download: “Unorthodox”
5. DIIV
Toss an iPhone down any Brooklyn street and chances are, it will hit an Anglophile musician obsessed with 1980s indie rock. Zachary Cole Smith (at far left in photo), the singer and songwriter at the heart of DIIV (pronounced “Dive”) isn’t shy about admitting his British fixation, but within the Cure-indebted jangle-pop of last year’s debut album, “Oshiin,” lies a deeper influence. “I really got into North African kora music a little while back and started to learn kora techniques on my guitar,” explains 25-year-old Smith. “I just thought it was the coolest instrument ever. It was definitely something that I incorporated into the album, but not many people noticed it.”
Download: “How Long Have You Known?”
6. Azealia Banks
Waiting for Azealia Banks to do something is exhausting. Just this week, the delightfully foul-mouthed Harlem rapper postponed the release of her new single, “Yung Rapunxel,” until next month while her full-length debut, “Broke With Expensive Taste,” has been in the works for a year and still shows no signs of emerging. So why does anyone still bother? Because “212” is still one of the best New York hip-hop tracks of recent times and even though it came out back in 2011, it still tears up bars and clubs all over the world. The interim releases (the mixtape “Fantasea” and the “1991” EP) have been time-passers in comparison. It’s the thought of Banks, 21, creating something as equally fun and audacious as “212” that keeps her fans hungry. We still love you, Azealia, but please try to hurry things along — we can’t wait around forever.
Download: “212” (or if for some inexplicable reason you’re sick of that, try “1991”)
7. MS MR
In the modern age, it’s not uncommon to know almost everything about an artist before they’ve even released an album. That feeling of familiarity breeding contempt is one that electro-pop duo MS MR (pronounced “miss” “mister”) has sought to avoid by releasing songs and videos anonymously throughout last year. Now the group has revealed themselves to be singer Lizzy Plapinger, 24, and producer Max Hershenow, 25, former Vassar classmates who started writing music in NYC. “Pop music gets a bad rep sometimes,” reckons Hershenow. “It becomes about the personality more than the music. That’s one of things that we wanted to avoid by keeping ourselves hidden.” Their forthcoming debut album, due in May, entitled “Second Hand Rapture” is a lavish collection that sounds like Florence and the Machine without the irritating theatricality.
Download: “Fantasy”
8. Francis and the Lights
Ask Francis Farewell Starlite about his influences and you won’t get a list of albums or artists. Instead, the 30something singer points to writing guide “The Elements of Style.” His Lower East Side band plays a synth-funk hybrid reminiscent of Prince, making fans of MGMT and Kanye West. Their astonishing live shows are dominated by Starlite’s demon dance moves. Now they’ve been snapped up by Polydor with a debut due this year.
Download: “For Days”
9. Ratking
Bravado is a vital currency in hip-hop, but it can quickly become tiresome. That’s part of what makes Ratking so appealing; the Manhattan quartet swaggers with the best of them, but vocalists Patrick “Wiki” Morales, 19, and Hakeem “MC Hak” Lewis, 18, aren’t afraid to bring some nihilism to the mike. “With hip-hop, you get a lot of people talking about how great they are all the time,” says Wiki, who cites hardcore punk as an equal influence to rap. “I can be cocky, but there are also times when I feel like s – – t, so I write about that, too. There aren’t many hip-hop acts in New York that provide that balance.” 2012’s densely produced (by third member Eric “Sporting Life” Adiele, 31) and fantastically manic mini album “Wiki93” is a case in point. A full-length release, “So It Goes,” is due this summer on illustrious XL Records.
Download: “Pretty Picture”
10. A$AP Rocky
Last year, this Harlem rapper (known to his mother as Rakim Mayers) seemed as though he was all mouth and no trousers. Despite promises that his first album was going to be a game-changer, it was continually delayed and Rocky, 24, risked losing the buzz that had been building since 2011. When “Long.Live.A$AP” finally arrived last month, it wasn’t quite as astounding as he suggested but his vocal agility and the album’s sheer breadth of sounds meant it was still impressive. It went to No. 1 on the Billboard Chart and his star is set to rise even further when he opens for Rihanna on her upcoming world tour. Just don’t expect either of them to be on stage on time.
Download: “Wild for the Night”