The best songs of 2013, as selected by “Said the Gramophone” and Rollo & Grady

A new year is a good excuse to freshen up your music collection, and these two “best of 2013” lists are excellent — and better still, free — ways to do so. If your tastes run towards the alternative and indie, you’ll enjoy these picks; if they don’t, they might not work for you.

• Said the Gramophone’s best songs of 2013: Said the Gramophone is a blog with writers based in both Toronto and Montreal, and it’s one of the oldest still-running music blogs around. Their blog is about two things and two things only: finding good tunes, and writing about them. This collection features 100 songs, and while mostly indie and alt rock, they’re not afraid to throw in some top 40 as well.
• Rollo and Grady’s best songs of 2013: The L.A.-based music licensing, management and production company known as Rollo and Grady have also put together a “top 100 songs of 2013” list, which leans mostly towards guitar-based indie and alt rock.

Not only can you listen to these “best of 2013” selections online, you can also download and add them to your collections! I don’t know how long the songs will be available online, so give them a listen soon, and if you like them, download them immediately.