The album has always been the definitive unit of weighty artistic expression when it comes to music. But what it comes down to what people love are songs. You have to like an artist’s songs, after all, before you can respect and maybe one day learn to fall in love with an album. In the flash-trading pace of this internet world we live in, music is often reduced to all first dates all the time but even when the oversaturation of songs (and terrible sounding mp3s) becomes oppressive, the song is still the primary moment of musical enjoyment. And that is liberating side because, a moment like that can come from a pop superstar or an blog love sensation–or even the band down the street–with increasing ease and frequency. In fact we maybe fell in love with more first date songs this year than any in the history of man, because there were so many more sexy songs to check out. But only a few can make that feeling last every time you listen. And that’s how we arrived at Okayplayer’s 13 Best Songs of 2013. Play on: