The 50 Best Songs of 2023
I don’t think there has ever been a bad year for music.
Even when the world went into complete lockdown three years ago — really?! — we still had colossal comebacks (Fiona Apple, The Strokes); new career highs (Phoebe Bridgers, Yves Tumor); touching send offs (Mac Miller); and big chart hits (The Weeknd, Taylor Swift, Dua Lipa) that all successfully soundtracked the weirdest twelve months of the 21st century.
So far, at least. *touch wood*
And 2023 has shown why this strong-held belief of mine is worth protecting. As you’ll see via the very piece you’re reading, this year has been a delight on so many fronts: despite its title, this list could have easily been a Top 100 without sacrificing any quality.
Nothing complicated rule-wise: if a song was released in 2023 then it’s eligible and only one song per artist to keep it fresh (though features do not count).
And if you want to check out all these songs — and *70* honourable mentions — then you can check out my Spotify playlist here!
50Maria
Greg Mendez
If this song were a person you met at a bar, you’d conjure up every possible exit in your head for an impromptu getaway while waiting on tenterhooks to see where this story they’re telling ends up.
As you leave to see “why your Mum is phoning you”, their Elliot Smith-esque vulnerability will stick with you long after you’ve made your way home.
49Memories of Music
Oneohtrix Point Never
It’s easy for a producer to get a taste of mainstream success and face some rife backlash as a result.
Yet, despite scoring some of A24’s biggest hits and working with The Weeknd, Daniel Lopatin shows that he’s not forgotten his OPN project — and how could you after hearing this closer!
48Now U Do
DJ Seinfeld & Confidence Man
Nowadays we’re really spoiled when it comes to 90’s/00s EDM throwbacks — spoiled in the ‘nasty, spit it out immediately’ kind of way that is.
Thanks DJ Seinfeld & Confidence Man for showing that this era did, and still continues to slap.
47namesake
Noname
You’d be forgiven for forgetting that, amidst all her messy social media posts and controversy, very few rappers can rival Noname’s proficient penmanship.
It helps that this accountability anthem’s simple but sticky bass and rapid drumfire will stay with you just as much as its bars will.
46WICKED GYAL (ft. Lady Lykez)
BAMBII
No song had me giggling and jiggling in equal measure as much as this BAMBII and Lady Lykez collab. If you ask me, there’s not nearly enough bops about letting one rip in someone’s face.
45One That Got Away
MUNA
I gave this a lengthier review in my April edition of Best Songs of the Month so I’ll keep it brief: very happy this song’s existence is proof that MUNA’s TikTok success in 2021 wasn’t unwarranted.
44The Hillbillies
Baby Keem & Kendrick Lamar
Following the absolute hoot that was 2021’s Family Ties, The Hillbillies is proof that Keem and Kendrick’s chemistry was more than just a fluke. With the Messi and Neymar shoutouts in this song, it’s only a matter of time until a rapper compares their arse to John McGinn’s.
43Madres
Sofia Kourtesis
Lyrics are a pillar of many genres but few would say that house is one of them; especially if they’re in an unfamiliar language. Thankfully a life-affirming track like Madres can show that just because it’s not what you came for doesn’t mean it won’t be leaving with you.
42Making The Band (Danity Kane)
Earl Sweatshirt
If (for some reason) you were growing tired of Earl Sweatshirt’s abstract, lo-fi era then the man himself has something else for you. An Earl cloud-rap classic — produced by *THE* Clams Casino — wasn’t on my 2023 bingo card but how could I possibly complain!
41Installation
Pangaea
Ever since I heard Doss’ eclectic 4 New Hit Songs EP in 2021, I’ve been craving more releases in that tech house flavour. Turns out Pangaea have exactly what I was looking for: the kind of bassy tune that leaves you in need of a revisit as well as a shower.
40For Granted
Yaeji
You’ll have a hard time finding a song with more fitting album artwork than this: the soft and cutesy palette of the cover perfectly matches its delicate and hypnotic synth pop introduction.
The bombastic barrage that sees it off serves as a not-so-gentle reminder that the album is called With A Hammer after all.
39The Deal
Mitski
It’s nice to think of one of the many millions who — after hearing Mitski for the first time due to her sudden chart hit status — gives the rest of her latest album a go.
Only to be met with The Deal, a song that reveals many of her intimate qualities as a singer-songwriter and storyteller; a song that manages to tackle one of life’s deepest questions with stunning simplicity; a song that will set that listener off on a journey through her wonderful discography.
How lucky they are to begin that journey for the first time.
38Speed Drive
Charli XCX
It’s been a while since a film soundtrack could be described as inescapable, let alone one comprised of original tracks.
Much in the same way Barbie exceeded financial and critical expectations, one of its soundtrack highlights Speed Drive offers more of Charli XCX’s chaotic, Kenergetic side rather than her conventional one and is all the better for it.
37What Was I Made For?
Billie Eilish
While a brief was most certainly given to Billie Eilish when approached to make this list’s second cut from the Barbie soundtrack, What Was I Made For? could fit snuggly onto Happier Than Ever.
An existential and endearing wee tune that I’m yet to, and likely never will, skip when it makes its daily radio appearance.
36The Gods Must Be Crazy
Armand Hammer
When JPEGMAFIA — the man synonymous with contemporary experimental hip-hop —produces nearly 1/3 of your album, the bar for wild production is set pretty high.
This means a lot of praise has to be given to hip-hop veteran EL-P for creating one of 2023’s most abrasive and memorable beats. As to should Armand Hammer’s Billy Woods and ELUCID for not just rapping on it, but providing lyrics so layered a bibliography should come as standard.
35Tin Man
feeble little horse
With effect pedals so fuzzy the mould on your neglected block of fridge cheese will get jealous, feeble little horse have perfected the ‘harsh noise / gentle, beautiful vocals’ combo on their second full-length try.
34Nurse!
bar italia
Another track I highlighted earlier in the year, Nurse! is a tune that has managed to sustain its initial massive wow factor. That moody, morose finale is still among my favourite closers of the entire year.
33Bang Bang
Momma
We get a lot of explicit songs on the charts — always have, always will- but thankfully Californian indie rock trio Momma got the memo when it comes to making these kind of songs good: make sure it’s as cool as it is crude!
32Bass Jam
Danny Brown
Despite being over 15 years into his career, Danny Brown’s latest release Quaranta managed to set itself from the rest of his acclaimed discography.
A track like closer Bass Jam is emblematic of his not-new but more enhanced introspection, the production more laid back and hazy but the insight and emotion no less sharp.
31Space Orphans
Ichiko Aoba
If you credit The Earth as a co-composer of your track, you better have the goods to back up such a decision.
When you happen to be chamber folk legend Ichiko Aoba — someone who conjures beautiful worlds as effortlessly as one breathes — then such a choice makes a lot more sense.
30old place
Jim Legxacy
At 98 seconds long, old place is a cover letter that offers a peek into the catalogue of Jim Legxacy’s talents. When such a hypothesis can go head to head with — and in the case of this list, surpass — conventionally sized songs, it’s not difficult to see why his skills are so sought after.
29I’ve Got Me
Joanna Sternberg
When bro exploration of common OCD pitfalls— the rumination, the endless self loathing —Joanna Sternberg comes to a positive, triumphant conclusion. Far and away 2023’s most wholesome tune.
28To be honest
Christine and the Queens
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
While Chris ponders on how different his life has become, his ability to capture the unattainable — some clarity and optimism amongst all the despair and trauma — and present it in such stunning fashion is as strong as ever.
27Dumbest Girl Alive
100 gecs
Sometimes you want a song that delves into the human psyche, touching on some massive transformation and the emotional impact of said change. And sometimes you want an absolute banger that opens with the THX sound test and talks about putting emojis on your tombstone.
Somehow the artist that managed to do both at the same time is the duo who wrote a track about a frog doing a keg stand — go figure!
26Seaforth
King Krule
According to last.fm, I’ve listened to Seaforth by King Krule 16 times — a number that surely triples when you take into account I’ve heard it every time I’ve booted up this year’s FIFA.
The fact Seaforth’s dreamy, serene aesthetic hasn’t washed away with the tide after all that time is one of the highest compliments I can give it.
25Rest
Foo Fighters
Much like the band’s grief-stricken inception, the passing of Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins and their frontman’s mother Virginia Grohl results in a monumental moment like Rest: a touching, heart-string pulling tribute that shreds as much as it tear-sheds.
24Baby Teeth
Haley Blais
While whole music empires have been built on the longing for your younger years — here’s looking at you, blink-182 — never has this desire found a form as fitting as Hayley Blais’ baby teeth metaphor.
23LEAN BEEF PATTY
JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown
It may not have been the word of the year — at least not according to Oxford — but it’s hard to think of a term used more in 2023 than ‘AI’.
And while we had a few worrying instances of it crop up in music, it’s safe to say that an AI model isn’t going to be able to produce the song equivalent of internet brain rot like JPEGMAFIA and Danny Brown did here.
22Dorothee Thines
Asian Glow
Hey look, it’s the song I picked as #1 in the first edition of 2023 Best Songs!
It’s no shock to see Dorothee Thines make an appearance on this list, nor is it that all of its glitchy grandiosity still leaves my mouth agape like that scene in Wild Blue Yonder.
21Run, Run, Run
McKinley Dixon
Truth be told, the sheer dopamine radiating from Run, Run, Run’s joyous jazz rap production would vindicate a high spot on any Best Songs list.
That we get a contrasting, reflective set of verses about rushing to grow up, only to do a 180 when the dark underbelly of your surroundings is revealed is the bittersweet cherry on top.
20Chosen to Deserve
Wednesday
A not-so-wise man said it best: Chosen To Deserve is a rambly, country rumination. Karly’s delivery is simply lovely with a gratifying texture; the kind that can make singing about public urination sound like a poem excerpt.
19Boy’s a liar Pt. 2 (ft. Ice Spice)
PinkPantheress
Whether it’s dead or just having a disco nap, the demise of the monoculture — the public experiencing the same media and pop culture — means we can be pretty disconnected when it comes to our chart hits. In previous years, I’d be familiar with every song on the End of Year UK Top 40; in 2023, I hadn’t heard 20% of the tracks that charted.
So when a new song pops up and actually stays around longer than a few weeks, it’s pretty interesting!
And while lyrically it’s clear to see why Boy’s a liar Pt. 2 would strike a chord with anyone done dirty by a man, it never ceases to wow me how a pixely pop earworm mixed in with a Jersey Club beat made for one of the biggest songs in the world in 2023.
18Let’s Make a Mistake Tonight
Tennis
While I don’t have the time to read every end of year list, I’m yet to see Tennis receive the flowers they so deserve for this synth pop marvel.
Don’t make the same mistake, and set aside the four minutes needed to go on this romantic, euphoric trip — I said it had the best bridge of 2023 so far back in February and ten months on, it still holds that title.
17Double Trio
By Storm
Much in the same way they’ll never be the same people they were prior to Groggs’ passing, the fingerprints of Injury Reserve mark the shiny new vessel of Ritchie and Parker’s successive project By Storm.
That’s no mistake I’m sure and it’s definitely not a complaint either: Double Trio isn’t cleaning the slate, rather making sense of the mess such a loss leaves you with before moving onto a new chapter.
A lofty mission, sure, but one that, over the course of seven minutes, they most definitely succeed at.
16SORRY NOT SORRY
Tyler The Creator
When eras in music are brought up, it usually only addresses 1–2 year popstar album cycles.
But when you consider the endings offered on SORRY NOT SORRY — whether it’s mature closure or setting more bridges on fire — as well as the scale of the production, the gravitas needed for such a term is there in bucketloads.
Even without its instantly iconic music video, this would still be a visceral conclusion to over a decade of Tyler The Creator.
15sulky baby
yeule
The past plays a fundamental role on Yuele’s phenomenal fourth LP, whether that be where they draw their influences from — mainly a smorgasbord of 90’s alternative acts — or where their lyrics trace back to.
Healing your inner child is the MO of sulky baby, but in a far more grandiose way than you’d think hearing that term. The scuzzy instrumentation and breathtaking vocals set the scene for a dreamlike situation of righting wrongs for the betterment of your younger self.
And when it sounds as dreamy as this, it’s hard not to buy into it being possible.
14SNAKE EYES
Aries
With guitars coming out the wazoo — check out the producer diary if you need proof— it’d be easy for SNAKE EYES to hit a ‘quantity over quality’ snag.
Instead, what we get is one of the catchiest songs I’ve heard this decade: big things are coming for Aries in 2024 and rightfully so.
13A&W
Lana Del Rey
Wait: Pitchfork’s Best Song of 2023 is *actually* really good? Who’d a thunk it(!)
Lana Del Rey’s done a great job turning around her reputation over the last half decade but such redemption hasn’t left her feeling disillusioned as A&W painfully shows.
When a musician who has hidden behind personas and aesthetics for over a decade gives this kind of insight and vulnerability, the only thing more alarming or worrying than its subject matter would be its omission from any list of this nature.
12Figure 8
Paramore
Credit has to be given to Paramore for their knack of approaching often trite or overdone metaphors and sayings and putting their own creative spin on it: After Laughter was chock full of them, Rose-Colored Boy being a personal favourite.
And Figure 8 gets to join this prestigious pack, its rendition of the people-pleasing plight being a gripping one lyrically and even more enthralling with its gritty, angsty performances.
11Go Dig My Grave
Lankum
Typically when someones points you in the direction of something “a little different”, you’re expecting a song that sounds like it came from the Year 3000.
And typically what you get isn’t an eight-minute epic rendition of a traditional 1920’s folk song with a conclusion inspired by the Gaelic tradition of wailing in order to communicate with the dead.
But, dear reader: Go Dig My Grave is anything but a typical song.
10Ebony Eye
Yves Tumor
My earliest experience of Yves Tumor’s music was Safe In The Hands of Love, an album so drenched in an industrial flavour of fear that you feel as though you’re only moments away g highs Ebony Eye so effortlessly does. Strutting into the stratosphere, it’s a victory lap for the ages.
09Holy Moly
Young Fathers
Would it be a cop out to say no words could capture what an almighty experience Holy Moly is? Sure but it wouldn’t exactly be a lie either.
When Young Fathers are firing on all cylinders like on Only God Knows or like they do here, their anthems conjure up an invincible aura: that no matter what life throws at you, there’ll still come the day you’ll dance those problems away.
08Good Lies
Overmono
Who could deny Good Lies’ masterful sampling: after all, the hallmark of a good sample flip is utilising a snippet so well that it stands on its own feet, establishing its own dominance rather than sharing the power with the original.
Overmono did just that with Smerz’ No Harm and with over 50 plays last year, it’s pretty evident that Good Lies got its bassy, 2-step claws into me like few songs did in 2023.
07Psychedelic Switch
Carly Rae Jepsen
When you’re naming an album The Loveliest Time, you sure as hell better provide an experience so joyful that your listener leaves with an ear to ear grin on their face.
Of course, Carly Rae Jepsen has done this many a time but nothing quite like Psychedelic Switch. That pulsating bassline and those dazzling strings alone are so captivating that Carly would be forgiven for being at a loss for words.
The fact she can scramble some earnest sentiments around how transcending this love is means nobody will be debating the record’s title — no one with a heart, that is.
06Space Invader
The National
I’m sure the average Space Invader first listen was pretty similar to mine.
After the first three minutes, I had to do some internet snooping to make sure this wasn’t part of some Trouble Will Find Me anniversary special, what with all the “self-deprecating, umpteenth life crisis” hallmarks of that National era being present.
Then comes the second half. Fuck.
A real prime cut of Sleep Well Beast, much praise has to be given to any artist that can drum up this kind of cacophony while still being perfectly in control of said chaos.
I tried counting what I had more of — goosebumps or tears — but I gave up once I neared triple digits.
05Spirit 2.0
Sampha
Joining the pantheon of songs that act like a warm hug from an old friend, Sampha doesn’t intend on offering answers on Spirit 2.0.
After all, his particular set of skills lies more in establishing an impossible-to-grasp but equally as difficult-to-resist world of sound that made us all immediately feel at home with him on his 2017 debut.
“Love will catch you” seems like the kind of line you’d use as a wince litmus test. But when sung with Sampha’s reassuring sincerity and accompanied by some of the most lush production you’ll hear all year, it feels like less of a lyric and more like a creed.
04Shit Talk
Sufjan Stevens
There are seldom few musical auteurs that can say they’re on level pegging with Sufjan Stevens. To boil down his music to being simply “sad” would be downplaying some of the most stunning storytelling and songwriting of the 21st century.
But damn, Shit Talk is sad.
Sufjan’s ability to fit a lifetime’s worth of feelings into a couple of minutes is a given at this point. So giving him an eight minute emotional playground is not only tantalising but a warning sign for the array of lyrical gut punches that await you. However, like every melancholic second we’ve spent with him over the last two decades, it’ll be an experience you’ll wholeheartedly cherish.
03Facetime (ft. Sam Herring)
billy woods & Kenny Segal
Considering the lyrical company I find myself in, I’ll keep it brief.
Billy Woods can take such an inconsequential event as attending an afterparty and spin it into an existential, philosophy-defining moment: is it really any wonder why a song where that happens for 4 minutes straight finds itself on such a list?
02Pretty In Possible
Caroline Polachek
Pretty In Possible feels like the ultimate, fantastical form of intimacy: waking up in someone else’s dream. The characters are unfamiliar and the goings on make even less sense but whether it’s the person themselves or the surroundings, you’re too enamoured to care.
When said dream is narrated by the most talented vocalist working in music right now, it would come as no surprise if you tried to do some form of lucid dreaming recital in order to revisit it.
01Not Strong Enough
boygenius
Creating your dream musician out of different artists is the Frankenstein pastime of many a listener but it’s rare that we’re lucky enough to see our fantasies become reality.
An indie rock supergroup comprised of three of the strongest singer-songwriters of the last half a decade? boygenius’ arrival was already powerful stuff in 2018 but with a new album under all their respective belts since, their existence is staggering enough that it’d show up on the Richter scale.
And if any track off their debut album could and should act as their manifesto, it surely has to be Not Strong Enough, a song that could be described as anything other than that title.
Despite confessing their inner struggles —namely intrusive thoughts — the song feels like the best 2 am night out pep talk you’ve never had. It all culminates in that unforgettable climax, best of all being that Lucy Dacus fronted bridge.
There’s plenty of lyrical chat about being emotionally empty but — and not to be hyperbolic — those closing 90 seconds are so endlessly reinvigorating that they should be considered a new form of renewable energy.
I’ll start the petition.
Thank you for reading all the way through! If you want to stay up to date with my music thoughts then make sure to follow me on here and sign up for email alerts: I hope you all have a wonderful 2024!from being whisked away by the cover’s creepy being.
In recent times their music has been more glossy than gloomy but rarely has a rock song of any ilk reached the asphyxiatiught into the world of music, too often does the topic of OCD become as trite and shallowly observed as it is in TV and film — you know the culprits.
How refreshing then that through thei
