Every year, it gets harder and harder to pull this off, as one kid becomes two kids and my spare time steadily shrinks. Plus, how many people out there actually care what my 18th favorite song of the year was? Well, if you’re reading this, you probably do care, so I greatly appreciate it. But also, if for no other reason, I at least need to do this to keep documenting each year’s music highlights for my own personal archival reasons, or I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.

And I promise, even though it doesn’t sound like it, I did have fun doing it, too.

Playlist links, then honorable mentions, then #50-21 listed out, then the top 20 with some written commentary. Enjoy.

Spotify Playlist
Spotify Playlist (Countdown, from 50 to 1)
Spotify Playlist (Clean)
Spotify Playlist (Extended 100-Song Edition)
YouTube Playlist

Honorable Mentions:

Wilco: “Levee”; Andy Shauf: “Wasted On You”; Motorbike: “Potential to Ride”; Cloud Nothings: “Final Summer”; Superviolet: “Big Songbirds Don’t Cry”; Ratboys: “Black Earth, WI”; Helena Deland: “Spring Bug”; Cable Ties: “Thoughts Back”; Christine and the Queens: “Tears can be so soft”; Big Thief: “Vampire Empire”; DJ BORING: “Can’t Fix a Broken Heart”; Spencer Zahn: “Curious Frame”; Brotherhood of Peace: “Little Sweet Kiss”; Caroline Polachek: “Smoke”; Sigur Rós: “Skel”

50. The Rolling Stones ft. Lady Gaga: Sweet Sounds of Heaven
49. The National: Smoke Detector
48. Saba ft. No ID: hue_man nature
47. Olivia Rodrigo: get him back!
46. Queens of the Stone Age: Emotion Sickness
45. Liv.e: Wild Animals
44. Brent Faiyaz ft. Coco Jones: Moment of Your Life
43. Taylor Swift: I Can See You (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault)
42. MS MR: Flagpole Sitta (Harvey Danger cover)
41. billy woods & Kenny Segal: Soft Landing

40. Kurt Vile: Another good year for the roses
39. Ty Segall: My Room
38. Yves Tumor: Meteora Blues
37. Paramore: Running Out of Time
36. Tennis: Let’s Make a Mistake Tonight
35. Bully: Change Your Mind
34. Jess Williamson: Topanga Two Step
33. El Michels Affair & Black Thought ft. Brainstory: Alter Ego
32. Charli XCX: Speed Drive
31. Flasher: Eastern Ave

30. Nickel Creek: Strangers
29. Cat Power: Mr. Tambourine Man (Bob Dylan cover)
28. M83: Laura
27. Spiritual Cramp: Talkin’ On the Internet
26. Julie Byrne: Lightning Comes Up From the Ground
25. Sufjan Stevens: Shit Talk
24. Róisín Murphy & DJ Koze: You Knew
23. boygenius: Leonard Cohen
22. Helena Deland: Bright Green Vibrant Gray
21. MJ Lenderman: Knockin

 

20. Caroline Polachek: “Welcome to My Island”

Chart-topping pop music can be great and innovative, but there’s also a bevy of under-the-radar pop that’s just as good, if not better. Caroline Polachek doesn’t have any Billboard hits, but she’s the current standard-bearer for expertly crafted pop. Desire, I Want To Turn Into You was one of the five best albums of 2023, on the strength of the kind of dizzying, lush, catchy production heard in “Welcome To My Island.”

 

19. Overmono: “Good Lies”

It’s hard not to compare Overmono to Disclosure, both boundary-blurring electronic-music-making pairs of brothers, but with Overmono hailing from Wales, as opposed to their neighbors from England. “Good Lies” takes UK garage/techno and adds a pop sheen, resulting in a pulsing, hypnotic, juicy piece of summer rave music.

 

18. Jamila Woods ft. Saba: “Practice”

Chicago’s own Jamila Woods is one of our best and most underrated soul artists. I was already bound to dig the silky smoothness of “Practice,” but the chorus being built around Allen Iverson’s legendary “We talkin’ ‘bout practice” speech automatically puts it in the upper echelon.

 

17. Olivia Rodrigo: “love is embarrassing”

Turns out Olivia Rodrigo’s strong debut a few years ago was not a fluke. At all. “love is embarrassing” is a perfect encapsulation of Rodrigo’s unassailable songwriting skill throughout her sophomore album, GUTS. It’s got the killer lines (e.g. “For some weird, second-string loser who’s not worth mentioning”), it’s got the hooks (e.g. the immensely catchy interplay between the guitars and the soaring melody in the chorus), and it’s got the little elements that take a good song and make it great (e.g. the “I give up, I give up, I give up everything!” middle eight and outro didn’t have to go so hard). I can’t help but sit back and just marvel at how good Olivia Rodrigo is.

 

16. Yo La Tengo: “Aselestine”

I was too young to experience Yo La Tengo during their college radio heyday in the ‘90s, but I know them as one of the most consistent indie rock bands, never seeming to miss. It’s unbelievable that they’re cranking out songs as immaculate and timeless as “Aselestine” almost 40 years into their career.

 

15. Baby Keem & Kendrick Lamar: “The Hillbillies”

Kendrick Lamar is largely considered a “serious artist” who makes “serious art,” so it’s refreshing to see him team up with his cousin, Baby Keem, to just let loose and have fun. The familial chemistry makes “The Hillbillies” click, as Keem and Kendrick compare themselves to Messi and Neymar, setting each other up for goal after goal over an unexpected Bon Iver sample.

 

14. Real Estate: “Water Underground”

I had the privilege of seeing Real Estate’s Martin Courtney open for The Walkmen a few months ago with an acoustic set. He played some never-before-heard forthcoming Real Estate songs, one of which was “Water Underground.” It was clear at the time that the song was good, despite the minimal arrangement, but I had no idea it was going to be their best song since Atlas, almost a decade ago. Real Estate tapped back into their early-2010s songwriting prowess, constructing a picture-perfect indie pop song.

 

13. Sufjan Stevens: “Will Anybody Ever Love Me?”

Sufjan Stevens has had a terrible few years, suffering from both chronic illness and the death of his longtime partner. On “Will Anybody Ever Love Me?”, he bares his soul, opening his heartache up to the world over music that combines both his minimal acoustic side and his more colorful, ornamental side. Sufjan is always able to pull off heart-on-your-sleeve earnestness in a way that’s never cloying. We can only marvel at his honesty, his vulnerability, and his eternal sense of wonder.

 

12. NewJeans: “Super Shy”

K-pop has been a blindspot for me, but “Super Shy” broke through and grabbed me. It’s sleek and fizzy, and yet somehow muted at the same time. The busy beat, electro bass, and easy melody pack a lot of punch, keeping the song hooked up to your pleasure centers throughout.

 

11. Kylie Minogue: “Padam Padam”

I’m trying to wrap my head around this – a pop star from the 1990s and 2000s releases a song that sounds like 2010, and yet, somehow, it doesn’t sound dated at all. I don’t know how she did it, but Kylie Minogue killed it. Named for what your heart sounds like when you’re excited by a crush, “Padam Padam” is a perfect representation of what a great club pop song should be – mysterious, catchy, thrilling.

 

10. bar italia: “my little tony”

The dream of the early 2000s is apparently still alive. The term “indie sleaze” – which has come to describe The Strokes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and other bands that came through the New York scene twenty years ago – fully applies to bar italia, who add some scuzz and filth to their catchy guitar riffs and nonchalant vocals.

 

9. Tinashe: “Needs”

Tinashe is one of R&B’s unsung stars. The rich quality of her vocals, along with her songwriting chops, make her one of the genre’s best. On “Needs,” the slick production pairs well with her voice – it all coalesces into something so natural, like a direct extension of Tinashe’s id.

 

8. Hit-Boy & The Alchemist: “Slipping Into Darkness”

“You gotta rap on this s—, I’mma rap on the one you got,” Hit-Boy says to The Alchemist at the beginning of their video for “Slipping Into Darkness.” It turns out two of rap’s most prolific current producers can also rap, as if crafting some of this era’s best beats for the likes of Jay-Z, Nas, Earl Sweatshirt, and Freddie Gibbs wasn’t good enough. “Slipping Into Darkness” starts with The Alchemist rapping over a hard, stuttering Hit-Boy beat, before it abruptly switches to Hit-Boy laying down a nimble flow over a sparkling, piano-laden Alchemist beat. Why do these guys get to be good at everything?

 

7. Julie Byrne: “The Greater Wings”

If Julie Byrne were releasing music in 1970, she would be a sensation. Her brand of quiet, contemplative, considered, heartrending folk music isn’t what moves the needle in 2023, but that doesn’t make it any less masterful. On the absolutely gorgeous “The Greater Wings,” Byrne builds the track on her acoustic guitar picking and restrained, yet ethereal singing, as she often does through most of her music. But she also adds dollops of strings and background vocals, which give the song a sweeping, dramatic feeling, while never getting schmaltzy. It’s always just the right amount to make maximum emotional impact.

 

6. Slowdive: “kisses”

Shoegaze is having a moment, as Gen Z has seemingly connected with the 30-year-old genre of hazy, dreamy rock (or so I am told – I wouldn’t know). There are plenty of new bands doing justice to the sound, but the best shoegaze song of 2023 was from one of the O.G. bands pioneering the genre in the 1990s. Slowdive has had a second wind, which began with their excellent comeback album in 2017 and continues on with their similarly great follow-up album from this year, and has been full of inspired moments, with “kisses” being the best of their tracks from this era. It subsumes you into its world; atmospheric, echoing guitars and wistful melodies spinning around you, causing you to forget about all else.

 

5. MJ Lenderman: “Rudolph”

MJ Lenderman makes pretty straightforward, southern-fried rock music, but it has a special sauce that I can’t really explain. As the kids say, it really does just “hit different.” There’s Lenderman’s deadpan humor, best heard in “Rudolph”’s best lyric, “Deleted scene of Lightning McQueen, blacked out at full speed.” There’s his unconventional, but compelling voice, in the spirit of Neil Young. There’s his organic, natural sound. But for me, I think his best quality is getting the little details in his songs just right. In “Rudolph,” it’s the heavy, cathartic backbeat, the muted cowbell, the pristine slide guitar, and the moment two minutes in when he takes a brief moment before cranking the guitars up, hitting you in the face with a solo interplaying with that crunchy riff.

 

4. Carly Rae Jepsen: “Psychedelic Switch”

There are probably people out there who think Carly Rae Jepsen is a one-hit wonder, with no clue about her post-“Call Me Maybe” career. I feel sorry for them. Jepsen has consistently cranked out pop bliss over the last decade, with “Psychedelic Switch” the latest classic entry in her songbook. It’s a propulsive, euphoric slice of synthy Daft Punk-style French touch production, flashy enough to steal the spotlight under the direction of a lesser artist, but Carly Rae has the presence (and the hooks) to own the track with her melodies.

 

3. boygenius: “Not Strong Enough”

We’re lucky that three of our best current songwriters like each other so much, because we get to witness Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus combine their varying styles and songwriting strengths as boygenius. Their record, simply called the record, is speckled with songs that are each clearly helmed by one member of the supergroup, but “Not Strong Enough” feels like an equal collaboration between all three. This is fist-pumping, driving-off-into-the-sunset music, or, put more aptly, “drag racing through the canyon, singing ‘Boys Don’t Cry’” music. These boys are special.

 

2. Lana Del Rey: “A&W”

“A&W” is the 7-minute, quiet, yet intensely compelling modern-day epic that only Lana Del Rey could make. Her voice wanders and floats over a spare piano line, so slight that it might disappear as she recounts some unsettling experiences with an emotional remove. The song then morphs into a completely different sonic experience, thanks to the production of Jack Antonoff (who I’m admittedly getting sick of, but this song proves he still has gas in the tank). A hypnotic trip-hop bass and beat emerges, but this second part of the song still feels of a piece with what came before. It’s like she’s burrowing ever deeper, letting us into her numbness, reaching a place where she does not care anymore. Despite the song’s heaviness, Lana’s innate wit still comes through, best represented by the iconic, “Your mom called, I told her, you’re f—ing up big time.”

 

1. Olivia Rodrigo: “bad idea right?”

“Refreshing.” That’s the word that best describes Olivia Rodrigo’s pop star ascendance. She is single-handedly ushering pop-rock back into the charts, re-introducing guitars to the teens. Her lyrics exhibit a charming self-deprecation that is impossible not to like. And the songs themselves are just good.

“bad idea right?” was an instant classic the moment it was released, as the second single of her sophomore album, GUTS. Rodrigo makes a good ballad, but her harder, faster songs resonate more with me. After appreciating “vampire” well enough for what it was, “bad idea right?”, by contrast, knocked me over on the first listen. Speak-singing is usually too kitschy for me, and speak-singing abounds in “bad idea right,” but no one pulls it off better than Rodrigo. When she says, “Now I’m getting in the car, wreckin’ all my plans / I know I should stop…”, then pauses, then admits, “…but I can’t,” it’s too good to articulate.

Come to think of it, she and co-writer Dan Nigro pull off a lot of things better than I could have fathomed: insanely catchy riffs, a Jack White-flavored guitar solo, the perfect amount of distortion on Rodrigo’s voice to make it sound like a 2002 pop-punk track. The list of credible influences on “bad idea right?” is too numerous to count. Avril Lavigne. The Cars. Liz Phair. Wet Leg. Jack White. Weezer. Is the song derivative? I guess so, in a way, but I don’t really care. It hits me in every sweet spot my body possesses.

 

Spotify Playlist:

 

YouTube Playlist: