The 23 best songs of 2023

The best new song of the year is by a peppy beat combo named the Beatles. Despite their silly, punny name, the band – on the strength of this cut – has real potential. What initially sounds like a maudlin plodder soon reveals itself to be a song with flashes of true ingenuity. You’ll find yourself returning to its beguiling charms again and again, thanks to the lead singer’s (one ‘John Lennon’) deceptively clever melody. Does it sound like it’s been arranged and performed by a computer? A bit. But the sound of humanity, an enduring, psycho-spiritual fraternity, calling out from beyond the AI algo-void is perhaps what makes it so affecting. Now can we have a version without the cloying string section?

If there’s one track that transports me back to 2023 festival season, it’s got to be this one: a marathon dance-banger from Hessle Audio powerhouse Pangaea which dropped just as the UK was gearing up for the May bank holidays. A warm fuzzy bassline is overlaid with a whirring, euphoric synth build and repetitive chants of seemingly nonsensical words – which are then splintered, chopped and cut into something even more nonsensical as the track goes on. It’s a little bit silly, more than a little bit fun – and it’s near-guaranteed to get people moving on the dance floor.

When I’m not gamely eating my way across London – and sometimes, even when I am – I think about wearing a suede fringed jacket and matching bolo tie while riding on horseback somewhere in Arizona, New Mexico or maybe even Texas. And the song playing as I mosey through such wide open spaces while considering what middle-of-nowhere saloon bar to sink mezcal cocktails in that evening? The irrepressibly jaunty ‘Lowland Trail’ by country musician Margo Cilker.

It takes a lot to make me cry. Maybe I’m a stone-cold bitch. But the moment I heard this song, my icy heart melted and I felt myself actually welling up. The queen of melodramatic ballads, Lana Del Rey’s signature Nancy Sinatra-esque croons glide blissfully above sweeping strings and choral arrangements to a dramatic conclusion. Why the crying? Well, the line, ‘Love me until I love myself,’ is so reminiscent of ‘Born to Die’ Lana that it’d take any early fan, like myself, back to the vulnerabilities they felt as a teenager first engaging with her music.

Who knew you could get so goddamn nostalgic for something you’ve no cultural links to whatsoever. Was I ever a restless youth roaming the American south by car? Did I know who golfer John Daly was, never mind that he could whip out a decent cover of Bob Dylan’s ‘Knockin On Heaven’s Door’? Nah. But MJ Lenderman whisks me right to those times and places in this re-recorded track of soaring, yearning, Modest Mouse-meets-Lynyrd Skynyrd indie-country rock.

As a 33-year-old teenage girly, I know I’m probably too old to be this obsessed with Olivia Rodrigo, but I just can’t help myself. Especially when ‘Vampire’, the singer-songwriter’s lead single from her sophomore album ‘Guts’, is the perfect pop banger. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve belted this out while driving (although it’s definitely enough to feature extremely high on my Spotify Wrapped), with the rage-fuelled chorus really lending itself to a satisfying car karaoke moment. Trust me, you’ll always feel better after screaming: ‘Bloodsucker, fame fucker, bleeding me dry like a goddamn vampire.’

Like ‘A Day at the Races’-era Queen covering ‘The Dreaming’-era Kate Bush, the joyous surge of The Last Dinner Party’s debut single was both strangely familiar and like nothing else that actually exists. For all their absurd zeitgeistiness, it’s fascinating – and to us old folk, comforting – how TLDP quite unabashedly hark back to a bygone era of guitar-driven art rock. Still, there’s no denying that there’s a very modern sense of transgression to the intensely intimate F-bomb Abigail Morris drops in the chorus – she’s not trying to shock us, but foster a sense of radical intimacy that really makes the song and defines the band.

Plenty of heavy music is clever, cerebral, virtuosic, intricate, complex. This is not that. This is dumb as rocks, sophomoric, caveman death metal idiocy by guttural American troglodytes Sanguisugabogg, and it’s brilliant. Rarely has a song done quite so exactly what its title promises, but who needs a face anyway.

With its chill, relaxed R&B atmosphere and UK garage influence, ‘Cool With You’ sounds more mature when compared to NewJeans’ bubblegum pop-esque hits like ‘Super Shy’ or ‘Hype Boy’. The girls’ airy vocals and soothing harmonies gently build up towards the song’s chorus and a descending riff which is effortless yet hypnotic. ‘Cool With You’ might be fairly short, but each listen leaves you wanting more. 

First teased in a set at Dekmantel last autumn before being released on Ministry of Sound back in January, Dutch producer Young Marco’s infectiously bouncy edit of Imogen Heap’s noughties hit ‘Hide and Seek’ has been ubiquitous on dancefloors across Europe this year, playing no small part in ushering The Big Trance Revival into the mainstream. It’s super fun, a little bit silly and the beat drop invariably sends crowds wild. All in all: a banger.

Charli has done it again with this sugary one-minute-and-58-seconds of hyperactive pop magic. With fun lyrics about ‘cute clothes’ and driving fast cars with your ‘best friends’, ‘Speed Drive’ celebrates everything that’s great about being a girl – or a Barbie – which is just the frivolity we needed in 2023. This zippy track is guaranteed to have you bouncing off the walls – my only qualm is that I wish it was longer.

Every summer needs a dance anthem, and in 2023 ‘Prada’ delivered the goods. Producer Cassö took Raye and D-Block Europe’s original track ‘Ferrari Horses’ and pumped it full of trance-inspired energy, building up to a euphoric drop as Raye sings her now-iconic ‘I want Prada’ line. If TikTok virality is any measure of success (let’s be real, it’s pretty much the only measure these days), ‘Prada’ is the blueprint: the song is the soundtrack to hundreds of thousands of videos, including one of the original TikToks that sent Tube Girl to stardom.

Read our cover interview with Raye here.

It’s too early to say if London three-piece bar italia’s breakthrough, two-album 2023 represents a kind of flashing ‘fasten seatbelts’ sign for the raucous indie guitar revival me and my Libertines-era tunic have been waiting for, but I’m hopeful. This garage rock stomper – New York new wave cool meets sardonic London insouciance – definitely feels like a pre-tremor for something big. Check out the video, too, in which the three of them wander around a marsh in hats like they’ve just escaped from a Dickens novel.

As someone with a borderline addiction to buying Wilco tickets, I feel particularly qualified to complain about the overly-hushed tone that sometimes drags down the band’s past decade of releases. But that all changes within the opening seconds of ‘Cousin’. Producer Cate Le Bon has injected a lively, unpredictable weirdness into ‘Infinite Surprise’, a track that interrupts its steady, echoey ticking with fragments of electric guitar squeals, pops of static and synth horn blasts. Heartbeat-like layers of percussion build atop Jeff Tweedy’s apologetic, reflective chants and it all wraps up with an electric crackle that sounds somewhere between popcorn and fireworks – a fitting finale for a track as enjoyable as both of those.

As one of Cleo Sol’s biggest fans (fact), even I can admit that her 2023 album ‘Gold’ didn’t quite hit as hard as ‘Mother’ and ‘Rose in the Dark’. Luckily, the last song on her new album shows Cleo at her absolute best; a proper soul song, with chilled acoustics and a full gospel choir. It’s giving jazz club and Tiny Desk all at once, plus the joyful, mellow tones of old-school soul classics by Aretha Franklin and Marvin Gaye – especially as it fades out on ‘I believe that your love is gold’. No doubt Cleo’ll disappear now and then drop an album silently out of nowhere again next year, but that’s why we love her.

Chasing your dreams has always been a recurring theme in BTS’ music, but of all seven members, it is Suga – known in his solo work as Agust D – who truly hits all the right notes with ‘Snooze’. This dramatic rap-rock ballad is dedicated to aspiring musicians, a comforting voice from someone who has been through it all, survived and came out on top. Agust D’s signature drawling, raspy rapping takes on a more soothing and rhythmic quality here, melding perfectly with Woosung’s transcendent vocals. Snooze is made even more special by the late composer Ryuichi Sakamoto’s beautiful piano melody – this track was one of his last projects before his passing in March this year. 

I’m a fan of Doja Cat’s entire fourth album (and the lead single ‘Paint The Town Red’ is a super catchy opener) but it’s ‘Agora Hills’ that I’ve had on repeat. Undoubtedly a talented rapper, Doja is also a vocalist with a gentle, almost dreamy voice. Her delivery of both – plus some cutesy, purposefully cringey ad-libs – juxtapose so well and mimic the fun, confusing, slightly messy early stages of dating. ‘Agora Hills’ is mellow, atmospheric and all about finding new love and wanting to flaunt it. 

‘Preço Certo’ was the song of the summer (of the year!) in Portugal. Lisboner Pedro Mafama’s 2023 album ‘Estava no Abismo mas dei um Passo em Frente’ breathed new life into traditional dances, rumbas and marches. O Preço Certo (The Price is Right) is actually one of the oldest TV game shows in Portugal and the popular video by Mafama was filmed in the contest’s studios. Mafama was also the cover star of the Time Out Portugal June digi-mag.

Singer-songwriter Elanor Moss crept onto the scene last year with a mournfully moreish collection of ‘sad girl’ ballads. Released back in January, ‘Catholic’ is bigger and bolder. Moss’s usual folky guitars are turbocharged with a rockier, fuzzier edge giving a Laura Marling-meets-boygenius style sound. It also occupies one of my favourite musical genres: ‘Happy sounding songs with sad lyrics’. As ever, Moss delivers sharply chiselled observations about fragility, self-doubt and all the messy parts of life in a hauntingly beautiful way, which paired with addictively catchy guitar licks have kept ‘Catholic’ at the top of my Spotify playlist for the entire year.

Full of honey-sweet harmonies and gut-wrenching lyrics (with a few screams thrown in for good measure), choosing a favourite song from supergroup boygenius’s ‘The Record’ is no easy task. But it’s the goosebump-inducing ‘always an angel never a god’ crescendo of ‘Not Strong Enough’ that just tips it for me. Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus all bounce off one another as they sing of using insecurity to brush off responsibility for another human — ‘like fuckboygenius’, Dacus once said. It’s a cathartic indie belter best fathomed with headphones on, slumped in the window seat, forehead pressed against the glass.

For an album inspired by a divorce, Kelly Clarkson’s 2023 release ‘Chemistry’ is full of a surprising number of certifiable bops. One powerful track in particular, ‘Mine’, is an emotional wallop of a song made eminently danceable in a remix by DJ Ty Sunderland, who’s behind some of NYC’s best gay parties, knows how to get people on a dance floor or — in my case — a treadmill. This was at the top of my most-played list last year for a reason: it’s an excellent running song. (Or in Clarkson’s case, maybe a ‘running from’ song.)

Fans of anime series ‘Tokyo Revengers’ might recognise ‘White Noise’ by Hige Dandism as an opening track – though I chanced upon it separately while randomly clicking around Spotify in an overdue attempt to refresh my J-rock playlist. While the band’s earlier hard-hitters ‘Yesterday’ and ‘Pretender’ are near impossible to beat, I’d say this solid newer banger comes pretty close. Starting off mellow, its real eargasmic magic is found in the refrain towards the end. Whether you’re a weeb like myself or otherwise, it’s an exceptional piece of catch pop-rock. 

The moment I watched Ryan Gosling as Ken croon out this song in Barbie, my appreciation for the movie (and Gosling) grew exponentially. The song, which is a parody of a lot of things, holds up after hundreds of plays, trust me. It’s Gosling’s delivery, the absolutely insane lyrics (‘Is it my destiny to live a life of blonde fragility?’), the ‘Big Dude Sounds’ from actual big-time rockers and the accompanying dance moves that push this song to number one for me. You’ll find me belting along with Ken any day of the week, even though I am a grown-ass woman with an adult job. The ‘kenergy’ is just too contagious!