The 40 Best Songs of 2023
There's even a playlist!
Earlier this week, I shared a playlist of every song that’s been featured here on The Lost Songs Project, and now I’m capping off the year by sharing my a playlist of my top 40 songs of 2023. You can hear the playlist at this link, or enjoy a preview via the embed below.
Keep scrolling for some thoughts on these songs and why I love them.
Honorable Mention: “Fast Car” by Luke Combs. It felt wrong to put such a faithful cover on my official list, but it also felt wrong to leave it off. After all, I’ve listened to this take on “Fast Car” over and over, and while nothing can usurp Tracy Chapman’s original, I admire Combs’ reading of the material.
#40. “Too Little, Too Late, Too Bad” by Rhiannon Giddens. On her album You’re the One, Giddens eschews her typical roots-folk stylings to dabble in sounds like big band pop and jazzy soul. The experiment hits its apex on this saucy kiss-off to a no-good man.
#39. “I’m Not Here To Make Friends” by Sam Smith feat. Calvin Harris and Jessie Reyes. A hot disco beat and a well-placed sample from RuPaul’s Drag Race makes this hedonistic dance tune a dizzy good time.
#38. “Pepper” by Death Cab For Cutie. You may remember that last year I wrote about “Here to Forever,” the excellent first single from Death Cab’s latest album Asphalt Meadows. Follow-up single “Pepper” has claimed my heart as well, with its rumination on the way memories change as we get further and further from events.
#37. “Whiskey Well” by Amy Jae. A hard-driving, shit-kicking song about a family full of hell-raising drunks, this one encapsulates why Amy Jae is such an exciting new voice in country music. If you like it, then check out her EP Sinner, Sinner.
#36. “Call Me What You Like” by Lovejoy. This lo-fi, snotty British rock band has kept my energy up all year. Their lyrics are pretty sharp, too.
#35. “Jaded” by Miley Cyrus. While I certainly enjoy “Flowers,” which spent two months atop the Hot 100 this year, I’ve got a slight preference for this one, which has a bigger vocal and a more palpable ache.
#34. “Kid” by The Revivalists. This band has spent several years hitting that folk-pop sweet spot that also gets hit by The Lumineers. I’ve always got time for rootsy rock with a hopeful message.
#33. “Blame” by The Maine. I first heard this band a few years ago because their song “Sticky” did indeed got stuck in my head. They got back there with this cynical but danceable lament about how social media has made us gluttons for outrage.
#32. “The Drop” by Sports Team. I will never be mad at a rock song that’s begging to be blared out of a car with the windows rolled down. There’s a new wave, slim-suits-and-gelled-hair aloofness to this song that really works for me. It’s like the band is partying, but they’re also thinking about going outside to smoke.
#31. “Sinner” by The Last Dinner Party. I mean it as a compliment when I say this band is weird as hell. These five women make incredibly horny music that sounds like it should be played at a funky Elizabethan ball. The harmonies, the precise diction, and the coyly plucked piano line make this song jump out of the speaker, and when the electric guitar breakdown comes in? Forget about it. All that plus the lyrics about wanting to have good sex without guilt makes it clear they’ve been learning good lessons from Tori Amos.
#30. “Eat Your Young” by Hozier. A menacing yet groovy ditty.
#29. “All My Life” by Lil Durk feat. J. Cole. A moving reflection on friends and colleagues who have died too soon, accompanied by children’s choir. J. Cole’s verse is especially poignant.
#28. “Dance the Night” by Dua Lipa. Yes, this Barbie soundtrack cut sounds exactly like the music Dua Lipa was making in 2020. Yes, I liked that music then, and yes, I like it now. I hope this songs gets an Oscar nomination.
#27. “It’s Fine” by Bethany Cosentino. Cosentino used to be the lead singer of a band called Best Coast, whose anthem “Everything Has Changed” was one of my favorite songs of 2020. On this solo single, she covers similar lyrical ground about being happy with where she is compared to where she was. She also confirms her knack for making Liz Phair songs without actually being Liz Phair.
#26. “Over” by Chvrches. Every year, this group releases at least one perfect “crying in the club” dance song. This year, it was “Over.” (If you’re looking for another, try their 2015 track “Clearest Blue.”)
#25. “Bogus Operandi” by The Hives. They’ve still got it! Almost 25 years after they rolled in as part of the rock revival that also featured The Strokes and The Eels, The Hives prove they can still thrash incredibly hard. The music video for this song tells a demented story about the entire band turning into zombies. It’s great.
#24. “Nobody’s Nobody” by The Brothers Osborne. I’ve got a soft spot for country music anthems about how everybody counts. Play this one next to Miranda Lambert’s “All Kinds of Kinds” and feel better about both yourself and your neighbor.
#23. “This Aint’t It” by Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit. Weathervanes is my favorite Jason Isbell album since Something More Than Free nearly 10 years ago, and this song is one of its diamonds. Is it a tough-love message to a woman who seems to be screwing up her life, or is it a naked attempt to make a woman run off on a misguided romantic adventure? Maybe it’s both. The ambiguity is what makes it great, though the excellent guitar playing helps, too.
#22. “Borderline” by Tove Lo. You might remember this Swedish pop diva from her 2014 hit “Habits (Stay High)”. She’s continued to make sexy dance music, with “Borderline” practically demanding we get sweaty with someone we love.
#21. “Tower of Babel” by Natalie Merchant. Oh, my heart! It’s been such a pleasure to enjoy Merchant’s new album Keep Your Courage, considering how much her music has meant to me for decades. After a few solo albums that left me cold, she got my attention again with this collection. “Tower of Babel,” the standout track, finds her once again tackling a socially relevant theme — isolation in the digital era — with the help of a rich vocal and a catchy melody.
#20. “Love Me Anyway” by Ty Herndon. This song’s title refers to people who tell us they know we’re bad or wrong or inappropriate, but they love us anyway. With unvarnished language, Herndon says he wants to be loved, not loved anyway, and he asserts that his religious faith has taught him he deserves it. The song moves me, not least because Herndon is a gay man who has survived all sorts of hardships with his soul apparently intact.
#19. “Honey (Are U Coming?)” by Maneskin. Ever since they blew my spectacles off with their Eurovision-winning performance of “Zitti e Buoni,” the members of Maneskin have been my go-to glam rock miscreants. They’re rude, sexy, cocky, and great at delivering hooks. At one point in this song, lead singer Damiano David seduces a woman by calling himself an “Italian amour.” It’s stupid as hell and therefore exactly right.
#18. “Miracle” by Calvin Harris and Ellie Goulding. If you listened to the most recent season of Mark and Sarah Talk About Songs, then you know I love a comeback, and because “Miracle” is a triple comeback, I love it thrice. It not only gave both Calvin Harris and Ellie Goulding their biggest hit in ages, spending eight weeks at number one in the U.K., but also revived the smoothed-out trance style that helped folks like Sonique break through 20 years ago. I say welcome back to all involved.
#17. “Get Him Back!” by Olivia Rodrigo. Damn, her second album rules. The monster chorus on this one makes it my favorite.
#16. “Hot To Go!” by Chappell Roan. I kept seeing posters for Chappell Roan’s debut album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess plastered all over Manhattan, and because that title tickled me, I eventually gave it a shot. I ended up listening to the record two times in row. A pop maximalist in the style of Lady Gaga, she prefers bright sounds, thundering choruses, and the occasional cheerleader chant. Plus, she’s both a great singer and an artist who can act a character through singing. Try not to smile when she’s tearing her way through a perky jam like “Hot To Go!”per
#15. “Good Old Days” by The Revivalists. Them again! Another uplifting, roots rock anthem that makes me want to pump my fist in the air. This one’s about appreciating happy moments while they’re happening, which adds a welcome flavor of Emily’s graveyard monologue in Our Town.
#14. “Pearls” by Jessie Ware. Did you know Jessie Ware somehow built a time machine, then used it to travel back to 1977, where she recorded an incredible disco song? Check out the roof-rattling vocals, which would sound good in any ear, and please enjoy the command to “shake it ‘til the pearls fall off.” Yes, ma’am, we shall!
#13. “Sad Summer” by Jamie Floyd. Jamie is my friend, but even before I knew her, I knew she was a sensational songwriter. After all, she wrote “The Blade,” which was one of my favorite songs of 2015 after I heard Ashley Monroe’s version. This year, not only co-wrote Ty Herndon’s “Love Me Anyway” (up at #20), but also found time to record a Carly Rae Jepsen-adjacent sad-dance ditty that was on my gym playlist for months.
#12. “Normal People Things” by Lovejoy. Lovejoy returns to this list with a song that’s just as rockin’ as “Call Me What You Like.” I put this one higher because it has a lyric about razor burn that makes me laugh.
#11. “Paint the Town Red” by Doja Cat. I find myself singing little pieces of this song all the time, and then when I listen, I find myself charmed by Doja’s feisty delivery all over again.
#10. “Fireworks” by JOSEPH. Though they’ve been making music for several years, I only recently discovered this trio of sisters and their deeply pleasing rock music. Here, they apply their layered harmonies and knack for anthemic choruses to a song about refusing to settle down in a safe (but boring) life. If you like them, then check out their older songs “Green Eyes” and “White Flag.” Then join me in hoping they go on tour with Haim.
#9. “One Like You” by LP. LP is one of the best singers working in rock music right now. They’ve been making spectacular songs since the mid-00s, and this year’s album Love Lines is one of their best. Standout single “One Like You” makes me imagine standing on a mountain or a cliff or something, hollering the chorus in the open space.
#8. “Love From the Other Side” by Fall Out Boy. My love of maximalism continues with this restless, fast-enough-for-an-aerobics-class barn burner.
#7. “Need a Favor” by Jelly Roll. Jelly Roll has been a major figure in both country and alternative rock this year, which tells you how blurry the line between those two genres has become. But however you want to label it, “Need a Favor” expertly evokes the midnight desperation that makes a person look for God. A woman in this singer’s life is about to leave him, and given the intensity of his emotions, I assume it’s because she’s about to die. That has forced him to admit that he doesn’t deserve divine help, but he’s gotta ask for it anyway. It’s evocative stuff, matched by a stomping fiddle-and-drum arrangement and a chorus that’s begging us to shout along.
#6. “Chipping Mill” by Turnpike Troubadours. Another veteran act I just encountered this year! But better is late than never when the reward is country rock this confident and meaty. Lead singer Evan Felker reminds me of Tom Petty, and the soaring harmonies remind of the Eagles. I heard “Chipping Mill,” a shuffling heartbreak tune, one time and immediately felt like it had been around forever. Some bands just nail the ephemeral quality of a “classic” sound.
#5. “Welcome to My Island” by Caroline Polachek. Years ago, Caroline Polachek rose to semi-fame when her band Chairlift had a song called “Bruises” featured in an iTunes commercial. Since going solo, she has gotten weird as hell, and I love it. Whereas “Chipping Mill” felt instantly familiar to me, I had to hear “Welcome to My Island” a few times before I fully understood it. There’s just so much happening here, like Olivia Rodrigo and Kate Bush getting pushed through an EDM filter, but it’s exhilarating. Bonus points for the bugged-out music video, especially the part where the viewer is thrust into the POV of a deer that Polachek is guiding down a beach.
#4. “Impressively Average” by Brigitte Calls Me Baby. As I write this, Brigitte Calls Me Baby has only released five songs, but I still feel comfortable calling them one of my favorite new acts of the year. “Impressively Average,” in particular, has The Smiths’ melodramatic oomph, with a touch of Elvis’ bluesy showmanship. Lead singer Wes Leavins has the potential to become a major frontman.
#3. “Dial Drunk” by Noah Kahan. Skip the remix with Post Malone and go straight for the original, which has some of the best lyrics I’ve heard all year. Kahan packs a decade’s worth of woe into this devastating song about a guy who knows he’s throwing his life away and finally starts to admit it when he gets arrested for drunk driving, then uses his one phone call to contact his ex. Riveting storytelling, augmented by Kahan’s expressive singing.
#2. “Pink Pony Club” by Chappell Roan. “Pink Pony Club” is somehow both a Weimar cabaret number and a groovy dance song. It’s the story of a woman who flees her Tennessee home for California, finds liberation as a go-go dancer, but then wrestles with the shame she knows her mother feels about her life. There are shades of “Mother” by Tori Amos or maybe “Shake It Out” by Florence and the Machine, but really, this song is its own unique, glorious creation.
#1. “King of Oklahoma” by Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit. On paper, it might sound like a parody of a Jason Isbell song: Over jangling guitars, a working-class man with an opioid addiction bemoans the travesty of his life. We might think we’ve been here before, because Isbell has been the country’s premier chronicler of working-class pain for so very long. But forget how familiar this song might seem at a distance. In practice it’s as heartbreaking as a premature death. Consider how the narrator sings about his failed marriage: “She used to wake me up with coffee every morning / I’d hear her homemade house shoes slide across the floor / She used to make me feel like the King of Oklahoma / Now nothing makes me feel like much of nothing anymore.” For me, it all comes down to those homemade house shoes. I’m there in the house with this couple that’s lost their Eden. As always, Isbell’s secret is that he takes his characters seriously, and thus he’s able to find the enormity in their daily problems.
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