Hello, everyone, and welcome back to another of my year-end lists! Today I’m counting down my picks for The Top 25 Worst Songs of 2023. If you thought The Top 10 Worst Hit Songs of 2023 were bad, trust me, it’s about to get much worse!

But before I start the countdown, I want to make a few things clear. First of all, these are just my personal feelings on these songs, and music is subjective. I’m mostly making this post for entertainment purposes, and I’m not trying to be mean to anyone. So, if you love any of the songs on this list or in the unlikely event that you made any of these songs, I hope you don’t take this personally. And I just want to warn everyone in advance that I’m going to be very harsh in this post, and while these are genuinely my least favourite songs of the year, I may exaggerate some things for entertainment purposes.

Also, keep in mind there are many different reasons why a song could end up on here, and maybe in some cases I won’t be as harsh as I was in my worst hits list, but I probably dislike the song way more—I say ‘probably’ because there is a tiny bit of overlap between the lists. Also, the songs I respect the least aren’t necessarily the ones I dislike the most, and this list is about the ones I dislike the most.

I also want to mention that the eligibility rules are that the song has to have come out in 2023, whether it was first released as a single or on an album … and maybe I accidentally included some songs that came out earlier, but I didn’t mean to. And I was going to wait until the calendar changed to 2024 to make this post, but I highly doubt anything will be released in the next day or two that I would’ve listened to which would have made this list, and if that does happen … well, it’s probably best I’m missing out.

Also, I didn’t put a ton of effort into this post, but again, I’m not trying to be ‘objective’ or anything. I just didn’t want to put that much energy into talking about music I really don’t like, and I want all my year-end lists to be posted before too long. So, I’m just giving some brief thoughts on the songs from this year that I personally like the least.

Of all of my year-end lists, this is the only one which I will limit to one song per artist. And also, it’s worth mentioning that there are some songs I’ve heard terrible things about but that I’ve just decided to avoid listening to, so for example if you’re wondering why there’s no 6ix9ine on the list, it’s because I haven’t listened to his album from this year, for obvious reasons.

Alright, time to start the countdown!

#25: “Profane” by Jesus Piece

Alright, we’re kicking off the list with a super awesome heavy metal track that’s way better than all that pop garbage and that rap garbage and that country garbage … oh, wait, I forgot, this is my nineteen-year-old self writing this, not my fourteen-year-old self.

I’m not usually the hugest fan of death metal, but I at least like most of it more than this song, in which the production sounds super messy and the screaming just doesn’t work for me at all in this song, and I’m not entirely sure why. But this feels to me like the perfect example of the kind of death metal I just really don’t like.

#24: “exes” by Tate McRae

I don’t hate Tate McRae’s newest album, but this song really got incredibly annoying. The trap snare sounds really out of place and overly loud in the mix, and this song has a super annoying chorus, and whether or not the lyrics are melodramatic, they certainly feel that way to an annoying extent without much detail to really describe why the narrator has so many exes despite that being the whole point of the song, and it just feels really generic to me, as well as having some really cringey rhymes.

I’m still curious to hear more music from Tate McRae, and I still really like “you broke me first”, but this just doesn’t work for me at all.

#23: “Speedometer” by Post Malone

Yet another song in which the singer sings about speeding on the road with this really upbeat instrumental, except in this case it comes with the line, ‘I couldn’t think of a better reason to drive.’ And it’s not even like this song sounds good musically, because that instrumental gets really annoying after a while.

#22: “Love The Hell Out Of You” by Lewis Capaldi

I don’t dislike Lewis Capaldi’s music for the most part, but this song is incredibly annoying and tedious to listen to, with Lewis Capaldi’s vocal style that I know a lot of people really don’t like, and while I often don’t mind it and even think it fits really well in certain songs, in this track it just makes it feel really over the top to me. Of course, that’s just how I hear it, but at the end of the day this is my list.

And it’s not like I like the production, because I don’t, and the melodies don’t do much for me, either … and overall, this is just a tedious listen that’s hard to fully describe.

#21: “the good the bad the olga” by glaive

I want to be careful talking about this song, because it’s yet another case of a song that describes the narrator committing suicide (or at least planning to), and while it’s a really uncomfortable listen, I don’t want to be insensitive. But with that being said, the framing is making it seem like the narrator is making the right choice. And I’m sure the intent of this wasn’t to send a pro-suicide message, and art is open to interpretation. I’m not saying I have anything against glaive as a person for this song, I just cannot stand listening to this. Because the way I hear it is that it’s a very problematic song and a very uncomfortable listening experience.

#20: “I Would Hate Me Too” by TX2

You know what? Despite the super negative reception for this, I actually kind of get why this song might work—it all depends how you hear it. And I don’t think this was trying to glamourize terrible behaviour—I mean, the narrator is painted as the villain, and the main line of the hook is ‘I would fucking hate me, too.’ Now, do I personally find this song really annoying? Yes. But I’m not mad about it or anything, and it’s at least kind of interesting.

TX2 said this song is very personal and is about how he really felt about himself, and I don’t want to be disrespectful or insensitive, and I hope he’s doing well, but I personally find this song super annoying with the production that I think sounds awful, and the upbeat feeling of the song really doesn’t feel fitting with the lyrics. But again, I get why it might work for some audiences … but it’s not for me AT ALL.

#19: “Without Pleasure” by NEUPINK

I could have gone with any of a number of tracks from this NEUPINK album, because as much as I liked NEUPINK’s other album from 2023, this album has some of my least favourite production of the year … but I went with this track just because it feels the most unlistenable to me.

#18: “Thinkin’ Bout Me” by Morgan Wallen

I already talked about this one in my list of my least favourite hit songs of the year … so, to keep it very brief, I think this is a terrible country song with a trap beat that sounds really out of place, as well as some terrible lyrics which I don’t want to talk about again. You can just read that post if you want to see what I had to say about this one.

#17: “Cinderella Snapped” by Jax

Yes, I know this is a female empowerment anthem, and there’s a part of me that feels like maybe it’s not fair for me to say this as a man, but … in my opinion, it’s not a very good female empowerment anthem. I mean, at the end of the day it’s just my opinion.

That chorus is so fucking annoying, and it’s full of cringey lines mentioning fairy tales, including changing the pronoun of Rapunzel, and this whole song feels like it’s trying so hard to be unique and deep, but to me there doesn’t really seem to be anything to it, and I find this song incredibly annoying. Also, while I’m all for equal pay, the wording ‘equal pay me’ I just find really cringey for some reason … and then there’s the rapping in the bridge, too. So, yeah, there’s a lot about this song that I find really annoying, and I want to shut it off immediately every time I hear it.

#16: “Sour” by Graphic Nature

This does seem like a song that has a lot of emotion to it and seems to be about mental health struggles, which is why I hate to say I can’t help but find some parts of this song kind of funny. I’m not trying to be insensitive or anything, but I personally find this song incredibly cringey and generic to the point where it almost sounds like a parody of metal music, which I don’t think was the intent. Again, I’m not trying to be insensitive, but I personally can’t stand listening to this.

#15: “7:1” by Thirty Seconds to Mars

This Thirty Seconds to Mars album got one of my most negative reviews ever on this website, and if there’s one song that best represents pretty much everything I don’t like about the album, it’s probably this one, with the way the instrumental timbres feel disconnected from each other as if they were produced for different songs, and the way the vocals sound like Jared Leto is singing on a rock song despite the fact this just sounds like a generic pop radio hit. And there’s also that really annoying ‘ay-oh’ part. And there are some annoyingly sharp-sounding synths, a terrible snare, and I could just go on and on.

This song feels like it’s going for this really dramatic, epic feeling, but to me it just falls flat on its face.

#14: “(O)rdinary” by Avenged Sevenfold

There are a lot of awful songs on the newest Avenged Sevenfold album in my opinion, but if I had to pick a least favourite, it’s probably this one, with that awful vocal effect and a bunch of lines that don’t feel nearly as interesting as I think they’re supposed to, and the instrumental sounds like terrible background music for an educational YouTube video. And the Daft Punk impression also feels super out of place in this song.

#13: “Gimme” by Sam Smith & Koffee & Jessie Reyez

Even as someone who liked Sam Smith’s album from this year, I’ve got to say, “Gimme” has one of the absolute worst choruses of the year that I’ve heard. And this song definitely didn’t give me what I wanted … or, in a way it did, I guess, because it’s worst list material.

#12: “Gelato” by Echosmith

And if you want to know another one of the most annoying choruses of the year in my opinion, just listen to “Gelato” by Echosmith!

I really didn’t like this album at all, but at least most of it was more listenable than this track which has messy production, a really annoying chorus, and then there’s also that super cringey bridge and outro about gelato flavours … that bridge makes it feel like another song that’s trying too hard to be unique, and I just find it incredibly obnoxious.

#11: “Shame” by TV Girl

Well, this is a shame, isn’t it?

I can’t help but feel like this song sounds so faux-upbeat, as it feels like this song is just saying, ‘Hey, there’s a bunch of horrible things happening in the world … well, that’s a shame,’ and just leaving it at that, like it wants to ignore all problems in the world—and yes, I understand that to some extent, but it’s like it’s not even fully acknowledging those problems … and no, I don’t think that was the intent of the song, and I’m not saying this track is morally reprehensible or anything, but it comes across as really obnoxious to me.

#10: “Members Only” by Drake (ft. PARTYNEXTDOOR)

Yay, another awful Drake song that’s a total chore to get through! That’s exactly what I wanted to hear!

And it’s not like PARTYNEXTDOOR’s verse is much better than Drake’s parts of the song … but overall, this is a total snooze fest musically to the point of obnoxiousness, and there’s no lack of cringey puns in the lyrics, as well as that really questionable part where Drake seems to possibly be playing into the ‘lesbians just haven’t found the right man yet’ narrative—yes, it’s kind of hard to tell exactly what he’s trying to say, but to me this song feels gross.

#9: “MATHEMATICAL DISRESPECT” by Lil Mabu

I don’t even know where to begin with this one … I mean, there’s a much bigger conversation we could have about hip hop culture, privilege, and much more—although I’ll admit I don’t really think I’m educated enough to speak too much on that, and also we’d be here all day.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’ve often interpreted braggadocious rap music—as annoying as it can be in my opinion—to usually be celebrating something that someone has earned after struggling for so long. But in this case we have a very privileged rapper with a rich family who really seems to want to let everyone know how much money he’s making, and that just feels off-putting to me, especially with the line, ‘Mabu get money while he pee.’

And there are so many other things about this song that really annoy me … I mean, there are so many cringey lines I don’t even feel like getting into right now.

I mean, take all of this with a grain of salt. Like I said, I don’t think I’m educated enough to speak on this fully. But I do know I don’t like this song, that’s for sure. 

#8: “Dummy” by Portugal. The Man

I actually really ended up liking Portugal. The Man’s newest album, and there are a handful of great tracks on it … so, how did this possibly end up making the final track list?

There’s the scatting, the instrumental that feels so generic to the point where it’s actively annoying, the terrible production … and then that chorus …

I am shocked by the actually somewhat positive reception this song seems to have gotten. I just can’t see the appeal of it at all. I mean, if you like it, good for you, but I just don’t understand it at all.

#7: “Sick” by Dominic Fike

Dominic Fike’s newest album is full of songs I don’t like, but in my opinion this song is bad in a way I can’t fully describe … but do you ever hear a song that you really, really don’t like, and you can’t quite place why?

I mean, yeah, the shuffling percussion does feel a little out of place here, and I don’t really like the vocal melodies, and the production and mixing sound really annoyingly messy, and the chorus is awful in my opinion, but why is this so high on the list?

Honestly, I can’t quite place what it is about this song that makes me dislike it as much as I do, but I do know I don’t enjoy listening to it at all.

#6: “Summer In The Hamptons” by Jonas Brothers

And speaking of songs that just feel incredibly off-putting for reasons I can’t fully describe … well, here we have my least favourite song from that awful album the Jonas Brothers put out this year, with one of the most annoying choruses of the year and an awful guitar lick/riff that keeps repeating with the awful vocal layering!

#5: “hi.” by Colleen Vlogs

I was just finishing up this list when I suddenly remembered this song … and yeah, I thought about whether or not to include it here, because you could argue it isn’t eligible. But it was released to the public, and I think it is technically a song … so yeah, it counts.

And the last thing I want when I’m doing the last steps of finishing this post is have this complicated conversation about cancel culture, forgiveness, etc. And I’ll admit I don’t know a whole lot about the Colleen Ballinger situation, and I haven’t looked into it much to prepare for writing this … but at the end of the day, this list is about the songs themselves, so I don’t think I need to look into it much in order to describe the main thing I can’t stand about this song: the fact that she’s totally dancing around the subject matter here, and not giving any sort of apology, explanation, or evidence for anything.

I haven’t listened to this in months, so I don’t remember that much about it … but I think that’s probably a good thing. And I strongly encourage you not to listen to this at all, although some of the memes people have made are quite good, I’ll admit.

#4: “Endless Fashion” by Lil Uzi Vert (ft. Nicki Minaj)

How did this even happen? I honestly can’t believe this was actually released! I mean, first of all, there’s the line in which Nicki Minaj refers to Lil Uzi Vert with the wrong pronoun … but that’s not the only thing I don’t like about this song. The production sounds terrible, both artists’ flows are super annoying in this track, there are a ton of incredibly cringey lines … and here’s yet another song which interpolates “Blue (Da Ba Dee)” … it didn’t work when David Guetta and Bebe Rexha did it, and in my opinion it’s even worse here!

#3: “Mother” by Meghan Trainor

This is the second year in a row that Meghan Trainor has made my worst songs of the year list, and while “Made You Look” is incredibly annoying and made my worst hits list for this year, in hindsight I don’t really think it was bad enough to make my worst songs list last year, and I would take it off that list.

This song on the other hand is abysmal, with its awful sample of The Chordettes’ version of “Mr. Sandman”, some really annoying percussion, and arguably some of the worst vocal production I have heard on any song this year, with some vocal layering that gets really annoying … but honestly, I think the production overall sounds terrible, with the percussion and vocal layering being so overpowering and creating this absolutely miserable listening experience.

I rarely use the word ‘hate’ when talking about music, but I genuinely hate this song so much! And I haven’t even gotten to the super cringey lyrics where Meghan refers to herself as ‘your mother’ and sings lines such as, ‘Who gave you permission to speak?’ It’s supposed to be a female empowerment anthem, and while I’m happy for anyone who’s been empowered by this song, it doesn’t mean I have to like the song. And I think this song is fucking horrible!

#2: “Trynna Link” by DDG

I made the mistake of checking out DDG’s newest album because curiosity got the best of me, and pretty much the entire album is absolutely abysmal, with this song in particular being not only the most accurate representation of the album out of all the individual tracks, but also my pick for the worst on the album, and easily one of the worst of the year! In fact, I almost put this song at #1!

There are so many tracks from the album that I would’ve put on this list if it weren’t for the one-song-per-artist rule, but I went with this one because it’s got the same problems as pretty much every other song here, and also the godawful interpolation of 21 Savage’s “Bank Account”. But as bad as “Bank Account” is, at least it’s funny—in fact, that’s one of the rare cases in which I like a song because I think it’s bad—whereas here, I don’t find this funny at all.

I could talk about the nonstop awful lines throughout this song … but no, I don’t want to talk about it. Let’s just move on.

…

But before I reveal my #1, here’s a quick list of dishonourable mentions, in no particular order:

“Gans Media Retro Games” by Hot Mulligan
“Calm Down” by All Time Low
“Run” by Maisie Peters
“Ozone Scraper” by DJ Shadow
“C’est Comme Ça” by Paramore
“Salt Water” by Ed Sheeran

Alright, now it’s time to reveal my #1:

#1: “Pump Rock x Heavy Metal” by Lil Pump

Yes, that’s right. For those of you who missed it, Lil Pump tried to make a metal song on his album from this year, and I would say it went as bad as you’d expect … but honestly, this is MUCH worse than I even expected!

Like I’ve already said in this post, I’d rather not spend too much time and energy writing about the worst songs of the year, so I’m just going to keep this very brief and say this: I don’t know how I should feel about this song. There are so many problematic lines and it’s not a song I feel like I should be laughing at … and yet, I can’t help but find this track laughably bad. And I’m not in any way recommending you listen to it—I highly, highly, HIGHLY recommend you stay the hell away from it—but I can’t deny it’s kind of hard not to laugh at, too.

And there it is. My pick for the worst song of 2023.

…

Well, that was a lot of bad music, and the worst albums of the year is still on the way … but fortunately, next up after that is The Top 50 Best Albums of 2023! We can finally move on to talking about great music!

Again, I hope I wasn’t too harsh in this post. I’m not making this post to be mean to anyone, I’m just sharing how I personally feel about these songs.

As always, thanks for reading, and happy new year!