Hello, everyone, and welcome to my final year-end list for 2023! (Which comes less than four months after my final year-end list for 2022 … wow.) Today, I’m counting down my top 100 favourite songs of 2023!

Despite the word ‘best’ in the title, really this is just a list of my own personal favourite songs of 2023, but that’s not as catchy a title. Music is subjective, and my list probably looks very different from yours.

The eligibility rules for this list is that the song has to have been released sometime from January 1st, 2023 and December 31st, 2023, whether its first release was on an album or as a single, or in some other way, like on an EP or something.

And maybe there are songs on here that were released earlier and I just didn’t realize, but that’s okay.

Also, keep in mind a lot of my lyrical analyzation is just me totally guessing things, or even making interpretations I’m pretty sure are wrong. And I’m not sure exactly how many of these lyrics are about personal stories, so if I refer to the artist, I very well could just be talking about the character the artist portrays (example: if I say, ‘in this song [insert artist name] wants to escape a relationship’). I think you get the point.

Also, I do keep a lot of these brief because I wanted to get this posted before too long, and it often can take some extra time and effort for me to figure out why songs make me feel the way they do. So, don’t expect super deep analysis here.

At the end of this post there will be a link to my top 50 of the year, but in this post I’ll just be going over the bottom half of the list … starting with:

#100: “Let’s Tip the Creator” by Protomartyr

We’re kicking off this list with some great alternative rock with an excellent bassline and great unique vocals from Protomartyr’s frontman Joe Casey, who brings so much personality to not only this track, but the entire album!

#99: “On Solid Ground” by Grandbrothers

This track doesn’t give me a whole lot to say, but it’s one of many awesome songs on Grandbrothers’ newest album, and it’s just got such an excellent vibe to it that feels magical!

#98: “Property Line” by Gabe Lee

This is easily one of the catchiest tracks on Gabe Lee’s newest album, and with the great storytelling and that awesome acoustic guitar, it makes for a great album closer!

#97: “Operator” by Yves Tumor

This track has a great groove, a great chorus, great production, and really interesting lyrics which seem to show the narrator trying to fix a broken relationship … this song has strong 80s vibes to it, and I think it rules!

#96: “Brain Capers” by Yo La Tengo

I’m just noticing now how similar “Operator” and “Brain Capers” sound … I mean, they don’t sound identical or anything, but they have a similar sound.

Anyway, I love that super sharp snare, and that super powerful bass really contributes a lot to this great groove! What a fantastic track!

#95: “An Equivalent Exchange” by Sleepsculptor

Those drums! The screaming! That awesome scuzzy guitar! It all sounds so excellent! I’m not usually a huge fan of this kind of metalcore that’s just full of nonstop heaviness and screaming, but this song goes incredibly hard!

#94: “North/South” by Grandbrothers

This was probably the biggest grower for me on Grandbrothers’ newest album, with the awesome staccato piano and sharp percussion, and also the unpredictability that still has the same magic once you know what’s coming!

#93: “HATEFUL” by HEALTH (ft. SIERRA)”

That synth groove absolutely rules, and I really like the dynamics of this track! I think you could describe it as ‘edgy in a fun way’, if that makes any sense … but honestly, if it sounded a tiny bit less compressed, this might even be in the top 50! There’s just so much to love about this track, especially with the excellent distortion and the way this song builds, as well as the vocal effect!

#92: “Who We Love” by Sam Smith & Ed Sheeran

Well, Sam Smith is making both my worst songs list and my best songs list, because as annoying as “Gimme” is, “Who We Love” is a beautiful collaboration with Ed Sheeran, who wasn’t far from making the list with songs from the first of his two albums from this year.

I don’t think there’s a whole lot to this song, but both singers give great vocal performances, it’s very well produced, and the lyrics are simple but effective, celebrating the LGBT+ community and celebrating all love.

#91: “What If You Hypnotise Me?” by Sampha (ft. Léa Sen)

I did a mini review of Sampha’s newest album not too long ago—by the way, I think the album’s great—and the penultimate track is absolutely excellent! The piano sounds gorgeous, Sampha’s vocals are incredible, and I love the production! But this isn’t my favourite song from the album … we’ll get to that later on.

#90: “Penthouse” by Kelsea Ballerini

This is a heartbreaking song that Kelsea Ballerini wrote about her divorce, and as simple as this track is, it’s an absolutely excellent track with fantastic production and so many lines that will tear at your heartstrings.

#89: “Effecting Local Realism” by Spunkshine

I wouldn’t say this is the most creative song on Spunkshine’s newest album, but it’s probably the most calming, with its beautiful synths and incredible atmosphere, and there are a lot of subtle details that really help this click for me a lot!

#88: “enknee1” by Hemlocke Springs

This is some excellent synth-pop with a super catchy, infectious chorus with a great vocal melody! And it’s really well produced, too!

I haven’t heard any other Hemlocke Springs music yet, but this is a great first impression for me!

#87: “Void Surfacing” by Invent Animate

There are more Invent Animate songs coming up on this list, but this one is still excellent in my opinion, with those absolutely killer guitar riffs, and the screams and production that make so much of this album so amazing!

#86: “Sweet” by feeble little horse

I reviewed feeble little horse’s newest album very positively, and this song has some of the best guitar work on the entire album! And it’s got such an eerie vibe to it while also being a lot of fun to listen to, with fascinating lyrics that are very open to interpretation!

It’s not my absolute favourite song on the album—we’ll get to that—but it’s still a phenomenal alternative rock track with a lot of punch to it, especially with those great snares!

#85: “Bloom” by Grandbrothers

I already talked about the newest Grandbrothers album in my list of my favourite albums of the year, and this is one of many unbelievably good songs from the album … the production is just so gorgeous, and the atmosphere it creates is incredible! I can’t really describe this song with words all that well, but it’s phenomenal!

#84: “Polacrilex Kid” by Protomartyr

This is one of the most pummeling post-punk tracks of the year that I’ve heard! The bass groove is awesome, there are great usages of repetition, and I love the thought-provoking lyrics, especially the line, ‘Can you hate yourself and still deserve love?’

#83: “Wet Vagina” by Doja Cat

I guess I should just get used to the fact that every year there’s going to be at least one song on this list which feels like a very controversial pick … but screw it, this song is a banger! I mean, you can laugh all you want about me putting a song called “Wet Vagina” on this list—in fact, I find it kind of funny, too—but those awesome synths fit really well with the awesome trap beat, and Doja Cat brings a ton of personality to this track, with great line after great line, and a super infectious chorus! I’m still not a fan of the album, but this song rules!

#82: “Amped” by Lil Uzi Vert

Sam Smith isn’t the only artist on both my best and worst list … and while Lil Uzi Vert’s 26-song album is kind of a mess in my opinion, with an album that long there’s a good chance you’re going to get at least one strong standout … and Uzi sounds awesome over this super well-produced instrumental with great percussion and awesome guitars!

#81: “Brass Bell” by Screaming Females

The distorted guitars, the powerful drums, and frontwoman Marissa Paternoster’s incredible vocals are only a few of the many fantastic things about this excellent album opener!

This is pretty much everything you can ask for in a rock song, and that guitar solo adds even more to the track! Lyrically, while there is clearly a lot of metaphor here, it all seems to relate to just being your authentic self, and while the lyrics go to some extremes which clearly are not meant to be taken literally, the music that goes absolutely wild fits with the lyrics, making this an incredibly fun time!

#80: “Black Magic” by Beach House

I decided to really quickly check out Beach House’s newest EP late in the year, considering how much I love their album from 2022 … and this song has a similar magic to it—no pun intended—as a lot of that album! It’s just pure bliss with such soothing vocals and synths, and it reminds me a lot of “The Bells”!

#79: “Boy of Stranger Things” by Ana Frango Elétrico

Ana Frango Elétrico’s album from this year wasn’t too far outside my top 50 of the year, and this is my favourite song from the album! It’s got such a fantastic chorus, and that bass groove is awesome, with the horns sounding pretty much perfect in the mix, creating a super fun track that seems like it would be awesome to see live!

#78: “30 Under 13” by Better Lovers

I’m not one to praise music simply for being heavy, but holy shit, this is some incredible heavy rock which hits like a ton of bricks! The ferocious vocals fit super well when combined with the excellent guitar distortion and drums, and the bass sounds awesome as well! And there’s so much variety packed into this four-minute song, it’s incredible!

#77: “Best” by Gracie Abrams

When I first hit play on Gracie Abrams’ newest album and I heard this opening track, I had a feeling the album was going to be great! It’s a breakup song where Gracie looks back at a past relationship and has to admit to mistreating her partner, and that she understands why this person regrets the relationship—and she also regrets it herself, wishing she’d done better. And I love so many of the small details here, most notably the line, ‘Used to lie to your face twenty times in a day. It was my little strange addiction.’

This is such an emotional track, and easily one of my favourites of 2023.

#76: “Midnight Bus” by Spektral Quartet & Julia Holter & Alex Temple

This one was a bit of a grower for me, but the haunting instrumentation and lyrics with the gorgeous production creates one of the most mysterious songs I’ve heard from 2023, and I think it’s excellent!

#75: “Karma Wheel” by Night Verses

This is one of many great songs on Night Verses’ newest album, and it’s a total banger full of awesome drumming that hits super hard, and both the clean and distorted guitars add so much to this track! And then there’s that guitar solo which absolutely rules!

#74: “Disguise” by Amaarae

I kind of spoiled the fact that this was going to be here in my mini review of Amaarae’s newest album, despite the fact that I don’t really like the album all that much.

But this song absolutely rules! It seems to have a similar concept to “bad idea right?” by Olivia Rodrigo, but with gorgeous production and the darkness to it that fits considering the lyrics, in which she seems to be struggling to decide whether or not to engage in this hookup. And especially with those strings, this sounds absolutely awesome!

#73: “rat” by Kara Jackson

This nearly eight-minute track is the longest on Kara Jackson’s debut album, and it’s a big example of why she’s one of my favourite new artists! The acoustic guitar sounds great, there’s very interesting storytelling here, and the strings sound excellent!

#72: “Steamroller” by feeble little horse

It feels fitting that this song is called “Steamroller”, considering how crushing the instrumentation sounds! And yeah, the guitar and drums sound absolutely awesome together, and I can’t forget how great the bass sounds!

This is a fantastic rock song with lots of interesting lyrical metaphors, and it’s my favourite song from this great album!

#71: “Graft Vs. Host” by Protomartyr

Protomartyr’s frontman Joe Casey said that “Graft Vs. Host” was written about his mother’s passing, and while it is a very emotional song with a very sad subject matter, the song itself doesn’t feel all that sad, as he mentions that she wouldn’t want him to let her passing ruin his life, so he may as well try to have a positive mindset … but you can tell from the music and his vocals which sound full of mixed emotions that he’s having a very hard time with it. And I think it’s a really powerful song!

#70: “Siphon Song” by Squid

Of all the songs on Squid’s newest album, this is probably the one that stands out the most as being the most different … but it’s also probably the one that best represents the album as a whole, at least to me, as it shows the band’s creativity on full display, with some haunting lyrics and a very eerie vibe that adds up to the centrepiece of the album if you ask me!

#69: “Si Te Portas Bonito” by Sofia Kourtesis

This is an excellent house track with a steady percussion groove that goes amazingly well with that slightly dragged out and slightly staccato synth! And the vocals and melodies are great, too! It’s not a song that really gives me much to say, especially considering the lyrics are in Spanish and I don’t speak Spanish, but I do absolutely love this track!

#68: “Sleeping On My Own” by Beach Fossils

I’m not usually the biggest fan of dream pop, but this new Beach Fossils album really scratched an itch for me, and this is such an excellent album opener!

It’s the kind of breakup song in which it’s unclear who’s in the wrong, if anyone is at all, but the mindset the narrator has seems to be, ‘I just want to move on and not worry too much about who’s to blame.’ And those guitars sound phenomenal!

#67: “Lovelash” by Closure In Moscow

This is an excellent track that I think combines synth-pop with funk-rock and post-punk amazingly well, with that awesome snare which is super well produced, and I love the awesome vocals, especially with that great falsetto!

#66: “DYWTYLM” by Sleep Token

Of all the 2023 albums, I think the one with the most mixed critical reception is probably the newest Sleep Token album, Take Me Back To Eden. It doesn’t feel like it would be controversial to call it one of the best albums of the year nor would it feel controversial to call it one of the worst of the year. I fall somewhere in between on it, and while I do mostly like the album I also wouldn’t put it anywhere near my favourites of the year … but it is interesting that the one song from the album that I really, really love is the one that pretty much everyone seems to agree is the worst song on the album—both those who like the album and those who don’t.

But despite how much some people despise this song, I won’t deny it resonated with me emotionally in a way that feels personal in a really strange way that I don’t feel like getting into … and that I myself don’t really fully understand. But it’s a special song to me, I’ll say that much.

#65: “Yes! Yes! A Thousand Times Yes!” by Home Is Where

This is a tricky song to untangle lyrically, but it’s absolutely fascinating! Home Is Where’s lead singer Brandon MacDonald said the song tells the story of ‘two people faking normalcy in the normalcy of faking,’ possibly referring to arranged marriages, and it’s even more interesting when you factor in the line, ‘We don a regalia of useless genitalia’ coming after the line about a wedding dress made from semen—no pun intended, by the way. This just brings up so many possible interpretations of this song, and while you could argue I’m totally overthinking this, the irony of those lines put together does make this fascinating, potentially pointing out a bunch of flawed concepts in the world.

And I also love the intense music here, especially with that awesome guitar melody!

#64: “Jonathan L. Seagull” by Sampha

As much as I do love “What If You Hypnotise Me?”, this is a much better song in my opinion, with lyrics which seem to partially be about the reality that nobody ever really has the same experience, and that we’re all different—I mean, that’s not a new concept at all, but I think it’s very well written, and I especially love the line, ‘Even though we’ve been through the same doesn’t always mean we feel the same.’

And the production just has such a nice, warm vibe to it that, combined with the excellent vocal melodies, creates a very magical listening experience. And I think a lot of the lyrics are very open to interpretation, too, and are beautifully written. This is an absolutely excellent song from a great album that I highly recommend!

#63: “False Meridian” by Invent Animate

Invent Animate made one of my favourite albums of 2023, full of incredible melodies and super hard-hitting guitars and snares, and “False Meridian” is one of many huge standouts on the album for me!

Vocalist Marcus Vik said this song is about identity crisis, and you can feel the emotion in the instrumentation alone, only made better with the vocals, the melodies, and the lyrics.

#62: “When No Birds Sang” by Full of Hell & Nothing

This is the title track from this collaborative album by Full of Hell & Nothing, and I think the foggy production really helps with the bleak atmosphere of this song! And with the eerie vocal melodies and gorgeous instrumentation, this song fits a very specific mood that’s hard for me to describe, but I absolutely love this track!

#61: “Worth Dying For” by Within Temptation

Within Temptation made my album of the year, and “Worth Dying For” is a song that feels like it represents a lot of what makes that album so incredibly special for me—it feels like the perfect movie soundtrack song where the stakes are incredibly high, and it’s got the production to make it hit so much harder!

The snare and bass are great driving forces, and I love the distorted guitar which feels kind of subtle at points but also just erupts in the mix when it needs to … and there’s also the strings, which are the cherry on top that sends this from really goddamn great to just fucking incredible! Oh yeah, and there’s also the phenomenal vocals!

#60: “Overcome” by Nothing But Thieves

Yeah, I know, I didn’t like Nothing But Thieves’ newest album. But while nothing else on the album comes even the slightest bit close, “Overcome” is such an excellent alternative rock song with a huge, anthemic chorus, with great vocals and the production to let this really soar like it’s trying to! And that guitar solo is the perfect touch!

#59: “Absolute Terror Field” by Closure In Moscow (ft. Aphir)

Closure In Moscow teamed up with Aphir for this excellent track with funky grooves, and the shouty chorus is super awesome! And I love how the instrumental builds throughout the track, especially with how well produced it is!

#58: “REACH THE SUNSHINE.” by Lil Yachty

If I remember correctly, I didn’t really like this song when I first heard it … and now it’s one of my favourite songs of the year!

I mean, yeah, it starts off with a Daniel Caesar feature which interpolates Radiohead’s “Pyramid Song”, and at first that was off-putting to me, but the more I listened to it the less it annoyed me, and the song overall is phenomenal, with some amazing synths and, like most of the album, amazing production! Oh, and there’s also that awesome outro!

It’s such an excellent closing track on one of my favourite albums of 2023, and if you love this, I highly recommend you check out the rest of the album as well!

#57: “Golden Dust” by Grandbrothers

This one doesn’t give me much to say, but it’s a beautiful piece that feels like the calm within a storm … and then it ends kind of suddenly, which you can interpret however you want.

#56: “Spirit 2.0” by Sampha

No, we’re not done yet with songs from Sampha’s newest album, because “Spirit 2.0” is one of those songs that just has to be heard to be believed! The rhythm to this song is absolutely awesome with those fantastic vocal melodies, and like with most of this album Sampha’s vocals are so amazing!

And it’s just got such a magical feeling to it with the lyrics that are hopeful despite all the bad things going on, while still acknowledging those unfortunate realities.

It’s yet another total gem from Sampha’s newest album, and I fucking love this song!

#55: “Lucille” by Turnpike Troubadours

Arguably some of my favourite vocal melodies of the year show up on this great track from Turnpike Troubadours, which is a very interesting breakup song which ends the chorus with the line, ‘But I wonder who’s keepin’ the baby tonight,’ and the music has the dramatic feeling to it to fit with the high stakes of the lyrics!

#54: “Goodbye To Music” by Flyying Colours

I couldn’t find the lyrics for this song when I looked them up, but I love how open to interpretation it seems to be based on what I can hear … the line ‘goodbye to music forever’ feels like it comes out of nowhere, but I do find it fascinating!

And that chorus is so goddamn catchy and absolutely amazing, and I love the way the vocals sound slightly drowned out in the mix but not too much … it really fits with the lyrics for some reason.

#53: “Miracle” by El Michels Affair & Black Thought

This is my favourite song from El Michels Affair’s & Black Thought’s collab album from this year, with Black Thought’s great storytelling about his childhood and a fantastic instrumental! It’s a pretty simple song, at least as far as I can tell, but it’s a great listen which also feels very replayable, and it’s one of many great tracks from one of my favourite hip hop albums of the year!

#52: “3800 Tigers” by Protomartyr

Here’s a pummeling post-punk track with an excellent use of a double-meaning of both the Detroit Tigers and literal tigers. And I love the line, ‘There’s 3800 tigers in this world, but there’s far too many of you, of you fools.’ And with that awesome guitar, I think this hits super hard!

#51: “Absence Persistent” by Invent Animate

Invent Animate’s lead singer Marcus Vik said this song is partially about feeling overwhelmed by finding yourself in constant growth, and I can definitely see it when I read the lyrics. It’s full of great poetry and heartbreaking vocal melodies that fit the song really well, and the production is incredibly hard-hitting!

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Alright, that wraps up the bottom half of this list … if you want to see my top 50 favourite songs of the year, click here.