Hi, everyone! Welcome to part 2 of my top 100 favourite songs of 2023! I highly recommend if you’re going to read this post that you read part 1 (100-51) first, or at the very least that you read the intro of that post, as it has the eligibility rules and stuff like that. Also, there may be spoilers of 100-51 in this post.

Anyway, let’s continue:

#50: “curtains” by Kara Jackson

This isn’t one of the most ‘out there’ songs on Kara Jackson’s new album, but it’s still phenomenal! Kara’s vocals are excellent, just like on the rest of the album, and there’s so much excellent layering in the production, with those backing vocals sounding absolutely gorgeous!

#49: “Be On Your Way” by Daughter

Like I talked about in my albums list, Daughter guitarist Igor Haefeli mentioned emotional maturity when discussing this album, and I think this track is a great example of that, with the narrator clearly missing a particular individual—probably a former romantic partner—but having the maturity to accept the fact that the relationship is over and the person has moved on … and there’s a little bit of hope that maybe things will work out again between them, but if not it’ll be okay.

And with such gorgeous strings and vocals, with amazing production, I think this is one of the best songs I’ve heard all year! Absolutely incredible stuff!

#48: “Evidence” by Sampha

Like I said earlier, Sampha’s vocals throughout this album are absolutely phenomenal, and this is another amazingly well produced song!

And I really like the lyrics that seem to be about Sampha’s daughter and seeing the positives in life despite all the terrible things happening in the world. It’s not a song that really gives me a whole lot to say, but if you hear it there’s a good chance you’ll understand why it’s here!

#47: “Butchered Tongue” by Hozier

I’ll admit I’m not the biggest Hozier fan, but I think this year he made his best album to date, and also his best song to date (of the ones I’ve heard, and I’ve heard all his studio albums) in “Butchered Tongue”, a song about the 1798 Wexford Rebellion which has a really creative double-meaning in the chorus.

#46: “Fawning” by East of the Wall

Alright, I didn’t love East of the Wall’s newest album, but this is a super hard-hitting track with excellent musicianship and a snare that sounds fantastic in the mix!

#45: “Rapper Weed” by billy woods & Kenny Segal

This is some excellent abstract hip hop from billy woods and Kenny Segal—not the last of them we’ll see on this list—and there are so many excellent rhymes and flows here, along with some great lyrics full of clever lines!

#44: “Madres” by Sofia Kourtesis

One of the best album openers of the year that I’ve heard is the title track from Sofia Kourtesis’ excellent debut studio album Madres. The vocals are incredible, and the production has such a nice, warm vibe to it that creates for a calm dance song—I mean, I wouldn’t usually want a dance song to be calm, but in this case it really works! This song kind of has a similar magic to it as Taylor Swift’s “mirrorball”, another song I absolutely love, except this one is much more upbeat and joyful … and honestly, I like this even better than “mirrorball”—that’s extremely high praise!

#43: “I bled on stage at first ave” by Open Mike Eagle 

And speaking of album openers, this is one of the most experimental rap songs I have heard all year—and yes, I did listen to and review SCARING THE HOES by Danny Brown and JPEGMAFIA. I love the kind of jumpy feeling of this song, and there are so many great rhymes here, too! And the production is fantastic, with those awesome snares and an overall slightly glitchy feeling to the production!

#42: “Night After Night” by Julia Holter & Spektral Quartet

One of the most beautiful songs from this album, “Night After Night” is full of more incredible storytelling with some absolutely incredible strings, and everything sounds pretty much perfect in the mix! And Julia Holter’s vocals are fantastic!

#41: “Party” by Daughter

But this is my favourite song from Daughter’s newest album. Lead singer Elena Tonra said this song was written about her decision to give up alcohol, a decision she made years before this, and while she probably made the right choice, there’s still a sense of guilt in this song—or maybe not even guilt, but just wondering what would’ve happened if she hadn’t quit drinking. At least that’s how I interpret it, and either way, it’s a beautiful track!

Also, the guitar distortion is excellent, the snare sounds awesome, and I don’t even know what to say about that first transition into the chorus!

#40: “Dragonborn” by Twilight Force

I wasn’t a huge fan of Twilight Force’s album from 2023, but “Dragonborn” has always been the big standout on that album for me ever since I reviewed it! This is incredibly fun, soaring power metal which has the awesome production to make it really go off like it’s supposed to! And those vocal melodies are awesome, and so are the vocals and the vocal layering!

#39: “Boy in the Storm” by Grandbrothers

This piece has a very nostalgic feeling to it for me. Yes, it came out in 2023, and it was less than a year ago that I heard this track for the first time, but something about those pianos (which sound incredibly well miked, by the way) just brings me back to my childhood in a way that very few songs are able to do.

It’s a phenomenal closing track to a top tier 2023 album for me, and it absolutely blew my mind!

#38: “Running” by Snõõper

So, you could argue maybe this shouldn’t be eligible, because a shorter version of this song was released a few years ago. But I’m pretty sure this full-length version wasn’t released until 2023, so I’m counting it as eligible. And it’s by far the longest song on Snõõper’s newest album at almost five and a half minutes.

And it’s a really fun, catchy punk track with awesome percussion, great vocal effects, and great guitar that adds so much more flavour!

#37: “Locals (Girls like us)” by underscores & gabby start

Well … this is quite something, that’s for sure!

I had a lot to say in my mini review of the newest underscores album, but if you want the short version … well, I don’t believe in music being objectively good or bad, but if I had to pick an album from this year that I genuinely think is really great but that I don’t like all that much, it’s probably that album.

Although “Locals (Girls like us)” is a track that I absolutely love, with the super catchy chorus as well as that awesome loop of ‘arms, body, legs, flesh, skin, bone, sinew, good luck’ that is also incredibly catchy!

I love how underscores plays two characters in this song, and gabby start’s guest verse is amazing, too! It’s one of the most unique songs I’ve heard all year, and also one of the best!

#36: “Soundcheck” by billy woods & Kenny Segal (ft. Quelle Chris)

I love that driving keyboard in the instrumental which sounds excellent when paired with the percussion, and billy woods once again delivers some fascinating lyrics with many potential interpretations, and his flows are great, too, as are Quelle Chris’s!

#35: “Without a Whisper” by Invent Animate

Invent Aminate’s guitarist Keaton Goldwire said this was about his grandmother’s passing, and it’s a heartbreaking, emotional listen in which the great guitar groove doesn’t feel out of place for some reason. The vocals are incredible, and while I don’t think the lyrics are super deep, they are very effective at conveying emotions. Great song!

#34: “In Spite of War” by Yves Tumor

“In Spite of War” is a sinister post-punk track with some of the best groovy production I’ve heard from this year, and a chorus in which the blazing guitar washes over everything without feeling too overpowering, leading to a phenomenal effect! And the lyrics in which the narrator seems to be trying to ignore someone else’s dark side are very gripping!

#33: “NYC Tapwater” by billy woods & Kenny Segal

This is the moment on this album when billy woods returns home, and even aside from the great line near the start, ‘I miss this place ‘til I’m back,’ this song feels full of mixed emotions, where billy mentions ‘survivor’s guilt with a side of buyer’s remorse’, but he’s still trying to have a good time, while also wishing he had a different strain of weed. And there’s so much great imagery and storytelling here!

#32: “Fulfillment Center” by Protomartyr

This is the shortest song on Protomartyr’s newest album, but there’s so much packed into less than 2 minutes here!

It’s got a strange slightly upbeat sound with a strong feeling of bleakness to it as well, with the ambiguous lyrics with haunting storytelling which seems to be describing a dream, and unfulfilled desires.

#31: “d******d blues” by Kara Jackson

This is definitely one of the most creative self-love anthems of the year that I’ve heard, not only with the instrumentation that blends different styles really well and has great cohesivity between the different passages, but there are also a lot of really interesting metaphors and great lines, such as, ‘Damn, the dickhead blues, when you are stuck sinking in someone’s lagoon, like a spoon drowns in stew. What kind of meal are they making of you?’ That might be one of my favourite lyrics of 2023!

#30: “Meteora Blues” by Yves Tumor

Easily one of my favourite rock songs of 2023, “Meteora Blues” has some fantastic vocal melodies as well as great lyrics which seem to be showing the narrator’s desire to get back into an old relationship, and having hope for it despite the fact that it’s extremely unlikely … and whether or not having that hope is a good idea is really up to the listener. I mean, maybe that’s not what the song is about, so I guess the overall meaning of the song is up to the listener. But you know what I mean.

#29: “Wheel” by Victory Over the Sun

I totally understand how someone might just hear this as a noisy mess that has nothing to it … and yes, it is a noisy mess, I agree … well, in a way I agree. Because this is one of the hardest hitting metal tracks I’ve heard all year, and I think it’s incredibly experimental!

The vocals barely even sound like vocals and sound more like static, and the heavily distorted guitar has this super grimy feeling to it that fits incredibly well with this track! And there’s also those filthy snares that just hit so incredibly hard!

And by the way, the rest of the album absolutely rules as well, and I highly, highly recommend it!

#28: “American Daughter” by Beach House

But “Black Magic” isn’t the best song Beach House put out this year, because “American Daughter” has some of the best production I’ve heard all year, with absolutely phenomenal synths that have such a great, sharp sound to them but not too much that they become overpowering. And I love how the percussion subtly adds so much to the track!

#27: “Shed That Fear” by Nourished by Time

Glossy synths and great percussion go together really well on this upbeat track about not letting fear get in the way of enjoying life, and the vocal melodies are really strong, too, with a great chorus that makes this song a lot more fun!

#26: “Tell Me” by James Blake

James Blake’s newest album, while not quite great in my opinion, definitely doesn’t lack strong moments … and this song is a difficult one for me to talk about. So, I’ll just keep it really brief and say you can pretty much copy/paste what I said about Sleep Token’s “DYWTYLM”, except I think this one hits even harder for me.

#25: “Unobtainium” by Spunkshine

One of the best instrumental pieces I’ve heard all year—well, mostly instrumental—“Unobtainium” is full of great hypnotizing repetition and awesome synths that wash over you, and the slightly airy production gives this song so much more atmosphere, while still having a bit of a grimy sound to it that I think works super well!

#24: “Ghost” by Lydia Loveless

There are certain songs where I feel like I found them at just the right time, and for as uplifting and gorgeous as this song is, it’s also heartbreaking. It describes the narrator as a ghost, who’s feeling free, with the refrain of, ‘Now that I’m dead, nothing’s gonna stand in my way again.’ And yet, there’s this sense of sadness with the way this song sounds, which could represent the fact that the narrator is wishing to still be alive.

It’s a very creative song, and the production fits super well with Lydia Loveless’s gorgeous vocals!

#23: “World Outside” by Oneohtrix Point Never

The stormy, glitchy intro of this track might be a top 10 musical moment for me in 2023! But that’s not to say the rest of the song is a total waste, because when it’s this well produced and experimental … yeah, easily the biggest standout from the album for me, and one of my favourite songs of the year!

#22: “Rain Garden” by Protomartyr

That’s right! Yet another Protomartyr song! Although I don’t think that’ll come as a surprise considering how high their newest album was on my albums list.

This has one of Joe Casey’s best vocal performances on the album, and it’s such an excellent closing track to the album, as he shows a lot of self-love, and this song feels like a moment of clarity that closes this messy, complex album!

#21: “Spend The Grace” by Full of Hell & Nothing

This is the closing track to one of my favourite albums of 2023, and it’s got such an excellent build to it with so many small production details that work so goddamn well! The crunch in the guitar distortion, the way the screams and guitars blend together, the strong presence of the bass that just creeps beneath the surface … and it’s all mixed incredibly well, too!

#20: “Moving Houses” by Sofia Kourtesis

This might be one of the most experimental songs I’ve heard all year, and I think it’s phenomenal! The haunting vocal effect, what sounds like a fire crackling, and those eerie synths are all combined to create a track that feels surrounded by mystery, and I’m totally here for it!

#19: “My Song Will Never Die” by Luke Combs

Luke Combs’ newest album Gettin’ Old was such a big improvement over its predecessor in my opinion, and “My Song Will Never Die” is easily my favourite track from the album! It’s just such a sweet song in which Luke Combs knows he’ll eventually die one day, but he hopes his music will live on forever. I think it’s a pretty simple song, but it’s just such a comforting listen that I absolutely love!

#18: “Dancing Circles” by Sampha

This has to be one of the most haunting songs of the year that I’ve heard, with the staccato piano that feels like the driving force of this song, and the amazing vocal melodies, all of which add up to a song that feels like a moment in time, giving the feeling of uncertainty and fear of what’s going to happen next, and whether or not that was intentional I think it hits incredibly hard!

#17: “Primal Sinister” by Closure In Moscow

This is an incredibly funky rock track with an absolutely awesome bass, with a brilliant guitar solo toward the end of the track, and one of the catchiest choruses of the year! The grooves are awesome, and the combination of the music and lyrics creates what sounds like it would be an awesome movie soundtrack song!

#16: “Speedracer” by Teenage Dads

This might not seem like the type of song you’d expect me to put on this list, especially this high, but I was so happy to discover this song, which is a total bop!

I mean, yeah, it’s kind of kooky in a playful way that made a lot of early 2010s hit songs incredibly obnoxious, but I think it’s a big part of what gives this so much charm, because what made a lot of that music so annoying is the lack of substance, which, in this style, can make for a very unpleasant listen. But with such an awesome, catchy hook and extremely strong vocal melodies, it sends this song to the moon!

And it’s brought to another level entirely with some absolutely incredible production, which gives the clean guitars a lot of bite, and that pause in the chorus right before that great snare is the cherry on top!

#15: “I Live in a Small Town” by Flyying Colours

I couldn’t find the lyrics to this song when I looked them up, although I can hear some of them, and based on what I can hear, the music fits well with the lyrics!

And the main guitar melody of this song is awesome, too, as are the vocal melodies! This song just washes over you in the best way!

#14: “Pontius Pilate’s Home Movies” by The New Pornographers

Here’s one of the biggest bangers of the year if you ask me, with those booming kick drum hits, what might be one of my favourite basslines of the year, and excellent vocals … and then there’s the first chorus and the transition into the verse where everything just builds incredibly well—and the horns add so much as well!

And I love the imagery used in this song, especially in the chorus!

#13: “Tiny Holes” by Spektral Quartet & Julia Holter

This is an extremely unique song which seems to be about trypophobia, and it seems to be trying to untangle what caused it for someone. And aside from that I don’t really know what else to say, because you can’t understand just how haunting this track is without hearing it!

#12: “Chipping Mill” by Turnpike Troubadours

I’m not quite sure what it is about this song that makes me love it this much … but it’s just such a nice, sweet love song with excellent melodies and great production! And the vocals are great, too!

And I love how busy the instrumentation is in the chorus, with nothing feeling out of place!

#11: “How Music Makes You Feel Better” by Sofia Kourtesis

This song feels like it’s transporting me to another universe! And it’s so magical!

The synth sounds absolutely beautiful with that awesome clicking percussion, and the busy hi-hat adds so much subtle texture to make this song way more danceable!

There are so many small details here that create such a calming song that feels perfect to listen to after a long, hard day—fitting for a song with this title.

#10: “Cat and Mouse With the Light” by The New Pornographers

As much as I love “Pontius Pilate’s Home Movies”, this is my favourite song from this New Pornographers album. Lyrically, this song seems to at least partially be about fame, and the dark side of it that many people want to try and deny, and how celebrities are often viewed more as objects than as people. But the writing shows the complex emotions the narrator is feeling, kind of wanting the attention but kind of not. And the simile of the ‘inside trading’ line is very clever!

And with the possible reference to cancel culture in the third verse, it adds even more complexity, as the narrator has somehow avoided controversy—which is hard to do when you’re famous!

But this song can’t escape its feeling of glamour which the narrator kind of doesn’t want to even acknowledge, but as Neko Case sings that incredibly sticky chorus which feels like an attempt by the narrator to try and deflect the attention away, those glossy keyboards are lurking beneath the surface!

And maybe I’m overthinking this, but that’s one thing I love about analyzing music—but even sonically alone, this is awesome! Not only does Neko Case give probably her best vocal performance on the album, but the melodies are really strong, and the percussion, while subtle, provides some real tightness to the feeling of the production. It’s a subtle behemoth of an indie rock song that’ll crush everything in its path! I don’t think you’ll want to miss this!

#9: “Daybreak” by Grandbrothers

This is the opening track from Late Reflections, and pretty much every moment of it is perfect. I don’t know how to describe it without just saying the same things I’ve said about so many other Grandbrothers songs on this list, although I’ve been saying similar things about a lot of the songs on this list in general. But still, I’m not going to repeat myself with this one … I’m just gonna say I highly recommend you listen to this one for yourself!

#8: “brain” by Kara Jackson

The acoustic guitar and the mellow electric guitar in this song go together incredibly well to create such a beautiful atmosphere that gives me feelings of nostalgia for whatever reason, and the vocal layering on top of all that is the cherry on top!

Once again, there’s more absolutely excellent poetry from Kara Jackson that just makes me wonder why I didn’t listen to this album sooner!

And with such a unique sound to it and phenomenal mixing that gives every element of the mix the right role, this just sounds absolutely breathtaking!

#7: “Daddy” by Nourished by Time

This might be the biggest bop on this entire list, and it’s probably my favourite dance song of the year! Not only are the glossy synths super fun to listen to, especially with that booming snare, but some of the refrains here are super sticky—it’s an earworm of a song!

And lyrically, for a song that seems to be about unrequited love, it’s surprisingly upbeat and not in a way that feels awkward. I mean, there are subtle moments that feel much more heartbreaking than what might meet the eye at first—most notably a line like, ‘I say ‘I love you’, you say ‘whatever’’ … but while Marcus’s deep vocals seem to have a touch of sadness, it doesn’t take away from the ‘fun’ elements of the song—it’s almost like he just has an attitude of, ‘whatever’, similarly to his love interest. It’s like he’d rather just move on and enjoy life regardless!

And to me that’s what it feels like this song represents—trying not to let things get you down too much … and if the other person wasn’t interested, it wasn’t meant to be.

And it’s also amazingly well produced and arranged, with the way the synths all find the right time to come in and to go away, and that hazy bass adds so much to the fun vibe of this!

And the polyphony of the synth and vocal melodies contributes to the contrasting moods this song pulls off so incredibly well! Again, this is probably my favourite dance song of 2023—maybe a bit of a strange choice, but absolutely an awesome one!

#6: “why does the earth give us people to love?” by Kara Jackson

The title track from Kara Jackson’s 2023 album feels like a frustration anthem, despite the fact that the music is very far from anthemic … instead, it’s very moody and downbeat, with the sombre acoustic guitar and vocal melodies.

And the lyrics are so powerful, with some great individual lines such as, ‘Why does the earth give us people to love, then take them away, out of reach?’ And whether you interpret it as being about death or just about people falling apart, the questioning of why things happen here is so powerful! And while this isn’t a new topic, the music really helps bring those feelings of uncertainty to life for the listener, especially with those absolutely gorgeous strings that feel like the silver lining of all this madness.

And Kara’s vocals on this song are some of the most haunting vocals I’ve heard all year—the sense of helplessness here is heartbreaking, with all of this coming back to that main question about all this: why?

And this would be an opportunity for her to show acceptance of the fact that we can’t really have all the answers … and yet, I think it makes this song hit so much harder because she doesn’t do that here, instead opting for lines such as, ‘Like aiming arrows at my eye, scraping the skin off of my thigh, trained my corneas not to cry, but they will not obey this time.’ I mean, some songs just hit so fucking hard in a way that I feel like can’t be replicated, and this is one of them. It feels like it brings me back to the most haunting moods of my forest walks back in 2020 during the pandemic—and as many of the effects of the pandemic have not gone away, and won’t for a while, this song provides comfort to me, as uncomfortable as it is.

But while we’re on the topic of songs that evoke a sense of frustration …

#5: “Nursing Home Riot” by Home Is Where

This is totally unlike the first Home Is Where song on this list … and while the album is full of great tracks, and I think “Yes! Yes! A Thousand Times Yes!” is also among the best tracks I heard all year, “Nursing Home Riot” is leagues above the rest of the album for me!

When discussing this song, Brandon MacDonald mentioned well-meaning failures, which might be one of the most relatable song topics anyone could write about, but very few can find a way to make a song on that topic that hits this hard for me … but to me, this song is so much deeper, and the center of it all is the chorus: ‘I’m trying to show you I’m trying’—which is the way I personally hear it, with no comma in that sentence … and if you hear it the same way I do, regardless of what was intended, it feels like her ego is struggling with the possibility that people might see her good intentions the wrong way, and that’s scary to think about!

And I honestly wonder if the ‘I’ in the chorus is the same as the ‘you’ in the verses, as if the verses are narrated by someone else, with the implied guilt of a hunter and the eerie imagery of the glow of the television from the distance. But it also could be the guilt of someone for judging the hunter who’s just trying to survive—and I’m not going to get into the complicated conversation about hunting for food, and whether or not eating meat is wrong … it’s great to have conversations about these kinds of things, but I don’t think that’s the point of this song. But there’s no doubt to me that this is a messy situation, and with Brandon’s vocals in the chorus, it really feels like the narrator is showing fear of disapproval from others.

And I don’t think there’s a better way to really express this mood than with the bass that adds to the emotional heaviness, the drums that add some real crunch, and those excellent guitars that wash over the listener, and that chorus just fucking rules! The way the vocals are buried in the chorus just adds to that fearful urgency of the song!

Once again, I’m probably totally overthinking all of this and completely misunderstanding it … but I hear it how I hear it, and this specific kind of bleakness in a song, while it came out of nowhere for me, it really hits hard! Although it’s not quite my favourite song of the year to possibly have something to do with the moral dilemma of hunting for food … but we’ll get to that very soon.

#4: “Fading” by The River

You may remember my mini review of A Hollow Full of Hope, and while I gave it a 6/10, I think it might have been one of those extremely rare cases of an album in which just the difference in quality between the opening track and the rest of the album feels like a weakness in the album … but I’m still super glad I heard the album, because if I had to pick a most ‘beautiful’ song of 2023, it’s probably this one.

And while I couldn’t find the lyrics for this and can only make out what some of them are—and thus it’s harder for me to analyze—this is a haunting song that feels like it might be about the passage of time, potentially describing someone being close to death, one potential meaning of the line, ‘The light is fading.’ And I can’t really find the words to describe the way this makes me feel or why it makes me feel that way … really, it’s a song that needs to be heard to be believed.

#3: “The Rut” by Turnpike Troubadours

But now for a bit more optimism—although the bleakness is still here—we have my favourite song from the newest Turnpike Troubadours album, and easily one of the biggest highlights of my year, music or otherwise!

And with the lyrics about hunting for food—again, I don’t want to get into that morally complex conversation right now—I wonder if there’s supposed to be a sense of guilt here, and even if there isn’t, I still kind of hear it as if there is, potentially being what the narrator is trying to escape from, regardless of whether or not you agree with hunting for food.

But whatever is causing this rut the narrator is in—and keep in mind there may be a double-meaning of the word ‘rut’ considering the lyrics about wildlife—it’s a song of optimism and determination. I don’t think it’s a very complicated song, but with such gorgeous production and melodies that fit so incredibly well in a song in which things aren’t all that much better, but the narrator is determined to make sure they will be … well, there are so many moments in 2023 in which this resonated for me so deeply for reasons I don’t fully feel like getting into right now. It’s an incredibly special song to me that feels so much more uplifting than so many other songs in this vein, for reasons even I don’t fully understand. But if you want bleakness …

#2: “How To Swim Down” by Svalbard

I’m not as huge a fan of Svalbard’s newest album as a lot of critics are—I think it’s really, really good, but not quite great—but … holy fuck. This song just rips my heart out every time. It’s so goddamn beautiful and it’s so fucking heartbreaking at the same time—and everything falls into place perfectly. I’m not sure if I believe in perfect songs or not, but at the very least this is incredibly close to perfection, if not true perfection.

Vocalist Serena Cherry said this song is about unrequited love, but honestly, to me, the point isn’t what this song is about … it’s what this song makes me feel. I still feel like there are many ways these words can be interpreted, and it’s the kind of crushing black metal song—if this even counts as black metal—that I’m still shocked by. How does anyone make music this fucking phenomenal?

And honestly, this pretty much feels like peak music, the sort of song that you’re never going to find just from looking for it, because when would I ever expect to love a specific song quite this much? And all of this brings up the question: what could possibly top this?

Well …

#1: “Michael Keaton” by Ruston Kelly

If you remember my lukewarm-at-best review of Ruston Kelly’s 2023 album The Weakness, you’ll probably be surprised by this choice. But the more I thought about it, the less I could deny just how much this song resonated for me. And it got to the point where I had a gut feeling for months that nothing would top this for me this year, and here we are now, as I’m naming this my #1 favourite song of 2023! And it actually caused me to recently revisit the entire album start to finish to see if I had missed something—and while the album is partially about his divorce, and there’s a lot of emotion, the album still isn’t clicking for me as a whole, and I stand by my original review.

But “Michael Keaton” is a song that’s so incredibly special to me, and it absolutely ruled my year! And look, I’m obviously not some sort of music god who sets the standard for what music is good and what music is bad—nobody is, and even if anyone was it wouldn’t be me, as I don’t think I’m nearly as good at analyzing music as a lot of people are … but even if I tried to pretend that I am that kind of music reviewing god, it wouldn’t work with the placement of this song here, because its placement at #1, while I think it says a ton about the song itself, might say more about me than anything.

I mean, first of all, it’s got such a nostalgic feeling for me, as it feels very reminiscent of the kind of music I listened to as a kid, with the blazing acoustic guitar, the catchy chorus, and the indie rock groove, even though I feel like this is mostly a country song. And with such specific lyrics all throughout this song that risk coming across as cheesy or corny, it honestly makes it all the more magical to me, maybe in part because of the nostalgia factor and it reminding me of specific songs from my childhood, but there’s a specific charm to it that very few songs can really pull off … and this song doesn’t just pull that off incredibly well, it transcends what feels possible with just how well every line fits perfectly!

And speaking of the lyrics … Ruston Kelly told Consequence this song was written when he tried to use CBD, but he didn’t realize he had accidentally bought a Delta-8 joint, and if I understand his wording correctly he wrote this that night when he accidentally got high, and I can hear it even as someone who has never gotten high before.

And first of all, the storytelling here is great, starting by setting the scene. In that interview with Consequence, Ruston Kelly also said this song was written when he was attempting to date and realized he wasn’t ready for that, which potentially implies the ‘she’ in the first verse might refer to someone he started dating and it didn’t work out, and now they’ve both moved on and are doing their own thing.

And then he mentions accidentally getting high, and wondering whether or not it would be genocide if Doug Kinney—portrayed by Michael Keaton—had committed suicide in the famous 1996 science fiction film Multiplicity, in which Doug creates duplicate versions of himself. And as random as this is, it absolutely works to add to the sense of haziness with his mind wandering to the most bizarre places, and it also makes the song even catchier!

But then there’s another person in the story, described with the pronoun ‘you’ … and who this person is doesn’t seem to really matter here, because it’s all about the narrator’s attitude. Although one of my favourite music critics mentioned the possibility that the ‘you’ in this song might be himself, and I like that interpretation as well. And this person is trying to get over a breakup and asks him for help, and while it seems like this person is taking all their problems out on him and won’t leave him alone even when he tries his best to help, it could also be interpreted that he doesn’t even try to help and is overreacting at someone innocently being emotional, with the line ‘now you’re tryin’ to take my words for ransom’ potentially being interpreted as an exaggeration. And, of course, all of this is up for debate and open to interpretation, but the reckless abandon of the narrator’s attitude here feels like it represents that douchey part of (probably) all of us that loves being careless and self-centered, feeling like you’re against the world. Because it’s also not made clear that he even showed any sympathy for this person in the first place, and when he says he’s going to set the house on fire … well, usually that would be the kind of line in a song where despite the fact I know it’s not meant literally it would still hurt the song in my opinion … and yet, here it doesn’t. In fact, the melodrama amplifies that reckless abandon that makes this song so incredibly special to me!

And I’ve barely even talked about the way this song sounds, and it sounds awesome! The guitar sounds absolutely phenomenal, and I love the way each verse feels like it builds on the last, the drums sound excellent, with that super hard-hitting snare fitting with the chorus super well, the bassline is probably among my favourite basslines of the year, and it’s all so amazingly well produced, with all the timbres uniting to create such a heavenly sound that feels like gliding along in paradise, and the vocal performance just floors me, with the raspy delivery sounding incredible over this instrumental, with the way he belts out that final chorus! And the vocal layering adds so much awesome texture, it’s so goddamn amazing!

And that chorus … where do I even begin with that chorus? Even aside from that absolutely killer perfect fourth in the bass when transitioning back into the verse, that chorus has got such a magical brightness to it, feeling like the cleanse I needed any time I felt guilty over the parts of myself I don’t like getting the best of me. And while this website doesn’t feel like the place for me to get really personal, I think I need to get somewhat personal to really explain why this song resonated with me so much. Because as much as I’ve tried to be a good person, I’ve still got a little bit of dickishness, like we probably all do. It’s a small part of myself, but one that does sometimes cause me to act in ways I end up regretting—I mean, that probably happens with all of us. But I know in my case it has on many occasions led to an intense feeling of guilt. And while I don’t want to glamourize bad behaviour, there’s probably at least a small part of all of us that I mentioned earlier that loves to pit ourselves against the rest of the world, and a song that feels like it acknowledges that in a better way than I could have imagined just resonated with me so deeply … and despite the likelihood that the other person in the story is also not being very respectful, this song still feels like the sort of douchey country song I didn’t know I needed in 2023!

And also, the mixing is fantastic, with all the instruments perfectly complementing each other, and it feels incredibly well balanced, especially to let that hook hit as hard as it does! And I haven’t even mentioned the awesome synths yet!

Even late in the year with my massive time crunch for getting all these year-end lists out, this song alone made me not only decide to revisit the whole album, an album I don’t like all that much, but I also rented and watched the movie Multiplicity, and it’s rare that I watch movies!

And just because a song is my most played of the year doesn’t necessarily make it my favourite of the year … although this was my most played song of 2023, and I don’t think it was particularly close, either, with all those late nights when I stayed up way later than I should have, and this felt like the perfect song to listen to! I’m not really sure what all of this says about me, but if I had to pick a song that felt like the anthem of my year in 2023, it’s “Michael Keaton” by Ruston Kelly, my favourite song of 2023!

…

Alright, before I wrap up this post, I want to talk a little bit about my plans for 2024 when it comes to reviews.

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this on this site yet or not, but I’m thinking about possibly switching to making my reviews in video form—you might actually see my face—whether that be YouTube or some other video form. Now, I’m not necessarily saying this will happen in 2024, but it might.

But for now, I’m just going to be going back to what I did in 2023, where I mostly post mini reviews with the occasional individual album review. In fact, I’ve already started working on some reviews of 2024 albums.

Also, while I reviewed over 315 albums in 2023, which is way more than I thought I would … I’d honestly like to set a goal for myself to review even more this year! Again, that’s a goal, which doesn’t necessarily mean I’ll reach that goal, but I want to try. And I’d also like to try and make my reviews better, too. It’ll be difficult, but I’m feeling ambitious.

Thank you so much to everyone who has read my posts over the last year—or ever, really—and of course, feel free to let me know your favourite songs of 2023 in the comment section!

And with that, I’ll be back soon with some mini reviews! Let’s see what 2024 brings!