Top 25 Songs of 2023

[transformers2]

#11
John: Good track. I second six's comment about the energy being good, which is surprising for a track driven by acoustic guitars and some relatively understated horns.

Leestu: This didn't really work for me. Kind of sounded like somebody like Flyleaf or Evanescence decided to start dabbling with some more atmospheric undertones and it doesn't really mesh with the clean, poppy vocal delivery.

six: Have no clue what the hell this was or really how I felt about it. But I'm glad that I know now where Rose Glass found the wig team for Love Lies Bleeding.

Surfer: An alright way to spend 3 minutes to listening to garage punk-ish music, but really no strong feelings either way about this one.

Ron: Pretty offbeat and relatively catchy little tune. Not bad at all.

[Leestu]

#16

Nice call on Sinatra Drive Breakdown being on my list John! I'm impressed
I found the Blur song a bit underwhelming, especially as the teaser single to a new album. I haven't bothered with the album as a result

The first half of the Knocked Loose song was good. I liked the interesting sounds, and the voice doesn't bother me, but the sludgy doom outro was great

Yes I should listen to the Stuck album. It's on my to do list. I liked their debut. I have heard a few songs from this one and they all make me want to hear it. This one is excellent and I loved the devolution of the song by the end. By the way I flew to Brisbane just to see Devo live last year

I missed the Pile track. Great stuff!

The Lotte Gallagher song is a solid what I used to call radio friendly tune


#15

I have liked some of Ray Lamontagne that I have heard (Ouroboros is great) but I find this too snoozy and traditional

It's the songwriting (i lked the way it was structured) and the musicianship in this Horrendous song that I appreciate. And the proggy elements do tickle my aural taste buds. Kept me interested for the 7 minutes

Undergrowth by Squid is a great song. Missed out on my top 30 though

I've just discovered deathcrash late last year through their excellent Duffy's single. I like their slowcore take on post-rock

Shag Rock is a very Aussie sounding song isn't it

[Leestu]

#14

I have never been able to get into B&S and I have tried. This song was a fine one-off listen though

Really like the Yves Tumor song but Heaven Surrounds Us Like A Hood is their 2023 highlight for me

That U2 comment about The Murder Capital is funny...and not wrong...shame its not a strong follow up to their great debut album...still a really good song though

Listened to the Stuck song again because it is so good

I saw Fred Again..at a festival last year (no one better was on) and sat the though the whole thing. I get the appeal but it doesn't make me dance, and if something is go to it's a live setting

#13

I surprisingly liked the Emily Rose song more than I thought I would...the droney moodiness of it probably

The Kesha song was okay

I checked out the Sufjan album. It wasn't for me

The Dancer song was neat

Alan Paloma not my thing but it was okay

[numbersix]

SONG #10


John

The New Pornographers: Really Really Light

Neko Case and her Canadian Boyfriends return with another podium-worthy piece of indie pop.




Leetsu

Cory Hanson: Persuasion Architecture

This is my favourite song from easily his best album so far (and one of my top 10 albums of the year) where he gets the balance of alt-country, psychedelic, and indie singer-songwriter just right




Transformers

Job for a Cowboy: The Agony Seeping Storm

I promise that it's just a coincidence that the two heaviest songs that appeared on my list have titles that could easily be applied to how you feel while you're listening to them!!! Also, a little fun fact: the man delivering the evil vocal noises here hails from Glendale, Arizona-where our beloved Patrick resided.




Six

IDLES: Dancer

The return of IDLES is always an event for me (and I just got tickets to a smaller show of theirs next month), and to mark their TANGK era they released this track last year. At first, this may not sound impressive, with the chorus not standing out musically. Yet there’s something about singer Joe Talbot’s vocal strutting that makes it fun, and the backing vocals of LCD Soundsystem are perhaps the glue that binds the song together.




Surf

Protomartyr: Polacrilex Kid




Ron

Between You & Me: YEAH!

[JohnErle]

Fever Ray leaned a little heavily on the pseudo-Chinese synth sounds, but I liked its sense of rhythm, so it worked for me.

I'm not big on labels usually, but rarely has a song failed to live up to the genre expectations I had based on the description provided quite like that Cody Hanson song. There was no mention of that thrash metal noise that kicked off the track, but once it was over it started to sound something akin to the description, but it didn't really grab me, and once the thrashy guitars returned I was done.

Nothing else to say about any of the rest, expect that I won't be listening to any of them again.

[Leestu]

#12

Love Los Angeles...Better Lovers was pretty good and they looked like they were having fun...Vampire Empire just missed out on my favourites list...R. Ring was fascinating - I've added that one...and that may be the worst Olivia Rodrigo song I have heard - those lyrics ugh!

#11

Billy Keane was okay but didn't stand out in any way...I did not like the Dua Lipa song at all...I liked the Fever Ray album and this song...Lifeguard were decent...and Teenage Dads is a pleasant but pass me by song

#10

The New Pornographers is a bit bland but a pretty bland...Job For A Cowboy was a bit too much for me, but still I'd rather listen to it than Dua Lipa,,,yeah I wasn't sure at first with Dancer but it grew on me - and Gift Horse released this week has got me excited for the new album...sane with Polacrix Kid but it s not growing on me as much...Between You and Me sounds like a disposable good time

[numbersix]

SONG #9


John

Botticelli Baby : Lips

The Spotify DJ feature is getting awfully good at throwing songs I end up liking into the mix. I was listening to lots of classic jazz and swing in 2023, mostly soundtracks like Blood & Black Lace or Satan In High Heels, plus a few gangster-themed jazz compilations, plus I'd been listening to a lot of Morphine at the time, so that must be why the algorithm thought I'd enjoy this. The whole album is solid, so score one for our future AI overlords.




Leetsu

M(h)aol: Nice Guys

What a great debut album from Irish noisy post-punk band with attitude. One of the best of the year for me




Transformers

JPEGMAFIA and Danny Brown: Burfict!

The JPEGMAFIA x Danny Brown collab was a gift for all of the folks out there that love abrasive, gleefully inaccessible hip hop. "Burfict!" does a beautiful job of highlighting why this duo was built to make music together as they take turns spewing terrific shit talk-filled verses over a triumphantly jazzy yet incendiary beat that was produced by JPEGMAFIA himself.




Six

Janelle Monae: Float

This may sound like an unlikely pick for my songs of the year, but I listened to it during a few weeks of downtime from life, and its sun-blistered, sultry vibes and its philosophy on being chill resonated with me.




Surf

Sweeping Promises: Eraser




Ron

Gorillaz, Adeleye Omotayo : Silent Running

[numbersix]

#10 and 9

John: The New Pornographers song was okay, but I've forgotten about it already. The Botticelli Baby song was surprisingly satisfying. Good swing to it, but felt modern. I can't wait until AI just replaces bands and creates the music we want as individuals. Then we don't have to engage with the real world ever again.

Leetsu: That Cory Hanson song is all over the place, as if two completely disparate songs where mashed together. I liked the noisier bit more. As for Mhaol, I too liked their debut album. Pity the lead singer has quit, though they'r'e still performing live without her. Asking For It just missed out my Top 30.

Tranny: I wouldn't say it was agonising, because my brain ignored it with ease. However, I love the JPEGMAFIA/Danny Brown record, and this is indeed one of the highlights of an excellent and disorienting record.

Surf: Snap (almost) with the Protomartyr song - I just love how it progresses from a song about the frustrations of giving up cigs, to a painfully honest bout of self-pity and self-doubt. I liked the Sweeping Promises album a lot, it feels they've grown more confident in the song-writing skills, though none made my list.

Ron: It's a nah from me on YEAH. And the Gorillaz was too poppy for my liking.

[JohnErle]

I'm often baffled by Tranny's hip-hop picks since that's a genre that's utterly foreign to me, and I'm fine with that, but I quite enjoyed that JPEGMAFIA track. The beat felt perfectly accessible to me, and I dug the horns. There seem to be a lot of horns in my picks this year, so that seems to be where my head is at these days.

The rest were all tolerable, but not for me.

[numbersix]

SONG #8


John

Dougie Poole: High School Gym

"There's my old man smoking his Pall Malls
There's my Gran in her robe with the frills
And over there on the end's my old good time friends
They showed up early with the powder and the pills"




Leetsu

Sprints: Up and Comer

You may remember Sprints featured prominently in my list last year and here they are again in my top 10. They finally released their debut album a couple of days ago and it is worth the wait. I’m loving it so far




Transformers

Foo Fighters: Under You

There are plenty of more somber tributes to Taylor Hawkins on "But Here We Are", but I ended up particularly gravitating towards this heartfelt, anthemic meditation on the part of the grieving process where you're simultaneously still in disbelief that this person is actually gone and beginning down the path of accepting their loss.




Six

Mitski: Heaven

Apparently Mitski was ready to quit making music, when she suddenly found second wind and recorded this album, which leans more into folk and country than her previous synth-heavy album. She remains the queen of sad-sacks, but in this song she finds a moment of joy in the domestic. Even if it’s fleeting, it’s worth celebrating.




Surf

Screaming Females: Mourning Dove




Ron

070 Shake: Black Dress

[numbersix]

Also, we'll do a #1 song per day, so let me know if you want any of the dates below

Jan 29 - John
Jan 30
Jan 31 - Tranny
Feb 1
Feb 2 - Surf
Feb 3

[JohnErle]

I'll take the 29th.

[transformers2]

I'll take the 31st

[transformers2]

#10
John: Pretty dull.

Leestu: An extremely ambitious stew of genres from all across the musical spectrum that is definitely a bit jarring and messy, but it's undeniably unique and the guitar leads are killer. Just might've have to give the whole album a spin to see if his style grows on me.

six: Very, very nervous about the new Idles album. While their dedication to constantly experimenting with their sound is admirable, this track (along with the other singles) have underwhelming hooks and a considerably lower level of the swaggering punk energy that's been a constant through all their prior efforts.

surfer: Protomartyr is kind of like punky white noise to me. They're harmless enough to listen to for a few minutes here and there, but their sound is ultimately too devoid of any kind of powerful emotion or memorable riffing to ever convince me to examine their stuff further.

Ron: This was sophomoric and buzzing with a vibrant energy, which makes it a pretty good pop punk tune in my book.

[transformers2]

#9
John: The horns were pleasant, but the vocals had me on the verge of nodding off.

Leestu: Just agonizingly repetitive. Was thrilled when it finally ended after what felt like 20 minutes.

six: An unexpected pick indeed. It's certainly sunny, but I find it to be a bizarrely safe, stagnant song from the typically unrelentingly experimental and distinct Monae.

surfer:Other than the ghastly production and mixing (even by punk standards), it was alright.

Ron: Neither top-tier or bottom of the barrel Gorillaz. It's pretty catchy throughout, but the mixing is kind of a fucking mess with the background vocals and piano way too quiet in the mix.