The following is a list of 2023 songs that absolutely shred. Or sedate. Or both, as these are the two best musical modes. Mostly because it's the stuff that slithers in and disconnects the brain for a bit. Wipes the hard drive, so to speak. Neutral is good for a jury, not for media (as cable news is hellbent to prove). So prepare yourself for an ambient, screaming, jazz-fused dance party!
We all love songs. Your mom, yourself, your enemy. Different genres and vocal stylings, classic and modern. But life gets busy and occasionally the search for new disappears. Tech helps cover human fault, but even the Spotify algo misses sometimes. We all do. This list will a bunch too, as there is a lot of music within. So at best, maybe this collection will fill a few dark corners the Swedes never suggested.
These are all good tracks. Nothing at the heights of "Tha Mobb" or "Roads" or "Dayvan Cowboy" or "Once in a Lifetime", but then again what is? And while I did feel the need to segment this in some way considering the size, the rankings are arbitrary. So if you're the type to open a book and flip to the end to see the final sentence, know the difference is pretty slight.
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The Quite Good
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▼ Moby "amb 23-2" | LISTEN
For morning meditations on desolate planets (Doc Manhattan style).
▼ Meg Baird "Ashes, Ashes" | LISTEN
For foggy drives on country roads at dusk.
▼ Oozing Wound "Old Sludge" | LISTEN
For a deleted scene from 8mm.
▼ Sister Grotto "Song for an Unborn Sun" | LISTEN
For that moment in life after something completely and totally destructive happens. Something altering in the worst way. (this is what all Midwife and Midwife-adjacent stuff is made for)
▼ slowthai "Feel Good" | LISTEN
For celebrations.
▼ Kalia Vandever "Temper The Wound" | LISTEN
For headphone wearers to admire as a still-chilled spring breeze drifts across their face.
▼ Squid "Swing (In A Dream)" | LISTEN
For those (correctly) missing post-punk.
▼ Two Shell "mind_flip" | LISTEN
For those who pass the scanner, and like to party.
▼ Men I Trust "Ring of Past" | LISTEN
For lovers of a funky bassline.
▼ Short Wave Craft "I Need You Tonight" | LISTEN
For seekers of Play's C-sides, as the B-sides are already out there and awesome.
▼ Gorillaz "Skinny Ape" | LISTEN
For new beginnings (at least in regards to cartoon characters).
▼ Beach Fossils "Don't Fade Away" | LISTEN
For a post-break up walk through a mall in 1996.
▼ slowthai "Yum" | LISTEN
For lovers of Yeezus (there are hundreds of us).
▼ DJ Koze "Blissda" | LISTEN
For a musical fever dream. A hazy, cathartic walk outside one's body.
▼ Skee Mask "UWLSD" | LISTEN
For a stroll through the chaos of an airport.
▼ RVG "Squid" | LISTEN
For those not going back in time (it's not worth it).
▼ Yaeji feat. Loraine James "1 Thing to Smash" | LISTEN
For a dose of ambient anger.
▼ billy woods, Kenny Segal feat. Samuel T. Herring "FaceTime" | LISTEN
For the melancholic scribbles of a human on the road.
▼ Soft Kill "Molly" | LISTEN
For those still in love with Sam Baker.
▼ Killer Mike, El-P feat. Thankugoodsir "DON'T LET THE DEVIL" | LISTEN
For those willing to settle for light beer when regular isn't available.
▼ Beach House "Holiday House" | LISTEN
For YouTube montages of The Virgin Suicides.
▼ Olof Dreijer, Mount Sims "Hybrid Fruit" | LISTEN
For a little creeping unease via steel drum.
▼ Sweeping Promises "Eraser" | LISTEN
For the best post-chorus synth line of the year.
▼ Harmless "As I Lay Chillin" | LISTEN
For lovers of lyrical dissonance.
▼ $uicideboy$ "whatwhat" | LISTEN
For the Louisiana from Russia from '90s Memphis pipeline.
▼ Kieran Hebden, William Tyler "No Services" | LISTEN
For that mental space between lying awake and falling back asleep on a hot, humid summer's night.
▼ The Japanese House "Boyhood" | LISTEN
For this year's entry in the category of "Best Music Video Featuring a Horse" (last year's was, of course, "Everything Is Simple").
▼ Lindstrøm "Syreen" | LISTEN
For those who get the bumps when Lindstrøm does that one-note piano key thing.
▼ Laurel Halo, Coby Sey, Lucy Railton, James Underwood "Belleville" | LISTEN
For lonely hotel bars at 1 AM.
▼ DECEITS "Drowning In An Empty Sea" | LISTEN
For when mom unplugs the PlayStation and hides it in her room for the weekend.
▼ Travis Scott feat. Bad Bunny, the Weeknd "K-POP" | LISTEN
For lovers of the featuring artist(s) completely stealing the show (also known as the Nicki Minaj).
▼ Purelink feat. J "4k Murmurs" | LISTEN
For 2023's soundtrack to taking the Voight-Kampff test.
▼ DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ "For Now and Forever" | LISTEN
For playing in the background at the best party of your goddamn life.
▼ Julio Bashmore, T. Williams "ZP Dub" | LISTEN
For a four-on-the-floor, pulsing banger.
▼ Forest Swords "The Low" | LISTEN
For when Portman gets to the lighthouse in Annihilation. If the Shimmer wasn't Florida swamplands, but an industrial club in Berlin.
▼ Soul Glo "If I Speak (Shut The Fuck Up)" | LISTEN
For the best song title of the year (and an insane music video to pair it with).
▼ Evian Christ "On Embers" | LISTEN
For pumping up an outmatched human race when the robots finally take over.
▼ Raphael Rogiński "Electron" | LISTEN
For a surviving cowboy to strum after we lose the above war.
▼ Verraco "Escándaloo" | LISTEN
For bank robbery getaways anywhere south of Texas.
▼ CASTLEBEAT "Ends" | LISTEN
For camcorder memories.
▼ Manhatten "Dark Net" | LISTEN
For lovers of song title dissonance.
▼ Eli Escobar "C@n U F33l It" | LISTEN
For a hypnotic dose of musical stress.
▼ Mall Grab "Foxes" | LISTEN
For those who loved 2022's What I Breathe and need a little taste of that magic in 2023.
▼ Florentino feat. Shygirl "Pressure" | LISTEN
For something modern that would've fit hand-in-glove on a Need for Speed soundtrack (not the film — that's right, you completely spaced they made one, didn't you?).
▼ I. JORDAN, Planningtorock "TNB (Night Version)" | LISTEN
For the I. Jordan track of the year (a constant presence on these lists).
▼ Actress "Push Power (a1)" | LISTEN
For the first entry in one of the themes of the year: slow-build tracks that reach an emotional crescendo.
▼ Anenon "Moons Melt Milk Light" | LISTEN
For noir detectives, sitting at the bar rail, drowning in their emotional low point.
▼ Mura Masa feat. NADIAH "Rise" | LISTEN
For those seeking a club banger throwback from the '90s.
▼ Phét Phét Phét "You Are the Eyes of the World" | LISTEN
For anyone thinking, "Hey, this year was a little short on great sci-fi scores" and would like a 20-minute slice to make up for it.
▼ Crown Court "Tick Talk" | LISTEN
For that, just booted up the new Tony Hawk game-feeling.
▼ mars kumari "i thought i lost you" | LISTEN
For my guess at what was playing in Stewart's head as she punched the space bar in Underwater.
▼ AyooLii "Shmackin Town" | LISTEN
For those who have long been asking, "Why hasn't anyone done something truly wacky with 'Funky Town'?"
▼ Kashh Mir feat. Mello Buckzz, Moni Da G, Amari Blaze "$4800" | LISTEN
For the "Less is More" Video of the Year.
▼ dottie "fawn" | LISTEN
For the young lovers kissing in the rain.
▼ Omar Apollo "Ice Slippin" | LISTEN
For all the happy criers out there.
▼ 6LACK "Since I Have A Lover" | LISTEN
For those happy criers — having come to terms with their heartbreak and accepted themselves and their situation — to listen to as they enter a party and fall in love at first sight.
▼ KNOWER "Do Hot Girls Like Chords?" | LISTEN
For one of year's best examples of having me from 00:01. If you hear that bass and feel nothing, get your ass to an emergency room immediately.
▼ The Serfs "Electric Like An Eel" | LISTEN
For those who have forgotten how far Kraftwerk's influence stretches.
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The Very Good
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▼ Oliver Coates "Last Dance (score)" | LISTEN
I am in constant fear of this song, as the film itself broke me half. Coates' woozy, forlorn score to Calum's endgame is a time portal to that feeling for those who've seen. For those who stood by and let Wells and Mescal get their claws into their skin, their brain, their heart. Magnifique.
▼ Overmono "Is U" | LISTEN
The year started with a bang, as Overmono's January single immediately demanded repeat listens and little has changed since. The constant key pacing it all, the mid-point's spinning crescendo, "All I want is youuuuu". Great stuff from the Welshmen.
▼ The Know "Me" | LISTEN
Maybe the best slice of dream pop I heard all year. Not quite a lost track from Bloom, but it's on the way.
▼ bdrmm "It's Just A Bit of Blood" | LISTEN
A pinball machine of a track. From plucked guitars to shoegaze vocals to uncontrollable body swayer. A zig-zagging nostalgia trip.
▼ beabadoobee "Glue Song" | LISTEN
Example no. 1,683 of Bea being charming as hell. Awesome song. Cute music video. Falling in love, and the loved ones you've always known. Awwwwwww.
▼ $uicideboy$, Shakewell "Gutter Bravado" | LISTEN
Can't think of a better encapsulation of what the Boy$ are all about than the following four bars from $crim here: "Hunnid K just got my ice more wetter than the Navy (Yeah)/Wetto wavy wavy, I just smoked me up a eighty/I might OD up in Prague, I might OD up in Russia/I might fly my bitch to Paris for a threesome up in London, yeah".
▼ Kelela "Divorce" | LISTEN
Like a ghost trailing you through a deserted club. A neck hairs-raised presence behind you, thickening every nanometer of air surrounding. Empty dance floor, lights still pulsing. A ghost wants to be heard, and the dream won't let you leave.
▼ Model/Actriz "Crossing Guard" | LISTEN
Dogsbody is a dope album, and this may be Haden's best vocal performance from it. Half a whisper at times, aching wail for others, he is the cosmic constant amongst the disorientating instrumentation. A depressive north star.
▼ M83 "Us and the Rest" | LISTEN
I don't want to make waves, but Gonzalez is pretty good at this nostalgia drowned, emotional swooning soundtrack-type stuff.
▼ Rae Sremmurd "Flaunt It/Cheap" | LISTEN
Sremm hitting their "let's just split shit up for the sake of our respective creative visions"-section of their careers. A Speakerboxxx/The Love Below dynamic in a track, if you will, and the shifting works wonders here.
▼ BAMBII "One Touch" | LISTEN
There's more bouncing in this music video than at a basketball game, and who can be blamed? A jungle/dancehall mixer with killer vocal manipulation and breaks. Boogie on.
▼ Jazzy "Giving Me" | LISTEN
There are certain slang phrases/phrasings that grab the public and drive me insane. An example of this auditory nightmare would be something like: "[noun] is giving me [bad descriptor] vibes." I don't know why, some just irk me while other idioms don't bother at all. Anyway, this bops.
▼ Stxrz "how i feel" | LISTEN
You just know there are kids in Kolpino ripping the shit out of some new Omskshina tires while blasting this in a parking lot at 4 AM. And I gotta say, they get it.
▼ Jessie Ware "Begin Again" | LISTEN
We must protect Ms. Ware at all costs. Her disco ball revivalism cannot be stopped. She must succeed, for the fate of the world depends upon it.
▼ Mark Barrott "Kamikakushi (神隠し)" | LISTEN
A lazy river through space. A five-minute meditative detachment from the chaos of daily living in 2023 and into the stars above.
▼ Rebūke "Glow" | LISTEN
Gonna bring back the schtick from the Quite Goods here and say: For criminal getaways pretty much anywhere in Europe, especially those that end with our heroes escaping and kissing while watching the sunrise.
▼ Magdalena Bay "2 Wheel Drive" | LISTEN
Fresh off of one of 2022's best, Mercurial World, Bay released another mini mix this past year. While it may not reach the heights of the full length, "2 Wheel Drive" extends on a lot of what was working within: surging synths vocalized by Tenenbaum's sotto voce, with all punctuated in the grooving final minute.
▼ Charlotte de Witte "Overdrive" | LISTEN
One of the best DJs in the world, back on her bullshit.
▼ Duke Dumont "The Chant (For Club Play Only, Pt. 8)" | LISTEN
This list's submission for the "Peaking in the Club" Song of the Year.
▼ Vacant "Without You" | LISTEN
Definitely feels like something from the early Hyperdub era. An industrial relic through a lens of black and white.
▼ Divorce Court "Woodcrest" | LISTEN
If this is your introduction to Divorce Court, then welcome to the dream. Williams' brand of bedroom production is the stuff of fuzzy underwater meditations. The mental space held alongside breath as you sit at the bottom of the deep end and the sun's rays break the surface tension.
▼ Aluna "The Way I'm Wired" | LISTEN
10+ years on, Francis' voice still fits hand-in-glove over electronic thumps. The "I will never let you go" chorus is classic club fare and this bobs and weaves like a Hayabusa through midnight London. It isn't quite "White Noise", but few are.
▼ K-LONE feat. Eliza Rose "With U" | LISTEN
A late night come down. A drive home of empty highways and near dawn light. Echoed and lightly drumming with the headache accompanying.
▼ Drab Majesty "The Skin and the Glove" | LISTEN
2019's "Ellipsis" was my track of the year. An '80s guitar and synth ode turned modern pop perfection. Here, the duo are still pulling from the past, but with considerable less interest in en masse consumption. A little darker, a little seedier. This is built for good headphones in a dark room.
▼ Disclosure "Simply Won't Do" | LISTEN
"Feels like Vertigo" Song of the Year.
▼ A$AP Rocky "RIOT (Rowdy Pipe'n)" | LISTEN
Results may vary for Rocky since his near perfect Live.Love.ASAP mixtape, but this is a top-half return to previous strategies. No fat, just bass thuds and horns with Rocky's ace flow. Now let's just make sure we get some Clams on this upcoming album...
▼ Yard Act "The Trench Coat Museum" | LISTEN
Hand claps and cowbell, y'all!
▼ Róisín Murphy "You Knew" | LISTEN
Me, at some point every single day since this dropped and to nobody in particular, fully throated: "What do you expect me, to toe the line for?" Catchy as all hell.
▼ Ludwig Göransson "Can You Hear the Music" | LISTEN
If you played this before sending soldiers to war, it would prove more effective than amphetamines.
▼ submerse "Real Cool" | LISTEN
You know what's real cool? Five minutes of jungle/drum and bass goodness in 2023.
▼ Slowdive "shanty" | LISTEN
The opening minute to this is from another plane. Slowdive's wall of guitars and buoying electronics bring it to a high before the layered vocals add an additional multiplier. To think this band was met with such divisiveness when they started. Idiocy.
▼ Octo Octa "Late Night Love" | LISTEN
This is a bona fide booty shaker. A hip mover. A toe tapper. A groove that makes you want to do the dance from Borat.
▼ Glass Beams "Mirage" | LISTEN
On the one hand, this is the type of groove you'd expect (and welcome, considering its skill) to hear in a hookah bar. The video itself might've been filmed in one. On the other hand, it would also make sense being heard at a "wellness" retreat. A retreat you'd sprint from when those chants kick in.
▼ Sufjan Stevens "Goodbye Evergreen" | LISTEN
It warms my heart to see Javelin getting all the love it is on these EOY lists. Unfortunately — and especially, as a longtime fan — it didn't quite resonate for me. Possibly due to my K2-high expectations or some other inherently "me" issue, but it doesn't quite reach the levels he's accomplished before. It's an unfair curve, but "Goodbye Evergreen" soars regardless.
▼ Peggy Gou, Lenny Kravitz "I Believe In Love Again" | LISTEN
I certainly didn't have a Lenny Kravitz song hitting my best of list anywhere on my 2023 bingo card, but here we are. Possibly a straight coattails ride on the rocket ship that currently is Peggy Gou, or maybe just a perfect pairing for his popified falsetto. Either way, we're the better for it.
▼ 070 Shake feat. Ken Carson "Natural Habitat" | LISTEN
Once is luck, but twice is skill. "Guilty Conscience" was fantastic, but also a track that wouldn't have felt out of place on one of those, "Do you remember that one song..." lists you fill with friends. The kind of games that force you into other rooms at parties to ask if anyone can remember the artist's name. "God, this is great," you say as it blares out of the speaker. Shake taps Carson to ensure that won't be happening to her any time soon.
▼ Danny Brown "Down Wit It" | LISTEN
Brown was a house on fire this year, but here he's found nowhere near the house parties and craziness his reputation is built on. A contemplative, remorseful journey of mistakes done and done to, culminating in the drunken repetitions of a man who can't take it all back.
A little double tap here for the Detroit duo, who are filling a space left vacant by the now third rail-sheened Crystal Castles. Checking the latter's boxes of sonic shock, epileptic distortions, and hyper brutality. The 313 is only four hours from Toronto, after all.
▼ Shygirl, Cosha "thicc" | LISTEN
Horny club banger? Horny club banger.
▼ Chastity Belt "Hollow" | LISTEN
In major favor of rock bands using their platform to bring influencer culture down a peg. The pouring of wine into a raw chicken carcass an especially nice touch. Fuck a ring light. Fuck choreographed dances.
▼ TisaKorean "uHhH HuH.Mp3" | LISTEN
Many (?) of us have been waiting nearly 20 years for someone to carry the torch initially lit by "Tipsy". TisaKorean is the man for the job, with some added spice.
▼ Lonnie Holley, Sharon Van Etten "None of Us Have But a Little While" | LISTEN
Deathbed Americana. With horns and empathy.
▼ mikeeysmind "Molly" | LISTEN
Tired from a long day? Need something to block out that headache hum and thoughts of work at a job you, at best, marginally like? Need to be transported for a few minutes on the drive home from it all? Bingo.
▼ Drain "Weight of the World" | LISTEN
This is merely an appetizer for the Drain that is to come. Living Proof grabs you by the collar and drags you behind a Santa Cruz dune buggy for 25 minutes. The guitars here? "Wish I could fade to dusssssssst"? That's the stuff.
▼ YNG Martyr "50k" | LISTEN
A chorus infectious like tuberculosis. A dizzying cut of a video. Best IRS-related song of this year for sure.
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The Great
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▼ Model/Actriz "Amaranth" | LISTEN
This song feels angry at the audience. The titular flower out for some brutality. A screeching and blood soaked break up letter that is also somehow catchy as hell. A remarkable thing considering its sharp edges. These violent delights...
▼ $uicideboy$, Shakewell "Big Shot Cream Soda" | LISTEN
The first time you hear Ruby's voice on one of Dwyer's cloud beats, you either brand yourself a zealot or dismiss the group completely. Doesn't seem to be much medium ground between on evaluations of the Boy$. Categorize me in the first camp (obviously, at this point).
▼ Tzusing "孝忍狠 (Filial Endure Ruthless)" | LISTEN
This, my friends, is what they call a ripper. Harsh drums and rapier synths punctuated by a menacing hum. The makes its notions clear immediately: a song for dark alleyways and basement clubs. One for the underworld. Shame there wasn't time to squeeze it into the fourth John Wick.
▼ Ross From Friends "The One" | LISTEN
Each of Weatherall's releases is like kibble for your boy. Here, it's the circling choruses that smash this into euphoria. Each build to the next showcases another tool in the bag for Mr. Geller's moonlit-jockey alter ego (not really, please ignore me David Schwimmer). While I've certainly been in first class for Fred again..'s come up, I'm hoping 2024 provides the same for Weatherall.
If you power up Google and key in some search terms for knowing your own biases, it's mainly university studies on how to correct anchoring or the bystander effect. If my algo was running at a personalized level I'd be awfully uncomfortable with, it would find some corner of the internet where a troll berates me for overrating everything Kieran Hebden's ever done. Seems every one of my best of lists has at least one track from the man behind Four Tet (amongst other monikers). "Looking At Your Pager", Tame Impala remixes, the individual songs of the latter track's mash up here, and so on. There is a small moment in Perks of Being a Wallflower where the character Bob, upon receiving the simple gift of a bubble bottle, says "He knows me. He really knows me." Here's to hoping Hebden keeps the bubble train going.
▼ Fred again.., Brian Eno "Enough" | LISTEN
What an exhale this is. Something pretty on a level only befitting the best sunrises/sets. Auditory nourishment.
▼ Q "Today" | LISTEN
Would you like some classic R&B vocal isolation? How about that same angelic voice over an absolutely funky bassline? Q says, why not both? And while his pipes truly are something here, the production is never even a stride behind. The keys, the flutes, and of course that bass. Unreal stuff.
▼ Gia Margaret "Ways of Seeing" | LISTEN
There is a moment around the hour and a half mark in The End of the Tour where Eisenberg — having seen the full spectrum of human in Segel's version of David Foster Wallace, from petulant literary rock star to ordinary everyman eating McDonalds — reads a St. Ignatius prayer above Segel's toilet. They say their goodbyes on the squeaky Illinois snow and Eisenberg leaves, forever changed. Segel heads to a dance class at the local church, forever attempting the same. Anyway, this sounds like that moment feels to me.
▼ Submerse "What You Wanna Do" | LISTEN
This would fit nowhere in that film, unless the two of them decided to board a plane to the UK and immerse themselves in the DnB scene. It was the '90s, after all.
▼ Phoebe Bridgers "Waiting Room" | LISTEN
Of naive infatuation and the shackles it provides. A level of headstrong and lovesick blinders that cannot be persuaded until it is too late in multiple ways. Until the only thing left is the wave of realization. Opening a painful door for the first time, made all the worse by the source. And that's where the outro comes in. One to be screamed in cars after leaving "their" house, and at decibels thought unreachable before.
▼ Queens of the Stone Age "Sicily" | LISTEN
Nearly thirty years on, and Homme and Co. still find ways to surprise. Here, a stomping seduction of both classical and modern strings. There's the usual QOTSA bravado, to be sure, but there are also smaller, wiser hints of desperation layered behind it all.
▼ The Beaches "Blame Brett" | LISTEN
Ah, the youthful act of self awareness ignored in the name of ego preservation. Notions of "Me and only 'bout me" have never been so catchy, so chant-worthy. The Toronto girls craft a pop rock masterclass at the expense of Brett Emmons. Art is ruthless indeed.
▼ The Japanese House "Over There" | LISTEN
"She keeps her coat on/There's not a lot to go on". Heartbreaking ruminations on love lost and the stranger now in front of us. Hushed guesses at what is and what could've been are all that Bain has. Another entry for an all around good year for breakup tracks (or not good, results may vary).
▼ Burial "Unknown Summer" | LISTEN
If Burial started a cult tomorrow, I'd be checking my air miles. His oft-imitated, never replicated sound a beam of creativity from off-worlds. An alien ethereality via South London. If my views on Four Tet are bias, mine on Burial are obstinate.
There was a strong opinion a few years back that Carly Rae Jepsen was saving pop music. While she is great, I'm not sure (a) she's ever had the base to do so, and (b) whether it can be saved. Modern music is just fine, but its relation to popular in the traditional sense is changing rapidly. What percentage of people under 25 listen to the radio? Or anything outside their Spotify suggestions and the background tunes in influencer videos? The idea of a pop artist is kind of dead, a relic alongside platinum records and (actual) MTV. However, with Rodrigo's youthful appeal and ear for nostalgia-bait production, she could be our only chance at a bridge between the old and new.
▼ 7038634357 "Overbraid" | LISTEN
Five minutes of strobing beauty. Headphones on, brain off.
▼ Summore "Magic Pill (Coatie Pop Remix)" | LISTEN
A tune that, if movie productions had better music supervisors, would be a background actor in a club scene. Considering the state of Hollywood and that pretty much any IP with even lukewarm love is getting remade, I'd like to volunteer this one for the eventual Go cinematic universe. Play it when Ronna and the gang enter the Christmas rave.
▼ Hannah Diamond "Poster Girl" | LISTEN
We got plenty of pop music this year. A good portion even pining for the halcyon days of the genre (whenever that is seemingly varies widely and is dependent on age). But what about high-concept bubblegum synthpop? Less so. Diamond's "Poster Girl" ticks any box submitted by the above and sounds ready for dial-up download on Kazaa.
▼ Charlotte de Witte "High Street (Astrix Remix)" | LISTEN
The "Would've Sounded Amazing at Printworks" Song of the Year. Rest in peace. Europe just has it sorted out, man. Imagine catching the insane atmosphere of a prem game in East London during the day and then partying to this in the club that night. Bucket list stuff.
▼ Viji "Karaoke" | LISTEN
Fascinating lyrics and voice inflections from Viji on this one. The stream of consciousness way her story unfolds is great. Whipping from describing herself as an arachnid to her need to sing karaoke in a single line pairing. Then bouncing to everything from preparation for Halloween to lonely texts. The flight pattern of a bee on acid. "I'm sweet as ice" sticks out for the descriptor, but also because of how "ice" is emphasized. It's a force multiplier to an already good, jangling chorus.
▼ Ian Sweet "Comeback" | LISTEN
Isn't it kind of crazy how much within music is ubiquitous? Things determined sounding good decades ago by ghosts still ever-present in what we hear today, and likely tomorrow, and so on. How long did hip-hop producers use the "Funky Drummer" sample? They probably still are. A good "ooh" in a song is nothing new, used in everything from tribal chants to hair metal. Maybe it's the primal, universal language to it. We understand "oh" in English just as much as Korean. Medford weaponizes that understanding in the chorus and elsewhere here. Each cooed and accompanied by guitar. Each sure to get stuck in your head.
▼ Hotline TNT "Spot Me 100" | LISTEN
Think little about this one. Just get in a car and turn that fuckin' knob, brother.
▼ EKKSTACY "bella" | LISTEN
Catchy as they come and emo in the best ways. Sort of pulls the She's All That delusion in it's video, though. Immediately describing the assumed girl at hand as easily passed by, but casting a smoking (both definitions) human for the visuals. Okay, buddy.
▼ HEALTH "UNLOVED" | LISTEN
My forever malformed by The Matrix-brain loves a HEALTH release. Industrial feet to floor, with Duzsik's voice keeping trip-hop cool alive. An assault of guitar power and violent drums, harsh but in an accessible way. The L.A. boys have always made thematic music for sci-fi nerds. Simply, what's not to love?
▼ Drake feat. J. Cole "Evil Ways" | LISTEN
A hilarious pairing in 2023. Back in The Sideline Stories days when the two of them first collaborated, it made complete sense. Both MCs fresh and on the come up, hungry for stardom. Since, Cole has undoubtedly gained popularity, but also remained himself to a fault. A North Carolina boy through and through. While Drake became, well, Drake. A globe trotting superstar. And on those travels he picked up some things that distance him from the So Far Gone version of himself. Riddims and vaporwave electronica, to name a few. He's become pop artifice, less Wu Tang and more Bowie. Which isn't to say it's a bad thing, as people change all the time. Well, some people.
▼ Danny Brown "Quaranta" | LISTEN
While Brown broke through the scene as a partying hellcat, he's always had a contemplative side to him. Those that drown sorrows often do. Even XXX was more than just a racy title. Beside the hedonism a curious human, someone thoughtful about both play and feeling. This duality showcased well on his podcast for the last few years and extending over into his latest release. The title track using a lonely cowboy backdrop as a vehicle for Brown's journal entry on fame and life.
▼ Vortxz "My Love" | LISTEN
Something Robert Smith would be proud of. A lost B-side to "Pictures of You", both in spirit and runtime. A lovesick message in a bottle, traveling all the way from Sussex to Houston.
▼ Nothing, Full of Hell "Like Stars In The Firmament" | LISTEN
This is far from binding or a will, but feel free to bury me to this one. Yet another absolutely massive track from Nothing. Still one of the most underappreciated groups doing it, but I didn't anticipate this collab to produce such slowcore beauty. This renders death a warm bath you can't help but slip into.
▼ Bad Bunny "MONACO" | LISTEN
I went to Mexico in November and they were playing Bunny everywhere. Every-where. And you know what? I get it. I absolutely get it.
▼ JPEGMAFIA, Danny Brown "Fentanyl Tester" | LISTEN
Well, well. We all should strive to find positive avenues for our Jekyl and Hyde masks like Mr. Brown did this year. The good doctor exits stage left immediately on "Fentanyl Tester", with Brown exclaiming, "I do what I want to". JPEG brings the haphazard, "Milkshake"-cribbing chaos in production and Brown can't help but let out Hyde for a bit. Considering the base insanity of it all, Kelis certainly was a choice, but what else would you expect from these two?
▼ Kari Faux, Gangsta Boo "WHITE CAPRICE" | LISTEN
A southern fried earworm. A three-minute slice of throwback that's as Georgian as a Waffle House. To be played in max humidity, blaring into the thick air above a drop-top.
▼ Noname "namesake" | LISTEN
A treatise on the military-industrial complex has never sounded so good. The speed, and urgency, to Noname's rebel yell against the hypocrisy of her peers is stark. Rihanna, Beyoncé, Kendrick. Prisoners aren't taken nor thought about, supplying cause to the urgency: she's left with no other way of getting people to listen. To decry the complex is one thing, to name-check royalty while doing so is another. Fair to say she won't be watching on Super Bowl Sunday.
▼ Caroline Polachek "Pretty In Possible" | LISTEN
"Da-da-da-da, da-da-da-da/Da-da-da-da, da-da-da-da/Da-da-da-da, da-da-da-da, da-da/Da-da-da-da, da-da-da-da/Da-da-da-da, da-da-da-da/Da-da-da-da, da-da-da-da, da-da"...let's just groove y'all, this is the absolute juice.
▼ SIPHO. "SOBER" | LISTEN
2023, a year for jungle! The Birmingham fixture weaving a tale of reckless youth at the foreground of the breakbeats. A cry for justification? Or one for help? As with most things of the ilk, probably both.
▼ Billie Eilish "What Was I Made For?" | LISTEN
While the film it was made for doesn't succeed at a 100% clip, "What Was I Made For?" adds great value at a key moment. And how could it not, with Eilish's hush to magnify all messaging the pink heroine submits. Her voice is always something, but in the darkness of the productive lulls here, amongst ruminations on worth and purpose, it truly is something.
▼ English Teacher "The World's Biggest Paving Slab" | LISTEN
Just want it on record that I'm universally on board with any music videos that share data with Frank and/or The Treasure of Foggy Mountain. Especially so if the songs backing them have choruses like this. Something that absolutely soars. If you close your eyes, you'll feel the weightlessness of a carnival swing.
▼ George Clanton "Justify Your Life" | LISTEN
A post-Happy Mondays bop. The good mode of borrowed nostalgia. Where a message like this falls apart is the vehicle itself, but Clanton finds a level of VHS era-truth that makes the pastiche feel earnest and warm. Less a modern influencer plea and more a man on the street, in a worn starter jacket and crumbling Reebok Pumps, saying it as a matter of fact.
Part I | Part II