The top ten first, then navel-gazing, then the full ninety-nine. The blurbs below are remixes rather than reissues of previously published words, so they may be worth re-reading.
1. NewJeans: “Ditto”
Slightly weak as a song of the year (Red Velvet’s “Feel My Rhythm” is better and that was number two last year); the video(s) are top ten all-time though. Producer 250 borrows a gentle clapping beat from East Coast club music (regionalists inform me it’s the Baltimore variant) imbued with a double-time feel that gives it an urgency beyond its BPM. But that, along with the general wispiness, also gives it a fragility, a sense that the duration this mood can be sustained, whether three minutes or 655 hours, is finite. While NewJeans do bestie dances around the school, a sixth girl films them with a camcorder; by the end of the first clip, she’s filming absences and by the coda of the second, she’s watching the footage on VHS. Shin has said she represents the Bunnies, the officially sanctioned name for the group’s fans, and she’s necessarily at a distance—from celebrity and, if you’re old enough to have seen “All About Lily Chou-Chou” when it came out, from one’s own youth.
2. Olivia Rodrigo: “Vampire”
Her other Guts singles were cooler and more emotionally sophisticated; this one shows the dorks she’s one of us. Who else but a dork would deal with a breakup by going into her dressing room and pretending to be Gerard Way for half an hour before emerging with something that called her new ex a “famefucker” (which as a neologism fan, I appreciate)? A whole album of this would’ve been exhausting, and the most likely way her streak ends prematurely is if she makes My Chemical Romance: The Series: The Album, but three-and-a-half minutes of fjuck-that-famefucker is just right for a recent teenager.
3. Cristale x TeeZanados x Fumez the Engineer: “Plugged In”
A drill song that’s fun and has technically good rapping: it only took a dozen years and two British women! Fumez the Engineer fakes that this is going to be another generic morose 2020s beat before pitching things up; thereafter he just has to make sure they go fast. TeeZandos is a bundle of energy who’s the most vicious emcee to compare herself to Fergie. Cristale shows that classic low-key drill detachment is not incompatible with actually having a personality. Call me a rap Luddite, but this shows it’s easier for emcees to play off each other if they’re in the same room.
4. Tamara Stewart: “The Orphan”
The finest song ever written about childlessness has 79 views on YouTube and not enough Spotify plays to register. Its ambivalence is one of its strengths: whether it’s by one’s own choice, someone else’s, or biology’s, one possible life path is closed off to you. It allows freedom, but is freedom something you can have too much of? If your answer is sometimes yes, as is Stewart’s, it doesn’t necessarily mean you should sprint to the IVF clinic. “The world don’t know what to do with a woman who’s just a woman”, but what to do with yourself is an existential question you can work on.
5. Corook & Olivia Barton: “If I Were a Fish”
“Why is everyone on the Internet so mean?” doesn’t require an answer; instead, it gets a response that’s a conceptual coup: own your insecurities and make your fjuck-the-haters singalong not only exceedingly clever but also disgustingly, sickeningly cute, with harmonies and whoops and, ick, a happy ending. And they’re right: everyone is a special snowflake! If I were a head of kale they’d say “that’s a healthy head of kale” and blend me into a smoothie! Play this at every elementary school, frat party, NASCAR race etc.
6. Grupo Frontera & Bad Bunny: “un x100to”
Bad Bunny’s greatest miracle of 2023 (even more than getting a good singles match out of Damian Priest) was been his Jay Z-on-“Umbrella” level assist here to help make regional Mexican America’s breakout pop genre of the year, though it’s clear in retrospect that writer-producer Edgar Barrera was responsible for much of the work behind the miracle, creating a faux-Bunny beat for Benito to establish himself, then seamlessly switching back to norteño. It’s Payo Solis and his Grupo, however, who make a song about low cell phone battery uncannily moving, especially in the New Mexico-filmed video, where they and Bunny look like they’re from a Breaking Bad spinoff that’s better than Breaking Bad because it’s not about drug dealing or law.
7. Lady Amar, JL SA, Cici, Murumba Pitch: “Hamba Juba”
Amidst all the current innovation in South African dance this year, my fave was this back-to-basics number one hit. Lady Amar and JL SA are the producers, mostly working straight house, though the Donk does make a guest appearance. Cici and Murumba Pitch’s singer Innocent do a good old-fashioned female/male it’s over/no it ain’t duet, with Cici singing “go away my dove” and Innocent trying to live up to his name; the song gives no indication that she buys it. Botswana’s president has danced to it.
8. Morgan Wade: “Phantom Feelings”
In my review of Psychopath I called this a “half-masterpiece”; I was 50% too low. The story recalls the ending of The English Patient (the book; never saw the movie), describing a bond that persists no matter how irrevocably finished the relationship is. Her blondness is a marker of the wisdom of a very particular age—her late twenties—in a way that’s almost Swiftian (if Swift had kept maturing through her late twenties.)
9. Sho Madjozi: “Chale”
Even longtime gqom queen Madjozi is making concessions to amapiano, with the underlying synth bed spooky, though there’s still some shift-the-ground-from-under-you rumbling in the breaks. Despite the beats sounding like the money’s coming in, the way she gleefully disses some dude who “wasn’t there when we were shooting in the gym” makes it seem like the best times of her life were before John Cena knew who she was.
10. Wednesday: “Bath County”
There’s no Planet Fitness in Bath County, VA, so I stand by my B+ for Rat Saw God. But this song shows their best case is Karly Hartzman turns into Lucinda (well, it isn’t the best case for MJ Lenderman to get Gurfed), matter of fact about exurban despair without wallowing in it; it’s thus vital to insist on accuracy in place-name allusions. Second-best case is she turns into a great star and/or director of music videos.
***
I’m very happy with my 2023 albums list, which I’d put up against anyone’s. I’m moderately less happy with this 2023 singles list (where by “single” I mean I played it outside the context of the album, and by “2023” I mean I first heard it this year and it was not completely unreasonable that I didn’t hear it until this year): not because the music isn’t good (I like this year’s nineties better than last year’s) but because Dave Moore’s list is probably better. It’s not the length—I have a longer list I’m too lazy to type out, and am happy to justify why #239 Kenya Grace’s “Strangers” is better than #240 Crayon & Ayra Starr’s “Ngozi”—but his geographic breadth: outside of the Anglosphere, I only really have half-decent coverage of South Korea, South Africa, Nigeria, and Brazil. Despite complaining about how bad everyone else’s coverage of the regional Mexican breakout was, I hardly have any Spanish-language entries. Worse, my calling card is supposed to be genre diversity, yet notwithstanding the opera guy who snuck on there, the list seems unusually samey. So much of it falls within the greater sphere of dancy globopop: Burna Boy and StayC may have different beats, but they both fit comfortably within the same streaming playlist. There’s little here to make anyone who pays semi-attention to contemporary music to say “ooh, I hate this” except maybe the baile-country pick I borrowed from Frank Kogan. Contributing to the problem is that, by consensus, it was a down year for rap, plus I listened to barely any metal. It’s adapt or die, so it looks like I’ll have to take up some Moore-like “distant listening” habit (though not to the extent of processing 2000 songs a week, I have movies to watch.)
Here’s the full list (Nastyfacts and Jason Moran aren’t on Sp_t_fy; support their principle.) It’s still a good list! My rule is a maximum of two songs per artist unless you have a “2015 Young Thug-tier year”, which Rodrigo did have (again.)
NewJeans: “Ditto”
Olivia Rodrigo: “Vampire”
Cristale x TeeZandos x Fumez the Engineer: “Plugged In”
Tamara Stewart: “The Orphan”
Corook & Olivia Barton: “If I Were a Fish”
Grupo Frontera & Bad Bunny: “un x100to”
Lady Amar, JL SA, Cici, Murumba Pitch: “Hamba Juba”
Morgan Wade: “Phantom Feelings”
Sho Madjozi: “Chale”
Wednesday: “Bath County”
Dlala Thukzin, Zaba, Sykes: “iPlan”
Jens Lekman: “The Linden Trees Are Still in Blossom”
Asake: “2:30”
Isach Skeidsvoll: “Bolero for People Feeling Blue”
Olivia Rodrigo: “Bad Idea Right?”
Billie Eilish: “What Was I Made For?”
Dylan Hicks: “I Ain’t Forgotten You”
Tyla: “Water”
Nastyfacts: “Drive My Car”
Aespa: “I’m Unhappy”
Panic Shack: “Baby”
Ernesto Djédjé: “Ziglibithiens”
K. Michelle: “I Cheat”
Saint Levant: “See You Again”
Boygenius: “Not Strong Enough”
King Stingray: “Yellow” (Like a Version)
Prince Kaybee: “Milani”
Caroline Polachek: “Welcome to My Island”
Olivia Rodrigo: “Get Him Back!”
Raye & 070 Shake: “Escapism”
IVE: “I Am”
DJ Patrick Muniz, Pet & Bobii, MC Buraga: “Pique, Piquezin x Cintura Ignorante”
Lewis Capaldi: “How I’m Feeling Now”
Orch. Moja One: “Manimba”
Victoria Monét: “On My Mama”
Kaitlin Butts: “In the Pines”
Noname, SilkMoney, Billy Woods: “Gospel?”
Sufjan Stevens: “Goodbye Evergreen”
Robert Forster: “It’s Only Poison”
Marina Sena: “Mais de Mil”
Antony Szmerek & Yemi Bolatiwa: “Working Classic”
CMAT: “Have Fun!”
Jason Moran: “Darktown Strutter’s Ball”
Cydnee with a C: “Don’t We Always”
Kah-Lo: “Fund$”
Jack Harlow: “Gang Gang Gang”
Withered Hand: “Misery & Company”
PinkPantheress: “True Romance”
Jungle & Erick the Architect: “Candle Flame”
King Promise: “Terminator”
King Stingray: “Get Me Out”
Panic Shack: “The Ick”
Bill Scorzari: “Not Should’ve Known”
Tyson Sybateli, Thato Saul: “Home & Away Games”
Thakzin: “The Magnificent Dance”
StayC: “Bubble”
Pabllo Vittar, MC Carol, Cyberkills, Jup do Bairro: “Descontrolada” (Cyberkills remix)
Atmos Blaq: “Kwa Mama”
Benito 80, José Mariano: “Além Do Aroc-Íris”
BigXthe Plug: “Texas”
Mayonair, Lazii: “Đố A Bít”
Caitlin Cannon: “Going for the Bronze”
Jirayauai, MC Tarapi: “Hoje Tem Rodeio, Balie de Favela”
Loski: “Rolling Dice”
Febem, Fleezus, CESRV: “Terceiro Mundo”
Rebal Alkhodari, Jordi Savall: “’Al Maya, ’Al Maya”
NewJeans: “Super Shy”
Bully: “All This Noise”
OK:KO: “Anima”
Atmosphere: “Bigger Pictures”
Tori Kelly: “Cut”
Dagny: “Same Again (for Love)”
Xiangyu, Gimgigam: “道端にネギ” (Green Onions on the Roadside)
Quantic, Nidia Gongora: “Balada Borracha”
Emmet Cohen, Houston Person: “Just the Way You Are”
Usher: “Glu”
Skrillex, Nai Barghouti: “Xena”
Michael Spyres: Mazzoni: “Tu m’involasti un regno”
That Chick Angel, Casa Di, Steve Terrell: “One Margarita (Margarita Song)”
Burna Boy: “Big 7”
TeeZandos: “Artist”
Leila Maria, Zola Star: “Soweto/Tobina”
Underscores: “Cops and Robbers”
PinkPantheress: “Take Me Home”
Bia, Timbaland: “I’m That Bitch”
Grrrl Gang: “Blue-Stained Lips”
Aaron Raitiere: “At Least We Didn’t Have Any Kids”
Piri & Tommy Villiers: “Words”
Seyi Vibez: “Man of the Year”
Tierra Whack: “Chanel Pit”
Dolly Parton: “Purple Rain”
Rob Ruha, Ka Hao: “35”
KCee: “Ojapiano”
Big Freedia: “Central City Freestyle”
Pool Kids: “Arm’s Length”
Bizarrap, Shakira: “Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53”
Focalistic, EeQue, Thama Tee: “Khekheleza (Dlala Dlala)”
Debby Friday, Uñas: “I Got It”
Jensen McRae: “Dead Girl Walking”
***
The 2023 poll: it’s coming soon! Get your ballots ready!
Thanks for doing this work for all of us who don't really watch videos because we're too lazy to weed through them. These are excellent!
My lord, “Barter 6” is quite clearly going to the be the most focused that Young Thug ever was and definitely deserved multiple singles shout outs.
Some decent hard rock/metal/emo albums or EPs from this year came out from:
Mil-Spec
MSPAINT
Stay Inside
Fireworks
Home is Where
Broken Record
Bewilder
Good Looking Friends
Taking Meds
Zulu
Horrendous
I definitely didn’t come up with all of these in my own, but I’ve listened to all of them 3 or 4 times and enjoyed them (mostly at the gym).