The Top 50 Songs of 2023: 10 - 1

2023 was a strange year for me to rank my top songs. Additionally into being out of practice (I swear I'll eventually get to the 2022 ranking!), almost all my favorite songs this year were either from the second half or were discovered by me in the second half. Predicting how these songs would age was the biggest challenge, but the other half was combing through all the sounds. How does one compare Beabadoobee and Ninety One? It was difficult, but I think my ranking does provide a look at some of my favorite songs this year, with a top song that stands heads and shoulders over the rest. With that said, let us look at the rules.

• This ranking is my opinion.
• I will only rank my top 50 due to time constraints.
• Any song released between January 1 and December 31, 2023 is qualified.
• Instrumentals also count for this list.
• Full-fledged remakes are qualified, but remixes are excluded.
• Finally, I will not split the top 10 this year due to time constraints.

10. Sufjan Stevens - So You Are Tired

Despite being perhaps a common reason for the end of many relationships, tiredness is hardly brought up in break-up songs, perhaps because it hits too close to home, perhaps it feels better to ignore. Sufjan Stevens' Javelin album, however, was all about looking and finding beauty in tragic mundanity. Lead single So You Are Tired is a fantastic example of this, marrying Sufjan's lyricism with ethereal production.

9. Taemin - Guilty

Perhaps due to him being in the cutthroat K-Pop world since middle school, there has always been a bitter, abused edge to Taemin's music. Guilty, his first single after a difficult military hiatus, sees him flip the tables, embodying an angry and off-balance edge. While it's hard to know if he is mentally in a better situation, the creeping strings and the pulsating bass certainly take the listener off-guard.

8. Aditya Gadhvi & Achint - Khalasi

Of the new generation of under-the-radar Indian composers, Achint seemed most primed for a breakthrough. No one, however, expected that to happen with a Coke Studio neo-folk Gujarati song, but that is what Khalasi provided. From Aditya Gadhvi's stirring vocals and chhapakadu breakdown to the all-female choir, Khalasi felt more free-flowing and natural than any other sea shanty this year.

7. Olivia Rodrigo - Vampire

For such a young songwriter, Olivia Rodrigo has a remarkable ability to make any story feel real and lived-in, perhaps because she manages to capture her life into music. Vampire might be her best yet, taking the pain from an unhealthy relationship's end and channeling it into a sprawling pop opera, while also being a rock ballad. If emotional intensity had a name, it might just be Vampire.

6. NINE.i - Turn It Off

Turn It Off seems like a song from my 2018 year-end list, a pure pop dance track with a series of killer hooks. NINE.i's first true great song is helmed by a few fantastic producers, from group member Vahn and legendary production team Sweetune. The end result is a serotonin wave from a blast of infectious hooks, guaranteed to lift anyone's mood.

5. Shaktishree Gopal - Aga Naga (Comp. A.R. Rahman)

From his magnum opus, Netru Illatha Matrum, to Bollywood hits such as Radha Kaise Na Jale, A.R. Rahman is a master when it comes to filling a track with natural beauty and wonder. Aga Naga provided him with the best ability to showcase this skill in years. Part of that comes down to Shaktishree Gopal's graceful performance, adding much heart to the melody. Of course, the golden instrumentation made of strings and keyboards leads to a perfect little ballad.

4. The Beatles - Now And Then

Sometimes, context is key to appreciating a piece. A John Lennon ballad demo on missing a long-lost friend or loved one takes on a completely new meaning when his old friend Paul McCartney finally remixes and releases it for their beloved band, The Beatles, for one final track. Taking the stirring and bare-bones melody, and tying it to a thundering orchestral rock instrumentation makes it all the more emotionally impactful.

3. Ali Sethi & Nicolás Jaar - Nazar Se

For someone who was perhaps best known for his soulful, melodic, and traditional ghazals, Ali Sethi's career has taken quite a few bizarre turns. Nazar Se features arguably the strangest, with the qawwali icon teaming up with electronic producer Nicolas Jaar for a remake of the classic piece.

"Tears falling up to the sky" might be the only way to describe the surreal song, merging sparse and cold samples from Jaar's album Telas with a distant and eclectic vocal track from Sethi. Nonetheless, you can feel all the pain and emotions in his voice, almost as if it hides painful passion behind a thin veneer of emotional distance.

2. George Clanton - I Been Young

From the days of Hesiod to the unforeseeable future, humankind has had a tendency to look favorably upon the not-so-distant past, a golden age of some sort that will never be and never was. Others have rather cynically suggested that any remembrance of the past is an impediment to progress and that the past should be killed. It is between these two that George Clanton released I Been Young.

Acting both as a nostalgic ode to a past long gone and a stirring wake-up call to move past what was and see what is, I Been Young is a moving piece that edges the listener forward, and to see "how life is blinding you." For this, Clanton mixes and mashes together elements from the '90s in the best way possible, with the vaporwave/trip-hop mix of the verses leading into Clanton's anthemic delivery in the Tears For Fears-esque, shoegaze chorus.

1. Sufjan Stevens - Shit Talk

Sometimes, all that it takes to lift the weight of the world off your shoulders is a simple phrase. In the case of Sufjan Stevens' Shit Talk, it is "I don't want to fight at all." With these seven words, all the grief that you may be holding onto, and the mask of strength used to hide it on your face, collapse into a teary puddle. Shit Talk is not a song on grief, however, but on relieving yourself from the pain of tragedy, and moving on in the face of the death of your loved one.

It is undeniable that Sufjan Stevens has had a hard year, from his sufferings with GBS to the death of his partner, Stevens has more than enough reasons to hurt. Like almost all the great artists, however, he took his pain and made something meaningful out of it; a session of therapy. "I will always love you but I cannot live with you" shines in all its glory as Sufjan's pained voice commands the soothing balladry in an experience of healing.

From the triumphant choir that follows Sufjan to the melancholic instrumental segment closing out the track, every element of Shit Talk comes together to soothe the listener in no other way but making them face their pain. Few experiences, musical or not, from 2023 carried as much weight as Shit Talk, and its cohesive impact will likely cast a shadow over the still-young decade.