Below are my 20 favorite songs I heard in 2023. You can listen along via Spotify if you’d like, or via episode #49 of Scottify below. I’ve also included YouTube embeds for each track if that’s more your speed.
20. Balance And Composure - Savior Mode (Memory Music)
While I normally roll my eyes at bands that break up and reunite in less than the span of the average presidential term, if they return with material this strong, I’ll forgive them. Welcome back, Balance And Composure. Now spill the tea about your shitbag ex-drummer already!
19. Bully feat. Soccer Mommy - Lose You (Sub Pop)
Two great tastes that taste great together.
18. Crime In Stereo - Skells (Pure Noise)
Crime In Stereo’s reunion record, House & Trance, is a very solid entry in their catalog and definitely worth a listen if you miss [CANCELLED BAND NAME REDACTED], but I can’t get enough of the album’s closing track, especially its final stanza: “All the tides in motion until thе mountains are molten / Until the Nassau Coliseum is at the bottom of the ocean / Sailing on, your Westboro Baptist generation of fascists / Scumbags, you can have it / I hope you crash the goddamn planet into the sun.” Who among us hasn’t wished the same thing in recent years?
17. Wednesday - Bull Believer (Dead Oceans)
What an absolute beast of a track. To put a nine-minute grunge/shoegaze number in the second slot on your album and release it as a single takes guts, but this song never stops being thrilling.
16. Paint It Black - Serf City, U.S.A. (Revelation)
The most exciting 30 seconds in all of hardcore in 2023.
15. Shit Present - Voice In Your Head (Specialist Subject)
Do you wish Violent Soho had a female vocalist? Well have I got the band for you!
14. DOOM REGULATOR - Raid (Hellcat)
This reunion of half of Operation Ivy (Jesse Michaels and Tim Armstrong — sorry, Dave Mello superfans) was called Bad Optix for, like, four days before the name was switched to Doom Regulator, likely to avoid potential legal action. Honestly, DR is the better band name — and the song is still fantastic. Now give us more, please!
13. Foo Fighters - Under You (Roswell/RCA)
Eagle-eyed (er, eagle-eared) listeners might cry foul, as I played a different Foo Fighters song, “The Glass,” on Scottify earlier this week. But on second thought, this is the better track — it literally just sounds like Dinosaur Jr (like, for real, press play and tell me you can’t hear J Mascis singing this song).
12. Ratboys - No Way (Topshelf)
It was neck-and-neck between this and “Black Earth, WI” as my favorite song from Ratboys’ The Window, but “No Way” edged it out ever-so-slightly because it’s a regular-enough alt-country/alt-rock hybrid track that absolutely collapses into itself for the last 90 seconds, accidentally (or maybe purposely?) creating the year’s best Yankee Hotel Foxtrot homage.
11. Lucero - Nothing's Alright (Liberty & Lament)
The new Lucero record as a whole is fine, but this song is A-list material from Ben Nichols & Co. — they definitely subscribed to the “don’t bore us, get to the chorus” mantra on this number, hitting you with a massive earworm only 30 seconds in.
10. Rancid - Tomorrow Never Comes (Epitaph)
I for one want more Matt Freeman-led Rancid songs.
9. Paramore - Crave (Atlantic)
This song is basically two chords for four straight minutes, and it’s so lyrically compelling you’d never realize it. I’m glad Hayley Williams is finally getting her flowers from the critical world at large (even though it’s dumb that it took famous pop stars to make indie-snob websites reconsider their opinions).
8. Chris Farren - Cosmic Leash (Polyvinyl)
This song is the loudest Chris Farren has ever been. Give me more of that sweet, sweet fuzz.
7. boygenius - Not Strong Enough (Interscope)
how do you do, fellow gen z queers?
6. The Gaslight Anthem - Autumn (Rich Mahogany)
This is top-tier Brian Fallon — easily one of his best songs he’s ever written.
5. Militarie Gun - Do It Faster (Loma Vista)
Yes, Post Malone loves it. Yes, it’s in a Taco Bell commercial now. Yes, it’s still a killer song regardless.
4. Rozwell Kid - Grand Canyon (self-released)
The first new music in six years from West Virginia’s best export since pepperoni rolls, “Grand Canyon” is exactly what you’d expect from Rozwell Kid: It sounds like a more-Weezerish Weezer, with massive hooks, fantastic guitar interplay and lyrics that will make you rewind to hear it again (uh, did he just sing, “I found some porn in the dirt”?).
3. Spiritual Cramp - Talkin' On The Internet (Blue Grape)
Listen to this song and try to guess where this band is from. The UK? Sweden? Italy? Nope: San Francisco! What a mindfuck. Also, this song is perfect.
2. Superviolet - Overrater (Lame-O)
This song is the one of the most joyous pieces of music I heard in 2023. I am over the moon that Steve Ciolek decided to sing again. I’m so over the moon, in fact, that my top two songs of this year both feature Steve Ciolek on lead vocals, though the next one actually sounds more like the Sidekicks, if that was even possible!
1. Dim Wizard - Ride The Vibe (self-released)
Dim Wizard is the nom de rock of David Combs (aka Spoonboy, who I once sat next to at a wedding reception), who co-wrote this song with Jeff Rosenstock (whose wedding it was), who recruited Steve Ciolek to sing (whose then-band, the Sidekicks, performed at said wedding), and who had Sarah Tudzin of Illuminati Hotties produce the track (who, to the best of my knowledge, was not at #mackenstock). It is truly the perfect summer song, clocking in at an equally perfect 4:20 (blaze it). I’d pay quite a bit of money for a full album created by these four people, but given the way the Dim Wizard project works, this will likely be the only song with this lineup. Oh well: We’ll always have Paris.
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