Top 10 Songs 2023

[dotinthesky]

Every year, I keep a playlist on Spotify (and from 2024 onwards, on Deezer) where I add new and old songs I've fallen in love with. I like giving them an album cover as well as a name. This year, I called it 23 Good Eggs because I went to visit an old friend in Brighton, a few days before she gave birth to her first child, and she described every person in her life as "a good egg". I just loved the expression and thought - all these songs are good eggs to me.

The album's cover features my friend Vini, who was like a father figure during my first month back in the UK, taking care of me, feeding me, taking me for walks, bike rides and swims - generally making sure I was OK. I snapped this pick in Hackney Downs one morning, just as he had bought us some coffees and pastries for our breakfast.

I narrowed the playlist's 92 tracks down to 10 songs released in 2023 which I love, in no particular order.

Alison Goldfrapp, NeverStop
Alison Goldfrapp released 2023's best dance pop album, The Love Invention, but I don't think many people know this. I suspect she was affected by Kylie Minogue's Padam Padam, which came out on the same week and obscured it (see more below). This track kicks off the album and I love playing it as I begin my late afternoon walks around the guesthouse. All her lyrics, even before this album, make me suspect she studies Advaita Vedānta.

Django Django and Self Esteem, Complete Me
Putting this list together made me realise how much the 90s influences my choices, and the artists I currently like. This is such a good dance track that I couldn't help using it for the Instagram reel I created when I left London and returned to Brazil. It also sounds like something from a 90s dance floor, but I'm not complaining - and the lyrics are great too. Trust that you know all that is right for you / Your gut does that for a reason / Ask yourself, really, how much living do you do just to please them?

M83, Amnesia
The new M83 album was a bit of a disappointment, but this track stood out. It made me euphoric every time I heard it, coinciding with the period in the UK when I finally got a temp job I enjoyed and felt more optimistic about the future. M83 are good with bombastic anthems!

Nation of Language, Stumbling Still
Nation of Language released my favourite album of 2023, Strange Disciplines. It had so many good tracks and a Franciscan monk on its cover, which I COMPLETELY related to. They have this wonderful 80s synth sound - the lyrical sensibilities of OMD mixed with the rhythm of Depeche Mode and New Order. I just love it.

Drab Majesty, The Skin and the Glove
Drab Majesty continue to be my current fave band; I still think their greatest albums are ahead of them. After a long hiatus, they finally released something this year: an EP heavily influenced by 90s shoegaze, to the point of featuring Rachel Goswell from Slowdive on one of its tracks. Their subsequent tour with Slowdive got really good reviews. Wish I had been there. The question now is: when's the next studio album? And which part of the 90s will they revisit? My money's on The Cure's Wish album.

Coach Party, Micro Aggression
I heard this band for the first time on BBC6 Music while convalescing from COVID in my friend Silke's spare room. It immediately reminded me of Veruca Salt's Seether, from 1994 (of course!) It's a really great, punchy pseudo-grunge track.

Junip and Sharon Van Etten, Line of Fire
Spotify recommended me this track via it's Weekly Discovery playlist. I'd never heard of these artists. Just some good, indie folk rock with sweeping lyrics about making big life changes. It's another great track to listen to while walking around my guesthouse as the sun is setting and the sky is filling up with dramatic clouds.

always centered at night, Moby and Gaidaa, transit

I don't know how this track came to me - probably Spotify Weekly Discovery. It's got a recognizable Moby quality to it - not too distant from his more well known work from the 90s. Very trip hop, chill out room vibes, and a really catchy chorus too.

The Cure vs Bjork, Hidden Place into a Forest
Whoever did this mash up, they did a great job.

Tiny Microphone, Stranger (feat. Gary Olson)
Sounds in My Head is one of my favourite music podcasts; I've discovered so many bands through it. A lot of them are like this band - very indie, a little twee even, and super melodic (and melancholic, in this case.) Stranger has got irresistible jangly guitars and morose lyrics that remind me of my youthful infatuation with The Smiths, The Sundays and other Britpop bands.

BONUS TRACK: Kylie Minogue, Padam Padam
And so we reach 2023's number 1 track. I didn't like it the first time I heard it, but as it started getting massive play, and featured in tons of TikTok and Instagram videos, the chorus drew me in. I'm convinced that it did so well because it's pretty much about gay men hooking up in clubs (I know you want to take me home and take off all my clothes...) I'm happy for Kylie that she got such a massive hit - she is lovely and will always have a special place in my heart.