Each year, we spend some time dissecting our 20 favorite songs from the past 12 months and why we like them. We have attempted to explain why we enjoy them, why we put them in a specific order, and then we provide a video embedded from YouTube.
This year, we are changing things up just a bit. For one, we have removed the embedded YouTube videos from each song and instead just focused on the Spotify playlist that we build out each year. If you want to listen to the full list from 1-20, just check out the playlist here or you can jump to the bottom of the page where we embedded the player so you can listen to it while you read through the list.
(To clarify, there are still some YouTube videos embedded, but they are more for fun, related clips)
We originally were going to embed the playlist at the top of the post for UX purposes, but we don’t want to give away the top songs! And we certainly are not going to list the songs on the Spotify list from 20 to 1. No chance…
So let’s get to this year’s list. We have a bizarre collection of top 40 hits, alternative unknowns, a handful of songs that were not made in 2023, and several covers/remixed/remade versions of older songs. Two artists make multiple appearances: Dua Lipa has two songs, and Yung Gravy showed up out of nowhere to suddenly grab two spots on the list.
Speaking of Dua Lipa, she is the only artist to appear on all four lists since we started publishing them on this site. Most of her songs have included at least one other artist (or she was the feature) but this time she is riding solo in both instances. In case you want to go back and check out the previous years’ lists, here is the full archive:
Let’s move on to the actual list. This article is turning into one of those recipes where you have to scroll through the author’s life story before getting to the actual list of ingredients! Founder and CEO Nick Mattar will take it from here (hence the first-person writing) but be sure to still share your feedback with us!
20. Fall Out Boy – We Didn’t Start the Fire
Fall Out Boy is one of those bands that somehow persevered through the early 2000s and is still making music that sounds somewhat similar to their original stuff. However, this cover of Billy Joel’s original profiles major events from 1989 to 2022 – exactly the first 33 years of my life. I think I recognized 98% of the events that Patrick Stump mentions throughout the song, so this one hits home for me.
When I think back to the Billy Joel version, I honestly only remember one line thanks to Dwight Schrute: “Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker Television, North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe, RYAN STARTED THE FIRE!”
19. Hot Tub (with T-Pain & Dillon Francis)
“You can’t drown in a hot tub. We in the thot tub.” These lyrics became more ironic later in the year after Matthew Perry drowned in his own hot tub, but the song still stands as a fun and catchy song. Yung Gravy is great, but T-Pain steals the show with his verse.
The lyrics in this song are ridiculous and it honestly reminds me of The Lonely Island’s “I’m on a boat” when T-Pain also provided the musical element that saved the song from being bad.
18. Mike Shinoda – Already Over
2023 marked the 20th anniversary of Linkin Park’s Meteora album, which has been at the top of my annual Spotify Wrapped list since it became a thing a few years ago. It’s pretty wild that Spotify and other major brands have managed to turn the fact they have all your data into a fun piece of personalized content.
Shinoda has consistently churned out good music since Chester Bennington’s death seven years ago. While none of his music is particularly “fun” anymore, it is certainly upbeat and good for working out, which is what I use most of these songs for anyway…
17. Jain – Makeba
I have no idea where to start with this one. The song is almost 10 years old but returned to prominence in 2023 thanks to viral social media posts. I fought the urge to let the song become an earworm, but I ultimately lost. Now it’s here on the top 20 list.
Jain is a South African singer who published the song originally in 2015. However, it has become one of the most popular background songs for TikToks and Instagram Reels, leading it to become an actual radio hit and now the number 17 song on this list.
16. Maneskin – Supermodel
Italian band Maneskin has a weird circle thing above the “a” that I could not figure out using my half-assed internet research, and I don’t care enough to add it after the fact. So that is my vague attempt to describe the band.
The song that put the band on the map was “Beggin'” which was a remake of, most recently at least, a fun song from my top 20 back in the 2010s. The song sucked so I immediately hated the band for ruining the song. But then this song about cocaine hit and I enjoyed it so much that I had to add it to the list.
15. Burna Boy and 21 Savage – Sittin’ on Top of the World
Burna Boy has a ton of radio hits right now, but this is the first one that resonated with me. I did enjoy “Last Last” which used Toni Braxton’s “He Wasn’t Man Enough For Me” beat creatively. But this one is a banger and was really popular at the end of the summer.
Fun fact: this is the first song where I’ve heard the main singer say “On God” like the Gen Z kids say these days. I cringe every time I hear it.
14. Dua Lipa – Houdini
If this song had been around the entire year, it very possibly could have been among the top five songs on this list. But I only found “Houdini” in the final few months, so it could only go so high!
The album art for this song is extremely sultry and is honestly distracting when I’m driving and it pops up on the screen. I don’t even think Dua Lipa is THAT hot, but they found a way to make her album art truly can’t-miss material.
13. Peking Duck – I Want You
I have been waiting YEARS for a remake of Savage Garden’s “I Want You” and we finally have it! I would not give it an A+ on the execution, but it’s still a very catchy, fun song that cannot be omitted from this list.
The original Savage Garden video is embedded below because it is quintessential late-90s pop in all its glory. I highly recommend giving it a listen if you are not familiar with it.
12. You Me At Six – …Deep Cuts
Making their first appearance on the list, You Me At Six has been flirting with the list for years. They almost made it back in 2009, and most recently had the – in Bracketology terms – the FIRST SONG OUT in 2017 with “Night People.”
This was the very first song I put on the watchlist in 2023 after I heard it on January 2nd. I honestly thought it would once again be left out when I didn’t listen to it for months, but it made a comeback in the fall and deservedly is near the middle of the top 20 now.
11. Sigrid – A Driver Saved My Night
Sigrid was one of those singers who I knew of, but could never name a single song. That changed in 2023 with “A Driver Saved My Night” – a catchy and positive, uplifting song that was on repeat throughout the spring and summer months.
I honestly thought this song would be among the top three songs of the year when I constantly played it everywhere I went. However, the song started to fade, likely due to overplaying (not quality) and it has settled into the median spot on the 2023 list.
10. Colony House – Cannonballers
Colony House is one of those bands that makes a bunch of appearances at huge music festivals but is listed like halfway down so you recognize them, but don’t know their music. Well, today you do!
Cannonballers is a goofy, dark twist on the classic “Surf’s up!” tune that I think was done so brilliantly that it has stuck in my head for most of 2023. If you were to ask ChatGPT to listen to all of my favorite songs over the years and then create a new one that I would like – I think this would be that AI-generated song.
9. The Black Keys – Wild Child
Admittedly a 2022 song (along with several others on this list), I first heard this song when watching the Netflix movie The Grey Man in late 2022. The song plays in full during the credits, and if you know any of the Russo Brothers’ recent work, you know their credits music is always epic.
The Black Keys occasionally graced this list, although they have struggled to break through since the early 2010s when they had several hits and one of my favorite collaborations of all time with Ludacris and Ol’ Dirty Bastard. “Wild Child” surprisingly did not make it as a radio hit in 2022 or 2023, which really surprised me given how great this song is.
8. Milky Chance – Living in a Haze
Yes, you are in the thick of the alternative music section of the countdown. Colony House, The Black Keys, and now Milky Chance provide a trifecta of songs that at one point played on various SiriusXM alternative music stations. I’ve never been a huge fan of Milky Chance and have gotten them confused with Alt-J on multiple occasions. But this one really stood out to me.
This year’s list has a lot of songs with lyrics that make you scratch your head. But “I wish I was a disco boy/Moving like I’m paranoid” may be the strangest line of all. Yung Gravy has some crazy lines, but nothing quite as odd as that.
7. Rita Ora – Praising You
Our second remake of a 90s hit comes from Rita Ora, who has improved Fatboy Slim’s “Praise You.” Yes, I went that far, because as you will see in the video below from the original song, Fatboy Slim’s music is pretty repetitive. Once you listen to about 45 seconds, you’ve heard it all.
I remember the original song being popular in the late 1990s and while I liked it, I had the same thought then that I have now: there is nothing new after a minute! Thankfully, Rita Ora has dynamically improved the song and made an amazing improvement on it. Now we need somebody to improve “Weapon of Choice,” my favorite Fatboy Slim song.
6. Yung Gravy, bbno$, and Rich Brian – C’est La Vie
Gravy makes his second appearance on this list, as does the duo of bbno$ and Rich Brian. Oddly enough, the two of them had “Edamame” in this exact same spot two years ago.
We mentioned Gravy’s strange lyrics earlier and this song is no exception. He talks about hooking up with a girl and then asking her for a ride to a cooking class, catching her watching Stand By Me, and a bunch of other goofy things that make him a great cameo candidate in the new Good Burger remake (it was ok). But the song is fantastic and will have you either laughing or listening to it on repeat.
5. Almost Monday – Only Wanna Dance
Almost Monday made its first appearance on the list in 2020 when they barely cracked the list with the number 20 song. Now, they have a faster and more up-beat song that has climbed all the way to the top five.
This is the shortest song on the countdown, coming in at 2:24, so it goes by quickly. But it’s a really fun song that is hard to deny – a far cry from their 2020 song that made the list, titled “Broken People.” It’s a 180-degree turn for Almost Monday and it shows on the list.
4. Anne-Marie and Little Mix – Kiss My (Uh Oh)
Similar to Fatboy Slim’s “Praise You,” the original “Uh Oh” from the early 2000s was bland but still very memorable. Now, in the past 18 months, we have seen two artists sample the song: Anne-Marie and Nicki Minaj. Who would’ve thought it would be British singer Anne-Marie to make it on the list?!
This song takes the “Uh Oh” to another stratosphere. I am shocked this was never a radio hit because it is an absolute banger and has millennials like me immediately recognizing the “uh ohhhh” that starts off the song. I recommend listening to the first minute or so of the original in the player below before listening to the 2023 version.
3. Little Hurt – Get Out of My Life
This is by far the heaviest song on the countdown and was a serious candidate for the top song of the year. I know very little about the band but the song appeared on my Spotify’s Discover Weekly playlist one day and I was hooked. Just don’t play it or sing it around your significant other…
Every year, a random rock song from a band we never hear from again peaks between two and five. 2020 had The Shelters, 2021 had RedHook, and 2022 had Twin XL. All of these songs are tremendous in their own right, but I have not heard anything from them since they appeared on the countdown and I fear we may see Little Hurt succumb to a similar fate.
2. Dominic Fike – Mona Lisa
I called it the song of the summer, as it was popular on both top 40 stations and alternative rock stations alike – you rarely get that combination anymore. Dominic Fike was already a massive hit from his earlier music and his role in Euphoria, and this year “Mona Lisa” got him on the countdown for the first time. Fun fact: I lived about two miles from Estero High School for a year when he went there…
Mona Lisa is probably the “slowest” song on the countdown but still features summer vibes and speeds up significantly during the two verses. It’s a feel-good song that is perfect to play in the background during a barbeque or anything else happening outside in warm weather.
1. Dua Lipa – Dance the Night Away
How convenient: the number one song is also from the soundtrack of the biggest pop culture phenomenon of the year. Dua Lipa’s song from the Barbie soundtrack is my top song of the year and was undoubtedly near the top of every other list in 2023, too.
Dua Lipa had come close to the top spot in the past, with “Levitating” reaching #3 in 2020. If you include this year’s “Houdini” at #14, this is her sixth appearance since 2020. To compare, you have to go back to 2018 to get another artist with half that number (Mike Shinoda and Bring Me the Horizon). She is clearly on top of the music world, and she finally made it to the top of this niche list.
If you’re interested in listening to the playlist or subscribing on Spotify, the full embedded player is below, as promised!