For years, I've been meaning to join in the wild orgy of ‘Content’ that is end-of-year listicle writing - but I always end up thinking about it too much and not getting it done in time. This year I have something to promote, so here we are.
This is a list of my favorite songs of the year. They weren't necessarily published this year, because that would be boring.
Here is a Spotify playlist with them all if you just wanna click play and go
Abbey Blackwell is the bassist of the greatest indie rock band in the world, Alvvays. I saw them perform this summer at Primavera Sound Porto. It had been raining all day, and as they got to the key change in “Belinda Says,” the sun broke through the clouds, and I started crying. Anyway, Abbey's non-Alvvays music is also very good.
Abbey writes that this song is “a love letter to my friends, a little smoke signal in the midst of separation and the interminable forward momentum of time.”
A lot of music I really love elicited a kind of disgust response when I first heard it. When I first heard this song, I thought that it sounded wrong and bad. I've now learned that when I get that feeling, I should keep listening. Because the disgust is how you know it's an interesting song.
So this track sounds weirdly microtonal in places, the vocals are bitcrushed into nothingness. In general, large parts of the song sound like something went wrong in the studio and this is the remnant of something that was meant to sound normal. I like it.
I’m biased in including this because I am part of Slughole. But oh well. 2023 is the year of shoegaze. I actually prefer this “remix” to the normal version of the song because it disguises the vocals a bit. No one likes to hear themselves sing.
What happens in this song?
We start with the intro from Bowie's Station to Station, then the glide guitars start and we're immediately into the chorus. After the chorus, we get a key change (!!!) and the chorus again. Then the song ends.
What doesn't happen in this song?
A perfect song - like Joyce Manor making of shoegaze. All the people who write five-minute songs where nothing happens should listen to this, and then regret their actions.
When I was at University, there was a student society called “Love to Make Noise.” It was largely run by Selim Bulut and a guy who I only ever referred to as “Jevans” and whose real name I can't remember. They would hold some of the only interesting events that ever took place on our boring, isolated, campus.
Quite regularly they would invite bands featuring Owen Williams and their friends in various configurations, and under various names, to perform. Until at one of these events, someone from one of the bands brought their alcohol into the privately owned “Student‘s Union” where the events were hosted. This led to an altercation with one of the bouncers, and then to all of Love to Make Noise being banned from the Student's Union.
Anyway, Owen Williams is now in Ex-Vöid. Their album is really good. I could have picked any track from it. You should listen to the whole record. It's short, every song’s a banger.
I love the low harmonies on this song. They sound alien and artificial. Somehow “Formanty.” Great stuff.
Earlier I said that Alvvays is the world's best indie rock band. That wasn't actually true. It's Empty Country / Cymbals eat Guitars. I think this song is perfect, but I keep playing it to people, and no one seems to like it.
Empty Country should be huge, megastars. But according to Spotify, they have 10,573 monthly listeners a month after releasing their latest album. I will always keep listening, feeling like a member of a cult.
The video game Mother was released in 1989. Its release was accompanied by a CD where songs from the game’s soundtrack are reimagined as vocal-driven studio tracks. They're all great. This one especially. The production is insane - it goes from hard boppin midi bass madness to a hyper-unreal pastiche of the time that George Harrison bought a Sitar.
So yes, this song from 1989, which I first heard this year, is one of the songs of 2023.
I first listened to this song because I am in a band called “Slug Hall” - and this song is called slugs. The song is good. Shoegaze has been a big thing this year I think.
This is the coolest band in the listicle. You can tell because they sell a bumbag in their Bandcamp store. Also, from the singer’s highly affected vocal delivery.
I'm currently reading Crash by Ballard. I'm choosing to assume the song is a reference to it.
Mitski does 60s country ballad. Just a really gorgeous song. I like the bit where she sings about drinking someone’s leftover coffee. Relatable.
Starts like an Arthur Russell song, but then there's a bit where someone says, “Bass bass bass bass,” and then the house stabs start. Great 10/10
Those are some songs. Merry Christmas.