It seems like most Decembers recently I write something like “Well, it wasn’t a great year for music…” as I prepare to share a bunch of songs I both liked and listened to a lot.

Something was different this year, though. According to Last.fm, I listened to about 15% less music in 2023 compared to 2022, and my least music since 2015. I’m not sure what caused that decline, whether it was changes in me/my habits, a quirk in how I was listening, or something specific about this year’s music.

Despite whatever ailed me or music this year, I was still able to collect 23 pretty good songs as my favorites. Three different artists made a big enough impact that I included bonus songs for each.

20 – “Wonder” – En Attendant Ana
This was perhaps the most difficult decision on the list, the dividing point between the chosen few and the excluded. At least four other songs were in strong contention to make the cut. This got the nod thanks to its lovely transition from the gentle, folky opening into a frenzied, Krautrock-influenced ripper.

19 – “ARE YOU GONNA RUN?” – Low Cut Connie
Take equal portions of Jackson Browne, Bruce Springsteen, and Counting Crows, mix thoroughly, and the result is music like this that totally clicks for old dudes like me.

18 – “Western Cum” – Cory Hanson
Best song with the worst title of the year? Not sure anything else even comes close. I’m trying to imagine Casey Kasem introducing this song back in the day. He might have just said, “Here’s Cory Hanson’s latest,” right?

Anyway, Hanson makes the list because, more than anyone, he kept the kick-ass guitar solo alive this year. His album is basically 40 minutes of shredding. One review said Hanson’s motivation for playing loud and long is simple: because it’s fun as fuck. Amen.

17 – “Goodbye to Music” – Flyying Colours
I didn’t know much about this band before 2023. I discovered they’ve made a lot of really good music in recent years. Most of it has a shoegaze influence, a sub-genre that had a big comeback this year. This track was written by guitarist Brodie Brümmer about reckoning with the understanding that his career has taken a toll on his hearing, and the day may come when he isn’t able to listen to or play music again.

16 – “Act Natural” – Margaret Glaspy
I don’t do well when meeting famous people. I generally keep quiet and give them their space since I’m never sure what to say and fear intruding on their free time. It was a monumental upset that I went out of my way to greet Devonté Graham when I ran into him at the Kansas-Texas football game in September.

Perhaps I need to take Glaspy’s advice here. Although her focus is on a potential romantic partner, this song is about trying to keep your cool when you meet someone amazing.

15 – “Easy Out” – THALA
THALA said this began in her home as a quiet ballad about a friend not sharing that they were suffering from a serious illness. When she took it to the studio to record, it transformed into something bigger and much angrier that surprised her. You can hear that shift in the cathartic explosion of the chorus.

14 – “Not Strong Enough” – boygenius
From THE indie album of the year, Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker, and Lucy Dacus took everything that was great about their debut EP and made it even greater. Half of the album consists of tracks the trio wrote and sang together. This is the most glorious and perfect of that group, a song elevated by the band’s triumphant rendition on Saturday Night Live. The moment when the refrain “Always an angel, never a god” blends into the closing verse is one of the greatest musical moments of the year.

Bonus track: “True Blue”
Of the “solo” tracks where one artist took the writing/singing lead and the other two supported her, this by Dacus was the best, with its focus on how the strongest relationships last because you don’t get distracted by little disappointments.

13 – “The Way” – Manchester Orchestra
Song meanings can be tricky, since we all slap our own histories onto the music we are listening to. Every time I hear this I think of Depeche Mode songs like “Policy of Truth.” It feels like Andy Hull was diving into some very dark territory when he wrote this. I don’t know if he was singing about failure, the choices that led to it, and the guilt that follows the same way DM did. I also don’t think that interpretation is too far off.

12 – “Lose You” – Bully featuring Soccer Mommy
Bully’s Lucky For You – The Ringer’s pick for best album of the year – was filled with rockers. This is the rockiest of the lot.

11 – “Need You No More” – Chappaqua Wedding
The second-straight year these kids have landed on my favorites list with a song about embracing the moment.

10 – “Midnight Sun” – RVG
Political tracks often tend to become preachy and judgmental, attempting to guilt the listener to action. This one just lets its anger roar, imploring you to either demand change or get the hell out of the way.

9- “First High” – Nikki Lane
8 – “Radio” – Margo Price feat. Sharon Van Etten
7 – “Outta Time” – Bethany Cosentino
These three songs feel connected, all featuring strong female songwriters playing music heavily indebted to classic radio pop. I hope it’s not redundant or dismissive to place them together like this.

Lane sings about the bittersweet longing for the magic and freedom of our younger days, when every moment was a new first. Price tells the haters to fuck off and preaches self-belief. And Cosentino sings the most glorious song about being alone you’ve ever heard. Every one of them would sound perfect on a crackly car radio with the windows down.

(Warning: there is some brief nudity in the first two videos.)

6 – “Highlands” – Middle Kids
MK front-woman Hannah Joy said a friend of hers described this song as “Yearncore”: uplifting music with lyrics focused on longing or searching for something the narrator doesn’t currently possess. I like that very much. This is just another notch in the band’s long list of wonderful songs.

5 – “Cicada” – Fucked Up
One of the most surprising tracks of the year, a huge departure from FU’s normal, scream-adjacent sound, leaning instead towards melodic power-punk. Mike Haliechuk uses the sounds of summer to celebrate the memory of a friend he lost many years ago.

4 – “Conductors” – The Rural Alberta Advantage
Absolute. Fucking. Banger.

3 – “Little Fires” – The Gaslight Anthem
It is awesome and rare for a terrific band to go away for an extended break and then return making music as strong as their initial peak. After taking nearly a decade off, TGA created a track that can stand next to their 2000s classics.

2 – “Tropic Morning News” – The National
It shocked no one that The National wrote a song about the emotional damage doomscrolling does to people. It was a shock, though, that the song was as upbeat as this.

Bonus: “Deep End (Paul’s In Pieces)”
The National put out two uneven albums this year. Had they edited themselves better – Steven Hyden even took a crack at doing it for them – they could have put out one great album. This was the best song on their second release of 2023, and it lands right in the pocket of what I love about the band.

1 – “The Window” – Ratboys
The title track off my favorite album of the year. Julia Steiner wrote it about watching her grandfather say goodbye to his dying wife through a hospital window during the Covid lockdown. It is massively moving, and Steiner hits the exact right tone in both her vocals and lyrics.

Bonus: “Black Earth, WI” I had this slotted as my favorite song of the year for months, as it was released well before the The Window album. Only the brilliance of that title track knocked this out of the official top spot.