By Jennifer Wilson

My immediate reaction to writing this piece was to google ‘Best Music of 2023’, which led me down a road of various articles with differing opinions. Music is one of those things that is similar to the question, ‘How do you like your tea?’. You either like your tea with a bit of sugar and lots of milk or no sugar and a splash of milk. You either had ‘Vampire’ by Olivia Rodrigo at number one on your Spotify wrapped or ‘Sprinter’ by Central Cee and Dave. It’s so subjective that there can never be one straightforward answer. So, I will try my best to round up the top songs of 2023, but please keep in mind that we all like our tea a little differently.

Arguably at the top of my own list are boygenius ‘Not Strong Enough’ and Billie Eilish’s ‘What Was I made for?’. Both songs have such guttural meanings. Similar in their existential explorations of life, we have boygenius’ heartbreaking bridge with the line ‘always an angel, never a god’ underpinning this feeling of never being good enough. Eilish’s song, written for the Barbie movie with her brother Finneas O’Connell, delves into the story of the meaning of life. It rings true that 2023 was the year nostalgia became an epidemic. Is it because we were listening to songs with such melancholy sounds?

The year really felt like a 2013 renaissance as we saw music from Lana Del Rey, The 1975, and Arctic Monkeys. Although the latter released their tracks in 2022, they really came to fruition in the last year. It begs the question of whether the Tumblr era is coming back because we are so obsessed with the nostalgia craze or because we long to be young again. Lana Del Rey’s album, Did You Know There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd, sonically calls back to her old album, Norman F*cking Rockwell. The new release’s standouts are ‘Let the Light in feat. Father John Misty’ and ‘A&W’ co-written with Jack Antonoff. As mentioned, the 1975’s Album Being Funny in a Foreign Language and Arctic Monkey’s The Car were released in 2022, so I’ll leave those albums where they belong. However, we can’t talk about nostalgia without talking about a certain member of One Direction.

For once, I’m not talking about Harry Styles. Niall Horan brought out his new album, The Show, featuring ‘Heaven’, an upbeat song that brings you straight back to the One Direction days. The light and airy song builds up to a chorus that floods through you in a wave that truly reminds me of his boyband’s ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ or ‘Night Changes’. The new release from the artist awoke many fangirls into their Niall Horan era.

A special mention has to go to Troye Sivan’s new songs ‘Rush’ and ‘One of your girls’ in his album Something To Give Each Other. He expertly mixes pop with a fresh sound to make some club anthems that would get anyone up murdering the dance floor. The eclectic sound of his new album pulls you in for more and truly is ‘sweet like Marabou’. It is entirely different from the songs he started with and has transgressed his old style.

Last but certainly not least, Olivia Rodrigo released her second album Guts featuring standouts like ‘vampire’ and ‘bad idea right?’. Olivia’s pop-punk style culminated in an early 2000s movie feel throughout the album. The heavy guitar and angsty voice of ‘bad idea, right?’ calls to the likes of Wolf Alice or Paramore. Olivia asserts herself in the female pop world whilst dabbling in the likes of the rock bands mentioned.

The year 2023 brought us so many iconic songs that are heavy reminders of the past, but I wonder if 2024 will look to its 00s predecessors or mix up its own cup of tea.