Herewith I present to you my top 30 tracks of 2023 thus far, with an asterisk: no more than one song per artist is allowed. It’s only fair that SZA share the spotlight.
Congratulations to Megan Thee Stallion, who has placed a song in my year end top five every year since 2019. Her “Her” is my number two song of ’22, kept from number one by Beyoncé, who guested on the remix of MTS’s “Savage,” my number 4 song of 2020. 2022 was a year that left me wanting, so my top 100 has 92 songs. Here they are:
BREAK MY SOUL – Beyoncé
Her – Megan Thee Stallion
About Damn Time – Lizzo
As It Was – Harry Styles
This Hell – Rina Sawayama
Coconuts – Kim Petras
Goodbye Mr. Blue – Father John Misty
Wild – Spoon
Sacrifice – The Weeknd
All the Good Times – Angel Olsen
BILLIE EILISH. – Armani White
Measure of a Man – FKA twigs feat. Central Cee
Meet Me at Our Spot – THE ANXIETY, WILLOW & Tyler Cole
Today’s playlist celebrates the December 26 birthdays of The Hues Corporation’s Fleming Williams, Metallica’s Lars Ulrich, The Shins’ James Mercer, producer Phil Spector, and Uncle Tupelo/Son Volt’s Jay Farrar; the December 27 birthdays of The Incredible String Band’s Mike Heron, Foreigner’s Mick Jones, and Paramore’s Hayley Williams; and the December 28 birthdays of Big Star’s Alex Chilton, The Staple Singers’ Pops Staples, Johnny Otis, Edgar Winter, Black Box guest vocalist Martha Wash, John Legend, Lonnie Liston Smith, Kym Sims, 2 Unlimited’s Anita Doth, and Terrace Martin.
Today’s playlist celebrates the October 26 birthdays of Mahalia Jackson, Milton Nascimento, ScHoolboy Q, The Roches’ Maggie Roche, Girl Talk, 10000 Maniacs’ Natalie Merchant, Was (Not Was)’s David Was, Bootsy Collins, and Anthony Rapp; the October 27 birthdays of Duran Duran’s Simon LeBon; and the October 28 birthdays of Frank Ocean, The Jesus and Mary Chain’s William Reid, the xx’s Jamie xx, Ben Harper, Bob & Marcia’s Bob Andy, Charlie Daniels, Curtis Lee, Brad Paisley, Wayne Fontana, and Friend & Lover’s Jim Post.