In 2023, songs meant everything

Plus, Olivia Rodrigo visits Tiny Desk, the best classical albums of the year and more

View this email online December 16, 2023 Support This Newsletter Hello! Here at NPR Music, we celebrate human expression. From Tiny Desk to All Songs Considered, we aim to amplify a soundscape that mirrors our world's diversity, beauty, and complexity. It’s why we tracked down the Best Music of 2023 — an opportunity for discovery to help you find music you’ll love beyond the end of the year.  However, this is only possible with support from people like you. When you contribute, you amplify the sounds of our communities, the voices of our people, and the rhythm of our collective spirit.  It ensures that music — from the iconic to the undiscovered — keeps playing and has a home in the NPR Network. Your support makes a difference. Please donate today. — Ann Powers, NPR Music Critic and Correspondent NPR Music picks the 123 best songs of 2023, and critic Ann Powers explains how her favorites helped make sense of the year. Plus, the Tiny Desk is visited by three exceptional young talents. Illustration by Jed Chisholm for NPR Hello fellow sonic explorers!  Here we are in the fallow time, facing short days and forbidding weather and the seasonal activity that critics like me, who keep on top of new music for a living, openly deplore yet secretly relish: making lists.  Beyond the headline-grabbing moves of Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and a few others, this year in music has been difficult to quantify, for fans interested in the big picture as much as for pros like me. The industry continues to change shape. So do audiences, with many music lovers staying in their rabbit holes and others redefining “casual listening” by getting their jams from TikTok, games or other sources that fragment and refract the songs they encounter. Meanwhile, the narrowing one percent of pop stars behave like their own corporations, swallowing everything in their paths. It’s all super confusing. At NPR Music, we gently leaned into the maelstrom by offering an unranked, chronological albums list and, for songs, an interactive experience encouraging users to wake up their taste buds by exploring cuts that their niches – or AI-driven algorithms – would never offer them. We also spent time discussing a year that remains difficult to assess. As I worked on these endeavors, a seemingly facile question began haunting me: What is a song? You might say the answer’s obvious, but a lot has attached itself to that musical unit over the centuries. A song can be an earnest means of self-expression; an occasion for people to commune, harmonizing; a prompt for dancing; a vehicle that transports protest, patriotism, religious fervor, or consumeristic craving across continents full of receptive ears. Today, though, songs are fragmenting, disassembled into tiny soundtracks for influencers, and expanding, stretched to two or three times their usual size by artists determined to rejuvenate the form. It’s unclear if people even listen to songs as discrete units any more; don’t we just keep them streaming in the background as we chat with friends, play Wordle, monitor our footsteps, watch three screens at once?  Even as I welcome today’s mind-boggling variations on songs and their uses, I still believe that songs can play their time-honored role in people’s lives. A song is an interface. It lives at the boundary between the private and the public, the spontaneous and the crafted, the individual and the communal. Songs help people communicate with each other and understand parts of themselves they otherwise might not have recognized. I’m interested in how the song’s ancient function operates in the 21st century, when so much noise – literal and figurative, in the bomb-struck air and on our pinging devices – threatens the space in which people emote, reflect and grow. I mark the years through songs; they help me grasp the flow of time and interpret the scratch marks left by what I experience. For the past few I’ve been keeping a running playlist of what catches my ear across style and genres. 2023’s playlist is nine hours long, 130 songs in total. From that river, I’ve plucked 15 songs in particular that have helped me think about what a song can be in 2023. With this selection I’m also honoring the profusion of meaningful music in 2023: none of these songs have appeared on any other NPR Music list. Here’s the longer playlist, and here is the one that features the favorites I’ve highlighted below. My resolution for 2024 is to think hard about how songs travel from their makers outward; this is the beginning of that project, highlighting the many things a song can do and mean.  Rough Trade Records ANN POWERS' FAVORITE SONGS OF 2023 “Old Note” by Lisa O’Neill: Song as the root of creative expression. “Float, old note, new among my mind”: This air by one of Ireland’s best storytellers (released in late 2022 but still my song of 2023) honors music’s gift for dismantling time and rearranging the secrets in a soul. My North Star this year. “Phoenix” by Lakecia Benjamin: Song as glorious flex. Her sax lines spinning around Georgia Anne Muldrow’s synths in friendly one-upmanship, Benjamin, recently recovered from a serious car accident, captures the essence of a champion, herself. “Watching Planes Go By" by Kassi Valazza: Song as space to breathe. Decanted from late-1960s folk stylings, this reverie turns personal as the Portland-based Valazza applies her claret-colored voice to a passing moment, expanding into the cosmos.  “Frisco Forever” by Annie DiRusso: Song as undress. This tiny movie disguised as a rock and roll rave-up speaks tough truths about the way bad love can glue you to a place even as it renders every corner poisonous. “Portals” by Laura Misch: Song as spell. Written after helping attend to her grandfather’s death at home during the pandemic, saxophonist/sampler/vocalist Misch’s delicately layered vesper opens a door to the unknown..  “The Nothing Answered Back” by Josaleigh Pollett: Song as mystery generator. Poetry can speak plainly while still creating space; in this song speckled with spare electronics, Salt Lake City musician Pollett confronts someone who just won’t give with words that feel like they touch the edge of a black hole. “Rice” by Young Fathers: Song as divine intervention. The Scottish beyond-rock trio finds the spirit in its bones, evoking the diaspora that generated both gospel and English punk in this tale of a joyful apocalypse.  “Flea Market” by Rett Madison: Song as bereavement. On For Jackie, her extraordinary album confronting her mother’s suicide, Madison offers a centerpiece constructed of ordinary confrontations with triggers, the devastating details that make for great country songs and days that can feel insurmountable. “Anestesia” by Conexion Divina: Song as unspooling desire. As Sandra Calixto’s bass and Ashlee Valenzuela’s requinto guitar intertwine in a patient, loping rhythm, the pathos of Liz Trujillo’s vocal builds and breaks, its moment taking this lament from heartbreak to rebirth.   “The Fields” by Nourished By Time: Song as time warp. American expat in London Marcus Brown channels post-soul R&B, but in a way that gently distorts and reassembles its lush hopefulness, in a track that captures what it’s like to turn to beauty to alleviate discontent. “Burn This Statehouse Down” by Mya Byrne and Paisley Fields: Song as protest. In the aftermath of Tennessee Republicans’ moves to legislate trans people’s rights out of existence, trans chosen family members Byrne and Fields mounted a raging and utterly uplifting campaign of their own via this punk barnstormer. “mileys riddim” by Jim Legxacy: Song as incubator. Juxtaposing a Hannah Montana-era M. Cyrus hook with a vintage sample from a Nigerian radio program, this heartbreak number shows how music can be the conduit for odd and highly resonant combinations. “Jus Ad Bellum” by Linda May Han Oh: Song as witness. A call for peace that rings like broken crystal, this shattering meditation from the jazz bassist makes the case for oracles. “Eucalyptus” by The National: Song as one-sided argument. A break-up screed that taps into the veteran band’s ability to find everything – joy, pain, ugly emotions, catharsis – in repetition, this is the saddest moving list you’ll ever hear about.  “Bed Bugs” by Snõõper: Song as catharsis. 34 seconds of exploding guitar, bass, drums and vocals that sounds exactly like finding one of those titular pests feels. NPR Classical The holidaze can drive you nuts ... Newsletter continues after sponsor message More to read, watch and hear This week we got the conclusion to Regional Goes Global, Alt.Latino’s three-part reported series on the musicians and fans behind this year’s explosion of Mexican Regional music. The evolutions of that music have been on display on streaming services, huge concert venues and even the upper reaches of the pop charts, but hosts Felix Contreras and Anamaria Sayre took the road less traveled to find the roots of Regional in the town of Mocorito, in the Mexican state of Sinaloa, at a school dedicated to teaching and preserving the banda tradition.  NPR Music’s classical music critic and producer Tom Huizenga finally stepped back into concert venues to enjoy live music for the first time since the onset of the pandemic, which added layers of appreciation to his list of the 10 best classical albums of 2023. Those offerings include a “musical acid trip” courtesy of Thomas Adès’s Dante and ear-opening discoveries played by new music champions Aizuri Quartet, plus plenty more great recordings to treasure. Last Wednesday marked the 10th anniversary of Beyoncé’s self-titled, surprise-released, game-changing 2013 album, and Anastasia Tsioulcas examined the ways that album – which was instantly hailed as revolutionary – actually presaged many of the changes in the music industry over the decade that followed. A pair of interviews with musical heavy-hitters: Jazz crossover king Robert Glasper sits with Lara Downes to discuss moving comfortably between different genres and styles – what he calls “the many rooms of his musical house.” Plus, renowned producer and (only because he has a beard, according to him) guru Rick Rubin talks with Rachel Martin about the differences between faith, trust, taste, devotion and forgiveness. If you’re getting in the jingle bell mood, Jazz Night In America invited pianist Christian Sands to share music from his new album Christmas Stories, along with holiday memories from his childhood. Brandy Clark is one of the great songwriters of the modern country era, as a collaborator with other artists and for her own voice. “Buried,” a highlight of her recent, self-titled album, was among NPR Music’s picks for the best songs of the 2023. Everything that makes it, and her, great is on display in this video from WMOT in Nashville, recorded live during this fall’s AmericanaFest. Help Keep the Conversations Going. Support the NPR Network and stand for trustworthy journalism that keeps you informed, enlightened, and connected. Your donation fuels in-depth reporting, unbiased insights, and thought-provoking stories that matter.  Join us in sustaining an essential source of knowledge and perspective for a brighter future. Act now with your support today.   Donate Tiny Desk Zayrha Rodriguez/NPR One of the few artists to appear on both our Best Albums and Best Songs list also showed up at the Tiny Desk this week: none other than Olivia Rodrigo, who told the NPR staff in attendance that she was starstruck by the room. It’s surreal for us, too, Olivia!  And that was just Monday morning. This week featured two more concerts we’ve been dying to share with the world. The throw-back pop vocalist Laufey fulfilled a personal dream by performing a Tiny Desk two years after casting a wish on Twitter. Then, the Toronto indie rock band Alvvays (pronounced “Always”) stripped down their signature shoegaze sound and allowed us to hear the stunning voice and poignant lyrics of Molly Rankin in their unadorned glory. One More Thing The mystery of a song heard in the background of an old X-Files episode, solved! Listen to your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to hear live radio from WUFT 89.1 (edit station). Need a new playlist? Follow NPR Music on Spotify and Apple Music What do you think of today's email? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: nprmusic@npr.org Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! They can sign up here. Looking for more great content? Check out all of our newsletter offerings — including Books, Pop Culture, Health and more! You received this message because you're subscribed to NPR Music emails. This email was sent by National Public Radio, Inc., 1111 North Capitol Street NE, Washington, DC 20002 Unsubscribe  |  Privacy Policy