It’s tricky to fall in love with new songs when I don’t drive as much as I used to and therefore don’t listen to the radio as much as I used to either. But somehow, a dozen or so songs still manage to annually bubble their way up to a very special place in my heart.

Albums, meanwhile, typically have a better chance of making an impression on me nowadays, as I tend to sit and listen to them straight through on a popular music streaming service while taking care of business.

With all that mind, here’s the new music that made the biggest impression on me in 2023:

ALBUMS

1. Jessie Ware, That! Feels Good!: Jessie danced away with the victory this year.
2. The Chemical Brothers, For That Beautiful Feeling: The Brothers are indeed still capturing that beautiful feeling all these years later.
3. André 3000, New Blue Sun: It wasn’t the album we asked for from André, but it was the one we needed.
4. Royal Blood, Back to the Water Below: Nobody rocks like Royal Blood these days.
5. Corinne Bailey Rae, Black Rainbows: Corinne strips it down and throws in plenty of distortion.
6. U.S. Girls, Bless This Mess: Come in, take a seat, and let Bless This Mess transport you away.
7. Caroline Polachek, Desire, I Want to Turn Into You: Dance music that commands you to get down on all fours and kick your legs up to the heavens.
8. Sparks, The Girl is Crying in Her Latte: Sparks are still following the beat of their very own very personal muse.
9. Paramore, This Is Why: Self-assured and statement-making all the way through.
10. Queens of the Stone Age, In Times New Roman…: Rock’s not dead, it’s just in Times New Roman.
11. Lil Yachty, Let’s Start Here: Lil Yachty going psychedelic. I can dig it.
12. Sam Smith, Gloria: A missive from the club for everyone who needed to hear it.
13. Bebe Rexha, Bebe: Bootyfull, ecstatic pop.
14. Troye Sivan, Something to Give Each Other: If this album is indeed something we should give each other, then I approve.
15. Demi Lovato, Revamped: Demi really rocked out with some new arrangements of her own old songs, and I felt it.

SONGS

1. The Chemical Brothers ft. Halo Maud, “Live Again”: The Brothers will never stop being transcendent.
2. Jessie Ware, “Free Yourself”*: Thank you, Jessie, I went ahead and freed myself.
3. Sam Smith and Kim Petras, “Unholy”*: Great entrance music.
4. Olivia Rodrigo, “Can’t Catch Me Now”: You guys, Panem is still kind of a big deal.
5. Bebe Rexha ft. Snoop Dogg, “Satellite”: Out of this world, indeed.
6. Jessie Ware, “Begin Again”: It’s appropriate that this song has “again” in its title, considering that it’s Jessie Ware’s second appearance on this list.
7. Necry Talkie, “Bloom”: My favorite new TV theme song in ages!
8. Reneé Rapp, “Talk Too Much”: Each generation gets their own check-yourself-before-you-wreck-yourself anthem.
9. Miley Cyrus, “Flowers”: This song would also work just as well if it were about loving your dog instead of loving yourself.
10. Dua Lipa, “Houdini”: She’s still magical.
11. Cannons, “Loving You”: Whistle you make catchy indie rock.
12. Paramore, “Running Out of Time”: How to Stay Energized
13. Fall Out Boy, “We Didn’t Start the Fire”: An even dopier update of perhaps the most profoundly dopey song of all time.

*-Denotes a song that was technically released in 2022

Honorable Mention: Flavor Flav’s rendition of the National Anthem at the October 29 Atlanta Hawks-Milwaukee Bucks game.