I listen to thousands of songs every year and make playlists of standouts as I go (yeah, nerd here). My ‘Best Songs of 2023’ playlist closed out the year with over 400 songs within its confines. This week I finally culled that list down to a small, edible chunk of 30 and those are the tracks that feature in the official PuR’s Best Songs Of 2023 Playlist. I’m one of those backward people who need to decompress before I go to work (I know, weird), so the majority of this maniacal editing and ferreting takes place very, very early in the morning before the sun comes up. It’s sick.
Melody continues to be my own personal Jesus and is the foundation of how PuR’s Best Songs Of 2023 list is “computed”. The only criteria for a song’s inclusion are overall swoonworthy-ness and melodic majesty. It doesn’t matter if a song was released as an official single or if an artist is well-known and/or established. The determining factor is the song itself. I guess the main thing these songs have in common is their hook-filled tunefulness. So this list is built for you my fellow melody-hounds.
And with that, please enjoy these weird, endlessly wonderful songs made by gorgeously inspired humans in 2023. Hope they make you swoon. Big Love.
And HEY, following the best song list is a list of PuR’s Best Albums & EPs Of 2023 with links to listen to them attached(!). So much good stuff, oh man.
P.S. It wasn’t exactly my most prolific year as far as posts on PuR (understatement) but I am determined to make up for it in 2024 (dammit). I promise lots of new music in the form of the WEEKLY NEW WONDERS PLAYLIST ( I do the work so you don’t gotta) and even more of PuR’s insane, breathless Rating the Albums! feature series where we break down artist discographies to ludicrous extremes and I curse. A lot.
PuR’s Best Songs of 2023 Playlist!
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PuR’s Best Albums & EPs of 2023!
These albums are depicted above and listed below in alphabetical order because ranking ’em proved impossible as they have all been the top fave at one time or another over the past year. They are all beautiful! You can listen to each of them below!
Julie Byrne–The Greater Wings (listen here)
Christine and the Queens–Paranoia, Angels,True Love (listen here)
Everything But The Girl–Fuse (listen here)
Laura Groves–Radio Red (listen here)
Holysseus Fly–Birthpool EP (listen here)
Kara Jackson-Why Does The Earth Give Us People To Love? (listen here)
Joesef–Permanent Damage (listen here)
Long Island–infatuation’s a nightmare (listen here)
Nourished By Time–Erotic Probiotic 2 (listen here)
Pebbl–Moonbeams (listen here)
Hayden Pedigo–The Happiest Times I Ever Ignored (listen here)
Perlee–Speaking From Other Rooms (listen here)
PICKING UP ROCKS 