The Actual 250 Greatest Songs of the Century So Far

Rolling Stone needs to stop doing lists like this because they're always bad and wrong and then I have to correct everything and hastily throw together a list that is better and more accurate. Stop making more work for me. This blog is supposed to be over and done.

1. Rihanna & Calvin Harris - We Found Love
2. TV On The Radio - Staring At The Sun
3. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Maps
4. T.I. - What You Know
5. D'Angelo - 1000 Deaths
6. Outkast - B.O.B. (Bombs Over Baghdad)
7. No Age - Teen Creeps
8. Maren Morris - 80s Mercedes
9. Chappell Roan - Good Luck, Babe!
10. Fetty Wap - Trap Queen
11. Miguel - Adorn
12. Turnstile - Blackout
12. Wilco - I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
14. Carly Rae Jepsen - Boy Problems
15. Rihanna - Needed Me
16. Lil Wayne ft Babyface - Comfortable
17. Frank Ocean - Swim Good
18. Kacey Musgraves - High Horse
19. Gucci Mane - Lemonade
20. Radiohead - 15 Step
21. Missy Elliott - Get Ur Freak On
22. At the Drive-in - Pattern Against User
23. Amerie - 1 Thing
24. Deerhunter - Nothing Ever Happened
25. Sabrina Carpenter - Taste
26. Power Trip - Armageddon Blues
27. Ariana Grande - No Tears Left To Cry
28. Midlake - Young Bride
29. The Strokes - Reptilia
30. Playboi Carti - Magnolia
31. And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead - Relative Ways
32. Mindforce - Excalibur
33. Guided By Voices - Overloaded
34. Ovlov - Where's My Dini
35. UNK ft Outkast & Jim Jones - Walk It Out (Remix)
36. Three 6 Mafia - Stay Fly
37. *NSYNC - Bye Bye Bye
38. Deftones - Change (In The House Of Flies)
39. Rihanna ft Drake - Work
40. Unwound - Demons Sing Love Songs
41. Charli XCX - Party 4 U
42. D'Angelo - The Charade
43. Wayne Wonder - No Letting Go
44. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Heads Will Roll
45. Caribou - Melody Day
46. The Used - Blue and Yellow
47. Robyn - Hang With Me
48. Chappell Roan - Casual
49. Madvillain - Great Day
50. Florida Georgia Line - Countryside
51. Ne-Yo - Because Of You
52. Kylie Minogue - Love at First Sight
53. Clipse - Ride Around Shining
54. Ovlov - The Well
55. Diiv - Brown Paper Bag
56. Tony Molina - Don't Come Back
57. Queens of the Stone Age - The Lost Art of Keeping A Secret
58. Tyler The Creator - New Magic Wand
59. Viper - Hey Maybe One Day You'll See Me Again
60. Rihanna - Kiss It Better
61. Kevin Krauter - Pretty Boy
62. Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats - Ritual Knife
63. At the Drive-In - One Armed Scissor
64. Sky Ferreira - Everything Is Embarrassing
65. A$AP Rocky ft Drake, 2 Chainz, Kendrick Lamar - Fuckin' Problems
66. The Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
67. Maren Morris - My Church
68. Jimmy Eat World - Work
69. Alex G - Proud
70. Pill - Trap Goin' Ham
71. Caribou - Sun
72. Deerhunter - Strange Lights
73. Valee ft Jeremih - Womp Womp
74. Radiohead - Morning Bell
75. Good Morning - Warned You
76. El Guincho - Bombay
77. Ashlee Simpson - Pieces Of Me
78. The Shins - Kissing The Lipless
79. Radiohead - Optimistic
80. Keane - Somewhere Only We Know
81. Ariana Grande - Thank U, Next
82. Beach Fossils - Don't Fade Away
83. Anz ft George Riley - You Could Be
84. Deftones - Digital Bath
85. Ovlov - Strokes
86. M.I.A. - Paper Planes
87. Boris & Michio Kurihara - You Laughed Like A Water Mark
88. Radiohead - Backdrifts
89. Outkast - Ms. Jackson
90. Kelly Clarkson - Since U Been Gone
91. Big Thief - Not
92. The Rubs - Wrong Right Girl
93. Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile - Over Everything
94. Trinidad James - All Gold Everything
95. Yuck - Get Away
96. Sabrina Carpenter - Espresso
97. Annie - Heartbeat
98. Charli XCX - Apple
99. DMX - Who We Be
100. The Chats - Smoko
101. Nicki Minaj - Did It On Em
102. Real Estate - Crime
103. Muse - Hysteria
104. Steve Lacy - Playground
105. Aaliyah - Try Again
106. Deftones - Rx Queen
107. Fury - Angels Over Berlin
108. No Age - Genie
109. Windhand - Grey Garden
110. Elliott Smith - Son Of Sam
111. Ringo Deathstarr - Slack
112. The Killers - When You Were Young
113. No Age - Sleeper Hold
114. Ovens - Running In Place
115. Wiz Khalifa - Black and Yellow
116. D'Angelo - Prayer
117. The-Dream - Yamaha
118. Uffie - Pop The Glock
119. Crystal Castles ft Robert Smith - Not In Love
120. La Roux - Bulletproof
121. Radiohead - Everything In Its Right Place
122. Lady Gaga - Poker Face
123. *NSYNC - Girlfriend
124. CSS - Alala
125. The Shins - So Says I
126. Stacie Orrico - Stuck
127. Modest Mouse - Tiny Cities Made Of Ashes
128. Addison Rae - Fame Is A Gun
129. Electric Wizard - Funeralopolis
130. Taylor Swift - Style
131. Mason Ramsey - Twang
132. Playboi Carti - Sky
133. Kanye West ft Kendrick Lamar - No More Parties In LA
134. Prince - Call My Name
135. Deftones - Feiticeira
136. PinkPantheress ft Ice Spice - Boy's A Liar Part 2
137. Rihanna - Same Ol' Mistakes
138. Earl Sweatshirt ft RZA - Molasses
139. And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - How Near How Far
140. Radiohead - In Limbo
141. Pinback - From Nothing To Nowhere
142. The Click Five - Just The Girl
143. Ryan Leslie - Diamond Girl
144. Ween - Gabrielle
145. Kanye West - Flashing Lights
146. Mike Jones - Back Then
147. Dismemberment Plan - Superpowers
148. SZA - Kill Bill
149. Sedona - Sharkbite
150. Lorde - What Was That
151. Jai Paul - Jasmine Demo
152. The Rubs - Wrap My Life
153. DNCE - Cake By The Ocean
154. Weezer - King of The World
155. Silversun Pickups - Melatonin
156. Wilco - Handshake Drugs
157. Slipknot - Duality
158. Troye Sivan - Got Me Started
159. T.I. - Why You Wanna
160. Radiohead - Pyramid Song
161. UGK ft Outkast - Int'l Players Anthem
162. Lil B - Hipster Girls
163. PJ Harvey ft Thom Yorke - This Mess We're In
164. Turnstile - Holiday
165. Beak> - Eggdog
166. Surface To Air Missive - Life Is So Sad
167. Flasher - Who's Got Time
168. Built To Spill - Goin' Against Your Mind
169. The Darkness - Growing On Me
170. Sabrina Carpenter - Manchild
171. Kim Petras - I Don't Want It At All
172. Lil Yachty - Bring It Back
173. Ty Dolla Sign ft Babyface - Solid
174. Hatchie - Obsessed
175. Turnstile - I Don't Wanna Be Blind
176. The Tubs - Illusion Pt 2
177. PinkPantheress - Illegal
178. Lil Nas X - Sun Goes Down
179. Nicki Minaj - Come On A Cone
180. Animal Collective - What Would I Want? Sky
181. Ted Leo/Rx - The Ballad Of The Sin Eather
182. Against Me! - Borne On The FM Waves Of The Heart
183. D'Angelo - Another Life
184. Santana ft Michelle Branch - The Game Of Love
185. Nicki Minaj - Stupid Hoe
186. Lil B - No Black Person Is Ugly
187. Two Inch Astronaut - Foulbrood
188. Mike Jones ft Paul Wall - Still Tippin'
189. Phoenix - Napoleon Says
190. Kylie Minogue - Come Into My World
191. Cam'ron ft Juelz Santana - Hey Ma
192. System Of A Down - Chop Suey!
193. Ying Yang Twins - Wait (The Whisper Song)
194. Jagged Edge ft Nelly - Where The Party At
195. Surface To Air Missive - Get In The Truck
196. D'Angelo - Really Love
197. Justin Timberlake - Nothin' Else
198. The Darkness - Love Is Only A Feeling
199. Rihanna ft SZA - Consideration
200. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Y Control
201. Wilco - Jesus, etc.
202. TV On The Radio - Province
203. Dua Lipa - Break My Heart
204. Charli XCX - Boys
205. Kitty Pryde - Okay Cupid
206. Alex G - Bobby
207. Power Trip - Executioner's Tax
208. Kendrick Lamar - King Kunta
209. Nicki Minaj ft Drake & Lil Wayne - Truffle Butter
210. Mac Demarco - Ode To Viceroy
211. Tinashe ft Schoolboy Q - 2 On
212. MGMT - The Youth
213. Ariana Grande ft The Weeknd - Love Me Harder
214. Jennifer Lopez ft French Montana - I Luh Ya Papi
215. Jay-Z - Girls Girls Girls
216. Frank Ocean - Thinkin About You
217. Kesha - Tik Tok
218. Deftones - Sextape
219. Shellac - A Prayer To God
220. A Tribe Called Quest ft Kendrick Lamar - Conrad Tokyo
221. Alex G - Kicker
222. Pearl Jam - Unemployable
223. Interpol - Evil
224. Deftones - Minerva
225. The Anniversary - All Things Ordinary
226. Daft Punk - One More Time
227. Grass Is Green - Panera
228. Thom Yorke - The Eraser
229. Homeshake - Heat
230. Three 6 Mafia - From Da Back
231. The Strokes - New York City Cops
232. Janet Jackson - Someone To Call My Lover
233. Tommy Richman - Million Dollar Baby
234. Mahmundi - Imagem
235. Charli XCX - Talk Talk
236. Loona / Odd Eye Circle - Girl Front
237. Magdalena Bay - Image
238. Troye Sivan - Rush
239. Beak> - Brean Down
240. Phoenix - Sometimes In The Fall
241. CKY - Flesh Into Gear
242. Queens Of The Stone Age - Monsters In The Parasol
243. Palehound - Healthier Folk
244. Solange - Losing You
245. Pill - Dimes Of Hard
246. Beyonce ft Andre 3000 - Party
247. Japandroids - Young Hearts Spark Fire
248. The Rubs - Impossible Dream
249. Gridiron - Mascot
250. A Tribe Called Quest ft Andre 3000 - Kids


Stuff that almost made it:
Tkay Maidza - U-Huh
Neon Indian - Hex Girlfriend
Mariah Carey & Miguel - Beautiful
Warpaint - Love Is to Die
Danny Brown - Combat
Mz Sassy - Take Me To The Liquor Store
Rihanna - James Joint
Dornik - Something About You
Ovlov - The Great Ohmu
Hospitality - It's Not Serious
Pusha T - Numbers On The Boards
Joanna Gruesome - Wussy Void
Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - Stick Figures In Love
Lil Wayne & Rick Ross - John
Deerhoof - Chandelier Searchlight
Merchandise - I Locked The Door
Justin Bieber - Runaway Love Remix
Yo La Tengo - Pass The Hatchet I Think I'm Goodkind
The Mars Volva - L'Via L'Viaquez
T.A.T.U. - All The Things She Said
Yo Majesty - Club Action
TV On The Radio - Wolf Like Me
Simian Mobile Disco - I Believe
Death From Above 1979 - Romantic Rights
Carly Rae Jepsen - Emotion
Candy - Distorted Dreams
Lily Konigsberg - Sweat Forever
Hum - Step Into You
DaBaby ft Offset - Babysitter
Denzel Curry ft Rick Ross - Birdz

New Years Eve Show 2024 (Top 100 of 2024)

100. Bodysync x Dazy - Back Of My Mind
99. Tate McRae - 2 Hands
98. Enemic Interior - Cos a Cos
97. Peso Pluma ft Rich The Kid - Gimme A Second
96. Schedule 1 - Drifting
95. Container - Yacker
94. Zero Point Energy - Closer to You
93. Beak> - Strawberry Line
92. The Hard Quartet - Hey
91. Nilufer Yanya - Like I Say (I Runaway)

90. Chat Pile - Tape
89. Sedona - Deadweight
88. Anxious - Counting Sheep
87. Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats - Solo La Morte Ti Ammanetta
86. Darkthrone - Black Dawn Affiliation
85. Arstioir Lifsins - Eftr Bjartlogar Hrots Hreggs Kveikja Ognarstrioan Ulf Sordar Grasinu
84. Sheer Mag - Moonstruck
83. Jayson Green & The Jerk - I Need Love
82. Dry Erase - Claude Is Cold
81. Beak> - Hungry Are We

80. 360 - Charli XCX
79. Persher - Read Me Some Sci-Fi
78. Quid Quo - Circles
77. Disintegration - Abandon
76. Thee Oh Sees - Zipper
75. LL Cool J ft Saweetie - Proclivities
74. The Jesus Lizard - Alexis Feels Sick
73. Kendrick Lamar - Squabble Up
72. Madison Beer - Make You Mine
71. Flo Milli ft Lil Yachty - Never Lose Me

70. Everything Is Romantic - Charli XCX
69. Oso Oso - That's What Time Does
68. Her New Knife - Purepurepure
67. Sedona - Baby Run
66. Beak> - Denim
65. Addison Rae - Aquamarine
64. Dry Erase - Planet B Pill
63. Sean Henry - Burn It Out
62. Beabadoobee - Beaches
61. Maxo Kream ft Tyler The Creator - Cracc Era

60. Montel Palmer - Talk To Me
59. Howell Dawdy - I Need Some Help
58. Julie - Very Little Effort
57. Quicksand - Supercollider
56. Porcelain - Plastic
55. The Jesus Lizard - Grind
54. The Cure - Alone
53. Charli XCX - Sympathy Is A Knife
52. Milly - Blocked On Everything
51. Nilufer Yanya - Method Actor

50. Darkside - Graucha Max
49. Bullion ft Carly Rae Jepsen - Rare
48. NYC Knockouit - Stunadz Anthem
47. Magdalena Bay - Death & Romance
46. Homeless Cadaver - Emergency Circumcision
45. Snoozer - Love's Permission
44. Joey Valance & Brae - John Cena
43. Internet Girl - Government Name
42. Charli XCX - I Think About It All The Time
41. Sabrina Carpenter - Espresso

40. Chat Pile - Masc
39. NewJeans - How Sweet
38. Classic Traffic - Missing Person
37. Kim Gordon - Bye Bye
36. Charli Xcx - Von Dutch
35. The Cure - A Fragile Thing
34. Kendrick Lamar - Not Like Us
33. Milly - Spilling Ink
32. David Nance - Mock The Hours
31. Persher - Portable Aquarium

30. Internet Girl - Pull Up
29. Charli XCX and Lorde - Girl So Confusing version with Lorde
28. Marcel Wave - Peg
27. Smelter - In Spades
26. MJ Lenderman - She's Leaving You
25. Milly - Running The Madness
24. Denzel Curry ft Kenny Mason - SKED
23. Narrow Head - Love Sick
22. Alien Nosejob - The Executioner
21. Julie - Feminine Adornments
20. Beak> - The Seal

19. Facs - Wish Defense
19. Addison Rae - Diet Pepsi
17. Doechii - Nissan Altima
16. The Jesus Lizard - Hide and Seek
15. MJ Lenderman - Wristwatch
14. Tatyana - Down Badd
13. Charli XCX - Talk Talk
12. Pissed Jeans - Everywhere Is Bad
11. Sabrina Carpenter - Bed Chem

10. Disintegration - In Your Diary
09. Magdalena Bay - Image
08. Julie - Clairbourne Practice
07. The Garden - Filthy Rabbit Hole
06. Diiv - Brown Paper Bag
05. Charli XCX - Apple
04. Tommy Richman - Million Dollar Baby
03. The Cure - All I Ever Am
02. Sabrina Carpenter - Taste
01. Chappell Roan - Good Luck, Babe

Living+ 2023: #25 to #1

How is Living+ 2023 even happening? Is another of our grueling 8-months-late end-of-year lists really necessary? Why not just throw together another Spotify playlist and call it a day? Are we really that interested in I wonder what it would look like? to justify that level of time committment? Years ago, we didn't care. We just wrote whatever and posted whatever. What happened to the spontaneity?

Feel free to observe and/or "check out" the carefully selected photos and font sizes, but the track descriptions (mostly Succession pilled) make less sense than ever.

Do not read.

#25. Sweeping Promises "Eraser"
This will age us, but no one should be reading this anyway: From the mid to late 80s, both Nickelodeon and PBS spent much of their budgets on import shows from UK, Canada, and Japan. Something about "Eraser's" super-analog vocal treatment sparks a very specific odd nostalgia for the music on some of these shows. To be fair, we first noticed this (likely unintentional) reference in a few other moments from Good Living Is Coming For You (SPs' Tascam 4-track triumph, released uncharacteristically hybrid from both Sub Pop and Feel It), like the main vocal hook in "Throw Of The Dice" for example.

We'll attempt a pinpoint, but it's just not gonna happen: It's somewhere around 1985, resting between the largely recycled score on BBC's Danger Mouse (reran at 7:30PM daily on Nick through to the end of 1987) and a handful of the outside-commissioned shorts aired between the narrative segments on Sesame Street. Or something else adjacent to one of these faint TV memories. A cluttered list of possibilities could fill yet another gruellingly tedious blog post, so we'll stop right there.

#24. Sedona "Touch & Go"
Again, we're not really interested in zoning on the specific references, but "Touch & Go" would have fit perfectly on our best of 2005 - a fresh POV resting nicely alongside Avril, Clarkson, Hilary, and Jessica's catchiest summer songs. Maybe Sedona will finally release that long-teased LP sometime soon. Or maybe not. All we're saying is, take a good look at how well this formula worked for fellow pop songsmith Chappell Roan: A seemingly endless string of singles (nine total) since 2020 finally got sequenced alongside 4 or 5 new jams to comprise one of the most delightfully solid full lengths of this decade. At this point, Sedona has a strong enough back catalogue to achieve something very similar. Plus, we want that vinyl. Where's the vinyl?


#23. Yo La Tengo "Sinatra Drive Breakdown"



#22. Troye Sivan "One Of Your Girls"


#21. Dazy "Forced Perspective"


#20. 100 Gecs "The Most Wanted Person In The United States"
By the end of 2023, some intern at Fox News selected this wacky jam to segue into a commercial break during one of their cult talk shows for dumbasses. "I turned on the news and it said..." A few million boomers' first exposure to those "boing" samples may have unlocked some extreme impulsions: Hours later, both My Pillow and Liberty Mutual reported mysterious brief skyrockets in their sales figures, likely thanks to The Gecs' bonkers-as-fuck production - perhaps their finest to date.

This brings us to our one gripe: The production is so hilarious and fun that it almost makes it too easy to forgive them for its lyrical laziness, settling on multiple placeholder words throughout a repeated one-line refrain that an average cheeky third grader could have made up during recess. "And it said? THAT I was?" On a 26-minute 10-song album that took them 4 years to complete, that's the best they could think of? "The #1 most wanted in the United States" sounds pretty exciting, but they couldn't think of a more descriptive word than "PERSON?" It's like getting a perfect score on the SATs and then spelling your name wrong. We prefer its smokin' bridge chant "Is it hot like that? Yeah it's hot like that" and juvenile nonsense-verses.

With compartmentalization properly adjusted, we're finally ready to entertain a few rock crits' Ween comparisons dating back to 2019. "Money Machine" is basically "You Fucked Up" for the digital age, while "Doritos and Fritos" could feasibly pass as a lost reimagining from GodWeenSatan-era. Despite these, "The modern day Ween" label feels overall inaccurate, since 100 Gecs are the first of their kind. More accurately, they occupy the long-absent major-label weirdo contingent once fulfilled by the likes of Dean and Gene, alongside Butthole Surfers, Daniel Johnston, Mr. Bungle, Flaming Lips, and The Frogs. With Alex G recently signing to a major, the space is again occupied by at least two of these bands -- not exactly The New Weirdo Renaissance, but perhaps just enough to spark other musicians' creativity in a similar direction. The freaks of Gen Z deserve more ass-kicking weirdos.


#19. The Hives "Bogus Operandi"
Who's been gatekeeping The Hives 2.0 and never told us they were still kicking ass? Without checking every Hives release since 2004, would it be crazy to call this their best song in over 20 years? Does it smoke "Walk Idiot Walk" from 2004? Was "Walk Idiot Walk" a bizarre, underwhelming choice for their 2nd album's lead single? Were we familiar with scene-club indie-dance fashion kids way back in 2004? Why was that a thing? Is the video for "Bogus Operandi" the best video of 2023? Or at least in the top 5? Should we regret not doing a videos list last year? Should we maybe just throw one together right now? Are we able to think of 10 videos off the top of the head? Would it be fair to just say "Got Me Started," "The Hillbillies," the OPN video with The Donut Hole, and "Bogus Operandi" are probably somewhere in the top 6? Was this song a huge hit on modern rock stations, and if not why not?

Please limit your essay response to 100 words because we don't have all day over here.

Extra credit question: Why don't The Hives have a Bandcamp?


#18. Tkay Maidza "WUACV"



#17. Melenas "Bang"



#16. Smelter "New Skin"


#15. Troye Sivan "Rush"


#14. Baby Keem & Kendrick Lamar "The Hillbillies"
Let's talk about Kendrick and Drake.

Actually let's mostly talk about Drake and the underlying source of his ridicule. Why is he never taken seriously as a rap artist, gettin' in squabbles left and right? Our best guess: Drake lives in denial. He hates that he's has no control over his permanent branding as "pop star that raps," instead of a cred-worthy "rap artist." Dorky, perpetually 22-years-old, unfathomably rich and famous, he's the Justin Timberlake of rappers (minus the DUI). The boy needs to grow up, accept it, and own it, or else this identity crisis will continue for the remainder of his cultural relevance.

Post-acceptance, he can still flex some serious boasts: He's not just a "pop star" but one of the most successful mega-brands in music history. Each new release in his discography has consistantly defied low expectations, despite his cringey forays into Pinkerton-levels of therapy session TMI. The haters (us included) continue expecting a LONG overdue quality plateau, only to be met with a handful of surprisingly edgy tracks year after year, ranging from "challenging and dark" to "bouncy and fun." While nothing earth-shattering, his past decade of releases include none that completely suck. A pop star at his echelon of fame (or infamy, if the POV fits) doesn't need to seek a broad array of genuine dopeness, but it often occurs anyway.

The double-edge sword lies within his tastes and sonic choices. He's clearly a hard worker, dropping "surprise" mixtapes about once per year - a fatiguing pace preferring quantity over quality. But even his more recent drops eventually reveal some edge and dopeness, perhaps due to his desperation for an unachievable level of importance that's entirely on his terms.

He wants what Kendrick's earned - a degree of multi-platinum cred unseen since the days of The Low End Theory and 36 Chambers. But when you're that huge of a pop star, it just doesn't work that way. The degree that he flexes his practically nonexistent "street cred" consistently matches the degree to which he comes off as an oblivious dork.

This trajectory was set in place within the first 10 seconds of his breakthrough smash, 2009's "Best I Ever Had." Over a piano trickle sampling Hamilton Joe Frank & Reynolds' "Fallin' In Love Again," the spoken intro gives major "Lance Bass / Joey Fatone" energy: "You know, a lot of girls be / Thinkin' my songs are about them / This is not to get confused / This one's for you."

Perhaps hurting his case further, "Best I Ever Had" dropped concurrent with an uptick in Noggin's reruns of his 7-season arc on Degrassi: The Next Generation. Fans and non-fans alike will not shake this association. A child star turned rapper that "has bars" is still a former child star. Meanwhile, Kendrick studied and mastered rap throughout his upbringing in Compton. Guess who wins every single time?


#13. Bar Italia "Yes I Have Eaten So Many Lemons Yes I Am So Bitte"
The most frustrating new band of 2023, Bar Italia are perhaps the best recent example of a common issue in indie-rock: Outstanding musical intuition in desperate need of a kickass tough-love producer. On its own, "layer 1" of their canvas glimmers with a refreshing flavor for modern post-punk: Neo-noir, rough around the edges, occasionally weird. But most importantly, their grooves are hot. As the indie-landscape continues its dearth of sexy rhythms, Bar Italia seem effortless in this department - enough that they quickly banged out a surprisingly strong 2nd LP by the year's end.

It's this initial groove-layer that kept us returning, in hopes that their weak spots would eventually grow on us. But they haven't: structural nonsense, grating vocal performances, melodies and lyrics that sound drunkenly shat out at 4AM at an expensive-as-fuck home studio in posh upperclass London.

By the 2nd or 3rd listen through their breakthrough single "Nurse!," we wondered about its creation process too much to enjoy its strengths. Seems transparent enough: One band member recorded the entire song on their own, singing the catchy chorus (the best part) and leaving open space for the others' unwritten vocal parts. It's at this point when lyrics and a "first thing I could think of" vocal melody hastily come together. These pinned-on vocal takes comprise most of our frustration with this project. In a handful of instances, our "grower" theory actually worked, more so on The Twits than on their earlier LP. "Twist" is a good example: A decently structured 6/8 spagetti-western thing with vocals and lyrics that still grate but perhaps not to a degree that drags it to ruins.

Applying process of elimination, their best songs maintain the dope grooves with minimal intrusion from their most destructive tendancies. From these, we hear "Lemons" standing out enough to lock for our Top 20, thanks in no small part to a chill understated vocal performance from the best of their 3 singers (the glasses dude, looks like Adam Friedland).

With all this said, we think they show outstanding potential for future releases, pending they can critically examine their weaknesses and invest some of that inheritance money on a dope producer who can really help them shine. It might even make up for their jaw-dropping trainwreck of a live show, put on full display in their Coachella live stream a few months back. (Mercifully no longer on Youtube, they gave Salem at the Fader Fort something to aspire to.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gb7PjuAdwy8

#12. NewJeans "Super Shy"
Is this the video where the entire 300+ student body of a random primary school in Americatown, USA are shown in a super-wide shot dancing in unison in front of their school? It would seem as though the NewJeans video director may have mistakenly thought this creepy-as-fuck image would make random kids say "wow that's so cool, I would also enjoy it if all 300 kids at my school were to dance as one." Luckily for NewJeans the song is catchy and fun enough that it seemed more awkward than genuinely scary. If the quality of the jam were not so hot, nothing about this image would sit well with us. But this may be testament to the song's dopeness, since we almost forgot this part of the video existed.

Here's a great idea for TikTok: The Don't-Dance Challenge. You win the challenge by just enjoying the song. Nothing against The Do-Dance Challenge, if that's your preference, but the dream keeps dreaming.


#11. Pardoner "Rosemary's Gone"



#10. Brain Tourniquet "An Expression In Pain"



#9. Beach Fossils "Don't Fade Away"


#8. Narrow Head "Caroline"
Music supervisors take note:

"Caroline" is exactly the kind of emo-grunge-core we wish we could hear in an indie-film about 20-somethings coming-of-age midway through a quarter-life-crisis while navigating self-discovery, scraping to get by, trying and slacking, succeeding and failing, finding and losing love, etc, etc. It's exactly the kind of pensive, urgent, loud guitar-rock that should be Track 5 on a 15-song soundtrack full of sonically aligned newish bands like Momma, Rocket, Turnstile, Alien Boy, Young Guv, Glitterer, Dazy, Flasher, Cherry Glazerr, Milly, Ovlov, Jobber, and topped off with a couple hardcore-adjacents like Gel and Fury. Now that's a soundtrack worthy of some excitement, not only to spotlight a truly misrepresented subset of modern youth culture, but also to get these clueless airchair dumbasses to shut their traps about the "dead" or "undead" that rock is allegedly experiencing. Tell that to the packed Momma show we saw at Music Hall last year. Say that into the mic at Ovlov's frantic Market Hotel show a few months back, or at the Milly / Hotline TNT show at Baby's All Right when we were by far the oldest people in the room. (All sold out shows by the way, or close to it). The percentage of loud rock kids across the youth culture spectrum isn't exactly a huge number, but it's a much larger one than "the narrative" would have us believe. And their passion for this music is strong. (Also, most of them fuck with Deftones.)

Singles and Trainspotting are probably the two best examples of '90s soundtrack curation that spoke on behalf of a previously ignored generational subset whose numbers were much larger than assumed. The very idea that this isn't currently happening is ridiculous. For their new film I Saw The TV Glow, filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun perhaps achieved the past decade's strongest attempt - a 16-song collection that reimagines the heights soundtracks could have reached in the 2010s, following the strength of 2009-era comps for Twilight and Jennifer's Body. Had its curation occurred in 2016, I Saw The TV Glow's album would fit this exact criteria. But as a 2024 release, it's showcasing a movement that's already been well-covered and packaged as its own era in the rock trajectory. Quickly glancing, we see solo-Hop Along, solo-Chairlift, Phoebe, Snail Mail, Jay Som. You'll hear their pretty/sad voices all the time on NPR and SiriusXMU. 50-something indie dudes love attending their shows. It's not necessarily the exciting, youthful bombshell we're describing here, but it's still the closest we've heard in a while. So keep them coming. The door's wide open. More hot soundtracks, pleeease.


#7. Turnstile "Everything You Know"
Here's the only song on Living+ 2023 that technically hasn't been released yet, and we're not sure why.

Here's our weird anecdote: We binged through Season 3 of I Think You Should Leave about a week after it dropped on Netflix, not realizing the cheesy-sounding rock song prominently featured in episode 4 was a new song from our favorite current rock band. We saw a Stereogum headline mention something about a new Turnstile song appearing on the show, and confusion settled after realizing this same cheesy song was in fact Turnstile. A few months later while compiling thoughts and info for a "2023 TV and Movies" podcast discussion, the extended separation from our initial impression made a huge difference. Suddenly, this mysterious jam became firmly brain-stuck in one of those 3-day extended remixes, subconsiously looping over and over, both at work and during sleep.

We quickly related to the guy from the sketch, fueled with entirely unearned rebellion and youthful excitement. The Turnstile boys are keeping us young. We're dumbfounded why Roadrunner has yet to capitalize on such a great song. Perhaps some legal bullshit with Netflix?

But more than anything else in that moment, we needed a way to hear it while driving. Without a presence on any major or less-than-major streaming services, we tried an old-fashioned mp3 download from Soulseek and still found nothing. No audio extractions, no fan edits. But we did find the episode's video file. So what if we just tried that? Let's give it a shot...

A few minutes after the video file completed, we dragged it into Audacity where a very strange, unexpected discovery occurred: The audio of this episode had split into 6 seperate stereo tracks, perhaps in their respective "surround sound" channels. We're not sure exactly how that works. But even more relevant to our mission, two of these tracks contained only music with no dialogue, making it all the easier to isolate the song for our own special "fan edit." About 30 minutes later, our hasty-yet-asskicking edit was complete.

Should we share this edit with the world? Believe it, we tried. Soundcloud and Youtube immediately rejected our upload citing copyright claims, which must be why it's still impossible to locate an audio stream. The only exception we could find is the one embedded below -- a fan edit that adheres to a conventionally longer 3+ minute structure than what Turnstile likely laid to tape. It's far off enough from the original recording that Soundcloud hasn't flagged it yet, making it the only currently available version.

At least one Reddit poster seems convinced that this song, while written and performed by Turnstile, is actually the band playing a character created by Tim Robinson. The character is "The Everything-You-Knows" performing a song called "Listening." While not unfeasible, this conflicts with the song's metadata tags on Shazam and Spinitron, both of which mysteriously vanished from these 2 services at some point during August 2024. But until a more official source says otherwise, the song info is Turnstile, "Everything You Know," Roadrunner Records, 2023.


#6. Chappell Roan "Red Wine Supernova" / "After Midnight"
The ascent of Chappell Roan is by far the most exciting thing to happen in pop music since the turn of the decade. "Last summer, she was a camp counselor. This summer, she’s a femininomenon." Yeah, no kidding. We're hooked deep into this one, mesmerized by how good it feels to witness her story unfolding in real time. The underdog triumphs. Finally!

Savor this moment, kids. And then brace yourselves for a possible oversaturation. A multitude of story re-tellings might arrive after the album hits #1 (perhaps in the next few weeks, symbolically overtaking Taylor Swift's position), and then re-entering at #1 after the Grammys (where she has a remarkably solid shot of winning Album Of The Year).

The story: Seeds planted upon album release -> Seeds sprout throughout her 2 months of shows with Olivia Rodrigo -> "The little sprout that could" reaches full bloom just in time for Coachella, delivering an explosively ultra-confident yet endearingly human performance, conveniently live streaming to the entire world via Youtube. By the end of the month, she's interviewed by Elton John, while Bonnaroo uncharacteristically but wisely moves her from side- to main-stage.

Seemingly overnight, she's an actual megastar, tapping into a deep level of mature listener connection envied by most pop artists whose initials aren't T.S. As the era of stan culture all but diminishes the impact of the so-called "important" musician, Chappell Roan embodies a non-superficial no-bullshit necessity. She represents so much for so many different types of people, while her palpably loveable and approachable aura only amplifies her album's bangers-per-capita (essentially 10 singles, plus 4 exceptional album tracks that any other artist would gladly drop as their lead single). Bangers, coolness, and actual importance: The ultimate triple threat of 2024.

So now that's out of the way, here's what we really wanted to dig into - the largely unexplored peculiarities of this whole thing:

- She's not a former child star, an actor, or a model. She's not indebted to nepotism.
- Nothing about this record suggests "boardroom approved."
- Released by an offshoot of Island Records who clearly had no idea what they had on their hands, the record was not well promoted upon release.
- There was no "accidental internet glitch" such as the sus Youtube algorithm push for Phoebe Bridgers' "Kyoto" video in 2020.
- Disney's endless PR cash was not on hand to fabricate auto-streaming confrontations or high-profile playlisting favors, such as those ensuring the instant success of a song like "Driver's License" by shoving it in people's faces ad nauseum.
- Initial reviews were mixed. Pitchfork cluelessly scored it a 7.2 and somewhat egregiously described "After Midnight" as "otherwise unremarkable."***
- Typically a Hail Mary promo boost for a pop record of this quality (ie Body Talk, Sucker, Emotion), an end-of-year listicle consensus barely materialized.^^^

It's not like Chappell Roan started the year 2024 from zero, but she made the absolute most of what hints of momentum she could collect and funneled all of it into an explosive live experience that doesn't need pyro, with a refreshingly sparse stage plot - just Chappell, her songs, and an ass-kicking 3-piece backing band. She built her brand almost entirely around her own self-confident stage persona, generating buzz through old fashioned word-of-mouth.

It's as close to organic as ascent-to-stardom can get these days - a success story that owes the machine virtually nothing.



***Note: While working on this very large blog post, we noticed at least 2 other music writers suggesting "After Midnight" as Chappell Roan's worst song, largely conflicting with fans' enthusiasm. We're prepared to defend. If the design of Midwest Princess functions (among a sea of enumerable functions) among the all-time greatest collections tributing the past 25 years of pop stars, "After Midnight" is a great example of homage-surpasses-influence. In this case, it's Katy Perry's Teenage Dream LP - specifically, the party jams "California Gurls" and "Last Friday Night," the latter of which we largely regret placing as our 5th best song of 2011.

^^Note: Friend-of-the-blog Maura Johnston placed it #4 on Time's list, while friend-of-friends-of-the-blog Rob Sheffield largely advised Rolling Stone's #12 placement. But at the end of 2023, nearly all the consensus instead surrounded the comparitively whiny Guts. (Boring.) What should have been 2 very high profile promo boosts felt more like two larger than average droplets landing in a gigantic listicle bucket. While this problem continues suppressing so many of the past decade's best albums, it's refreshing as hell to finally witness a genuine breakthrough side-stepping broken industry norms.

#5. PinkPantheress ft Ice Spice "He's A Liar Pt 2"
“We don’t need to repeat a verse, we don’t need to have a bridge. We don’t need a long outro.”

We would prefer to never know this quote existed. On its own, "Boy's A Liar Pt 2" is one of the breeziest summer songs in recent memory, and doesn't seem deserving of analysis beyond "is it catchy? is it fun? is it summery? yes, yes, and yes." Without the fun-sucking microscopic analysis so inherent to modern pop music, it's easily one of the 10 best songs of 2023.

But since she brought it up...

This is not the first time a flawed-yet-serious jam still felt huge enough to qualify for a year's Top 10. The one that comes to mind most often is "2 On," when Schoolboy Q's distractingly raunchy bridge felt like a phoned-in stain on an otherwise perfect pop song. It's not entirely uncommon these days.

Okay, let's talk about song structure.

So PinkPantheress wants to break the rules of structural pop convention. No problem. Do what you need to do. Robert Pollard's spent the last 40 years writing hundreds of songs that experiment with convention. The difference: Pollard's also written several hundred songs that adhere to those same conventions. Are we purposely removing structural elements for its own sake, just to generate Twitter arguments? Or are we experimenting out of love for the form?

Has PinkPantheress earned the right to become a public figure who decided that she knows better than the past 60 years of successful pop songwriters?

Step one: In order to break the rules effectively, you need to listen and study to gain an understanding of why conventions work as well as they do.

Step two: Learn to create a mental image of "perfect structure." Even without the acumen to articulate why, learn how to identify a perfectly crafted song when you hear it.

Step 2.5: Step two enhances ability to ID tricks and imperfections, when they elevate dopeness, when they make a song slightly worse, when repetition works, when a motif becomes too repetitive or not repetitive enough. ID the basics of key changes and how they may or may not psychologically elevate a listening experience by introducing sounds or notes not yet heard throughout a song. ID examples of when imperfections work or don't work, whether intentional or not, both subjectively and objectively.

Step three: Perhaps the most important step for a writer like PinkPantheress who values brevity, learn to identify when a shorter song feels undercooked instead of just right, or when a longer song earns its length instead of tediously plodding.

We're only just now hearing the original "Boy's A Liar" and learned that PinkPantheress's 2nd verse was removed to make room for Ice Spice's bridge, closing with a 4-line rap cadence strongly suggesting "let's bring it on home," at a point in the song that feels only about 40% finished. The fact that PinkPantheress had an opportunity to improve the song's flow by preserving her 2nd verse feels like such a wasted opportunity, choosing instead to keep the song under 2:30 not to help it sound any better but for the sake of brevity itself.

It's still a great song, but its final version does kind of sound like something was accidentally deleted. The transition from Ice Spice's rap back into the pre-chorus strikes us as one of the most effective pop moments of 2023, making it all the more frustrating that it occurs way too early in the song.

Whoever edits Wikipedia made sure to throw in a paragraph about Rolling Stone and Vulture including "Boys a Liar Pt 2" in their notable Grammy snubs, specifically for Record and Song of the Year. Maybe it would've had a better shot if it was structured like a fully formed song instead of a demo.

Repeating a chorus doesn't have to sound repetitive. After mastering the fundamentals of pop structure, the tricks become more obvious. 2nd choruses don't always but occasionally appear with new arrangement detail, or alter half of the chorus's lyrics, or attach a post-chorus section. There's no law that says a chorus can only re-appear later in a song as an exact copy-and-paste of its first occurance. In fact, we wish newer bands would experiment with this more often. But none of this would ever occur to kids who haven't done their homework.

Stop confusing laziness with "breaking convention." Oh you don't like being called lazy? Then maybe prove you're not by learning how to fix clunky structures instead of just hastily pasting together "production + singer" and killing a dope groove dead in its tracks at the 2:29 mark for no reason whatsoever. There's a lot more to songwriting than you might think.


#4. The Tubs "Illusion Pt II"



#3. Chappell Roam "Casual"
This is somewhat bittersweet. At the time, it was very tough to choose a #1 best song of 2022, and so we ended up tying 3 songs as our Top 3. No regrets, but we wish we had known better. The November 3, 2022 review for "Casual" was Pitchfork's only Chappell blurb for quite some time. It did not receive BNM, making it somewhat of an unfindable needle in the track review haystack. We know music writers have to listen through a lot of bullshit on a daily basis, but so do we. "Casual" isn't a grower at all - its first-listen impact felt as immediate as the best tracks on Anti, to us anyway. Within the album context (track 5), its first listen revealed a truly gifted star, songwriter, and vocalist. Is that yet another triple threat? We believe it is. And hey, her singles are still on Bandcamp. Bless her.


For anyone interested, we uncharacteristically fixed the first 25 tracks on our "Waffle Party 2022" Playlist, sneaking in "Casual" and the excellent "My Kink Is Karma" (also from 2022) to positions that felt more accurate to us:

Waffle Party 2022 - Redux
1. Chappell Roan - Casual
2. SZA - Kill Bill
3. Dazy & Militarie Gun - Pressure Cooker
4. Alien Boy - Wondering Still
5. Flasher - I'm Better
6. Momma - Tall Home
7. Nilufer Yanya - The Dealer
8. Carly Rae Jepsen - Talking To Yourself
9. Sevyn Streeter - 23
10. Alex G - Runner
11. Soccer Mommy - Shotgun
12. Harry Styles - As It Was
13. Momma - Speeding 72
14. Chappell Roan - My Kink Is Karma
15. LCD Soundsystem - New Body Rhumba
16. Built To Spill - Never Alright
17. Snail Mail - Feeling Like I Do
18. Nilufer Yanya - L/R
19. Hatchie - Lights On
20. The Rubs - Yer Trouble
21. 100 Gecs - Doritos & Fritos
22. Chat Pile - Lake Time (Mr. Rodan)
23. Nas - Michael & Quincy
24. L.O.T.I.O.N. - Cybernetic Super Lover
25. The Garden - Freight Yard

#2. Troye Sivan "Got Me Started"
Amid packed daily schedules and the push-and-pull shuffle from agents and managers, it's no wonder that neither Brian Cox nor Troye Sivan have any memory of "When Troye Met Brian" - perhaps the crossover event of 2023 and a cautionary tale of jumble-fatique. Neither party recalls their agents saying "You know them, right? Quick photo. The kids will love it." Both Troye Sivan and Brian Cox sleepily replied "what? what's going on?" in unison. 16 seconds later it was done and over. The following morning, an associate first showed Troye Sivan the now-viral photo. Both were perplexed at how his pants were suddenly missing. They were both certain he had been wearing pants at the time, even slightly recalling Brian Cox remarking "hey nice pants," although they later realized this may have been sarcasm. The "blink and you'll miss it" nature of this shuffle-fatique would later influence the music video for "Got Me Started," which shows people running and eventually throwing themselves into odd choreographed positions that are technically aligned with each other but do not resemble actual dancing in the classic "pop music video" sense.

#1. Kurt Vile "Another Good Year For the Roses"
If you had a good 2014 or 2015, then give yourself a pat on the back because those was the last "good" years in the history of the world. Not amazing. Not great. But "good." Since then, no one has had a good year. And if you didn't have a good year-long-stretch at some point between Jan 1, 2014 and Dec 31, 2015, we're sorry to break the news that you've been waiting longer than some other people.

The only actual non-list TMK post of 2023 was about "good music years" vs "bad music years," and an argument against the poptimist assertion that "every music year is good." (We also assessed 2022 as "okay," which we can now confidently re-assess as "very good!" See our Chappell Roan blurb at #3 for more info.)

We forgot to mention something important though: Just as how we're now experiencing a status quo fueled by hyperbolic praise of the modern era, the opposite can be equally as damaging.

Take 1996 for instance. At no other point in history has such a musically generous year met so much influential negativity, to such an unfair degree that it prematurely derailed the essence of the entire decade. Speaking somewhat broadly, the vibe-shift was practically immediate: By the end of January '97, "Wannabe" broke in the U.S,. kicking off this new era; by December '97, only the poppiest or most watered-down fuzz-guitar alternative or golden-era hiphop lingered in the mainstream. Only 3 years earlier, summer '94 felt like such a triumph with the likes of "Sweater Song" and "Loser" hijacking every Top 40 station. The end of '97 felt comparitively sleek, as if every morsel of grit, edge, and sarcasm had all but disintegrated for no good reason, as if someone of influence decided on behalf of everyone that popular music was in danger of getting too good.

How did this entire era flash by so quickly compared to the endlessness of whatever is happening now? Brat and Chappell Roan defined this past summer, but shouldn't there have been more than 2 fun or exciting moments of musical ubiquity? Can Magdalena Bay join the party, or are they too weird?

Kurt Vile says, "One day I'll sit down and write me a letter / Get my shit together." No, we actually need to get our shit together now. Like, right the fuck now.

MTVZ's Top 100 Videos of 2023 Countdown

Hey the new MTVZ is here. Please leave it on.

We had a Top 100 videos of the year list ready to post along with this but then the order got mixed up and we added like 20 more videos and then added some 80s videos so just pretend.

Note: We haven't seen a lot of these before. Lots of educated guesses. (For stuff like this, MTVZ likes to guess "what would the programmers of classic MTV put as their top 100 of the year if these just happened to come out in 1987-2002" or something.)

Okay we'll type out the first few until we get bored:

1. NewJeans - Super Shy
2. Troye Sivan - Got Me Started
3. Baby Keem & Kendrick Lamar - The Hillbillies
4. Sho Madjozi - Chale
5. Julie - Pg 4 A Picture of Three Hedges
6. The Tubs - Wretched Lie
7. DJ Crazy Times - Planet Of The Bass
8. Peggy Gou - It Goes Like Nanana
9. The Hives - Bogus Operandi
10. Yung Lean - Trip
11. 100 Gecs - Dumbest Girl Alive
12. Tyler The Creator - Wharf Talk
13. Latto ft Cardi B - Put It On Da Floor Again
14. SZA - Kill Bill
15. Bar Italia - Worlds Greatest Emoter
16. Beach Fossils - Don't Fade Away
17. Lil Yachty - The Black Seminole (SNL)
18. Pardoner - Are You Free Tonight
19. Milly - Grab The Wheel
20. Margo Price ft Sharon Van Etten - Radio
21. PinkPanteress ft Ice Spice - Boy's A Liar Pt 2
The Replacements - Bastards Of Young (Bonus 80s Videos)
Til Tuesday - Voices Carry (Bonus 80s Videos)
22. Militarie Gun - Very High
23. SZA - Snooze
24. Troye Sivan - Rush
25. Boygenius - Not Strong Enough
26. Paramore - Running Out of Time
27. Kurt Vile - Another Good Year For the Roses
28. Sabrina Carpenter - Feather
29. Promiseland - Bad Days
30. 100 Gecs - The Most Wanted Person In The United States
31. Phony Ppl - Nowhere But Up
32. etc etc...

...

...96. Odd Eye Circle - Air Force One
97. Tyler The Creator - Heaven To Me
98. The Smile - Wall of Eyes
99. Parannoul - We Shine At Night
100. Ghost - Jesus He Knows Me