Like most songs in the age of streaming, we\u2019ll keep it short and simple: sometimes you just need a three-minute mood. Here\u2019s 15 of the best new ones that 2023 gift-wrapped for us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
15. Hollywood Baby – 100 Gecs<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHollywood Baby\u201d is what happens when you give a toddler the keys to a Mercedes. Crashing percussion, crunchy synth, and crazed vocal delivery make \u201cHollywood Baby\u201d another supremely fun wrecko from the geckos. Dylan Brady and Laura Les are ridin\u2019 round with the top down, enjoying their newfound success, and making sure that every drive-thru they drive through knows about it. Between the track\u2019s blistering, anthemic chorus and its hook-heavy riffs, 100 Gecs know how to take things to 100 and make tasteless excess sound deliciously fun. Making it in Hollywood has never sounded so disastrously easy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n – Connor Telford<\/p>\n\n\n\n 14. Garbage Pale Kids – JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This track is like if you took a 404 error and sonified it. Or — more artistically said — like looking at a Basquiat painting. To many, on first glance, the auditory experience of \u201cGarbage Pale Kids\u201d comes off as abrasive childish drivel. However, when you dig into the meat of it, you realize the impressive taste-breaking technicalities of it — from turning the Japanese commercial snippets into a chord progression to the gnashing amp on the guitar solo panning through sonic space as the mic gets traded from Brown to Peggy like an Infinity Gauntlet hot-potato\u2019d through an active battlefield. Understanding this song is like finally making sense of a headache-inducing computer issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n – Ike Nnabuife<\/p>\n\n\n\n 13. Unknown\/Nth – Hozier<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Irish born indie-rock sensation Hozier, is not unknown for his slow-tempoed guitar and power ballad vocals. \u201cUnknown\/Nth\u201d is a twisted love letter dedicated to a lover whose hamartia is ignored by the writer, and they are blinded by an image of someone they once knew their loved one to be, or perhaps they were never the person they imagined at all. Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy interlace the lyrics, claiming betrayal and misunderstanding, placing the lyricist in the 9th circle of hell, alluding to the fall of the angel Lucifer. Hozier’s angelic melody is melancholic yet freeing; maybe we’re all better off being unknown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n – Kate McCanna<\/p>\n\n\n\n 12. Paris, Texas – Lana Del Rey<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n On 2019\u2019s \u201cFuck It I Love You,\u201d Lana Del Rey sang \u201ceverywhere you go, you take yourself,\u201d reminding listeners that escape is not a permanent fix for personal turmoil. \u201cParis, Texas\u201d proves that she won\u2019t stop trying, however. The gloomy waltz sees Lana traveling around the world, suitcase in hand, in search of a missing piece of her soul that she doesn\u2019t really find. The somber piano flits along, never quite landing on a solid resolution, much like Lana herself. \u201cWhen you know, you know,\u201d she repeats over the track\u2019s quiet instrumentation, \u201cit\u2019s time, it\u2019s time to go,\u201d emphasizing that from small towns to vast cities, all locales feel familiar and claustrophobic eventually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n – Connor Telford<\/p>\n\n\n\n 11. Crumbling – Sign Language<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Sign Language is one of my favorite bands currently putting music out. Their fairly genre-defying music reminds me of bands like Hum or Failure, but with a modern edge. The song \u201cCrumbling,\u201d off of their 2023 album Madison & Floral<\/em>, is no exception, with the song combining multiple genres into a single hard hit. Emotionally, listening to \u201cCrumbling\u201d feels like I\u2019m being tossed by a big wave or knocked down by some other force. From front to back, the song hits like a truck on an emotional level, just as any sad song should.<\/p>\n\n\n\n – Izzy Davis<\/p>\n\n\n\n 10. Sorry Not Sorry – Tyler, The Creator<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n On his 2021 record, Tyler vocally battled with his standing in modern America on \u201cMASSA,\u201d <\/em>but he escalates the conversation here on deluxe track \u201cSORRY NOT SORRY.<\/em>\u201d <\/em>Okonma shares his personal cost of being himself unapologetically — the onerous burden of his forefathers\u2019 expectations\/opinions and the price of the limelight. In the end, what matters most is you are trying to be better than who you were two years ago, and via his synthesis of Westside Gunn\u2019s drumless style and the aesthetics of Wes Anderson\u2019s The Grand Budapest Hotel<\/em>, Tyler (in the music video, literally) kills his old selves. He runs the track, only trying to surpass himself, finally shedding all the masks and taking accountability in order to move on and tackle his new frontier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n – Ike Nnabuife<\/p>\n\n\n\n 9. Disillusioned – Daniel Caesar<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n No one wanted to write about \u201cDisillusioned,\u201d but the people of AROUSE voted for it, so it\u2019s probably pretty good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n – Connor Telford<\/p>\n\n\n\n 8. Deli – Ice Spice<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDeli\u201d makes the most mundane place feel like the club. Who knew you could get a chopped cheese and get some ass thrown back on you at the same establishment? Isis Gaston, AKA Ice Spice, blends New York drill with a feminine flare. Stand out lyrics: Me and baddies be gettin’ along \/\/ So they always be singin’ my song. According to Spice, the 2024 in is girl power, and of course, shaking ass. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n – Hannah Gillespie<\/p>\n\n\n\n 7. Strike (Holster) – Lil Yachty<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Lil Yachty took a break from his prog rock side hustle to show the world he still knows how to have fun. Released as a single under the shadow of his ambitious Let\u2019s Start Here<\/em>, \u201cStrike (Holster)\u201d brings Yachty back to his trap roots for two and a half minutes of spaced-out bars about hitting the pen, setting the lean down on a Balenci\u2019 coaster, and making sculptures of Yoda out of old $100s. There\u2019s a reason Yachty\u2019s stayed relevant through a sea of copycats and soundalikes – make him put pen to paper and he\u2019s proving his strength every time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n – Rohan Rindani<\/p>\n\n\n\n 6. New Bottega – Azealia Banks<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNew Bottega\u201d is the ultimate distillation of NYC rapper Azealia Banks\u2019s essence. Clever rhymes? Check \u2014 Banks extols the virtues of Italian fashion houses, then rhymes \u201cHoudini\u201d and \u201cLamborghini\u201d and name-checks cheetah print for good measure. Kooky-but-entrancing flow? Check \u2014 bonus points for the hilarious faux-Italian accent. Throbbing house beat? Check \u2014 courtesy of Aussie producer Torren Foot. And feud with the producer? CHECK \u2014 Banks let fly an NSFW social media tirade<\/a> against the DJ (and the Australian people). It\u2019s the fashion-conscious progeny of her breakout hit \u201c212,\u201d and just what her fans needed to get through the ninth year of waiting for her second album.<\/p>\n\n\n\n – Nigel Becker<\/p>\n\n\n\n 5. MMM HMM – Lancey Foux and Sexyy Red<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Thanks to production marked with blaring bass and electronic rage, \u201cMMM HMM\u201d is a grime inspired song from Lancey Foux and Sexyy Red that is so full of confidence and boasting that you can\u2019t help but to dance along. Sexyy Red provides new energy to this traditionally UK style production that she makes this song the new trans-Atlantic anthem for flexing. \u201cMMM HMM\u201d is meant to be blasted in the car or at a party and you\u2019ll leave repeating the words in your head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n – Alex Lopez<\/p>\n\n\n\n