PAPER's Favorite Songs of 2023

Each year, audio-obsessed humans grapple with one of the most complex decisions facing mankind: What songs should soundtrack the story of the past 365 days? Sure, there’s a veritable mixture of tracks we listen to at the behest of eager friends and the ditty playing in the jittery, delightful opening credits of our favorite show (I’m looking at you, The White Lotus) that we can’t get out of our heads. There’s also the earworm playing faintly beneath the banter at the bar that follows us home, keeping us up making playlists into the wee hours of the morning.

But the most impactful songs are the ones that don’t just come by recommendation or chance but rather the melodic vignettes we chase down ourselves. These are the songs we came across just once that morphed into the track we played on repeat, reading every lyric and dancing along to every beat. So here’s an ode to those repeatable romps, from the glittery pop anthems that remind us of the highest moments of the year to the bold break-up ballads that make us wish we’d never swiped right.

Here at PAPER, we know how important it is for you to make your soundtrack your own, so we’ve decided to cut through the noise of the typical year-end music list by not telling you what you should listen to by instead telling you what we listened to. Below, in all its glory, are PAPER’s staff picks for the best songs of 2023.

— Erica Campbell, Music Editor

"Donkey Show" - Model/Actriz

To understand the impact of Brooklyn-based Model/Actriz, you’d need to see the industrial-dance band play live. Led by queer vocalist Cole Haden with backing from bandmates Jack Wetmore, Ruben Radlauer and Aaron Shapiro, the group expertly controls any crowd in and out of chaos with the unpredictable flair of theater kids on the brink of psychosis. This eerie, dramatic tension can be heard on Dogsbody's opening track, “Donkey Show,” which sounds like the monologue from a horror film before exploding into relentless rock. “You don’t have to try and be gentle,” Haden mumbles. “Do it the way you feel right now.” And the audience always follows his command.

— Justin Moran, Editor-in-chief

"Hate Me Harder" - Kesha

After a tumultuous public campaign defending herself against her alleged abuser and the general public trivializing her testimony, this song feels like well-rounded permission for this chapter to close. Kesha's entire identity changed and became up for debate, and "Hate Me Harder" is a confession of how futile damage control is at this point — but how liberating letting that go can be.

— Alaska Riley, Social Editor

"Come Home to God" - Amaarae

Amaarae’s Fountain Baby is one of my favorite albums of the year, and highlight “Come Home to God” is the perfect synthesis of the singer's Alté and R&B sensibilities, fused with the throughline of pop rock that underscores both. Explicitly sensual, she lilts over a lonely arrangement of drums and guitar, the layered vocals that back her on the track slowly climaxing until the whole thing devolves into noise. It’s breathtaking and exhilarating. How lucky we are to witness one of our generation's brightest stars come into her own?

— Joan Summers, Writer

"Vampire" - Olivia Rodrigo

It’s a tale as old as time: girl falls in love with a boy, boy pretends to fall in love with a girl, girl finds out he’s just a certified fame fucker... or something like that. It’s a canon event in any adventurous person’s life, and Oliva Rodrigo’s “Vampire” is an exact evocation of the experience, with a blistering chorus and nice helping of lyrical call-outs (You're so convincing/ How do you lie without flinching?) to boot. Comparing your shitty ex to a blood-sucking demon? Revitalizing! Admitting that you now realize his exes weren't crazy? Feminism! With its pop meets poetic writing and spiraling bridges intermingling with goose-bump-giving walls of sound, Rodrigo’s “Vampire” is a pleasant reminder that if you fuck with those who are good with words, your dirty deeds may just live on forever.

— Erica Campbell, Music Editor

"I should hate you" - Gracie Abrams

Gracie Abrams does a good job of making sad songs feel hopeful, and this one's no different. Her raspy confession of how hurt she is by being wronged by someone she loves while still hanging on to them makes you wonder if she's admitting hatred or regret. To hold on to someone after they hurt you this way feels like a betrayal to yourself, but keeping the memory and hope alive feels inspiringly human.

— Alaska Riley, Social Editor

"Latina" - Isabella Lovestory

She spells it out loud and clear: “L-A-T-I-N-A-A-A.” Being Latina gives Isabella Lovestory an adrenaline rush, and she wants to share this feeling with the world. After dropping her debut album Amor Hardcore last year, the perreo princess followed it up with this one-off single that served as an ultimate proclamation for her cult following of girls and gays to stand behind. The pure bliss of being Latina makes Lovestory wanna burst at the seams, a feeling like no drug that’s ever been invented. If you join her in the chant, you might feel it, too. You think you can handle it?

— Ivan Guzman, Writer

"Ditto" - NewJeans

Although “Ditto” was technically released at the end of 2022, NewJeans' single including “OMG” was released right as the new year came around. If any one song could bookend my 2023, it was “Ditto” — a banger of a jungle track with lyrics all about yearning. It’s the perfect combo of happy and sad.

— Andrew Nguyen, Fashion Editor

"Affirmations" - Hannah Diamond

The bubblegum electropop sound that Hannah Diamond helped originate is much more mainstream these days, but she still manages to make it sound brand new. And while all of Picture Perfect does just that, there’s something about “Affirmations” that really sticks with me like — well, like bubblegum. It’s deliciously simple, just Hannah and her affirmations: “I don't have to be somebody else/ The best version of me is myself.” The kind of track that will have you feeling a little bit better about yourself even on the worst of days.

— Matt Wille, Managing Editor

"Not Strong Enough" - Boygenius

I can clearly recall the first time I heard Phoebe Bridgers’ voice earnestly singing, “I don’t know why I am the way that I am” at the first chorus of “Not Strong Enough”, the careful admission hitting my ears and gut at the exact same time. In an age where so many of us are stuck between self-analysis and unconditional acceptance, a tug of war between laughing off our cynicism and bravely accepting even our “worst” traits, the words rushed into me like a wave of relief. How did this band know exactly how I felt? Are you both running towards and running away from love simultaneously? You’re not alone. Have you ever felt like you were always in the position of angel without the luxury of being a god? Press play! With the lead single of their debut album, boygenius cornered the market on lyrics that make you cry while laughing, balancing acute self-awareness with an inability to change midly toxic behaviors, all backed with the stirring arrangements of an early Sheryl Crow song. Who could ask for anything more?

— Erica Campbell, Music Editor

"One Of Your Girls" - Troye Sivan

For a thoroughly mainstream queer pop project, Troye Sivan’s album Something to Give Each Other felt like a breath of fresh air. Or rather, a euphoric gasp of poppers. There is not an ounce of self-importance or self-consciousness here; it was just a joyous reality magnified to the deliciously huge scale of pop music. While it’s the album’s more unabashed bangers that still echo through our bedrooms and dance floors, "One of Your Girls" has made the deepest mark on our collective psyche. Equal parts sex and crying, Sivan somehow manages to express longing for a straight guy without any trace of self-pity or shame, just that tender half-feeling many of us know too well. The video, which features Sivan’s full-on transformation into a cross-dressing beauty, still gives me chills and should be marked down in the history books as being responsible for giving an entire generation of gay men momentary gender panic.

— Tobias Hess, Writer

"Will Anybody Ever Love Me?" - Sufjan Stevens

Sufjan Stevens knows better than anyone how to make a hit for the sad gay boys. And this single really does have that classic Sufjan sound, with its tender piano line and strong backing harmonies, but there’s a tinge of hope here that wasn’t always present on the singer’s previous releases. There really is no one out there who can put yearning to music quite like Sufjan. And though it is indeed a lonely song — just look at that title! — Sufjan manages to find that relatable ache without it being saccharine.

— Matt Wille, Managing Editor

"Lady Gaga" - Peso Pluma

Peso Pluma broke too many records to count this year. In the Regional Mexican Renaissance of 2023, he served as the frontman, bringing a Gen Z swag to this centuries-old folk genre and making the world fall in love. “Lady Gaga" off his juggernaut album Génesis depicts a young superstar who is acclimating to a new lifestyle filled with drugs, luxury cars and gold chains. “Dom Pérignon Lady Gaga, lentes en la cara, tussi y lavada,” he sings over entrancing acoustic guitars and tubas. Through all the glitz, he still maintains that melancholy aura of a sad boy who just can’t get enough of the excess.

— Ivan Guzman, Writer

"Treason" - Tinashe

Tinashe’s releases since breaking free of the label system are an exemplary showcase of her sorely needed skill set in the modern music landscape. "Treason," written by Tinashe and Machinedrum and produced by the latter, is the multi-hyphenate at her absolute best. The track is anxious and pleading, with ominous synths and drums chasing down her vocals until its haunting conclusion.

— Joan Summers, Writer

"Are You Gone Already" - Nicki Minaj

We all know Nicki Minaj is a creative genius, but when I heard the first beat drop on her song “Are You Gone Already,” my jaw dropped. I hadn’t been that excited by a song all year. From Papa Bear's intro to her line “One day you'll have to forgive Mommy/ But she knows you know too much already” I was slumped over in tears. Until the transition into “Barbie Dangerous," of course.

— Angelina Cantú, Editorial Producer

"I Remember Everything (feat. Kacey Musgraves)" - Zach Bryan

"I Remember Everything" sounds like a long drive home after a lonely night at the local pub after having too much bourbon in an attempt to numb your mind and heart over a long-lost lover. It's apparently a feeling many people can relate to, since the song is the first country duet to hit No. 1 since Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton’s “Islands in the Stream.” Bryan and Kacey go full-on country despair in the song, which is nice to relish in every once in a while.

— Andrew Nguyen, Fashion Editor

"Dang" - Caroline Polachek

While Polachek’s much-awaited album, Desire, I Want To Turn Into You, was the soundtrack of the entire year; it was her recent surprise release, "Dang," which may have been her crowning achievement of 2023. Beginning with a muffled melody, interspersed by Polachek’s bored recitation of the song title, the ensuing song is a silly, sexy jaunt through her surrealist flow. Like a pop song stripped of all its parts then rearranged just to see what happens, "Dang" almost sounds like a science project. Good thing the scientists in question have an incredible sense of humor. With production by pop experimentalists Danny L Harle and Cecile Believe, the track is made eminently danceable by its fun flourishes: Bollywood strings and ever-changing percussion. It's Polachek’s voice, though which, as usual, steals the show. It’s a showcase for both her virtuosity and humorous boredom. “Dang,” she sighs the chorus before she enters her signature operatic falsetto. Dang? DANG!

— Tobias Hess, Writer

"How Will I Know" - Bully

After a private breakup and public layoff, summer 2023 became about reconnecting with the parts of myself that I’ve neglected or forgotten about entirely in the rat race of New York life. Bully’s album Lucky For You offered the soundtrack to that introspection, with a nostalgic punk sound that drums up memories of running through Warped Tour as a high schooler in the mid-aughts. Biking through Prospect Park in Brooklyn on days that’d typically be filled with back-to-back meetings, I especially connected to the melody and emotional swell of “How Will I Know,” an album highlight with lyrics that spoke to my feelings of instability and isolation: “Will you be there when I make it home? And how will I know? How will I know?”

— Justin Moran, Editor-in-chief