WMF's Top 23 Tracks of 2023
The new year is almost upon us, and here at WMF that means it is time yet again for us to celebrate new music that has had a profound impact on our lives during the past twelve months. As is customary in our annual tradition, we have compiled not simply a list of track titles and links, but also exclusive information related to the creative works directly from the artists themselves.* As with our past Top Tracks lists, the purpose of this newest installment is not to suggest any sort of competition, but rather to share a playlist that serves as a fun, meaningful, and lasting audible document representing another year of inspiring music that warrants acknowledgement. And with this customary preamble concluded, let’s dive into these WMF-selected standout tracks from 2023.
“Hard Times” OMAR S x Desire
Some tracks take their time finding their way into our hearts and playlists, while others land there instantly. This year’s OMAR S x Desire collaborative “Hard Times” decidedly belongs to the latter category. The track has remained an integral part of our year here at WMF, which isn’t surprising given how many Italians Do It Better releases have become an invaluable inspiration to us here at WMF over the years.
Desire exclusively shared this detailed info about “Hard Times” with us:
“It's always an honor to collaborate with Detroit's finest, Omar S. After we recorded "54321" in his studio in Michigan, we tracked a few more songs with him at the Vintage Synthesizer Museum in Highland Park. A few months later he reached out to have Desire add vocals to a new beat he had been working on. We spent a couple of weeks refining the vocal parts at the piano. The main bass is a loop that filters the resonance in & out with no chorus or bridge. We knew the vocal arrangement needed to have a lot of variants to ride the wave of his music. Everywhere we turned, the world felt like it was on fire, & we kept coming back to this idea of "Hard Times". The claustrophobic loop of daily madness can feel unavoidable. In an era where technology collides with the human condition around every corner, we crave that love connection more than ever. We live like Sci-Fi, but we're still animals & we need to work out the existential angst on the dance floor. Round & round is how it goes...”
“I Been Young” George Clanton
George Clanton’s “I Been Young” is that rare kind of more-than-meets-the-ear gem that especially piques our curiosity, sparks conversations, and brings with it something new upon each listen. With this crucial entry in our yearly list, George seamlessly integrates an eclectic set of building blocks in a way that few can at all, let alone do so with a comparable sense of sincerity, humor, and hard-earned authority.
George Clanton sent these new and exclusive details about “I Been Young” to WMF: “‘I Been Young’ is part of a suite of songs i wrote about maturing. I consciously tried to make an adult contemporary song in my style. It’s inspired by Michael Jackson, shoegaze, and adult oriented pop music like Seal that results in something familiar but also something I’ve never heard before. I isolated myself from other contemporary vocal driven music while i composed my latest album. I think that resulted in me mixing the music in a unique way that avoids some common problems that irk me with a lot of new music, particularly vocals that are too loud. My vocals are relatively quiet. You’re supposed to listen to the song extremely loud only.”
“Words with You” Chromeo
We’ve ardently appreciated the work of Chromeo for just about as long as we can remember, so it felt particularly special (and easy) for us to select the irresistible lead single from their upcoming 2024 album Adult Contemporary. With its unabashed embrace of funk, characteristically clever lyrics, musical curveballs, and a sense of humor that feels all-too-rare in music these days, “Words with You” masterfully synthesizes all the classic Chromeo ingredients into something that feels fresh and important in 2023. The track has permeated our playlists, our conversations, and even appeared in a Taco Bell ad, creating the feeling of a song we couldn’t escape even if we wanted to (editors note: we don’t want to).
When we spoke with Chromeo in spring 2023 shortly after its release, Dave1 and P-Thugg shared the following exclusive insights with us about “Words with You”:
“It’s a very dancey album. For us it was important to come out with [something] new, so there’s a lot of live instrumentation in that song, like the horns. [We wanted] to come out with something a little bit different than what our fan base expects from us, which is the heavy synths and drum machines. But at the same time, [it’s] something [that is] very palatable and easy to digest. Sonically, it’s a departure from the poppier sound of our last two records, because this album doesn’t sound like that. It’s definitely a return to groove and a dirtier, more analog sound.”
P-Thugg added: “I think we actually went for the track that sticks out the most as a different vibe, just to put it out there….we wanted it to be a Sunday afternoon groover.”
“Fairytale” Farah
This marks Farah’s second well-warranted appearance on our annual list, having checked in back in 2021 with “Fountain of Youth”. Anyone familiar with Farah’s releases knows there’s simply nothing quite like them, and this year’s “Fairytale” single is a delightful case in point.
Farah sent us the following exclusive background info pertaining to “Fairytale”: “For ‘Fairytale’ I wanted to write a song that was over the top hippie.. peace, love and harmony... but the hippie girl does too much psychedelics and goes crazy in the end... rainbows, butterflies, unicorns and princesses promise to come back and save us when we're dead... I was also into the idea that fear and love are opposites of each other so I say fear and love alot...it's a fairytale gone wrong in a sense... love, Farah"
“My Simple Jeep” Eyedress ft. Mac DeMarco
Eyedress is deservedly anything but a stranger to the WMF Top Tracks list, having appeared in past years thanks to his collaborative track with Dent May as well as the now-defunct-but-not-forgotten The Simps. This year’s Eyedress inclusion was an easy choice thanks to the instantly-catchy Eyedress x MacDeMarco “My Simple Jeep” collaboration.
Eyedress shared these exclusive and detailed insights into the track with WMF: “‘my simple jeep’ was inspired by keeping it simple and not being a fancy clown. although i’ve done my fair share of falling into the consumerist trap of luxury things there’s also a part of me that knows how to keep it simple, coming from nothing that will always be ingrained in the back of my mind and with mac’s guidance it’s helped me appreciate the simple things in life despite having ambitious dreams of wanting more it’s nice that we get to put that message out there through our music as a gentle reminder. being able to work on music with mac demarco is a full circle moment for me. he definitely is the first person i met that was making a living off this lofi indie rock shit so i always looked up to him eversince. as for the music video, another a full circle moment because i’ve always been such a huge fan of sandy kim since the tumblr days and getting to work with her on the music video for me and mac’s song is a huge thing for me personally.
both sandy and mac are two artists that i hold in high regard and have a massive amount of respect for. but yeah, sandy really came through for me on this video. she made at least 4-5 different treatments before we locked in on the concept we went with. there were many ups and downs faced behind the scenes but sandy is the type to work so hard that these things never really phased her. she’s incredibly patient and easy to work with as professional as it gets as well as mac, they’re the goats for a reason! all this reflects as a huge milestone in my journey as an artist working in music. being able to work with people i look up to means so much to me and i would have never in my wildest dreams think this could happened 10 years ago so i’m just grateful and happy that i get to continue to do my thing and work with my heroes.”
“French Movie” Bubble Tea and Cigarettes
Bubble Tea and Cigarettes have deservedly become fast favorites here at WMF over the last couple years thanks to their remarkably emotional and evocative recordings as well as exceptional live performances that do those releases ample justice and then some. We first heard “French Movie” performed live at the Mint in Los Angeles pre-release, and our appreciation for the special track has only increased in the ensuing months.
Bubble Tea and Cigarettes shared these brand new insights into “French Movie” with us: “Our days in sunny LA, where we wrote "French Movie," were often too bright, so we eventually resorted to writing music only at night. The song started playing in our heads one night while we were staying up late in the studio watching a vintage black and white French film. Moving out of New York City and spending the majority of the time in our LA studio making music at night is a significant change in our lives. This shift also reflects a change in the emotional themes we explore—from city life to contemplations on intimate relationships for young adults—and is exactly what the song is trying to convey.”
“bbq” Madge
Madge stands out in our corner of the music multiverse as living proof that quality and quantity need not be mutually exclusive. As impressive as it is that Madge’s body of work steadily continues to expand thanks to a seemingly constant stream of releases, so too is the quality of those releases. “bbq” stood out immediately to us, and the track has remained a steady presence on our playlists ever since.
Madge gave WMF these brand-new insights into “bbq”: “I made ‘bbq’ with my favorite team - me, Grandbankss, and Tzar. I’ve been tapping into my slavic roots for a while and as a native Russian speaker, Tzar has been an intrinsic part of that process. Tim aka Grandbankss brought the exact energy I had imagined in my head: slower, vibey, and, as always, with a dark edge. It came together in one session and I self-released it a couple months later with no expectations. It’s been so sick to see it stream this well.”
“Niente” Revenge Wife
Revenge Wife’s work defies categorization, which is often a good sign in our world. And while much of Revenge Wife's recent releases and videos appear to have a narrative through-line, “Niente” struck us as a welcome and surprising outlier. Although our Italian language skills —or lack thereof— prevent us from understanding the lyric in its entirety, the track has nonetheless been a staple in our listening routine this year, and a natural selection for our 2023 list.
Revenge Wife gave us this new and exclusive background info for “Niente”: “‘Niente’ is my Italian-Daft Punk track that I made with my friend McFabulous in Chicago. I had been spending a lot of time in Italy (where my dad’s family is from) and honestly if you want the truth about the song it goes like this. First of all, I was dating a French guy who lived in Rome and I was going there a lot (I LOVE Rome!). We met and spoke Italian at first, which was super hot, then it switched to English because his English was really good. Then we kind of dated for a while and I would always ask to have “Italian days” where we only spoke Italian, but he would always revert to English. He was very smart and had that French idgaf vibe so I started to feel uncomfortable speaking Italian because I would make mistakes. Anyway, we broke up because it wasn’t the right fit (all the love), and I was sad and went to Chicago to record with my friend Ben McFadden (McFabulous) who I’ve been recording a lot of my songs with. That’s when Niente happened and it kind of felt like a fuck you to this French guy a little because I did the whole thing in Italian and the last line of the verses is ‘non c’entra niente’ which means there’s nothing here. At the end I say over and over ‘Mi chiamo Elisabetta’ which is what my Italian family calls me but he always called me Liz and I hated that. So.. yeah I’m a proper Revenge Wife and that’s the truth of the track.”
“Now the Neighbors Can’t See Me” Jerry Paper
Jerry Paper is a name surely known to anyone familiar with the WMF-verse, and by our count makes their fourth appearance on our year-end Top Tracks list with this year’s laid-back treasure “Now the Neighbors Can’t See Me”. Throughout the year, we’ve found ourselves listening to this track on repeat on various occasions, feeling one play just doesn’t suffice. We took that tendency as a sign that this one was a mandatory pick for our annual list, and happily include it here.
Jerry Paper exclusively contextualized the track for WMF: “When I wrote this song, I lived in a house that had two big windows facing my neighbor's house. When I'm home I am often NUDE. One day I realized that, with my big windows often open and my body rarely clothed, the neighbors had probably seen me nude many, many times, so I wrote a song about closing the curtains. Like a lot of my songs, it starts with a literal event and then expands into some larger metaphor as I explore it in song-form. In this case, it's about the pleasure and freedom of total privacy, drawn blinds and nude bod, in an age where we are constantly aware of eyes on us through social media. This track doesn't really reflect where I'm at now creatively; it's a song from the Abracadabra studio sessions in 2019 that didn't make it on the record, but the meaning in the song does reflect where I would move to with Free Time. What I'm working on now though is very different (I think) !!”
“Visions” Mimi Pretend
We’ve only recently become aware of Mimi Pretend and her work, but we’re glad we have. We’ve heard too much music we like by Mimi for us not be confident that there’s even more exciting music from her on the horizon. In the meantime, “Visions” is one the Mimi Pretend tracks that’s already become a standard here at WMF HQ this year.
Mimi sent us the following additional and exclusive information about “Visions”: “I wrote 'Visions’ as a sort of star crossed lovers theme song. It's about being so in love that death doesn't even frighten you anymore. It's about being so in love that you see all signs as blessings, even the bad ones. It's about being so in love that you lose yourself to your own demise. You keep feeling as if it was planned in a dream or a vision but then all your signs turn to dead ends. You're trying to not wake up from a beautiful dream although you know it's just in your head. Everything seems right in the heavens but on earth it's all just wrong.
Shakespeare said it best:
‘Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs;
Being purg'd, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes;
Being vex'd, a sea nourish'd with lovers' tears;
What is it else? A madness most discreet,
A choking gall, and a preserving sweet.’”
“Magic Powers” Death Valley Girls
This year’s Death Valley Girls track “Magic Powers” was written and sung by Sammy Westevelt (who also plays bass on the standout track). Sammy appeared on last year’s list as part of her Egg Drop Soup project, demonstrating just a fraction of the versatility that makes her such a noteworthy talent within the areas of music, film, and more.
Sammy shared the following new and exclusive info about “Magic Powers” with us here at WMF: “‘Magic Powers’ is a song about choosing your path, and turning the lemons of your life into lemonade. Trauma doesn’t have to define you, be something that holds you back from living fully, or keep you stuck in a particular cycle. Those are parts of the obstacle course you go through when you train to have magic powers. And the active choice, the daily decision to live authentically and unapologetically YOU in spite of everything life has put you up against is a magic power.”
“Step by Step” Eddie Chacon
Following last year’s no-brainer “Holy Hell” inclusion, the especially inspiring Eddie Chacon makes our list for the second year in a row with his remarkable “Step by Step” single. (Unrelated to our selection, but thrilling nonetheless, it’s worth noting that the single artwork for this Stonesthrow release is a WMF Polaroid.) In characteristically Eddie Chacon fashion, “Step by Step” eased into our listening lives and has continued to sit cool and comfortably on our playlists all year.
When we asked for some exclusive background info about the track, Eddie had this to say about “Step by Step”: “i remember John Carroll Kirby started playing that intro melody on the synth and i immediately chimed in with that verse and chorus right off the top of my head. the chorus and the , ‘listen to your heart and know’ lines stayed the same but i must've tried a million different lines before the rest of it finally came together. i wanted to convey that we have everything we need within us. we just need to get out of our way so that clarity can reveal itself.”
“The Witch” Johnny Jewel
The astonishingly prolific Johnny Jewel has been a deserving fixture on the WMF year-end playlist in recent years thanks to his ever-expanding and storied body of work released through Italians Do It Better. And while other appearances have featured him in various roles including composer, producer, Desire member, and indie label exec, this year’s evocative entry “The Witch” marks the overdue debut appearance of a solo Johnny Jewel release. Effective both within and outside of the cinematic context, this special track has been one to which we have consistently and eagerly returned since its release.
Johnny shared the following exclusive background to “The Witch” with WMF: "the ‘The Witch’ opens my tenth solo album with a warping music box motif on the celeste & xylophone. Accompanied by an orchestral mellotron, it's the main character theme from the Belgian art house thriller HOLLY I scored earlier this year. The music expands & deconstructs in slow motion with linear movement, eventually disintegrating into chaos with pulsating white noise. It was essential to illustrate Holly's childlike naïveté laced with a looming dread as she is slowly discovering her powers. The piece unravels as the film reaches its boiling point & her world caves in on her.”
“Langue” Maryze and Morganne
It feels difficult to believe, but Maryze and Morganne are both talents who have only recently entered our creative orbit — something for which we are definitely grateful. Montreal-based Maryze came to our attention thanks to a guest appearance at the culturally impactful Alex Cameron Cara Hotel residency in L.A. this year, and we’ve subsequently gotten to know Morganne and her work via Maryze. The collaborative bilingual “Langue” deftly encapsulates the creative energy and chemistry of both artists, and we knew it was a clear-cut candidate for this list the moment we heard the first tantalizing pre-release snippet.
During one of our 2023 face-to-face visits with Maryze, she shared this about ‘Langue” with us: We put out “Langue”, which means “tongue” –but also “language”– [recently] and it’s been really fun to see where people are enjoying listening to it. Paris is the third top city, and we’ve been getting a lot of comments on TikTok from people all over the world saying that they want this type of music, which is encouraging. It was good timing because right before we put it out we started posting about it a lot and it started taking off. I’ve had viral TikToks before, but for things not related to music, so it’s been exciting to see it expand. It seems like a lot of people want to dance to it and make out to it, so that’s good.
Morganne and I wrote it when I was out here [in L.A.] in the spring, and we just finalized it this fall. It’s our first collaboration, and it’s a really fun word play that explores queerness. We had a blast writing it.
And when we spoke with Maryze and Morganne about the "Langue" music video, Morganne also had this to say about the track:
"The song means so much to us both because we share so many inspirations, which is what we talked about the first time we met, the day before we wrote the song. It’s really special to us both."
“Penetrate” Donzii
Another welcome return artist to our Top Tracks playlist, formidable Floridian project Donzii impressed us yet again with “Penetrate”. We’ve thoroughly enjoyed this one both live and recorded, and knew immediately upon hearing the fabulously fun and funky track that it would be right at home in this most recent year-end compilation of standout releases.
We visited in-person with Donzii while they were in Los Angeles this past November, and they had this to say about “Penetrate”:
Jenna: I think “Penetrate” is kind of like an alien funk sex track and I think that aliens should have more sex with humans while listening to it to improve the conditions on planet Earth.
Dennis added: That was pretty realistic. I think “Penetrate” is a song that combines a couple different elements of funk, darkwave, and postpunk. It’s just a number that we really like to play.
“The Menu” Free Weed
Hot on the heels of last year’s excellent “Acting Strange” single, Free Weed released the instantly-endearing track “The Menu” in 2023. This one came seemingly out of nowhere, but we certainly weren’t complaining. “The Menu” is another one of the tracks we’ve found ourselves listening to on repeat, feeling a solitary play of this ode-to-all-things-edible somehow just isn’t enough.
Rikky Gage shared this illumining info about the track with WMF:
“‘The Menu’ was recorded in Unkle Funkle’s 4th floor studio in Baltimore. I was visiting for a month to fuck around and work on tunes and the video game we are developing. We were drinking a lot of vodka throughout the whole trip and smoking a lot of medical Maryland weed. One night we were fucking around in the studio going through the hundreds of instrumentals he has amassed over the last couple years looking for something fun/funny that jump out at us during this particularly late and hazy night. We found this instrumental and it got us to laughing. And being that both he and I have indulged in many, many instances of binge eating every type of food imaginable, I just started rapping menu items a la “Pollo Asado” by Ween or the Weinerschnitzel skit from the first Tenacious D album. This was from the same 2022 Baltimore visit that ‘Acting Strange’ and ‘I’m A Hottie’ were harvested, making this a standout as a country fried twanger in a series of sessions that mostly produced dance type tracks. And in the weird YouTube playlist brains he and I share that’s pretty on brand. “
“Just Like That” Tommy Midnight
Tommy Midnight’s “Just Like That” feels and sounds like nothing else we’ve encountered this year, and that’s a great thing. We’ve enjoyed the track both live and recorded, and knew this one was a clear candidate for this list as soon as we heard it.
Tommy shared this exclusive reflection on “Just Like That” with us: “‘Just Like That’ is a meditation on serendipity, and those magic moments that appear out of nowhere if your antenna is able to receive them. I work at a glacial pace, and it takes forever to finish things. That was the last song we recorded for the record and I felt it was a great book end.”
“Devotion” Kid Moxie & Nina
Kid Moxie x Nina collab “Devotion” is one of our favorite types of tracks: instantly inviting and yet full of enticing details that only reveal themselves upon repeated listenings. Equal parts accessible and unconventional, this mood-heavy international gem has been consistently in rotation ever since we first heard it, and a natural inclusion when highlighting the music that has most inspired and influenced us in 2023.
Kid Moxie filled us in with the following exclusive details about “Devotion”: “‘Devotion’ is the dark horse of our EP with NINA ‘Lust’ and definitely the most cinematic one.
When we were writing the lyrics during our sessions in Berlin, we were both excited to be creating a track that felt like a scene out of a sci fi thriller. In the video, that we later filmed in Downtown L.A, we spend hours shooting a car chase in the neon lit streets of the city which felt like the perfect environment for this song to be taking place in.”
Nina further illuminated: "‘Devotion’ has a unique quality due to its vocal delivery. Kid Moxie and I chose to mix provocative spoken words with singing parts that are more seductive. It's kinda hypnotic. The idea of escaping in a romantic getaway car was a recurring "scene" we played out in our heads while writing and recording. I love road movies like Thelma & Louise and Wild At Heart. They inspired me along with my own personal experiences, leaving all bad things in the dust. It was a fun EP to make and I shared a lot of laughs with Kid Moxie. Connecting with the label Italians Do It Better was a great fit that meant a lot to me.”
“Serenity Cove” Teal Pop
New duo Teal Pop (Marina Aguerre and Lionel Williams) have previously crossed paths with us separately here at WMF on numerous occasions thanks to their involvement with a variety of endeavors including solo releases, music production, event curation, radio programming, and more. We eagerly hopped on the proverbial Teal Pop train at our earliest opportunity, and were lucky enough to attend their stellar debut live performance. Though we had no introduction to —or knowledge of— the track when we heard its live debut at The Moroccan Lounge earlier this year, we knew this one was special as soon as we experienced it.
Teal Pop passed this exclusive “Serenity Cove” info along to us: “‘Serenity Cove’ was one of the last songs we wrote for the record, after Marina was gifted an Omnichord for her birthday. We sat down and jammed with the Omni and a drum kit one afternoon; eventually we ended up recording them live just like that. We wanted the song to feel like spending the day in a secluded tropical cove enjoying the peace and sunny joy.”
“Mates” John Carroll Kirby
John Carroll Kirby’s instantly-irresistible “Mates” perhaps feels so at home in our corner of the musical multiverse because it is unabashedly its own thing. Impossible (at least for us) to compare to just about anything we’re hearing these days, we’ve found ourselves impulsively grooving to this one repeatedly over the course of the past year. Not long after encountering “Mates”, we knew it was an imperative inclusion on our list.
John exclusively contextualized “Mates” for WMF thusly": “‘Mates’ I think is a song about 5 friends riding in a car together with the windows down and they put this song on and they are vibing. I wanted the melody to be simple, and when the chord changes I wanted the melody to only change as much as it needed to suit the chord. I wrote it in my house and i put some kinda drunken Moog bass on it and it was pretty much done.”
“outfits” BAGGY GRL
BAGGY GRL track “outfits” is another one that appeared to enter our world out of nowhere, and yet soon felt right at home in our preferred playlists. While the track is unapologetically fun, we’re also filing this track in the more-than-meet-the-ear category, and think it bodes well for the future of BAGGY GRL.
Yaz sent the following contextualization for “outfits” to WMF:
“‘outfits’ was made at a time of various diversions/transformations though its concept is pretty simple. it’s a girls-getting-ready bop or a vaguely sarcastic anthem for girlhood. maybe if it were a deep song it’d be about owning your self-concept or maybe it’s just about being abundant with hot dresses. i must have written it at 3:23 or on 3/23 cuz i was unaware of the fact that 323 is an la based area code. it was written on the floor of my studio apartment in a sea of blankets.”
“Mourning Glories” Lord Friday the 13th
Only recently showing up on our radar here at WMF, Lord Friday the 13th has wasted zero time in making a remarkable impression on us, and it wouldn’t surprise us in the least if this year’s LF13 WMF appearances are but the first of many. With happily heavy doses of fabulous fun and off-kilter glam, “Mourning Glories” deftly exemplifies why we find LF13 so exciting.
LF13 sent this exclusive background info about “Mourning Glories” to us:
"‘Mourning Glories’ sort of wrote itself. We were playing around with some different sounds, landed on this sad discordant little tune, and the words just kinda spilled out. Neither one of us had really experienced a proper two-way heartbreak when we were writing the song but since its recording in 2020, we've both had pretty big servings of tenderness and endings... Be careful what you write about! We worked with Gilbert Trejo on the music video back in August of this year and he brought everything to life beautifully. The concept is about rejection and rebirth through sadness but also weaves in a lot of silliness because sadness and silliness really like hanging out together.”
“The Last Resort” Holiday Sidewinder
We first heard Holiday Sidewinder’s standout single “The Last Resort” when she performed live as a guest artist during Alex Cameron’s extensive and influential Cara Hotel residency. The unrelentingly uplifting “beach pop” track made a strong impression on us immediately, and only became increasingly pronounced upon each subsequent replay.
Holiday succinctly summed up “The Last Resort” for us as “an invitation to say yes to the waves, to love, the the unknown.”
Thanks for visiting this year’s compilation. We hope you enjoy these tracks —along with our ever-evolving WMF Faves playlist— as much as we do. It goes without saying that our year-end list is of course just the tip of the proverbial iceberg when it comes to new music and artists we love and appreciate. That said, we think it’s a great jumping-off point for acknowledging important new music that continues to flourish despite mainstream corporate headwinds, and its contents inspires us to continue to discover and celebrate what we lovingly call weirdo music…FOREVER.
*Whenever possible, the original spelling, capitalization, and formatting submitted by each artist has been recorded here as submitted by the artists by themselves.
