Top Songs of the 1980s

 We enjoyed putting together the top songs of the 1990s last year, so decided to come back this year with our 80's version. 

Top Songs of 2023

Artist “Song Name” (** = number of appearances by artist on an ATHoM list)

1.      100 Gecs “Dumbest Girl Alive” (rookie) ¹

2.      Big Thief “Born for Loving You” (*******) ²
3.      Burna Boy “Big 7” (****) 
4.      Run the Jewels “Don't Let the Devil” (****)  

5.      The New Pornographers “Firework in the Falling Snow” (*******)

¹ "Text, text, text, text / like you trying to start a fight / and I'll fuckin' text you back / I'm the dumbest girl alive"

² "From the last breath / of my first death / to this lifetime / and lifetimes left" 

6.      King Princess “The Bends” (**)

7.      boygenius “Afraid of Heights” (rookie, but Dacus has ****) ⁷

8.      Jon Batiste “Raindance” (rookie) ⁸
9.      Charlotte Cardin “Confetti” (rookie) 

10.   Doja Cat “Paint the Town Red” (**)

⁷ "I never rode a motorcycle / I never smoked a cigarette / I wanna live a vibrant life / but I wanna die a boring death" 

⁸ "I look up ..."

11.   The Gaslight Anthem “Autumn” (**) ¹¹

12.   Romy “One Last Try” (**) 

13.   CHIKA “PRODIGY” (**) ¹³
14.   Sufjan Stevens “Will Anybody Ever Love Me” (*********)

15.   Mimi Webb “Amelia” (**)

⁸ "... and do my raindance"

¹¹ "Cause I know someday / it's gonna be all over / no more spring / into summer time / so, can I hold you / underneath October?"  

¹³ "I'm over Balenciagas / I'm changing into my cleats"

16.   Teenage Joans “Yoke” (rookie)
17.   Christine and the Queens “To Be Honest” (******)
18.   070 Shake “Black Dress” (***1/2)
19.   Bethany Cosentino “Natural Disaster” (***) ¹⁹
20.   The Tallest Man on Earth “New Religion” (*********) ²⁰

¹⁹ "This is the hottest summer / I can ever remember / 'cause the world is on fire" 

²⁰ "Could I ever just lose myself / digging for my letting go?" 

21.   Samia “Honey” (rookie)

22.   Danger Mouse & Jemini “Brooklyn Bazquiat” (rookie)
23.   RAYE “Ice Cream Man” (rookie) ²³
24.   Dominic Fike “Dancing at the Courthouse” (**)
25.   Macklemore “1984” (****)

²³  "Cause I'm a woman / I'm a very fucking brave strong woman / and I'll be damned if I let a man ruin / how I walk, how I talk, how I do it"

26.   The Mountain Goats “Fresh Tattoo” (***********) ²⁶ 

27.   Logic “Highlife” (****)

28.   Keli Holiday, Kwame & Chanel Loren “DOWNER” (rookie)

29.   Jordan Davis “Next Thing You Know” (rookie)

30.   Youth Lagoon “Helicopter Toy” (***)

²⁶ "Well, you may forget the whys and wheres / of an old tattoo on your forearm there / but usually you recall the day you got one / and usually it fades in the sun / but not this one"

31.   mazie “u and i will always be ok” (***^) 31
32.   Islands “Headlines” (********) ³²
33.   Nation of Language “I Will Never Learn” (rookie)
34.   Lil Durk “All My Life (Burna Boy Remix)” (rookie) 

35.   Teezo Touchdown “Impossible” (rookie) ³⁵

³¹ "You're so bad at making left turns / when the traffic's on its way / but you're pretty good at putting back the bumper in its place"

³² "Sigh"

³⁵ "Maybe it was a combination of all three / that knocked out the fighters lights"

36.   Beirut“The Tern” (*******) 

37.   A$AP Rocky & Metro Boomin “Am I Dreaming” (**) 

38.   Margo Cilker “All Tied Together” (rookie)
39.   The Rolling Stones “Whole Wide World” (***)
40.   Baby Queen “We Can Be Anything” (**) 40

⁴⁰  "It's been proven space is exponential / so this is all inconsequential"  

41.   Kevin Morby “This is a Photograph II” (****)

42.   Ratboys “Black Earth, WI” (rookie)
43.   Diplo / Jessie Murph / Polo G “Heartbroken” (rookie)
44.   Screaming Females “Mourning Dove” (***)
45.   Taylor Swift “You're Losing Me” (*****) 

46.   Ava Max “Choose Your Fighter” (rookie)
47.   The National “New Order T-Shirt” (**) 47

48.   ratbag “rats in my walls” (rookie)
49.   Generationals “Dirt Diamond” (*****)
50.   ALEXSUCKS “Not Enough” (rookie)

⁴⁷  "I keep what I can of you"  

51.   Cat Stevens “Take the World Apart” (rookie)

52.   Elle King “Worth a Shot” (****)  
53.   Yen Strange “If Snakes Can Afford Fast Cars I Wanna Be A Snake Too” (**)
54.   LP “One Like You” (***)
55.   Josh Ritter “For Your Soul” (********)

56.   Hannah Diamond “Flashback” (***)

57.   John Mark Nelson “Do it Again” (rookie)  
58.   Karol G “MIENTRAS ME CURO DEL CORA” (rookie)
59.   Noname “namesake” (rookie)
60.   Eluvium “Endless Flower” (*****)

61.   Tove Lo “Elevator Eyes” (rookie) 
62.   Young Fathers “Holy Moly” (****)  
63.   Blur “The Swan” (rookie)
64.   Chappell Roan “Feminemomenon” (rookie) 

65.   U.S. Girls “Futures Bet” (rookie) 

66.   Jon Muq “Runaway” (rookie)  

67.   The Go! Team “Whammy-O” (*****)

68.   YUNGBLUD “Lowlife” (rookie) 
69.   Hot Chip “Fire of Mercy” (**)
70.   Remi Wolf “Prescription” (**)

71.   Belle and Sebastian “I Don't Know what You See in Me” (****)

72.   Melenas “Bang” (rookie)  
73.   San Fermin “Arms” (****)
74.   The Last Dinner Party “Nothing Matters” (rookie)
75.   Tanlines “Arm's Length Away” (**)

76.   Petey “The Freedom to Fuck Off” (rookie) ⁷⁶  

77.   Portugal. The Man “Dummy” (****)  
78.   Feist “Borrow Trouble” (****)
79.   Genesis Owusu “Leaving the Light” (**)
80.   Pure Bathing Culture “In Gardens Under Evergreen” (*****)  

⁷⁶ "So what do I want? / I want the freedom to sit still / to appreciate my state / in the spinnin' blades of a windmill" 

81.   Young Thug “Sake of My Kids” (*****)

82.   Brett Dennen “The Ballad of Lily and Tres” (**) ⁸²

83.   Hozier “Who We Are” (***)

84.   Alex Lahey “The Answer is Always Yes” (****)

85.   chloe moriondo “Killbot!” (***)

⁸² "He started acting all moonstruck / you know the movie with young Nick Cage" 

86.   Finch “Haven't Lost” (rookie)

87.   Asnikko “Worms” (rookie)  
88.   Fred Again & Obongjayer “adore u” (***)
89.   John Craigie & TK and the Holy Know-Nothings “Bones” (rookie)
90.   GAYLE “Leave Me For Dead” (rookie)

91.   Bongeziwe Mabandala “hlala” (rookie)  
92.   Dermot Kennedy “Two Hearts” (rookie)  
93.   Deb Never “Paper Houses” (rookie)
94.   Milky Chance “Living in a Haze” (rookie)
95.   Myke Towers “LALA” (rookie)

96.   Indigo de Souza “Younger & Dumber” (**)  
97.   Ashley McBride “The Devil I Know” (rookie)  
98.   ROSALIA “LLYLM” (****)
99.   CMAT “Have Fun!” (rookie)
100.Cat Power “Like a Rolling Stone (live)” (****)

Top Songs of 2022

Here we go, our top 100 songs (limit one song per artist) of 2022, along with AppleMusic and Spotify playlists.

 

 Artist “Song Name” (** = number of appearances by artist on an ATHoM list)

1.      Ethel Cain “American Teenager” (rookie) ¹

2.      Koffee “Point and Kill” (***) ²
3.      Alt-J “Get Better” (****) ³
4.      Spoon “Wild” (*****) ⁴ 

5.      fanclubwallet “Gr8t Timing!” (rookie)

¹ After being one of the final cuts from last year's list (with "Crush"), Ethel Cain shoots to the top this year. "American Teenager" is like a checklist of our favorite things: propulsive vocals, unreliable narrators, late arriving instruments (the Journey-like riff in the last minute), broken nostalgia, religious name checking, and a revealing song title that doesn't appear in the lyrics. 

² The top song could have gone either way this year and "x10" spent most of the year in that position. Heard it for the first time on a flight and put the phone on repeat for a good hour. 

³ The progression from "I know you will" to "I hope you will" to "I know I will" gets us every time. 

⁴ Here the instrumental build reminds us of Primal Scream's "Loaded". If we had a theme song, this might be it. 

6.      Mondo Kozmo “Ww3” (***)

7.      Guitarricadelafuente “Mil y una noches” (rookie)

8.      Arcade Fire “Unconditional I (Lookout Kid)” (*****) ⁸
9.      Young Jesus “Ocean (feat. Tomberlin)” (rookie) ⁹

10.   Pusha T “Dreamin of the Past” (***) ¹⁰

⁸ "because a life without you / would be boring / for someone like me / and if you feel it / it's fine" (and all of a sudden it is 2004 again)

⁹ "go, give your life unto the weave / to the fabric and the seam / to the drift of what you'll be / like the wind run through the leaf"

¹⁰ Donnie Hathaway's "Jealous Man" sample is the Ye antidote 

11.   Alex Cameron “Best Life” (**)

12.   King Princess “For My Friends” (rookie) 

13.   Mac Miller “Love Lost” (**) ¹³
14.   M.I.A. “K.T.P. (Keep the Peace” (***)

15.   Big Thief “Simulation Swarm” (*****)

¹³ Originally released in 2011, made available on streaming for the first time in 2022.  

16.   MUNA “Kind of Girl” (***)
17.   Christina and the Queens “rien dire” (*****)
18.   Caamp “Found (Forever)” (rookie)
19.   Maggie Rogers “Want Want” (***)
20.   Morrissey “Rebels Without Applause” (**)

²⁰ Yes it is basically a "Cemetery Gates" clone. We'll take an endless number of these, please. 

21.   Royal Otis “Oysters in My Pocket” (rookie)

22.   Brother Ali “Goin' Through It” (rookie)
23.   Bow Anderson “Mama Said” (rookie)
24.   The Mountain Goats “Bleed Out” (**********) ²⁴
25.   Phoenix “Alpha Zulu” (****) ²⁵

²⁴  The elegiac "Bleed Out" gets added heft from its placement at the end of the album (by the same name), following a dozen tracks of Charles Bronson-style action heroism. The whole song is Darnielle at his most Darnielley: "there was a chance we'd make it through this / its safe to say now that we missed it / and I will never lose hope / and I haven't lost hope / I'm just realistic / I will go down punching / but I will go down / and my corner man won't bring me back around / bleed out / I'm gonna bleed out"

²⁵  Alpha Zulu (the song and the album) marks a joyous return to Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix form. "Woo-ha!"

26.   Bruce Hornsby “Too Much Monkey Business (Chuck Berry cover)” (rookie) 
27.   Alison Wonderland “Down the Line” (rookie)
28.   Panda Bear & Sonic Boom “Edge of the Edge” (*****, for PB)

29.   Wet Leg “Supermarket” (**) ²⁹
30.   Sudan Archives  “Selfish Soul” (**)

²⁹ "there's special offers at the supermarket / well the last time I was picking up / it was BUY ONE GET ONE FREE!"

31.   Let's Eat Grandma “Happy New Year” (**) 
32.   Genesis Owusu “Get Inspired” (rookie)
33.   Jamie xx “Let's Do It Again” (****, incl. The xx)
34.   Braxe + Falcon “Step By Step (feat. Panda Bear)” (rookie) 

35.   Yeah Yeah Yeahs “Burning” (****)

36.   Jeshi “Protein v2 (feat. Obongjayer)” (rookie) ³⁶

37.   chloe moriondo “Sammy” (**) 

38.   Kid Cudi “Maybe So” (*******)
39.   Casey MQ & Petal Supply “Telephone Light” (rookie)
40.   Matisyahu “Mama Please Don't Worry” (**)

³⁶  Obongjayer's album just missed the list with "Tinko Tinko" but he is a guest spot MVP here and with last year's #2 "Point and Kill". 

³⁸  We did the "tie" cop-out already w/ Kid Cudi (in 2018, when his Rampage soundtrack song tied with a Kids See Ghosts song) and were tempted to do the same here with the atmospheric "Maybe So" from his Entergalactic soundtrack and the catchy-as-hell "Stars in the Sky" from the Sonic sequel. Ultimately, we went with the one that was in one of the year's better movies, rather than one of the worst. 

41.  Yen Strange “Bleeding From My Purple Lips” (rookie)
42.   Eddie Vedder “Invincible” (**, including Pearl Jam) ⁴²
43.   Hurray for the Riff Raff “Saga” (rookie)
44.   Dehd “Bad Love” (rookie)
45.   Charlotte Adigery & Bolis Popul “Making Sense Stop” (rookie) ⁴⁵ 

^{42  Bonus ranking points for Vedder not only referring to himself in the third person but doing so in the NATO phonetic alphabet.} 

^{45  The Talking Heads influence extends beyond the song title.} 

46.   Little Simz “Gorilla” (****)
47.   Cayucas “Topo Ride the Wave” (**)

48.   Ondara “An Alien in Minneapolis (edit)” (**)
49.   Danger Mouse & Black Thought “No Gold Teeth” (*****, incl. The Roots)
50.   Steve Lacy “Bad Habit” (rookie)

51.   Taylor Swift “Sweet Nothing” (***)

52.   Kenrick Lamar “Mirror” (*****)  
53.   Myron Elkins “Hands to Myself” (rookie)
54.   Elle King “Feelin' Alright (Joe Cocker cover)” (***)
55.   Aldous Harding “Fever” (**)

56.   Bret McKenzie “If You Wanna Go” (rookie)

57.   Eminem “The King and I (feat. CeeLo Green)” (**) ⁵⁷  
58.   Misterwives “Easy” (***)
59.   Florence + The Machine “Morning Elvis” (*****)
60.   DRAMA “3AM - James Curd Remix” (rookie)

⁵⁷ In the third decade of his career, Eminem can still surprise with clever turns of phrase (e.g., "Marshall, be leavin' you"), even on paycheck soundtrack gigs. 

61.   Saba “One Way or Every N***a With a Budget” (rookie) 
62.   Alex G “Miracles” (rookie)  
63.   Barrie “Frankie” (rookie)
64.   Wild Pink “Cahooting the Multiverse” (**) 

65.   Grace Ives “Lullaby” (rookie) 

66.   home “Two Shell” (rookie)  

67.   The Tallest Man on Earth “Pink Rabbits (The National Cover)” (********) ⁶⁷

68.   Alex Lahey “This Kiss (Faith Hill cover)” (***) ⁶⁸
69.   ROSALIA “LA COMBI VERSACE” (***)
70.   Ela Minus “Pajaros en Verano” (**)

^67/68 Represents a significant improvement on the original.

71.   mercy, mercy “Black Cloud” (rookie)  

72.   Black Country, New Road “Good Will Hunting” (rookie)   

73.   Harry Styles “As it Was” (rookie) 
74.   070 Shake “Invited” (**)
75.   Pierre Kwenders “Kilimanjaro” (rookie)

76.   Lady Gaga “Hold My Hand” (rookie) ⁷⁶  
77.   Yahritza Y Su Esencia “Soy El Unico” (rookie)  
78.   Kate Nash “Imperfect” (***)
79.   Built to Spill “Gonna Lose” (****)
80.   Sloan Peterson“Wear My Heart Out” (rooie)  

⁷⁶ Most songs make this list simply as songs. Lady Gaga makes her first appearance on the list because "Hold My Hand" brings us immediately back to one of the best (if not the best) movie going experiences in our life, being back in the theater and being back in the 80s. 

81.   Plains “Problem With it” (******, including Waxahatchee)

82.   Superorganism “On & On” (***)  

83.   Rina Sawayama “This Hell” (rookie)

84.   Ashley McBryde et al “Bonfire at Tina's” (rookie)

85.   Ayra Starr “Rush” (rookie)

86.   mazie “somebody to lose” (**)  

87.   The Beths “Expert in a Dying Field” (rookie)  
88.   Seabear “Oslo” (***)
89.   Sky Ferreira “Don't Forget” (rookie)
90.   Sub Urban “UH OH! (feat. BENEE)” (rookie)

91.   Mimi Webb “House on Fire” (rookie)  
92.   Anna Ash “Favorite Part” (rookie)  
93.   The Smile “Skrting on the Surface” (****, including Radiohead)
94.   Lucero “One Last F.U.” (rookie) ⁹⁴
95.   Bright Moments “Good Old Days” (**)

⁹⁴ Strong "Before They Make Me Run" vibes 

96.   The 1975 “Happiness” (***)  
97.   Maren Morris “Nervous” (rookie)  
98.   Sigrid “A Driver Saved My Night” (rookie)
99.   Metric “False Dichotomy” (***)
100.Paul Dally “Back of a Cab” (rookie)