Gotta whole lotta love songs in this year’s list!
There’s found love (“I Don’t Know What You See in Me,” “Act Natural,” “Nothing Matters”), continuing love (“Glue Song,” “Ozarker,” “Talkin’ French,” “Until I Found You,” “Can I Stay With You”), and everyone’s favorite, complicated love (“The Clutch,” “Not Strong Enough,” “Jealous Moon,” “I Remember Everything,” “The Alcott,” “Strawberry Woman”).
We take detours for a night out with the girls (“Honey”), some songs of arrival and departure (“Clean Slate,” “Winslow Gardens,” “Heading for Home”), and everyone’s other favorite, songs I can’t quite figure out what they’re about (“Everything at Once,” “Forgiving Ties”).
We also pause for a wistful oldie performed as a duet by by a new 90-year old and new Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee. (Also a whole lotta duets in this year’s list.)
I loved: the crunchy guitars on “Act Natural” and “The Clutch,” the horns on “Clean Slate,” the unashamed Springsteen production on “Ozarker,” the swoony vocal on “Until I Found You.”
I also loved: “I didn’t mean to hurt you/You didn’t mean to show me how” (“The Clutch” again), “Pictures and passin’ time/You only smile like that when you’re drinking” (“I Remember Everything,” my song of the year), and “I remember you when the bar was closed/Dancing on the table with a bloody nose” (“Strawberry Woman”).
And a songwriter tip o’ the hat to Ben Folds for finding, in a song about his experiences during Covid, a fresh way to remind us (just as Covid did) that some trips only go one way.
Perhaps we’ll be more in touch in 2024!
- I Don’t Know What You See in Me, Belle and Sebastian
- Honey, Sami
- Act Natural, Margaret Glaspy
- The Clutch, Palehound
- Clean Slate, The Mountain Goats
- Winslow Gardens, Ben Folds
- Nothing Matters, The Last Dinner Party
- Not Strong Enough, boygenius
- Glue Song, beabadoobee featuring Clairo
- Ozarker, Israel Nash
- Jealous Moon, Sarah Jarosz
- Forgiving Ties, Deer Tick
- Talkin’ French, Charlie Kaplan
- Everything at Once, Rodney Crowell/Jeff Tweedy
- Far Away Places, Willie Nelson/Sheryl Crow
- I Remember Everything, Zach Bryan/Kacey Musgraves
- The Alcott, The National/Taylor Swift
- Heading for Home, Rufus Wainwright/John Legend
- Until I Found You, Stephen Sanchez
- Strawberry Woman, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit
- Can I Stay with You, Nick Garrie (Reissue; original release 1968)