The best songs of 2023

Without any pretence of being exhaustive, and without trying to fully represent the editorial staff's rankings, we thought we'd share the playlists that best capture each of our own "musical year". The songs that stood out within a certain genre, the songs symbolic of breakout artists or major returning names – or, more simply, the songs that meant something to those of us who listened to them.

Gabriele Benzing

“La dì s’imbruna”. Out of a forest of whispers, the voice of Daniela Pes surfaces like the echo of a ghost. The day turning to dusk fills with creaks and rustles, and time itself seems on the verge of breaking. Even the shape of language dissolves, dreaming of being reborn. How many times this year, looking around us, have we felt like we were living through the twilight of a world? “This stupid world”, as Yo La Tengo would put it.

The past that won't pass, the tomorrow that never arrives: Mark Linkous's last message in a bottle remains suspended alongside the grainy footage of Misophone. “What will survive the end of our future?”, Federico Campagna asks in the pages of Prophetic culture. “Once the skin with which the old world dressed reality has vanished, whoever finds themselves rebuilding a new world from a heap of ruins encounters the ineffable dimension of existence more intensely than ever”.

Here it is, the ineffable. The point toward which everything seems to converge: "Everything that rises must converge", sings Sufjan Stevens over the vibration of a crystalline arpeggio. "Turn yourself around to see what I can save": with the ineffable in our sights, among our ruins we can spot the bricks worth saving for the world to come. The end of days, set to the melancholy little orchestra of Matt Elliott, looks like a bridge to a new beginning. "Let's take a walk on the other side".

Marco Bercella

Paolo Ciro

Michele Corrado

There are so many musical genres and scenes, both global and national, that one can follow today, and so many treasures that each of these fields holds, that every passing year it becomes harder to put together a playlist that's both concise and satisfying.

The only way to tackle a mission like this is to set strict rules. In my case, otherwise I'd never be done, I told myself: "okay, 2023, just 23 songs". That's how this erratic, uninhibited run of tracks came about, one that couldn't care less about genres or boundaries, and cares only about beauty and "stickiness".

I promise that next year I'll pick 24 tracks instead, and 25 the year after that, and so on, until one day something stops me.

Giuliano Delli Paoli

Lana Del Rey keeps telling me that we're living in her era, pulling out masterpieces like the title track of her latest album, practically a shiver lived in the most life- and joy-hungry corners of her identity, while society keeps marching on, myopic and smug. Then there's the Nigerian prodigy Mohbad with one of the most intense songs from his wonderful "Blessed", plus the spectacular embroidery of dadá Joãozinho on one of the sharpest tracks in his elusive songbook, the vibrations of the other Nigerian in the top ten, Seyi Vibez, the timeless, never-fails folk of Nico Paulo, the emotional footwork of Faizal Mostrixx, the evergreen tribalism of Baaba Maal, and the open-hearted confessions of Mitski.

Valerio D’Onofrio

Claudio Fabretti

Once again this year I tried to condense 12 months of listening into a wide-ranging playlist, the fruit of yet another omnivorous musical binge. It kicks off in style with the classy dance pulses of Jessie Ware, before spiraling into a run of tracks with a strong synth-etic streak: from the neon glow of the soundtrack to "Copenhagen Cowboy" to the magnetic EBM of Mandy, Indiana, passing through yet another high point from the indestructible Depeche Mode, the icily Nordic curves of Fever Ray, and the unexpected electropop feat of our own Annalisa, not forgetting the rekindled flame of shoegazers Slowdive and the successful pairing of Graham Coxon of Blur and Rose Elinor Dougall under the name WAEVE. In the middle stretch, ethnic sounds suspended between past and future take over: the enchanted liturgies of Daniela Pes, the ancestral rituals of Brigan, the Latin flavors filtered through electronics from Caroline Polachek and Sofia Kourtesis, the Turkish-spiced double bill of Mabel Matiz–Altin Gun, and the drone-folk mantra of Lankum. There's also, inevitably, room for another of the year's colossal statements, "The Beggar" by Swans, and for returns both expected and unpredictable (Beatles, Blur, Peter Gabriel, John Cale), not to mention the instant-classic duet from Zach Bryan and Kacey Musgraves, the experimentalism of Oneohtrix Point Never, Bono/Burattini and former Lingua Ignota member Reverend Kristin Michael Hayter, the boundless tenderness of Lana Del Rey and Anohni, and the folk-pop eccentricity of Misophone and Veils, alongside familiar certainties like PJ Harvey, Susanne Sundfør and Yo La Tengo. There's even a foray into the lightness of the best Italian pop, with the triptych Madame–Courses–Colapesce Dimartino. Special guests are the sublime Finnish duo Maustetytöt, given new life by Aki Kaurismäki's latest masterpiece, "Fallen Leaves". An optimistic close ("The End Of Days"), entrusted to that peerless prophet of sadness known as Matt Elliott.

Alberto Farinone

A handful of songs from 2023, in no particular order. As usual, the hardest part was finding a criterion for selection. I tried to favor songs with more dynamic rhythms and artists I didn't include in my annual album ranking. It doesn't claim to be exhaustive. In some cases, the tracks come from records that didn't fully satisfy me. Conversely, albums I loved dearly aren't represented on this list. To give it a semblance of order, I tried to arrange them by affinity, but they can be listened to in any sequence.

Finally, a special tribute to our own country with 5 tracks by Italian artists.

A year defined by shadowy, subdued sounds, with a few brushstrokes of electronics (Troye Sivan, Goldfrapp), soul (Jessie Ware, Arlo Parks), or the more classic warmth of the singer-songwriter tradition (Lana Del Rey, Grian Chatten), without ever giving up on soaring choruses and an arty attitude (Christine And The Queens, Bjork). This year there's one extra song beyond the usual twelve — I couldn't leave out the majestic track by Peter Gabriel, even though it's definitely best appreciated within the context of the album it's taken from.

Fabio Guastalla

Vassilios Karagiannis

My 2023 is a year that splits in two. On one hand, it was devoted to long deep dives into prog and jazz discographies and to carefully calibrated listens of albums as complete wholes; on the other, there was drastically less room for stray songs, for personal earworms not necessarily tied to the project they came from. In this short playlist I try to take stock of what were the standout tracks of the year now drawing to a close. Unsurprisingly, what prevails is a taste for pulsing beats, dance grooves to give rhythm to the day, snippets of pure escapism to lose yourself in with the greatest of ease. The women? Absolute scene-stealers, regardless of latitude. Lil Yachty and the lopsided grooves of 100 gecs are among the few exceptions to the rule, in a year whose most authentic mission was the flight toward the four-on-the-floor beat.

Claudio Lancia

Here is a slice of my compulsive listening in 2023, in a more or less random sequence. About a hundred songs drawn from the albums I loved most and that kept me company over these twelve months. A personal, fairly wide-ranging selection that I hope will intrigue you and keep you company too. Happy listening, and Happy New Year to everyone…

Cristiano Orlando

Damiano Pandolfini

I could say a million words about these little pop songs, but one will do: padam.

Federico Romagnoli

Marco Sgrignoli

I've spent a musically rich year, full of confirmations, gigs, and surprises. The guiding lines have been the ones that have characterized my explorations for a while now: a composite set of territories, which I like to see as bordering on "progressive music" for whatever that expression might mean today. Jazz, hip-hop and electronica – and above all their respective intersections; traditional music reinvented through multiple styles and corners of the world; good old rock with its share of pop flourishes and hard-rock revivalism. A substantial chunk of the playlist might even appeal to progressive rock devotees who are genuinely convinced (out of laziness? lack of curiosity?) that this year gave its best with Steven Wilson, Soen and/or Riverside. A poppier tail end restores the value of catchy hooks and a bit of cheeky mockery. 

Martina Vetrugno

Ride the wave of great music

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27/01/2026