Illustration by Jed Chisholm for NPR
This listing of NPR Music’s greatest songs of 2023 appears to be like in contrast to any we have ever made earlier than. It is not simply the variety of songs that has modified. There aren’t any rankings right here — actually, the 123 songs beneath seem in a distinct order every time you load the web page. There’s extra, although: Click on on the “extra like this” button subsequent to any tune and you will get a hand-picked assortment of seven different songs from the listing that we predict you will like.
There are such a lot of issues that may lead you from one tune to a different — an excellent voice or the way in which a flip of phrase sticks in your head, an unforgettable riff or rhyme. The infinite potentialities of the streaming period promised to show listeners to a wider vary of songs, so would not or not it’s good if playlists felt extra like play? Why keep on with the algorithmically generated tried and true when all it takes to make an excellent playlist is lively curiosity, some musical data and the willingness to totally have interaction with the music. And perhaps some buddies to assist with suggestions.
In pursuit of that objective, we have mainly made you 123 mixtapes to go along with our 123 greatest songs of 2023, little slices of these infinite potentialities. Do not know the place to begin? You may slim the listing to our “better of the perfect” or decide one thing you want and see what we suggest subsequent. Comply with any particular person tune to a playlist of solutions that open new doorways. (After all, you can too take heed to an enormous playlist of practically each tune on the listing, and take a look at our 50 greatest albums of the 12 months too, if that is your velocity.) There’s sufficient right here to maintain making discoveries and connections into 2024.
