"Rush" by Troye Sivan + Top 23 Songs of 2023 (#20-15), Friday, January 12, 2024

I’m in no rush to finish my post of my top 23 songs of last year. I’m taking my sweet time. But it’s Friday night, and I’m in Soho so I thought I’d post a little bit more, most notably some of the more dance-oriented tracks of the year. The three I posted on New Year’s Day were closer to honorable mentions, but the songs I picked in 20-15 are great but lacking something from pushing them up a little higher--and that something in many cases is the lyrical depth found on songs a little higher on the list. But feeling the rush of a song is certainly a big part of why we like music. Let’s enjoy the weekend!

20. “Padam, Padam” by Kylie Minogue kicks off the top 20. I was a little late to the new club classic last year. Listening to a breakdown of the song on Switched On Pop made the very simple song gave me a huge appreciation for not only it, but then I had to listen to Tension, the album Minogue released, and I started revisiting her back catalog. A worthy challenger to "Padam, Padam" is the second single, "Hold On to Now."

19. “If You Were a Song” by Abbey Cone. I listened to a lot of Country on Spotify at the end of the year. I should say that I skipped my way around a lot of Country playlists on Spotify. There were a few songs I listened to and this was one of them. It’s clichè in the best ways possible and something about it made me feel like I was in my hometown. I also briefly wrote about Ashley Cooke’s “Shot in the Dark” which would probably make it into my Top 30. 

18. “From the Start.” by Laufey. Remember when Ryan Gosling saved Jazz? Remember when Norah Jones brought Jazz back into the mainstream? Well, last year may have not been big for Jazz, but the biggest Jazz song of the year came from Laufey, who broke into the mainstream with a fusion of Classical, Jazz, and pop. “From the Start” may become a lounge classic. I think the classically-trained cellist, multi-instrumentalist Icelandic/Chinese singer-songwriter has a lot of potential. I hope to see her higher on the list in the coming years. 

17. “I Feel Like Dancing” by Jason Mraz. This might be the only case of an artist I got into after first being introduced to and disdaining their biggest song. I hated “I’m Yours,” but I got into the rest of Jason Mraz’s discography. But then I forgot he existed until last year when he released a truly infectious dance song. Damn, who doesn’t feel like dancing to this? Especially after watching the music video.

16. “Goddess” by Pvris. There’s an abrasive pop sound that Pvris, now just vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Lynn Gunn, is chasing. I didn’t connect with 2023’s Evergreen as well as their previous work, 2020’s Use Me. Gunn seems to be dealing with the demons of the music industry--sexism and homophobia--as well as with her own identity in songs like “Goddess,” which asks “Is she a wo- or a man? / I’m a motherfucking brand.” Many of the tracks are catchy but lack the smooth, grooving musicality of the band’s previous work. And the grotesque image on the cover of Gunn’s severed head kind of put me off the album. In July, I wrote about “I DON’T WANNA DO THIS ANYMORE,” but I was also addicted to the song “Goddess” around that time too. It was like if P!nk went really hard and was accepted on the rock charts. 

15. “Rush” by Troye Sivan. I’m torn between “Rush” and “Got Me Started.” Both tracks feel like a return to big-production pop. But this 2023 return of pop is more authentic because it is unabashedly queer. But I think “Rush” is the more important song of the year, compared to the follow-up single. Whereas “Padam, Padam” may have been the queer anthem that brought everyone back to the club in the summer, “Rush” kept the party going and helped to solidify Sivan as, as Saturday Night Live parodies, “Gay Famous.” "Rush" is a song about escapism and getting back to normal, as the club becomes a place to forget your worries.