This year, our playlists were filled with tons of bonafide bangers. Paramore returned in fine form with a slew of funky cuts indebted to Bloc Party, whereas Militarie Gun shared songs with loud, sticky choruses that didn’t leave our heads. Then there was a torrent of heavy releases that tested the capacity of our speakers, from the arena-sized epics of Sleep Token to the experimental oddity of the Callous Daoboys. Needless to say, we’ve listened to hundreds of tracks this year, and so have our readers, so we asked them to vote on the very best songs of 2023.
Read more: 25 best albums of 2023 so far
From Paramore to blink-182, find the top fan picks ranked below.
5. Paramore – “Thick Skull”
When Hayley Williams was younger, she listened to tons of riffy music, including Deftones, Failure, and Radiohead. So, it makes sense that the emotional closer from This is Why has melodic, shoegaze-y touches. “Thick Skull” builds as Williams sings of being a magnet for broken pieces and people, trying to make peace with the past, but most of all, the inward-looking song represents unending optimism and resilience.
4. Bring Me the Horizon – “LosT”
Bring Me the Horizon didn’t put out an album this year, but they still shared a few singles that tease the next installment of their POST HUMAN series. “LosT,” their first new song of the year, features an extraordinarily catchy chorus, electronic pulses, and unrelenting chaos. “If I keep this up, I think I’m gonna break down,” Oli Sykes sings toward the end. Naturally, a warped breakdown ensues that sounds like BMTH have been blasting 10,000 gecs all year.
3. Waterparks – “SNEAKING OUT OF HEAVEN”
“SNEAKING OUT OF HEAVEN,” the rowdy closer from Waterparks’ latest album, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, is another startling turn for the pop trio. With throbbing electronics overtop confessional lyrics, the song represents the band’s maturity and depth as they continue to transcend their pop-punk roots and tinker with their sound. Pop-punk forefathers will always be a part of their genes, but Waterparks are focusing on their love of pop instead because, as Awsten Knight says, “I know [exactly] what we are capable of and what our output is.”
2. Sleep Token – “The Summoning”
Sleep Token’s spellbinding epic, “The Summoning,” signaled their unlikely ascent — one that gained them thousands of followers when the song went viral earlier this year and netted them more than 80 million views on Spotify alone. Featuring impressive riffs and left-turns, the shadowy U.K. band proved both their strength and smarts, as the six-and-a-half-minute song acts as the perfect entry point to their head-spinning third album, Take Me Back to Eden.
1. blink-182 – “One More Time”
Quite a few bands could have snagged the top spot, but it’s fitting that readers voted on blink. Their reunion with Tom DeLonge has been heartwarming and spectacular to see play out this year, made sweeter by their first studio album together in 12 years. Naturally, voters gravitated toward the sentimental title track, which addresses the plights (Mark Hoppus beating cancer, Travis Barker’s plane crash in 2008) that drove the trio back together. “It shouldn’t take a sickness/Or airplanes falling out the sky,” Hoppus sings.
