Goin’ Neon in the Nighttime - My Top Songs of 2023
[editor’s note: this list was compiled in January 2024 and reuploaded in August 2025]
2023 proved to be an amazingly productive year for the pop punk/emo and adjacent scene, with riveting up-and-comers unleashing the future upon us. But enough about the newbies - I’m giving flowers to old titans returning with unexpected novel sounds.
What A Time To Be Alive - Fall Out Boy
“When I said ‘leave me alone’ / this isn’t quite what I meant!” Unsurprising to anyone with ears, Pete Wentz’s Razr-sharp ironic lyricism clinched What A Time To Be Alive the Number One spot on my year-end list. An unorthodox power pop-hustle (and the penultimate song of their bombastic comeback album So Much (For) Stardust), Patrick Stump’s soaring range serves the listener a stunning Motown-slick paradox of inability to cope with our new post-COVID lockdown reality. Featuring a bouncing disco string section provided by the dynamite London Metropolitan Orchestra and well-layered mixing from longtime FOB-collaborator, Neal Avron, the song has been described by the band as “like a New Year’s song for the worst year that has ever happened.” Although many may not be participating in active quarantine nowadays, “quarantine blues” live on amidst of the return to “normalcy” in the face of the still-ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, cementing this darkly sarcastic romp’s place on this list (and in my heart) as my number one scene song of 2023.
LANGUAGE - Boys Like Girls
Despite having a significantly longer incubation period than Fall Out Boy’s widely hailed 2023 comeback album, Boys Like Girls’ first album released since their 2012 EP, Crazy World, debuted to far less fanfare than many expected. Although the Sunday at Foxwoods rollout kicked off strong with an undeniably bitchin’ lead single, BLOOD AND SUGAR, my number two song of the year is their second single, LANGUAGE. Among other strong moments on the album including THE OUTSIDE and MIRACLE, LANGUAGE’s funky bass and infectious playground na-na-na’s set the song apart from the pack. Like the SweeTarts taste of Monster, Martin Johnson’s sotto voce confessional verses quick-change to an irresistible volcano of power pop greatness in chorus. “I thought we were friends / but friends don’t do that”; Johnson’s flirtatious falsetto bemoans the inevitable pull of a friendship spiraling into a situationship. Unlike the steamy, messy situation featured in the song, I would never be “just friends” with LANGUAGE, so I place it as my number two scene song of the year.
Vitamin Sea - Owl City
Emo kids don’t go to the beach. Millennials on TikTok attribute a “youthful” appearance of the generation to avoiding the sun and surf in favor of youthful indoor favorites like AIM and RuneScape. But if emo kids DID like the beach, it would sound like Vitamin Sea. The third single off Owl City’s return to a life of synth, 2023’s Coco Moon promises enough sunshine to make one pause and wonder if Disney has sued Adam Young yet. Although the dreamy, bubbly melody suggests a Moana-adjacent singalong, the acerbic irony of lines like “I’ve gone coastal” encourages me to belt the song as if it were Papa Roach’s Last (Beach) Resort. Sailing into my number three spot for scene songs of 2023, I can’t resist the charm of a cry for help that sounds like it smells like Hawaiian Tropic.
C’est Comme Ca - Paramore
Hey, does anyone know if Paramore likes Bloc Party? Jokes aside, the 2000s garage indie suit the trio wears these days fits incredibly well for a band considered darlings of the mall emo generation. C’est Comme Ca, the third single off Paramore’s February 2023 release, This Is Why, is arguably the most dynamic song on the record. Between Hayley Williams’ throaty, robotic Dr. Melfi session verses and the skank-worthy guitar riff provided by Taylor York, the song sounds like what I can only imagine a more-pretentious Fizzy Lifting Drink would taste like. “C’est comme ca,” or “it is what it is,” in French, accurately sums up the resignation that lies in the attempt to carry on as a Real Grown Up, while still remaining oh-so-cynical deep at heart. “But the high cost of chaos? / Who can afford it?” The ever-economical Miss Williams lands C’est Comme Ca placement as my fourth favorite scene song of the year.
KO - The Ready Set
I will admit the list is biased: I’ve been a Ready Set stan for over a decade now. But without playing favorites, the hypnotic flow of the half spoken, half sung forlorn love letter KO impresses while barely trying. Bobbing through the hushed lazy river of Jordan Witzigreuter’s romantic foibles over the track’s somber electropop beat crescendos to a positively feral earworm of a final bridge. Far from the scene teen saccharine of past smash Love Like Woe, KO is a sultry song convincing the listener to sink into the couch and have another gulp of red wine. I initially thought my year-end pick would’ve been the first single from Cherryland (The Ready Set’s latest album since 2016, barring his side project Onlychild), Who You Really Are, a high-octane sparked dynamite fuse of an album opener, but its chaos fails to outpace the slinky velvet of KO. “I can’t explain / I just want your chains around me” - the passionate finale of the song steals the show and earns my ranking as the fifth best scene song of the year.
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
757 - 100 Gecs
Airhead - Honey Revenge
Loafers with the White Socks - Pulses. feat. nightlife, Belle, Gavin Cole
True Romantic - Clarity, nightlife
Zaza In The Sun:-) - Just Friends
Lead Pipe - Movements
Dance With Me - Blink 182
Blame - The Maine
Try - Meet Me @ The Altar
Falling Apart In Halftime - poptropicaslutz!
Not The 1975 - Knox
Monstarr - Ennaria
face2face - nightlife
(pls) set me on fire - Enter Shikari
Up In Smoke - Arm’s Length
Telepath - Jimmy Eat World
Table For Glasses - Manchester Orchestra
OVER YOUR DEAD BODY - Hot Milk
A Lesson In Dramatics - Save Face, Jhariah
HAMMS IN A GLASS - Winona Fighter