the glory of my 2023 spotify wrapped is that there are no fucking glee songs on it. we made it. we climbed the whole mountain. we danced at the summit. we never have to think about glee again.
going through this list, what really surprised me was how many female artists were on it. historically i’ve preferred male artists, but they’re very scarce here.
this is the last gasp of my former music disliker persona. you can see the cracks start to form: most of post and nevermind are on here because i listened to both of them in full, which had become so rare for me.
“boys & girls” - ayumi hamasaki
because i don’t understand japanese, i have no idea why this song makes light beams erupt out of my chest. i used to be as into j-pop as i could be with access to limewire in the mid-2000s, which means i was mostly trying to google j-pop singers and hunt down their biggest singles. i found out about ayumi hamasaki that way, and i listened to what i could find. i don’t remember most of those tracks, but i was poking around on spotify in 2023 and i found this song, which i’d vaguely remembered from my youth. i just love the… melody?? is that what it’s called??? anyway i was putting this song on constantly because i don’t know anything else that has this vibe. i’m sure there’s a ton of j-pop with exactly that vibe, but none of those are this song, so.“hyperballad” - björk
“keep tryin’” - utada hikaru
once again, i don’t understand japanese and while there are a lot of english versions of utada tracks, i don’t think this is one of them. i assume i like the sentiment!!!“butterfly” - smile.dk
this is an early abbie classic. one of the most irritating songs on the planet, as well. i watched so many fucking naruto slideshow amvs on 2007 youtube set to this song.“rolling star” - yui
“lollipop (candyman)” - aqua
“face my fears (english)” - utada hikaru
“(you drive me) crazy” - britney spears
my favorite britney song. they did a version of this on glee that was a mash-up with “crazy” by aerosmith and it was actually so, so cool and good and understated and i listen to it often but not often enough for it to be on my spotify wrapped, i guess. i genuinely think it’s so good. it’s, like, so tender. anyway, that mash-up reminded me of how much i love this song and i’ve been a “crazy” stan since. you know i love yearners of all genres!!!“are you that somebody?” - aaliyah
i recently realized that this is one of the best songs ever recorded and i started saying that to anyone with ears. i watched queen of the damned with a few friends in the past month or so and after the movie was done i was like okay, now we have to listen to “are you that somebody?” as a group. no you cannot be excused. the beat. the lyrics. the baby. aaliyah’s voice. this song was for the fucking dr. doolittle soundtrack. we used to be a country. i keep meaning to listen to an aaliyah album because i have such a soft spot for r&b because of my age and what music sounded like when i was a child. and… sorry, i got distracted because this song is so fucking good. excuse me. sorry. i’m sorry. holy shit.“pony” - ginuwine
“pony” is a very special song to me. i realize that most people can say that because “pony” is a very special and important song that every person loves. this is factual. anyway, i had covid at the very end of 2022 and i was sequestered in my bedroom over christmas, which fucking sucked. i just had my cat and my ipad for company, and i watched magic mike (dir. steven soderbergh) and magic mike xxl (dir. gregory jacobs) basically back-to-back. i was immediately texting my gc like guys, magic mike is a really fucking good movie. as soon as i was freed, i made my friends watch both films. it was a huge hit. the third film came out in february 2023 when we were all together over katsucon weekend, so we went out and saw it. jody made everybody matching t-shirts with sparkly pink text. after we left the theater, we had a “pony” sing-a-long sesh in the car. it is one of my most cherished memories. this song is evergreen. the beat!!! the chorus!!!
“judas” - lady gaga
“oops! …i did it again” - britney spears
“passion (single version)” - utada hikaru
in my post about my 2022 wrapped, i wrote that i prefer the japanese version of this song to the english version. so. that tracks.“god knows…” - aya hirano
i loved the melancholy of haruhi suzumiya when it came out. i watched it in pieces on youtube. that was when moe was just starting to get huge. i remember being so impressed by the art style, how shiny and smooth it was. haruhi became my role model, which was bizarre because i was extremely shy and her character is outspoken and outgoing. i tried so hard to engineer a way to pull off her orange ribbon look with just some craft ribbon i got from walmart. i made her red armband from the shorn sleeve of a discarded red t-shirt. she was my dream cosplay, even though it would be a decade and change before i ever got the opportunity to cosplay. i learned this song mostly phonetically, which was a big thing i used to do when i was eleven because i had no friends. i listened to it for the first time in ages this year, and i still remembered almost all the lyrics even though they’re all in japanese. i rode so hard for haruhi suzumiya.“the predatory wasp of the palisades is out to get us!” - sufjan stevens
“disarm” - the smashing pumpkins
“simple and clean - ray of hope mix” - utada hikaru, punpee
“slide” - the goo goo dolls
this is one of my go-to karaoke songs. sometimes solo, usually alongside leo. i do try to do the voice. leo and i love this song. i cried to it a couple times in middle school, then i forgot about it for a long time, and then leo and i rediscovered it in 2023. it’s so earnest but also so… lame. in a positive way. there’s nothing quite like singing it in a tight little karaoke room at an all-night arcade.“crash into me” - dave matthews band
one of the rare songs by a male artist on this list, but honestly, this is girl-coded to me.“say my name” - destiny’s child
historically my favorite destiny’s child song. just a fun factoid.“tonight, tonight” - the smashing pumpkins
“torn” - natalie imbruglia
I’M ALL OUT OF FAITH
THIS IS HOW I FEEL“i’m like a bird” - nelly furtado
“independent women, pt. 1 - pasadena remix” - destiny’s child
“touch my body” - mariah carey
during this project, when i’ve gone through and picked out songs to write little blurbs about, i’ve scrolled through my whole list and marked songs with Xs. i marked this song with an X and i don’t really know why. this song is hilariously sensual. it’s like a parody of sensuality, which makes it both fun and sexy. because sincerity is, of course, the sexiest thing possible.“i’m a slave 4 u” - britney spears
“baby boy (feat. sean paul)” - beyonce, sean paul
“landslide” - fleetwood mac
“honey” - mariah carey
“the modern things” - björk
“last night (feat. keyshia cole)” - diddy, keyshia cole
wow—“big girls don’t cry (personal)” - fergie
this song hits so hard when you’re singing it with a dear friend in her car. volume up. windows cracked. every single word.“stereo love (original mix)” - edward maya, vika jigulina
“enjoy” - björk
“love at first sight” - kylie minogue
yet another abbie limewire classic. i have no idea how i, at ten years old, caught wind of kylie minogue, but i did. my limewire was filled with past and, at the time, current hits of hers. actually, now that i’m sitting and thinking on it, i might’ve been scouring limewire for an mp3 of britney spears’s song “lucky” and i must’ve come across kylie minogue’s “i should be so lucky” instead.“she’s so high” - tal bachman
i rewatched hbo’s girls for the third time this year and some side character does this song on an acoustic guitar on the beach in the final season. and i was like well, yes. i agree.“bodak yellow” - cardi b
“army of me” - björk
“around the world (la la la la la) - radio version” - a touch of class, pete konemann
years back, leo and i used to try to exercise for about an hour or so in the basement because his father has some miscellaneous exercise equipment down there. we would play music. we played this song so often during these little sessions that i still feel like exercising every time i hear it.“…baby one more time” - britney spears
“breathless” - the corrs
this song and “lovefool” by the cardigans are sisters to me.“it’s oh so quiet” - björk
“my oh my” - aqua
“stronger” - britney spears
probably my second-favorite britney song??? if anyone’s keeping track, which you should be, because there will be a quiz. such a classic girl power anthem.“i’m real (fear. ja rule) - murder remix” - jennifer lopez, ja rule
one day, this song came on the radio while i was out with my sister. she leaned over and said hey, you know this song? and i was like well, duh. and she was like listen to the beginning. it sounds like she’s saying “are you ellie?” she hooked her phone up to the aux and played it again. in the song, jlo spells out “R-U-L-E” in reference to her collaborator ja rule. i heard “are you ellie?” we giggled.“wap (feat. megan thee stallion)” - cardi b, megan thee stallion
song is awesome. we, as a society, need more of this. i pray for a somewhat similar radio hit about pegging like everyday at this point.“you’ve been flirting again” - björk
“i should be so lucky” - kylie minogue
there it is!!! such a sugary banger.“there she goes” - sixpence none the richer
“fast car” - tracy chapman
“i miss you” - björk
“always be my baby” - mariah carey
“i like it” - cardi b, bad bunny, j balvin
even though it’s overused in commercials, i have a soft spot for this song the way i have a soft spot for all reggaeton and whatever other music is performed in spanish.“roses are red” - aqua
“dreams” - the cranberries
“put your records on” - corinne bailey rae
an awful awful awful cover of this song is on the playlist at work that doesn’t have even half of the heart and soul that the original has. shameful. it just makes me appreciate the original one million percent more, and i was already at a billion percent.“money” - cardi b
“smells like teen spirit” - nirvana
i loved nirvana as a middle schooler. i’d gotten into hole and courtney love because my sister had a biography about her on her bookshelf and i took it and read it and reread it and reread it. i became obsessed. i found a copy of live through this at a flea market—a copy i still have—and listened incessantly. through hole, i got into nirvana. i’d never really been exposed to nirvana growing up, and it was all so new to me. it’s crazy to me that this song was ever huge.“the only thing” - sufjan stevens
i’m pretty sure i wrote about it before, but this song made me ugly-cry at the sufjan concert that leo and i went to when he toured carrie and lowell. my sister was less than a year gone at that point and it hit so hard that i shattered into a million pieces at the concert hall.“semi-charmed life” - third eye blind
“ava adore” - the smashing pumpkins
“heart-shaped box” - nirvana
historically my favorite nirvana song. i started collecting heart-shaped boxes because courtney love did, and i grew a pretty good collection. everyone i knew got me one. sometimes leo still gets me one. i don’t really know what i like about this song more than other nirvana songs, considering it sounds pretty much the same as most of their catalogue. it’s not sonically distinct like “polly” or “rape me.” shrug emoji??“work it” - missy elliot
“waiting for tonight” - jennifer lopez
“like a star” - corinne bailey rae
again, i am known for my hyperbole!!! but!!! this song is so beautiful!!!!!! i feel that it’s criminally under listened to because no one that i know knows this song. that i know of. the lyrics are so poetic and her voice is so understated.“lithium” - nirvana
“fergalicious” - fergie, will.i.am
i hate to say these words, but: four, three, two, fuck you.“isobel” - björk
“angel” - shaggy, rayvon
i loved this song as a child. i thought it was so beautiful. i’m being serious. i thought the notion of “girl” being the speaker’s angel was so romantic.“in bloom” - nirvana
“say it right” - nelly furtado
i didn’t listen to this album because why would i, but the three singles off of it are nothing short of iconic. i hate saying that, but it’s true. “promiscuous”? “maneater”? “say it right”??? father, son, holy spirit. let’s be real. i created some of the most epic daydream sequences of my naruto ocs to these songs while sitting passenger in my mom’s car during drunken evenings.“genie in a bottle” - christina aguilera
you’re a lesbian, huh.“better off alone” - alice deejay
“drain you” - nirvana
“dragostea din tei” - o-zone
an absolutely iconic song. an epic routine in just dance. but not if you’re dancing alone. you definitely need to do it with friends.“doll parts” - hole
this was once my favorite hole song. this hits like a kettlebell thrown through a window when you’re about twelve years old and you hate your body and your face and your everything and it feels like everyone else does too and it also feels like no one will ever love you or understand the way that you’re hurting.“who knew - edit” - p!nk
if i’m known for anything, i’d guess it’d be my hyperbolic way of speaking. that tendency probably cheapens this sentiment, but: i cannot listen to this song without sobbing. i generally regard p!nk as radioactive. i cannot look or touch. the reason is that she reminds me of my dead sister. if you know this song, i think you know why it makes me cry every time. according to wikipedia, p!nk wrote it about a friend that had died. and there are a lot of songs about people that are dead or who have died, but this one just shreds me. even just reading the lyrics while i write this blurb up has me misty-eyed. i think it’s the plain language. there are some songs about this topic that are more flowery or eloquent, like my #59 song “the only thing,” but this one just gets into the rawness of the emotion. “if someone said three years from now/you’d be long gone/i’d stand up and punch them out/‘cause they’re all wrong,” is a specific attitude. that’s how grief feels, especially at the beginning. it’s just a reaction. there’s nothing artistic or eloquent to it. it’s just base reaction. and that gets me. then, there’s p!nk’s performance of the song, which is… too much to stomach, for me.“come as you are” - nirvana
“super bass” - nicki minaj
“love don’t cost a thing” - jennifer lopez
“overprotected - radio edit” - britney spears
“night of fire” - hinoi team
“barbie girl” - aqua
“hips don’t lie (feat. wyclef jean)” - shakira, wyclef jean
“breed” - nirvana
if i hadn’t listened to nevermind in full this year, there’s no way this song would be in my 100. this was always a skipper for me in middle school.“decatur, or, round of applause for your step-mother!” - sufjan stevens
“lost my music” - aya hirano
“fantasy” - mariah carey
god, such a fluffy song. i love. i love!!!“polly” - nirvana
“softer, softest” - hole
this was never my favorite hole song. it was, honestly, a frequent skipper. but i grew up and relistened to it and i found i really loved it in a way i hadn’t before. the whole album is full of female rage. some songs are more intense, like “plump” and “gutless.” “softer, softest” is a very quiet rage. simmering. i love it.“you wish” - flyana boss
this song was on a roadtrip playlist that myself and two friends put together for a three-hour car ride that i kept listening to after that weekend. it feels condescending to call this song cute, but it kinda is.“will anybody ever love me?” - sufjan stevens
“rape me” - nirvana
my favorite nirvana song as an adult, which is funny because i don’t really listen to nirvana as an adult. because i’m an adult. jokes, jokes.“world is mine” - hatsune miku
i never appreciated hatsune miku. to me, it felt like i blinked and she took over the world at some point. as a weeb in the 2000s i’d heard of her, but she was on my periphery for two decades before my friend jody cosplayed her and i actually heard a miku song. anyway, this rocks.“walk in the park” - beach house
“sanctuary (opening)” - utada hikaru
“territorial pissings” - nirvana
“knowing me, knowing you” - abba
“10 mile stereo” - beach house
“easy breezy” - utada hikaru
…and we’re caught up! thank you for going on this journey with me.
i was really worried that wrapped would drop this past wednesday. i did some light googling and apparently in prior years wrapped has dropped the final wednesday of november before. i was sweating thinking i wouldn’t get this done before that, and that i’d have to backtrack, and no one would care. i mean, as if everyone cares deeply to begin with.
when this goes live, 2024 wrapped will have already dropped, so stay tuned. i will do something leo specifically has been begging for since i started this series: i will write about every song. yippee!!!