#5EUK Top 10 Songs of 2023
Welcome one and all to the first list of the EOY SZN!
This year has been so full of amazing projects throughout this year — but with that said — I began the EOY SZN with only nine songs locked in via my Regular Rotation playlist. Even as I begin to write this, I’m still trying to find a 10th track that I genuinely love as much as the others.
Don’t get it twisted, there’s many tracks I like & love but having them on the playlist I spin nearly everyday is a different level of appreciation. It’s a methodology I’ve stuck with for a few years now and I think the lists with this personal methodology age very well.
So! With that said, let’s get into this list that I begin with nine and WILL finish with 10. For those new: My Songs List is not ranked but is structured, so the ever-elusive 10th track won’t be the final track. This list will also coincide with a 5EPN Radio episode, which will basically be a version of this list in the style of a Radio Show. Whether you read here or listen there, I appreciate your time.
And with that, we begin this list with some positive Hip-Hop featuring a sample of one of my favourite tracks ever:
The Good People — Makin’ Moves
I usually exempt singles that came a year earlier but since I only heard this for the first time when spinning the album it’s housed in, (which is literally an album of singles from the previous year) I’m going to break my rule for this one.
That and because I’ve spun the hell out of this song all year. For the summer months especially, “Makin’ Moves” by duo The Good People has been one of those Hip-Hop tracks that go back to bring pleasure today, with that sample of A Tribe Called Quest’s “Scenario (Remix)” — the superior version of “Scenario” — and then those booming drums thoroughout just puts a smile on my face.
Combine that with a solid set of lyrics to bring the feelgood vibe home, it’s a simple Hip-Hop track on the face that provides a ton of enjoyment wherever you are.
Kota The Friend — BARCELONA (Feat. Samm Henshaw)
Whilst grabbing the music video to embed, I saw a comment below the video saying this song is akin to Estelle’s “American Boy”. Maybe not in lyrical content but in their production and the feeling they both give me — wanting to sing along and bop to the infectious beat — they definitely share an essence.
I can always trust Kota The Friend to come through with a summer jam; he’s great when he’s positive with his music and not ruining projects lamenting “cancel culture”. “BARCELONA” is probably his most “pop” sounding track relative to his typical work but I can’t hate, because as a song it fits the bloody bill!
I appreciate the inclusion of Samm Henshaw who is one of the best dual threats the UK has to offer right now, making it known how good he is when splitting his verse into a rapped part and a sung part, both great as a total package.
One day I’m gonna spin this in Barcelona and report back to see if it hits.
KYE — Bossin’ (Unicorn VIP Extended Mix)
I need to express how much I am talking about one of the remixes of this glittering throwback bop by one of my favourite discoveries this year. The regular version which is housed in the music video is great no doubt, but the extended mix gave me exactly what I wanted.
The differences between the two are minimal in specific production decisions but the major one is the length. With it’s extended intro & outro, the extended version of “Bossin’” is an already amazing song perfected. Sometimes you just want a song to really breathe and that’s what I got. I rarely hear production like this anymore and I miss it dearly.
KYE’s performance compliments the production perfectly with her flex bars rooted in knowing where she comes from, a great balance of confidence and humility.
Every house party I hit from now on will have this song queued up regardless if I have the aux or not.
Nas — No Tears
Simmering down a little now after an energetic start to the list; spinning a track from a Hip-Hop legend reflecting on recently turning 50.
For years now I have been highlighting the importance of listening to the Hip-Hop elders. Even saying “elders” when the majority of them are in and around 50 seems wrong but considering where someone like Nas has come from, I think it’s apt.
In the same way I praised “Nobody” with Ms Lauryn Hill on my ’21 Songs list, this is a track that nobody (pun intended) under the age of 35 could create. “No Tears” is a beautiful meditation on Nas’ place and how he looks at his creative endeavours over the decades. It’s a real “stop & smell the roses” kind of track but it also has this tinge of finality to it. Asking “No Tears” makes me think of somebody on their death bed.
As this song sits in Nas’ last album with Hit-Boy, the finality is understood in that context but I can’t help but feel like it’s more than that. But regardless of my feelings and definitely not thinking Nas is on his death bed — beit his actual life or creative life — it’s a touchstone track of an artist that continues to defy notions that age is a detriment to a creative person.
JONES — Razor Blades (Feat. Aaron Taylor)
Every year I get the opportunity to reaffirm my love for some artists that come and go from the constant conveyor belt that is my listening habits and I’m so happy I can talk about JONES once again.
Ever since her debut album “New Skin” in 2016 I have held a soft spot for JONES. Even though she doesn’t drop as much music as a fan like myself would like — on the flipside — it really does make moments like listening to “Razor Blades” feel so weighted. Add on the fact that one of my favourite male R&B artists in Aaron Taylor makes a cameo on here, it was simply fate that this song would be involved in this list.
The song is light as a cloud and doesn’t demand anything from you apart from opening up a little. All the subject matter JONES covers on this song is done with the most caring of hands. Her ability to craft a hook is super underrated and exhibit A can be this track.
I need to see her live man. Can’t believe I haven’t yet.
Louis Culture — CITY
I feel like I say this every year but I don’t listen to singles most of the time when they come out. My logic is that I don’t want to listen to songs that’ll appear on an album or EP in the near future; I’m project oriented and because of that, I want to spin projects as fresh as possible.
So why have I got Louis Culture’s “CITY”? What’s different about this one? The simple answer is that I saw him live — supporting Che Lingo @ Lafayette — and this track really spoke to me when he dropped it live. As soon as I got out of the show, I went to spin “CITY” and very soon after that it was on my Regular Rotation!
This is a track that gets my writer-brain going. There’s a “Coming-of-Age” essence about this track; backdropping a film about three boys in the city just taking life with the sole purpose of having as much fun as possible. Relationships come and go but at the end of the day, it’s just them vs the city and all the pleasures (& pain) it has to offer.
It’s a great track for someone like me that relishes being in London whenever he can and taking advantage of that privilege of being so close to the city.
Hempress Sativa — Sound The Trumpet
Ever since discovering Hempress Sativa last year I have been obsessed with her. The authenticity she exudes through her Rastafarian roots are palpable, you feel it in every song she drops, 0 compromise on her art.
At over seven minutes, I don’t think I have to even check my other Songs lists over the years to say that this is the longest song to hit my Regular Rotation. So how did Hempress Sativa do it?
Well, you could see this track as one song doubled. The first half is a bonafide Roots Reggae track, a call to arms in every sense. She could’ve stopped there, but she instead went ahead and backed it with a Dub Reggae version that hits even harder with the subgenre’s quintessential echoes and fat bass. There’s moments in the first half where the Dub bleeds in a little but of course on first listen you don’t think anything of it.
The song and its message is so important that it needed to be said twice and I can’t get enough of it.
Avelino — VEX (Feat. Ghetts & BackRoad Gee)
Into the last set of tracks, all UK bangers in their own ways. First, Avelino coming through with “VEX” which was as close to an instant addition to the Regular Rotation as a song can be. I’m serious, when I was playing the album this is housed, I immediately wheeled the track up. I try not to do that until I finished the work but damn this song goes absurdly hard.
The Payday/Fraser T Smith production should soundtrack an anime fight to the death with how momentous it starts. Has BackRoad Gee ever flopped a feature? This one damn sure ain’t; so simple and so catchy, if you ain’t shouting “LING IT LING IT, FRIB IT FRIB IT…. SPIN IT” at least in your own head then I can’t help you.
Then it’s crispy verses from Av & Ghetts, top-of-their-game bars here and Gee comes back to book end it.
But why stop there? Let’s just throw in Sex Pistols’ very own Glenn Matlock as well! As if the song doesn’t go hard enough. Run-through-a-brick-wall energy this song gives me; instant pick.
P Money — Wagwarn Mumsy (Feat. D Double E, JME & Frsico)
About four, five years ago, a friend made a passing statement that P Money was the coldest. I wasn’t listening to P Money that much at the time but soon after I started paying attention, I knew there was going to be a time where he would drop something that I would love.
And here we are with this Silencer-produced banger Posse Cut where all four rappers detail raiding someone with the central plot point of knocking on the unnamed opp’s mother’s house.
If you’re aware of all the rappers involved, you know that they will approach this theme in different ways and in a very balanced affair, all have their own highlights. My favourite being JME hijacking the hook by shouting “Open up ‘fore your whole street haffi get woken up, fam!”. My only thing that left me wanting was that JME & Frisco shared a verse, but I can’t hate too much, even with half the bars as P Money & D Double, they make the moment worth it.
AntsLive — Number One Candidate
Now I don’t rank songs for this list as you’re well aware by now, but understand that this is my song of the year in every possible way. I spun this for the first time in the first week of January and there hasn’t gone too many sessions with the Regular Rotation where I haven’t played “Number One Candidate”.
The reasons why this track absolutely goes barely requires typing it out: The grand production from Bijan Amir, the wordplay, the hook; every single element of this song slaps. Hell — not that that this comes into my consideration for this list — but the music video is one of the best you’ll see this year. I honestly don’t know how he did that, he’s only just starting!
No superlatives can be used to describe how much energy this track has given me over the year and I can’t wait to spin it for years to come.
Honourable Mentions:
Terri Walker — Fearless
Adanna Duru — POP!
Adanna Duru — ur a bitch
Nia Archives — Baianá
Shay Lia — HIGH
KiLLOWEN — Holding On
Adi Oasis — FourSixty
