Tone Madison’s favorite songs of 2023, pt. II

A small collection of Madison songs that made a genuine impact.

Few years in recent memory have felt quite as alive as 2023 when it comes to new local music releases. While keeping up with the year’s explosive pace of releases was a time-devouring endeavor, the result was worthwhile. As a result of the bounty of new releases, our year-end coverage will be the most extensive it has ever been, because we firmly believe that everything we’re showcasing deserves this type of notice.

To start things off, we’ll be covering our 45 favorite songs that Madison-area artists released in 2023. Even at that number, there were still songs we wish we could have included in this section. But a line (probably) has to be drawn somewhere, or we’d be going on about 2023 until a few more calendar years pass.

Madison music has seemingly always been overlooked, despite consistently bristling with a varied richness. Attempting to monitor each new release drives that point home even more plainly, with the crop of material released over the past 12-plus months constituting a melting pot of genre and artistic perspective. Great records and songs have appeared across an enormous array of genres, delivered by a generous spectrum of artists, and were released by artists who populate wildly different age ranges (a few of which were cross-generational).

After a long string of behind-the-scenes deliberation, several rounds of cutdowns, and a few rounds of voting, Tone Madison was able to whittle down well over a thousand songs into 45 favorites. These are those favorites.

Part I can be accessed here.

PART II

Boxing Day, “Your Voice“

Boxing Day’s debut single, “Your Voice,” is a refreshingly accessible take on Midwest emo. Like a delicate whisper that suddenly wrenches into a full-on scream, the song coaxes some deep mileage from collapsing-and-reforming swells of volume. Gentle vocals and a beautiful trumpet arrangement get their say in this too, guiding the song towards a memorable, soothing upshot. By effectively using their musical arrangement to double down on the bittersweet narrative anchoring “Your Voice,” Boxing Day demonstrates the type of keen instinct that will suit the young band well as they go forward. —Luis Acosta

Chants, “Waterfall In Reverse”

Here we find producer/percussionist Jordan Cohen, aka Chants, in his more frantic, dance-centric mode: spiraling acid synths go up to the sky, carried by beats that briefly stop beating against the breakwater to let the pumping bass have a brief word by itself. The song keeps kayaking up its inverted river past the clouds, and by the final third I’m imagining this is like what the bucket-hammering buskers at an alien space station play for tips. —Dan Fitch

Combat Naps, “Always Asking”

Combat Naps put out two genuinely great records in 2023, the White Page EP (one of my personal favorites from any band this year) and Tap In, a subsequent full-length. On the latter, the Neal Jochmann-led band hits a scintillating high with the mid-album “Always Asking,” which makes excellent use of a glitchy intro and guest guitar spots from Disq‘s Shannon Connor and indie-rocker Graham Hunt. “Always Asking” seamlessly jumps from a jittery opening half to a tenacious, intimidating back half that makes great use of distortion-heavy tension. Jochmann’s willingness to explore and challenge stylistic boundaries continues to pay dividends. —Steven Spoerl

Dad Bods, “A Way Away”

If you’ve never seen Dad Bods live, you’re missing out on sweat, disorder, and shirtless men. It’s stoner metal meets jazz, comedy meets technical prowess. The barking-mad nature of “A Way Away” is emblematic of the chemistry lead singer/bassist Sean Horvath and drummer Chris Flowers have developed together as long-time collaborators. It’s chaotic, but well measured in its use of humorous production, thick industrial textures, and a punishing rhythm-section-only sound. Frivolous and exceptional, “A Way Away” is a well-manicured cake made of mud. —LA

Dicot, “Kickback“

Dicot‘s debut single released in late December, officially marking it out as one of the most explosive artistic introductions of the year. A behemoth of a grunge-flavored shoegaze track, “Kickback” reveals a shocking amount of promise for the new Eddie Campbell-led project (which includes Ivan Skryagin on bass). Every last second of “Kickback” is impressive, from its skyscraping guitars to its impassioned vocals to its impeccable pacing and overall construction. As Campbell unleashes a guttural scream towards the track’s calm-after-the-storm ending passage, it becomes abundantly clear that Dicot will be a band to watch going forward. —SS

Drive-a-tron, “Leather Coats”

Paul Vash’s Drive-a-tron project hit new artistic peaks across 2023, with the Strokes-like “Leather Coats” serving as the definitive piece of supporting evidence. Aided by Phil Disher’s restrained, intuitive drumming, Vash creates a sense of weary unease that feels intensely relatable on a track that neatly staddles the divide between indie rock and synth-pop. “This is what happens when you get what you want / When you don’t think it through  / And the bills become due,” intones Vash in a knowing warning, as “Leather Coats” hurtles towards an inevitable narrative conclusion. Rarely has regret seemed so appealing. —SS

Drowt, “Perfume”

Drummer/producer Brad Hawes’ first release for fellow drummer/producer Jordan Cohen’s Limited Resources Label was “Perfume.” Released under Hawes’ Drowt moniker, “Perfume” is an insistent, dancefloor-ready electronic track. Hard sounds wash into each other on “Perfume,” creating an oddly beautiful backdrop for an unwavering and aggressive central kick-driven beat. Intoxicating in its own right, “Perfume” proves Hawes’ chameleonic capabilities as a producer with stylistic aplomb. —SS

Feestet, “Running From The Dance Floor”

After being a mainstay in Madison’s live jazz circuit since forming in 2021, local jazz-fusion ensemble Feestet started releasing original work in the back-stretch of 2023. “Running From The Dance Floor,” the opening track from the band’s self-titled EP, ably demonstrates why they’ve already become a Madison staple. Helen Feest’s undeniably warm vocals are a perfect complement to a track that lightly skirts jazz, funk, folk, bossanova, new age, and disco. “Why don’t you step onto the dance floor?” asks Feest in the track’s memorable vocal hook. If this is what’s playing, it’s hard to imagine too many turning down the offer. —SS

Friendly Spectres, “Best Life”

“Best Life” wears its influences directly on the sleeve. Friendly Spectres bandleader Cam Scheller-Suitor named the track in an homage to a great Cheekface song of the same name. And the two tracks share a lot of DNA: bitingly sardonic, brutally funny, and frantically-paced indie-punk knockouts exuding personality and offbeat charm. Where Friendly Spectres’ “Best Life” stands out in its specificity to a certain type of lifestyle. Sharp lyrics with references to “crust punk Jesus,” Black Flag shirts, Wild Turkey, and the exhilarating orgasms that only occur by clocking out are enlivened by one of the most explosive tracks to come out of Madison in recent memory. A genuine triumph. —SS

Jane Hobson, “Decay”

Jane Hobson‘s emergence as an indie rock force has been deliberate and effective. “Decay,” one of two excellent tracks Hobson has released since May, opens with an acoustic guitar that sounds like it’s in the process of disintegrating. Hobson effectively forces listeners to lean in by playing up frailty and impermanence, lending to the all-consuming desperation of the track. “If my parts could be replaced / Would I be the same?” wonders Hobson aloud, before expressing a sincere apology for ever wanting to live forever. “Who am I to move away from you?” she asks, in one of the most heart-wrenchingly romantic lines of any Madison chorus in recent memory. “Decay” lives up to its name via the production damage, but the tender track’s enormous cumulative effect feels akin to salvation. —SS

Klack, “Body2Body2Body“

I have a forever soft spot for a particular era of underground electronic music from the ‘80s, so when Matt Fanale of Caustic and Eric Oehler of Null Device came together to pay homage to the New Beat/EBM genre with their Klack project, I was stoked. They’ve put out consistently catchy, lightly tongue-in-cheek bops that manage to be both true to their ‘80s inspiration (groups like Front 242 and A Split-Second) while still injecting their own well-honed sensibilities. “Body2Body2Body” is a solid entry into their growing catalog, with Fanale’s recognizable growl joining vintage commercial samples, a driving beat, and old-school synth lines. Sometimes a sound doesn’t need to heavily innovate to invigorate. —Emily Mills

Cal Lamore, “Shook Loose”

Was there any individual Madison songwriter who had a more absurdly prolific year than Cal Lamore? It’s hard to argue otherwise as Lamore was on an absolute tear over the course of 2023, releasing three full-lengths, an EP, and a digital single. But “Shook Loose,” the five minutes-and-change closer from Lamore’s January album Fine Form, Lost Thoughts, felt like an appropriate representative for the songwriter’s gargantuan body of work. Drawing key influences from the past seven decades, Lamore melds bouncy ‘50s pop, icy ‘80s new wave, and spiky ‘00s garage punk elements (among a host of others) into an inspired piece of rock music. Triumphant and invigorating in equal measure, “Shook Loose” is a jaw-dropping display of craft from one of the city’s most versatile rock artists. —SS

Mickey Sunshine, “Rat Race”

In the course of several rounds of voting amongst Tone Madison‘s editorial team and freelance pool, the only release to appear on everyone’s final ballot was Mickey Sunshine‘s “Rat Race.” It’s not difficult to see why the song struck such a chord: the lyrics detail, in brutally plain terms, the struggle most American workers face today under the cruel constraints of an unforgiving and unnavigable model of capitalism. It’s no wonder the band dedicated the song to service industry workers in the Bandcamp description.

“This can’t be it / Fuck the government / Work myself to the bone / Don’t have health / But got a phone,” intones Mickey Sunshine guitarist/vocalist Andrea Di Bernardo in the track’s desolate bridge, shortly before the quartet erupts into a haunted, funhouse version of what should read as euphoria but instead scans as an inescapable storm. No individual release in 2023 resonated at Tone Madison as much as this burnt-out, pissed-off, showstopping rocker. And we’re all likely to feel the pointed, reverberative shockwaves of its narrative well into the future. —SS

Mary Sweet, “Therapy”

“I hope that you see / when I’m heading out,” sings Mary Sweet at the outset of pop bop “Therapy,” playing up a deceptively saccharine build towards a moment of personal reckoning. “I got so much better when we ended things,” Sweet follows up before the song’s driving production takes hold, allowing listeners in on the narrative’s bittersweet anchor. A great vocal performance, bright instrumentals, and an overdriven kick propel “Therapy” forward as Sweet grapples with the fallout of a past relationship. “Guess I didn’t need you as my centerpiece,” Sweet eventually concludes, effectively rendering “Therapy” as a lively, post-breakup party. —SS

Talkin’ To Dean, “Youngblood”

Sigra again proves she’s making art songs unlike anyone else in the Madison vicinity by dropping this foreboding, alternative-reality Christmas story—her coloratura soprano in a duet with her own father (the baritone), Adam DeWeese. Rhythmic acoustic guitar-strumming and Sigra’s creeping, swerving bassline conjure a strangely alluring mystery on “Youngblood.” With genre nods to chamber folk and dark cabaret, the gorgeous layers of vocal dubs on “Youngblood” surreally push the song into realms unforetold. It’s like we’re hearing Nick Cave as a guest session musician on Carla Kihlstedt’s Two Foot Yard. —Grant Phipps