This list of NPR Music's best songs of 2023 looks unlike any we've ever made before. It's not just the number of songs that has changed. There are no rankings here — in fact, the 123 songs below ...

Where do songs come from? For now, they come from us — from our needs, our wants, our regrets, our scorn. Next year, they might come from a box brought to near-sentience by all the songs that came ...