Top 10 Albums of 2023
This was my favorite album of the first half of the year as well. You can’t beat beautiful singing over enchanting songs. Sometimes sad (“The Saddest Verses” is a song title), sometimes mysterious (“Twelve Saints”), but always made with great economy and creative touches.
Armand Hammer — We Buy Diabetic Test Strips
Billy Woods, one half of this group, had an incredible year between this and his solo record. I thought the solo record would make my top 10, yet this record is somehow better. Euclid and his production collaborators create striking sounds over and over for Woods’ extraordinary lyrical skills. There are 15 tracks over 53 minutes, and every second is great.
This album has my favorite guitar playing of the year. I’ve always liked Wand, his band, but solo he really shows off his chops on every track.
I saw this album compared to Wednesday’s great album, but there’s something about the country touches on this one that caused it to stand out more for me. Great indie rock.
Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson is super Irish, super funny, and an even stronger singer and songwriter on her second album. I loved the first last year, so it was delightful to get a second, even better, set of songs a year later.
Loved it throughout the year. Still shocked he made something this good and this diverse, musically. I figured he’d stay in the UK Trap/Grime mode while his career rose. But nope, he made a sort of rap/rock/electronic album. Combining those genres and making something good is a near miracle.
This was a great year for solo albums from folks in established bands. Romy, of the xx, had been overshadowed for years by Jamie xx’s solo work, only to put out her own album that’s even better than Jamie’s stuff. It is a sort of single-theme electronic album; it’s all “dance and romance.” Romy seems infatuated with the same woman on every track. But that singular sound is so well done!
I will admit I did not know what Alté, an Afrobeats genre, sounded like going into this album. Apparently it sounds like this, with great rhythms over catchy vocals, so apparently I like it a lot!
Joanna Sternberg — I’ve Got Me
These songs sound like the came from an old folk record, or a western saloon, or a New Yorker stuck in a small apartment in the pandemic with just a guitar or piano. Whatever you dream up listening to this, you can see the songcraft laid bare track-by-track. There are no tricks here to get your attention, just pure songwriting ability from an isolated person with great musical skill.
Pop Punk is a pretty rough genre, so whenever I hear of a new Jeff Rosenstock (or PUP) album, I wonder if this will be the one where they misstep and make a big boring ball of cheese with fast guitars. But nope, Jeff scores again. He has no shortage of things to say, and no shortage of hooks and surprises to ward off the sameness so common in the genre.
Bonus Recommendation:
The best version of an “is it even metal?” metal album. For starters, it’s unlistenable for those not versed in black metal, so it’s probably *some* form of metal. Haela Hunt-Hendrix (of these folks) has her own religion that I’m pretty sure no one understands. I don’t understand these numbers on the cover, the titles, and I can’t understand the lyrics. It’s like a crazy glitch orchestra of 10-minute plus songs. It sounds, on paper, like the worst thing ever made. But most folks who listen to the whole thing feel the exact opposite, and I am among them.
I loved many other records, which are represented in this playlist for 2023. Sofia Kourtesis, hemlock springs, Bully, phoxjaw, Genesis Owusu, Tkay Maidza, Kali Uchis, Icecoldbishop, JPEG/Danny Brown, Shana Cleveland, and Yves Tumor were all in the running to make the top 10, if you’re looking for places to start.