#49. The Arcs - Electrophonic Chronic
#48. Sufjan Stevens - Javelin
Standout Track: "Scapegoat"
Whatever the music industry is doing that's keeping Anohni a relative unknown in the US, "It Must Change". That voice is unlike any other and getting live band instrumentation for her first album with The Johnsons in thirteen years was the juice needed for a seamless comeback.
#42. Corinne Bailey Rae - Black Rainbows
Standout Track: "Red Horse"
Corinne Bailey Rae can take as long as she needs between albums. This part rock, part alternative R&B album shows that she is going to be around for a very long time.
Standout Track: "Come Over"
The superior companion album to 2022's The Loneliest Time.
Standout Track: "Bob Dylan"
The superior of the two Frost Children records to drop in 2023, even though "Flatline" is still their best song.
#39. Puma Blue - Holy Waters
Standout Track: "Hounds"
Possibly the last "new" CD I'll ever buy considering they stopped making vehicles with CD players in them but, a neat little find at whatever record store I was at that day.
#38. Wednesday - Rat Saw God
Standout Track: "Bull Believer"
The most critically hyped album coming into 2023, Rat Saw God delivered on the hype with two songs on my Top 40 Songs of 2023 list and some of the most attention-grabbing lyrics of the year.
Standout Track: "Wish House"
Even I'm having trouble keeping track of all of Death's Dynamic Shroud's releases but every time a new project gets on my radar, I enjoy what I hear even though I don't fully comprehend what it is.
Standout Track: "Walk In Place"
There's a fantastic balance to the lo-fi mixing on Good Living Is Coming For You that make Sweeping Promises one of the most exciting rock bands to break through in 2023.
Standout Track: "Antichrist"
The 24-year old's debut album was something I'd had my eyes on since her 2020 EP, Falling Asleep At The Wheel. Definitely inspired by past Lorde works, Holly Humberstone deserves more airplay for something so naturally in the same vain as Olivia Rodrigo.
#34. James Blake - Playing Robots Into Heaven
Standout Track: "Loading"
James Blake got back in his electronic producer bag for his sixth album just to prove that he's still one of modern music's finest musical minds.
Standout Track: "The Weed Supreme"
Fourteen tracks in 27 minutes, it's clear why this is TikTok's slowcore band even though they've been on-and-off as a band for 25+ years.
Standout Track: "Junkmail"
Sometimes critics are too caught up in what's next or what's new to recognize the artists/bands of the past that they've hyped up are filling in the gaps that may have made them more easily dismissed. "Youth" was only the first spark of what has become a high quality band that delivers beautiful, ethereal alternative rock every five years now.
Standout Track: "Get Him Back!"
The ballads are improving but, Rodrigo's hitmaking still reigns supreme on her sophomore effort. There's a reason this is on everyone and their mother's year-end lists.
Standout Track: "Can't Wait"
Less interested in creating the next big pop hit, Doja Cat landed one anyway in "Paint The Town Red". Scarlet is mostly flexing but it's also the first time where I've heard something more personal come from Doja's bars and that resulted in her most interesting album to date.
#29. The Japanese House - In The End It Always Does
Standout Track: "Boyhood"
Spending so much time around The 1975 had The Japanese House releasing the best new The 1975 album of 2023.
#28. Jess Williamson - Time Ain't Accidental
Standout Track: "Tobacco Two Step"
Between 2020's Sorceress and this year's Time Ain't Accidental, Williamson seemingly rejuvenated her sound by adding some country twang on 2022's collaborative project with Waxahatchee called I Walked With You A Ways. I wasn't expecting a solo album of hers to top Sorceress for me but, her fifth solo project has cleared that barrier and turned her into one of my favorite musicians out of nowhere.
Standout Track: "Mood Swings"
The build-up to Teezo's debut album had me not knowing what the hell to expect other than maybe a big-name feature here and there based on his collaborations with Tyler, The Creator and Travis Scott. Instead, How Do You Sleep At Night? sees Teezo working alone on every track, creating the most endearingly weird listen of 2023. It's laughable how pristine the production is on this thing with no edges whatsoever while Teezo delivers some of the funnier, genuinely heartwarming songs that would fit in well on a Good Burger 3 soundtrack.
Standout Track: "I Can't Hush (ft. Jeff Parker)"
When I first checked out Lonnie Holley's music in the wake of Bon Iver's 2016 masterpiece 22, A Million, I had no idea the Alabama-born artist would ever release anything that would resonate as widely as Oh Me Oh My has. Seeing features from Sharon Van Etten, Moor Mother and Michael Stipe of R.E.M. was a bit of a shock initially as well but trust me on this one, they all fit.
Standout Track: "Ebony Eye"
The Prince comparisons are a bit tired but shit, they've never been more accurate.
Standout Track: "Two Ways"
DJ Koze made a stellar 2010s experimental pop album here (it sounds like a more focused version of the stuff Flume was doing last decade) that Murphy did everything to tame the critical excitement around.
Standout Track: "Dickhead Blues"
Jackson's past as a US National Youth Poet Laureate is showcased on her debut album. Though there's plenty of flirtation between blues and country, this is 100% a folk album and one of the most exciting debuts in the genre in years. "Rat" holds my attention for all eight minutes every time, "Dickhead Blues" is a masterpiece in songwriting that showcases her versatility as it crescendos into something that sounds straight out of a musical. The potential here is endless.
Standout Track: "Phantom Farewell"
The follow-up to 2021's breakthrough album The Turning Wheel, Spellling is still as progressive of a pop artist as all the comparisons made a couple years ago. The Mystery School doesn't quite match the heights of it's predecessor but, makes up for it with a consistently captivating tracklist.
Standout Track: "Sepsis"
Sabrina Teitelbaum's eponymous debut LP may have only been just over a half hour and nine songs long but, it reassured me that we're still churning out Snail Mail type female singer/songwriters in rock music that make just-different enough bangers to make up for the hole that has been left unfilled in a year where the Boygeniuses teamed up and Courtney Barnett was absent.
Standout Track: "Shake That Bottle"
The one person able to keep the disco revivalism fad alive, Jessie Ware's fifth album takes the genre for another spin as she works on the more sophisticated sounds of 2020's What's Your Pleasure and makes an even more fun, polished and poppy album in That! Feels Good!.
#19. JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown - Scaring The Hoes
Standout Track: "Kingdom Hearts Key (ft. Redveil)"
The most terminally online rappers of them all come together to make a truly inspired experimental hip-hop project that has one flaw keeping it from my top ten... somebody needed to turn up Danny's mic in the mix. Otherwise, this is a goldmine that has only grown with each passing moment.
Standout Track: "Liar"
After a six-year hiatus, the best pop-punk band of the 21st century dropped another instant classic that ranks right up there in their discography alongside 2013's self-titled, 2009's Brand New Eyes and 2007's Riot! The band still conjures up the perfect sound for the emotional moments and has gotten even better at crafting pop songs as well.
Standout Track: "The Black Seminole."
The biggest career script-flipping of 2023. I always thought Lil Yachty would be a bigger player in the rap game than he has been the past eight years. Little did any of us know that it would take hooking up with some of the most influential producers in alternative rock and releasing his own The Wall for Yachty to reinvigorate his fandom. His loose rap singles since this album have all sounded more high quality too. Taking the wok to Poland was a good warm-up exercise because now Yachty is sprinting.
#16. Bully - Lucky For You
Standout Track: "A Love Profound"
Crunchy guitars and a jagged vocal fry have always been a selling point in listening to Bully records. Never before has Alicia Bognanno sounded this radio-friendly though and the whole album just flows together so perfectly that it always seems to end too soon.
Standout Track: "What You Did"
One of many newer artists to come out of the bedroom pop scene, Jadagu uses her guitar to express her own coming-of-age story on her debut album, Aperture. If she would have come along five years sooner, she could have slotted in alongside the Boygenius crew seamlessly.
#14. Kelela - Raven
Standout Track: "Enough For Love"
Finally back after nearly six years in the dark, Kelela emerged with a perfect nighttime driving record that sounds like Janet Jackson's later nineties work with a modern flourish.
#13. Sampha - Lahai
Standout Track: "Jonathan L Seagull"
After "No One Knows Me (Like The Piano", it's great to just hear Sampha have some more fun as the years working with SBTRKT and other electronic acts have clearly helped him find his preferred sound moving forward. He can also take as long as he wants in between albums.
#12. 100 gecs - 10,000 gecs
Standout Track: "Frog On The Floor"
It's such a delight to hear the most fresh act of 2019 and one of the many faces of a movement at the time (the emergence of the hyperpop scene) find their own lane away from their original sound while still delivering on all of the hype for their follow-up record.
#11. The New Pornographers - Continue As A Guest
Standout Track: "Pontius Pilate's Home Movies"
I went on a deep-dive with this band that resulted in "The New Pornographers" being on my Spotify Wrapped and me having to explain that "The New Pornographers" was a Canadian indie rock band to any of my followers that asked me to explain IRL. Truly scaring the hoes with this band name but I've been a fan for a few years now and this inspired me to dig back into their earliest work. Now, I can continue listening as a real fan... which I suppose is more than a guest.
#10. Jane Remover - Census Designated
Standout Track: "Census Designated"
Speaking of ditching the hyperpop sound for something more abstract, Jane Remover went all in on shoegaze of all genres. At just 20 years old, she has constantly fidgeted with her sound from more Porter Robinson-inspired electronics to the more melodic and poppier sound of 2021's Frailty. Now much like a reverse Skrillex, Jane is fully enveloped into a more accessible rock sound that has already inspired plenty of copycat artists on the come-up. I only see this project growing in influence with time.
#9. George Clanton - Ooh Rap I Ya
Standout Track: "I Been Young"
There's some nice background music for a few tracks off of Clanton's third studio album thanks to his fairly muted vocals but, the highlights on Ooh Rap I Ya are some of the highest highlights off any album in 2023. "I Been Young" I will sing the praises of until I die, "FUML (ft. Neggy Gemmy)" conjures up plenty of nostalgic feelings to those nights (and days) where you could have been a productive human being instead of the delinquent one so often chooses to be and the opener "Everything I Want" wastes no time fucking around as an introduction to a heavily synth-focused album. I still need to revisit his first two albums but, there's a scene in here that I feel like I missed out on.
Standout Track: "Tiny Garden (ft. Duendita)"
Former poets are thriving in music today thanks to the ever expanding world of musical production. My fandom of Jamila Woods goes back to her association with Chance The Rapper and the 2015 Donnie Trumpet & The Social Experiment album (my favorite at the time of that year). I always found something uplifting about her clean vocals but none of her solo stuff stuck with me until Water Made Us. I've become a vinyl guy and this was an immediate add to my collection with the earworm that is "Practice", the joyous peak that is "Tiny Garden" and the bits of spoken word poetry scattered throughout that never overstay their welcome.
#7. Travis Scott - Utopia
Standout Track: "Looove (ft. Kid Cudi)"
I understand how irritating and immature the chorus of "Looove" can be but what can I say? That works on me, like much of Utopia does despite the bad taste that Travis Scott has left in everyone's mouths post-Astroworld. With his mentor Ye deep in the woods of Crazytown and anything that man drops creating as much noise as a fallen MyPillow, it was really nice to hear the guy that collaborated with Kanye back in 2013 on Yeezus bring back some of that impulsivity (along with a rejected "I Am A God" beat) along with a rotating cast of stars on an imperfect yet fun as hell listen.
#6. Empty Country - Empty Country II
Standout Track: "Cool S"
I still can't put my finger on what Joseph D'Agostino's voice reminds me of but, there is some major rock band from the late seventies or eighties that has to have inspired his vocal delivery (Is it Robert Smith from The Cure?). The stream-of-conscious songwriting mixed with singer/songwriter instrumentation that just builds and builds and collapses at the perfect moment make for a transformative listen that reflects on things like Hurricane Andrew (in "FLA") and whoever the fuck Jeff is ("Erlking"). I had a lot of fun listening to this album at work one night and it's the fastest 54-minute album that doesn't stray too far from what you'd expect track-to-track.
#5. Jungle - Volcano
Standout Track: "Candle Flame"
The soulful British duo simply does not miss on their fourth and finest album to date, Volcano. They experiment a bit more with featured artists, most notably the rappers Channel Tres, Bas and Erick the Architect plus they somehow make their funky sound even more dance-able with songs like "Don't Play" sounding like they came from a Best of... Dance Hits mix. This is the closest thing they've made to a The Avalanches project and with an accompanying music video for each and every song along with sensational track-to-track transitioning, this is an album one must experience as much as they listen to it.
#4. Caroline Polachek - Desire, I Want To Turn Into You
Standout Track: "Blood and Butter"
From the opening note (or scream, rather), this album captivates the listener and takes them on a journey into Caroline's reality, one that is far different from our own. Where we see her crawling along the subway, she's lost in the music being likely blasted through her headphones, picturing herself crawling across a shoreline of some sort on the beach. Where we think we hear a woman screeching out her highest notes just to show off for the hell of it, she hears a perfect 80's-inspired pop hit. Where we thought we've heard every conceivable instrument she could sneak on to a baroque pop record, she pulls in the bagpipe player or the children's choir or the flamenco guitars. Welcome To My Island is a masterclass in how to embrace pop music throughout an entire project while keeping the listener's attention from song to song. It's Caroline's world and we're just living in it.
#3. Boygenius - The Record
Standout Track: "True Blue"
Admittedly, there are one or two filler tracks in here but that's what moves this album that had four songs on my end-of-year Top 40 countdown out of the top two spots. That and it's not necessarily anything new for three artists who are now proven expert singer/songwriters. Otherwise, it's perfect and I love them. Give all the Grammys to these three and SZA, they've been through enough and they've earned it.
#2. Underscores - Wallsocket
Standout Track: "Johnny Johnny Johnny"
A conceptual album based on the fictional town of Wallsocket, Michigan, Wallsocket ventures the closest distance away from the "hyperpop" label and brings a fresh sound to things like alternative 90s hits (Here is where I mention how "You Don't Even Know Who I Am" sounds just like a Smashing Pumpkins song to me, only somehow creepier than anything Billy Corgan could concoct) and straight out of Ke$ha's ransacked closet, late-00s style bangers like "Old Money Bitch". This album is inspired with how much effort and thought April Harper Grey put into her second full-length project. I cannot imagine how long she's been experimenting in the music studio or how many balled-up papers she had thrown into her garbage can to get to this point. Fishmonger (Underscores debut album) never really hit for me but it also didn't have the surreal weirdness that is "Duhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh", the storytelling from a culprit's perspective that is "Cops and Robbers" or the Jane Remover feature like on "Uncanny Little Arms". This album is stacked full of wholly original ideas and I cannot wait to see what she pulls in the future.
The #1 Album of 2023
Ratboys - The Window
Standout Tracks: "The Window", "Black Earth, WI", "I Want You (Fall 2010)"
Admittedly, I am new to the Ratboys fandom and with their fifth album, The Window, I do believe I am here to stay. In this post-Alvvays, post-genre, post-country world, I'm so happy to have an album click for me the way Blue Rev (Alvvays' 2022 critically acclaimed album), Zach Bryan's self-titled from this year and even Lana Del Rey's massively sprawling Did You Know That There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd. could not quite strike me this year. The massive guitar solo in "Black Earth, WI" (along with the song title) initially caught my eye and my #2 song of 2023 "The Window" tugs at the heart strings more than just about anything else that dropped all year so, of course the rest of the album is stellar too. In a fairly weak year for albums (with some of the best songs of the decade so far), this indie rock outfit with some country influence was a summation of all the other great projects that were acknowledged everywhere else (see: Wednesday, Indigo De Souza, Slow Pulp, etc.). Five albums in and this band has found their lane and bowled a 300. I can't wait to do a deep dive into their catalog next.
