My Top 15 Albums of 2023

Per Wikimedia Commons user Sulamith Sallmann

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, huh? I’ll admit — musical summaries of the year is something I really wanted to follow-up on before life caught up to me and I was not able to always deliver on my ambitions.

Better late than never, however — which Is why I’m bringing you my list of top albums of last year, in quiet hopes that 2024 too will end with me compiling a similar list, now that the previous year was my writing comeback. And, as an additional treat — at the end of this piece I will also leave my top 15 lists for 2021 and 2022. While I never wrote proper summaries for them, I think it’s only fair to give those wonderful years justice.

Lastly — as always, this is purely my own amateur opinion. I am not a music critic and I am only sharing this here to air my thoughts, and hopefully, just maybe, inspire someone out there to experience some of this wonderful music.

15. Lana Del Rey — Did you know there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd

After a very shaky 2021 marked with two Lana full length albums — the overall incredibly solid Chemtrails Over The Country Club and the painfully mediocre and overall unremarkable Blue Banisters — Rey’s future releases could really have gone either way. However, it seems that taking a full year away from major releases has done the singer-songwriter very well, as she returns in 2023 with Did you know… which serves to entirely solidify her position in the pantheon of modern female songwriters as one of the greatest alive. Whether one loves or hates her, there is no denying that Lana captured from the very start of her career an identifiable and unique tone and style.

Ocean Blvd serves as a confirmation of Lana’s greatness — flexible, venturing into new musical territories, while retaining the artist’s profound, witty and evocative writing style. And it’s perhaps this consistency in output why I can’t rank Did you know… higher — while she undeniably toys with new compositions and styles here, it’s hard to call this new album her peak. However, it remains a creation of an incredibly accomplished and skilled writer, with a little novelty sprinkled in.

14. Romy — Mid Air

One third of The xx, vocalist and guitarist Romy released her first solo album, a package of highly danceable electro/pop tracks, which chronicle in part the difficulties of navigating lesbian love relationships and document the wild nature of the life of a young woman in between clubs, dancefloors, youthful adventures and beginnings of love.

While Mid Air does not necessarily introduce anything revolutionary, it is through and through a solidly consistent and well-crafted project, teeming with great beats and rhythms, that never fully push the envelope, but also never quite miss the mark.

13. Dominic Fike — Sunburn

Sunburn is a big surprise for me on this list. Though the musician-turned-actor is undoubtedly hitting it off recently, Sunburn should be considered as nothing but ‘playing it safe’ — it’s an album of inoffensive, easy to listen pop beats with wide mainstream appeal. And yet, casting a very wide net, Fike managed to capture very well pleasant summery vibes packaged in rap, rock and electropop inspired bits, making all the individual elements flow together extremely well. Pleasant sounding, very competently assembled, and yielding a number of memorable moments, it’s a simple listen, but undeniably one of the best ones of the year.

12. Courtney Barnett — End Of The Day (music from the film Anonymous Club)

Soundtrack albums are not what I would usually consider for such a list, but for an album such as Barnett’s I can make an exception. Divorcing it from the movie, End of The Day is a supremely elegant and profound musical add-on. In instrumentation and tone it evokes for me close similarities to the ambiance of a Godspeed You! Black Emperor record with tonal harmonies and an atmosphere often sported by Four Tet. On the whole, it’s a soundtrack of desolation and longing, with a great sense of musical staging which gives it a haunting, but overall very pleasant and re-listenable atmosphere. It’s definitely among my favorite bits of contemplative music from the past couple of years.

11. Sampha — Lahai

British R&B artist’s follow-up to 2017’s Process is somewhat of an unsurprising masterpiece — a soulful and introspective musical journey which weaves lyrics on uneasy relationships, identity and daily struggles with funky and airy melodies. All throughout perfectly harmonic, kind-spirited and armed with a very positive vibe, Lahai is Sampha’s exercise in using his voice as an instrument to perfection and approaching spiritual, internal struggles through high-impact and energetic soul music. If 2023 were reduced to a single vibe, this record might just be it.

10. Caroline Polachek — Desire, I Want To Turn Into You

Though relatively new on the scene as a solo artist under her birthname, Polachek is, by now, a seasoned veteran in the venture of creating pop and indie pop bangers. However, her career in furthering her ambitions as an alternative pop artist only took off in 2019 with her debut record Pang!, which she now follows up with Desire…

And this follow-up exposes Polachek as a very knowledgeable and potential-filled artist, who, despite her relative inexperience as a solo artist on full-fledged releases, comes through with a dance pop album that oozes confidence as an artist, and shows off her versatility in working with vastly different sounds and approaches to a pop record.

Largely tapping into the peaks of 90s and 2000s glitzy pop culture and dance music while leaving out the painful and tacky episodes of the same trends, Desire… is produced for pleasant and danceable beats, without dipping too hard into mainstream appeal and leaving a clear space for innovation and artistic intent. There are both typical pop bangers on this thing, and novel combinations with soulful and electronic music; there are both high-energy dance grooves and melancholic cuts which flex Polachek’s songwriter muscle.

Despite this range, the album maintains a clear direction and flows very well from track to track, with no clear outliers or unfit cuts. Polachek manages with Desire… to establish herself as an impressively strong artist in an already saturated genre, and sends a clear message — she’s here to stay, and her next record still has a ton of potential for her artistic development.

9. Protomartyr — Formal Growth in The Desert

This record fully satisfied my need for a grimy, nostalgic and purposeful sound for the year. Formal Growth is Detroit-based group’s love letter to shoegaze and dark rock which delivers on hard hitting lyrics, a suspenseful atmosphere, and heavy, yet melodic and creative grooves which clearly dip into post-punk, post-rock and even industrial sounds. Filled with artistic intent, the lyrical value here is undeniable, with Joe Casey’s lines on this album drawing on thought-provoking similes, often unfamiliar visuals and haunting, hard-to-break-down descriptors. Very highly recommended for a dose of nostalgic paranoia.

8. Dhanji — RUAB

Localized, non-English rap is somewhat of my guilty pleasure, and each year I usually get pleasantly surprised by a couple of albums from across the whole world I really like. 2023 delivered on this front too, in the form of RUAB — an Indian rapper’s, Dhanji’s newest entry to the budding scene of Indian rap.

The record makes it onto my list not only for its quality — though it is, admittedly, a very enjoyable rap record — but also because of its origins. Though I had to work with a translated lyrics sheet, I came to enjoy RUAB nearly right away. Creative use of samples for both added flair and for background beats; production which borrows from many regions and genres, and a flowing structure which has one song fade seamlessly into another — they all come together for a very forward-looking album. Though my knowledge of the Indian rap scene is almost non-existent, I’m sure Dhanji’s addition to it is sizable.

7. Slauson Malone — EXCELSIOR

After A Quiet Farewell, 2016–2018, Slauson’s solo LP debut, and Red Burns shortly before in 2017 as part of Standing on the Corner, Malone was, in my mind, already one of the most exciting experimental musicians out there. A Quiet Farewell especially felt difficult to top, it being one of my absolute favorite records of 2019. Its smooth blend of various musical styles and hip-hop type beats was an abstract masterpiece that I love revisiting to this day.

Knowing this, and anticipating Slauson’s return for the past few years I was extremely anxious to find out what the next turn of his career would entice. EXCELSIOR delivers in a lot of ways, though it is not perfectly blemish-free.

EXCELSIOR is every bit as unique, avant-garde and inventive as its predecessor, perhaps delving even further into musical experimentation and pure artiste vision. From familiar half-sung, half-spoken bars over droning, distorted passages, through jazzy freestyles over detuned pianos, to straight ambient and glitch vibes — this album is through and through a medley of sounds rarely assembled together. With every new tone, Slauson is clearly trying — and very often succeeding — to push the envelope of what music as a pure art medium can sound like.

However, for how wonderfully mind-bending EXCELSIOR is, unlike A Quiet Farewell I found it a lot more difficult to cling onto any moments as memorable and easily recalled as on the latter. Its artistic merit is plenty audible; yet, it feels as though it lacks enough coherency and light bulb ideas to be as iconic as Slauson’s previous work.

6. joe unknown — For Better, For Worse

joe is somewhat of a breakthrough artist on the UK indie scene this year, with For Better, For Worse being his debut LP release. And if it’s anything to show for his future potential, then I am immediately hooked for more.

Despite its brief runtime, For Better utilizes its shortness to the full, and navigates a variety of different infusions of genres, largely touching upon a punk-rock oriented blend of UK rap, electronic beats, and quainter, rockier moments. joe already shows his versatility off well, skillfully combining styles on a set of memorable tracks which portray a troubled look into the habits of the young generation — difficult relationships, substance abuse, money issues, identity crises.

But what really brought this release up so high on my list is a very unique sonic signature, impressive for such a young and inexperienced artist, especially on tracks Silent, Hennessy Brown and Coconut Tree which make this a really standout debut for this year and a very happy find.

5. James Blake — Playing Robots Into Heaven

Blake wastes no moment on Playing Robots Into Heaven attempting to make an impression. From the very first moments, this album wows with beautifully layered synths, playful vocals, and a sound that harkens back to the boundlessly influential UK electronic music scene of the 90s to early 2000s.

This record does not pull back on exotic sounding, echoey instrumentation giving nearly all its tracks a sense of grandeur and urgency, while maintaining a soft and delicate finish which makes them pure pleasure to listen to.

And while the lyrics on here are perhaps not world class, and overall James Blake does not reinvent the electronic sound, Playing Robots… is a gorgeous little piece, marrying the clubbing sound UK enamored the world with, with a more modern, smooth touch of R&B. Massively recommended for cloudy evenings when an energy boost is needed to accompany a contemplative mood.

4. Home Is Where — the whaler

Emo indie rock/punk is such an oversaturated musical sector that it’s rare for a new release therein not to sound immediately stale and derivative. But, to my surprise, the whaler managed not only to beat stereotypes, but become one of my favorite new releases this year.

Armed with heavy-hitting riffs, lyrics inspiring desperation and determination, and an infectious dose of unadulterated energy, the whaler is poignant at its lows and moving at the peaks; it’s a surprisingly well written and competently produced and mastered record which could easily beat out a ton of higher-budget and wider-audience bands. It feels like a well thought-through, yet on the whole genuine and spontaneous attempt to bottle up uneasy emotions and sell them as music — and I’m totally buying.

3. CHAI — CHAI

This alternative pop record straight from Japan fell in my lap this year like an unexpected, but deeply needed gift of positive energy. CHAI is this year’s j-pop’s very best — combining the typical song structures and glitzy allure typical of the region’s pop appeal, with a very creative approach to creating a stand-out identity and also tackling surprisingly grown-up topics with grace all at once.

This self-titled record avoids many a pitfall of overproduced, overengineered pop very typical to j-pop and k-pop lately, resulting in a refreshing freshness and simplicity to its beats, and relying heavily on the girls’ vocals to keep beat and add timbre to the tracks. And the writing too is a positive surprise — speaking on self-determination, gender, and struggles with inner peace in a way that does not feel like a cop-out, but is pleasantly outward and honest.

It’s hardly possible to imagine a record which sounds more like its authors are just having unbound amounts of fun writing and recording, while also managing a truly distinctive and stylish sound. It’s my top pick for a relatively easy listen of the year.

2. Jessie Ware — That! Feels Good!

If Caroline Polachek showed class in dance pop this year, then Jessie Ware perfected it. That! Feels Good! is, in its entirely, a near-perfect love letter to disco days that absolutely oozes confidence, charm and playful promiscuity.

From song to song, Jessie Ware offers a masterclass in a pop sound that’s both a callback to music of the past, but also a modern classic, with a full set of perfectly produced beats which evokes imagery of enchanted dancefloors and crowds moving in sync. It has an unmistakable retro flavor to it with a very modern edge.

But best of all — Ware managed near complete consistency, with not a single track on this thing feeling misplaced or out of place. From its disco and funk inspirations, to more soulful and pop fronts, That! Feels Good! simply almost never misses. The past years have been amazingly fruitful in pop music with great energy of intimacy and romanticism, and this one is another top class addition to the list.

1. Mandy, Indiana — i’ve seen a way

I debated quite a long time what album would find the top of my list this year. The choice was not easy — while 2024 delivered on many a great, high quality album and many pleasant surprises, I was anxious that no album would have affected me quite like my top picks in previous years. But, in the end, there was one that genuinely had me taken aback on my first listen, and kept delivering even after a few more.

This debut record of an — surprise, surprise! — English noise rock band, Mandy, Indiana, is an oddball assembly of various sounds and musical inspirations, resulting in an LP that’s as inconsistent as magnificently alluring at its best moments. And there are a few — the disturbingly distorted and almost unmelodic Injury Detail, paired with almost hypnotizing, repetitive and reverberated vocalizations; the enchantingly simple yet unforgettable Iron Maiden or Peach Fuzz, where the band’s signature noise rock meets almost techno-inspired electronic beats.

After a few relistens of this thing, I still cannot decide if I full adore or even begrudgingly despise this album. There is no denying that Mandy, Indiana crafted here a number of unpolished ideas, and the level of attention to detail and creativity in production is uneven at best. But when it comes to making a lasting impression, i’ve seen a way has resonated with me in a way very few other records lately could — and its peaks are some of the freakiest, uneasy yet alluring bits of rock experimentation I’ve had the pleasure to listen to. Despite its shortcomings, this debut LP is already proof of great talent from this fresh band, and a unique musical experience.

My Top 15 for 2022

1. Black Country, New Road — Ants From Up There
2. Big Thief — Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You
3. London Plane — Bright Black
4. Yard Act — The Overload
5. Denzel Curry — Melt My Eyez See Your Future
6. Jockstrap — I Love You Jennifer B
7. Pusha T — It’s Almost Dry
8. Silvana Estrada — Marchita
9. JID — The Forever Story
10. Florence + the Machine — Dance Fever
11. Beyoncé — RENAISSANCE
12. Animal Collective — Time Skiffs
13. Ethel Cain — Preacher’s Daughter
14. Burial — Antidawn EP
15. The Weeknd — Dawn FM

My Top 15 for 2021

1. Injury Reserve — By The Time I Get To Phoenix
2. Lingua Lingota — SINNER GET READY
3. Dave — We’re All Alone In This Together
4. Weezer — OK Human
5. BROCKHAMPTON — ROADRUNNER: NEW LIGHT, NEW MACHINE
6. Lana Del Rey — Chemtrails Over The Country Club
7. Tyler, The Creator — CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST
8. Nas — King’s Disease II
9. Floating Points, Pharaoh Sanders, The London Symphony Orchestra — Promises
10. Porter Robinson — Nurture
11. Halsey — If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power
12. Little Simz — Sometimes I Might Be Introvert
13. Hannu Karjalainen — Railo
14. slowthai — TYRON
15. Lorde — Solar Power