Albums of the Year 2023

The best year for music in a long time ...

Dave Nadig’s 2023 Albums of the Year

I listen to a lot of music. In particular I love new music, and I love albums — an artist creating a collection of work around a theme, around a sound, around a period in time, and carefully constructing a half hour to hour journey somewhere.

2023 has been a killer year for music. SO MUCH great stuff came out that i don’t even recognize half the songs in the “best of” playlists I’ve been listening too from different curators, and yet, all I hear is crazy cool exploration. Also, a lot of mainstream-indie/tiktok-famous artists like Boy Genius, Olivia Rodrigo, Paramore, Caroline Polacheck, and so on, had great years. But they seem to be everywhere and I’m probably not opening any minds there. But go find ANY “Best of 2023” list from whatever filter you trust, because this was just an AMAZING year for music. Really. I said in the middle of the pandemic, wait like, 2 years from the whistle. Man …

These are my favorite, most-on-repeat full albums of 2023, by artist. Not every band is hot and new, but all the music is. It’s genre agnostic - it’s what grabbed me this year with the headphones on. You may hate some of this, that’s cool. I love loving things, this is what I loved this year. (But Dave, what’s your new music filter?)

The below is roughly in order of how much I am a zealot about other folks understanding the greatness in my ears (pretty much all links should just play in Spotify):

100 Gecs

100 Gecs is the anchor tenant in the “hyperpop” mall. Hyperpop, if you’re not familiar, is characterized by freneticism, electronic dance music, and experimental autotune used as instrumentation. While 2019’s “1,000 Gecs” was a classic “OK, I appreciate people who are very good at something doing it well, but this isn’t my jam” album for me. Maybe one good listen through, and repeat of “money machine” once in a while.

10,000 Gecs, which dropped in March, is a different kind thing. 10kGecs is a masterpiece of albumcraft. Starting before the first note with the “THX Audio Logo” and moving into one of the best guitar hooks ever written, “Dumbest Girl Alive” is a scathing indictment of modernity, and from there it takes a very structured run through every Genre 100 Gecs plays in, from the pure “lets us show you we know the form before we break it” hyperpop of “757”, to the made-for-radio hooks of “Hollywood Baby” to the Ska-Punk revival of “I Got my Tooth Removed,” the whole album is a frenetic 27 minutes long and rewards repeat listening on headphones, stone cold sober after two cups of coffee on a Sunday morning.

I could go into the individual instances of repeated brilliance on track after track. But i’ll leave you with one. Put aside the narrative genius of the THX opening, the fantastic and cutting guitar rift with perfect tone. The “whoo!” bringing in a vocalist for the first time before monster rhythm section hits. All of that’s just “a good banger”. Then at 35 seconds in, seemingly for no reason, a passing note in the guitar rift is randomly replaced with single sinewave eighth note. The rest of the song lives in this weird liminal space between digital and analog, leaving you constantly guessing what the next literal note is going to be from — the raw digital side, or the sloppy human side. By 42 seconds into the battle is fully enjoined, and the rest of the song plays in the narrative space between the manic artificiality of hyperpop, and the sloppy, distorted noisyness of being human.

There is not a waveform out of place. Song after song.

Wednesday

All the way on the other side of the spectrum, and new-to-me from North Carolina is the band Wednesday. This is pure Americana Indie Rock. Rat Saw God is the album in question.

Rat Saw God contains some incredible writing, with “Quarry” being a standout favorite for me, painting an angst ridden picture of life in the current moment.

The Rain rotted house on the dead end of Baytree, old bitter lady.
Sits caddy corner to the aftershock from the quarry. She says “America’s a spoiled child that’s ingorant of grief” but then she gives out full-sized candy bars on halloween.

Karly Hartzman has a voice that makes me want to well up every time they sing. Check out “Chosen to Deserve” and “What’s So Funny.” But the band’s not-so-secret weapon is guitarist MJ Lenderman, who released a handful of incredible singles this year on their own, including “Knockin’,” the wildly fantastic “Rudolph” and a killer live version of 2022’s “You have Bought Yourself a Boat.” I am always drawn to music which just seems directly delivered from a bunch of kids creating their hearts out right into my soul.

Mitski

My number three is hardly a new name on the indie scene, “Be the Cowboy” turned heads all over the place right before the pandemic, and racked up TV ads and plays in the 100s of millions, for good reason. Mitski is an incredible songwriter. Their next outing is this incredible minimalist album “The Land is Inhospitable and So Are We.”

You’ve likely already heard the breakout bubblegum track “My Love Mine All Mine”, but to me the one I find stuck in my head, months later, is “Bug Like an Angle” - which delivers 100% on Mitski’s claim that they only want to write songs people can sing to themselves alone on a walk. The voice echoes in my head for hours whenever I hear one of their songs. Just achingly beautiful songwriting. The lyrics of “Bug Like an Angel” make me think of Charles Bukowski, every time:

There's a bug like an angel stuck to the bottom Of my glass, with a little bit left As I got older, I learned I'm a drinker Sometimes a drink feels like family…

Iggy Pop called them the most advanced American songwriter that I know back when. It’s totally deserved. The words are compelling and the music is interesting.

Mandy, Indiana

I’m a sucker for experimental music and the pandemic locked a lot of brilliant people in their studios and bedrooms making incredible sounds. A big surprise for me was Mandy, Indiana’s “I’ve Seen A Way.”

Not a perfectly constructed whole, but a collection of amazing experiments in post-punk, industrial, dancefloor grooving. 1980’s era synths meet The absolute breakaway tracks are “Pinking Shears” which got a tiny bit of airplay on SiriusXMU for a hot minute, and then disappeared, and “Peach Fuzz,” which is one of my favorite industrial tracks of all time up there with anything Trent Reznor has touched. It’s a one song masterclass in beat development and messing with stereo soundscape without overdoing it.

Lana Del Rey

Super mainstream, but holy cats, “Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd” is a career album.

Artists don’t really get more than one burst of incredible songwriting like this in a lifetime. Not everyone’s into torch-song singers or Lana Del Rey’s particular “45 degrees reclined” approach to performance, but give it a shot, even if that’s you.

It absolutely stands up as a piece of albumcraft, but if you need to pick only a handful, start with “A&W”, lose yourself in “Paris, Texas” and then just revel in the incredible duet with Father John Misty, “Let the Light In.” This is an artist at the peak of their power just making the music they want to make. It’s wonderful.

Bar Italia

In what my Zoomer kids would call a more “Dad Band” pick for me, bar italia is a london based art-rock band in the vein of a kind of modern sonic youth, but not in any derivative way. They’re cool. Remember when it was just ok that a band was cool? I honestly don’t want to learn much more about them. In my head they’re all in that perpetual rare moment of “being cool” at some dive in LA or Sydney or some art-club in London that I’ve only ever glimpsed off in the distance. The sound slides right in as the grittier double bill with last years debut from Wet Leg or 2021’s Dry Cleaning or mid-’90s Sonic Youth.

They shockingly released TWO albums in 2023, “Tracey Denim” in May and “The Twits” just this month.I’m mixed on the staying power of The Twits, but Tracey Denim was an instant classic.

“Nurse” sends me right back to the mid 1980s in all the best ways. And “Friends” feels like a song I’ve known for decades. Noisy, grungy, real, driving. It’s imprecise and at the same time video i’ve seen from house shows is incredibly tight. 100% my number 1 band i want to see live. Love ‘em to death. 0% chance I’m cool enough to be in the same area code when they’re touring.

Armand Hammer

For me, rap and hip-hop are “appreciate, but not participate” more often than not. A few experimental art-hop folks jumped out this year. The biggie has to be “We Buy Diabetic Test Strips” from the duo of E L U C I D and Billy Woods (in my opinion, the best in the biz right now), who release stuff occasionally together as Armand Hammer.

It’s 15 challenging constructions that reward intentional listening, but the entry point is probably “Woke up and asked siri how I’m gonna die.” If you like anything you hear, dive deep into the Billy Woods-Bandcampoverse. Incredible stuff coming out of New York art-rap these days.

ML Buch

Love me some experimental electronic music, and since Suntub dropped around Halloween, it’s been on repeat.

It’s super recent, and I’m really conscious of recency bias in these kinds of lists, but boy, this is just amazing, start to finish. Very much recommended as a singular journey, but if you just want a taste, hit up “High speed calm air tonight.”

Militarie Gun

LA based punk/postpunk/Husker Du coverband Militarie Gun dropped just an amazing straight ahead punk album with an occasional “that’s pretty pop” moment that I’m completely here for. The album is “Life Under the Gun.”

The banger is absolutely the first song of the album, “Do it Faster,” which would be right at home on a billing with Dropkick Murphys or the Mighty Mighty Bosstones at a concert in South Boston in 1995

Honorable Mentions:

Lil Yachty / Andre 3000

On the list of artists I honestly never would have expected to feature. Lil Yachty, much better known for Trappy stuff like “Coffin”, dropped a psychedelia album this year, “Let’s Start Here” which just has to be listened to at least once, start to finish.

The standout track is “the BLACK seminole.” (period and caps included) and it’s a journey all by itself at 7 brilliant, trippy three act minutes. Meanwhile Andrew 3000 (the guy from Outkast) released an album of flute electronica “New Blue Sun” that is absolutely worth a listen.

Faye Webster

Vibey/loungey singer/songwriter from Atlanta, they haven’t dropped a big album since before the pandemic, but two of her singles that dropped this year received more playtime than all but a few dozen other songs. The first one is “But Not Kiss”, which is one of those songs that for some reason still surprises me every time i listen to it. The way the rhythm section sits a little behind the groove, while the piano sits a little out front. So good.

The second winner from her this year is the deeply groovy, plodding “lifetime.” Her voice is amazing, but the drummer is a superstar.

Fred Again & Brian Eno

As a near-hermit, I get that I spend a lot more time sitting quietly with headphones on than most people I talk to about music, and that’s the space you need to be in for Ambient. Fred Again gets crap for being British music royalty, but I don’t care: this colab between Fred Again and his “uncle” Brian Eno is brilliant. Can we stop whining about art vs artist and listen, eh? This was, literally, my most listened album of 2023. The album is Secret Life, and its amazing.

Ren

Just a stupidly talented guitarist, writer, rapper/spoken world poet, street performer and whatever else, I’m gonna link to his Youtube Channel, because I think of him as a whole package. It’s largely autobiographical and a real exploration of his very real physical and mental illness. But it’s also just beautiful and brilliant. I trace the current “arc” of his stuff to “Hi Ren” which I have a hard time getting through dry eyed still. Technically came out this time last year, but this was sort of the beginning of a run that, if it appeals to you, delivers. Not for everyone.

Hayden Pedigo

Just an amazing classical guitarist who also made a few silly headlines by running for city council in Texas in 2019, his latest album is just an incredibly masterful execution of his unique southern-inspired classical/fingerstyle guitar. Here’s “The Happiest Times I Ever Ignored.” I think Gorilla vs. Bear played “Elsewhere” a few times and I was just hooked for good. All NPR Tiny Desk Concerts are always incredible, but his is particularly incredible to watch if you’ve ever held a guitar in your hand. He has a level of precision with a 12 string guitar that honestly seems impossible if your not seeing it first hand.

Idles/LCD Soundsystem

Love the crashing experiment of IDLES, and this little EP with LCD soundsystem is killer. I have no idea what it means for either band, but don’t miss “Grace/Dancer” if you have even a passing interest in either one.

Sea Lemon

Dreampop and Shoegaze are alive and well. So much so that the spotify “best of Shoegaze 2023” playlist is not only fantastic, but 442 songs long. I wish we had a whole album, but the regular EP drops from Seattle’s Sea Lemon (a solo project), have been at the leading edge of this wave. Check out “Eraser” or especially “Cellar” for a taste.

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A Note on Curation:

Here’s my big set of filters to find stuff that surprises me:

• Things played by Sirius XM’s “XMU” and “Alt Nation” DJ’s - which is where most of the 2010’s era music blogger scene is now. Most of these folks do at least an occasional 2 hour show on air each month. Seriously, if you’re into indie music at all, it’s worth the monthly subscription JUST to listen to those “blog radio” shows on demand on your phone. I don’t even have an XM radio.

• Gorilla vs. Bear, (his massive album of the year post overlaps a lot with mine, this year at least.) My strongest recommendation is to just listen through that list. You’ll get the experimental stuff, the vibey stuff, all the softer genres and indie pop.

• Then jump over to Brooklyn Vegan to pick up some harder stuff. A little more mainstream alt-rock with real depth in local scenes and cranking out great coverage all these years. Love the commitment to punk. His 2023 recaps on metal, hardcore and punk are basically my playlist of those genres this year. From there…

• Aquarium Drunkard for what’s going on in the strange corners, world music, jazz. It’s real crate digging which i honestly don’t know where else to find in this era.,

• XMU DJ Josiah for the hip kid likes, Jennie Eliscu for a now-GenX take and Saddest Factory Radio to get it straight from the youngest of millennials/zoomers. It’s what’s interesting. I don’t dig it all, but it’s what interesting people are trying to do with music, to me.

• When I just need a hit of the new, Bandcamp delivers. You gotta hunt around, but every once in a while there’s a genuine discovery, and a lot of indie artists post their experiments regularly, way before they get any coverage anywhere, which is super cool.

• The spotify algo for new content is meh, but, there are several folks keeping current with editorially curated playlists or hot new college radio.

• The indieheads subreddit is generally a pretty hip place. I wish it was more active, but it seems to be as active as it gets. It’s a great place to surface things like SNL performances or youtube videos that break through the noise, without all the advertising noise. (Here’s their top 2023)

• There’s always pitchfork, the “The Most Trusted Voice In Music” … according to Pitchfork. There are a lot of very good writers there still writing a lot of very good stuff about new music. I don’t find the “house take” to be mine, but their deeper writing is always top notch, and they surface me music i would absolutely otherwise miss.

• And for real, Rolling Stone. It’s had it’s ups and downs but i’ve been a print subscriber since 1980. It’s been a wild ride. But again, some very talented writers who care passionately about music (and culture, and the world, in ways I will always sometimes agree with, and sometimes really chafe at, but that’s life). The music coverage? Solid.

• I miss Carles. Hipster runooff was great. He came back and did a TRIPPY dreampop/4AD inspired, pandemic masterpiece run of some few dozen shows on Friday nights on XMU after disappearing for a decade. Then vanished again. Sigh.