23for2023: Essential Year-End Album List

2023 is over. Here are 23 albums released in 2023 that deserve your attention. Plus find out whats IN and whats OUT in 2024.

Dec 31, 2023

Score yourself based on how many of these albums you have listened to and comment with your score!
1-3: Listens to Creed ironically
4-7: “I lost my airpods”
8-11: Listens to Creed unironically
12-15: You still tell people Tame Impala is one guy
16-19: Anthony Fantano truther
20-22: I bet you keep your airpods in while you talk to people
23: ian

Here are 23 standout albums (in no particular order) released in 2023 that deserve your attention.

1. GUTS

Olivia Rodrigo

My queen!

That is all I have to say about this. If you want to hear more of my thoughts on this one, check out my essay on it here.

IN: Female rage

2. Business is Business

by Young Thug

One of my favorite and most-played albums of this year. In this project, we see some of Young Thugs’ most important and self-reflective work. Set against the backdrop of his legal issues, we get invited to a downtrodden and contemplative Young Thug.

I won’t say too much more, because I have an essay taking a deep dive into this project planned for 2024.

OUT: Snitching

3. Let’s Start Here

Lil Yachty

Experimental and exciting. Lil Yachty whose talent and creative vision seemingly continue to expand unlike some of his peers. By no means is it perfect, this is not a critically acclaimed album or anything like that, but it is an intriguing deviation from the norm and it has its high points. Track “drive ME crazy!” is one of the best songs of the year in my opinion. It gives a certain funky disco pumped full of hallucinogens and good vibes that lift your spirits.

This is a fun album and I always think it’s great when an artist tries something different and challenging, even if they fall short at points.

IN: Men who can’t sing singing

4. Javelin

Sufjan Stevens

Stevens has become one of the top songwriters in contemporary music and it is evident on this project.

Tragically, Stevens wrote this album for his beloved partner and best friend, Evans Richardson, who passed away in April before its release. It is remarkable the depths of emotion and vulnerability that Stevens invites the listener to in this album. Artistically, I do not think many other albums come close to this one this year.

IN: Tenderness

5. KAYTRAMINE

Kaytramine (Kaytranada & Amine)

Shit is just fun as hell, what more is there to say? This was a perfect spring/summer ‘23 album.

OUT: Knowing how to swim

6. New Blue Sun

Andre 3000

The return of Andre 3k. This project is so pleasant for so many reasons. Let alone the music, but just having founding member of Outkast and ethereal hip-hop legend Andre 3000 back in the public discourse was refreshing. I loved reading his interviews, hearing how he put this album together, why he did it, and why he named the tracks things like “That Night in Hawaii When I Turned into a Panther and Started Making These Low Register Purring Tones That I Couldn't Control ... Sh¥t Was Wild”.

IN: Albums with thesis statement song names

7. the record

boygenius

Sad girl hour. I have never really been a big boygenius or Phoebe Bridgers fan, but this album has changed me. I especially enjoy the grunge-y ruminations of tracks like “Satanist”. Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker, and Lucy Dacus continue to tear through the charts and spread their angsty, sad songs across the country like goth-rockstars.

Definitely a worthy album of 2023.

IN: Being a little gay with friends

8. Quaranta

Danny Brown 2m

One of Danny Brown’s best works to date. It is extremely complex and don’t worry you don’t have to be a hip-hop head to enjoy it. It is real, it is raw, it is easy to listen to.

OUT: Speaking English (No es importane)

9. Rockstar

Dolly Parton

Everyone loves Dolly Patron. And this year she gave us everything we ever could have wanted covering tracks like “Purple Rain”, “Freebird”, and “Let it Be”. She also put on a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader outfit and set the internet on fire. I love her.

IN: Breast implants

10. VOIR DIRE

Earl Sweatshirt & The Alchemist

This album was floating around on YouTube somewhere left undiscovered for around a year before Sweatshirt & The Alchemist put this out on streaming platforms. I couldn’t find it, not that I looked very hard… Or at all really. But I wish I had because this is a fantastic pure rap album. The production by The Alchemist is unmatched and Earl Sweatshirt offers poignant and clever rhymes throughout.

If you are hip-hop head who plays MF Doom at parties, this is the 2023 album for you.

IN: Doing petty crimes

11. PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation

By King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard

Yes, that is the full name of the album. This is a face-melting, lizard-worshiping, Metalica-honoring good time of an album. I wouldn’t call myself a metalhead, but I think before this album you wouldn’t have called Australian garage rockers King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard metalheads either. Known more so for their trippy surf tracks, this album shows off the band’s prolific versatility.

Catch me at the next King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard show near me.

OUT: Mammals

12. Live From the Ryman

Charlie Crockett

They say the Ryman is a magical place. It certainly produced some magic for Crockett as he produced this live album of 23 songs there and from the first track on you get shivers up your spine listening to the band and the crowd bounce off and react to each other. I have always believed that live music intensifies and is a truer reflection of the art than static studio recordings. Hearing the crowd and Crockett oscillate and embrace each other make this a special listen. And no doubt, having done it at the Ryman adds a special layer to it.

IN: Bolo Ties

13. The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess

Chappell Roan

This was an album recommended to me by a friend and it didn’t disappoint. Its a big blast of energy, its a lot of fun, and most importantly for a dance-pop album its catchy.

OUT: White Wine

14. Mid Air

Paris Texas

Boy angst! I love the grudge-ification of hip-hop that we have seen in the last couple of years and Paris Texas is on the forefront of that movement. Trending closer to heavy metal than hip-hop, the duo embraces their unique position as a loud-mouth, emo group on this record.

IN: dirt bikes and reckless stunts

15. Struggler

Gensis Owusu

I stumbled onto this album from a suggestion on Instagram. Shout out to social media.

This charming work is a glorious progressive hip-hop project. It is expansive and groovy and unpredictable. I think this album has broad appeal packaged into a niche artist (only 600,000 monthly listeners on Spotify). So, this is a good one to share if you want to impress someone with your in-depth musical knowledge and taste when asked what you’ve been listening to recently. Which is what I am doing now with you. I hope you’re impressed ;).

Listen to “That’s Life (A Swamp)” and tell me if you’re not movin’ and groovin’.

OUT: Secondary Colors

16. Reven

Kelela

Wub Wub Wub Wub Wub Wub Wub! Put this shit on at your next party, bet that junt is poppin after that.

IN: Taking baths

17. i’ve seen a way

Mandy, Indiana

Despite what their name would suggest, these guys are actually from Manchester, England. But still, shout-out Indiana.

This is an experimental album. I mean like really experimental. I mean like real noise-scape type shit. Like, there is as much unpleasant sound in this as there is pleasant sound, maybe even 60/40 in favor of unpleasantness. Here’s a small guide: Iron Maiden (Unpleasant), Peach Fuzz (Pleasant). This is some real scary warehouse shit and I mean that in the best way possible.

I like this album, but I might just be a sicko. Listen at your own risk.

OUT: Indiana

18. Hypnotized

DJ Manny

Some of the dirtiest footwork out right now. This will help you clean around the house, finish substack essays, or get you on the dance floor for a night out.

IN: Jukin

19. Girl With Fish

Feeble Little Horse

First of all, best album name of the year. Also best band name. This album fucking rocks. Some of the best girl angst-rage music of the year and just all around one of the best records of the year, get acquainted with Feeble Little Horse.

OUT: Drinking Dr. Pepper

20. Praise a Lord Who Chews but Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds)

Yves Tumor

This is probably one of the best albums of the year. It defies traditional genre structures. It broods, its celebrates, its pleases, and it challenges. This album is a blueprint for why the producer-artist is such a powerful force.

IN: Riddles for Album titles

21. Rat Saw God

Wednesday

This is a noisy, angry, awesome album. From band Wednesday which hails from Asheville, North Carolina. The name of the band was inspired by members favorite band, The Sundays. There is a lot to love about this album and don’t be surprised if you start to see more this group in years to come.

OUT: Tuesdays

22. Desire, I Want to Turn Into You

Caroline Polachek

Caroline Polachek has such a dynamic and hauntingly pleasant voice. The high pitch sustained notes she can reach are incredible and just bounce around my head all day.

IN: Squealing like a pig

23. Out to Pasture

Jombi

This is a late add, it came out on the 29th. This is a band local to Memphis and had a great album release show at the planetarium!

IN: Lasers

That’s the list! 23 albums that I think helped color the year of 2023 in the complicated and charming mosaic of sound that is unique to this moment in history. I hope I have provided you with new music to listen to and validated your musical choices. Here’s to 2024!