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My favorite albums from 2023
Posted on Dec. 31, 2023.
Here is a list of my top albums of 2023, plus some singles/EP's that I really liked. All of these albums are listed in chronological order, and they all have links to stream them on Apple Music, Bandcamp, SoundCloud, Spotify and TIDAL.
My favorite 2023 Albums
Santiago Herrera
Dogsbody
Model/Actriz
Dogsbody, the debut album by Brooklyn-based Model/Actriz (vocalist Cole Haden, guitarist Jack Wetmore, drummer Ruben Radlauer, and bassist Aaron Shapiro), is a coming-of-age album set between the hours of dusk and dawn. It is as much an exploration of love and loss as it is a sharp, piercing, and violent ode to the explosive joy of being alive - the overwhelming brightness of staring at the sun. Source
Music videos:
Mosquito
|
Crossing Guard
Recorded: 2021 (Source)
Label: True Panther
Stream on: Apple Music | Bandcamp | SoundCloud | Spotify | TIDAL
Food for Worms
shame
On the one hand, Food for Worms calls to mind a certain morbidity, but on the other, it’s a celebration of life; the way that, in the end, we need each other. It also strikes at the core of shame itself. Since the beginning, the band has been in the business of finding the light in uncomfortable contradictions: Steen always makes a point of taking his top off during performances as a way of tackling his body weight insecurities. Through sheer defiance, they play their vulnerabilities as strengths. Source
Music videos:
Fingers of Steel
|
Six-Pack
Label: Dead Oceans
Stream on: Apple Music | Bandcamp | SoundCloud | Spotify | TIDAL
Let the Moon Be a Planet
Steve Gunn • David Moore
Let the Moon Be a Planet marks the first volume of Reflections, a new series of contemporary collaborations orchestrated by RVNG Intl., and documents an inspired exchange between guitarist and songwriter Steve Gunn and pianist and composer David Moore of Bing & Ruth. Conjured by a mutual curiosity, and appreciation, for the respective musician’s work, Let the Moon Be a Planet initially took form over a progression of remote sessions and ultimately harmonized when Gunn and Moore completed the album together in the bucolic surroundings of Hudson, New York. Let the Moon Be a Planet is an invitation to relive the intimate moments shared between two artists finding their way along a single path, and into a world where the most subtle of gestures can ripple for an eternity. Source
Music videos:
Over the Dune
|
Painterly
Label: Rvng Intl.
Stream on: Apple Music | Bandcamp | SoundCloud | Spotify | TIDAL
With a Hammer
Yaeji
“With A Hammer” was composed across a two-year period in New York, Seoul, and London, begun shortly after the release of “What We Drew” and during the lockdowns of the Coronavirus pandemic. It is a diaristic ode to self-exploration; the feeling of confronting one’s own emotions, and the transformation that is possible when we’re brave enough to do so. In this case, Yaeji examines her relationship to anger. It is a departure from her previous work, blending elements of trip-hop and rock with her familiar house-influenced style, and dealing with darker, more self-reflective lyrical themes, both in English and Korean. Yaeji also utilizes live instrumentation for the first time on this album—weaving in a patchwork ensemble of live musicians, and incorporating her own guitar playing. “With A Hammer” features electronic producers and close collaborators K Wata and Enayet, and guest vocals from London’s Loraine James and Baltimore’s Nourished by Time. Source
Music videos:
For Granted
|
Passed Me By
|
Done (Let's Get It)
Recorded: Between 2020-2021 (Source)
Label: XL Recordings
Stream on: Apple Music | Bandcamp | SoundCloud | Spotify | TIDAL
Everyone's Crushed
Water from Your Eyes
Life is horribly dark right now. And yet, it is not unfunny.
That’s the sentiment that animates Water From Your
Eyes on their new album, and first for Matador, ‘Everyone’s
Crushed,’ out May 26. On the follow-up to the Brooklyn duo’s 2021
breakthrough, ‘Structure,’Rachel Brown (they/them) and Nate Amos
(he/him) find silliness and fatalism dancing in a frantic
lockstep, using heart palpitating rhythms and absurdist, deadpan
lyrics to convey stories of personal and societal unease.
Described by Brown as Water From Your Eyes’ most collaborative
record ever, it’s a swollen contusion of an album: experimental
pop music that’s pretty and violent, raw and indelible.
Source
Music videos:
Barley
|
True Life
Label: Matador
Stream on: Apple Music | Bandcamp | SoundCloud | Spotify | TIDAL
Distorted Proportions
Mario DiSanto
Mario DiSanto’s Debut album, "Distorted Proportions" was released earlier this year on May 30th, 2023, featuring an eclectic sound that blends his own unique style and tone with the Garage and Psychedelic Bands of the 1960s. DiSanto, originally a drummer for multiple bands in the New Jersey area, spent time dedicating himself to learning other instruments and accumulating analog equipment. Of the equipment he would obtain, he’d repair, assisted with own background in mechanical engineering, eventually building an entire in-house analog studio. Being able to capture that 60s Sound is hard with digital equipment today, meanwhile, DiSanto is an artist committed to staying true to his visions of keeping Analog Alive. Source
Music videos:
My Neighbor's Cat
Label: Collection Center
Stream on: Apple Music | Bandcamp | SoundCloud | Spotify | TIDAL
I've Got Me
Joanna Sternberg
Joanna Sternberg is one of the great songwriters of the day, with a unique ability to make the listener feel emotional and often joyous, while conveying universal human difficulties of anxiety and insecurity. A virtuosic musician, Joanna played every instrument on their brilliant new album, I've Got Me, out June 30th. Source
Release Date: June 30, 2023Label: Fat Possum Records
Stream on: Apple Music | Bandcamp | SoundCloud | Spotify | TIDAL
Good Living Is Coming for You
Sweeping Promises
“Good Living Is Coming For You ultimately reflects being thrust
into a severely unpredictable world. A capsized boat isn’t
entirely bad. In fact, it can be the necessary push toward finding
solid ground.” -Tracy Wilson (Courtesy Desk)
Source
Music videos:
Good Living Is Coming for You
Label: Feel It Records • Sub Pop Records
Stream on: Apple Music | Bandcamp | SoundCloud | Spotify | TIDAL
Poor Things (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Jerskin Fendrix
Having never previously collaborated with a composer, Poor Things director Yorgos Lanthimos first approached Jerskin Fendrix after discovering the musician’s solo debut album, which the director found instinctively aligned with his worldbuilding aspirations for Poor Things. Fendrix began his first-ever foray into film composition with only the film’s script and conversations with Lanthimos as a guide, drawing early inspirations for instrumentation and tone from the vivid surrealism of the film’s various production elements. Source
Release Date: December 8, 2023Recorded: circa February 2021 (Source)
Label: Waxwork Records • Milan Records
Stream on: Apple Music | Bandcamp | SoundCloud | Spotify | TIDAL
I really hope you enjoyed this list, and let me know in the
guestbook
if you have any recommendations!
