2023: ALBUMS OF THE YEAR.
15. Kelela — Raven
2023 saw the interesting development of a subgenre in the UK underground, a sort of mesh of hip-hop, ambient and soul elements adopted by James Blake, Skepta and Sampha among others. Blake’s Playing Robots Into Heaven has some brilliant highlights, but the consistency of Kelela’s Raven just about pips it to the post here. The world-building and musical choices made are flawless for the most part.
14. Mitski — The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We
“My Love Mine All Mine” was one of the standout indie tracks of the year and smashed its way out of the genre’s parameters to push close to 500 million plays on Spotify alone. The Land Is Inhospitable, however, is more than a supporting act - it’s an esteemed piece of art in itself, with a sweet country underbelly and lyrical themes of vices and loneliness.
13. Wednesday — Rat Saw God
The post-punk world has sort of spent 2023 in a period of limbo following the fate of one of the genre’s most promising bands ever in Black Country, New Road. On Rat Saw God, rock band Wednesday don’t try to be anyone else or replicate that magic-in-a-bottle. A refreshing blend of rock, 90s indie, and post-punk make for a pleasant and listening experience, which becomes more enjoyable each time you put it on. If you’re a fan of bands like Soccer Mommy or Alvvays, this one’s worth a look.
12. Lil Yachty — Let’s Start Here.
If you’d have said to me a year ago that a Lil Yachty album would be in anyone’s year-end mentions, I’d have told you to listen to more music. It’s rare you get someone break out of their box so instantaneously and emphatically, but the release of Yachty’s prog-rock/psych infused album in January was responsible for a vast crowd of dropped jaws in the reviewing community. Opener “the BLACK seminole.” is unbelievably brilliant, and what’s more, Yachty has production credits scattered throughout the project. He’s expanding his horizons, slowly becoming a well-respected figure in the fashion world, and pushing boundaries whilst avoiding the awkward feel of a forced gimmick.
11. MIKE — Burning Desire
This is a brilliant one to spin if you’re having a particularly sh*t day. MIKE first caught my attention this year with his delightfully dreary verse on Earl Sweatshirt and The Alchemist’s album, with the tenebrous nature of his voice slotting in to the mix as an instrument in its own right. On Burning Desire, grief and paranoia are the main lyrical focus, while expert beat curation, self-production, live instrumentation and vocal experimentation make for a compelling sonic experience.
10. Daniel Caesar — NEVER ENOUGH
Of all the albums on this list I would’ve liked the most when I was 12, this is the one. That’s far from a pejorative - it just means that the beauty of NEVER ENOUGH doesn’t come in a ambitious, complex or conceptual form, but just the perfect execution of a 15-track outpouring of emotion where vocal excellency takes centre stage. It’s hard to find any weak points on this album, and the production is lusciously textured throughout. “Let Me Go”, “Always” and “Cool” are beautiful ballads, while there’s also space for fun cuts like “Homiesexual” with the spookily consistent Ty Dolla Sign.
9. Travis Scott — UTOPIA
“Have you read the Big Beat Manifesto lately? The Big Beat Manifesto goes... big beats are the best, get high all the time.”
8. Larry June, The Alchemist — The Great Escape
This one hasn’t been in my rotation for a while, but given how summer-y this album sounded, that’s no indictment. This marks a belated return to the spotlight for June, who enjoyed a first peak of fame in the early 2010s before his fanbase shrunk slightly in sheer size but grew fiercely in loyalty and community. Tracks like “Palisades, CA”, “Ocean Sounds” and “89 Earthquake” are smoother than any other hip-hop tracks this year, while “Summer Reign” is one of my favourite Alchemist beats period, replete with tweeting birds, the sound of breaking waves, a distant choir, and a heavenly Ty Dolla Sign hook.
7. Indigo De Souza — All of This Will End
Indigo De Souza is a refreshing artist. It’s indie that doesn’t bite off more than it can chew, but that still offers a sense of novelty. The lyrical content on All of This Will End is deliberately simple, with a marked absence of innuendo or abstraction, a choice the Brazilian-American says is down to a wish to be direct and honest. A quick dive into De Souza lore also reveals that she’s unabashedly unafraid of mortality, which puts to bed any ambiguity surrounding the LP’s name. Sonically, the chord progressions and melodies are fresh, fun, and indicative of someone that’s inspired by a pretty broad range of music, with hints of electronic, pop and metal elements present across the tracklist. Closer “Younger & Dumber” is an unexpected punch in the stomach, discarding the irreverence of the rest of the album for a poignant reflection on the inextricable correlation between growing up and getting more lonely. The boldness in the delivery of the vocals pips that of boygenius’ the record for me, which explains why the latter doesn’t make this list.
6. Paris Texas — MID AIR
It’s hard to think of a more enticing concert ticket than Paris Texas at the moment. The Californian duo deliver relentless but accomplished energy that puts other self-professed “rage” rappers to shame. The beats are impeccably worked, with the eerie backing track on tracks like “Sean-Jared” and “Everyone’s Safe Until…” not too far removed from something you might hear in Death Grips’ earlier work. The lyrical choices are perfect, as the pair pick their moments to develop complex rhymes on the odd verse, while choruses remain gleefully simplistic: “I’m walking in this bitch, I’m walking in this bitch, Nowhere for me to run, I’m walking in this bitch” and “New whip, new whip / New whip, new chips / Big whip, big deal / New whip, new whip” are personal favourites.
5. Caroline Polachek — Desire, I Want To Turn Into You
There’s really is no improvement on this in the bedroom-pop space. As far as intro tracks go, you won’t find a better one than Desire’s “Welcome To My Island”. Watertight vocals, hypnotic yodelling, perfect reverb and tantalising synths make for a foolproof recipe on the opener, and the project’s sharpness doesn’t wane from there. “Pretty In Possible” and “Bunny In A Rider” are instant classics, which is a by-product of how huge the production makes these songs feel. It’s a perfect example of the importance of pinpoint mixing - not once on the album is one instrument awkwardly overblown, or muffled unnecessarily, or at odds with the vocals. It’s a project that propels the Connecticut native into stardom and leaves you eagerly waiting to see where she goes next.
4. Nourished by Time — Erotic Probiotic 2
This was my first dabble in Nourished by Time, the musical project of underground prodigy Marcus Brown. It’s hard to believe that it was recorded entirely in his parents’ basement, but the erratic boldness in experimental production is indicative of someone that’s just having a lot of fun and making things that pop into their head rather than following a set formula. It’s a project that pulls inspiration from several genres, with a kind of blues-y trace to the vocals and an 80s glow that coats the production. “Quantum Suicide” is a jaunty opener, while the spontaneous but cleanly-executed beat switches on “Daddy” make it the standout track, bolstered by hints of classic UK house. “Unbreak My Love” is a triumphant climax at the album’s end.
3. Sampha — Lahai
If you haven’t already, check out our full review of Lahai here, as a truncated paragraph in this format doesn’t come close to doing this project justice. In essence, it’s a courageous step into inch-perfect electronic production, vocal excellency and lyrical ingenuity. The term “concept album” tends to be misapplied to a lot of half-hearted attempts at projects with a tentatively consistent theme running through them, but on Lahai, multiple concepts coalesce, none more brilliantly than the storytelling of the journey of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, the protagonist of Russell Munson’s intergenerationally acclaimed novel of the same name. Family, fatherhood, anxiety, and connection are the central foundations of the lyrical content. From a sonic perspective, Sampha plays around with drum machines and live instrumentation, with the line between electronic and organic instruments sharply defined as to resemble a sort of tennis match between the two. The result is production that moves and shapeshifts constantly without getting stale. I’m yet to find a credible hole to pick in Lahai, a project that sees Sampha credibly claim the torch for London’s best contemporary artist.
2. Lana Del Rey — Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd
We’ve fawned over this album in a number of articles before this one, so we’re sorry if we sound like a broken record, but it’s just unshakably brilliant. There’s virtually nothing to separate this from our #1 pick, other than a slightly surprising final two or three tracks that seem to be misaligned with the rest, though I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s a deliberate musical choice. It’s not one you throw on at a party, at least not until the dying embers when you’re sat round a plastic table outside and someone’s crying. Where to even start here? “The Grants” is a crushing intro that sees Del Rey quite candidly talk of the effect of family bereavement, before the title track and “Sweet” make it clear that she’s in quite a sombre and contemplative mood - this feeling gets more and more intense as the album crescendos, with explicit references to mortality that are startling at times. Read our Songs of the Summer article here to see just how highly we think of “A&W” - it’s a hark back to some of the very best trip-hop the 90s had to offer, especially if you like your Portishead or Massive Attack, and it’s probably the best single of the year in terms of sonic excellence and sophistication, while the spoken content is a valuable window into a lived experience not shared by the male writers of this article. The collaborations feel welcome and complimentary, with Father John Misty and Jon Batiste offering more than just heavenly harmonisations, with guitar and piano solos performed by the pair respectively. The last few tracks are certainly a sharp-left turn, but “Peppers” with the obscenely talented electronic producer and singer Tommy Genesis is quite a pleasant surprise, and the chorus is playfully flippant (“Hands on your knees, I’m Angelina Jolie / Hands on your knees, Angelina Jolie”). A generational project that is bound to grow in appreciation as the decades roll on.
1. JPEGMAFIA, Danny Brown — SCARING THE HOES
You could not possibly fathom a more antithetical album to Ocean Blvd if you had another year to do so, but SCARING THE HOES is the official Atlas Flux album of the year. Just like there’s a time and a place to play Del Rey’s LP, there’s a plethora of times and places to avoid sticking on “Peggy” and Brown’s March collaboration. It’s the definition of irreverent, flying in the face of convention on all fronts, be that lyrically, production-wise, mixing-wise, sampling-wise, or social etiquette. It is, however, exactly what you expected from this pairing the second it was rumoured to be a thing. Peggy’s beat production and curation is predictably impeccable, and Brown’s unmistakable proclamatory voice fits into the groove of every track like a glove. Much like MID AIR, this is the one piece of media you need to see live to squeeze maximum enjoyment out of. It’s a product of complete studio freedom, ingenuity and spontaneity, but somehow prods the serotonin receptors in your brain with mathematically granular perfection. No beat dares to outstay its welcome, perfectly exemplified on “God Loves You”, undergirded by a gospel backing track, and complimented with a choppy drum pattern and a deep synth. Sometimes Peggy will just stop the track launch a two-second sample or sound effect in there - an iPhone notification sound, a Ski Mask The Slump God excerpt, a line from a film, a reward sound from a Japanese DS game - they all work so well you can’t imagine the song without them. It’s the best hip-hop release in years, and it’s just what the genre needed, amid suggestions of an innovation drought. Give it a spin.