25. Blake Mills - Jelly Road
Review
You’ve heard music produced by Blake Mills. He’s produced everything from Marcus Mumford to Alabama Shakes, but he’s also been handpicked by people like Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell to help them take their studio recordings to a live environment. With that knowledge, it’s no wonder why this project is full of perfect sounding indie folk tracks. All of his guitars cut through the mix perfectly and demand attention due to the weird sounding filters he puts on them. His voice is a bit more subtle, but it does work well with the other pieces here. There are just so many little moments on here that no one else in this sound is doing, such as the dissonant instrumental track with Prince collaborator, “Wendy Melvoin,” or the way the vocals are weirdly panned on “Breakthrough Moon” that creates this psychedelic effect. It’s moments like this that only he could create, and hopefully he will continue to for years to come.
Favorite Moment: The multi-minute solo at the end of “Skeleton Is Walking”
Selling Point: An impeccably produced alternative folk album
24. Paris Texas - Mid Air
Review
Paris Texas have been blending genres since they came out, but Mid Air does play it slightly safer. Most of these songs are more hip-hop based tracks in spirit with some rock-influenced instrumentals in the background. What this project does the best is keeping the energy at 100 throughout the entire thing! Everything on the album has these aggressive drums with both members of Paris Texas always sounding as if they are trying to get a mosh pit hyped. They were smart to keep the project mainly to themselves as well, as most people aren’t able to match their level of energy. But for the couple features they do have, Kenny Mason and Teezo Touchdown were perfect people to have! Mid Air is a fantastic debut album from these trailblazers!
Favorite Moment: The transitions between the songs
Selling Point: A genre-less duo comes through with a thrill ride of a debut album
23. Channel Tres - Real Cultural Shit
Review
Somehow, Channel Tres has been getting away with releasing EP after EP for half a decade without a debut album, but according to him, Real Cultural Shit is his final EP before the album. Fittingly, this is the best project I’ve heard from him so far! At only five tracks, this project still remains as one of the best and most consistent house projects I’ve heard all year. It’s a perfect encapsulation of fun, but intricately produced house music that is able to reward the listener in a club and in your own house. Whether he’s actually doing the vocals like on “6AM” or having a sample take the heavy work on “Just Can’t Get Enough”, both of them work beautifully. This only raises my expectations for his eventual debut album, that we’ll hopefully hear next year.
Favorite Moment: The sample work on “Just Can’t Get Enough”
Selling Point: Fun and detailed house music
22. Tkay Maidza - Sweet Justice
Review
This project is so much fun! Tkay has always been a jack of all trades, and this might be my favorite collection of tracks from her yet! On Sweet Justice, she focuses more on house inspired hip-hop than ever before. She brings on Kaytranada to help produce a couple of these tracks, which is always a treat to have on production! But even outside of those tracks, there is still the impeccably fun, “What Ya Know” and the Skee-Lo sampling on, “Gone to the West” that are house bangers. She does make sure to include other sounds as well though. There are hip-hop bangers like “Silent Assassin” with Flume and “WUACV”. There are R&B throwback jams with songs like “WASP” and “Won One”. There’s even a straight up pop hit with Lolo Zouai and Amber Mark called, “Out of Luck”! Sweet Justice isn’t anything new from Tkay, but it is the most consistent and well-rounded project from her yet.
Favorite Moment: The chorus of “What Ya Know”
Selling Point: A very fun time that will keep everyone entertained
21. Angel Electronics - Ultra Paradise
Review
This project still goes hard! Sure, after almost a year of listening to it, the project does sound more amateurish than I remembered, but it’s still extremely endearing. Ada and Ash both sound fantastic! Ash’s vocals border on the edge between campy and cringy, but the harsh and inviting production from Ada really helps bring this album together. Ada brings the chaotic energy that makes both her solo music and Black Dresses a little hard for me to completely get into. But when it comes to Ultra Paradise, it shows that for me, all that’s needed is just a little levity to really help everything here come together. An irresistibly fun time with everything turned up to 10.
Favorite Moment: The beat switch towards the end of “Party Girl”
Selling Point: If anime theme songs came together with a screamo/metalcore artist
20. Daniel Caesar - Never Enough
Review
After his middling 2019 album, I was worried that Daniel Caesar wouldn’t be able to live up to his potential. Thankfully, Never Enough is a step in the right direction. Even after a long time of digesting it, Never Enough still doesn’t live up to his debut album, Freudian, but it's still one of the best R&B albums of the year! Songs like “Always” and “Cool” are instant classics this year, with the former being a classic track and the latter being a beautiful piano ballad. Each of these are fantastic songs that are worth your time. Daniel adds on quite a few talented producers to this tracklist, including people like Raphael Saadiq, Mark Ronson, and BadBadNotGood. His vocals are silky smooth, as usual. There’s no doubt he has a phenomenal voice! Overall, Never Enough ended up as one of the best R&B projects of the year!
Favorite Moment: The chorus of “Cool”
Selling Point: Fantastic R&B music
19. Larry June & The Alchemist - The Great Escape
Review
Larry June is a really good rapper, he is. Nothing that I say in the rest of this review will change that, but this project is what it is because of The Alchemist. He laced these beats so perfectly for someone of Larry June’s style. Everything here feels luxurious. It feels like what I’d imagine waking up in a beautiful ocean-side villa while watching the sunrise and drinking some orange juice feels like. While that is the picture in my head while listening, the main feeling this project gives off is financial freedom. Everything on here is laid back, like we don’t have to worry about democracy in the United States potentially collapsing if next year’s election goes poorly. Or that, like most of us, maybe we don’t have to worry about money troubles. We can put on this project for a quality escape from those hardships for 45 minutes.
Favorite Moment: Big Sean’s feature on “Palisades, CA”
Selling Point: A luxurious ride in forgetfulness
18. Danny Brown - Quaranta
Review
There’s never any doubt when Danny Brown drops an album. You always know it’s going to be great, it’s just the sound that changes. This time, Quaranta shows Danny at his most introspective and laid back. The album overall feels like Danny is defeated. He knows this and made sure to let his audience know that this album was made a couple years ago, and after going to rehab earlier in the year, he is doing much better with his mental health. While Danny has always talked about personal and dark things in his music, this album feels depressing. A lot of his previous albums are about similar things, but they sound wilder and like an anxiety attack. Quaranta feels like the depression side of Danny’s life, and I’m glad he’s finally out of this place.
Favorite Moment: The overall feeling the album gives off
Selling Point: One of rap’s weirdest characters at his most laid back and introspective
17. Cleo Sol - Heaven
Review
This may be my least favorite of the two Cleo Sol albums we got this year, but don’t let that fool you, it’s still a beautiful album! Cleo Sol and Inflo can’t do anything wrong. With a voice like Cleo’s, she could be singing the terms and conditions page and it would sound gorgeous. Inflo’s drumming, and production as a whole, is just as affirming as ever. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, these two are a special musical moment these past few years. They’ve managed to keep a low profile, while simultaneously putting out some of the best and instantly timeless music of the decade so far, and on top of all of that, somehow raising a kid together. These two insanely talented people will go down as some of the best to ever do it in this sound, and Heaven is just another notch in their belt.
Favorite Moment: The groove on “Golden Child (Jealous)”
Selling Point: Special, soul-healing soul
16. billy woods & Kenny Segal - Maps
Review
Billy woods is the most childish name for the most thought provoking artist hip-hop has to offer. It’s weird hearing him talk about the issues with societal structures and his opinions on how it affects him, but then also calling him billy. Either way, this project, Maps, is just another incredibly poignant hip-hop album. Kenny Segal’s production is fairly accessible for what billy woods’s music is usually like. The overall atmosphere of the project is fairly dark and enjoyable. Woods takes a slightly different approach here compared to his 2022 releases, as this one is looking more at the world today compared to the historical references on last year’s music. I love seeing how much acclaim this project is getting from big sources. Everyone from Pitchfork to Rolling Stone has this project in the top 10, which is great to see someone on billy woods’s level getting acclaim from mainstream media points
Favorite Moment: Everything about “Year Zero”
Selling Point: Another thought-provoking, abstract hip-hop album
15. Terrace Martin & James Fauntleroy - Nova
Review
Even during the run of Terrace Martin projects during the second half of this year, Nova still stands out! Maybe it’s because James Fauntleroy almost never puts out music under his own name, so this project feels more special, or maybe it’s just because this is a fantastic collection of fun bossa-nova and R&B inspired tracks! James has written for some of the biggest names in music, so it’s not surprising that the writing here is fantastic! He’s able to blend sincerity and levity really nicely. Terrace’s production is obviously fantastic, no matter if it’s a slowburner like on “Chocolate For Dinner” or an upbeat piano-driven track like on “Witchcraft” with Robert Glasper. Even at only six songs, Nova is one of the most accessible and rewarding light-hearted projects of the year!
Favorite Moment: The stops during the chorus of “Chocolate For Dinner”
Selling Point: Two incredibly talented people come together under their own names instead of producing and writing for gigantic artists
14. Navy Blue - Ways of Knowing
Review
After listening to this project since March, I can now say it’s my favorite Navy Blue project! That’s probably sacrilegious to say to hardcore fans of Navy Blue, but I love how this project is more accessible than his other ones. With the entire project produced by Budgie, he brings slightly more traditional hip-hop beats to the table. They’re still weird, just not as weird as his previous stuff. As usual, Navy Blue keeps the subject matter extremely personal and focuses on the losses in his life, ranging from relationships to his grandfather’s passing. It’s not necessarily a depressing listen, but the lyrics in the songs themselves are usually about depressing things. Even after getting my hands on the three unreleased albums that were exclusive to vinyl, I still think that Ways of Knowing is not only my favorite Navy Blue project, but is the best way to introduce yourself to his music!
Favorite Moment: The entirety of Navy Blue’s verse on “Life’s Terms”
Selling Point: Introspective hip-hop from someone wise beyond their years
13. Yves Tumor - Praise A Lord Who Chews But Which Does Not Consume (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds)
Review
This is the most complete body of work I’ve heard from Yves Tumor! Sure, the highlights on here might not be as iconic as “Kerosene!” or “Gospel For A New Century”, but the overall project here exemplifies everything that Yves Tumor is. The songs here blur the lines between what rock is, and what rock could be in the future. There are guitar riffs on here that would have been hits in the 80s, but it’s also full of weird electronic moments that make these old sounds feel new. I genuinely think that Yves Tumor could be the future of rock music. These songs may not be able to be hits in the current landscape of music, but they are pushing the genre that is on its last legs to the future. They are everything that a rock star should be, and the music backs it up.
Favorite Moment: The guitar riff on “Meteora Blues” that leads into the chorus
Selling Point: The future of rock music
12. Zach Bryan - Boys of Faith
Review
Even though his full length album is getting most of the attention, this five track EP he put out a month later has all but replaced that album in my rotation! Boys of Faith shows him experimenting even more with indie music, to the point where I would argue the title track is just an indie rock song with a tinge of americana. That track features legend Bon Iver, but this project also has a rocking country jam with another budding artist, Noah Kahan. Even deeper into the tracklist, songs like “Deep Satin” and “Pain, Sweet, Pain” are a perfect combination of intriguing production and emotive lyrics. Even the first track, “Nine Ball”, is a heart wrenching tale of a 12-year old and his relationship with his alcoholic father. Everything about the self-titled album is just elevated to another level here!
Favorite Moment: The chorus of “Deep Satin”
Selling Point: Five incredible country/indie rock tracks by a great songwriter
11. Leroy - Grave Robbing
Review
I understand that the vast majority of people reading this will not enjoy or even understand this project, but I can’t help but love it! Leroy came back from the dead to drop their supposed final album this year, and it’s fire! Leroy makes these mashup tracks with existing melodies while creating some wild electronic drops themselves, and it turns into the wildest party ever thrown. The songs on here are filled to the brim with weird samples. For example, the song “Jack’d My Swag” features samples from multiple K-Pop artists, Kendrick Lamar, Björk, Nicki Minaj, and more. All of these are mashed together into one mutant song that is tied together with Leroy’s experimental EDM drops. An hour of this type of music may seem like a lot, but it’s so much fun trying to pick out all of the songs they sample and how they manage to come up with these drops. I understand that most people would hate this, but I’ve had so much fun with it over the year!
Favorite Moment: Finding all the samples in each song
Selling Point: The soundtrack to the weirdest internet dance party you’ve ever thought of
10. Cleo Sol - Gold
Review
Cleo and Inflo dedicate this project to God and as expected, give us a religious and healing experience. Cleo’s lyrics here are more immediately impactful than on Heaven, even if every once in a while it comes off as too much preaching. But then there will be a track like, “Please Don’t End It All” that is made solely for the purpose of people who are depressed to find a will to live. I’d imagine she made the track for her child once they get old enough to understand, but it’s wonderful that she decides to share this with the world for all of us. Besides this though, there’s not much else to say that I haven’t said a million times about anything that Cleo has been a part of. The vocals are still amazing, the production is still fantastic, and the overall feeling of this album is soul nourishing. If you’re not on the Cleo Sol and SAULT train, something’s wrong.
Favorite Moment: The lyrics on “Please Don’t End It All”
Selling Point: Soul healing soul music
9. Mick Jenkins - The Patience
Review
I don’t understand how this project is so underrated. It’s exactly what any hip-hop fan would want! It has incredible wordplay from one of the genre’s best, fantastic production that gives Mick a bit of every subgenre to work with over the 11 songs, and there are even some catchy choruses here. And if that wasn’t good enough, all of this happens in under 30 minutes! I don’t know what else someone could want from a hip-hop album. It shows Mick’s competitive edge, which is something a lot of hip-hop doesn’t have anymore. It’s not that he has any real beef with anybody, but he’s just out to prove that he’s the best writer in the genre and is taking down other big names on the album to prove it. It’s a great hip-hop album, and one that I could see going down as a Chicago classic.
Favorite Moment: The vocal performance on “Pasta”
Selling Point: Incredible rapping and incredible production
8. Ryan Beatty - Calico
Review
This is, hands down, the most beautiful album I’ve heard from 2023! It’s a slight detriment to this album because you have to be in a certain mood to enjoy it, but when you’re in the mood to hear something quiet, it’s incredible! Calico consists of nine songs and a little over thirty minutes of music, all of which are gorgeous atl-pop ballads. There are no upbeat tracks, or even anything that is midtempo. Everything here is heartbreakingly slow, but the lyrics from Ryan Beatty and the production from Ethan Gruska keep the listener entertained. There are so many little details in the production considering how sparse it feels, but Ryan’s voice and lyrics are still the star of the show. The lyrics are fantastic, but also vague enough for the listener to add their own interpretation, most of the time. Calico is Ryan Beatty reaching the potential that his previous music has shown!
Favorite Moment: The chorus of “Bruises Off The Peach”
Selling Point: The most beautiful album I’ve heard released in 2023
7. Boygenius - the record
Review
I understand why some fans were disappointed with this album, but personally, the record is just another fantastic collection of tracks from some of the most talented people that indie-rock has to offer! Especially when it comes to writing, it’s hard to match up with people like Phoebe and Lucy. Songs like “We’re In Love” and “Anti-Curse” show their ability to have songs that are almost entirely dependent on the lyrics. There are also anthems on here that show their playing ability and especially their ability to harmonize, like on “$20”, “Not Strong Enough”, and “Satanist”. This album has also shot all of them into superstardom in the music industry! It’s the most critically acclaimed album of 2023, and was nominated for seven different Grammys, including Album of the Year. I think it would be really cool to see this group win on a big stage, so I’ll be pulling for them next month!
Favorite Moment: The lyrics on songs like “True Blue” and We’re In Love”
Selling Point: A fantastically written indie-rock album
6. Sampha - Lahai
Review
It took six and a half years for Sampha to drop Lahai, but it was well worth the wait! After his debut album was more spacey and built with electronic synths, this album is more focused on live percussion and pianos. Lahai is a more optimistic and subtly upbeat album inspired by fatherhood. There are a lot of other voices on here, but most of them are relegated to the background. Songs like, “Jonathan L. Seagull” and “Spirit 2.0” benefit greatly from these extra voices. There are no feature verses from any of the big named artists that he’s featured on during the past decade, but every person of the village assembled to create this album does their part. The main creative partner with Sampha on the album is El Guincho, who is most known for his work with FKA twigs and Rosalía. He helps flesh out these songs to their fullest potential beautifully! If every Sampha album is going to be this amazing, I’m completely fine waiting as long as it takes.
Favorite Moment: All the little details in the song “Suspended”
Selling Point: A mysterious artist makes his big return with an incredible album
5. Raye - My 21st Century Blues
Review
Deciding whether My 21st Century Blues or Lahai would be fifth was the hardest decision I made during both of the lists! In the end, I went with My 21st Century Blues because it’s been out longer and I’ve had more time to digest it. This album came out in early February, so it’s been almost a full year with this album, whereas Lahai only came out a couple months ago. This is still a great album, don’t let all my justifications fool you. Raye is able to blend everything from dance to blues into her unique brand of pop music! After writing for other artists for almost a decade, having something this amazing as your debut album proves to everyone that you’re so much more than those other songs. There’s no arguing the immediate impact of a song like “Escapism”, and there is no other pop artist willing to make a song like “Mary Jane”. My 21st Century Blues is the explosion into the spotlight for a new incredible pop star!
Favorite Moment: The progression on “Escapism”
Selling Point: An incredible debut pop album
4. JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown - Scaring The Hoes
Review
This album is a huge deal to a small number of people. For fans of pop music, imagine if Taylor Swift and Dua Lipa made a collab album. That’s basically what Scaring The Hoes is for experimental hip-hop fans. We get the trailblazer that’s been around for more than a decade with Danny Brown coming together with the younger artist who more recently gained attention and is in the prime of their career with JPEGMAFIA. When it comes to this album Peggy takes lead on the creative choices here and Danny Brown just happens to be on every song. A big reason is because Peggy produced the entire thing, with a lot of this being some of the best beats he’s ever made! The fact that he made almost everything here with a machine that’s almost 20 years old is insane to think about! Both Peggy and Danny are fantastic rappers, and prove yet again they can rap over anything. There is also a DLC version that was released a few months later with four more great songs on them that I also highly recommend! This is definitely a hit or miss project depending on what type of music people like, but there isn’t much better experimental hip-hop than this.
Favorite Moment: The hazy guitars on “Garbage Pale Kids”
Selling Point: Two experimental hip-hop icons coming together for an incredible project
3. 100 gecs - 10000 gecs
Review
From the first second of the album, the long drone of the iconic THX sound lets you know you’re in for a ride of epic proportions. There is a ska song about getting your teeth removed, a deconstructed kid’s pop song about seeing a frog at a party, a minimal hip-hop track about being wanted by the FBI, an alt-rock song about being a baby in Hollywood, and a nu-metal song about murdering your friends with a sludge metal outro. If none of those sound entertaining to you, I don’t know what to say, we’re just different people. Sure, the musicality is also great in all these different styles, but the willingness to embrace the ride of the gecs is the most important thing to understanding this album. For 26 minutes, the gecs take you on a nonstop thrillride through the weirdest traveling circus you can imagine.
Favorite Moment: How surprisingly accessible a lot of these tracks are
Selling Point: The weirdest, but most accessible project they’ve ever made
2. Skrillex - Quest For Fire
Review
It may not be number 1, but this album encompasses my 2023 the best! It was easily my most played album of the year, and was close to double the second most played. It was a big reason why I listened to a lot more electronic and dance music this year! He inspired other artists who released amazing music this year, like Underscores and ISOxo, each of whom said themselves they wouldn’t be here without Skrillex. I even got lucky enough to see him and two other incredible artists fill in for Frank Ocean’s departure at Coachella this year on short notice. That weekend was incredible, and having this album be a part of it definitely plays into it. Everytime I listen to songs like “Xena” or “Leave Me Like This” now, I can still see the scene of that show. Even outside of all the personal stuff, the album is a really great EDM project that is both perfect for festival ragers and intimate listening on headphones. The production here is incredible, as well as the mixing and mastering! Hopefully Skrillex can follow this up with something even better, because I know he can do better.
Favorite Moment: The mixing of sounds on “Rumble”
Selling Point: One of EDM’s biggest names returns after almost a decade without a solo album
1. Underscores - Wallsocket
Review
This was the easiest decision I’ve had for my top album since 2019. Part of it is due to the year being a bit lackluster with music overall, but most of it is due to Wallsocket being an incredible experience! Underscores was already one of my favorite artists, especially when it came to the new generation of artists, but this just took it to a whole other level! Wallsocket is more creative, thoughtful, sonically enjoyable, cohesive, and even fun than anything she’s ever released! There is a whole world and ARG behind this album that I went into detail about a few months ago, so I’ll try to keep this tied to the music itself as much as possible.
Musically, she does just about everything on here. “Cops and Robbers” starts off the project with a poppier version of a Jack White song, but then the very next song feels like a 2000s electro-pop throwback. It’s like if the era of early Kesha came together with an extraordinary former hyperpop producer. There are also acoustic pop ballads like “Good Luck Final Girl” that are a different subject matter away from being on an accessible folk album. She does tend to add her own unique twist on these songs, like on the single, “You Don’t Even Know Who I Am”. The instruments here revolve around a simple guitar loop, but there is a Dance Dance Revolution vocal loop that is being played throughout the entire song in the background that thematically plays into the song as well.
There are even songs that combine both the upbeat bangers and the quieter ballad moments. “Geez Louise” is a seven-minute opus that goes from alt-metal to country jam band to an art-pop second half that climaxes in a gigantic wall of sound. The song “Uncanny Long Arms” expands on that art-pop/art-rock vibe with a fantastic Jane Remover feature that ends with a remix of an old demo Underscores had years ago. The whole album is full of amazing sonic moments, and Underscores somehow made this entire thing herself! She even did some live streams recently breaking down the sessions for every single song from the album! I’ve been listening to them while writing and editing these end of the year posts, and it’s so much fun hearing all the little details that go into each one of these songs. It really reminds you how this was just one person creating incredible music all by themselves. It’s mind blowing that one person can make something like this!
I could talk about this project all day. I haven’t even gotten into the depressing bangers of “Johnny Johnny Johnny” or “Old Money Bitch”, or all the overall themes that run through the whole project. For the hardcore fans, there is an EPs worth of music that was released through the ARG in the months leading up to the album. Those include everything from the shoegaze-influenced “Northwest Zombie Girl” to a cover of “Criminal” by Britney Spears that explodes into a noise-rock track by the end. She even does these two songs live at the concerts, even though they were never released on streaming. I knew Underscores was special from fishmonger and fearmonger, but the fact that she can release this much incredible music in such a short period of time is something else! She’s able to balance the insane bangers that most of these top few albums have, but is able to balance it with insane amounts of emotion. Wallsocket won’t be for everyone, but it is easily my album of the year!
Favorite Moment: The sincerity in “You Don’t Even Know Who I Am”
Selling Point: An incredible, genre-less masterpiece with a whole world behind it
Comentarios