TOP TEN ALBUMS 2023
It’s true - I take pride in my wide ranging musical interests. Love for punk & jazz coexists with rock, hip-hop, & world music. The greater the variance in textures & approaches, the more I feel I keep myself open to the joy of new discoveries. And it is those discoveries that make me love experiencing and writing about music.
In that spirit, my 2023 TOP TEN ALBUMS may represent the most diverse gathering I’ve ever selected. I didn’t necessarily search-out such a range of musical flavors, but they found me just the same. What they do represent, in retrospect, are TEN collections incredibly apt in stirring and defining a range of emotional responses. In other words, covering a vast wash of the human experience through music.
As I choose to do each year, this list is presented in no particular order. The albums are too different and my musical moods shift too dramatically from day to day to be able to commit beyond selecting only ten releases out of the many outstanding records I have listened to all year long. What I did add, which is a bit different for me, is a list of CONTENDERS that, though not ultimately earning a TOP TEN spot, are all great albums and worth checking out if you haven’t done so already.
Give these a listen if you feel drawn to them and, as always, I'd love to hear your thoughts. Also, please consider sharing with friends. Cheers!
2023 TOP TEN ALBUMS
Peter Gabriel / I/O - If pressed, it would be hard for me to put any artist above the sheer love and admiration that I hold for Peter Gabriel. That said, I enter any listening experience of a Gabriel project with an unavoidable amount of favorable bias. Waiting twenty-one years for the release of new original music was somewhat akin to a form of torture - not to be too dramatic or anything. While I can admit that this album might not be one of Gabriel’s masterpieces (though echoes of one of those masterpieces, So, certainly feels very intentional), I/O is totally worth the wait and delivers convincingly on pretty much every front. In particular, I found the combo of “Playing For Time” & “I/O” to be breathtaking in its impact and scope. I would absolutely go to the mat in saying that I don’t believe there is another pop album released this year that sounds as good, is as incredibly smart, or plays out as throughly engagingly as I/O. It would be hard for me to imagine any music lover not finding very positive connections to this fantastic collection.
Swans / The Beggar - I don’t know that I can think of another album that has made such a deep impression on me that I have had such a hard time explaining or fully coming to terms with. Michael Gira has, for 40 years, led Swans (among other projects) through the complicated labyrinth that is his dedicated and uniquely-focused musical mission. Clocking in at just over two hours, The Beggar lands as a monolithic sound statement. Foolish to assume anything about Gira’s future trajectory, one wouldn’t be wrong to notice the disarmingly honest look at fragile mortality - impressions of a somber and final look at life definitely prevail. However, the songs are so expertly crafted and arranged that even the most cutting lyrics are often countered by a myriad of uplifting (& unique) instrumental settings. A prime example being “Michael Is Done” with its wall-of-sound, 60’s girl-group stride backing some of Gira’s most brutally finite lyrics. Like so much of Gira’s output over the years, I will continue to work through the deeply intertwined layers of this album - knowing that the work put in will be worth it as I am rewarded with real insight into one of the most original artists of the last half century.
Lankum / False Lankum - I admit it, I’m a sucker for great world music. This attraction was stirred by pop artists - with full blame/credit belonging to Peter Gabriel, Paul Simon & David Byrne as they each planted the seeds from which this particular forest has grown. Lankum were completely unknown to me before stumbling onto this album, but boy oh boy did they get their hooks into me. This entire collection plays out like the musical equivalent of a haunted carriage ride completely enveloped in thick fog. The interwoven textures of Irish musical traditions with a darker, more ominous tone create something wholly unforgettable. I found this album to be a hypnotic soundtrack to a horror movie I’m sure I’d love.
MOLLY / Picturesque - I sometimes come across bands/artists that - while not necessarily putting out strikingly original or groundbreaking music - manage to use familiar sound approaches and styling to create a wholly satisfying end-product. Case in point, this release by Austrian duo MOLLY. If you hear stirrings of Sigur Ros you're not wrong, but the skillful touch of melding those modern-rock musings with their own brand of art-rock leanings produces a highly attractive landing place. The album is full of hazy and minimal musical landscapes punctuated by epic-leaning bursts and atmospheric rock pulse. The undeniable high point is the gorgeous “The Golden Age” - all swelling waves of sonics over an alluring, hypnotic drum rhythm. Layered echo and tons of natural reverb keep things just cloudy enough to be mysteriously interesting.
Ryuichi Sakamoto / 12 - Listening to these compositions written during Sakamoto’s recovery from major cancer surgery, it is hard not to reflect on the emotions of life’s fragility that he must have intentionally fused in the core of the making this album. The various tracks feature an absolutely lovely acoustic & electronic hybrid. Like many Sakamoto releases previously, I immediately appreciated the organic nature of this sensational collection. The entire album felt much more complex than the simplicity the music first conveys. As you allow yourself to be drawn more deeply into the alluring pool of sound, uneasy stillness exists alongside resolution and comfort. This is an album that I will come back to again and again - confident that it will return high yields in maturing appreciation the more intimate I become with it. (**Sakamoto would pass two months after this album’s release.)
The Necks / Travel - While several of the albums previously released by this Australia trio simply consist of a single 45-minute-plus track, the choice to include four (roughly) 19-minute numbers feels comparatively luxurious in its approachability. Whereas most instrumental jazz is about song structures that support the individual players as soloists, The Necks have claimed exalted ground in offering densely connected and expertly connected sonics - menacing, darkly curious, and unsuspectingly uplifting. The various textures employed equal an album that is as hypnotically meditative as it is fascinating to experience. This is definitely the instrumental album that I listened to the most this year as each listen never failed to completely draw me in.
Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer, & Shahzad Ismaily / Love In Exile - I was first exposed to Pakistani Urdu vocalization by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s work with Peter Gabriel. I was immediately won-over by the mesmerizing phrasing and inherent beauty. This collection, fusing the gorgeous vocal work of Arooj Aftab (the first female Pakistani to win a Grammy) and the forward-leaning, jazz-inspired electronic instrumental work of Iyer & Ismaily, probably earns the highest percentage of my accolades by being so foreign and yet so immediately alluring at the same time. The lack of drums or percussion often allow the tracks to skim a settled ambient home, but a murmur pulse seems to drive the numbers just the same. I found the entire collection to be such a winning combination of the adventurous spirit from the quieter moments of Miles Davis’ late ‘60s/early ‘70s electric recordings and the dreamy atmospheres pioneered by Brian Eno & Harold Budd.
SMYL / The Day My Father Died - If you are at all familiar with the stellar work songwriter/vocalist Brian Fennell has crafted with his band Barcelona, you will have a pretty good idea of the brand of adult-contemporary pop that he (working under the moniker SMYL) serves up on this solo sophomore effort. “Laughing at the Storm” may simply be my favorite stand-out pop single of the entire year - it is absolutely pitch-perfect on every front. The bonus is that the entirety of the collection is packed with similar high points. Like the work created by the bands Elbow & The National, these exquisitely crafted songs carry tendencies that equally belie melancholy & hopefulness - balancing both with a deft touch.
Extreme / Six - Every once and awhile I don’t mind tripping over the roots of my early years of musical discovery. One such prominent root was the arena hard rock that I adored during high school. I was especially drawn to rockers that carried a pop sensibility. That is, an ability to bring fist-in-the-air drive & bravado within the structure of a catchy pop song. Van Halen, Night Ranger, Triumph, Cheap Trick - there was definitely a time when I just couldn’t get enough! So color me totally surprised when this album (by a band I had never really liked all that much previously) really worked its magic on me and became the dark horse contender of this year’s TOP TEN list. This collection was such a fun bit of nostalgic escape delivered at the right moment that I simply couldn’t deny it. Sure, lots of worn rock cliches lurk around every corner, but as opposed to sounding rehashed, the entire collection fits like a comfy jean jacket - complete with jaw-dropping guitar work by Nuno Bettencourt, certainly one of the finest guitarists currently working in rock. And if the ridiculously hooky “Other Side Of The Rainbow” doesn’t suck you in, you might want to check your ‘too-cool-for-school” status at the door.
Everything But The Girl / Fuse - You wouldn’t be wrong if you’ve noticed a nostalgic streak winning out in these last two TOP TEN selections, but sometimes you just have to surrender to such attractions. Just slightly beating out Gabriel with length of time between albums (it has been 24 years since the last EBTG release, Temperamental), husband-&-wife duo Ben Watts & Tracey Thorn (though very busy over the years with separate projects) have very clearly picked the right time to creatively reconvene. At the forefront, as it has always been, is Thorn’s stunningly emotional vocals. She is simply one of my favorite singers to listen to. The good news is that this album perfectly lays out the in-the-pocket sound that always makes EBTG such a satisfying listening experience. What the time time-off has positively provided is an even more confident approach to their particular musical niche. I’m not sure I can exactly explain the full components of downtempo, but if this is it (which would make EBTG downtempo royalty) then sign me up.
CONTENDERS
(Though these albums didn’t make my TOP TEN, I found each to be excellent collections and definitely worthy of checking out)
Eluvium / (Whirring Marvels In) Consensus Reality
Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds / Council Skies
boygenius / the record
Blur / The Ballad Of Darren
Altin Gün / Ask
The Drums / Jonny
M83 / Fantasy
Sparks / The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte
Lana Del Ray / Did You Know There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd
Wilco / Cousin
Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit / Weathervanes
