(roughly) 50 albums from 2023 i liked

intro

i listen to some albums. i don’t listen to enough albums to be a music reviewer, or have a best of 2023 list. but i want to have a list to maintain, so here are some albums that i liked from this year. for some reason spotify doesn’t have great functionality for sharing lists of albums, so… my website it is.

i am open to recommendations, especially if you can give me an album on this list it sounds like :))

the list

  1. yeule - softscars

  2. mitski - the land is inhospitable and so are we

  3. laufey - bewitched

  4. feeble little horse - girl with fish

  5. caroline polachek - desire, i want to turn into you

  6. sufjan stevens - javelin

  7. underscores - wallsocket

  8. carly rae jepsen - the loveliest time

  9. lana del rey - did you know there’s a tunnel under ocean boulevard?

  10. boygenius - the record

  11. sza - sos

  12. jessie ware - that! feels good!

  13. reality club - reality club presents…

  14. lamp - dusk to dawn

  15. knower - knower forever

  16. geese - 3d country

  17. jeff rosenstock - hellmode

  18. spellling - spellling and the mystery school

  19. animal collective - isn’t it now?

  20. grrrl gang - spunky!

  21. slayyyter - starfucker

  22. lilas ikuta - sketch

  23. billy woods and kenny segal - maps

  24. nicole dollanganger - married in mount airy

  25. taylor swift - 1989 (taylor’s version)

  26. olivia rodrigo - guts

  27. what is your name? - the now now and never

  28. sadness and abriction - sadness // abriction

  29. slowdive - everything is alive

  30. for tracy hyde - hotel insomnia

  31. subsonic eye - all around you

  32. parannoul - after the magic

  33. film school - field

  34. tricot - 不出来 [fudeki]

  35. megumi acorda - silver fairy

  36. brokenteeth - 추​락​은 천​천​히 how to sink slowly

  37. della zyr - 모호함 속의 너 nebulous you

  38. abriction - interstates

  39. yo la tengo - this stupid world

  40. yaeji - with a hammer

  41. 君島大空 ohzora kimishima - no public sounds

  42. gracie abrams - good riddance

  43. world’s end girlfriend - resistance & the blessing

  44. swans - the beggar

  45. half•alive - conditions of a punk

  46. model/actriz - dogsbody

  47. chai - chai

honorable mentions that can’t be on the list for some reason

  1. the beths - expert in a dying field (reason: 2022 release)

  2. new jeans - get up (reason: EP, < 25 mins)

  3. tripleS / EVOLution - ⟡ (reason: EP, < 25 mins)

  4. loossemble - loossemble (reason: EP, < 25 mins)

  5. luster - dopamine loop (reason: EP, < 25 mins)

disclaimers you shouldn’t read unless you’re thinking about complaining

  • i liked a large percentage of the albums i listened to. i’m not claiming i have meaningfully filtered down albums.

  • i did not listen to some of these albums more than once.

  • i reserve the right to include december 2022 on such lists.

  • i bias slightly towards asian and asian-american music. this is because i was in an east asian a cappella group, and taste is influenced by what you’re thinking about and listening to! i also used to live in singapore, so you might find singapore especially overrepresented.

  • there is no order.

  • i have no criteria for what is good music.

  • my listening is fairly influenced by RYM and Twitter which is in turn influenced by mainstream reviewers like Anthony Fantano. (the reason it’s influenced by RYM is RYM likes shoegaze. i also like shoegaze.)

  • i don’t really listen to hip-hop or rap.

  • most of these were listened to on Focal Elex headphones, through a Topping E30/L30 DAC/HPA stack.

  • seeing an artist live substantially increases their chance of appearing here. this applies to Laufey, Slowdive, underscores, Subsonic Eye, Yo La Tengo, Animal Collective, CHAI, half-alive, Caroline Polachek, and Film School.

  • some of these are EPs. i've kinda tried to set a >25 minute rule here.