(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
honorable mentions that can’t be on the list for some reason
the beths - expert in a dying field (reason: 2022 release)
new jeans - get up (reason: EP, < 25 mins)
tripleS / EVOLution - ⟡ (reason: EP, < 25 mins)
loossemble - loossemble (reason: EP, < 25 mins)
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.