List week is upon us, my friends, and so, continuing in the tradition I established last year that absolutely no one regards as tradition, I am once again positioning myself as the mouthpiece of The Yale Herald and offer what I believe to be the 23 best albums released in 2023.
23. Guts by Olivia Rodrigo
The 20-year-old pop star knows how to create a world with her music—and knows how to make this world her own. Just listen to how she deadpans “fuck it, it’s fine” after her breathy soprano rises higher and higher repeating “Seeing you tonight / it’s a bad idea right?” on the single “Bad Idea, Right?”. To embrace the abject messiness that comes with girlhood is a feat itself, but to do it on pop-rock anthems that are this fun is an undertaking only Rodrigo could execute.
Read Maia Neheme’s full review of Guts for the Herald
22. Zach Bryan by Zach Bryan
The lines between contemporary country, folk, and indie had been blurring long before the Oklahoma native’s fifth studio album was released. But if there’s any voice that was going to blow up the whole thing, I, for one, am glad it was Zach Bryan’s gravelly earnestness that hit it big.
21. Praise a Lord Who Chews but Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds) by Yves Tumor
2023 was the year of the long album title, and Yves Tumor’s fifth studio album, released in March, led the brigade. This album is substance through and through, even if that substance isn’t an earthly one. Glimmering and intoxicating when it wants to be, grounded and thumping when it needs to be, this record sees an artist at the top of their game, though I still haven’t been able to pin down exactly what game they are playing.
20. The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We by Mitski
Mitski’s seventh studio album is not only the best thing she’s done in almost a decade—it’s a complete sonic homecoming. She treks through the lush greenery of orchestral strings, entwines herself in the vines of nostalgic harmony, and arrives at the place that I have been waiting so long for her to traverse. Welcome home.
Read Harper Love’s full review of The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We for the Herald
19. 3D Country by Geese
Oddball Brooklyn rock revivalists sauntered into 2023 with enough swagger to hold their heads high through the entire year. This was for good reason: their sophomore record arrived just familiar enough to reinvigorate the classic blues rock sound, but weird enough to be the coolest group doing that.
18. Fly or Die Fly or Die Fly or Die ((world war)) by jaimie branch
If liberation could sing, it would erupt with the melody sounding from jaimie branch’s trumpet. Her last album before her sudden and tragic passing this August, Fly or Die is one of the most dynamic, heartfelt projects of the year. Don’t let it pass you by.
17. Maps by billy woods and Kenny Segal
2022 was the last year in which one could release a pandemic album. Woods described his May release and love letter to touring as a “post pandemic” record. This makes Maps into a soundtrack of deliberate, hard-hitting rap anthems that move as fast as the world in which they were created. The billy woods empire shows no signs of slowing down, and thank god for that.
16. Madres by Sofia Kourtesis
The 38-year-old Peruvian DJ, singer, and composer’s debut album sits at the perfect crossroads between heartfelt and just plain fun. For anyone who was lamenting the derivativeness of dance music this year, you just needed to make it to the end of October. Sofia Kourtesis can probably save you.
15. Dogsbody by Model / Actriz
I dare you to find another act that more powerfully barrelled into 2023 than Brooklyn four-piece Model / Actriz did on their February debut LP. Just a minute into opening track “Donkey Show,” the drums kick in and ignite a fire that burns strong until the last note. The group has a flair for the dramatic, and the whole thing turns out like some sort of twisted dance punk rock opera.
14. Javelin by Sufjan Stevens
Sufjan Stevens knows how to orchestrate a confluence. He knows exactly what moment he should take to layer harmonies and vocalizations over themselves, twinkling percussion, choral backings, and steady strings. I’m thinking about midway through “Shit Talk,” The movement from “I will always love you” to “But I cannot look at you.” Javelin is characterized by these small moments and subtle dynamics. They’re utterly heartbreaking.
Read Emily Aikens’s full review of Javelin for the Herald
13. Rat Saw God by Wednesday
Love it or hate it, Rat Saw God kind of sits in a category all unto itself this year. If you can find me another record that is equally as deadpan yet emotionally ecstatic, noisy, yet instantly hooky, or comfortable, yet so utterly disconcerting, perhaps I will reevaluate. But for now, there’s no one hitting harder in the indie rock world than Wednesday, and Rat Saw God is only going to get better, whether you keep listening or not. Go give it another spin before the new year.
12. SOS by SZA
It’s hard to believe less than six years passed between the release of SZA’s debut album CTRL in 2017, and the late 2022 release of her sophomore SOS. A lot of artists like to play with irony, dangling their own earnestness before the faces of their listeners, but never quite staking claim to it. SZA separates herself by owning it. Her songwriting, while exciting and novel, isn’t afraid to mean what it says. SOS wears its heart on its sleeve for a whole hour of oscillation between R&B and pop and rap and rock.
11. Live at Bush Hall by Black Country, New Road
Though technically a recording of a live performance more than a studio album, the British experimental rockers had a lot to prove on Live at Bush Hall. Even without their lead singer, who had to leave the group back in 2022, they proved all they needed and more, painting a portrait of a band at the top of their weird, theatrical game. What results is some of this year’s most beautiful soundscapes—just listen to May Kershaw’s voice kick in on the 9 minute epic “Turbines / Pigs,” and try not to let it carry you away. I’ll bet you won’t be able to do it.
10. Scaring the Hoes by JPEGMAFIA and Danny Brown
When JPEGMAFIA and Danny Brown announced the prospect of their collaboration back in the beginning of the year, they set pretty much everything on fire. When they released a record two months later that kicked off with the lyric “first off, fuck Elon Musk,” they burned everything that was left to ash. This project is so brilliant in its headstrongness, its lack of apprehension when dipping into the absolutely ridiculous. From JPEGMAFIA’s production, to both rappers’ writing and delivery, the album is almost too absurd to hold together. Almost. Instead, it’s in the top ten.
Read Victor Attah’s review of Scaring the Hoes for the Herald
9. My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross by ANOHNI and the Johnsons
“I love you so much more” ANOHNI sings, “I never knew it before.” Reuniting her band for the first time in twelve years and recording a soul album to lament the earth’s destruction, she somehow still locates optimism, within the rich contours of her deep voice “It’s my fault, the way I broke the Earth,” she sings, yet still offers her own back as a step to a better world, still remembers to love, and still warbles the warm sound of a world that she believes in.
8. I Killed Your Dog by L’Rain
Under the moniker L’Rain, Taja Cheek runs the gamut of emotionality, sensuality and even humor, entangling and detangling different threads in the tapestry of her psyche. On the jittery lead single and final chapter “New Year’s UnResolution,” she ends by singing “will you forget me along the way?” over and over again. L’Rain’s mastery on I Killed Your Dog makes her impossible to forget. Oh—and she’s a Yale and WYBC alum.
7. Census Designated by Jane Remover
Jane Remover sounds like no other. The 20-year-old experimental rock musician’s 2023 LP is a portrait of an artist comfortably entrenched in the discomfort of her sonic world. The hour-long record unfurls into something wholly immersive—crass and visceral, but utterly celestial. Right now, we are watching Jane Remover’s real-time self-immolation; she knows it, we know it, and anyone who takes the ride from dusk to dawn on her sophomore project will quickly be made aware of the same truth.
6. We Buy Diabetic Test Strips by Armand Hammer
As far as abstract hip hop is concerned, we are all subjects of the Armand Hammer kingdom, as they bring a biting wit, sonic clarity, and cacophonous heaviness to the genre. Their recent album is as polyphonous as it is singular, featuring guest appearances from Junglepussy, Moor Mother, Pink Siifu, and heaviest-hitter JPEGMAFIA. Through abstraction and specificity, the duo meditates on a world on fire, holding nothing back in defining and describing their current moment.
5. I Inside the Old Year Dying by PJ Harvey
Legendary singer and songwriter PJ Harvey’s tenth full-length album is her first record in seven years. It is a mystical trip through the foggy hills of the Dorset countryside where she grew up; the apparition of an Old English folk song trills alongside exalting synth loops. By pastoral and prophetic turns, Harvey’s album is less of just a record, and more so the creation of a world unto itself. I Inside The Old Year Dying is an utterly singular release. It’s certainly not the easiest album on my list, but its reward is far worth the 39 and a half minutes it demands you spend with it.
4. Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!? by McKinley Dixon
When an album opens with a clip of Hanif Abdurraqib reading a passage of Toni Morrison’s Jazz aloud, it’s basically guaranteed to make my top five of the year. McKinley Dixon follows up that impossible start with immeasurable grace, his flows opening the space for a future of healing.
3. Raven by Kelela
Kelela tracks her second studio album with the thrum of a steady heartbeat. Whether it comes in the form of a brooding synthesizer or soft piano melody, the record never lets you forget just how alive it is. It is a celebration of the self, of Kelela herself, and of all the joys that she finds in Black queer womanhood. Oh, and nearly every song is perfect.
2. Desire, I Want to Turn into You by Caroline Polachek
Caroline Polachek’s Desire opens with a screech. Or rather, with something between a screech and a moan, equal parts piercing and orgasmic. I do think it’s a bit of a cheap shot to label a sophomore album messianic, but the moniker is apt. Desire is heady, headless of linearity or narrative. It seeks atmosphere above all else. It is an exercise in world-building, an insight into dystopian paradise, full of lush soundscapes and brooding sensuality.
Read Madelyn Dawson’s full review of Desire, I Want To Turn Into You for the Herald
1. Why Does The Earth Give Us People to Love by Kara Jackson
It feels almost sacrilegious to top my list with a debut album, but Kara Jackson’s meditation on love and loss has made me feel more human than any other record released this year. The Chicago singer, songwriter, poet, and artist braves her most vulnerable self to the world, offers nothing but love, and leaves us with no other choice than to give our love back.