Jazz
The limitlessness of London drummer Yussef Dayes in Black Classical Music exemplifies the extraordinary diversity of styles and idioms that today’s globalized jazz scene proudly embraces.
The Omnichord Real Book is Meshell Ndegeocello’s boldest stylistic exploration yet, and one that’s resoundingly true to the creative journey she’s been on since the ‘90s.
Composer, trumpet player, and singer jaimie branch—who died in August 2022—saw past musical limits. The third album with her Fly or Die quartet closes with “World War ((reprise)),” a forward-looking final statement from a musician whose ascending vision will be missed.
Laufey transports us into the realm of youthful infatuation on her sophomore album. Her music, a tribute to various forms of love—be it friendship, romance, or a love for life—opens not only our ears but also our hearts and eyes to the captivating essence of these emotions.
The instrumental balance on the unearthed tapes of Evenings at the Village Gate: John Coltrane with Eric Dolphy isn’t flawless, but that’s a quibble: the overall sound and room tone are good, and the music stuns.
Classical
Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson presented us with an impeccable recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, sparkling with purity and charting a new path among the numerous historical interpretations of this essential work.
The distinguished New York members of the legendary Emerson String Quartet bid farewell to the stage after 47 years of existence. They joined forces with soprano Barbara Hannigan to produce Infinite Voyage, a demanding album dedicated to the Second Viennese School.
Not only is Isabelle Faust one of the greatest violinists of our age (and perhaps all ages), but she is also blessed with a powerful curiosity, seemingly always on the lookout for composers and repertoire off the beaten track. This collection of compositions by the eccentric genius Pietro Antonio Locatelli, is a splendid illustration of her adventuresome repertoire.
It’s almost as if Yuja Wang were playing at home in her second collaboration with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the conductor Gustavo Dudamel. The music of Rachmaninoff has no secrets left for the Chinese piano virtuoso, who strolls happily along these formidably difficult concertos.
Finally, an ECM release of Arvo Pärt’s Tractus performed by the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir concludes this year with a luminous winter meditation.
Indie/Alternative
Weird and wonderful, Yo La Tengo’s 17th album finds the trio feeling experimental and self-indulgent (not a bad thing here), and comfortable stretching waaaaay out—three of the nine songs go over seven minutes.
On her sophomore album Light, Dark, Light Again, Angie McMahon isn’t afraid to share the nuanced revelations she’s had during her hiatus, translating the thoughts of many into her raw and soulful music.
L’Rain’s evolution to rock giant lacks only the arenas they could fill with sound. I Killed Your Dog roots around in so many different sounds that it’s nearly impossible to include them in any genre, but they are so talented that it would be criminal not to at least try.
With everything is alive, Slowdive continues to impress, atomizing their sound even further into adventurous new directions.
Damon Albarn dove headfirst with Blur into an ocean of melancholy with The Ballad of Darren. A parenthesis already closed for the English group, which went on hiatus before Christmas but made 2023 a blessed year.
Electronic
The lovechild of the kindred introverts Angel Deradoorian and Kate NV, Decisive Pink stepped up with their hotly anticipated debut, Ticket to Fame. It’s a flamboyant and whimsical portal into an experimental krautrock and pop mixture, which exudes a singular tone that seamlessly aggregates the distinct character of both its authors.
On Ghosts, a variety of keyboards—acoustic piano, electric Fender Rhodes, synths—make up the core of Polish composer, pianist, and singer Hania Rani’s sound world. It’s an ambient place inflected with delicate melancholia and, occasionally, uplift.
With a Hammer showcases the Korean American singer, producer, DJ, visual artist and writer Yaeji’s talents across thirteen tracks that takes listeners on a journey into the depths of her mind, addressing both societal and self-imposed repression accumulated over her lifetime.
The return of South Korean ambient family band TENGGER came with a more focused and direct sound. Not to say that the songs are shorter or lose their purpose–TENGGER find their mark quickly and focus on what makes their band unique.
Dustin Wong’s soundscapes evolve on the fly, so it’s fitting his 2023 record is named Perpetual Morphisis. The evolution on this album makes for interesting, involved journeys through each track but Wong maintains his sense of playful, lighthearted songsmanship.
Soul/Funk/R&B
ANOHNI returned after a six-year absence with her Johnsons for a tribute to activist Marsha P. Johnson. Her most soulful album to date is an ode to the Earth, women, and trans individuals.
Yazmin Lacey is not the only person, nor the first, to oscillate between soul and jazz, but the grace and sensuality with which she does so are surely what set her apart from the rest.
In a completely different and more hybrid register, we find the English producer and singer Sampha, whose second album Lahai is a beautiful follow-up to Process, released in 2017.
Jorja Smith unveils the scope of both her desires and her emotional capacities, delivering a versatile, faultless album, falling or flying.
A fascinating mix of soul tradition and 100% contemporary sounds is evident throughout Gabriels’ Angels & Queens. Of course, the secret weapon of this exhilarating and invigorating debut is its singer Jacob Lusk, who can do anything!
Pop
Olivia Rodrigo is a towering pop star with an appealingly awkward edge, admired by Annie Clark and Kathleen Hanna, who has called her “a revelation.” She lives up to that potential on her second album, a bottle rocket messily shooting off excitement and confusion and barbs, some of which land right back in her own heart.
Desire, I Want to Turn Into You is passionate, curious and seductive … while it’s hard to predict what she’ll do next, one thing is for sure: this is Caroline Polacheck’s world, and we’re all just living in it.
Just as we can’t dispute that Lana Del Rey has become (or has always been, for those who had already figured this out) an essential figure in American music … she remains in her Californian Ophelia character, floating tragically and romantically on the surface of a Hollywood pool.
Allison Russell’s second solo album is a jaw-dropper—and a heart-pumper, thought-provoker and ass-shaker. Known for her folksy/mountain music work with Our Native Daughters and Birds of Chicago, Russell says The Returner is the sound of her “busting out of the roots ghetto.”
It’s been nearly a quarter century since the married duo of Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt produced a record together as Everything but the Girl; Fuse was worth the wait. Thorn sounds as smoky and soulful as ever against Watt’s sonic reverberations.
Rap/Hip-Hop
Danny Brown has referred to Quaranta as a sequel to 2011′s XXX but where the latter set him off on a decade-long run both indulging in and interrogating the self-destructive side of his art (and his life), Quaranta stands out like a moment of clarity—one last confrontation with the party abyss before embarking on the kind of rehab stint that could literally save his life.
We Buy Diabetic Test Strips, Armand Hammer’s latest, finds the duo in peak form, spitting bar after bar of loosely-related lines that peek at the future, yes, but also stare lucidly at the present. Some would say their outlook is bleak but that’s only if you refuse to stand on their platform and see what they see: a world in disarray that can still be beautifully described.
NoName’s long hiatus from releasing records came to a stunning halt with Sundial. Not stunning in the expectation of rust, of which there was none, but in the full-on evocation/principled study of human interaction evoking positive change. We need believers and NoName is certainly calling them to action.
Westside Gunn’s 2023 output could not match his wild and inventive last couple of years in sheer number of releases. Instead, we got a selective WSG—one album with a stable of incredible beats and a healthy dose of label-mate Stove God Cooks. Here’s to making more out of less, even if this is rumored to be his “last album.”
In March, less than a month after the death of founding member Dave “Trugoy the Dove” Jolicoeur, De La Soul’s full back catalog, including their debut 3 Feet High and Rising—a barrage of audaciously new and unique ideas that planted a flag nobody’s been able to fully uproot—was finally added to streaming services. The Long Island trio were eccentrics, artists who didn’t appear to adhere to any previously existing formula for hip-hop in style, perspective, or attitude because they couldn’t be anybody but themselves.
Rock
Peter Gabriel has been working on i/o for 20 years now, reworking and re-recording and workshopping songs on the road. The final result is a sprawling head trip.
The expanded Let It Bleed edition of the Replacements’ fourth studio album Tim—the final with their full, original lineup—is a marvelous, absolutely necessary corrective to the muddled-sounding release from 1985 … we get to hear a version of it that’s worthy of the material, thanks to veteran producer and engineer Ed Stasium.
On Hackney Diamonds, the Rolling Stones aren’t trying to repeat themselves or recapture any past glories—but they are remembering their roots, and channeling the passion, ambition and musical chemistry that initially propelled them to superstardom.
Mandy, Indiana may hold the title for most undefinable record in our extensive year-end list. Their scintillating brand of electro-punk switches genres, tempos, even languages–sometimes it feels like they speak in tongues–as the band amasses an initial catalog that both befuddles and bewitches an ever-growing crowd of fanatics.
The Beatles, whose back catalog has been upgraded annually with deluxe Hi-Res reissues, released “Now and Then,” referred to as their “last song.” Engineered with the aid of machine learning developed by director Peter Jackson, and constructed with decades-spanning elements, it’s a stirring track that makes perfect sense for 2023.
More Favorites
Jess Williamson’s third solo effort comes at the heels of ‘90s-country obsessed Plains, but Time Ain’t Accidental focuses on different avenues for her songwriting. The wild thing is everything works here—folk, country, rock, singer-songwriter—leaving her older work in the proving ground. We need no more proof, Williamson is a beacon of whatever she decides to make.
Ryuichi Sakamoto, who died in March 2023, referred to 12 as a series of diary entries, which suggests a certain casualness. The album is anything but. Rather, it’s a self-portrait by an expert who could casually create masterpieces with a series of brilliantly executed brush strokes.
There’s a comforting naturalness with which Margo Cilker draws you into her surroundings on Valley of Heart’s Delight. While life is anything but effortless the California-native who’s now based in the Pacific Northwest delivers her keen observations with West Coast breeziness.
Ὁπλίτης (loosely translated to Greek Foot Soldier or Hop-Lite) ushered in the new year with an album that fully transcended even the blurriest metal boundaries. Within the first two minutes the band dove headfirst into black metal, metalcore and grind and the relentless pace of the record rarely let up. With a release date of January 1, 2023, there was plenty of time for another stellar release, making Ὁπλίτης one of the most exciting artists of the year in any genre.
The opening chords of The Window cruise straight past old Ratboys releases into new territory with a feet-on-the-dashboard insouciance. Earmarking a move toward psych-indie and power-chorded rock isn’t exactly new for longtime fans, but this is a polished version of what felt rough and experimental at times on previous efforts.
Twenty years divorced from the tragic accident that killed three members of The Exploding Hearts, Guitar Romantic—a blast of short but very sweet youthful exuberance—still bursts with promise.
With contributions from Anthony Fountain, Annie Zaleski, Brice Miclet, Charlotte Saintoin, Finn Kverndal, Fred Cisterna, Jason Ferguson, Jeff Laughlin, Jess Porter-Langson, Marc Zisman, Mike McGonigal, Nate Patrin, Nitha Viraporn, Pierre Lamy, Randall Roberts, Robert Baird, Shelly Ridenour, Stéphane Deschamps, Stéphane Ollivier, and Sujan Hong.