Yet Another 2023 Music Retrospective: 10 Kickass Albums Worth Your Time
I’ve listened to a lot of music this year, even by my own standards. I take my playlists pretty seriously. Given the variety of music I take interest in, I didn’t set out to make a strict 2023-only list but the evidence was overwhelming: we got a massive amount of good music this year. Out of countless hours of listening: I present you with ten great albums that played all the right notes with me in no particular order.
Green Lung : This Heathen Land
Released November 3, 2023
A new-to-me band, Green Lung is undoubtedly one of the best metal bands I’ve heard in a while and their third album is simply excellent. One For Sorrow is a standout track — slow in pace and just the heaviest, you can’t help but sing along to the chorus. That’s actually pretty standard listener participation for the rest of the album, especially the first half of stadium ready, riffy songs. The second half is full of audibly deep, rich tracks that work so well together.
Overall, This Heathen Land’s production sounds great. Tom Templar’s vocals soar. I will stand up and shout for Mountain Throne, Hunters in the Sky, and Oceans of Time any old day of the week.
Metallica: 72 Seasons
Released April 14, 2023
Hail to the kings. When the singles started coming out for 72 Seasons, I think the fans knew we were getting something special. Amongst those tracks, Screaming Suicide is one of the most important songs in metal to grace my generation. Yours too. I mean, let’s be honest. We’ve seen more than our share of what suicide does to friends, family, ourselves, and the music scene at large. It’s high time we normalized talking about it.
Don’t ever speak my name
Remember, you’re to blame
Keep me inside
Keep me inside
My name is suicide
Don’t sleep on this album, especially if the crib on the album cover is any indication. 72 Seasons is the most balanced Metallica has sounded to me for a hot minute. Everyone shines. There are also some not-to-be-missed Hetfield-ian moments like this one from Inamorata:
Misery, she needs me
Oh-oh, but I need her more
Misery, she loves me
Oh-oh, but I love her more
Misery, she kills me
Oh-oh, but I end this war
Misery, she fills me
Oh, no, but she’s not what I’m livin' for
Foo Fighters: But Here We Are
Released June 2, 2023
The Foos could have called it quits after the death of Taylor Hawkins and I wouldn’t have blamed them. Dave could have gone on hiatus after his mom passed away. Wouldn’t have thought twice. Take your time, sir.
The Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concert was a guttural scream into the universe, perhaps to punch a small hole between this life and the next to send a message of love. That too would have been enough. Here’s the thing I learned about Dave Grohl having grown up listening to him decimate drum kits in Nirvana, through his evolution of Foo Fighters and from all of his side projects: that man is a worker and you cannot stop that kind of drive.
But Here We Are is some of the most introspective writing from Grohl via The Teacher (dedicated to his mom), The Glass, and the album’s namesake But Here We Are.
Josh Freese is a force of nature but it should be noted that Dave recorded all of the drums on this album in Taylor’s absence. The cameo by Violet Grohl on Show Me How is such a welcome one. When you run the emotional gamut from rage and sorrow to serenity and acceptance, family is essential.
André 3000: New Blue Sun
Released November 17, 2023
I swear, I really wanted to make a ‘rap’ album but this is literally the way the wind blew me this time.
The first track’s title says it all. This is what André wanted to record, or at least where the cosmic forces asked him to go. For people like myself that thrive on instrumental albums, because words and lyrics take us out of the zone, New Blue Sun is a gift. It’s amazing to me that Epic said OK to this. Maybe they couldn’t say no either. Regardless, flautists, raise your instruments in solidarity. New Blue Sun is what happens when record labels let artists be creative. Thank God for that.
Mammoth WVH: Mammoth II
Released August 4, 2023
My absolute favorite artist this year has been Wolfgang Van Halen, aka Mammoth WVH. His solo records, Mammoth and Mammoth II are in constant rotation over here. The latter is heavier than the first and presents Wolfgang as a singer who’s exploring the space. It’s a ton of fun to witness his progression. His bandmates in the live shows are sublime – they’re practiced, polished and it feels like they’ve been a band for ages.
You can practically feel the space in the room on this record. Take a Bow is a great example of a production that sounds like all the parts were played precisely on the floor in real time. That sound is serving Wolfgang well – there’s a payoff in every song when the music swells and the room if filled.
Ghost: Phantomime — EP
Released May 18, 2023
Remember that time an EP of cover songs snuck into my best albums list? Yeah, me too – good times. Phatomime was recorded on the heels of Ghost’s IMPERA which might explain Tobias Forge’s reluctance to extend it beyond five tracks. Regardless, we’re getting fresh ’n fun takes on songs by Television, Genesis, The Stranglers, Iron Maiden, and the legendary Tina Turner.
The choice to have See No Evil by Television is all-important as it sets the stage. The original hangs on mild distortion and some loose ’n’ swinging bass guitar but has a light and airy tone in general. Ghost’s version goes heavy and has enough presence to make good on the promise of an excellent riff.
The truest cover in the bunch is Phatom of the Opera but with a Steve Harris-approved change to the lyrics to suit Tobias’s Papa Emeritus character, and not the Phantom. I love the show of respect to Maiden and the EP in general because all of the songs are resourced from different artists and times but they’re all sewn with the same thread.
The Rolling Stones: Hackney Diamonds
Released October 20, 2023
A triumph (again) but let’s talk about the elephant in the room first: That fuzzy, overdriven bass guitar on Bite My Head Off. It’s the most “I heard you like the Beatles and the Stones so I put a Beatle in your Stones”-move ever. We got Sir Paul McCartney with a mod’ed left-handed Höfner replica (from da old days) playing on Hackney Diamonds. If you can’t appreciate that I don’t think you appreciate anything. This album is a bit of magic and I have yet to hear anyone successfully criticize it past picking on the album cover artwork, which I don’t totally disagree with but for Pete’s sake, not everyone gets to be in the decision room, people.
There are so many great songs to deep-dive into on Hackney but overall, it’s intriguing to hear The Rolling Stones in a contemporary production with Andrew Watt, who had just previously worked with Post Malone on Austin. Standouts for me: Angry, Bite My Head Off, Driving Me Too Hard, and Sweet Sounds Of Heaven featuring an indie scene up-and-comer calling herself Lady Gaga. I’m confident she’ll be a household name someday. You heard it here first!
Paul Gilbert: The Dio Album
Released April 7, 2023
Here in the absence of the quintessential metal vocalist Ronnie James Dio exists a Dio album without Dio but with. Paul Gilbert resurrects the audacious spirit of Dio’s vocals in lavish fashion with but a humble guitar. It’s a masterclass in emulating vocal trills and harmony and it will also kick your ass. When the lead guitar kicks in on the first cover, Neon Knights, you’ll swear that Paul is channeling Dio from Heaven’s Hall of Rock, a mystic gathering in space and time where all legendary artists dwell, or so I’m told.
Holy Diver might be the most synonymous song with Dio. It’s presence on this album is mandatory but serves a greater purpose by making it clear that Paul Gilbert is a fan as well as a virtuoso. And you know me, instrumental albums like this are undoubtedly going to end up in my record collection if not already there. This one is, by the way.
3rd Secret: 2nd 3rd Secret
Released June 22, 2023
I’m cautious about supergroups. Let me put it this way: they’re not all for me. That said, I was somewhat concerned but mostly excited about members of some of my favorite bands coming together for 3rd Secret in 2022. “Isn’t Matt Cameron drumming in fifty other bands anyway?”
It felt good to be wrong.
3rd Secret’s 2nd 3rd Secret wins the best album title of 2023 content, but more importantly, it’s a worthy successor to their first album. Vocalists Jillian Raye and Jennifer Johnson (both from Giants in the Trees) are a harmonic revelation, pairing really well with “Seattle sound” bassist/accordionist Krist Novoselic (Nirvana), drummer Matt Cameron (Pearl Jam and Soundgarden) and guitarists Kim Thayil (Soundgarden) and Jon “Bubba” Dupree (Void). Check out State of Mind for their signature sound — I think you’ll pick up on it too.
It’s weird to feel nostalgic about a “new” band but most of the artists in 3rd Secret are ones I grew up listening to. Songs like So Close are like a time machine taking me back almost 30 years to when music was starting to get really interesting to me. Makes me happy to get back there. Judging by the smile on Krist’s face in the video for So Close, I bet he’s pretty stoked about it too.
Baroness: Stone
Released September 16, 2023
In dreams we fall together
In my dreams we’re gonna fall forever
Where the surface meets the sky
There’s my anodyne
Every new album from Baroness has been a comfort for me, like an old friend coming over to visit after some time away but Stone has a presence that’s a little different from the early days of Red, Blue, and Yellow & Green. Nothing stays the same forever. Survival means adapting and thriving means accepting that fact. John Baizley is the founder and last vestige of Baroness’s silver age… I think the best is yet to come. Especially if Gina Gleason sticks around.
Current lead guitarist and backing vocalist, Gina shines on this album. She compliments Baroness’s psychedelic stoner metal sound so well, as illustrated on their song, Shine where Sebastian Thomson furiously keeps time.
Gina’s guitar solo on Last Word infuses new life into a song that could very well have been written for 2009’s Blue Record. My fan theory is that Stone’s uniqueness is very intentional – John’s not plugging in replacement musicians, he’s cultivating collaboration under the banner of Baroness. That sounds like healthy progression to me.
Epilogue, honorable mentions, and podcast hype
While these are not 2023 releases per se, I really got into them this year and they deserve mention.
- Iron Maiden: Senjutsu — released September 3, 2021
- SLIFT: UMMON — released February 28, 2020
- The Breeders: Last Splash 30th Anniversary Remaster — released September 22, 2023
If you’re curious about what else I’m listening to there’s Dailies — my playlists on Apple Music where I share a song everyday on the socials.
If you like to listen to UX designers obsess over music and not UX design, you’re in luck. Every once and a while Joe Natoli and I put out an episode of our podcast, The Hard Volume Experience. Check us out on YouTube or your favorite podcast provider.
Happy 2024 when we get there, everybody! Indulge me by listening to something new, especially if any of these albums were unfamiliar to you. The POWER OF MUSIC compels you! 🤘🏼🔥
