Top 25 New Albums To Check Out From 2023
A List With Song Samples Made By An Eclectic Music Fan.
I listened to about 40–50 new albums this year, from a variety of genres, and made a list of my top 25. It was quite a year for music. Anyone who thinks good music is dead isn’t looking in the right places. I can help you out with this list…
- The Omnichord Real Book by Meshell Ndegeocello
This album was the full package. The lyrics are strong and relatable and the music is intricate and beautiful. I have been a fan of Meshell since the mid-90s and as soon as I saw she had a new album, I was psyched, but the first time around, I wasn’t in love with it and found it somewhat underwhelming. I didn’t think I’d get much out of it, but unless the music makes me feel angry and anxious, I always give an album two or three listens before I decide on it. The second time around, I heard a lot of stuff I missed the first time around and by the third time through, I fell in love. It is an amazing album. I highly recommend it, and if you don’t feel it the first time around, give it another listen. Meshell is incredibly talented and underrated. I am thrilled by this one. It was an easy choice for #1.
Here is a song to sample. This is a live version…
2. UGLY by Slowthai — This was an interesting pop/punk/hip hop album that was very creative and well done with relatable lyrics and it grew on me as a favorite this year. It is hard to even try to represent this album, using only one song. This one probably doesn’t do it any justice, on its own, as it’s simple and repetitive, but it’s also a fun song that makes me feel good, like the title.
3. To What End by Oddisee — I love Oddisee and have for several years now. He is a wholesome rapper with relatable lyrics and well-produced songs. It’s easy to enjoy. He’s the type of rapper I’d introduce to people who say they hate rap and insist they could never relate to any of it because it’s too gangsta. This would easily prove them wrong.
This is my favorite song off the album, because it came to me at a time when I had not gotten what I worked hard trying to achieve, and it reminded me to just keep trying. Not everything I create is gonna be a hit, whether people don’t feel it or it just doesn’t hit the right algorithms, I always have the opportunity to try again.
4. Cracker Island by The Gorillaz — Ah, The Gorillaz. You can’t go wrong with this unique cartoon band that’s been around for decades now. I love The Gorillaz and this one was great, as I have come to expect. It has all kinds of awesome guest appearances too, including STEVIE NICKS!!! It probably isn’t the best song on the album, but the whole thing is solid. I enjoyed it all year.
5. I’ve Got Me by Joanna Sternburg — This is a folk album that strongly reminds me of Tapestry by Carole King, but also has kind of a Joanna Newsom and maybe a Billy Bragg kinda sound and lyrics mixed in with it as well. It’s got a great feel to it.
6. Skinty Fia go deo by Fontaines DC — This is a neo-punk album and it’s pretty brilliant. It has a real 80s punk and new wave feel to it but it’s different at the same time and I’m pretty in love with it.
7. Glorious Game by Black Thought and El Micheals Affair — Last year Black Thought and Danger Mouse’s album, Cheat Code, was my #2 pick. This year, they both have separate albums and neither is quite as high up on my list, but they both made the top 25 and this one came in at #7. Black Thought is one of the best rappers ever, from the band, The Roots, if you don’t know.
8. I Am Not There Anymore by The Clientele — This album has kind of a modern-sounding 60s-psychedelic rock feel to it…like, the more underground psychedelic rock of the 60s. It’s unusual, but has a lot of different sounds all worked together beautifully.
9. Beloved Paradise Jazz by McKinley Dixon — This is a hip-hop jazz album with spoken word and rap on it. It’s high quality. Not for Lil Uzi Vert fans, probably, because it’s a million times better than that. Worth checking out, for sure, even if you don’t typically like hip-hop.
10. My 21st Century Blues by Raye — This is a pop album, but it’s one of those rare, high-quality pop albums. It’s got a chill sound and relatable lyrics, and it just sounds good from beginning to end. This is my favorite song on the album, probably because I’m a total pothead, but my being a pothead lends to my good taste in music.
11. Games of Power by Home Front — This is another neo-punk album and it’s brilliant too. Sounds kind of like The Cure, Depeche Mode, The Smiths, Echo and the Bunnymen, and stuff like that, but also a bit like The Clash in some songs as well. I’ve been enjoying it a lot.
12. Noir Or Never by Che Noir — Che Noir is one of my favorite modern rappers. She did an album with Apollo Brown that put me onto her and I’ve liked all of her albums. I think this one is stronger than her album last year, Food For Thought, even though I did like that too.
13. Brand New Life by Brandee Younger — This was a great jazz album with elements of hip-hop and soul. If you like jazz or any of those genres, it’s worth a listen.
14. Fuse by Everything But the Girl — This is a duo that’s been around since the early 80s, originally making music with a sort of folk-pop sound, but in later years, after remixing their biggest hit, “Missing” in the mid-90s, they got into making chill electronic music. I think more than 20 years went by between the last album and this one, so I was excited about it. I love it. Very calming, but also fun to dance to.
15. Uncut Gems by Dillon & Diamond D — Just a really solid old-school style hip-hop album. It’s kind of short, but a great sound and feel.
16. Black Bayou by Robert Finkey — This is a modern blues album. It’s solid all the way through.
17. Magic 3 by Nas — Nas is just busting shit out left and right lately. I wasn’t as crazy about Magic 1 and 2, not that they were bad, but this is a true, high-quality Nas album, which says a lot about all the other music on the list that this only got to number 17. Nas is in my top 5 too. I think this year I was just craving some newer-sounding stuff more.
18. 10000 Gecs by 100 Gecs — I’m mostly not doing videos for numbers 16 through 25, but I will include one for this, because even though it wasn’t a top favorite of the year for me, it’s been listed on many lists for great albums from 2023, and it is a great album. Not only that, but it is the future of music. This year has had a lot of new, futuristic sound combinations that have taken getting used to. This album reminds me a little of emo music if it were computerized and on speed. The thing about it is that it is a solid album all the way through, once you get a feel for it, and I think in the future, it will probably be listed as one of the most important and influential albums of this time-period.
19. Round Trip by Statik Selektah — This is a classic-sounding, somewhat underground hip-hop album by one of the best producers in hip-hop, Statik Selektah, and he has some great rappers on the album, including Reks, who is one of my favorites.
20. Action Adventure by DJ Shadow — This is a mostly instrumental album from a DJ I have loved since the mid-90s, with his album, Endtroducing. This doesn’t sound anything like that, but it’s still great.
21. The Mind Of A Saint by Skyzoo & the Other Guys — I love Skyzoo. He’s sort of a big-name underground rapper and I always relate to his sound and lyrics. This isn’t my favorite by him, but it’s good.
22. Born Again by Danger Mouse & Jemini The Gifted One — Danger Mouse is a great producer and Jemini The Gifted One is pretty cool too. It’s an alternative hip-hop album and I listened to it a lot this year, like most of the rest of these.
23. Sardines by Apollo Brown & Planet Asia — Apollo Brown is one of my favorite producers, and his first album with Planet Asia, Anchovies, was a brilliant, top-quality album. This is great too, but not as good as Anchovies.
24. New Blue Sun by Andre 3000 — So, I went through many stages with this album. Honestly, when I heard Andre 3000 was making an instrumental flute album, I was one of the few people who was excited about it from the start. Andre 3000 is one of my favorite artists, so I figured it would be awesome, I mean, why not? The flute can be cool, but I was expecting hip-hop beats. As soon as it came out, I put it on and immediately was like, “What the FUCK?” I wasn’t feeling it. This was mainly because I am not a fan of ambient “music.” In my soul, ambient sound doesn’t even feel like music to me… just boring background noise, so I was immediately going to toss it aside and never listen again… but then I remembered that I have a rule about listening to an album at least two times, in full, especially if it is an artist I love because sometimes, their new sound grows on me after a few listens. This one… well, I didn’t hate it, and I suddenly remembered that I’ve been meditating a lot lately and just a couple of weeks before this album came out, I was asking for recommendations of instrumental albums to listen to while meditating. Most of the recommendations I got were for classical music, which I mostly hate and don’t find calming. The instrumental hip-hop album recommendations were more my thing, but a lot of them have talking on them and I don’t want that while meditating, but this album is very soothing and there is no talking. The song titles are also pretty amusing. I’ve actually ended up listening to it a lot, except I’m kind of annoyed, because whenever I put my music on shuffle, a song from this album will randomly come on and it is still not something I could ever enjoy when I’m looking for music, but for background noise for meditation, it’s great.
25. Nobody Owns You by Joan Osborne — This album is mostly only in last place because I didn’t listen to it enough to get to know it. The first song made me sob though and Joan Osborne is an old favorite of mine since high school. I even saw her in 1996 and was supposed to take my dad to see her do Bob Dylan covers a couple of years ago but it ended up being too much for me to take on, unfortunately. Anyway, she is great and I loved that one song enough for the album to make the list. I heard many other albums this year that didn’t make the list and I’m sure I missed a lot of great shit too, but out of what I heard, these were my top 25.
If you like my taste in music and think you might like my music-influenced art and writing, check out my website, which has all kinds of fun things to view and enjoy for free, plus a merch page and links to my books on Amazon, if those interest you. “The Offbeat Life Of Ren Anonymous” is about an eclectic music-loving alternative rapper in the 90s.
