Posted by I’ll discuss more on Cutlet Radio, but I do think this year was kind of weak for albums! I really liked a lot of my top albums but I feel like this year I found myself still revisiting older albums, whether that’s Being Funny in a Foreign Language from 2022 or Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits Vol. 2 from 1971. It was kind of nice to not have an album I was completely and utterly obsessed with for a while just because it gave me the chance to get into older artists, like Jim Croce who I really got into or White Reaper who dropped an album in 2023 but their 2018 album was the one I was listening to most.
Overall, there’s still some good stuff from this year! And I hope you like my top 10. Let’s start with some…
Honorable Mentions
And then You Pray for Me – Westside Gunn
Split Decision EP – DAVE and Central Cee
Zach Bryan – Zach Bryan
Heaven Knows – Pinkpantheress
Past Lives (Original Soundtrack) – Christopher Bear & Daniel Rossen
Top 10 Albums of 2023
10. Sundial – Noname
I was hoping this would be higher on my list because Noname’s telefone from 2016 is one of my favorite albums ever and still gets mixed into my rotation 7 years later. And her follow up, Room 25, was good but that was 2018. So my expectations were really high but not totally met. The production was sick and jazzy and funky the way you’d expect, of course there’s a ton of great bars from her that take a pretty radical stance on a lot of social justice issues which I respect, but I guess I just didn’t fall in love with it in the way I’d hoped. A solid solid album though and had to include in my list, especially in a year lacking in great rap projects in my opinion.
9. Utopia – Travis Scott
Another rap album with high expectations that weren’t totally met, but still a good album. I wish he cut out the weakest 5-6 songs because the length on this really made it tough to listen to all the way through multiple times. But the standout tracks are very very good. “MODERN JAM”, “I KNOW ?”, “TELEKINESIS”, all fire and have that same energy you expect from Travis, but it did get lost in the noise a bit this summer. I’m probably due for a relisten of this now that his tour is kicked off and looking insane, but still a solid follow up to Astroworld.
8. Asking for a Ride – White Reaper
I became obsessed with White Reaper this year. They were my #3 most listened to artist and my top listened to album was their’s from 2018, You Deserve Love. This album is a lot heavier than that one, more metal? (maybe idk exactly what makes a song metal), I would say rather than the Pop Punk/Pop Rock sound from their others, but I was into it! “Pages” was heavy in my rotation for a while this year, and supporting songs like “Getting Into Trouble w/ The Boss” and “Pink Slip” helped round out a fun album that has the energy I love from these guys. If you’re a fan of rock or pop punk you need to listen to this.
7. For All the Dogs – Drake
I totally flipped on Drake this year. Used to be one of his biggest haters and now I’m one of his biggest defenders. I think it’s because he just became hilarious? I don’t know if it’s on purpose or not but he became so funny to me and it made him seem more self-aware/relatable? I also think I am contrarion with pretty much everything he releases. I know a lot of people hated on this album so maybe I had to love it. But look, there’s bangers on here. “Rich Baby Daddy” is a club banger, “IDGAF” is weird in a good way, “Tried Our Best” is classic old school Drake if you don’t like that song that’s just a bad take. “All the Parties” with Chief Keef? BBL Love (Interlude)? Hilarious. Now is it a top 5 album of the year? No, there’s a lot of filler on here that doesn’t need to be but what do you expect from Drake. Liked it and all the haters can be mad.
6. Lets Start Here. – Lil Yachty
Yachty found something on this project. A lot of artists I think find themselves lost in the noise and unable to make a splash and do a big genre-change just to get their name out there or corner a new market (looking at you, Pop Punk Machine Gun Kelly). Yachty clearly didn’t do this as a cash grab though, he did it because he appreciates the music. The production on this whole thing is so crazy and cool and psychedelic, and it worked well because he brought in guys from bands like MGMT and Unknown Mortal Orchestra to cook up those sounds while blending with them with other guys who have produced songs for dudes like Drake. It all comes together for a trippy and cohesive collection of songs that I really enjoyed listening to front to back multiple times this year. This is why more artists should take risks and do it with the care that it deserves! “drive ME crazy!” is a top 5 song of the year, “the black seminole” goes so hard, “prETTy” and “running out of time” are wicked good. Just a great focused effort from Yachty and I hope he does more like this.
5. Lahai – Sampha
Sampha’s music is just inherently good because of his voice and the instruments he chooses and after he dropped “Spirit 2.0” as the single from this I knew we were in for a treat. This album is gorgeous and could only be made by Sampha. “Jonathan L. Seagull” despite it’s goofy name is a ballad, “Only” is just a hit, “Evidence” is honest and emotional…he just does it all on this album. You can tell he put care and time into crafting this album and it paid off, a great journey to listen to start to finish.
4. That! Feels! Good! – Jessie Ware
I ran this album into the ground over the summer. As a big fan of disco there’s not much more you can ask for than this. It has the fun old school disco sound in songs like “Free Yourself” and “Pearls”, but also the more romantic side of things with songs like “Hello Love” that coulda been a BeeGees cover, or “These Lips” the closer with the fire collections of horns and strings. This album is just an absolute vibe and my favorite to toss on when I needed to boost my mood. Again, front to back there are no misses on this and the sound is focused but never you never get bored with it. If you like being happy and dancing, you’re gonna wanna check this out.
3. Javelin – Sufjan Stevens
This album came out when I was mentally not in a great place and it just absolutely BURIED ME…but in a kinda good way I can appreciate? Sufjan’s album “Carrie and Lowell” is one of my favorites ever and a go-to one for sad vibes, and I think this is the closest he’s gotten to recapturing that sound, while also making changes to update it for the way he’s feeling now. I knew from the first song “Goodbye Evergreen” that I was gonna be a wreck by the end of this album and songs like “Will Anybody Ever Love Me?” , “Genuflecting Ghost”, and “So You Are Tired” confirmed my suspicions. The sounds of this album are just so so beautiful and dreamy but in contrast with the devastating lyrics…makes for this weird cocktail of misery that goes down smooth? I ran this on repeat for weeks and weeks just taking it all in and it’s just a crazy album of pure vulnerability and openness and it makes it super interesting to digest.
2. the record – boygenius
A masterclass in songwriting, as expected with the super group of Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker, but this still exceeded expectations. From the folky acapella opener “Without You Without Them”, to the bangers that are “$20” and “Satanist”, to the beautiful and relatable “Cool About It” and “True Blue”, to the best song of the year (spoiler alert) “Not Strong Enough”. This album is just 42 minutes of great lyrics, great music, and great singing and it was cool seeing these slightly lesser known indie rock talents get fully into the mainstream and achieve wide success without compromising their sounds or talents at all. This is gonna be looked back at as a classic for sure.
1. 3D Country – Geese
As a disclaimer, the first time I listened to this album was on December 20th, 2023 after seeing them in Anthony Fantano’s “Top EP’s of 2023” list. So there may be some recency bias but I also know that I haven’t been obsessed with an album or even artist like this in a LONG long time. 2021’s “Jubilee” by Japaense Breakfast I think was the last time I was this excited about a new artist.
These guys are completely unhinged in the best way and have discovered a sound on this album that blends all the best parts of soul, blues, rock, country, and psychedelic into one crazy album that does not miss and sounds like it came from a parallel universe. I have listened to over 560 minutes of these guys and discovered them 10 days ago, so yes I am FULLY IN. And while I had hesitation about listing this as number 1 I finally realized I don’t care because I haven’t been this excited about a band in a while. They are playing with genres, the lyrics are so clever and darkly funny, they sing and play with all the passion in their bones, and all of it just has a chokehold on me I can not stop listening to this or the EP they put out “4D Country” which is just 5 more absolute bangers. The run from “3D Country” to “Cowboy Nudes” to “I See Myself” is easily my favorite 3 song run of the year and all of these are at least in my honorable mentions for best songs of the year. Then you have “Gravity Blues” which goes so hard and gave me chills the first time I listened. Even the songs I don’t LOVE like “Crusades” are still better than like 75% of the songs I listened to this year. This project and this band are just so cool and I am completely bought in on their sound so if you haven’t listened yet I’d at least give them a shot because you may become obsessed too.
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