This is part one of a two-part post about new music in 2023. Look for part two on Dec. 25, Christmas Day.
First off, a few things. I don’t care much for “best of” lists because I feel music is so subjective that such competitions can be a little vulgar.
I also, as a 56-year-old, am thankful that I somehow avoided the “all music made in the years after I turned 25 is terrible and not just terrible, it must be destroyed because it’s trying to fuck with me.” Getting pissed at me for saying the following doesn’t make it any less true: Thinking that means that you transformed into that older relative who told you when you were 20 that Led Zep was a bunch of filthy long-hair morons who made nonsense screeching noise and why can’t you listen to some good music like Doris Day?
Good music spans the times (“Rock Around the Clock” still cooks, people), and 2023 was a great year for new music. There were strong efforts from artists of all ages, from young artists in their prime to grizzled elders showing us that they still got it.
The following are 10 albums released in 2023 that I recommend, in no particular order. Not necessarily the “best” just ones I greatly enjoyed and thought maybe you might too.
Allison Russell, “The Returner”
My list, as you might notice, is female-heavy, and that’s because so many women put out great stuff this year. Allison Russell is a great example, an eclectic artist who had previously been part of bands such as Po’ Girl and Our Native Daughters with Carolina Chocolate Drops founder Rhiannon Giddens. This is Russell’s second solo album, which makes her feel like a new singer-songwriter, but she has been around a while. Her story is almost too much, her mentally ill Canadian mother put her into foster care and took her out of the foster system when she married a white supremacist, who abused her for over 10 years (she is biracial). But in “The Returner,” she weaves stories of triumphing over such deep trauma, with help from guests like Brandi Carlile. Like all her work, it’s a rich stew pulling from various influences from old-school R&B/soul to Americana filled with profound and marvelous lyrics. And my, is it ever good…if you caught her on CBS Saturday Morning, you were in for a treat.
Willie Nelson, “Bluegrass”
Willie turned 90 this year, and put out his 74th (!) studio album in September. No retiring for this man, he still has something to offer, and perhaps a little ironically, gave us a real sittin’-on-the-porch good-time record as he enters his 10th decade on this here planet. “Bluegrass” finds Willie taking some of his favorite songs that he has written in his 70 years or so of songwriting and reworking them with a group of crack bluegrass musicians such as Aubrey Haynie and Dan Tyminski. The guy’s never done a bluegrass album, so why not? Nelson classics such as “Sad Songs and Waltzes,” “A Good Hearted Woman,” and “No Love Around” shine in this format, and let’s just say “On the Road Again” becomes the bluegrass classic that we all suspected it might be.
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, “Weathervanes”
Jason Isbell is part of the liberal wing of Nashville. Yes, that exists, and it includes his wife Amanda Shires (part of his band but a great songwriter herself), Rosanne Cash, Kacey Musgraves, and even Garth Brooks. He is also something of a Bruce Springsteen of the South, and on the album “Weathervanes,” that comparison is apt. Since he kicked his addictions and left to go it on his own after being a major part of the seminal band the Drive-By Truckers, Isbell has written hard-hitting songs about the America he feels needs its stories to be told. On Weathervanes, he spins tales of the personal cost of the opiate epidemic (“King of Oklahoma”), the terror of raising a child during a time of mass shootings (“Change the World”), the pros and cons of home-spun wisdom (“Cast Iron Skillet”), and perhaps the best example of Springsteen-with-a-Southern-drawl that tells a story of missed opportunities and bad decisions (“This Ain’t It”). Sometimes it rocks, but it always thinks and is never not beautiful. “Weathervanes” is a career highlight for a man who is carving his own place in music history, and it’s a document of our current time. Not bad for a dude from Alabama.
boygenius – “The Record”
Supergroups sometimes disappoint, often less than the sum of their parts. For every Traveling Wilburys there a Velvet Revolver. And then there is boygenius, the synergistic melding of three of today’s best singer-songwriters, Lucy Dacas, Julien Baker, and Phoebe Bridgers. On The Record, they seem to mix each other’s styles in new and interesting ways on each song, such as Julien Baker’s gearhead rock guitarist aesthetic, Lucy Dacas’ butter-smooth-yet-tough-as-nails voice, and Pheobe Bridgers sometimes brutal frankness. The album opens a capella, a brave move in and of itself but a wonderful showcase of their CSN-like harmonies, and quickly moves into 1990s rock territory with “$20.” The 90s really made a big comeback this year, and it makes multiple appearances throughout The Record such as on the stirring penultimate cut “Anti-Curse” and on Phoebe Bridgers gorgeous tribute to 1990s songwriter Elliot Smith “Revolution 0.” Other highlights of the record include the trying to mend fences with an old lover song, “Cool About It” (wouldn’t be out of place on Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours – seriously), the achingly beautiful Lucy Dacas love song, “We’re in Love” and the instant stone-cold classic about dealing with anxiety, “Not Strong Enough.” Queer but not necessarily ideological about it, owners of a sense of humor, and unabashedly progressive, these young songwriters have produced an album about the two-edged sword that is love, mental health, female friendship, the end of their youth, and dealing with a world that on so many levels isn’t so easy to navigate (but they never stop trying). One that any music lover of any age can appreciate.
Victoria Monét – “The Age of Pleasure”
The 90s connection here is more indirect, in that Jennelle Monae’s sound has at least one toe in 1970s soul at all times, even when she’s rolling with dub or any of her other influences. This was a characteristic of the 1990s neo-soul movement of D’Angelo and Jill Scott, so I guess this is neo-neo-soul. Her voice is much like her elder and 90’s icon, the Queen of Tough Street R&B Crooning, Mary J. Blige, in that it is in turns sweet and tough. The opener “Smoke” instantly serves up some toe-tappin’ soul, and a tribute to the joys of smokin’ weed. Appropriately the next song is called “Party Girls” and has some Jamaican dub influence, and like some of the best soul/R&B/hip-hop, creates an intricate and well, trippy soundscape. An album you can both chill and dance to, Monét has put out an instant R&B classic that has earned its Grammy nomination for Album of the Year. Other standouts include the Quiet Storm-esque new standard, “How Does It Make You Feel,” a little something for the Earth, Wind, and Fire fans, “Hollywood,” and the soulful bittersweet lover’s kiss-off, “Good Bye.” She has been around a little while now as a songwriter, especially for Ariana Grande, but this is quite a debut full album.
