It’s been an incredible year for music, so much so that I’ve actually had a lot of trouble compiling this year’s top fifty list, particularly the top few spots. I guess we could put everything into perspective and say that those top spots are interchangeable to some extent, and how this list shan’t be used for debate, but as a celebration of the art that’s keeping us going. Let’s begin…
Honourable mentions:
Fanfare – Dorian Electra
La La Land – Guided by Voices
Let’s Start Here – Lil Yachty
Shook – Algiers
The Gray In Between – Jeromes Dream
The Patience – Mick Jenkins
The Lamb as Effigy – Sprain
Cousin – Wilco
Lahai – Sampha
Bad News – Real Bad Man and Blu
The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We – Mitski
#50 – The Greater Wings – Julie Byrne
An often overlooked singer-songwriter, Julie Byrne commits layers of grief to The Greater Wings, emerging with refined instrumentation that grows beyond folk norms. In an effort to dedicate the final product to her late, longtime collaborator, Eric Littman, the album swells with loss, love, and beauty.
#49 – Desire Pathway – Screaming Females
Via kickass, molten riffage – not to mention some of Marissa Paternoster’s strongest vibrato– Desire Pathway harkens back to the loud, melodically-driven Screaming Females albums of old. It maintains the ethos of the ‘90s DIY scene with bold highlights like Brass Bell, Desert Train and Mourning Dove.
#48 – Integrated Tech Solutions – Aesop Rock
As vast as Aesop Rock’s vocabulary is, it’s time for us to forget about his word count and focus on his ability to rap album anything. Continuing his knack for storytelling, Integrated Tech Solutions includes masterful raps about drawing pigeons, enjoying rivers, and weird anecdotes about a junky living in Aes’s ceiling.
#47 – Singles – Lil Ugly Mane
Slight production issues aside, Lil Ugly Mane’s quintessence lives inside of the collection of 2022 singles he released this year. Mumbled stoner ballads, intricate shoegaze and trip hop remind anybody listening just who is the most versatile songbird currently flying – it’s Lil Ugly Mane, in case you didn’t get that.
#46 – This Is Why – Paramore
Influenced by the weirdness of post-lockdown life, This Is Why contains some of Paramore’s most resonant material to those outside of the emo bubble. Fair enough, also supplying such likeability is the band’s willingness to experiment with their palettes and song structures, making the album an appropriate follow-up to After Laughter.
#45 – Magic 3 – Nas
We are still firmly in the era of Nas simply enjoying himself with his raps, also known as the Hit-Boy collaborations era. On Magic 3, the duo don’t necessarily think too far outside the box to go hard; Nas’s flows are either cool or rampant, Hit-Boy’s beats are spectacularly multi-laced – both produce the utmost energy.
#44 – Australian Carnage – Nick Cave and Warren Ellis
One might assume Nick Cave shooting the shit would be as akin to barbarism as his lyrics, but a charm – a sober joy – takes over his live collaboration with Warren Ellis, and anybody who likes their album Carnage will easily be able to bask in its love and humour. Australian Carnage is charming, beautifully-orchestrated and deadly.
#43 – Quaranta – Danny Brown
If it wasn’t already obvious, Danny Brown is going to appear again late on in this list. Quaranta is the calmer flipside to his madcap collaboration with JPEGMAFIA, insisting on reflection, self-growth and a “life begins at forty” mentality rather than scaring any hoes. It’s the endearing Danny Brown album, and it turns out we needed it.
#42 – Space Heavy – King Krule
There is a precious, new world floating around the innards of Archy Marshall’s brain. When soaked in chorus, it has revealed itself with distrust and optimism on prior King Krule albums, but Space Heavy jazzes it up with greater use of a full band and technique. Dude loves an atmosphere, and now, those atmospheres are being played by killer musicians.
#41 – 10,000 Gecs – 100 Gecs
Come on, get a sense of humour. Oh, sorry, I thought I could feel you judging this placement, but let’s face it, post-ironic music has had its place ever since Frank Zappa decides to mix jazz fusion ingenuity and absurd humour. In this day and age, it comes in the form of daft hyperpop and stupid songs about frogs, and it’s pretty damn entertaining.
#40 – The Loveliest Time – Carly Rae Jepsen
The Loveliest Time is Carly Rae Jepsen’s first “sister album” to a prior release that stands proudly on its own without any connection. The album follows The Loneliest Time by displaying Jepsen’s passion for performance, presiding over gushes of synth pop and some arena influence, see Stadium Love. Hey Carly, watch this!
#39 – Super Snooper – Snooper
Some of us merely think about snooping, then worry it’ll make us look crazy. Snooper super-snoop on Super Snooper, and they don’t care about how crazy they sound. Lo-fi punk needs this form of reckless abandon, not to mention the huge dogpile of societal narratives the album rapidly thumbs through.
#38 – Enola Gay – Asia Menor
One gigantic, charging hook after another – particularly opening track Patio – paves the emo-y, art punk yearnings of Enola Gay. Combining these instincts with progressive structures and mathematics legitimises Asia Menor’s debut album as one of the year’s most dexterous rock albums.
#37 – Jenny From Thebes – The Mountain Goats
It might not be as hectic as The Coroner’s Gambit, or as poignant as All Hail West Texas, but Jenny From Thebes brings the prettified songwriting of those albums calmy into the full-band Mountain Goats era. Due to its joyful guitar and horn embellishments, I will stand by songs like Fresh Tattoo and Murder at the 18th St. Garage as some of the year’s best.
#36 – Girl with Fish – Feeble Little Horse
Ready to mess with your mind and subsequently wink at you, Girl with Fish is a very indie, very slacker, very fuzzy album, until Sweet attacks with breakbeats and maddening vocal duets. There is more extra-curricular hoo-ha than just that, but Feeble Little Horse have proven to be one of underground rock’s most unpredictable bands.
#35 – Toil and Trouble – Angelo De Augustine
The shyness of Angelo De Augustine’s style of singing and songwriting rumbles through Toil and Trouble in a manner that subverts his general replication of Sufjan Stevens. Humility finds belonging in his poetry and love of subtly dramatic chord changes on ballads like The Painter and Blood Red Thorn.
#34 – Disposable Everything – AJJ
On recent AJJ albums, I’d found myself missing the rawer, grainy folk punk of Sean Bonnette’s younger years. Disposable Everything doesn’t need it, because it substitutes it for some of the most urgent rock songs Bonnette has ever written, all with important themes; Death Machine, The Baby Panda, etc.
#33 – 93696 – Liturgy
93696 is as unnerving as it is theatrical. Haela Hunt-Hendrix’s love of transcendentality merges with Liturgy’s thickest instrumental palette, sickly, disgustingly, but also prettily. It is more an out-and-out ethos than it is a black metal album, which comes with its own super-structural complexities and noisiness.
#32 – Ask – Altin Gun
A party atmosphere often makes its way into Anatolian rock – including those released by King Gizzard – but Altin Gun have never partied as energetically or magnetically as they do on Ask. Complete with dance rhythms and baglama breaks, it captures Middle Eastern motifs with undistorted faith.
#31 – After the Magic – Parannoul
It’s one searing album, blinded by love and optimism, after an other for Parannoul, isn’t it? The burgeoning Seoul shoegaze scene has its flagship figure, and the dream states and terrains of After the Magic are even more prominent than they are on the releases that brought Parannoul to the dance a few years back.
#30 – El dia libre de Polux – Chini.png
Chini and the Technicians may be on an indefinite hiatus, but their lead singer is happily continuing the experimentation that makes the bulk of their music so pronounced and powerful. El dia libre de Polux is Chini.png melding his experimentalism into some of the most breathtaking high points and crescendos ever crafted by a technician.
#29 – Coin Coin Chapter Five: In the Garden – Matana Roberts
It’s hard not to be smitten with Matana Robert’s Coin Coin series. In the Garden is the most gruelling instalment thus far, comprised of eerily talkative spoken word narration, juggling description and intimate details, whilst the spiritual boom of the album’s jazz backdrop nurses the complexities of historic racial identity.
#28 – Knower Forever – Knower
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There is a lot more to Knower Forever than stylistic deviation, but that is where its essence spills from. There are multiple highlights that combine gruesome guitars and funky drums, dubstep screeches and breakbeats, and jazzy playing. Then, combine that with lyrics like “Mount Rushymore has some tits” and you’ve got a wildly unpredictable album.
#27 – Messages to God – Sarah Mary Chadwick
Sarah Mary Chadwick has often dedicated an album’s worth of lyrical detail to a specific crisis or relationship. Messages to God simply portrays her current state, with estranged relationships scattered around tales of alcoholism and good self-advice. She ups her instrumental oomph, creating even bigger ballads than on previous albums.
#26 – Me chama de gato que eu sou sua – Ana Frango Eletrico
God, now this one’s delectable. We’re in a distinct era of Latin American artists combining rural influences with funk and dance pop, and Me chama de gato que eu sou sua is one of the slickest releases of that ilk. Ana Frango Eletrico hopscotches from MPB balladry to zappy anthems like Electric Fish and Boy of Stranger Things in mere moments.
#25 – Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!? – McKinley Dixon
What shall I do? Speak about the political and familial connections displayed over McKinley Dixon’s music or simply how catchy said compositions are? As a writer, and as a jazz rapper, he has the utmost depth, as if he’s on a continuous quest for catharsis, but on Run, Run, Run, he also bangs out an all-timer hook.
#24 – Heaven Knows – PinkPantheress
There aren’t many who can combine gloom and pep whilst keeping the same expression on their face, but PinkPantheress has been doing so ever since she first got her hands on a copy of GarageBand. Heaven Knows does so whilst containing her most memorable mini-anthems, and statements of self and resolve.
#23 – Ashes, Organs, Blood and Crypts – Autopsy
Death Metal, you know it’s heavy and often fast and grinding. Ashes, Organs, Blood and Crypts takes these traits further; it is incredible bracing thanks to its insistence on unstoppable tempo. Autopsy are a grizzled veteran band, but they’re not resting on any laurels, particularly where songs like Throatsaw are concerned.
#22 – Zango – Witch
Zamrock is back, or maybe it never went anywhere if you’ve been humming your favourite Amanaz tunes since 1976. With rasping, psychedelic guitars, a consistent tunefulness, and energetic pacing, Witch’s return makes the subgenre seem like the most important thing in the world. Hell, its importance is discussed on the album, with love.
#21 – I Was Mature For My Age, But I Was Still a Child – Grouptherapy
Polished pop rap experimentalism has been many an artist’s “thing” – namely Brockhampton / Kevin Abstract – but it suits the soul-searching vibe of Grouptherapy more than anybody else. I Was Mature For My Age circles through themes of sexuality, abuse, and growing up in the spotlight, with deft subgenre-juggling.
#20 – We’re Still Here – The HIRS Collective
The HIRS Collective’s search for empowerment is benefitted by resources. Not only is We’re Still Here a sugar rush of any genre with “core” in the name, but a “strength in numbers” collaborations project, in which many a soldier’s strengths are played to. It’s a long list with a ‘play’ button attached.
#19 – Maps – Billy Woods and Kenny Segal
Amid the dirt and drumless wonderment of a Billy Woods album – or a Billy Woods collaboration with Kenny Segal – is always the odd contextualised song with near-conventional instrumentation. I love the tracks of this ilk that belong to Maps, like Soft Landing, producing cushions and companions for regularly existential lyrical themes – and there are a good few of ‘em!
#18 – Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love? – Kara Jackson
I’ve no idea how much pressure comes with being a youth poet laureate, but Kara Jackson’s philosophical poetry has followed her into what has become a full-hearted career in music, even in its infancy. Her debut album tries to figure this whole life thing out with each picking of a guitar string, and each pained soliloquy.
#17 – Softscars – Yeule
Nat Cmiel’s robotic alter ego boasts as many emotions as your favourite romantic poet. Its name is Yeule, and on Softscars it forms vulnerability indietronica and some looser genres. With a vocal style similar to that of our #24 entry, a wide resource of expression arrives from something that seems stoic on surface.
#16 – Isn’t It Now? – Animal Collective
Isn’t It Now’s ability to reminisce the creative highs of one of art pop’s greatest assets is secondary to its feelings of longing and seasonal change. Sure, it also maxes out its creativity, especially on Defeat, a mammoth track that focusses on atmosphere one moment, then bouncing pop buoyancy the next, particularly as it reaches its mind-bending, mid-song hook.
#15 – Wallsocket – Underscores
Every city needs a hero, including the fictional town of Wallsocket. There, Underscores pen songs that merge themes of abuse with sing-along chants and chant-along songs. They acerbically produce hyperpop and punk-ish tunes about rich bitches and armed robbery. It is a do-all album, with few breaths wasted. Good luck!
#14 – Never Falter Hero Girl – Katie Dey
Katie Dey’s songs of perseverance have always been powerful – at the very least, cutely pretty. Those of Never Falter Hero Girl are reappraised as extra-satisfying charges of universal love, hearty cries that recur through songs like Dance Butterflies and the title track. Even in a computer-y setting, her sense of connection is breathable.
#13 – Permanently Blackface (The 1st Expression) – Lukah
Lukah doesn’t mind making his albums “difficult” listens. His raps have often been racially or culturally oriented, but Permanently Blackface pushes such themes scarily, portraying the anxiety of simply living as an African-American, never knowing which cop is the one with the itchy finger, whilst glancing back at the historical acceptance of racism in entertainment.
#12 – My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross – Anohni and the Johnsons
My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross is a big step response to past small steps taken by queer and transgender communities. Kind of, sort of mirroring its mission statement, the album often defies categorisation, albeit with a soulful backbone. It is Anohni’s return and her revelation, situating the power she possesses as a transwoman, as a fighter.
#11 – Live at Bush Hall – Black Country, New Road
The year’s best live album is fuelled by togetherness. Their first major release since frontman Isaac Wood left the band, Live at Bush Hall sees numerous members of Black Country, New Road taking on lead vocal duties, whilst sharpening their songwriting skills to produce windful moments of surrender such as Turbines/Pigs. They have re-found themselves.
#10 – HELLMODE – Jeff Rosenstock
Jeff Rosenstock’s palpable anxiety screams through HELLMODE with far more scatterings of assurance than previous album No Dream. We’re in this hell together, and if ever a guiding light were needed, Jeff supplies it with calming hysterics and power pop prowess on guttural cuts like Doubt and Future Is Dumb. Never will he not be vital.
#9 – Dogsbody – Model/Actriz
Dogsbody is Model/Actriz’ Xiu-Xiu-esque take on queer immersion. Via nonlinear no wave and moments of solace that get drowned by sudden noise, the album finds endless musical dialects to pummel emotion through the speakers. Even when totally punked-up, the same end result applies – where would we be without weird ragers like Mosquito?
#8 – We Buy Diabetic Test Strips – Armand Hammer
Themes of mental instability, familial love, Africa and societal shit flow through the complicated world of Armand Hammer like vital blood. We Buy Diabetic Test Strips is Billy Woods and Elucid’s resilient whip-around of mind-altering quotables and alpha atmospheres. Their songs are abstract and provocative, coming with a winner’s mentality despite desolation.
#7 – But Here We Are – Foo Fighters
The first Foo Fighters album released following the passing of drummer Taylor Hawkins was always bound to be a gut-punch, but Dave Grohl’s performances on But Here We Are go beyond grief. See Rest, see the title track, both self-grating approaches to healing with no regard for his own throat. They’re hardly lacking passionate albums in their catalogue, but this one, oh man…
#6 – Gag Order – Kesha
Gag Order overcomes the restrictions of…you know, an actual gag order. On Kesha’s most emotionally mature album, she is legally restricted to document the ins and outs of her personal suffering, but she still manages to pour her heart out. It’s her best crop of songs, her most powerful crop of songs, a beautiful bunch of survival anthems such as Only Love Can Save Us Now.
#5 – I’ve Got Me – Johana Sternberg
I’ve Got Me evokes memories of a number of musical pasts as it shuffles through its indie gospel. The amateur balladry of Daniel Johnston; classic singer-songwriter albums of the ‘60s and ‘70s; the vocal quirks of Joanna Newsom; unapologetic hymnal. Johana Sternberg’s is a voice worth listening to, giving historic simplicity the perfect 2023 home.
#4 – Chaos Takes the Wheel and I Am a Passenger – Awakebutstillinbed
You know, sometimes all you need is a gutsy emo album that reclines and contemplates before bursting into a soul-shaking crescendo. Chaos Takes the Wheel is one of the very best of this familiar ilk that I’ve heard; it is the Awakebutstillinbed follow-up the backs of our minds knew we needed, making good with continuous, cathartic emotion.
#3 – Javelin – Sufjan Stevens
Dedicated to his late partner, Evans Richardson, Sufjan Stevens ups his own personability on Javelin. He has already released some of the most stunningly candid projects any singer-songwriter has, and whilst following in the weepy footsteps of Carrie & Lowell, Javelin proves that airing grief the Sufjan way is the most magical way that anybody can, and ever has.
#2 – Scaring the Hoes – Danny Brown and JPEGMAFIA
If you ever see a ho quaking in her ho boots, well, firstly check to make sure she’s actually okay – if she is, she’s likely been scared by this album by Danny Brown and JPEGMAFIA. A mentalist hip hop album, Scaring the Hoes grins from ear-to-ear with esoteric sampling that’d make RZA or Madlib proud, and many of the most bonkers flows and rhyme schemes. If you swim in my musical circles, you know about it by now, it’s Scaring the Hoes, it’s freaky, it’s dynamic, it’s incredible.
#1 – SAVED! – Reverend Kristin Michael Hayter
It’s a bit of a cliché to call music “a religious experience”, but SAVED is, quite literally, a religious experience, specifically Kristin Hayter’s religious experience. Dropping Lingua Ignota’s neoclassical noise for a redeveloped hymnal, Hayter’s latest revelation intimately portrays multiple facets of her divine retribution; the evil that lurks in the hearts of fanatics, carefully studied by rustic pianos, glossolalia, and tape effects that fanatics would likely claw through to find a hidden Satanic message; and the mere notion that no matter how much love one may have for their religion, it’s always going to be complicated. Music like this is a sick rarity.
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