10 albums from 2023

HI!!! It's coming up at the end of the year (it was still 2023 when i wrote that) so I figured I'd make a list of albums I loved this year that I feel like more people should also love. The list is going to be a link to the album and then a short blurb about each one. This list is in no particular order, just when I thought of them.

10: Far From Everyone You Know by Always Other

This album is an amazing shoegaze project where everything just hits right. Everything is perfectly spaced-out leaving plenty of room to get lost in the vibe (and believe me the vibe is incredible). This album even does a bit of genre bending with an ambient interlude that blends perfectly into the project. Not to get too nerdy but the production on this is something i adore, the drums are punchy as hell cutting through the layers of reverb caked onto the guitars, the early-joji-esque production on the vocals is something i always appreciate, the bass is pushed back enough to not interfere with the drums but is still present enough to not make the track feel spineless. I might be a bit biassed for this release because my first exposure to it might be the best way to listen to it, sitting on my back porch with a tea under my arm to protect it from the light rain while watching cars drive by.

9:  Census Designated by Jane Remover

Sticking with shoegaze, Census Designated is Jane Remover's second album where she leans even further into the spacey sound she established on her first album Frailty. If Frailty is shoegazy hyperpop, then this is the inverse, and she pulls it off just as well. Blending both genres together in a new way that leads to this project going from incredibly laid back to almost smothering in a matter of minutes and you can't tell when it's happening until it's over.

8: Delusional by Dev Lemons

I know I said 10 albums from 2023 but Delusional is one of the things on the list that I give a pass, it's just too good for me not to mention. I'm not the deepest into the hyperpop scene (even though i know i would love it) but even then there are a few releases this year that caught my attention, this is one of them. Dev Lemons vocals are incredible on this and the overall production of each track is incredible (like most songs Dev is on). With its short runtime I could listen to it 3-4 times without realising it. Each song sounds fresh no matter how long I leave it on loop. The contrast between Dev's softer vocals and the harsh sounding synths on some of these songs is incredible as well, this ep is full of small things that you only pick up on after a few listens and I love projects like that.

7: Se Bueno by TURQUOISEDEATH

TURQUOISEDEATH is one of the best people in the more underground side of breakcore, and this album is a perfect example of that. The pads on each song can only be described as angelic, and I'm always a sucker for breakcore songs with guitar and this album does that multiple times. This album also does its fair amount of genre bending with switches into a more softer sound with no breaks and just hip hop drums and on other occasions switching into shoegaze. Did I mention this album has features from ASIAN GLOW AND PARANNOUL? Their styles of shoegaze work surprisingly well with breakcore and this song alone should be enough for you to check out the whole album. Before I see anyone going "ermm it's actually atmos dnb." Turquoisedeath has put in so much work for the breakcore community that if he isn't breakcore he's an honorary member.

6: After The Magic by Parannoul

Going back to shoegaze for one more release, Parannoul’s 3rd album is a massive leap forward creatively from their 2021 release “To See the Next Part of The Dream '' with a completely new sound. Where TSTNPOTD seemed like Parannoul taking from a solid foundation and creating something new with it, After the Magic is Parannoul doing away with the foundation entirely. It feels like a freefall put through the lens of shoegaze in the best way possible. Parannoul takes the almost suffocating atmosphere of their sophomore release and flips it on its head, creating something that I would describe as “airy”. This album feels like the inverse of TSTNPOTD in almost every aspect, if you like it you will love After the Magic.

5: 10,000 gecs by 100 gecs

100 gecs is great. 10,000 gecs is also great. It's a massive departure from their previous release. It also goes through so many genres I can't count them all. Hyperpop, nu-metal, and ska punk aren't genres you would typically expect on one album but Laura and Dylan throw them in and it works perfectly. I would say the sheer amount of genre hopping blends well but it really doesn't, and that adds amazingly to the noisy, chaotic sound of the album. It's not just the number of genres that make this album incredible as well, each song's production is amazing(ly good at blowing out your eardrums and I mean that affectionately).

4: The Whaler by Home Is Where

Holding my emo album of the year spot is Home Is Where’s 2nd album The Whaler. It is a masterpiece of nearly folky-at-times emo. Plus it has a musical saw! Who wouldn't love that? If you look into the meaning of the album you get a concept of “What if groundhog day but on 9/11?” which is pulled off masterfully, but if you look deeper you can find questions like “why do we memorialize some tragedies but others get shrugged off?” with obvious comparisons to covid. This album likes to switch between feeling almost like a blanket at times and almost like a sprint at others, giving you enough time to get comfortable with very laid-back energy in one song then on the next they turn it up to 11. This album is probably what I would recommend to someone who’s trying to get into 5th wave emo, not because I feel like it perfectly describes the sound of the genre, but because I feel like this project is one of the best releases in modern emo.

3: "smiling broadly" EP by smiling broadly

The other ep on this list is probably my favourite of the year. After announcing last year that she will be dissolving her previous project “Twinkle Park”, Hazel soon dropped a self titled ep for her new project and announced that an album was on the way, and if the album sounds anything like the ep it will be an easy contender for aoty. I'm always a sucker for vocaloid being used in genres that typically don't use it and that's all that hazel does, this ep being 4 tracks (5 if you buy it on bandcamp here) of fuzzy emo instrumental with Miku on vocals and it's amazing. This project is perfectly loud, and like Delusional (the other ep on this list), it's full of little things to pick up on subsequent listens.

2: Burning Desire by MIKE

Holding the only rap album on the list is MIKE’s 10th album Burning Desire. Fans of Earl Sweatshirt will love this one, MIKE carries a similar flow that almost feels like he's slipping off the beat sometimes. Speaking of beats, the ones on this album are incredible, almost leaning into vaporwave territory on some of them. Touching back on Earl Sweatshirt, he has a feature on this album and the song is one of my favourites, both MIKE and Earl sound great and the beat sounds lazily angelic if that makes any sense. Lyrically this album feels melancholic, with lots of themes of loss and grief but instead of sounding sad or angry they come across as accepting and reflective, pair this with beats that oftentimes give off a Nujabes vibe or as previously mentioned are almost vaporwave-y, makes for a very smooth listen. Despite being very laid back, this album doesn't hang on one note for long with only 3 of the 24 tracks crossing the 3 minute mark, this album feels like even though it's taking its time it still has places to be so it only hangs around enough for the listener to take everything in, just to then pull you into something new.

1: HELLMODE by Jeff Rosenstock

Jeff Rosenstock’s latest album is one of his best. It's a perfect blend of the self aware antagonizing he's pretty well known for at this point, and social commentary. He has a way of diving head first into the topics he covers that time and time again is refreshing in the world of pop punk, retaining subtlety with some of his lines and then clashing that with very in-your-face deliveries like (“What's it gonna take to guide the bush fires to eradicate every single trace of these scumfuck white supremacists?” from Soft Living). Sonically this album is a trip, the opening 2 tracks are tied together and are both almost smothering and very fast paced. The smothering feel carries over to a lot of the rest of the album as well, with Jeff sprinkling in parts that give the listener room to breathe here and there, then diving right back into it. Sitting in the middle of all of that is track 7 “HEALMODE”, being possibly the calmest song in Jeff’s catalogue. The only instruments on it are a couple synths and an acoustic guitar. It very much feels like something he wrote sitting on his back porch or by a windowsill. Even if you’ve never heard of Jeff Rosenstock or have no interest in punk in general, I still highly recommend this album, it very much feels like a snapshot of how most people have been and continue to feel with the way many things work now.

Thanks for reading if you made it this far, I hope I convinced at least 1 person to listen to at least 1 of the albums on this list, they’re all very special to me and there's nothing I love more than introducing people to things that I like. Before i go, i have a couple honourable mentions that are also great listens but for some reason or another barely missed the cut on this list:

I Know It's Easy to Forget, But Try to Enjoy Yourself by p0lar (a shorter, genre hopping experience that effortlessly goes from vaporwave to breakcore to a bunch of other genres)

Scaring The Hoes by JPEGMAFIA and DANNY BROWN (a masterpiece of experimental hip hop, there's not much i can say about it that hasn't already been said)

Captain Jazz by Captain Jazz (probably my favourite screamo release this year. Even though from the outside it looks like a shitpost, it has some of my favourite atmospheres out of anything i’ve listened to recently (opening track “The Simpsons 2” is a perfect example))

Once again, thank you for reading this far, i hope you found something that interested you here, I promise all the releases here are well worth your time and if you can, you should check them all out. Cya!