Ari Lennox – Get Close
Brittany Howard – Red Flags
Dora Jar – Puppet
Author: Faronheit Page 5 of 192
Noah Kahan & Hozier – Northern Attitude
PinkPantheress – Nice to meet you (ft. Central Cee)
T-Pain & Snoop Dogg – That’s How We Ballin
070 Shake – Natural Habitat (ft. Ken Carson)
Sheer Mag – Playing Favorites
Yaya Bey – crying through my teeth
Benny the Butcher & Lil Wayne – Big Dog
Destiny Rogers – Still Your Girl
Kacy Hill – No One
Well we have once again made it through another year. As such, the time for reflection and list making is upon us. Did you listen to a lot of new music this year? If you did, congratulations because 2023 happened to be a pretty great one overall in terms of pure artistry and quality recordings. Some years it’s a struggle to name 50 records that both held my attention and truly impressed. This one both came together with relative ease, and left me a little sad not everything I loved in 2023 could be included. 50 is a manageable number, plus another 10 honorable mentions because I can’t help myself. Even still, everyone from Jessy Lanza to PJ Harvey to The Armed to Lydia Loveless to Bar Italia all couldn’t quite survive the inevitable cuts and it breaks my heart.
The ultimate point of this list, and any list really, is to try and let you know both what amazing records you might have missed, but also to hopefully see if you agree or disagree with my take on things. Everyone’s taste is different, and that’s what makes it so great. So here are 50 (+10) records that meant a lot to me this year. And while I understand the spirit of the zeitgeist in including a record or two from December 2022 on some year-end lists, this isn’t one of them.
All the records listed here came out in 2023, and if you saw my year-end list from 2022 then you’d know SZA was on that. I sincerely hope you enjoy this list, and ideally make some great new discoveries along the way. Check out some albums you might not have done otherwise. Take this moment to reflect, then rest assured we’ll be right back at it again come January. Here we go, Faronheit’s Top 50 Albums of 2023.
Honorable Mention
Gia Margaret – Romantic Piano
Jane Remover – Census Designated
Jess Williamson – Time Ain’t Accidental
Margaret Glaspy – Echo the Diamond
Marnie Stern – The Comeback Kid
McKinley Dixon – Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!?
Overmono – Good Lies
Sampha – Lahai
Slow Pulp – Yard
Yo La Tengo – This Stupid World
One thing that fascinates me about year-end lists is how little true consensus there tends to be between them. It makes the moments when everyone actually IS in agreement so much more powerful, and a testament to the quality of something. Call it the Paddington 2 effect, or I suppose the Dolly Parton effect, because nobody actually dislikes either of those two things. My favorite song of 2023 falls into that “broad consensus” category. So many people and publications ranked it as their top track of the year that seeing another list fall in line like this one might induce another eye roll and a “here we go again”. But I can’t deny something that’s objectively true, as much as I’d like to be a contrarian. You’re of course more than welcome to disagree with me, along with the hundreds of other music writers who listed this as the #1 song of 2023. What’s wilder, in my mind, is how this 7+ minute track received no commercial or terrestrial radio placement, as far as I’m aware. Instead it just got a lot of organic, fully chosen plays across a variety of formats. If you know your music and have been paying close attention to year-end lists, hopefully my favorite song of 2023 won’t come as a surprise.
But for those who still aren’t sure what I’m talking about, there’s a list of 100 great songs here just waiting for your ears, stretched across a wide variety of genres and styles. A little something for everyone. The rules are relatively simple – so long as the song was released at some point in 2023, it was eligible for inclusion on this list. But also, to spread the love as much as possible, every artist and album only gets to be represented by a single track on this list. Featured guest spots do not count towards this total, which is how JPEGMAFIA, Danny Brown, and Lil Yachty all managed to show up more than once. Alternatively, even a Various Artists record like the Barbie soundtrack only gets one song to represent it. If you’ve got a problem with that, take it up with management. Otherwise, kick back and soak in the 6.5 hours of music that represent the finest tracks of 2023. The list is below, along with clickable links to hear every song on YouTube. There’s also an embedded Spotify playlist near the bottom if that’s your preference. Listen, explore, and enjoy! Cheers to the end of the year, and wishing you a great 2024 ahead!
The actions and behavior of a crowd often dictate how well a particular performance goes. Inattentive, unenthusiastic, or just plain rude concertgoers can have an effect on the entire show experience both on stage and off. Last year for example, I saw The Smile perform at The Riviera Theatre and a self-professed “massive fan” of the band standing behind me proceeded to add running commentary through the entire set before someone eventually got security involved. It turned what should have been a transcendent show into a bit of a nightmare.
Thankfully, the opposite is true as well. Great enthusiasm and energy inspires others to match it, and possesses the ability to push a strong performance to an even higher, more transcendent level. The great concertgoing experiences far outnumber the poor ones. At Sleeping Village on Thursday night, I was lucky enough to catch another great one courtesy of Jessy Lanza.
Bombay Bicycle Club – I Want to Be Your Only Pet
Earl Sweatshirt & The Alchemist – Sentry (ft. MIKE)
Eartheater – Pure Smile Snake Venom
KennyHoopla – keep a window open//
Slayyyter – Erotic Electronic
The Streets – Too Much Yayo
Bakar – Right Here, For Now
Hannah Diamond – Perfect Picture
K.Flay – Irish Goodbye (ft. Vic Fuentes of Pierce the Veil)
