Favorite Recordings of 2023: Part Two — #36–#21
Giddens' first album of all-original songs; a record made in a beloved German cathedral; a record for fans of the zither(!); and nine names that have never appeared on my lists before!
This post continues the marathon that began on January 6 with an “Honorable Mentions” post.
And, just as any of the albums I highlighted there could find there way, in time, onto this list, so any entry on this countdown of remarkable records might eventually grow in my estimation to end up on the next post, in the top 20.
Here are the albums that I am ranking, for now, as #36 through #21 in my annual rundown of more than thirty great records that I think would reward your attention.
If you see any of your own favorites here, post a comment and tell me why you love it.
If any surprise you and lead you to new discoveries, I’d love to hear about that, too. That is, indeed, why I’m investing time in this — hoping to introduce you to some new favorite songs.
#36
Rhiannon Giddens — You’re the One
This feels like a flashier, more commercial phase for one of the planet’s most talented musicians and singers. (At this point, Rhiannon Giddens can talk about her MacArthur “Genius” grant, her Pulitzer Prize, and her Grammys… for starters.) And while these songs do not cohere as seamlessly as her previous records, they make an impressive collection if we consider that, for the first time, all of them are originals written by Giddens herself.
And the highlights are dizzying. Just listen to “You Louisiana Man.” It’s an exhilarating demonstration of her skills and passion. How often are breakup songs so… joyful?
I may find myself, for the first time, skipping some tracks on one of her records. (I cringe my way through “If You Don’t Know How Sweet It Is,” and I wince at the lines “I treated you like a king / Maybe that’s the reason / Soon enough you grew to think / That Christmas was all season.”)
But the ebullience of the title track — an expression of the joys of motherhood — makes me sure that any new release from her in 2024 or 2025 will have me opening my wallet without needing a preview.
Favorite tracks:
“You Louisiana Man” — one of my favorite songs and performances of the year.
#35
100 Gecs — 10,000 Gecs
I wrote about this one and shared favorite tracks just a few weeks ago. It’s so fast. It’s so funny. And, if you’re paying attention to the musicianship, it’s incredible.
#34
Grandbrothers — Late Reflections
At first glance, I thought the album cover art represented two piano keyboards meeting in the middle. Look closer, and you’ll see keyboardists Erol Sarp and Lukas Vogel standing in Germany’s beloved Cologne Cathedral.
This is, in fact, the first recording of this kind ever produced in this cathedral, and I think you’ll notice its immediately distinctive resonance. Sarp and Vogel have a sound cinematic in scope that seems to deserve such a space cathedral. The artists may insist, as their press release reports, that they are “not religious and don’t aspire to make religious music.” Well… with all due respect, from this listener’s perspective, this music might move listeners into a meditative and even worshipful frame of mind and heart. This is a stand-out instrumental release that became one of the records I played most often while driving, writing, and grading papers in 2023. I’ll have to explore this band’s previous releases.
Favorite tracks:
#33
Blue Lake — Sun Arcs
I wrote about this one and shared favorite tracks earlier this year. And I’ve only grown to love it more, as it has been an acceptable substitute for sunshine on gray days, and it’s been a great accompaniment for sunshine on bright days. As I happened to drive by gleaming bodies of water while listening for a while, I’ve come to appreciate that it really is the musical equivalent of the flashes of summertime light on the surface of a lake.
#32
Lucinda Williams — Stories from a Rock ‘n’ Roll Heart
I wrote about this one and shared favorite tracks in a recent post.
At this point, I’ll take anything Lucinda Williams wants to share. She’s earned the right to my attention, and if the stroke has slowed her a little, or moved her out of her most poetic and strange songwriting into something more fundamental, that’s fine with me. I want the pleasure of her inimitable company and the beat of her rock ‘n’ roll heart for many years to come.
#31
Sunny War — Anarchist Gospel
One of the first 2023 releases I got excited about — I wrote about it way back in February — and I’m still discovering more to appreciate about it! Over the course of the record, I’m reminded of Tracy Chapman, Amythyst Kia, Allison Russell (who shows up here), Adia Victoria, and Gillian Welch (and David Rawlings shows up here). Sunny War belongs in that remarkable company. Everything about this record is strong, but I have a sense that the next one is going to be a breakthrough.
Favorite tracks:
#30
Bully — Lucky for You
SUGAREGG wasn’t just a flash in the pan. Bully has won my attention for two strong albums now, and I have no reason to doubt that Alicia Bognanno won’t have my attention with every new release for many years to come. This was a musical cup of very strong coffee on the morning commute many times this year.
Favorite tracks:
“Days Move Slow” — Anybody who writes a song that rocks this hard about losing a dog… well, it deserves a place on this list. (One of the highlights of my 2023, by the way, was hearing MJ Lenderman and Karly Hartzman cover Edie Brickell’s “Ghost of a Dog” live in Seattle.)
#29
Puma Blue — Holy Waters
Jacob Allen’s sound captured my attention and imagination right away. Anne and I were in the car when we first heard one of these songs, and Anne said, “Will you save this one for me? Can we listen to this album all the way through together for the first time?” If that isn’t recommendation enough for you to check this out, well… it should be.
Like Sufjan Stevens’ Javelin, this is an album of gorgeous lament, of grieving transformed into beauty and a sense that the missing persons are more alive than ever.
Here’s a record that recalls the slippery, shuffling beats of peak Portishead and the moody atmospherics of Angelo Badalementi’s Twin Peaks score, and then throws in surprises — as in “Hounds,” arguably the album’s energy peak, when unexpected guitar jams and a reckless saxophone break through.
Dash Lewis raves about it in detail at Paste.
Favorite tracks:
#28
Anjimile — The King
This first track on this album made me stop what I was doing and pay fierce attention, as the sound of it was startling and new, and the lyrics were playing with the story of Daniel and King Belshazzar — a story I can’t recall any artist exploring in song before.
That was enough to make me invest in several hours with this record, savoring its sounds and textures, and how Biblical imagery gives the artist a vocabulary for exploring difficult experiences — with family, with society, with himself, and with God. The easy thing to do would be to narrowly categorize it as the testimony of a black trans man suffering in a land of bigotry. And while we need that testimony, listen closely and allow for these songs to be so much more generous than that.
Favorite Tracks:
#27
Feist — Multitudes
Feist’s sound has always been playful and full of surprises.
The irresistible brightness of her early pop hooks (“Mushaboom,” “I Feel It All,” her cover of Ron Sexsmith’s “Secret Heart”),
the agility of her voice which can feel soft as fresh snow and as brittle as the crust that freezes across it,
her unrivaled capacity for catching us off-guard with blooming harmonies…
… there are just so many pleasures to her imaginative albums.
Her last album Pleasure found her getting, well… feistier, tackling tougher timings, abrasively angular sounds, and sonic weirdness that might remind us of PJ Harvey (the title track, especially), Tom Waits, and T Bone Burnett.
Multitudes reveals that she’s still exploring, still evolving, but she’s turning a corner now into looking back, drawing conclusions, and becoming one of rock’s wise women. This is an album of hard-won insights, motivational speeches, and tender-hearted consolation for women who have had enough of the narrow options life has given them. She seems particularly focused on nature as a language of inspiration, even collaborating on melodies with the birds in “The Redwing.” She’s moving ambitiously beyond the art of the bittersweet love song and into deeper meditations on transcendence and peace. But her voice is still cold, clear, and refreshing — my gin, my tonic.
Favorite Tracks:
#26
Yo La Tengo — This Stupid World
I was 15 when Yo La Tengo started, and I wouldn’t really take much notice of them — to my detriment — until two decades later when the title I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass (2006) finally motivated me to find out what all the fuss had been about. I liked it, but wow — there was so much going on. So many styles, so many tangents. I wasn’t sure how to make sense of them. They’ve been consistently prolific since then, and I just can’t keep up.
So, why is this record the one that has finally earned repeated rotation? I’m not sure. It feels solid. It feels like the kind of authentic indie rock that I miss — the kind that’s less interested in getting attention and more interested in sounds and grooves and just, well, the joy of playing. In a year of constant disruption, there was something grounded and human and stabilizing about this reliable and unhurried rock and roll.
Favorite Tracks:
#25
Paramore — This Is Why
A legendary band that has I’ve never quite appreciated before delivers a program of such solid bangers, such blistering demonstrations of talent and joy, such timely lyrics and compelling relevance that I suddenly found myself an enthusiastic fan. That opening title track gave me such a joyous high every time it came on that I’m sure I worried other drivers with my behavior behind the wheel.
Favorite Tracks:
#24
Killers of the Flower Moon — Original Music Composed by Robbie Robertson
Robbie Robertson’s grand curtain call comes to us courtesy of Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon: an impressive epic about the insidious influence of white supremacists in America’s genocidal violence against Native Americans. This takes Robertson back to the rich and rewarding sounds of what I consider his most interesting and replayable album: Songs for the Native Americans.
Favorite Tracks:
#23
Joseph — The Sun
I’m not sure I heard, track for track, a stronger album of polished, formulaic pop all year. Sure, the song structure isn’t surprising. What impresses me is just how they get me every single time. Like The Staves, they sound so good together, and they give each song just enough spark and substance to make you mean what you’re shout-singing along. The album’s aptly titled, too. When these three voices join in harmony while a propulsive beat carries them into crescendo, it’s like fierce and joyous sunshine blazing through your windshield, and I dare you to avoid breaking the speed limit whenever that happens.
I wrote about this album and shared favorite tracks last May, and I’m still loving it.
#22
Fenne Lily — The Big Picture
I wrote about this album and shared favorite tracks last May, and I’m still loving it… even though the live show at Neumo’s was somewhat disappointing. (Lily leaned so heavily into venting about frustrations with an ex that it soured what might otherwise have been an enchanting show.) Still, whenever these songs come on, I’m leaning in to catch all of the delicate lyrics, I’m thrilling to the strong guitar stylings of Joe Sherrin, and I surrender to that irresistible Suzanne Vega hush of Lily’s voice.
#21
Bob Dylan — The Bootleg Series, Vol. 17: Fragments — Time Out of Mind Sessions 1996–1997
Time Out of Mind is, for me, one of the greatest Dylan records. As his second collaboration with Daniel Lanois, it doesn’t quite reach the mountaintop perfection of 1988’s Oh Mercy, but it comes close, with stone-cold classics like “Not Dark Yet,” “To Make You Feel My Love,” “Cold Irons Bound,” and “Highlands.”
This release, though, suggests that this body of work gave him some of his most malleable and combustible material for live performance and for alternate takes. Some of the variations on the album versions here are astonishing, with daring changes in instrumentation and generous measures of new lyrics. And the live versions are often exhilarating. Songs that I found secondary on the original release become absolutely thrilling on stage with his inspired bandmates. I’m not sure how to rate this in my year-end albums list, as it’s mostly material from decades ago and songs I’ve known for years. But I never tired of these many bonus discs, and I spent more time listening to this package by far than any other music in 2023.
Favorite Tracks:
“Can’t Wait (Live in Nashville, Tennessee — February 6, 1999)”
“'Til I Fell in Love with You (Live in Buenos Aires, Argentina - April 5, 1998)”
Okay, music lovers…
Enough messing around! It’s time to get serious. Soon, I’ll post my twenty favorite recordings of 2023. As you might guess, given the quality of the amazing albums we’ve just covered, it’s going to be quite a collection!
Come back soon!
Jeffrey, I love that you provide links so your readers can get a taste of the music you're writing about.
I know what I'll be doing for much of the day!