From Margo Price and Kelsea Ballerini on the country side to JPEFMAFIA/Danny Brown and Young Fathers reppin’ for rap to Lana Del Rey representing herself, 2023 has so far offered many albums I’ve played to death, the most challenging of which are the top two; also, in many ways, the quietest. Even Kelela’s latest, after dissolving like freshly sprayed Febreze in April, took hold on a plane trip to Philadelphia. I’m still tasting Meshell Ndegeocello’s chewy new album, though what I’ve absorbed since Tuesday has exhilarated me. It’s the kind of year when Belle and Sebastian can still shock.
The list:
1. boygenius – The Record
2. Fever Ray – Radical Romantics
3. Avalon Emerson – & The Charm
4. Quasi – Breaking the Balls of History
5. Kali Uchis – Red Moon in Venus
6. Robert Forster – The Candle & the Flame
7. Rae Sremmurd – Sremmurd 4 Life
8. Kelsea Ballerini – Rolling Up the Welcome Mat
9. JPEGMAFIA/Danny Brown – Scaring the Hoes
10. Margo Price – Strays
11. The National – First Two Pages of Frankenstein
12. Lana Del Rey – Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd
13. Everything But the Girl – Fuse
14. Yo La Tengo — This Stupid World
15. Belle and Sebastian – Late Developers
16. Young Fathers – Heavy Heavy
17. Meshell Ndegeocello – The Omnichord Real Book
18. Janelle Monáe – The Age of Pleasure
19. Rufus Wainwright – Folkocracy
20. Kelela – Raven
Humanizing The Vacuum 