The 2023 End of Year music lists thread

was surprised to see the Jam City place so high on the Gorilla Vs Bear list, but then remembered that i didn’t listen to anything else for a few weeks this summer— perfect record in certain ways

how is anybody supposed to read the GvB list ... fuck the internet tbh

what's the issue supposed to be

gvb list is more interesting cos it's the work of one person who seems to have a fairly wide (and for better or worse sophisticated) taste and who listens to a lot of obscurities. would still probably rather cut to the chase and see ufo's or vc's personal lists. ah well, not long

one person who should absolutely post here, why don't they post here

Esquire and exclaim! Also have songs lists already.

Here’s the aggregate for songs

https://www.albumoftheyear.org/songs/best/2023/ Hope it works if not add / at the end

imago- probs because of people like me. oops.

(you are very otm tho- these lists have become the antithesis of what they're supposed to be for)

also, absolutely embarrassing posts by Austin

― alpine static, Friday, December 1, 2023 1:14 PM

i'm wondering how many fp i got for that one. not my intention, honestly. just venting. don't mean to upset anyone, but also very militant about how trash some music is. i can't even wrap my head around giving sufjan fucking stevens the time of day in 2023. that's far more embarrassing than any opinion some loser on the internet is posting. i do love music, that's why my patience is so short.

and i will say no more on the matter.

always enjoy an austin vent whether i agree or not - fuck the pile on, you keep doing you imo

i'm probably the board's biggest sufjan fan and i don't really give a shit if you dislike him but if you're going to be a hater at least be a hater about something real instead of this 'people only like him because he's white' bullshit

That's my problem as well, it's how it was stated. I do want to now hear it and I haven't heard a song since probably around that state album

continue staying level headed, bro👊🏻

xp it's a tremendous album, his very best in his singer-songwriter mode (but age of adz is still better of course). if you haven't kept up with him you are missing out

Love you Austin, your one of the best

“but it's about time for ol' suffy to get a career ending critical beatdown imo”

Magical thinking here that artist who is learning how to walk again releases album dedicated to recently deceased partner is going to attract critical vultures

this is his first big critical success in 8 years too, it's not like everything he's done has been critically beloved. before this one i was wondering if he was falling off a bit, but he's still got it and is almost better than ever

ROLLING STONE’S 50 BEST SONGS OF 2023

01 Peso Pluma and Eslabon Armado, ‘Ella Baila Sola’
02 PinkPantheress feat. Ice Spice, ‘Boy’s a Liar, Pt. 2’
03 Lana Del Rey, ‘A&W’
04 Zach Bryan feat. Kacey Musgraves, ‘I Remember Everything’
05 Shakira and Bizarrap, ‘Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53’
06 NewJeans, ‘Super Shy’
07 Olivia Rodrigo, ‘Get Him Back!’
08 Lil Yachty, ‘Strike (Holster)’
09 Billie Eilish, ‘What Was I Made For?’
10 Victoria Monét, ‘On My Mama’
11 The Beatles, ‘Now and Then’
12 Miley Cyrus, ‘Flowers’
13 Boygenius, ‘Not Strong Enough’
14 Mannequin Pussy, ‘I Got Heaven’
15 Latto feat. Cardi B, ‘Put It on Da Floor Again’
16 SZA feat. Doja Cat, ‘Kill Bill (Remix)’
17 Davido feat. Musa Keys and Latto, ‘Unavailable’
18 Chappell Roan, ‘Red Wine Supernova’
19 Taylor Swift, ‘Is It Over Now?’
20 Kylie Minogue, ‘Padam Padam’
21 Grupo Frontera and Bad Bunny, ‘un x100to’
22 Megan Moroney, ‘Sleep on My Side’
23 Sexyy Red, ‘Skeeyee’
24 Paramore, ‘This Is Why’
25 Doja Cat, ‘Paint the Town Red’
26 Carly Rae Jepsen, ‘Shy Boy’
27 MJ Lenderman, ‘Knockin’
28 Karol G and Shakira, ‘TQG’
29 Omar Apollo, ‘3 Boys’
30 Luke Combs, ‘Fast Car’
31 Reneé Rapp feat. Coco Jones, ‘Tummy Hurts (Remix)’
32 Rosalía and Ruaw Alejandro, ‘Vampiros’
33 Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, ‘Cast Iron Skillet’
34 Quavo feat. Takeoff, ‘Patty Cake’
35 Big Thief, ‘Vampire Empire’
36 Dua Lipa, ‘Houdini’
37 Skrillex, Fred again.., and Flowdan, ‘Rumble’
38 Ayra Starr, ‘Sability’
39 Beyoncé, ‘Cuff It (Wetter Remix)’
40 Central Cee and Dave, ‘Sprinter’
41 Indigo De Souza, ‘Smog’
42 Margo Price, ‘County Road’
43 Young Thug feat. Drake, ‘Oh U Went’
44 The Beths, ‘Watching the Credits’
45 Baby Keem and Kendrick Lamar, ‘The Hillbillies’
46 Allison Russell, ‘The Returner’
47 Seventeen, ‘Super’
48 BLP Kosher and BabyTron, ‘Mazel Tron’
49 Katie Von Schleicher, ‘Cranked’
50 Stormzy feat. Fredo, ‘Toxic Trait’

GORILLA VS. BEAR’S TOP 55 ALBUMS OF 2023

01. Nourished by Time – Erotic Probiotic 2
02. ML Buch – Suntub
03. billy woods + Kenny Segal – Maps
04. Laura Groves – Radio Red
05. Helena Deland – Goodnight Summerland
06. André 3000 – New Blue Sun
07. Meagre Martin – Gut Punch
08. Jam City – Jam City Presents EFM
09. Sofia Kourtesis – Madres
10. Being Dead – When Horses Would Run
11. JPEGMAFIA x Danny Brown – Scaring The Hoes
12. Olivia Rodrigo – Guts
13. Tirzah – trip9love…???
14. Jessy Lanza – Love Hallucination
15. NewJeans – Get Up
16. Niecy Blues – Exit Simulation
17. bar italia – Tracey Denim & The Twits
18. Lana Del Rey – Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd
19. Avalon Emerson – & the Charm
20. Tujiko Noriko – Crépuscule I & II
21. Marina Zispin – Life and Death – The Five Chandeliers of the Funereal Exorcisms
22. Rainy Miller x Space Afrika – A Grisaille Wedding
23. Armand Hammer – We Buy Diabetic Test Strips
24. Laurel Halo – Atlas
25. Jim Legxacy – hnpm
26. Mandaworld – For Emotional Use Only
27. Voice Actor – Fake Sleep
28. Julie Byrne – The Greater Wings
29. King Krule – Space Heavy
30. Jess Williamson – Time Ain’t Accidental
31. Carlene – Looking Out My Window
32. Oliver Coates – Aftersun OST
33. Jouska – Suddenly My Mind is Blank
34. Oneohtrix Point Never – Again
35. Jonnine – Maritz
36. Lisel – Patterns For Auto​-​Tuned Voices And Delay
37. Patten – Mirage FM
38. Joanne Robertson – Blue Car
39. Fever Ray – Radical Romantics
40. Isola – LP1
41. Sun June – Bad Dream Jaguar
42. John Glacier x Surf Gang – JGSG
43. Caroline Polachek – Desire, I Want to Turn Into You
44. Buzzy Lee – Internal Affairs
45. Andrea – Due in Color
46. a.s.o. – a.s.o.
47. Soccer Committee – ❤️ / Lamb
48. Shabazz Palaces – Robed in Rareness
49. Freak Heat Waves – Mondo Tempo
50. Joanna Sternberg – I’ve Got Me
51. Chuquimamani-Condori – DJ E
52. Abbey Blackwell – My Maze
53. Sufjan Stevens – Javelin
54. NOIA – gisela
55 TDJ – SPF INFINI 3

Rolling Stone’s Top 50 Albums of 2023

01. SZA – SOS
02. boygenius – the record
03. Tainy – DATA
04. Lil Yachty – Let’s Start Here.
05. Olivia Rodrigo – GUTS
06. Paramore – This Is Why
07. Mitski – The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We
08. billy woods & Kenny Segal – Maps
09. Victoria Monét – JAGUAR II
10. Zach Bryan – Zach Bryan
11. Blondshell – Blondshell
12. Chappell Roan – The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess
13. Noname – Sundial
14. KAROL G – MAÑANA SERÁ BONITO
15. Sufjan Stevens – Javelin
16. Becky G – ESQUINAS
17. ANOHNI and the Johnsons – My Back Was A Bridge For You To Cross
18. Jessie Ware – That! Feels Good!
19. JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown – SCARING THE HOES
20. Janelle Monáe – The Age of Pleasure
21. Lana Del Rey – Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd
22. Young Nudy – Gumbo
23. Christine and the Queens – PARANOÏA, ANGELS, TRUE LOVE
24. Kesha – Gag Order
25. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit – Weathervanes
26. Amaarae – Fountain Baby
27. Wednesday – Rat Saw God
28. Caroline Polachek – Desire, I Want To Turn Into You
29. Kali Uchis – Red Moon In Venus
30. Miley Cyrus – Endless Summer Vacation
31. Model/Actriz – Dogsbody
32. Bad Bunny – nadie sabe lo que va a pasar mañana
33. NewJeans – Get Up
34. Troye Sivan – Something To Give Each Other
35. Drake – For All The Dogs
36. Water From Your Eyes – Everyone’s Crushed
37. Asake – Work Of Art
38. KAYTRAMINÉ – KAYTRAMINÉ
39. Veeze – Ganger
40. Kara Jackson – Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love?
41. U.S. Girls – Bless This Mess
42. Samory-I – Strength
43. Megan Moroney – LUCKY
44. Jenny Lewis – Joy’all
45. Kylie Minogue – Tension
46. Everything But the Girl – Fuse
47. L’Rain – I Killed Your Dog
48. Gunna – a Gift & a Curse
49. Yo La Tengo – This Stupid World
50. Dominic Fike – Sunburn

I know all those have been posted before but I wanted to make it a bit easier to see.

Rolling Stone:

65 The Rolling Stones, ‘Hackney Diamonds’

83 The Rolling Stones feat. Lady Gaga and Stevie Wonder, ‘Sweet Sounds of Heaven’

actually sort of sad that the album didn't make it higher.

― djmartian rocks

Thanks for keeping us updated!

Yeah going after Sufjan considering the relentlessly tough year he’s had seems like a particularly low and ill-considered blow. You don’t need to like dude’s music, but maybe find some other way to spend your time than needlessly tearing people down online.

lol that was literally the first post i've ever made about him

Not sure how that’s relevant. Why spend any time at all writing that type of post in the first place?

Tu estas oyendo pwso pluma? Bajale poquito me despertastes

Re: Sufjan, I have empathy for his personal circumstances.

But no one is owed niceness or silence around art that they put into the world— perhaps the emphasis could have been on why some of us don’t care for his music rather than off-kilter (and arguably offensive) taunts, but I really want to push back against the idea that art about an artist’s personal tragedy should be cordoned off from criticism. In a similar vein, art about an artist’s personal tragedy isn’t automatically worthy of praise!

I haven’t listened to the new Sufjan and won’t, as I have never liked anything he has ever done and don’t really see that changing. I hope he recovers and is able to find peace through music and whatever means he finds fit. I just don’t want to listen to it.

celebrity boxing match: sufjan v peso FITE

winner gets aoty

actually a mortal kombat style fighting tournament might be the way to finally get rid of these lists and really put the substance of the music properly on the back burner.

"Artist x would not be successful if they weren't white" is an intrinsically unknowable statement, every white artist benefits from white privilege that's how it works, but I think has been a more valid point of discussion regarding white artists working in majorly Afro-American genres. Within a genre like indie I don't think it can mean anything beyond "I don't think this is very good".

the only privilege I'm seeing in these lists is American privilege (with a side-order of British, fine)

lol you can sub in "the history of popular music in the last 100+ years" for "these lists" and that statement would still be true tbh

Many xposts Oh of course it’s legitimate to criticize an album even if its creator suffered tragedies while making it, but none of the people here dunking on Sufjan are engaging with this particular album. You guys just hate his music in general and expect critics to share your hatred.

Record Collector magazine has an unexpected number one and probably the only magazine to have a Hawkwind album on their list.

https://x.com/sparksofficial/status/1730652009144132089?s=46&t=zQbxLGLurMqWqcXnRpq5zA

List doesn’t appear to be on their website.

I don't expect critics to share my hatred, fwiw— I'm just voicing my dissatisfaction with critical consensus, particularly around artists whose output I find largely mediocre pablum.

I mean more broadly, critical consensus (especially around what I would consider a legacy artist like Sufjan) always needs to be called into question.

Which is part of the fun and frustration of these year-end lists. That's all! (I'm posting like a millennial, apologies)

Fester's Lucky 13: 2023 Year-End Summary
https://fastnbulbous.com/lucky-23/

Spotify Mix | 2023 Breakdown: Genre Lists | Reissues | New OldDiscoveries |  Videos | Television | Books | Fester's Favorite Things

1. Large Plants – The Thorn
2. Spirit Adrift – Ghost at the Gallows
3. Graveyard – 6
4. Baroness – Stone
5. Body Type – Expired Candy
6. Blood Ceremony – The Old Ways Remain
7. Queens Of The Stone Age – In Times New Roman . . .
8. Royal Thunder – Rebuilding the Mountain
9. Lucid Sins – Dancing in the Dark
10. Spidergawd – VII
11. The Tubs – Dead Meat
12. Civic – Taken by Force
13. Geese – 3D Country
14. The Fierce & The Dead – News From the Invisible World
15. Protomartyr – Formal Growth in the Desert
16. Hollow Hand – Your Own Adventure
17. The Church – The Hypnogogue
18. Emile – Spirit
19. David Eugene Edwards – Hyacinth
20. Motorpsycho – Yay!
21. Patio – Collection
22. Witch Ripper – The Fight After the Fall
23. Skull Practitioners – Negative Stars
24. Glass Hammer – Arise
25. The Black Waves – Sonic Maze
26. DoctoR Doom – A Shadow Called Danger
27. Squid – O Monolith
28. White Canyon & The 5th Dimension – Gardeners of the Earth
29. Kanaan – Downpour
30. DIIE – The Right Hand of the Devil
31. Black Helium – UM
32. Mansion – Second Death
33. REZN – Solace
34. Rose City Band – Garden Party
35. Sorcerer – Reign of the Reaper
36. Panopticon – The Rime of Memory
37. Dream Wife – Social Lubrication
38. Egyptian Blue – A Living Commodity
39. Druid Fluids – Then, Now, Again & Again
40. Wytch Hazel – IV: Sacrament
41. Legendry – Time Immortal Wept
42. High Spirits – Safe on the Other Side
43. Narrow Head – Moments of Clarity
44. Peter Gabriel – i/o
45. PJ Harvey – I Inside the Old Year Dying
46. Bas Jan – Back to the Swamp
47. Cable Ties – All Her Plans
48. Ghost Woman – Hindsight is 50/50
49. Do Nothing – Snake Sideways
50. Spiritual Cramp – Spiritual Cramp
51. The Heavy Minds – Beyond Gloom
52. Howling Giant – Glass Future
53. Kanaan – Diversions Vol. 2: Enter the Astral Plane
54. Futuropaco – Fortezza di Vetro Vol. 1
55. The Keening – Little Bird
56. Church Of Misery – Born Under A Mad Sign
57. Flyying Colours – You Never Know
58. Frankie and the Witch Fingers – Data Doom
59. Giöbia – Acid Disorder
60. Restless Spirit – Afterimage
61. Eyelids – A Colossal Waste of Light
62. Edena Gardens – Agar
63. Edena Gardens – Dens
64. Haunt – Golden Arm
65. Rival Sons – Darkfighter
66. Green Lung – This Heathen Land
67. Godthrymm – Distortions
68. Witchskull – The Serpent Tide
69. Holy Wave – Five of Cups
70. The Bright Light Social Hour – Emergency Leisure
71. Bush Tetras – They Live in My Head
72. Nemegata – Voces
73. The Coral – Sea of Mirrors
74. Night Beats – Rajan
75. Lamp of the Universe – Kaleidoscope Mind
76. Vanishing Kids – Miracle of Death
77. Tomb Mold – The Enduring Spirit
78. Travo – Astromorph God
79. Raze Regal & White Denim Inc – Raze Regal & White Denim Inc
80. Godflesh – Purge
81. Maggot Heart – Hunger
82. Me And My Kites – A Safe Trail
83. Teke::Teke – Hagata
84. The Murder Capital – Gigi’s Recovery
85. Blood Lightning – Blood Lightning
86. Krypta – Outo laakso
87. Agusa – Prima Materia
88. RVG – Brain Worms
89. Horrendous – Ontological Mysterium
90. Rain Parade – Last Rays of a Dying Sun
91. Demons My Friends – Demons Seem to Gather
92. Harp – Albion
93. Lankum – False Lankum
94. Another Heaven – IV: Heaven Sent
95. The Loving Paupers – Ladders
96. The Routes – Reverberation Addict
97. Amplifier – Hologram
98. Crown Lands – Fearless
99. Dopelord – Songs for Satan
100. Ritual King – The Infinite Mirror

table otm across the board. i harbor no ill will for sufjan.

(and if we're being transparent here: i remember really enjoying seven swans for a while one summer about a decade ago. haven't played it since, but my memories of it are that it's a really nice album and anyone who made it should be proud.)

For me, Seven Swans and Age of Adz are streets ahead of the rest of his stuff.

even I like AOA!

will get around to the new one eventually

the opening track of the new one is very adz-y and there's lots of little adz-y touches throughout the whole album too, but it's nowhere near as full-on except for the opener

Anyway, Sufjan is Greek

You can be Greek and white.

Ik I was just being a dillhole

i have to just assume that illinois being kinda twee made austin incandescent with rage 18 years ago and he still hasn't recovered or heard anything else by sufjan since then

― ufo, Friday, 1 December 2023 18:35 (yesterday) link

Michigan actually but guilty, pretty much. Well, I heard the two songs in Call me by your name but every time I replay the tearful ending scene in my head, I replace the “visions of Gideon/is it a video?” one with ‘Janitor’ by Suburban Lawns.

lol not even close for me... 18 years ago i was living, eating, and breathing the field mice so if anything, he wasn't twee enough for my bitchass.

there are different varieties of twee, tho.

popbuzz Best Albums of 2023

https://www.popbuzz.com/music/features/best-albums-2023/

Maura Johnston approved Chappell Roan takes Album of the Year

1. Chappell Roan - The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess

riyl 80s pop Madonna, Cyndi Lauper.

xxp but you're right that it isn't tweeness exactly that put me off him, more what i perceived as a kind of piety. it's also quite a drafty record (his voice is very breathy, he's good at notating gusts and flurries) and that can be grating as much as it can be alluring.. idk