The 2023 End of Year music lists thread

it feels like there is more consensus than usual, and that i disagree more than usual about which albums deserve to be consensus favorites.

https://www.albumoftheyear.org/list/summary/2023/

looking at the top 20 in aggregate and maybe 3-4 would be among my 50 favorites of the year? and one of them came out in 2022

the editor of The Wire magazine, Derek Walmsley has recently announced his departure. Does anyone know who the new editor is?

the editor of The Wire magazine, Derek Walmsley has recently announced his departure. Does anyone know who the new editor is?

No one's been hired yet as far as I know.

I submitted an all-metal ballot to The Wire's critics' poll, so none of my choices made the top 50. But all Wire readers (and everyone, really) should check out Spirit Adrift's Ghost at the Gallows and GridLink's Coronet Jupiter, at least, because they're amazing records.

I was actually kinda surprised that the Hawkwind Space Ritual 50th anniversary box set didn't place on The Wire's reissues chart (that was my #1 pick).

So in the end Pitchfork did hop off the “hit parade” train lol

Time Out tracks list probably my least favorite so far, they did pick my favorite Newjeans song off that ep.

https://www.timeout.com/music/the-23-best-songs-of-2023

Any list with “I’m just Ken” feels like shitposting to me.

Kinda funny that Sufjan is #1 on the aggregate list, but with zero first places in polls

And I guess Lankum is out of the top 10 despite 3 first places

i-d magazine is now owned by supermodel Karlie Kloss after Vice media bankruptcy.

i-d magazine 100 best songs of 2023
https://i-d.vice.com/en/article/k7zkjv/the-100-best-songs-of-2023

Number 1
caroline polachek - i believe

xp, Sufjan has 2x as many top 10 rankings though

I'm not questioning the math. It's just interesting that you could have the album of the year without topping any polls.

Seems emblematic of 2023 in a way

Any list with “I’m just Ken” feels like shitposting to me.

And then there's this...

1. ‘Now and Then’ – The Beatles
The best new song of the year is by a peppy beat combo named the Beatles. Despite their silly, punny name, the band – on the strength of this cut – has real potential. What initially sounds like a maudlin plodder soon reveals itself to be a song with flashes of true ingenuity. You’ll find yourself returning to its beguiling charms again and again, thanks to the lead singer’s (one ‘John Lennon’) deceptively clever melody. Does it sound like it’s been arranged and performed by a computer? A bit. But the sound of humanity, an enduring, psycho-spiritual fraternity, calling out from beyond the AI algo-void is perhaps what makes it so affecting. Now can we have a version without the cloying string section?

Wire’s #1 left me absolutely baffled. Only explanation I can think of is that it’s the Keke Rosberg of this year’s albums.

Stereogum goes MS Paint > Hotline TNT > Militarie Gun > Ratboys in the top 10

i appreciate it!

Kinda funny that Sufjan is #1 on the aggregate list, but with zero first places in polls

― Beyond Goo and Evol (President Keyes), Tuesday, December 5, 2023 9:29 AM

when eoy stuff starts behaving like the electoral college, i'm happy staying ignorant and jamming 90s japanese indie til infinity.

Chal has a new podcast btw

Ah thanks Jordan, I didn't know about that at all! She's the best!

Kansas based, Impose magazine

https://www.imposemagazine.com/music/the-top-50-albums-of-2023

Number 1
JPEGMAFIA X DANNY BROWN – SCARING THE HOES

Number 2
DJ SABRINA THE TEENAGE DJ – DESTINY

George Clanton in the Top 10 at 8
Jane Remover 20

probably the most overlap I've seen with RYM's top 50 right now

Cardiff based music website, God is in the TV

"God is in the TV is an online music and culture fanzine founded in Cardiff by the editor Bill Cummings in 2003. GIITTV Bill has developed the site with the aid of a team of sub-editors and writers from across Britain, covering a wide range of music from unsigned and independent artists to major releases."

part 1 100-51 Albums of the year

https://www.godisinthetvzine.co.uk/2023/12/05/giittv-albums-of-the-year-for-2023-100-50/

Welsh artists such as Overmono and Bethan Lloyd are included.

Haven't seen the actual issue (probably won't for a few months) nor anything "official", but if the list I saw is correct that is indeed an unexpected #1 choice for Wire. An incredibly good album, but would not have predicted that.

whoever engineered and mixed that Hotline TNT album should be thrown in prison

did someone post The Wire list? what is this mysterious #1 you're all referring to?

one artist / album I expected to be doing better on EOY lists, Laura Groves - Radio Red.

Hasn't made an impact with US music websites.

I think this the first time that my #1 was The Wire’s #1!

Rob, if you Google “the wire best albums of 2023” the list will reveal itself to you quickly.

I expected more love for Tinashe but whatever

link

The Wire Top 50 Releases of 2023
https://www.yearendlists.com/2023/wire-top-50-releases-of-2023

thanks djmartian, duckduckgo was failing me

the wire's #1 is yo la tengo's this stupid world

bandcamp albums part 2 F-K

https://daily.bandcamp.com/best-of-2023/the-best-albums-of-2023-f-k

they got that right xp

vultures Best Albums of 2023 (Top 10)

https://www.albumoftheyear.org/list/2143-vultures-best-albums-of-2023/

Number 1. Sampha - Lahai

treble 50 Best Albums of 2023
https://www.treblezine.com/50-best-albums-of-2023/

1. Ratboys – The Window

nice to see Ragana and Meg Baird get some love on that list

whoever engineered and mixed that Hotline TNT album should be thrown in prison

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 5 December 2023 2:54 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

sounds great on my headphones

Time - Best Albums 2023

Article by Maura Johnston

https://time.com/6340131/best-albums-2023/

Number 1. Kali Uchis, Red Moon In Venus

Chappell Roan at 4

if your looking for a brilliantly produced 2023 rock album, check this album out:

Mondo Drag - Through the Looking Glass

https://mondodrag.bandcamp.com/album/through-the-hourglass

released September 15, 2023

John Gamiño - Vocals, Synthesizer, Organ, Piano
Nolan Girard - Synthesizer, Guitar
Jimmy Perez - Drums, Percussion
Conor Riley - Bass, Vocals
Jake Sheley - Guitar

All music written and performed by Mondo Drag
Lyrics written by John Gamiño

Engineered by Phill Becker at El Studio, San Francisco
Additional Recordings by the band at their studio, Oakland
Mastered by Nick Townsend at Townsend Mastering

yardbreaker - The 50 Best Albums of 2023
https://www.yardbarker.com/entertainment/articles/the_50_best_albums_of_2023/s1__39624312

stop the clock, Imago faves

36: Fire-Toolz: "i am upset because I see something that is not there."

a unique
Number 1 Sam Wilkes: "Driving"

xpost - didn't expect to see a Mondo Drag shout out here, nice djmartian. that's a good one.

the yo la tengo album is great but it's way too normal to be the wire's #1

feel like ilm's own raymondcummings had a part in that

one artist / album I expected to be doing better on EOY lists, Laura Groves - Radio Red.

Hasn't made an impact with US music websites.

― djmartian, Tuesday, December 5, 2023 3:00 PM (three hours ago)

Earth to Mars:

Allmusic Year in Review
Top 100 Albums of 2023
https://www.allmusic.com/year-in-review

has started first up its:

100 Highlighted 2023 Albums unranked in A-Z order

― djmartian, Monday, December 4, 2023 2:42 PM

gorilla vs bear had laura groves very high up but it just seemed to get very little critical attention at all for whatever reason

lol

I’m more excited to see the individual Wire lists than usual now

Also, there was an AMM album this year?

AMM'S Rowe, Prevost + Tilbury released Last Calls in honor of Prevost's 80th birthday this year, on Matchless Records. I have not heard it

So Pitchfork’s writers have apparently decided that Latinx music is old news or something, I guess? Am I missing anyone other than Sofia Kourtesis on the albums list?

does kali uchis count?

there's a bunch of in the tracks list, but they didn't bnm any latin pop albums this year, nor did any really seem to get much english-language critical acclaim elsewhere

I love Yo La Tengo's This Stupid World. I don't know about it being #1 on the Wire list, but it transports me back to 1990-2000, where they tempered their psychedelic and noise preferences with their innate pastoral sense - specifically with Fakebook, which is still an astonishing album and my favorite of theirs, but also with all of their other 90s albums, May I Sing With Me, Painful, Electr-O-Pura, I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One , and 2000's And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out

someone I decided to unfollow on blusky bitched about how this was the worst, most pretentious top ten list he'd ever seen. It strikes me as exactly what I'd expect from the New Yorker (lol at sufjan...what do I know, it's probably really good, I should listen to it).

The New Yorker

1. ANOHNI and the Johnsons, “My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross” (Secretly Canadian)
2. Sufjan Stevens, “Javelin” (Asthmatic Kitty Records)
3. Oneohtrix Point Never, “Again” (Warp)
4. Pharoah Sanders, “Pharoah” (Luaka Bop)
5. Lana Del Rey, “Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd” (Interscope Records)
6. Noname, “Sundial” (self-released)
7. Peter Garland, “The Basketweave Elegies” (Cold Blue Music)
8. Lonnie Holley, “Oh Me Oh My” (Jagjaguwar)
9. Amaarae, “Fountain Baby” (Interscope Records)
10. PJ Harvey, “I Inside the Old Year Dying” (Partisan Records)
11. Bonnie “Prince” Billy, “Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You” (Drag City)
12. The National, “First Two Pages of Frankenstein” (4AD)

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/2023-in-review/the-best-music-of-2023