There is no theme for the music from 2023. As you can see from our picks below, it was brilliant and chaotic and all over the place from post-teen-punk-pop and indie supertrios to southern sludge and neo-disco. Listen to our favorite music here (Caleb’s picks) and here (Adam’s picks). Nate and John were listening to older stuff this year, although John’s son Joe recommended bar italia’s Tracey Denim.
Caleb’s picks
1. Guts ~ Olivia Rodrigo
Olivia Rodrigo taught my daughter the fuck-word. And one of the few things that I enjoy more than hearing a six-year-old chant “seeing you tonight, it’s a bad idea, right?” is hearing her belt the answer, “fuck it, it’s fine!”
“Bad Idea Right” is just the appetizer. Guts is stuffed with bangers and ballads. Humor and heartbreak. Poetry and punk. Taylor Swift and Riot Girlll. Redemption and self-doubt. Ego and id. Class and integrity, just like a goddamn Kennedy. Pretending to be older while knowing one’s age and acting like it. Having the sun in your motherfucking pocket.
Guts is where Rodrigo stops being “great for her age” and starts belonging in the same conversation as Joni, Emmylou, Fiona, Beyonce, and Lana.
Lyric pick:
“I want to meet her mom to tell her her son sucks”
Song picks: “Get Him Back” & “The Grudge”
2. Weathervanes ~ Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit
Jason Isbell sees people. Not just the color of their skin or the make of their step side or even the characters in their tweets. Sometimes, all he can offer is empathy, like when he repeats “I want to hold her until it’s over” (“Death Wish”) or when he documents a husband descend from a twenty-foot ladder to a failed attempt to swap “copper from the worksite” for a “pocket full of pills.” Other times, he tries to find meaning in the muck of an abortion (“White Baretta”), a racist father (“Cast Iron Skillet”), a mass shooting (“Save the World”), or the death of friend and fellow musician Justin Townes Earle (“When We Were Close”). Weathervanes is every bit as sad, shrewd, and beautiful as Southeastern, Something More Than Free, and Decoration Day, my favorite Isbell albums. Thank you for your grace.
Lyric pick:
“If His love is unconditional, why do I feel so miserable?”
Song picks: “If You Insist” & “White Baretta”
3. Time Ain’t Accidental ~ Jess Williamson
The best time to listen to Time Ain’t Accidental is driving a hundred down 1,392 miles of desert highway from Austin to Santa Monica wearing your best boots after a pool-bar romance flared like pine straw in gasoline because you’ve been chasing spirits and lovin’s hard. But the best thing about listening to Time Ain’t Accidental is that it puts you in that car with her, whether you’re two-stepping through Topanga Canyon, praying in a candlelit bedroom, or drifting somewhere West of San Antone.
Lyric pick:
“I read you Raymond Carver by the pool bar, like a lady”
Song picks: “Stampede” & “Time Ain’t Accidental”
4. the record ~ boygenius
The first full length record by boygenius lives up to the second part of the group’s name. I wanted to interview Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker, and Lucy Dacus, but it wasn’t necessary, as they answer my questions directly on the record. *see below
Lyric pick: “Once I took your medication to know what it’s like, and now I have to act like I can’t read your mind”
Song picks: “Not Strong Enough” & “True Blue”
Band of Townies (BoT): Everyone in our band loves your new album. What inspired the record?
boygenius (BG): I want you to hear my story and be a part of it.
BoT: Yes, I get that! I feel like I’m part of the story in every song. The way your voices blend and build off one another on the record is incredible! It sounds like you have a great relationship, both personally and professionally. How would you describe your bond with one another?
BG: If it isn’t love, then what the fuck is it?
BoT: Love it is! Some have called you a supergroup. How do you feel about the concept of a supergroup?
Boygenius: It’s a bad idea and I’m all about it.
BoT: If it’s a bad idea, why bother?
BG: Stupidity is holy.
BoT: Amen. So, how would you like to proceed?
BG: I ask you how you're doing, and I let you lie.
BoT: How about I ask the questions. Also, I’m not lying exactly—I’m more into taking your words out of context. Anyways, what were you doing before you teamed up?
BG: In another life, we were arsonists.
BoT: Wait, really?
BG: I lied, I am just lowering your expectations.
BoT: Then where did you meet?
BG: Drag racing through the canyon singing “Boys Don’t Cry.”
BoT: We love the Cure too. Who else inspired the record?
BG: Leonard Cohen once said, "There's a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in,” and I am not an old man having an existential crisis at a Buddhist monastery writing horny poetry, but I agree.
BoT: Well, you sure found a way to let in the light on these songs. How does it feel to be nominated for six Grammys?
BG: It feels good to be known so well.
BoT: I bet. What’s next after this album?
BG: I’ll get a real job, you’ll go back to school.
BoT: A real job? Does this mean you’re quitting music?
BG: We don’t have to talk about it.
BoT: This seems like a big deal. Can I do anything to dissuade you?
BG: May I please have $20.
BoT: Nice one. No, really.
BG: Can you give me $20.
BoT: I’ll remind you that this conversation isn’t real.
BG: Damn that makes me sad.
BoT: Me too.
BG: I know you have $20.
BoT: You’re relentless. What else do you want?
BG: Give me everything you’ve got.
BoT: Talk to John about it. He manages the money.
5. Rat Saw God ~ Wednesday
Listen 1: Rat Saw God sounds like Sonic Youth with a pedal steel fetish.
Listen 10: Wednesday are like the Hold Steady, Mountain Goats, Drive-by Truckers, and my other favorite lyricists. They capture the moments that make life horrifying and strange and mundane and beautiful ultimately worth living: watered down liquor, sex shops with biblical names, lice-ridden children in a baby pool, parents fighting in the yard in their underwear, hot breath looming off the trunk, cross-armed folks at a rest stop waiting in line for Panera Bread, a dude passed out on the couch at a New Year’s party playing Mortal Kombat, friends drinking Benadryl until you see shit crawling up the walls, a bird flying repeatedly into the same window refusing to learn or to die.
Lyric pick:
“At night I don’t count the stars, I count the dark.”
Song picks: “Chosen to Deserve” & “Quarry”
6. Heaven is a Junkyard ~ Youth Lagoon
7. Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Over Ocean Boulevard ~ Lana Del Rey
8. The Love Still Held Me ~ City and Colour
9. Homo Anxietatum ~ Shamir
10. The Price of Progress ~ The Hold Steady
11. Desire, I Want to Turn Into You ~ Caroline Polachek
12. Javelin ~ Sufjan Stevens
13. The Land is Inhospitable ~ Mitski
14. Zach Bryan ~ Zach Bryan
15. Disposable Everything ~ AJJ
16. softcars ~ yeule
17. The Loveliest Time ~ Carly Rae Jepsen
18. Red Moon in Venus ~ Kali Uchis
19. Fountain Baby ~ Amaarae
20. Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!? ~ McKinley Dixon
21. Barbie the Album ~ Various Artists
22. That! Feels Good! ~ Jessie Ware
23. Raven ~ Kalela
24. The King ~ Anjimile
25. Jenny from Thebes ~ The Mountain Goats
26. Blame My Ex ~ The Beaches
27. Could Have Done Anything ~ Charlotte Cornfield
28. Strays ~ Margo Price
29. Come Get Your Wife ~ Elle King
30. My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross ~ ANOHNI
31. My Soft Machine ~ Arlo Parks
32. Euphoric ~ Georgia
33. & the Charm ~ Avalon Emerson
34. Mid Air ~ Romy
35. Scarlet ~ Doja Cat
36. COI ~ Coi Leray
37. The Aux ~ Blockhead
38. Come Around and Love Me ~ Jalen Ngonda
39. Never Enough ~ Parker McCollum
40. Higher ~ Chris Stapleton
41. All Bad ~ Nick Shoulders
42. Lucky ~ Megan Maroney
43. TWENTY SOMETHING ~ Alana Springsteen
44. Joy’All ~ Jenny Lewis
45. Hadsel ~ Beirut
46. Strange Disciple ~ Nation of Language
47. Anarchist Gospel ~ Sunny War
48. First Two Pages of Frankenstein ~ The National
49. everything is alive ~ Slowdive
50. Lahai ~ Sampha
Singles
“Inside” Aisha Badru
“Flowers” Miley Cyrus
“What Now” Brittany Howard
“Rush” Troye Sivan
“Boy’s a Liar Pt.2” Pink Pantheress f. Ice Spice
“On My Mama” Victoria Monét
“Tiny Garden” Jamila Woods f. duendita
“Bad Thing” Miya Folick
“Snowman” Blonde Redhead
“Kristine From the 7th Grade” Ben Folds
Adam’s picks
1. Petrodragonic Apocolypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation ~ King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard
This is the greatest & goofiest album with the greatest & goofiest title by the greatest & goofiest band to patrol Planet Earth today. Let’s just call it PDA to make things easier.
PDA is 7 songs, and the first 6.5 are unrelenting prog metal. If you took the band that released Infest the Rats’ Nest in 2019 and had them listen to Tool for a few years, you’d get PDA.
All of the long songs (Motor Spirit, Flamethrower, and most especially Dragon) are accomplishments. Dragon is perfect. But my favorite song on PDA is the shorter and more accessible Witchcraft. When you just sit back and listen, you can bob your head along, but if you dig into it, the polyrhythms are crazy. I think guitars and vocals are 4/4 while the drums are 7/8, and then they throw an extra 3 beat measure to get themselves to sync at 35 total. The beats turn around on themselves a lot. Just when I start feeling dizzy from trying to figure it out, they slam into the easy and heavy 5/4 rocker riff. So freaking good. Oh and it has a great bass jam, a dizzying middle section, a lively scream, lyrics about a mischievous cat messing up witches’ incantations and thus creating a world-destroying petrodragon, and possibly the best “Wooo!” of the KGLW catalog. Witchcraft is so perfect that I haven’t even mentioned Gila Monster (the most accessible song on the album), Supercell (catchy chorus!), and Converge (heaviest tune on the album). PDA is straight 10/10 in my book. When Spotify put out my year in review, my top 5 most-listened songs were from PDA. Oh, and it has the coolest album cover art that I’ve seen in years.
2. O Monolith ~ Squid
These guys caught me seriously off-guard, and they won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. Spotify calls them “anxiety rock”, and that works for me. Think bands like Protomartyr, or the calmer side of Black MIDI.
3. In Times New Roman ~ Queens of the Stoneage
What a comeback! In the 6 years since the last QOTSA album, Josh Homme has faced a nasty divorce, drawn-out custody battles, and a cancer diagnosis. He channeled all of that into one of the most cohesive albums in this band’s history. Some of the puns in the song titles may roll eyes, but that’s excusable because it’s so catchy and groovy.
Key track: Sicily.
4. The Silver Cord ~ King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard
This came out as the “yang” to the “yin” that is my #1 album of the year. Heavily electronic and Krautrock, The Silver Cord has new songs that are loosely-based on/rooted in the songs on Petrodragonic Apocalypse, but with a very different vibe. There’s lots to like. The regular version of the album is short and punchy, 7 songs for a total of 28 minutes. The extended version is the same 7 songs, but stretched and explored for 88 minutes. Needless to say, the extended version is both more ridiculous and more interesting. This style isn’t always my favorite, but there’s lots to sink your teeth into. I’m looking forward to seeing how these electronic tunes get mashed up live with their metal counterparts.
5. Intercepted Message ~ Osees
This band started out as Orinoka Crash Suite. They then shortened that to OCS. That became Orange County Sound, which led to The Ohsees, which led to Thee Oh Sees, which led to Osees. They change their name to be difficult on the music media, which makes them ok in my book.
Intercepted Message is one of their easier listens. It’s synth-y, it’s poppy, and it has a killer cover of “The Fish Needs a Bike” that you will not be able to get out of your head. There’s a lot of fun silly stuff here, but the crown jewel is the closing somber track “Always at Night.”
Honorable Mentions
Desert Undertones - Paniolo. I play in a band with a couple of these guys, and I’ve gotta plug their excellent new surf release.
Smashing Pumpkins - Atum. I have so much more to say about this band than the internet is able to contain. This requires a separate post, and maybe a separate internet where people don’t need to be exposed it.
The Smile - “Wall of Eyes”/”Bending Hectic”. This doesn’t really count; the album isn’t out yet. But the two advance singles easily clear the bar set by the Smile/Radiohead universe.
Sigur Ros - ATTA. Somehow, this was the 3rd best album released on June 16, 2023 (see my #1 and #3 picks).
boygenius - the record
Animal Collective - Isn’t It Now
Sufjan Stevens - Javelin
Explosions in the Sky - End
Geese - 3D Country
Steven Wilson - The Harmony Codex
Guided By Voices - Nowhere to Go But Up
Home Is Where - the whaler
Wednesday - Rat Saw God
Protomartyr - Formal Growth in the Desert
Blonde Redhead - Sit Down For Dinner
The Murlocs - Calm Ya Farm
Frankie and the Witch Fingers - Data Doom
Foo Fighters - But Here We Are
Swans - The Beggar
Royal Blood - Back to the Water Below