15. New Blue Sun by André 3000
Did I expect to like a flute album from one of my all-time favorite rappers at all? Not really. But I did. André 3000’s New Blue Sun is oddly soothing. Not in the way lighter yacht rock can be where it might put you to sleep. I’d say it feels more in the realm of being spiritual. If a skilled snake charmer met a musically inclined shaman and the two created an album, I think this is what we’d get.
What’s most impressive about this project is not the music itself, but the maturity this album flaunts when you look at the career of André 3000. He said it himself that at his age, he doesn’t have anything to rap about, so why make a rap album. I’ve always thought that rappers are a genre of musicians that don’t age well. Even a great like Eminem, who killed in his prime, hasn’t aged well. Those like André 3000 or Jay-Z or Kanye West have aged well because they realized rap isn’t the be-all and end-all of music and expanded off their talents to parlay longer careers. I’m not sure if playing the flute is the future for André 3000, but I wouldn’t hate it.
14. When You Left by Lemon’s
Through my monthly searching on Apple Music for new music, I stumbled across Lemon’s and their multitude of singles they’ve put out this year. While I enjoyed songs like Time For Yourself or I Just Wanna Know, the one that hooked me the most from the Memphis based indie band was When You Left. The songwriting holds true emotion about a partner that it feels like you could never be on the same page with, or you were manipulated by. When you hear “When you left you said that we were broken, now you’re acting like there’s still some hope, it’s so pathetic how you pull me back through” you can feel the angst, but love in this relationship that probably should have ended months or even years ago.
It probably sounds cliché to say because Paramore has a female lead singer and is a modern rock band, but When You Left and other singles from Lemon’s reminds me of Paramore due to their vibrant energy, whether it’s Jackson Williams on the drums or Susie Hydrick as the bands lead vocalist. Like a fusion of Paramore and Peach Pit’s 2022 album From 2 to 3.
I find that in When You Left, there is a thoughtful intent with everything they do instrumentally. When I first noticed it was the light guitar playing that leads into the songs bridge. I think some bands could use a light lull of guitar playing as a break in the action. Lemon’s uses it as a build up to the final chorus that packs the most emotion in the song. It’s executed wonderfully as it builds the listener up to this huge moment and almost the culmination of the relationship in this song.
13. 100Families by JR Specs and Dre Wave$
JR Specs, one of my personal favorite artists, linked with D.C. based rapper Dre Wave$ and the two spit over a smooth R&B style beat, creating one of my favorite songs of the year, 100families. While it’s easy to get lost in the hypnotic beat, the lyrics in JR’s verse are poignant. It feels like he’s reflecting on his career, but is also thanking his parents for their support and constant push for him to chase his dreams. When he sings “Mom’s got the strength of a hundred families, I see it now, Pop’s got a new job at 60, my grind is hand-me-down” you feel the appreciation he has for his parents. They instilled a work ethic in him at a young age.
A few lines later, Specs raps, “Coming from the north-side wilderness, I toured my penmanship in five states and made a new friend“. That verse is Specs substantiating his career and how far he’s come. Like the next artist on this list, Specs hails from Maine, a state not known for producing grandiose artists and he’s at the point now where he’s playing shows in other states. He’s smashed through the windowpane of becoming an artist people know about, and that’s because of his consistent grind and work ethic.
The same can be said about Dre Wave$’s verse. He details how people have switched up on him, from hating, or maybe just not believing in him to wanting to be buddy-buddy with him. At this point of his career, he feels like a veteran — and he lets the listener know that with one of my favorite verses of the song, “I’m like Kemba, I’m a veteran, I better win for the bros, I can’t remember when I didn’t put an end to my foes”.
12. 15 Years by Spose
15 Years serves as Spose’s anniversary track to his first album Preposterously Dank that released in 2008. More importantly, it’s a love letter and acknowledgement to how far he’s come through his career that’s been filled with ups and downs. We get the traditional Spose bars in 15 Years, where he mends things like actor Elliot Paige and the Green Bay Packers together and makes the listener develop the ‘stank face’ — “I’ve been doing this since back when Juno was a woman, cold as Juneau in Alaska, cold as Lambeau with the Packers.” But on top of those bars and through the heavily reverberated beat, we get Spose bragging about the longevity of his career, which he should do. Coming out of an area that’s not known for music and dropping over ten albums that have been successful is no small feat.
This back patting and reminder to the haters was refreshing to hear from Spose, who is generally a humble artist that loves to add social commentary to his songs. Sometimes you need to recognize how far you’ve come and give yourself praise. That’s what 15 Years is. “That’s fifteen years, fifteen years and on the fifteenth one, TURNS OUT BITCH I’M STILL HERE.”
11. GUTS by Olivia Rodrigo
The emergence of Olivia Rodrigo over the past few years has been a refreshing one to see. She doesn’t embody the traditional female rock star label like Janis Joplin or Stevie Nicks, but she does have hints of Gwen Stefani when she was the lead vocalist for No Doubt. Rodrigo mends late teenage angst with feminism and empowerment on GUTS, which has been a common theme going all the way back to 2021 when she released Sour. An underrated aspect that I enjoyed with this album was the track transitioning. I go crazy for the small things so when I hear knocking between all-american bitch and bad idea right? I further appreciate the work that went into this album. It’s obvious Rodrigo and Dan Nigro took the extra steps to make this album special.
My one discrepancy with this album is that this wasn’t anything new for Rodrigo. New Blue Sun from André 3000 and an upcoming album on this list, Wrestling Is Real, People Are Fake by Mega Ran were new tricks that worked for these artists. I don’t think it’s an issue that Rodrigo’s second studio album sounded eerily similar to her first. Where an issue will arise is if her third album once again mirrors Sour and now GUTS. Rodrigo is a talented musician. I’m just looking to see that second or third dimension from her.
10. Action Bronson: Tiny Desk Concert by Action Bronson
While not an album or an individual single, the Tiny Desk Concert that Action Bronson put on was insane. He’s a versatile lyricist that will spit bars about an obscure Knick from the 90s or tell you about the extravagant life he’s living, but sometime in the listening process of his songs, you’ll get hypnotized by his beats and fast pace. Hopping on Tiny Desk slowed the pace of his songs like Latin Grammys and Baby Blue and made it so you could hear the outrageously intricate verses he was spitting.
It may start at Action Bronson, but this Tiny Desk performance showcases the talented musicians he had alongside him. During the performance of Dmtri, Yung Mehico ripped off a smooth and sultry saxophone riff that ended the song. Yung Mehico wore many hats in this performance going from playing the sax to working the keys. Watching him work didn’t feel much like a performance. It was more a subtle flex that he really can do it all.
https://www.npr.org/2023/08/08/1191816943/action-bronson-tiny-desk-concert
9. Rat Saw Good by Wednesday
Wednesday has sited artists like Lucinda Williams and Richard Buckner as inspirations due to their storytelling abilities through music, and when you listen to their 2023 alum, Rat Saw Good, you can fully comprehend why those two are such massive influences. While Williams and Buckner are lyrical inspirations, I find the bands sound to be a melting pot of grunge/punk rock and ethereal folk. Songs like Hot Rotten Grass Smell or Bull Believer are remnant of Smashing Pumpkins. We hear heavy bass guitar from Ethan Baechtold that mimics that of James Iha in those songs. And then that bass calms down, slowing the songs pacing where we hear Karly Hartzmans soothingly beautiful voice on display.
My personal favorite song from the album is the seventh track, Quarry. Something about hearing Hartzman sing “They have scoliosis from constant slumps in misery, flat parts on their crew cuts from laying their heads on their knees” makes me happy. It’s unexplainable, but this song feels like a warm hug from a dysfunctional family member. The lyrics in Quarry get progressively wilder and wilder, but there’s a warm energy that radiates from Jake Lenderman playing the guitar and Alan Miler on the drums.
I listened to Rat Saw Good later in 2023, but this feels like an album I’ll play repeatedly in the spring. Whether I’m driving with the windows down or just hanging out in my dorm, Rat Saw Good radiates the vibes of an album that plays anywhere. UPROXX critic Steven Hyden loves to tweet out different albums that are in the “back porch Hall of Fame“, and he mentioned Rat Saw Good as one of them. I couldn’t agree more.
8. Unreal Unearth by Hozier
From the first two tracks of Unreal Unearth, De Selby (Part 1) and De Selby (Part 2), you find yourself wrestling with emotions on this album’s identity, but in a thought provoking way where you know Hozier intentionally wanted you to feel like this. It’s not him being unsure about how to craft this album. De Selby (Part 1) feels grim. It feels like an unheard track from Inside Llewyn Davis that’d accompany a scene that makes you weep. We immediately transition from depression to a song in De Selby (Part 2) that emanates a charming swagger. When Hozier sings “I wanna run against the world that’s turnin’, I’d move so fast that I’d outpace the dawn, I wanna be gone” I was bobbing my head and grinning. This song is badass.
De Selby (Part 1) and De Selby (Part 2) just set the tone for the emotional dichotomy of Unreal Unearth. It’s the best emotional rollercoaster you’re going to go on in 2023. The diverse feelings of these tracks is glorious. First Time makes me want to lay under a tree and read a book with someone I love. Hozier turns heel with the next track, Francesca, a song that’ll make you miss said person you love. Stylistically we see many ambitious choices that work. I found that Eat Your Young was a more folk version of a Makaya McCraven jazz riff. This album will only get better with time and I want to be the one that recommends it to you.
7. Grapes Upon the Vine by TV Girl
The allure of TV Girl skyrocketed in 2023 with people discovering songs like Lovers Rock on Tik Tok. I’m thrilled for their surge in listens because this is a band I’m huge on. I’ve been anticipating this album for a while as it’s TV Girls first studio album since 2018’s Death of a Party Girl, which had jams on it like Drift Down. Nevertheless, Grapes Upon the Vine exceeded expectations.
Similar to Hoziers Unreal Unearth, TV Girl took great things from prior studio albums and added their unique flare to create an album that doesn’t sound like anything they’ve made prior. Their sampling and mixing, which is always an A+, replicated French Exit, which is great. However, Grapes Upon the Vine felt paced down. It’s an album that wants you to reflect. The central theme of TV Girl’s writing is love. Whether it’s making passionate love with someone or being the one to mend someone’s broken heart, the crux of their music is love — and while thematically it’s similar to past albums, I found myself pondering ideas of love. I know that sounds stupid or like I’m trying to be philosophic, but I listened to this album front to back twice one night in bed and that was my takeaway.
The three song rip of Shame, One of These Mornings and The Night Time is my favorite on this album. Like a great trilogy, the three songs all compliment each other perfectly. Shame is lusting for someone to stay. You’ve become dependent on them, needing them in your life. One of These Mornings is about noticing the change in someone you love — and you don’t love it. The Night Time is for realizing what you are. If you’re a “fuck up“, be fine being a “fuck up“.
6. The Ballad of Darren (Deluxe) by Blur
2023 was a year of firsts for me. It’s the first year I left the country, played disc golf, and the year I first became a Blur fan. When you think of Blur, you immediately think of Song 2, which is a satirical jab at Nirvana. The Ballad of Darren isn’t Song 2. There’s an elegant brashness that you hear with this album and it shows Blur’s maturity. This is an album that’s introspective on many fronts. There’s the clear idea of reflecting on loss — whether it’s the loss of someone close to you or the loss of an opportunity, Blur wants to make it known that they’re not regretful for things they’ve done in the past, but more regretful for not having the time with individuals that they cherish.
When listening, I found that in two of the best tracks, Barbaric and Russian Strings, we can hear Damon Albarns Gorillaz influence seep through. And I don’t hate it. Due to my immense love for the Gorillaz, I found it quite pleasant. It is noticeable in his voice, but then again, he is the same singer from the Gorillaz. Maybe if I really go back and listen to all of Blur’s albums from start to finish I’ll hear that, but I noticed it for the first time on this album more than anything. With how somber at times this album feels, I think it makes the perfect winter album. In the winter season, I like to listen to depressive music, Phoebe Bridgers and such. The Ballad of Darren has been thrown right into that rotation.
5. Wrestling Is Real, People Are Fake by Mega Ran
Nerd core rap, or sometimes known as Geeksta rap, isn’t the genre of music for everyone. While it may be off the beaten path, there’s no denying that this is a genre driven by passion. My personal favorite from the genre, MC Lars, loves to rap about literature from Moby Dick to Edgar Allen Poe. Mega Ran, he’s passionate about wrestling. So, what did he do? The only logical thing for a nerd core rapper to do — he made a kick-ass album that’s concise and energetic about the sport he loves so much. I adore that. To be talented enough to have a career like Mega Ran is impressive. But to use that talent to spit about a topic he truly loves and has been passionate about since he was a kid is even more awe-inspiring.
Outside of my ogling at the album’s premise, I think it’s crafted beautifully. Like I mentioned with GUTS, I appreciate the small things, and Mega Ran using wrestling bells and crowd cheers in this albums production added to how much I enjoyed it. It wasn’t just a person who’s a fan of wrestling rapping “I’m the, Shawn Michaels of the song cycle. The Paul Bearer of the small era, the new face of terror“, he’s transporting you ringside. I found that the album was mixed very well and was coherent. Mega Ran had a distinct idea in his head and executed on it. To be truthful, my expectations weren’t entirely too high for this when it was released, but I’ve had it in my steady rotation for a while now.
4. Protea by Kota the Friend
Last year, I proclaimed Peach Pit’s From 2 to 3 as the quintessential summer album of 2022. This year’s quintessential summer album is Kota the Friends, Protea. Kota the Friend, a native to Brooklyn, would make you believe that he was raised out in either California or in the south due to the vibrant sound that Protea radiates. This doesn’t feel like a record a New Yorker would make. Rather, it feels like someone who grew up vacationing in the Gulf or spending time at Santa Monica Pier would have come up with this.
Through my first and second listens, I tried pinpointing an artist that Protea replicated, and it finally hit. This album is Anderson .Paak coded, yet still holds a uniqueness that Kota the Friend has on all of his records, going back to my personal favorite, Foto in 2019. The usage of lighter, groovy horns on Barcelona is exquisite and, maybe I’m just saying this because the album cover is yellow and I was unknowingly swayed to think this way, but this song, along with many others, emanates vibrant colors. That’s what makes a summer album. It’s when you can kick back and listen to music and be able to envision something summery occurring. That’s how I feel listening to Nola II, my favorite track from the album. His lyricism makes me feel like I’m strutting around the New Orleans French Quarter, when in reality, I’m at home playing GTA V.
Next summer, this will be an absolute weapon to pull out on the aux. Whether you’re kicking it poolside or taking a ride by the beach, this album will have a timeless summer appeal. 2024 will just be the year that I start putting people on to it.
3. Mr. Big Shot – EP by Wallice
I’ve developed an infatuation with both the Mr. Big Shot – EP and Wallice as an artist. After seeing her open for Still Woozy in 2021, I’ve become a fan that’s consistently wowed by the music she releases — and Mr. Big Shot – EP is another notch on the belt for Wallice proving she’s one of the most underrated artists in the world. From a first listen of these six songs, you gather basic context clues. This is a project with visceral undertones that gets cloaked by smooth guitar play and pop beats.
Those visceral undertones come into play in an almost passive aggressive manner that I adore. It’s as if Wallice is playing poker in a relationship and doesn’t want to tip her hand, but that facade crumbles as the songs progress. Once it fully crumbles, you have the sixth and final track, disappear; my personal favorite. I could write a Magna Carta length review about disappear because of its intricacy. The opening mimics the Radiohead song Weird Fishes/Arpeggi, where you hear the light drumming at a quick pace, but in a way that’s darker. Tone wise, Weird Fishes/Arpeggi is an upbeat song, but disappear is more somber. To sort of skip ahead, I go INSANE when I hear the electric synth at the 1:18 mark. It’s a sound that catches you off guard and hits me deep in my core.
Writing wise, disappear is brilliant. You can picture the dichotomy Wallice is in. She’s lost. She doesn’t know what her next move should be. Should she go back home or should she completely go off the grid? Her lack of certainty is relatable. As I’m getting older and closer to graduation, I can feel this uncertainty. That’s why I think this song resinated so much with me.
While I did just dote on about disappear for two paragraphs, this EP as a whole is tremendous. Outside of disappear, Loser at Best and Quarterlife make you reflect on your past or think about your future. There’s a lot to love with this project. This is the second year in a row I’ve ranked a Wallice project in the top three. Last year I ranked her album, 90s American Superstar second, just behind The Car by Arctic Monkeys. I’m sure 2024 will be no different for Wallice as she continues to pioneer her sound.
2. Intention by Watsky
Watsky had a top five spot locked up this year with either the album I picked, Intention, or the live album he dropped, Watsky Live! from the Metro. An artist I’ve been high on since high school when I first heard Cardboard Castles and cried to Dedicated to Christina Li, I’ve constantly been shocked by how Watsky reinvents himself with every album. The first instance I noticed with this was when he went from All You Can Do to x Infinity. Lyrically and stylistically, they are two albums that are polar opposites… but they both bang. That’s what we get with Intention.
It’s as if Watsky looked at this album as a career-culminating moment because it felt like he skimmed the cream-of-the-crop elements from past albums to make Intention. What I admired from x Infinity was his insightful song writing that preached against gun violence and advocated for breaking mental health stigmas. We hear this type of songwriting early on with Rollin; a song about how generations prior to us have hurt the planet and it’s now our problem. Those meaningful lyrics are masked by a funky beat that makes you bob your head — similar to Hey Ya by Outkast. Then a song like AWW SHiT feels like it could be placed in the middle of All You Can Do because of its stank face inducing bars. That’s classic Watsky.
While noticeable callbacks to his old albums fed my need for nostalgia, I must commend the new chances he takes. Two tracks in, we hear a foreign track from Watsky. What’s The Move? is a reggae song with rap lyrics and a T-Pain feature. Wow, that’s a sentence I never thought I’d type out. And while it is uncanny for Watsky, it works.
1. Stop Making Sense (Deluxe Edition) Remastered by Talking Heads
Is it a copout to put Stop Making Sense at number one because it originally came out in 1984? Some would say it is. Will that sway me to change my ranking? Absolutely not. Production company A24 remastered the album and film this year and I had the opportunity to catch a screening of it. The easiest way to describe it is that it’s a transcendent experience. The entire time, the theater was raucous. People were dancing and singing with strangers in the aisles — the way a concert is intended to be taken in.
Stop Making Sense feels like an anomaly. It doubles as both a subversive, avant-funk record, and a cinematic masterpiece from Academy Award winning director Jonathan Demme. The choreography behind this entire concert blew me away. In the moment, it doesn’t look like a lot of work is being put into the transitioning between songs due to how effortlessly it looks, but it’s quite impressive. David Byrne doing laps or strutting in a giant suit is a feat in itself because his vocal inflection never changes. Him singing while standing at the mic or dancing around the stage sounded the same.
Now, am I disappointed that my personal favorite song from the Talking Heads, Road To Nowhere, didn’t make the record? Slightly, but that doesn’t take away from the energy of songs like Once In A Lifetime or Swamp. I truly adored the unison of hearing Byrne working with Tina Weymouth, Jerry Harrison and Chris Frantz. Truly one of the greatest bands in music history.
