2023 is just around the corner already somehow, so it’s time for some reflection. This was a big year for music, with a ton of artists holding off on releasing until now, when touring is viable and the vibes aren’t (as) rancid. The big names came through, people like Kendrick Lamar, the Weeknd, Bad Bunny, Charli XCX, Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, you name ’em, they probably dropped an album. I decided to put my top ten list together and out to the world, to hopefully put you onto something you haven’t heard of before or at least make you think about what you would put in your year-end lists. None of the aforementioned artists made it onto mine, and quite a few of my choices aren’t making it onto many if any other publications’, but it’s a crop I’m very happy with and I hope you’ll give ’em all a chance.
Phoenix – Alpha Zulu
I feel like everyone’s heard a Phoenix song at some point, even if you didn’t know it. “1901” was everywhere for a while, and after 20+ years of putting out music, the French rockers are by now firmly established in the pop canon. The name Alpha Zulu is a fitting one, as even after all this time, Phoenix are still throwing different things at the wall to see what sticks, everything from A to Z. Luckily for us, it pretty much all sticks. Give this one a shot if you can get down with some electro-tinged, drum-machine-laden, über-synthy pop rock.
Elvis Costello and the Imposters – The Boy Named If
Elvis Costello has been going strong since before my parents were born. He honestly has no right to keep putting out good music. Entering his sixth decade of creation, Costello finds himself working with the Imposters on an album that honestly wouldn’t feel out of place in any of his many eras, maybe closest to Mighty Like a Rose from 1991. The Boy Named If is straightforward, it’s rocking, it’s driven by Costello’s voice and guitar work that hasn’t wavered once in all these years. This is probably the closest you can get to a brand-new blast from the past this year.
Danger Mouse & Black Thought – Cheat Codes
Black Thought is easily one of the few greatest rappers of all time, and Danger Mouse is one of the best rap producers around when he puts his mind to it. Cheat Codes is, as you might expect from that, the best straight-up rap album of the year. Bolstered by assists from Raekwon, DOOM, Joey Bada$$, Run the Jewels, and Conway the Machine, among others, Danger crafts a dark and moody atmosphere for Black Thought to drop bar after bar over in his inimitable style. I don’t think there’s ever been a rapper, or even a poet or writer in general, that has quite the same form of mastery over the English language that Black Thought does. His particular blend of wordplay, knowledge, rhymes, assonance and consonance, simile and metaphor, it just hits you in a way that almost pisses you off because you can never do it like this. No one can. All you can do is sit in awe of these masters at work.
The Beths – Expert in a Dying Field
The Beths were a new discovery for me this year. I was looking for a chance to see Sidney Gish live, and I saw she was supporting the Beths on their tour, so I figured they had to be good and downloaded their most recent album, Expert in a Dying Field. This goes down as my best discovery of the year for sure. The New Zealand quartet doesn’t ever reinvent the wheel, but their wheel is build on decades of sound wheel science. They call to mind their older countrymen who created the Dunedin sound decades ago, revamped with lessons learned from indie rock and power pop from the New World. There’s sweetness and beauty along with incisive lyrics that lash out at the listener, the world, and singer Liz Stokes herself. A great album, and one that’s well worth the love it’s gotten this year.
Afghan Whigs – How Do You Burn?
The Afghan Whigs are a style all their own. They’re cool and sleazy and nonchalant, an attitude bolstered by influences from New Orleans jazz, New York rappers, and Colombian drugs, but it all masks a sort of insecurity and wanting. How Do You Burn? is kinda the band’s mask-off moment. It’s raw and needy and not afraid to beg. It’s one of their least rock-centric albums, a trend that started with 2017’s In Spades, but it more than makes up for the general loss of edge with improved technique and more compelling if opaque narratives.
$ilkMoney – I Don’t Give a Fuck About This Rap Shit, I’mma Just Drop Until I Don’t Feel Like It Anymore
$ilkMoney was another chance discovery this year, and once again I’m very glad I came across this. I Don’t Give a Fuck About This Rap Shit, I’mma Just Drop Until I Don’t Feel Like It Anymore is a great and unique album that I’ll have a lot more to say about in the (hopefully) near future, but for now I’ll just say to listen to it. It demands your attention throughout the short 34-minute runtime and it deserves that attention. This is raw, psychedelic, angry, driven music. There’s real world issues at play, and there’s also insane drug trips into another dimension. It’s abrasive as all hell, but if you can accept that, you’ll be rewarded with one of the most earnest and important-feeling listens in a long time.
Black Star – No Fear of Time
The first Black Star album came out when I was not yet one year old, and this second one, No Fear of Time, arrived when I was 24. All that time between projects wasn’t silent, of course, as Yasiin Bey (Mos Def) and Talib Kweli released well over a dozen albums in that time, just none as a duo. This one is pretty opposite from the first one, rejecting the classic old-school sound for one that’s more timeless and verging on abstract at times. Production from Madlib was always gonna do that, and it’s great of course. Bey and Kweli still have a lot to say, and it really makes you wish they had come together more often in the years between their two great albums.
Red Hot Chili Peppers – Return of the Dream Canteen
The second of two albums this year, Return of the Dream Canteen is the more eclectic of the Red Hot Chili Peppers‘ 2022 output. There hasn’t been an album more experimental in the band’s discography, and for the few misses, there are tons of hits, including what I consider to be one of their best songs ever. Even if you’ve never liked the Chili Peppers, you’ve gotta check this one out. They’re virtually unrecognizable as themselves at certain points.
Tears for Fears – The Tipping Point
Tears for Fears is the pop act that’s aged the most gracefully out of probably any ever. Over 40 years in, Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal are still crafting compelling and lush songs, with an ever-increasing depth of subject matter and production techniques. They’re somehow perhaps sharper than ever on this album. The Tipping Point took like ten years to come together, with false starts and production personnel coming in and out of the process, but it was well worth the wait. The aging of the band, coupled with personal tragedies and improved collaboration, has led to a refined and stunning album full of impressive lyrics and soundscapes.
Red Hot Chili Peppers – Unlimited Love
The first of two albums this year, Unlimited Love is the more straightforward of the Red Hot Chili Peppers‘ 2022 output. John Frusciante‘s third time joining the band is marked by the band’s most mature offering yet, marked by subtlety and beauty. One of the best of the best albums this year, UL ranges from low-key more electronic cuts to big rock anthems and slinky funk. It’s one to catch for sure, and it gave Chili Peppers fans a lot of reason to be excited about the future.