Favorite Music Of 2023 pt 2

The stunning conclusion! The sequel America's been waiting for!

(Part Two of my yearly list that maybe, like, two people actually read. Part One was my first tier of favorite albums released in 2023. This is everything else. Or nearly all of it.)

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SECOND! THE SECOND TIER OF FAVORITE ALBUMS

Paramore—This Is Why
The title track is one of my favorite songs of the year. From the skittish fit of a start to its incisive, angular guitar, then its settling into the groovy bass and finally its arena-ready shoutalong chorus. One of my 2023 regrets¹ is being stuck in the interminable Eras Tour (covered in minor depth here) merch line while Paramore played this song inside State Farm Stadium. The things we do for our kids. We did get to hear a couple hits—“Ain’t It Fun” and “Misery Business”—which were great, albeit not one of my favorite songs of 2023. I’m a newcomer to the world of Paramore so I can’t comment on how it contrasts with their catalog, but—on its own—the whole album feels deliberately pointed and punchy, especially the guitar-playing.
[SONGS: the title track, Running Out Of Time, You First]

Sampha—Lahai
The so-long-awaited-I-forgot-I-was-even-awaiting follow-up album to his fantastic 2017 debut Process, Sampha dives into even deeper, more unexpected sonic/production on Lahai. It’s a more-upbeat album of self-discovery, transformation, elevation. His first daughter was born in 2020; I love how the album captures both the celebration and anxiety inherent in that kind of massive life change.
[SONGS: Spirit 2.0, Jonathan L. Seagull, Only, Can’t Go Back]

Feist—Multitudes
What if I told you that Feist is one of our most interesting artists of the past decade-plus? That, since her iPod ad breakthrough, she’s only gotten more interesting, more searching, more artistically restless (when she could’ve just sent “1234” to the factory to be cloned indefinitely for endless commercial placements)?

The artistic range! From crooning a pseudo-standard like “Now At Last” on her debut album to the R&B-inflected “How Come You Never Go There” from 2011’s Metals. Or from the pure pop of “Brandy Alexander” from 2007’s The Reminder to the Tom Waits-via-Serge-Gainsbourg feel of her vocal on “La chanson de Satie” (with Arthur) from 2005.

Or take a look at the contrast between just her last two albums. Where 2017’s Pleasure felt like a knockdown drag-out with her electric guitar, Multitudes seems to believe in the power of quiet and space. I love how Pitchfork’s Ryan Dombal put it:

On Multitudes, Leslie Feist is a new mother softly soothing her baby to sleep with lullabies of fear and death. She is a sorcerer channeling thunder and lightning, finding life in the rumble and the flash. She is a grieving daughter with a new understanding of what it means to be alone. She is an exorcist driving out our collective anxiety with screams that could wake the dead. She is a 47-year-old single parent looking beyond romantic love.  She is a choir leader singing to the birds, and the birds are singing back.

[SONGS: Borrow Trouble, Love Who We Are Meant To, In Lightning, The Redwing, Hiding Out In The Open, plus extra credit for singing on Hayden’s On A Beach]

Mitski—The Land Is Inhospitable And So Are We
My favorite Mitski² album since 2016’s Puberty 2. And maybe even better? There’s a good chance, in another five years, I’ll be talking about Mitski like I was about Feist above.
[SONGS: My Love Mine All Mine, Bug Like An Angel, Star]

Sufjan Stevens—Javelin
It feels reductive to write a two-paragraph blurb about Stevens’ album grieving the tragic death of his partner. But even more reductive to write nothing.

I came around to this album via the recommendations of two knowing sources: my friends Dominic (a palliative care doctor + songwriter) and Lisa (who, like Stevens, grieves the loss of her longtime partner/soulmate). I thank them for opening my eyes and ears. It’s gorgeous and a combination of what you may have loved about quiet Seven Swans-era Sufjan as well as more-produced Illinoise-era Sufjan.

I loved this take on Javelin and its (surprise!) earnestness, from (double surprise!) writer Amanda Petrusich’s year-end list:

“Who doesn’t reach a point at which they simply want to know if they can be received—in the Biblical sense, in the romantic sense—by another consciousness? “Watch me drift and watch me struggle, let me go / ’Cause I really wanna know / Will anybody ever love me? / For good reasons, without grievance, not for sport?” he wonders. You might think it’s all too plaintive and earnest to bear, until you realize it’s also the only question worth asking.”

[SONGS: Will Anybody Ever Love Me, Goodbye Evergreen, Everything The Rises, plus extra credit for singing angelic background vocals on The National’s Once Upon A Poolside]

The National—First Two Laugh Tracks of Frankenstein
Speaking of The National, they released two albums this year. Now, just one year after proclaiming my first time seeing them live as a life-changing event, I won’t say they’ve jumped the shark. I won’t. But I will… say that I had hoped that, as a Perennial Paul’s Favorite Contemporary Band³, I would connect with these albums more than I did.

That said, at least some of my “disappointment” is unfair. See, I just checked my playlist titled 2023 on Spotify, a place where I dump songs I like as I hear them (or when I remember how much I love them) throughout the year. And guess how many songs by The National were on there?

NINE.

Clearly, I still really like the band and what they do. Maybe it’s like R.E.M. said about their latter-career, critically-ignored albums: if a brand new band came out with these songs, you guys would freak out. (Maybe.)

Ultimately, like many, I think I would’ve loved just one strong album, I guess. My friend Eric, like many bearded dudes, made a playlist with his version of what that one album might look like. It’s what I put on when I wanna hear the songs.

FWIW: I think “Once Upon A Poolside” is one of their best songs ever.

King Tuff—Smalltown Stardust
No album in 2023 was a “vibe” more than this one was.
[SONGS: Always Find Me, How I Love, Tell Me]

Jess Williamson—Time Ain’t Accidental
I confess: I unfairly categorized Jess Williamson as the lucky-to-be-here half⁴ of Plains (her duo side project with Waxahatchee’s Katie Crutchfield). I stumbled on this one via someone (sorry, whoever you are that’s obviously not reading this)’s end of year song list. The song “Hunter” alone is worth the price of admission. These lines, man:

“I want a mirror not a piece of glass
We went a hundred down the highway
I been known to move a little fast
I'm a hunter for the real thing
My love is pure as the Universe,
Honest as an ashtray.”

[SONGS: The Hunter, Chasing Spirits, Time Ain’t Accidental, God In Everything]

Julie Byrne—The Greater Wings
One fine afternoon this year, I arrived home from work a little early. Nobody was home. I suppose I could’ve undertaken a project, done another load of laundry, started dinner. But I didn’t. I pulled up this album, put it on loud, and laid on the couch. I don’t know the last time I’d done that, just listen to an album without doing something else—commuting, doing the dishes, organizing the garage, mowing the lawn.

Coincidentally, a half hour ago, my cousin Rich sent me this journal entry from our time together at Grandma’s cabin in 1987.

On the strength of just that single micro-moment on the couch that this album gave me, right before the kids burst through the door, it makes the top tier. I need to amend my previous assertion and say that King Tuff and THIS ALBUM were the most “a vibe” albums of 2023.
[SONGS: title track, Summer Glass, Portrait of A Clear Day]

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THIRD! THE MOSTLY BLURBLESS THIRD TIER OF ALBUMS I HAD A GENUINE MOMENT WITH AND VERY MUCH MERIT MENTION!

Lil Yachty—Let’s Start Here [SONGS: the BLACK seminole. running out of time]
PJ Harvey—I Inside the Old Year Dying (either this will do it for you or very much not)
Paul Simon—Seven Psalms (same here; it’s a 33-minute song)
Slow Pulp—Yard (the song “Slugs” is so good. Very 90s indie-loving.)
Lisa O’Neill—All Of This Is Chance [SONGS: Old Note, Goodnight World]
Blake Mills—Jelly Road
Buck Meek—Haunted Mountain
Corinne Bailey Rae—Black Rainbows (not at all what I expected from the “Put Your Records On” singer…in a good way)
Samia—Honey (“Charm You” was a favorite this year)
Pearla— Oh Glistening Onion, The Nighttime Is Coming
Joe Henry—All The Eye Can See (plus his cover of Nick Drake’s “Time Of No Reply”)
Joanna Sternberg—I’ve Got Me
Hold Steady—The Price of Progress
Deerhoof—Miracle-Level (probably the most out-there album I loved in 2023?)
Iris Dement—Workin’ On A World (love Iris!)
Margaret Glaspy—Echo The Diamond [SONGS: Act Natural, Memories]
Teddy Thompson—My Love Of Country (one of the underrated voices of our time, singing classic country tunes)

AND THEN ALBUMS I LOVED THAT DID NOT COME OUT IN 2023
Brian Blade & The Fellowship Band—King’s Highway (thanks to friend & drummer, Aaron Anderson)
Radiohead—In Rainbows (if you love this album, you owe yourself a listen to the Dissect podcast, already recommend once on this Stack)
Tom Petty—Wildflowers (in anticipation of next year’s concert)
Daniel Rossen—You Belong There
Posthumous appreciation/discovery of Sinead O’Connor
Come On Feel The Lemonheads

SOME SONGS I LIKED AN AWFUL LOT THIS YEAR THAT AREN’T ON THE ALBUMS LISTED ABOVE
Tyrone - Erykah Badu
Fire On Babylon/In This Heart - Sinead O’Connor
Something Wrong/Andy In Stereo - Hand Habits
Stone Killer - 26fix
Rudolph/Knockin - MJ Lenderman
Chosen To Deserve - Wednesday
Wasted On You - Andy Shauf
Morning Zoo - Ratboys
On Your Heels - Rocket
Kill Bill - SZA
Olympus/Veronica Mars - Blondshell
For Granted/With A Hammer - Yaeji
Foreign Land - Teenage Fanclub
Coming of Age - Kaytlin Numbers
For Me It’s You - Jobi Riccio
Orlando - Leith Ross
Oral - Bjork + Rosalia
Sinker, Sinking - Will Johnson
The Great American Picnic - Being Dead
I Need Ya - Somebody’s Child
She Belongs To Me - Cat Power (live)
La Alhambra - Marina Herlop
It’s Sin That’s Got Its Hold Upon Us - King Creosote

BELOVED SONGS BY ARTISTS THAT WOULD NORMALLY BE TIER 1 OR 2 WHO CAN STILL THROW A HEATER EVEN IF I DIDN’T CONNECT WITH THE WHOLE ALBUM

Playing For Time- Peter Gabriel (still has his fastball, the vocal in particular is crushingly immaculate, though I do think the song should’ve ended before the dramatic movie trailer ending with the big drums which feels utterly uncalled for)
Bending Hectic - The Smile
The Feast of St. John - Glen Hansard⁵
Kristine From The 7th Grade - Ben Folds (the social media experience for those of us in Gen X)
Pegasus/Weightless - Arlo Parks
Nu-Grape - Hiss Golden Messenger
Sawgrass - Josh Ritter
Holding Pattern - Nickel Creek
All of the Time In The World To Kill - Milk Carton Kids


AND OF COURSE SONGS I RELEASED THIS YEAR
Lay Them All Down (an original written with and sung by Ryan Innes)
God Only Knows w/ Adam & Darcie (Beach Boys cover)
Everything is Free w/ Mai Bloomfield (Gillian Welch cover)
Army of Me w/ The classic Madison Arm (Bjork cover)

WANNA LISTEN? HERE’S A PLAYLIST
(it has some explicit songs, so streamer beware)

1. I will not list them.

2. Apropos of nothing, I would pay good money for a collaborative album called Father John Mitski.

3. In the same conversation as The National and Wilco (whose 2023 album was deservedly Tier 1) are: Radiohead, Low, Phoebe Bridgers, Anais Mitchell, Kathleen Edwards, Spoon, Sylvan Esso, Bjork, Gillian Welch, Father John Misty, Big Thief, SAULT. And, yes, I pulled these off of a Google doc where I store such things. And, also yes, I realize that some of these aren’t as contemporary as, say, Harry Styles or King Gizzard. I’m in my 40’s; I’m just not gonna fill out my list with, say, Peso Pluma or Lost Frequencies or 22Gz. And, one more yes, I had to look all of those up on the most recent New Music playlist on Spotify.

4. Garfunkel.
Robin.
C3P0.
Sonny.
Ken.
Andrew Ridgley.
Messina.
DJ Jazzy Jeff.
Peas.

5. The Swell Season’s set at Red Butte Garden this summer was one of my favorite live shows in a year in which I went to a lot of great shows. Glen came onstage on fire and simmered and smoked the rest of the night while Marketa kept things cool.