It’s time to look back — or more accurately, listen back — on my favorite music releases of 2023. As always, I’m moved by the music created by so many people. There is no end to human creativity, no end to the ways that the same notes and chords and words can be arranged in ways that touch my soul.
As in the past, I refuse to put numbers to art as if art is something that can be ranked. All I have to offer is a collection of impressions. Art is unquantifiable. But its qualities can be noted and enjoyed and expounded upon.
So here they are, the albums that touched me that were released in 2023:
Half Moon Run – Salt (June 2)
A nod to my friend Nate for pointing me in the direction of Half Moon Run. I’d never heard of them before he recommended them soon after their album Salt dropped. On my first listen, no song in particular grabbed me. Instead, the entire album grabbed me. I couldn’t stop listening to it. In fact, I’d call it the most listen-to-able album of 2023. It’s entirely compelling. The flow of the tracking reminds me of Million Masks of God by Manchester Orchestra. While neither is a concept album, the flow in both is impeccable. Each song, though different from the others, leads perfectly into the next. Even songs that don’t stand out end up standing out through repetition. It’s one of those “soundtrack of my life” kind of albums.
Foo Fighters – But We Are Here (June 2)
Johnny Cash said he only wrote songs about three things: God. Love. Death. This Foo Fighters release is a death album, a grief release. That, of course, makes it a heavy album. But there are times for heavy albums. And Dave Grohl does grief in this album as it ought to be done. I can’t imagine a better companion for those who are bereaved than But We Are Here. Even the title expresses this resignation to a life still lived while a loved one is no longer around, no longer able to be engaged with. That Grohl stepped back behind the drum kit in place of his dead band mate and close friend Taylor Hawkins is only fitting, as fitting as the memorial concerts. Where most of us ignore and avoid anything that smacks of death or the awkward emotions of grief, Grohl unapologetically walks us through all the feels. He avoids none of it, explores all of it. And not only is it a masterpiece of grief, it’s brilliant musically.
Manchester Orchestra – Valley of Vision (March 20)
A shorter album that others might call and EP, Manchester Orchestra make it three albums in a row of outstanding songs. Andy Hull, who is the center of the band and always has been, says that other songs were written for the album but were stripped back to these six to let them breathe and shine. The others weren’t rejected as unworthy, just set aside as not belonging to this project. Because of that choice, these half dozen songs feel like a cohesive whole. And coming in at just 27 minutes, they are easily listened to in a single sitting. And they deserve to be. Beautiful and piercing, Hull says they were inspired by the anthology of Puritan prayers with the same title as the album. Personally, I can’t handle the prayer book with its I-am-a-worm prayers of self-loathing. This album, however, is truly lovely.
Sufjan Stevens – Javelin (October 6)
Add another masterpiece to Sufjan’s oeuvre. Standing shoulder-to-shoulder with his gems Illinois and Carrie & Lowell (which I refer to as the Oregon album), Javelin returns to his best musical and lyrical writing after a few experimental efforts in electronica and solo piano compositions. Simply asking the question, “Will I ever be loved?” in an open-chested song of loss breaks the heart. The album’s release followed the death of his partner and preceded a debilitating illness of his own, both of which feel inseparable from the album.
Durry – Suburban Legend (September 8)
Some music is just fun and Durry brings a wonderful sense of humor to its tunes. This brother-sister duo has surprising chemistry, as does the backstory of this family project. There is a slightly nihilistic slant to the lyrics, but they are primarily a function of the humor. Like the best story-tellers, Austin Durry gives more specific details instead of fewer. Most people believe that fewer details leads to more general appeal, but it works in exactly the opposite way. Being specific grounds the story-telling in reality which is always more relatable than abstract concepts. So singing about telling his girlfriend that he got “second hand Chapstick” after their first kiss is so cringy it actually makes you feel bad for a guy who could make such an egregious faux pas. And musically, the album simply rocks.
Honorable mentions
I haven’t listened to these enough to include them among the best listens for me. But they’ve got momentum.
Eric Whitacre/Voces8 – Home (April 14)
Wilco – Cousin (September 29)
Reworked and revisited
OK. So there were a couple of reworked albums that were rerecorded and released in 2023. I don’t know quite what to do with them. They’re not new albums, and yet they’re new albums. Because as close as they hew to the original recordings, the musicianship and vocals have matured since the initial recordings. And in a world where artists don’t get nearly what they should from what they’ve created, I’m the last person to complain about rerecordings. As long as there is some sort of a reengagement with the initial music, I’m happy for musicians to revisit their previous recordings, tweak them where they feel they ought to be tweaked, and earn new paychecks from them.
There is one exception to this. I simply can’t stand U2’s Songs of Surrender. The changes are too much for me, particularly the vocals Bono offers. To be honest, Bono sounds like a Las Vegas lounge lizard to me. The irony isn’t lost on me that the band has done its Las Vegas thing this year. Several friends have said they’ve loved the Sphere shows, but I think I’ll pass. What’s at issue here with the SoS recordings is not the license U2 has to completely reinvent their music, it’s the fact that those songs aren’t just theirs anymore. They’re ours too. Eviscerating Sunday Bloody Sunday and Pride (in the Name of Love) by turning the shouts into croons is a crime. These songs that I’ve sung along with at the top of my lungs have had their rough edges sanded down. But it was the harshness, the abrasiveness that was their magic. It was young Bono as a tenor that connected with my heart. It’s elderly Bono playing it safe as a baritone that nauseates me. Yep. I said that.
So there’s an artistic freedom to modify your work. But there’s something owed to fans who co-own the art to maintain what it is that was at the soul of the original songs. Otherwise, just write new music.
Switchfoot – The Beautiful Letdown (Our Version) (May 5)
Taylor Swift – 1989 (Taylor’s Version) (October 27)
Twenty One Pilots – MTV Unplugged (May 21)
OK. So this doesn’t really fit into the rerecorded album category since it’s a live album. But it doesn’t really fit into the new release category either. Where U2 stumbled and fell flat on their collective face with Songs of Surrender, Twenty One Pilots engage in significant reinvention of their most famous songs and do so with integrity and success. As so often happens in the musical world, bands who quickly became popular and face a backlash by their initial fans, TOP rose to huge heights only to become passé. Because of that, it becomes important to reengage with your catalogue in order to show growth and to reengage with old fans. Simple regurgitation of standards is unhelpful. But where U2 smoothed off the rough corners, TOP invented new ones. Where U2 regurgitated, TOP revived. Where the “surrender” in Songs of Surrender isn’t the intense waving of the white flag by Bono of 1983 but rather a capitulation, a quitting, MTV Unplugged by TOP is an advance, a sign of moving into new and unexplored territory.