2023 AOTY So Far

Last year's thread proved popular as a means to share favorites (known and unsung alike) through to EOY voting season, so I figured it was worth another go. This time I've created a google doc to keep track of the "AOTY So Far" lists I've come across; happy to add to it -- if there are non-genre-specific lists you think are worthwhile, please post them here.

Thus far I've seen lists from Exclaim, Pitchfork, Spin, and Treble. I've combined those with lists I was already keeping of Allmusic's Editor's Choice albums that received at least 4.5 stars, anything on AOTY or Metacritic with at least an 85 (updated as of today), and anything Pitchfork and Paste have given at least an 8.0/80. Below are the albums that check at least 2 of those boxes (Artist - Album - Count) -- see the doc for the full list. Admittedly somewhat arbitrary, but I think a decent representation of what's been getting acclaim so far this year...

Jessie Ware - That! Feels Good! - 8
Wednesday - Rat Saw God - 8
billy woods / Kenny Segal - Maps - 6
Boygenius - The Record - 6
Caroline Polachek - Desire, I Want to Turn Into You - 6
Kelela - Raven - 6
Yo La Tengo - This Stupid World - 6
Yves Tumor - Praise a Lord Who Chews but Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds) - 6
Fever Ray - Radical Romantics - 5
Paramore - This is Why - 5
Water from Your Eyes - Everyone's Crushed - 5
Feist - Multitudes - 4
JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown - Scaring the Hoes - 4
Lana Del Rey - Did You Know That There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd - 4
Liturgy - 93696 - 4
Model/Actriz - Dogsbody - 4
Yaeji - With a Hammer - 4
100 gecs - 10,000 gecs - 3
Arooj Aftab/Vijay Iyer/Shahzad Ismaily - Love in Exile - 3
Cecile McLorin Salvant - Melusine - 3
Depeche Mode - Memento Mori - 3
Foo Fighters - But Here We Are - 3
Kali Malone - Does Spring Hide Its Joy - 3
Kara Jackson - Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love? - 3
Lankum - False Lankum - 3
Liv.e - Girl in the Half Pearl - 3
Mandy, Indiana - I've Seen a Way - 3
Angel Bat Dawid - Requiem for Jazz - 2
Avalon Emerson - & the Charm - 2
BIG|BRAVE - nature morte - 2
Black Belt Eagle Scout - The Land, The Water, The Sky - 2
Brian Dunne - Loser on the Ropes - 2
Bully - Lucky For You - 2
Debby Friday - Good Luck - 2
Durand Jones - Wait Til I Get Over - 2
ICECOLDBISHOP - Generational Curse - 2
Iris DeMent - Workin' on a World - 2
James Yorkston / Nina Persson / The Second Hand Orchestra - The Great White Sea Eagle - 2
Kali Uchis - Red Moon in Venus - 2
Kate NV - WOW - 2
Lonnie Holley - Oh Me Oh My - 2
Maxo - Even God Has a Sense of Humor - 2
Mega Bog - End of Everything - 2
Nickel Creek - Celebrants - 2
Nourished By Time - Erotic Probiotic 2 - 2
Parannoul - After the Magic - 2
Protomartyr - Formal Growth in the Desert - 2
Ryuichi Sakamoto - 12 - 2
Susanne Sundfor - Blomi - 2
The Lemon Twigs - Everything Harmony - 2
Tujiko Noriko - Crepuscule I & II - 2
Unknown Mortal Orchestra - V - 2
Young Fathers - Heavy Heavy - 2

The Tubs' Dead Meat

Theres about 6 jousting for position tbh

Yo La Tengo - This Stupid World
Billy Woods - Maps
Caroline Polachek - Desire, I Want To Turn Into You
Oozing Wound - We Cater For Cowards
Mark Barrott - Johatsu
bar italia - Tracey Denim

I'll make a proper list when I'm more with it, but Avalon Emerson fans should also check out the Nabihah Iqbal album imo

The Tubs - Dead Meat

This year's not yielded a whole lot that's made go whoa as of yet, but there's a few records that have really captured my attention and are highly likely to make my list (this is an ordered list btw)

Rắn Cạp Đuôi - *1
Billy Woods - Maps
Kelela - Raven
Weval - Remember
Snow Ghosts - The Fell
Heavy Heavy - Young Fathers
Andrea - Due in Color
Overmono - Good Lies

Laurel Canyon - S/T
Billy Woods - Maps
Kassa Overall - Animals
Young Fathers - Heavy Heavy
The Tubs - Dead Meat
Algiers - Shook
Lisa O'Neill - All Of This Is Chance
Ben Howard - Is It?

Laurel Canyon - S/T
Billy Woods - Maps
Kassa Overall - Animals
Young Fathers - Heavy Heavy
The Tubs - Dead Meat
Algiers - Shook
Lisa O'Neill - All Of This Is Chance
Ben Howard - Is It?

oops soz

Ooh ooh also the YLT

Sylvie Courvoisier & Cory Smythe - The Rite of Spring: Spectre D’un Songe

the Stravinsky estate wouldn't let SC do improvised interpretations of his work but it is still fucking fantastic!

rob OTM I was gonna mention the Iqbal album on the Real Lies thread as there's some overlap there (not that surprising given 'Zone 1 To 6000')

Is it just me, or is this a very poetically rich crop of AOTY titles? e.g.

Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love?
Everything Harmony
Everyone's Crushed

Love in Exile
Maps
The Land, the Water, the Sky
This is Why

WOW
This Stupid World
But Here We Are
Scaring the Hoes
With a Hammer

Even God Has a Sense of Humor
Rat Saw God
Heavy Heavy

Did You Know That There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd

Lucky for You
I've Seen a Way

Raven
Wait Til I Get Over

All of This is Chance
Is It?

Have thought of a bunch of other albums I should have mentioned, will save most for the end of year final list but Durand Jones' solo LP Wait Till I Get Over is fantastic, and feels really overlooked in the press thus far

Of things not already mentioned (many of which I like):

William Tyler and the Impossible Truth — Secret Stratosphere
Rose City Band — Garden Party

in the art-pop corner:

Fire-Toolz - I am upset because I see something that is not there (this is my AOTYSF)
Katie Gately - Fawn/Brute
Algiers - Shook

in the avant-black-metal corner:

Kostnateni - Upal
Liturgy - 93696
Victory Over The Sun - Dance, You Monster, To My Soft Song
Thantifaxath - Hive Mind Narcosis
Dodheimsgard - Black Medium Current

in the hip-hop corner YES IM GONNA LISTEN TO THE NEW BILLY WOODS SOON also koenig apparently that's good too anyway

RXKNephew - Till I'm Dead

in the gecs corner

Alice Longyu Gao - Let's Hope Heteros Fail, Learn, And Retire

William Tyler and the Impossible Truth — Secret Stratosphere
Rose City Band — Garden Party

Thanks for the heads up on these; the William Tyler has a Kraftwerk cover!

The one I keep going back to is Katie Gately. Other than that I've really liked the Rian Treanor/Ocen James album and I gave the new Depeche Mode a surprisingly high amount of listens.

some great albums on here that i haven't seen mentioned yet, incl. fireworks, bigxthaplug, boldy james & richgains, and zulu

https://www.stereogum.com/2225527/best-albums-of-2023-first-half/lists/album-list/

a few of mine already mentioned, adding: James Holden - Imagine This Is A High Dimensional Space Of All Possibilities

Albums not mentioned that might be AOTY for me:

The Necks - Travel
Holly Waxwing - The New Pastoral
Coen - Slop, Drop & Roll (Maloca)
Kendrick Scott - Corridors
Mark Giuliana - Mischief

Also: Indigo de Souza - All of This Will End

There have been lots of amazing dance EPs too. And although it's too unassuming for 'AOTY', I sure have listened to Mac DeMarco's 'Five Easy Hot Dogs' a lot.

niontay - dontay's inferno, there's a great album

A few that haven't been mentioned:

Eddie Chacon - Sundown
Meg Baird - Furling
Swami Sound - Back in the Day
Jim Legxacy - Homeless N*gga Pop Music
Westerman - An Inbuilt Fault
Khanate - To Be Cruel

o yeah I need to hear the Jim Legxacy

I need to listen to a lot of the albums in here.

So far my favorite albums are the Avalon Emerson and Eddie Chacon.

A few I’ve enjoyed a lot, in no particular order.

EBTG - Fuse
Nabihah Iqbal - Dreamer
Sparks - The Girl is Crying in her Latte
Belle & Sebastian - Late Developers
Billy NoMates- Cacti
The Orb - Prism
Rodney Crowell - Ready to Move On
New Pornographers - Last and Beautiful
Lucinda Chua - Yian

chua and ebtg are high up on my list as well

some great albums on here that i haven't seen mentioned yet, incl. fireworks, bigxthaplug, boldy james & richgains, and zulu

https://www.stereogum.com/2225527/best-albums-of-2023-first-half/lists/album-list/

― ludicrously capacious bag (voodoo chili), Tuesday, June 6, 2023 11:16 AM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Thanks, I'll work on getting this added to the doc.

Delightfully surprised at how much love the new Feist album is getting on these lists. It is wonderful.

this the tubs record rules, thx ilm

yes, I am loving this

B Cool Aid - Leather Boulevard

top 3 probably Melati ESP, EBTG, and NBT (Nourished By Time)

Xiao Yun - Purple Garden
(it's a reissue, and not sure it's really aoty material, but I'm digging it for the time being...)

the William Tyler has a Kraftwerk cover!

Yeah I love that.

With everyone doing this after 5 months of the year, it should pretty clearly include December. Pitchfork rightly listed SZA (Dec 9) - no others?

The 2022 End of Year music lists thread

^ no SZA here.

my answer is easily Polachek, but thanks for the handy homework references!

i haven't been keeping up with stuff very well this year but it feels like a weaker than average year so far idk

everyone needs to hear the jim legxacy though

jim legxacy album is truly great, still think the best songs on it came out in 2022 tho

Updated the spreadsheet with BSF lists from The Guardian, Vulture, and Stereogum plus everything that's been mentioned so far here in an "ILM" column.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1lzSEKqspuhsXRiJx_klRxL6PRIFsSJK3F4qo0Nw_sK8/edit?usp=sharing

The new consensus (Artist - Album - Count of Lists/Mentions):

billy woods / Kenny Segal - Maps - 10
Jessie Ware - That! Feels Good! - 10
Kelela - Raven - 10
Wednesday - Rat Saw God - 10
Yo La Tengo - This Stupid World - 10
Caroline Polachek - Desire, I Want to Turn Into You - 9
Boygenius - The Record - 8
Yves Tumor - Praise a Lord Who Chews but Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds) - 8
Lana Del Rey - Did You Know That There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd - 7
Paramore - This is Why - 7
Yaeji - With a Hammer - 7
Feist - Multitudes - 6
Fever Ray - Radical Romantics - 6
JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown - Scaring the Hoes - 6
Water from Your Eyes - Everyone's Crushed - 6

best of all it's basically a concept album about how awesome one of my favourite parts of London is xp

have yet to be mentioned:

john cale - mercy (board seems cool on this one but i revisited it last week and it made me feel like i was trapped in gelatin, rules so much)
pile - all fiction (ppl ignore this incredibly creative and cool rock record at their peril)
the mars volta - que dios te maldiga mi corazon
krallice - porous resonance abyss
maara - the ancient truth
fall out boy - so much (for) stardust
narrow head - moments of clarity
kesha - gag order

I haven’t heard much new music lately but I’m with you on mercy it’s his best in 20 years for me (I was gonna say I’ve been pretty cold on stuff he’s done since hobosapiens, which I adore, but I forgot the reworked mfans & the circus live album)

the mars volta - que dios te maldiga mi corazon

forgot to mention this but it will easily be top 5 for me this year

An album I'm enjoying start to finish: En Attendant Ana - Principia. Indie with echoes of Stereolab, Broadcast, and motorik.
https://enattendantana.bandcamp.com/album/principia

Another mention for Lisa O'Neill who I love, but also...

Dina Ögon, Oas - random Spotify discovery from earlier in the year, really coming into its own now summer is beginning. Immaculate, smooth, baroque jazzpop from Stockholm, just the right side of too cute.

Hamish Hawk, Angel Numbers - terrific Scottish sophistipop which has grown on me a lot since my initial disappointment.

Langendorf Utd, Yeahno Yowouw Land - gorgeous Ethiopiquey jazz from Swedish saxophonist who's played with James Yorkston etc.

David Brewis, The Soft Struggles - makes a strong case for Sunderland as the new Canterbury scene, lovely, wistful, astralweeksy chamberfolk.

Jim Ghedi & Toby Hay - sublime, duelling, twangling acoustic guitars from Yorkshire and Wales.

Felicita, Spalarkle - moreish, wonky hyperpop. Occasionally like Virginia Astley signed to PC Music.

Dina Ögon, Oas

this one was good, twisty turny, immaculately produced lounge pop

Mary Lattimore's new album is out today and already looks set to feature on my eoy list.

Recent great ones for me:

Daniel Villarreal (w/Jeff Parker & Anna Butterss) - Lados B
Barker - Unfixed EP
John Zorn (Brian Barsella / Ches Smith / Jorge Roeder / Julian Lage) - Full Fathom Five
DJ Znobia - Inventor vol. 1 (Nyege Nyege)
Autechre - Sydney 8/27/2023 bootleg

Haven't seen it mentioned on this thread yet but deserves to be:

Jonny Nash - Point of Entry

Shoegaze ambient-folk? Anyway, sublime album from the Melody As Truth head honcho and Gaussian Curve member

yes!

Seeing more and more support for the DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ album, which will rank high for me. Great interview here:

https://last-donut-of-the-night.ghost.io/dj-sabrina-the-teenage-dj-interview/

liquid mike

In this entire thread there's only one mention of Meshell Ndegeocello??????????

the new Corrine Bailey Ray is up there for me now

no mention of ANOHNI + the Johnsons yet?

Others for me:

Billy Woods / Maps
Daniel Villarreal / Lados B
Yussef Dayes / Black Classical Music
Aaron Dooley / International Disassociation of

Daniela Pes - Spira is my top pick so far.

Also on my list: Caroline Polachek, M Sage and Raymomd Zander, maybe the new OPN (but I'll need more time with that one).

3 standouts this year are sufjan, jim legxacy, and corinne bailey rae

i have been bad at keeping up with things this year but it feels a bit weaker than most years. plenty that's good but little that i've really loved and listened to obsessively

Gevaudan - Umbra

Man, this goes to show that there's still so much you can do with Sabbath-esque slow/doomy/sludgy/Sabbathy metal. It's brimming with riffs and ideas. Rocketed into my top albums this year

Huh, hadn’t heard about that one dog latin, but sounds up my alley.

that’s $12.09 USD, plus $18.13 shipping for United States.

Yikes. Guess I'll stick with streaming.

no mention of ANOHNI + the Johnsons yet?

― fetter, Friday, October 20, 2023 1:51 AM (six days ago) bookmarkflaglink

First of theirs I've swooned over.

Tirzah album is so so good, rocketed straight to the top, thank you ilm

it's high up my own rankings, to illustrate how pan-ILM it truly is

Craven Faults "Standers" is probably my favourite, so far. Lana Del Ray's "Did You Know ..." also played a lot. Excited for the Tirzah album, too.

DewSoCozy & Tubesock Cam - The Adventures of Tubesock Cam and the Green Bandit

super fun, energetic and oddball rap record, classic era feel without feeling retro

Clearly a man of excellent taste

ok best of 2023

piotr kurek peach blossom
7038634357 neo seven
dane law gurum triads
sydney spann sending up a spiral of
tirzah trip9love...???
ml buch suntub
jim legxacy hnpm
ragana desolation's flower
catherine christer hennix solo for tamburium
joanne robertson blue car

more

— tom (@HowToDressWell) November 6, 2023

that's a cool list!! been looking those up on bandcamp

Love ML Buch, still digging into this latest one

Yeah, love to see ML Buch mentioned. New one perhaps not as good as Skinned, but still lovely. Good writeup in Pitchfork today too.

Album of the year is still Fire-toolz to me. Danish album of the year is Fraads.

ml buch album is sounding wonderful, thanks for the heads up

Hennix is also on my albums list, great stuff

Thanks for the heads up re: new ML Buch! Had already heard and loved "Fleshless Hand"--her approach to my ears is kinda like a PC Music take on His Name Is Alive uncanny valley deadpan singing and guitar playing/production

I'm cooped up in COVID self-iso, so I just resigned myself to tabulating my EOY lists super-early, apologies for their length but they're not as extensive as past years' have been:

POP/ROCK
1) THE JAPANESE HOUSE - In The End It Always Does
2) TIRZAH - trip9love...???
3) BLAKE MILLS (W/ CHRIS WEISMAN) - Jelly Road
4) feeble little horse - Girl with Fish
5) HOTLINE TNT - Cartwheel
6) WESTERMAN - An Inbuilt Fault
7) WRAITH OF KHAN - Slow Drain
8) on4world - In Rainbow Roads

REISSUES/ARCHIVAL RELEASES
1) THE REPLACEMENTS - Tim: Let It Bleed edition (Ed Stasium mix)
2) ARTHUR RUSSELL - Picture Of Bunny Rabbit
3) NANA VASCONCELOS/NELSON ANGELO/NOVELLI - Nana, Nelson Angelo, Novelli
4) AD HOC - Corpse
5) NO-NECK BLUES BAND - Niente Piu Canzoni
6) RICK WHITE - Eric's Trip Demos (92-95)
7) JOHN McGUIRE - Vanishing Points/A Cappella

METAL
1) INCANTATION - Unholy Deification
2) WORMHOLE - Almost Human
3) CONJURETH - The Parasitic Chambers
4) VOIDCEREMONY - Threads Of Unknowing
5) ULTHAR - Anthronomicon

JAZZ/FREE IMPROVISATION/MODERN CLASSICAL
1) THOMAS BANGALTER - Mythologies
2) NATURAL INFORMATION SOCIETY - Since Time Is Gravity
3) CHRIS SPEED TRIO - Despite Obstacles
4) TRICKSTER - Live In Brooklyn
5) GEORGE WINSTONE (W/ BEN MONDER) - Odysseus
6) SAM WEINBERG TRIO (W/ CHRIS LIGHTCAP & TOM RAINEY) - Implicatures
7) DAVID LORD - Forest Standards, Vol. 3
8) JOHN EDWARDS/ANDREW LISLE/DIRK SERRIES/COLIN WEBSTER - Out Of Nowhere
9) TED CROSBY - Stationary Movements
10) KIND MIND - S/T (2023)
11) SHOO - Horn
12) SANDY EWEN - Solo

ELECTRONIC/EXPERIMENTAL
1) MM/KM - Ich sehe Vasen
2) REZZETT - Meant Like This/Boshly
3) SUN ARAW - Super Coracle
4) MOUFANG/CZAMANSKI - Recreational Kraut
5) OFF WORLD - 3
6) ARP - The Enormous Room
7) SAM GENDEL - Pass If Music
8) TIM HECKER - No Highs
9) NONDI_ - Flood City Trax

Rezzett’s live at stand by also from this year is really great too

In this entire thread there's only one mention of Meshell Ndegeocello??????????

― ⓓⓡ (Johnny Fever), Thursday, October 19, 2023 11:25 PM (three weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah I feel like as recently as ten years ago an album like this would have been consensus top 5

out of the traps, first it's Uncut's EOY 2023 list ...time for someone to start a new thread.

Uncut's 75 Best Albums of 2023
https://www.albumoftheyear.org/list/2098-uncuts-75-best-albums-of-2023/

obvious clue
Number 1 is an Irish band starting with L

more

Number 10 Welsh man in his 80s

Number 12 legendary 90 shoegazer band

Number 29 Basildon's finest

Number 59 legendary US art pop band that were formed in the 60s

Listening to the Rezzett album now. This is pretty great! Any other rec's for bobbins or hard dance album out this year?

That Uncut list is... weird, but happy to see Yo La Tengo so high and the Jim Ghedi/Toby Hay love.

brooklynvegan with a summary list of the Uncut list

https://www.brooklynvegan.com/uncuts-top-75-albums-of-2023/

I still need to check out the MM/KM (Kassem Mosse) record. I like the other Rezzett album from this year (Meant Like This) even more than the live one, all on Trilogy Tapes.

Here's some other dance music to check out:

Judgitzu - Sator Arepo (Nyege Nyege)
Rhyw - Mister Melt EP
Cocktail Party Effect - Fixing the Roof EP (Nervous Horizon)
Barker - Unfixed EP
Metrist - Pollen pt. III (Timedance)

Also so much other great stuff on those labels, Principe, etc.

I've enjoyed the two Wallace EPs from this year xps

What is the rush with these things? Do they really get more traffic if they publish on 11/9 instead of later on?

Well Uncut is still mostly a print mag, so presumably they have to gather their list in time for printing and it inevitably gets leaked, so they don't bother to protect it.

no leak, magazine on sale today in the UK.

Ahh, thanks. Usually takes awhile to show up here so I wasn't aware it was out today.

I thought it might be similar to when the Decibel list used to get leaked, to the point that they just started embracing it and leaking it themselves before the issue hits stands.

Uncut Magazine, new issue details

The new @uncutmagazine is in shops and available here: https://t.co/vLnk39eaom. @bobdylan! Review Of 2023! @thebeatles! @PJHarveyUK! @PaulSimonMusic! @TheKinks! @shirleyeCollins! @therealjohncale! @arooj_aftab! The Necks! @dinosaurjr! @CorinneBRae! @forsternet! Best Of 2023 CD! pic.twitter.com/lPkNS9QhrQ

— Uncut Magazine (@uncutmagazine) November 9, 2023

Rhyw - Mister Melt EP

100% co-sign on this

I need to check that out, I've enjoyed a bunch of previous stuff from Rhyw

x-post - I presume it's the December issue but I'd also imagine that advertisers like a best of list now, in time for Christmas (I'd imagine there's a spike in sales, to varying degrees, from appearing on the list).

Looks like Mojo's list is out: https://www.brooklynvegan.com/mojos-top-75-albums-of-2023/

ILM favourites The Tubs at #40

Sorry, didn't see this thread but ILM has had a dedicated thread since it began:

The 2023 End of Year music lists thread

Album I did the art for is Mojo's #18 as well their Electronic(a) Album Of the Year.

Tried hearing the Lankum album and after 5 or so tracks I realized this is 100% not my thing.

the greatest jam astronauts in the world are back

https://sunwatchers.bandcamp.com/album/music-is-victory-over-time

I have only listened to it once, this morning, but Claire M Singer's Saor knocked me completely over today. Incredible patient slow organic ambient.