So, What Are You Listening To? 2023 Favorite Albums

Year-end top lists generally suck, but if they help out the artist or band by raising awareness, getting more coverage, more fans, more listens, more album and merch sales and more gigs and more opportunities for them to continue making awesome music (inhale) then by all means, let's do it to it. I put out a playlist back in September comprised of my favorite albums I liked, loved, and listened to in 2023. These are not necessarily albums that came out in 2023, but there's a lot of those, too. Check it out. Taste is subjective, but there's bound to be something you dig out of the 56 hours of music compiled here. Here's a brief rundown of '23 faves in the most wonderful and random order, beginning with 10 artists or bands and their albums I loved in 2023, followed by more album faves in @ohyeahtextstoharry insta posts. Full playlist can be found alllll the way down below. Here's to awesome new music in 2024 and lots more live shows. Snake Chain - Shake Chain No, that's not a typo and no, this isn't a joke. London's Shake Chain are undoubtedly the weirdest new band with the most interesting sound I've ever heard. Singer Kate Mahony goes up and down the lunatic scale with screams, cries, yowls and other vocal acrobatics that enthrall as much as they bewilder. Perfect for the post-punk outfit. "Mike" is the band at their most brilliant and Mahony at her most unhinged.

Chaos County Line - Skating Polly Oklahoma's Skating Polly play a fun and frenetic style of garage punk that's always bordered on indie pop. They seemed to have hit it mid-size with "Hollywood Factory," "Camelot" and the Exene Cervenka-penned "Queen for a Day"back in 2018 when The Make It All Show came out. Since then, they've played and previewed songs that would make up 2023's Chaos County Line hinting at the gained maturity in songwriting of both Kelli Mayo and Peyton Bighorse. "Hickey King" and "Tiger At The Drugstore" get all the love as singles, but "Someone Like A Friend" (best argument for Tori Amos' lasting influence and relevance) and closer "Party House" are equally spectacular.

Black Rainbows - Corrine Bailey Rae The last time you probably heard Corrine Bailey Rae was "Put Your Records On," the sweet as honey and smooth as silk indie pop hit from the UK singer-songwriter. The song bearing the closest resemblance to the 2006 hit on 2023's Black Rainbows is the excellent retro-tinged neo-soul number, "He Will Follow You With His Eyes." Most of the album, however sounds nothing like it and sees Bailey Rae exploring darkness, sadness and anger with a mix of hopefulness, pride and expressions of love. Of course, the genre-hopping and style-blending British artist impresses and astounds with edgier and more contemplative songs that seem to draw from Prince and SAULT, PJ Harvey and St. Vincent, as well as Blur and The Slits. Get ready for the best punk ("New York Transit Queen") and alternative rock ("Erasure") you've ever heard from a former "morning coffee pop radio" singer.

Modern Convenience - MOD CON Australia is producing a slew of amazing and must-hear-now bands. MOD CON are one. The Melbourne trio invite lazy comparisons to Sleater Kinney but there's a rawness and energy with equal punk and post punk leanings just as much as there is a pop sensibility (READ: they know how melody works). 2021's Modern Condition builds on and improves on everything 2018's Modern Convenience started with and explored. Both albums are exceptional and worth repeated listens.

Teen Idols - Teen Idols The amazingness of the digital age that can't be overstated is our collective unprecedented access to information. For the music obsessed, that info is all of the awesome bands you never knew existed and their albums you didn't know you needed to hear. Nashville's Teen Idols' self-titled LP from 1997(!!!) is a pop punk masterpiece comprised of would-be classics like "Anybody Else," "Peanut Butter Girl," "When I Hear Your Name," and this one that would have easily found its home shuffling on a 3-Disc CD changer along with offerings from Green Day and Offspring (or Squirtgun and Face To Face).

It's Never Fair, Always True - JAWNY My blindspot in music is Top 40 due to the amount of perfect "pop" tunes I've heard over the years that go completely unnoticed, under-promoted and flat out ignored. When I first heard JAWNY, it was due to Beck's collaboration, "take it back (feat. Beck)" which is catchy as hell, features Guero-era production and a killer guitar sound (and surprising, face-melting solo). The wild thing is, this collab track from the Alt A-lister is still not in my top 3 track of 2023's It's Never Fair, Always True. "lalala" is the best song written for a commercial that doesn't exist, "wide-eyed" features the best 'jump up and down and sing along chorus' ever, and "strawberry chainsaw" is a Strokes-meets-Phoenix indie pop bopper that you can dance to, but probably won't. (It's also a fantastic name for a band.) Most of the songs on this album are true pop hits that in a better world would find their way to the top of the charts. Look out for JAWNY.

God Games - The Kills Released in the later half of 2023 when most critics already had their minds made up about their top picks of the year, The Kills dropped God Games, a near perfect album of dark but hopeful otherworld would-be pop gems that aren't pop at all. Mosshart and Hince wrote these songs on piano and collaborated with a children's choir to make these "godless spirituals." All 12 tracks explore new dimly lit corridors but shuffle and saunter in and out with The Kills' signature style and swagger. While the city songs get most of the attention, this one gets me.

Bite - A Giant Dog It's the little things that make us happiest - like reveling in the fact we got to see the Austin, TX band play a small stage in a parking lot years ago, just finding out they do a cover of "Suddenly Seymour," or saying "Bite from A Giant Dog is awesome!" And above all, listening to A Giant Dog's lead vocalist Sabrina Ellis sing these lyrics: "I believe in gravity and drugs and outer space / I believe that misery is meant to be escaped

Technology, eventually, will have us all replaced / I believe I'm justified to tear apart the place"

Dead Pioneers - Dead Pioneers This is the most important album of 2023. Imagine a Native American D. Boon from Minutemen growing up on Black Flag and Suicidal Tendencies and listening to Kendrick Lamar and IDLES and then deciding later in life to start the MOST CRUCIAL and REVOLUTIONARY band since Rage Against The Machine. Now go listen to Gregg Deal, the leader of Dead Pioneers sing/speak/shout "We Were Punk First" and then go listen to "Political Song." This is the most important album of 2023. 

Snõõper - Snõõper In 2023, I learned about and fell in love with Egg Punk, the DIY danceable, art-y (not artsy) weird/cool subgenre that doesn't take itself too seriously, but seriously kicks and was (at least partially) inspired by DEVO. And while it started with Snõõper, it continued with Tee Vee Repairmann, Billiam, Spread Joy, Alien Nosejob, and Ghoulies. All hail, egg punk and long live Snõõper!