This year had a ton of variety and many bands pulled through to give us some great music. This video looks at the Top 10 BEST Albums Of 2023. Watch the video below for a full breakdown of each entry, or scroll below to read an excerpt from the video for each album.
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Top 5 BEST EPs Of 2023!
10.) Foo Fighters But Here We Are
Probably the most difficult album for Foo Fighters to make turned out to be their best in a decade. But Here We Are, dedicated to Taylor Hawkins and Virginia Grohl, is the cathartic, expressive, and in some ways inspiring album that Foo Fighters had to find out the hard way they were capable of making.
The title track and “Under You” have those huge sing-along moments but it’s the slower and more sincere moments in “The Glass” and the 10-minute “The Teacher” that add depth and make the tributes feel personal to everyone, even those who never met Taylor Hawkins and Virginia Grohl. The delicate music flow in these tracks truly gives the air of making something unique to their loved ones.
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9.) Baroness Stone
The color scheme might be gone but Baroness still has plenty of ideas to work with. STONE is the groove-filled sludge metal excellence John and company have been executing for years, but this time it feels like a new page has turned. This is Baroness unbound from formats and formulas, but instead working with raw creativity.
The rhythm section is crushing and stands out in the right moments, and the combined guitar work from John and Gina repeatedly stands out. STONE is proof that Baroness knows how to steer their ship into uncharted waters and come out sounding great.
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8.) Dying Wish Symptoms Of Survival
Classify this as deathcore, metalcore, hardcore, a combination, or whatever you want, Dying Wish does it all well. Not only an amazing sophomore release from the Oregon five-piece but an impressive display of range with that vicious attitude. The drumming stands out through the heaviest tracks and Emma Boster proves her singing range in the cleaner moments.
It’s fierce and at times extreme with how intense the volume and anger get, but it’s all times and calculated precisely to make each element of the band stand out. Unrelenting is the best word to describe Symptoms Of Survival. Dying Wish is still an unstoppable force.
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7.) Drain Living Proof
It’s difficult to have joyous fun and a big goofy grin when listening to music that’s heavy and thick like this, but Drain proves it’s possible. Living Proof is not even half an hour but that also adds to the charm of this album because you want to play it all as a relentless rush of symbols and riffs and makes you feel like high-fiving someone as soon as it’s over.
When you get to “Evil Finds Light” is the point where you need to make sure you aren’t around anything breakable in the house because it’s most likely going to shatter. Drain created a tightly made package that has plenty of full-run time replay value. It’s so much fun, it is almost worth rushing security to get on stage.
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6.) Horrendous Ontological Mysterium
Ontological Mysterium, which is fun to say, is filled with transitions, speed changes, genre changes, and jam sessions to the point of losing track of where you are in that crazy Mysterium. It’s proggy and groove-filled and screaming of death and it all just blends smoothly.
As heavy and dark as Horrendous gets, it’s never TOO much to the point of being overwhelmed. Just under 38 minutes and enough time to breathe in between rounds of onslaught. As a result of all that, it’s hard to find ANYTHING similar to what Horrendous can combine in one nine-track album.
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5.) Blondshell Blondshell
Singer-songwriter Sabrina Teitelbaum proves that indie and alternative have a new killer performer with creative songs and catchy lyrics that are as witty as Teitelbaum and Blondshell are great names. Blondshell the album is bluesy and gritty when the moment requires which adds more to Blondshell’s hand.
This self-titled debut packs a lot of talent and style that is lacking in the alternative world, especially when it comes to subject matter. Take topics like toxic relationships and sobriety, and then turn the attitude and volume up at a moment’s notice. The clever writing along with emotional swelling moments become massive.
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4.) Slowdive Everything Is Alive
Describing Slowdive as shoegaze sounds appropriate, but after you experience Everything Is Alive and take everything in, you realize it’s so much more that gazing into space. This album doesn’t allow you to phase out with background music but grabs your attention while pulling you in the music, swaying arms and all.
Only eight tracks but they all complement each other as well as showcase what Slowdive can create. Everyone contributes from the different vocals to imaginative instrument work and synths. The guitar tones are immaculate, the changing moods all sound natural, and again, you get pulled in from the opening minute when the first lyrics hit. This is distinct shoegaze with layered elements and endless replay value.
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3.) Creeper Sanguivore
Grandiose riff and synth-filled rhythms, all while Will and Hannah sing their hearts out. It’s becoming clear they could just sing Wikipedia entries on the most boring topics ever and they could make it work. There are so many selling points from the singles like “Cry To Heaven” to the huge opening track “Further Than Forever”.
What SHOULD be total cheese ends up being completely engaging. Vampire bites and all. Sanguivore delivered uniquely and it’s incredible to think that Creeper hasn’t tried this approach before as the style fits them like a black leather glove. Creeper continues to impress.
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2.) Sufjan Stevens Javelin
The all-encompassing songwriter who can bring in an orchestra or just use one acoustic proved himself with Javelin. If there was ever an album that sells Sufjan Stevens being around for the long haul, it was this 2023 entry. Stevens continues to prove his music depth as a songwriter.
Stevens opened himself up a bit on Javelin, letting his personal events take focus which isn’t something he has done lightly in the past, if ever. The intimate expressions in “Will Anybody Ever Love Me” and “S*** Talk” give so much personality and voice that it’s hard not to relate to the emotions and feelings, as well as feel for them.
Javelin is as heartbreaking as it is triumphant and expressive. The music makes you feel like you are listening to something big in scope and important as a piece of art. This album needs to be heard and respected as such a welcomed album this year.
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1.) Sleep Token Take Me Back To Eden
As divisive an album could be in the heavy music world. Take Me Back To Eden slowly took over much of the music buzz in the beginning of 2023 when singles were being released in pairs. Then when the full album came out in May, Sleep Token became inescapable. You were going to listen to Vessel, and rock, metal, alternative, and everything in between would not be the same.
Take Me Back To Eden is creative, has hooks, has diversity, has range, memorably distinct tracks, a narrative, and sounds amazing live as well as on record. it checks so many boxes of what people LOOK FOR in a great album. But it’s still massively divisive for many previously listed reasons. Maybe that’s just more proof of Sleep Token’s success.
Take Me Back To Eden is an album that people can point to that defined music in a positive way for 2023. A band trying something different with multiple genres and making it great.
